Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Bloggers target Times writer

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Bloggers have attacked a Times writer over an article comparing Islamic fundamentalism to Nazism and his links with a rightwing US website. Anthony Browne, the Times’ European editor and an outspoken critic of British immigration policy, has sparked furious online debate over his article ‘Fundamentally, we’re useful idiots’, published in the Times.”

Chris Tryhorn reports in the Guardian, 3 August 2005

In fact, it wasn’t just “Islamic fundamentalism” that Browne compared to Nazism but such mainstream organisations and figures as the Muslim Association of Britain and Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

For Browne’s links with US racists see Newshog, 1 August 2005

It’s worth noting that David T at Harry’s Place initially recommended Browne’s anti-Muslim rant as a useful “summary of the issues which we’ve been highlighting over the past few years” and had no problem at all with Browne’s characterisation of MAB and Dr al-Qaradawi as fascists. The objection David T eventually raised was not to “the argument which Browne makes about the fascist nature of radical Islamism” but to the fact that it was “part of a broader argument which he is making about ‘third world colonization’. The case for treating radical Islamism seriously can do without his support”. In short, David T finds little wrong with racist bigotry as long as it is directed exclusively against Muslims.

Media and government blamed for rise in Islamophobic crimes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Responding to the announcement of a 500% increase in hate crimes against Muslims since the London bombings, the Muslim Association of Britain have blamed media hysteria for the reaction coupled with a lack of strength from the government in combating it.

The organisation have also said they believe the true figure of Islamophobic crime to be much higher as Muslims who have suffered abuse are not reporting it to the police.

Commenting, Anas Altikriti of MAB said:

“Blaming all Muslims for the heinous London bombings as some people have plainly done, is as stupid as blaming all white people for the extremism of the BNP.

“We don’t know the true backlash against Muslims as it is clear to us that many Muslims have not reported the crimes perpetrated on them to the police. We urge anyone who has suffered to come forward so we can truly grasp the scale of the problem and move to remedy it.

“We’re not surprised by the figures we’ve seen though as the media hysteria against the Muslim community, their beliefs, and their personalities has been beyond the pale. The government also has to take responsibility for this as they have been happy for Muslims to carry the can as it has meant a lack of focus on the role of foreign policy in the bombings.”

MAB news release, 3 August 2005

US radio host claims Quran teaches Muslims to lie

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called on a Washington, D.C., radio station to address the incitement of anti-Muslim hatred caused by its talk show hosts. CAIR issued that call after a replacement for a talk show host suspended for anti-Islam remarks made similarly Islamophobic comments.

On Friday, July 29, WMAL-AM replacement host Geoff Metcalf stated: “And by the way, let me just add a sidebar here that’s significant, and everybody forgets this, but according to the Quran, believers in Islam are not required to tell infidels, and that’s us, the truth. So they apparently have permission to lie when it is appropriate.” Most callers to the program expressed similar hostility to Muslims and to the faith of Islam.

CAIR action alert, 3 August 2005

Muslim groups condemn stop-and-search policy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim groups angrily condemned British Transport Police yesterday for suggesting that young men from ethnic minorities were more likely to be stopped and questioned in the wake of the London bombings.

Government ministers appeared to be divided on the issue. While Home Office minister Hazel Blears has backed the BTP, Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland minister, said a stop and search policy of discriminating against Muslims would simply act as recruiting agent for terrorism, as it had done with Irish communities in the past….

Home Office figures show that stop and searches of Asian people have risen steeply since the September 11 attacks.

A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain said that while it understands the police need to take all necessary actions, it had to avoid “alienating or stigmatising” and an entire section of society. “Otherwise this action will be counterproductive,” said a spokesman. Muslim Association of Britain said such a policy would worsen the situation. “It won’t help in terms of building a relationship or trust between the communities.”

Independent, 1 August 2005

See also ‘Searches of Asians will boost bombers, says Hain’,  Daily Mirror, 2 August 2005

And ‘Blears backs away from racial profiling’, Guardian 2 August 2005

First torture them, then rig their trials

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) obtained two leaked emails from former military prosecutors at Guántanamo Bay over the weekend. The emails both claim that the military committees set up to try detainees at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba are “rigged, fraudulent, and thin on evidence against the accused.”

In the first email obtained by the Australian news organization, Gitmo prosecutor, Major Robert Preston, wrote to his supervisor that the trial process at Guantanamo was perpetrating a fraud on the American public. Preston also wrote that the cases being tried were insignificant at best.

“I consider the insistence on pressing ahead with cases that would be marginal even if properly prepared to be a severe threat to the reputation of the military justice system and even a fraud on the American people,” Preston wrote. “Surely they don’t expect that this fairly half-arsed effort is all that we have been able to put together after all this time … I lie awake worrying about this every night,” he wrote.

“I find it almost impossible to focus on my part of mission … After all, writing a motion saying that the process will be full and fair when you don’t really believe it is kind of hard, particularly when you want to call yourself an officer and lawyer.”

Shortly after Preston sent these emails to his superior he was transferred from his post.

In the second email obtained by the ABC, Captain John Carr, who also left his position after his email claimed that the commissions at the prison appeared to be rigged, wrote, “When I volunteered to assist with this process and was assigned to this office, I expected there would at least be a minimal effort to establish a fair process and diligently prepare cases against significant accused. Instead, I find a half-hearted and disorganized effort by a skeleton group of relatively inexperienced attorneys to prosecute fairly low-level accused in a process that appears to be rigged.”

Carr also wrote that Gitmo prosecutors were continually told by the chief prosecutor that the panel set up to try detainees was specially selected in order to guarantee convictions. “You have repeatedly said to the office that the military panel will be handpicked and will not acquit these detainees and that we only needed to worry about building a record for the review panel,” Carr wrote.

Joshua Frank reports in Counterpunch, 2 August 2005

See also “Leaked emails claim Guantanamo trials rigged”, ABC, 1 August 2005

Straw provokes outrage by claiming terrorism is ‘justified by Islam’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw Tuesday provoked outrage in the Muslim community by claiming that terrorism is “justified by Islam.” Speaking to The Financial Times, he said “One of the things we’ve got to do is give [Muslim] leaders the confidence to face down terrorism justified by Islam.”

“His phrase ‘terrorism justified by Islam’ is utterly meaningless and deeply offensive to Muslims,” chair of the Muslim Council of Britain’s Media Committee, Inayat Bunglawala told Irna.

“Our scholars have made it clear that there is no basis whatsoever or targeting Muslims,” Bunglawala added. He also suggested that his provocative comments could add to the current backlash against Muslims following the recent London bombings.

“The foreign secretary of all people should know that no terrorism can be justified by Islam,” Bunglawala said. “His comments could unwittingly give succor to Islamophobes who are forever trying to link the face of Islam with violence,” he warned.

IRNA report, 2 August 2005

For Straw’s FT article, see here.

MAB response to ‘preachers of hate’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MAB logo“In the aftermath of the London bombings Tony Blair called on the Muslims to tackle hate preachers in their community. While the Muslim community has been under tremendous pressure to act against a possible few who advocate hatred and mass murder, the government seems to ignore individuals who preach hatred of Islam and Muslims.

“The level and extent of incitement of hatred against Islam and Muslims by some individuals and by certain sections of the media have risen substantially in the last few weeks. Unsurprisingly this has coincided with a phenomenal rise in hate crimes against Muslims around the UK.  We are forced to think that if such blanket hatred was aimed at another community the government would have been quick to react to it, but the government’s inability to do so raises serious questions among the Muslim community.”

The Muslim Association of Britain responds to recent articles by Anthony Browne, Jonathan Freedland and Patrick Sookhdeo.

MAB news release, 2 August 2005

Exploiting terror and death for bigotry and hate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Exploiting terror and death for bigotry and hate

By Ken Livingstone

Morning Star, 30 July 2005

The central pressing issue facing us in the wake of the bombings and attempted bombings in London over the past weeks is of course to apprehend those involved.

This is the issue that every Londoner, from tube driver to city banker will expect to be addressed.

But one issue that remains vital – and not at all unconnected to the task of stopping terrorism – is to stop the bombings from being used to promote bigotry and racism in our society.

In particular there is now a sustained campaign to use the bombings to attack the advances we have made against racism in our society by blaming multiculturalism, “diversity”, immigration, and even the “political correctness” of the police.

Continue reading →

MAB complains to the CRE over Times article

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MAB logoIn today’s The Times, Anthony Browne, a renowned Zionist Right-wing commentator who has made his campaign to attack Muslims and their faith in the most despicable manner, wrote another disgusting attack under the title ‘Fundamentally, We’re Useful Idiots’.

In his article, Browne chose to go out ‘all guns blazing’ and accuse Muslims of being the Nazis and Fascists of today, treating all others with disdain and considering them ‘sub-humans’. On more than one occasion, Browne wrote of the ‘similarities’ between Muslims and Hitler and also stated that the Eminent Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi is a moderate ‘in the same way that Mussolini was’.

It is clear that Anthony Browne has chosen to go beyond the pale and to blatantly accuse Muslims and particularly MAB of being fascists and Nazis. The magnitude of his statement regarding Sheikh Qaradawi can only be measured if one were to imagine the Pope being accused of being a Nazi, and the outcry and outrage that would generate.

Anas Altikriti, speaking on behalf of MAB stated earlier: “The Muslim Association of Britain will be forwarding an official complaint to the Commission of Racial Equality (CRE), and have written a letter to The Times in response to the article. “However, it is also vital that British Muslims contact The Times to sound their disgust of Anthony Browne and the hate-fuelled discourse he promotes. “At a time when all Muslims come under immense pressure from all corners through no fault of their own, Browne’s article can only lead to more hate, division and even violence against Muslims throughout the country.”

MAB press release, 1 August 2005

It’s weird the way we both despise and envy the ‘other’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Robert Fisk“We are fighting evil. Nothing to do with the occupation of Palestinian land, the occupation of Afghanistan, the occupation of Iraq, the torture at Abu Ghraib and Bagram and Guantanamo. Oh no, indeed. ‘An evil ideology’, a nebulous, unspecified, dark force. That’s the problem….

“The London suicide bombers were Muslims (or thought they were) so the entire Muslim community in Britain must stand to attention and – as Muslims – condemn them. We ‘Christians’ were not required to do that because we are not Muslims – nor were we required as ‘Christians’ to condemn the Christian Serb slaughter of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica just over 10 years ago.

“All we had to do was say sorry for doing nothing at the time. But Muslims, because they are Muslims, must ritually condemn something they had nothing to do with.

“But that, I suspect, is the point. Deep down, I wonder if we do not think that their religion does have something to do with all this, that Islam is a backward religion, un-renaissanced, potentially violent. It’s not true, but our heritage of orientalism suggests otherwise.”

Robert Fisk in the Gulf Times, 31 July 2005