Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Muslims should not be blamed for work of a few: CAIR

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ibrahim HooperThe vast majority of peaceful Muslims should not be blamed for the work of a few disgruntled “criminals”, a leading American Muslim activist said Sunday, July 17.

“The problem is that one or two criminals can create an impression that an entire community is to be blamed, and so you are always subject to those one or two people,” Ibrahim Hooper, head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “If you know the reality, you can see these handful of people as the aberration that they are – the same way that we didn’t say Catholicism was bad when the IRA was blowing up things in London.”

Islam Online, 17 July 2005

Anti-war vigil attracts hundreds

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Russell Square VigilHundreds of people have attended a vigil in memory of those killed or injured in the London bombings. Stop The War Coalition (StWC) and the Muslim Association of Britain organised the rally in Russell Square.

Crowds listened to speeches by members from the two groups and Respect MP George Galloway who blamed the war on Iraq for the London bombings. Organisers said their aim was also to show solidarity with the families of victims and the Muslim community.

BBC News, 17 July 2005

Guantánamo trials ‘violate justice’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

guantanamo7The military tribunals of suspected terrorists held at Guantánamo Bay were a “tremendous failure”, a US military lawyer told Congress yesterday.

Navy Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift was testifying before the first full Senate hearing on the Bush administration’s treatment of detainees since the “war on terror” began.

His comments come amid calls from Democrats and some Republicans that the Guantánamo Bay prison camp be closed down.

Lt Cdr Swift was assigned to represent Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s driver, whom he said had been left mentally disturbed after being held in solitary confinement for seven months. Lt Cdr Swift said that Mr Hamdan was offered the opportunity to see a defence lawyer only if he pleaded guilty to the charges made against him.

Guardian, 16 June 2005

Putting the onus on Muslims to defeat terror

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Osama Saeed writes to the Glasgow Herald after Joan McAlpine writes her column essentially blaming Muslims collectively for the London bombings:

Joan McAlpine (July 14) says Muslims must do more to combat terror.

It would be the easiest thing in the world for me to join many Muslim leaders to say exactly that.

This begs the question – did Muslims really hear people threatening violence in this country but do nothing about it? I can say without reservation that if I had ever seen or met anyone proposing or hinting at bombings I would have no hesitation in reporting them. The reality is we don’t know who these people are, even their families didn’t.

The prime minister has of course welcomed this attitude and indeed led from the front on it. “In the end, this can only be taken on and defeated by the [Muslim] community itself, ” he said on Wednesday.

By doing this he put the onus on Muslims to defeat terror, handily absolving himself of all responsibility. Muslims are not in denial of our duties as above. But much like global poverty, world peace can only be achieved by the prime minister and his powerful allies.

There is a phenomenon at play here, and it is Mr Blair who is in denial about his role in this. He was told by the security services that his and Bush’s war in Iraq would put us in more danger, not less. Had Iraq not happened we would still be facing problems. But Iraq is the current front through which violence is being funnelled.

The Italian Parliament have now braced themselves for an attack on their soil. Why do they think they are next and not, say Norway?

Jack Straw this week apologised for Britain’s role in the Srebrenica massacre. This is welcome, but these apologies need extended to Britain’s more explicit roles in creating the injustices in the Muslim world. From the mess left in Kashmir, to the promising of one people’s land to another in Palestine. Apologies would be a start, but need a recognition of our mistakes, coupled with a commitment not to repeat these errors.

Either you can think these suicide bombers are part of Islam, or an irrational reaction to the injustice taking place in the world.

If it’s the first you have to explain why this hasn’t existed for the 1400 years of the religion.

Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesperson, Muslim Association of Britain, 16 Queen’s Crescent, Glasgow.

Islamophobia and liberalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Islamophobes don’t just see Muslims as culturally backward, they see Islam and any movement it might spawn as necessarily politically retrograde and monolithic. And the tendency by some to celebrate and congratulate ‘secular’ or ‘apostate’ Muslims (like the silly sap, Irshad Manji) reminds me of nothing so much as the Christian fundamentalist dictum about homosexuals – love the sinner, hate the sin. We nice liberals love Muslims, and wish to draw them to our breasts if only they’ll recant.”

Lenin’s Tomb, 15 July 2005

US apologizes to UK imam for visa mishap

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The United States administration has lifted a visa ban on an internationally renowned British Muslim scholar and apologized to him for the inconvenience, allowing him to visit the country anytime.

“I woke up Friday (July 15) to a phone call from the office of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, and his aides apologized on his behalf for the US move and told me that the minister would raise the issue with top US officials,” Zaki Badawi, head of the Islamic College in London, told IslamOnline.net by phone Saturday, July 16.

Badawi said few hours after the conversation, the US embassy in London called him to apologize in their turn and stressed that it was an unintentional mistake.

Islam Online, 16 July 2005

The backlash has begun, and I fear for the innocent

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rajnaara Akhtar“The immediate media response on numerous fronts has been to demonise Islam and bring out of the closet so-called experts and those on the fringes of Islam’s middle path, with their extreme views. Opinions from some media commentators are being conceded as legitimate interpretations of Islam, although many of them have no scholarly background on Islam and unanimously offend almost the entire Muslim world.

“Ironically, the universally respected scholars such as Tariq Ramadan are being targeted as extremists although merely scratching the surface of the accusations against him reveal their acute flaws. By creating a villain out of the voices of reason and reconciliation, Muslims are being deprived of their most eloquent spokespeople and subsequently the ability to adequately defend against false accusations.

“The mainstream media needs to take responsibility for its actions and seriously consider the incitement that misrepresentation of Islam and Muslims in Britain can set in motion. By sensationalising this tragedy, our communities are being torn apart.”

Rajnaara Akhtar in the Independent, 16 July 2005

Met appeals to London Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ianblairMet Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair spoke today at the Minhaj-ul-Quran Mosque in East London.

The attacks were not anything to do with Islam, he said, but were done in the name of Islam “and that puts the responsibility on all of us.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being a fundamentalist Muslim, Jew or Christian, the key issue is the slide into extremism,” he said.

He compared the “perversion of the virtues of Islam” behind the London “atrocities” to anti-abortionists in America who shoot doctors.

“For you I know this is the worst nightmare that can happen to the British Muslim community,” he said.

BBC News, 15 July 2005