Students are today holding a meeting at Middlesex University in support of its student union president who was suspended for refusing to cancel a debate with the controversial Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. Keith Shilson was escorted from the campus last week by university security after he refused to cancel the question and answer session with the group, which the prime minister is considering proscribing as part of the government’s crackdown on extremism. The move by the university’s vice-chancellor Michael Driscoll to ban the debate came days after the education secretary, Ruth Kelly, told vice-chancellors they would have to play a part to tackle extremism on campus.
Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia
Glazov, Palazzi and Front Page Magazine
Yusuf Smith takes on Jamie Glazov of Front Page Magazine, and Massimo Palazzi.
Islam is not the threat to our planet, says Ken
Islam is not the threat to our planet
By Ken Livingstone
Morning Star, 24 September 2005
The terrorist attacks on London in July brought out the best in millions of people. As we came to terms with the horror of the attacks, Londoners made clear they were not going to be divided by terrorists, nor by anyone trying to exploit those tragic events.
This was shown a week later when millions came out onto the streets to stand side by side with people of every race and religion in memory of those who had lost their lives.
Some tabloid newspapers ran articles praising Britain’s Muslim leaders who urged their communities to help the police to find anyone connected with the planning or execution of the attacks.
The dozens of opinion polls since the attacks showed the same pattern. People want everything possible done to prevent further attacks.
At the same time, two thirds of people support multiculturalism and believe it makes Britain a better place to live and three out of four people think Britain’s role in Iraq made it more vulnerable.
Nonetheless, since 7 July, and far more openly since the attempted bombings two weeks later, there has also been a steadily mounting campaign by the right wing media and others to exploit the attacks to try to smash the progressive response to the bombings.
The ideological axis of this is the idea that the world is increasingly dominated by a “clash of civilisations” in which Islam is pitted against the West.
In an ironic mirror image of Al Qaeda’s denunciations of the West, Islam is portrayed as uniquely evil, or, in the left variants, uniquely reactionary.
In this latter camp can be found a whole raft of supposedly “left-wing” internet blogs.
The new McCarthyism in Britain: Actually, old chap, it is a war on Islam
“About fifteen years ago Muslims in Britain fought a long battle for the defence of Islam after the publication of Salman Rushdie’s blasphemous novel ‘The Satanic Verses’. In the two months since the bomb-blasts in London on July 7, it has become increasingly clear that Muslims in Britain face a similar battle now, as secular and liberal fundamentalists in Britain use the bombings as opportunity and justification for a much wider attack on the Muslim community in this country. Although it is entirely understandable that the British authorities should step up security precautions, and intensify investigations of those tiny and marginal groups among Muslims that espouse the sort of appalling violence that was seen on July 7, British politicians and many media and social commentators have turned the debate about the attacks of July 7 into a debate about Islam and Muslims in Britain and, in many cases, another full-scale offensive on Islam in this country.”
Iqbal Siddiqui at Media Monitors Network, 26 September 2005
Muslims want Australian PM to stop inciting hatred
Muslims rallying in Sydney say the federal government’s proposed anti-terrorism laws would be a major infringement of their rights. Hundreds of members of the Muslim community met at Punchbowl, in Sydney’s south-west, to demonstrate their concerns that the federal government’s actions were inciting hatred towards their culture.
Federation of Australian Muslim Students and Youth (FAMSY) National president Chaaban Omran said Prime Minister John Howard had failed his community by not doing enough to stop anti-Muslim discourse. Mr Omran said the recent London bombings, calls by politicians to ban Muslim headdress in public schools and the media’s negative portrayal of the religion were feeding a growing prejudice. But he described Canberra’s proposed new anti-terror laws as be the largest infringement on the rights of Muslim Australians.
Earlier this month, Mr Howard flagged a new package of security measures, including tighter checks on citizenship applicants, jail terms for inciting violence and police powers to detain suspects without charge for up to a fortnight.
“Instead of coming out with practical steps to address terrorism, these laws will just work to create more intolerance towards Muslims,” Mr Omran told AAP. “As Australians, we just want to be treated like everyone else, we don’t wish to have all these laws set out that will lead to us becoming targets.”
French Muslim servicemen discriminated against: report
Muslims serving in the French army are routinely mocked at, discriminated against and sometimes denied their religious rights, according to a new report.
The report, entitled French Servicemen of Immigrant Origin, found that racist jokes and derogatory remarks are often played on Muslims inside the military establishment, Le Figaro reported on Friday, September 24.
French soldiers make fun of their Muslim peers by trying to mimic their native accent when speaking in French, according to the report, undertaken by the independent French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).
Though Muslim servicemen are allowed halal meals and flexible working hours during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, this is not the custom inside the army. It is done randomly and not systematic as many Muslim servicemen do not get their halal meals for days, said the report.
The military top brass are increasingly opposed to allow Muslim servicemen to practice their religion, it added.
Hizb ban debated
In the first significant public debate as to whether the radical Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir should be proscribed, some of the organisation’s most severe critics opposed the move.
The debate, entitled Should Hizb ut-Tahrir be Proscribed?, was chaired by David Goodhart, editor of Prospect magazine, who opened the proceedings by requesting there be no “rants” from the 150-strong audience. He said the ban had been floated by Tony Blair in the wake of July 7 because, it was argued, HT “creates an ideological context in which extremism can flourish”.
For a debate about an organisation described by its critics as hostile to everything the UK stands for, the setting could not have been more British. It was held in what was once William Gladstone’s music room in a building close to the Mall, and tea and biscuits were served.
Imran Waheed, a psychiatrist, opened the batting for HT by saying: “There are many myths I would like to dispel … We are not looking for a Taliban state or one that oppresses women.”
He also denied the organisation was anti-semitic. He said HT had been formed as a non-violent Islamic party in 1953 to replace the “unelected dictators and despots” ruling in much of the Muslim world. The aim was for a caliphate, an Islamic authority, to govern in Muslim countries but the group was not seeking to introduce one into Britain.
“Our members have never resorted to armed struggle,” he said. “They are as likely to use violence as Tony Blair is to pay for his own holidays.”
Milan Muslim school row escalates
Members of the Northern League – a key party in Italy’s ruling coalition – are threatening to protest outside a controversial Muslim school in Milan.
The row over the school – closed down by the authorities – is testing Italian attitudes to Muslim immigrants. Parents of the 500 children who attended the school are continuing to demonstrate outside.
Tensions were heightened by the death of a boy, killed by a car as he crossed the road outside the school this week. The Northern League – a regionally-based party that is vitriolic in its criticism of immigrants, especially Muslims – has scuppered a planned prayer meeting for the boy.
It plans to demonstrate against any compromise which gives ground to the parents, who want help to set up a school where their children can learn Arabic and the Koran alongside the normal state curriculum.
The school’s supporters are unfazed – although they say they will keep a low profile if the League protest does materialise.
President suspended in Muslim group row
The president of Middlesex University’s student union was suspended indefinitely as a student on Tuesday after refusing to cancel a debate with a Muslim organisation the Government wants to ban. Michael Driscoll, the university’s vice-chancellor told Keith Shilson on Monday to withdraw the union’s invitation to Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) to take part in a ‘Question Time’ at its campus in The Burroughs, Hendon, otherwise the meeting would be banned. But Mr Shilson, a final-year politics and history student refused, saying there was no evidence to suggest the group whose name translates as ‘party of liberation’ is linked to terrorism. He was escorted off the premises by security staff. The university said it was taking this step in light of concerns over the organisation’s reputation for extremist views.
This is Hertfordshire, 22 September 2005
See also Guardian, 21 September 2005 and MPACUK, 21 September 2005
Swedish party urges monitoring Muslim students
The Swedish right-wing Liberal People’s Party has called on school teachers to spy on their Muslim students under the pretext of combating extremism, drawing immediate rebuke from the teachers union.
“We want Swedish teachers to spy on their Muslim students who have extremist tendencies,” the party’s education spokesman, Jan Björklund, said Wednesday, September 21.
Liberal People’s Party MP Lotta Edholm has also proposed cooperation between the teachers and Säpo (intelligence service) to hunt down “Muslim extremists”. “We see for us a form of information exchange: Säpo should inform teachers about these groups but the schools should also give important information to Säpo about how young people think,” she added.
Since 2002 the Liberal People’s Party has been seeking to attract voters by adopting right-wing populist policies. Party leader Lars Leijonborg has proposed tougher rules for immigrants applying for the Swedish citizenship. The party recently hosted controversial Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a vocal critic of Islam.
The proposal of the Liberal People’s Party drew immediate fire from the teachers’ union Lärarförbundet. “If one is going to observe students on a very vague basis and do what Säpo has asked it could have long-term and destructive consequences for the individual student,” Eva-Lis Preisz, the union’s chairwoman, told Aftonbladet newspaper.
In an opinion poll by the Dagens Nyheter newspaper, some 64% of the respondents opposed spying on Muslim school children, while 34% supported the proposal.