Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

MEMRI plays let’s pretend

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Within the Arab mainstream, two sides are battling for the future of Islam. One is the establishment, which includes regimes and their elitist supporters in the press, academia, mosques, and elsewhere. For years, they have used a mechanism that nurtures incitement against others to stay in power – without free elections – and encourage the Islamist movement now terrorizing the world…. On the other side is the reformist camp, which is fed up with the establishment. Its supporters are allying with the West and backing the struggle against ideological sources of terrorism. They include opposition political figures, student movements, intellectuals, authors, and columnists.”

Steven Stalinsky gives a boost to the pro-imperialist Bush-admirers backed by MEMRI’s “Reform Project”, pretending that they represent a significant ideological force in the Middle East.

Front Page Magazine, 29 July 2005

In an open letter to MEMRI last year, written at the time the organisation was threatening Juan Cole with legal action for telling the truth about them, Marc Lynch had this to say about the Reform Project:

“it tends to select statements by pro-American reformers who concentrate on criticizing other Arabs … with little regard for the real debates going on among Arabs. Your selective translations therefore offer a doubly warped perspective on the Arab debates: first, over-emphasizing the presence of radical and noxious voices; and second, over-emphasizing the importance of a small and marginal group of Arabs who share your own prejudices. What you leave out is almost the entire Arab political debate which really matters to Arabs: a lively debate on satellite stations such as al Jazeera and al Arabiya and in the elite Arab press about reform, international relations, political Islam, democracy, and Arab culture which English-speaking readers would greatly benefit from knowing about.”

Abu Aardvark blog, 24 November 2004

Al-Qaida: The wrong answers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Soumayya Ghannoushi“Perhaps the one thing al-Qaida militants have proven good at, apart from the shedding of innocent blood, is fanning the flames of hostility to Islam and Muslims. From the darkness of their caves and hiding places, these self-appointed spokesmen for about one and a half billion Muslims worldwide have excelled in stirring latent negative images of Islam within the Western psyche. Through their senseless crimes, Islam, in the minds of most, has become a euphemism for mass slaughter and destruction. Thanks to them, racism, bigotry and Islamophobia could rear its ugly head unashamedly in broad day light.

“The terrible irony is that Muslims currently find themselves helplessly trapped between two fundamentalisms, between Bush’s hammer and Bin Laden’s anvil, hostages to an extreme right wing American administration, aggressively seeking to impose its expansionist and hegemonic will over the region at gunpoint, and to a cluster of violent, wild fringe groups, lacking in political experience or sound religious understanding.”

Another excellent piece by Soumayya Ghannoushi.

Al-Jazeera, 29 July 2005

British school students get ‘know Islam’ kits

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A British council has presented resource packs covering the basic teachings of Islam to primary schools across the London borough of Harrow in an effort to provide a better understanding of the Muslim faith, according to a local paper.

“The new resources will help school staff further develop their approach to high quality teaching of Islam – a religion that is far too often misunderstood,” the Harrow Times quoted as saying Councillor Navin Shah, leader of Harrow Council, which has become the first to fully fund the teaching of Islam in primary schools.

The resource packs include books, artifacts, CDs, videos and teaching aids covering the basic Muslim beliefs and practices through interactive class projects.

Resources for secondary schools are also being developed and will be available to schools across the borough, according to the paper.

The packs for primary schools were produced by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), in partnership with the Department of Education and Skills.

“We believe education is the key to creating a vibrant and understanding society,” MCB Secretary General, Iqbal Sacranie, told Harrow Times. “These resources, developed by our team of educationalists, aim to support the teaching of Islam in schools by making available creative, engaging and child-friendly resources on Islam and Muslims.”

Islam Online, 28 June 2005

Robert Spencer is understandably outraged that an extreme Islamist organisation like the Muslim Council of Britain should be allowed this opportunity to undermine the foundations of western society.

Dhimmi Watch, 29 June 2005

Hate crimes ‘rise after UK bombs’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The number of attacks on Asians has risen significantly since the London bombings, police and Muslim groups say. The number reported to the Islamic Human Rights Commission – not including those reported to police – has risen more than 13-fold, its chairman said. The total number of “faith-related” attacks reported across London rose 500% compared with the same period last year, the Muslim Safety Forum says.

This “backlash” is “exactly what those who promote terrorism want” police say. Association of Chief Police Officers community and counter-terrorism head Assistant Chief Constable Rob Beckley told BBC News the police would protect Asians and Muslims. “We have to, and we will, sustain a response to this.”

The police have gone to great lengths to stress those suspected of involvement in the bombings are not from any single ethnic group.

But the Muslim Safety Forum, which works closely with the police monitoring the total number of incidents reported, blames “prominent people within our society” and the media for saying all British Muslims share something in common with the bombers. A spokesman told BBC News “bigots” now felt they had the “right to commit these atrocities”. The 7 July bombings were “a single criminal act” and all British Muslims could not be held responsible, he added.

British Muslims would not continue to allow themselves to be victimised and criminalised without a further “backlash” from them, the spokesman told BBC News.

BBC News, 28 July 2005

Homeowner removes Quran ‘flushing’ display

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said today that one of its representatives helped convince a Florida man to remove a toilet in his yard with a sign attached that read: “Koran flush 1 p.m.” (See here)

The owner of the toilet said it was designed to honor those who died in the 9/11 attacks and in Iraq. It was also retribution, he said, for what he believed to be a failure of Muslims to object to the terrorism of extremists. (See here)

After CAIR-FL Central Florida Director Ahmed Bedier learned of complaints about the display, he went to the home to take a picture. When he noticed that the owner was home, he knocked on the door to inquire about the motivation for the display. Bedier, who happened to have his laptop computer with him, showed the homeowner some of the Muslim condemnations of terrorism and CAIR’s “Not in the Name of Islam” public service announcement. After about an hour of discussion, the homeowner offered to take down the toilet display. (See here)

“This incident proves that anti-Muslim prejudice decreases whenever ordinary people are given accurate information about Islam and have personal interactions with Muslims,” said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. Hooper thanked the homeowner for his willingness to change his preconceived ideas about Islam and Muslims.

CAIR news release, 27 July 2005

Australian police ‘targeted’ Muslim convert over library books

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Melbourne university student says the Australian Federal Police (AFP) has questioned him because he borrowed library books about terrorism and suicide bombings. The Muslim convert, known as Abraham, says he was targeted by investigators while borrowing the books for PhD research at Monash University into the role of Islam in martyrdom.

Abraham says the AFP drew an unfair link between his Muslim name and his topic of study. “Obviously, they’ve had access to my library records,” he said. “I don’t know if the phone has been bugged. I don’t know if they are watching my movements. They are drawing a linkage between a person with a non-English speaking name and saying ‘okay, well this is suspicious activity’.”

Abraham says there are dozens of students studying similar subjects but he is the only one who has been interviewed, despite espousing a moderate approach to Islam.

ABC News, 26 July 2005

See also ‘Aussie Muslim leaders hit back at Howard’, Islam Online, 25 July 2005

US Muslims call comments by radio show host ‘hate-filled’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A local radio talk show host touched off complaints from an Islamic civil rights organization yesterday after repeatedly describing Islam on the air as “a terrorist organization” that is “at war with America.”

The organization, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), asked the station to take disciplinary action against Michael Graham, who hosts WMAL-AM’s late-morning call-in program. A station executive, Randall Bloomquist, said yesterday that Graham’s comments were “amped up” but justified within the context of the program. He said the station, which is owned by the Walt Disney Co., had no plans to reprimand Graham.

The show host touched off the flap during a discussion of the Muslim community’s response to recent acts of terrorism. Graham suggested the fault lies with Muslims generally because religious leaders and followers haven’t done enough to condemn and root out extreme elements. “The problem is not extremism,” Graham said, according to both CAIR and the station. “The problem is Islam.” He also said, “We are at war with a terrorist organization named Islam.”

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Muslims tell of post-bomb fears

Posted on by Bob Pitt

London’s mayor Ken Livingstone has met Muslim leaders to discuss their fears after the London bombings.

Sadiq Khan, MP for Tooting, south London, said the most worrying thing was “British-born and British-raised Muslims… did this to London”. But he said they hoped to help catch those responsible for the attacks.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said they were very worried about the Met’s shoot-to-kill police and called for an inquiry. “This is the only way that we can be assured that the Muslim community is going to be taken seriously,” he said.

Addressing the conference Mr Khan said: “None of us should feel even more guilty than non-Muslims in this city. “People think of Muslims as a homogenous mass but we are not. We are very different groups of people. We will do all that we can to catch those responsible. It is important that we are united.”

Mayor Livingstone also vowed to crack down on anyone or any company who uses to the blasts as an excuse for discrimination, after learning a Muslim woman was not allowed to board a bus in east London.

“This is completely contrary to the law and bus companies that allow that to happen will not be allowed to keep their contracts,” he said. “I have said before we will not allow the bombers to divide us and we will not allow people to divide us here.”

BBC News, 26 July 2005

London’s Muslims voice new fears

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Muslim community here already felt the glare of suspicion in the wake of the deadly bombings that have terrorized London. Then came an admission by police Saturday that they had gunned down an innocent Brazilian on Friday who they thought was a would-be bomber. That, some in the community said, put London’s Muslims in a double bind: afraid of the militants, and afraid of the police.

“All of us must help police identify these suspect bombers and bring them to justice – yet yesterday’s events make it harder for us,” said Inayat Bunglawala, spokesman for the mainstream Muslim Council of Britain. “If people believe that the individuals they are informing on may be shot dead before it’s even verified they’re a threat, they’re going to be reluctant to tell the police.”

LA Times, 24 July 2005

Islamic scholars urge unity to fight terror

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ramadanA conference of Islamic scholars from around the world yesterday denounced the recent terrorist attacks on London as “barbaric and inhuman”, and called on the public and media to work more closely with the Muslim community to fight extremism.

Speakers at the Metropolitan police-sponsored conference, which was designed to educate young British Muslims about extremism and Islamophobia, also criticised the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes but said the young Brazilian’s death should not be allowed to upset community relations.

Tariq Ramadan, a Switzerland-based scholar whose visit to speak at the conference attracted condemnation from the Sun newspaper, said: “We should call for an independent investigation to make sure that this does not happen again.” He asked people not to react emotionally to recent events and to act as citizens who say “no to discrimination and no to extremism”.

Guardian, 25 July 2005