Jon Morgan, farming editor of the Dominion Post, calls on the New Zealand government and meat industry to challenge the anti-halal hysteria promoted by the Daily Mail
Category Archives: Right wing
The problem with Gingrich’s simplistic attack on sharia
The epochs of Newt Gingrich’s public life are defined by the books that have revolutionized him – generally of the type that sell well at airports. There is Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” trilogy, Alvin Toffler’s “The Third Wave,” Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich,” Stephen Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” and various foundational texts of Total Quality Management and Lean Six Sigma.
These idea crushes are mostly harmless. Sometimes they are not. Gingrich has recently been captured by the theory, developed in books such as Andrew C. McCarthy’s “The Grand Jihad“, that sharia law is a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and the world as we know it.
Michael Gerson in the Washington Post, 13 December 2011
See also Eli Clifton, “The dangers of Gingrich’s war against Islam”,Think Progress, 13 December 2011
And “Read this before you support Gingrich (the bigot)”, Craig Considine’s blog, 11 December 2011
Canada: face veils banned for citizenship oaths
The government is placing a ban on face coverings such as niqabs for people swearing their oath of citizenship, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Monday. The ban takes effect immediately.
As a result, Muslim women will have to remove their niqabs or any other face-covering garments, such as burkas, before they can recite the oath of citizenship to become Canadians. Citizenship judges will be directed to enforce the rules at ceremonies over which they preside.
It’s a “public declaration that you are joining the Canadian family and it must be taken freely and openly,” he said, calling it “frankly, bizarre” that women were allowed to wear face veils while they swear their citizenship oaths.
Daily Mail’s bigoted and inaccurate reporting provokes more right-wing anti-Muslim hysteria
Over the past week we have seen a wave of right-wing hysteria over the case of Rhea Page, a white woman from Leicester who was assaulted by four women of Somali heritage – or a “Muslim gang”, as they are invariably described.
The version of events that has gained currency on the racist right is that the women subjected Page to a “savage beating” while screaming “kill the white slag” but escaped a prison sentence because the judge accepted the defence’s argument in mitigation that the accused were Muslims who weren’t used to drinking alcohol. The case has been presented as an example of double standards in the British legal system, which supposedly discriminates against the white majority population and in favour of Muslims and other minorities.
Netanyahu backs law to ban loudspeakers at mosques
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday voiced support for a law that would ban mosques from using loudspeaker systems to call people to prayer. The so-called Muezzin Law, proposed by MK Anastassia Michaeli (Yisrael Beiteinu) applies to all houses of worship but the practice is prevalent only in mosques. “There’s no need to be more liberal than Europe,” Netanyahu said in reference to the law during a meeting of his Likud ministers.
Sharia law already devouring UK (it says here)
PJ Media has posted a truly crazed comment piece by Paul Diamond. A British barrister who specialises in representing fellow fundamentalist Christians claiming to have been victims of discrimination, Diamond was a featured speaker at the Preserving Freedom Conference in Nashville last month, where he announced that the UK group Christian Concern would be linking up with the Tennessee Freedom Coalition.
It is worth reading his PJ Media article if you want an insight into the mindset of the most extreme elements within the evangelical Christian right. Some sample quotes:
Lowe’s stands by decision to pull ads from ‘All-American Muslim’
Lowe’s is planning to stick by its decision to yank its ads from a reality TV show about American Muslims despite the growing opposition the home improvement chain is facing over the move.
California Sen. Ted Lieu put a statement out on Sunday that he is considering calling for a boycott of Lowe’s Cos., sparking criticism of the chain from both inside and outside of the Muslim community.
On social media web site Twitter, actor Kal Penn began directing people to a petition on signon.org in support of the TLC cable network show, “All-American Muslim.” By Monday afternoon, there were about 9,200 signatures.
On Monday, U.S. Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who is Muslim, released a statement condemning Lowe’s for choosing “to uphold the beliefs of a fringe hate group and not the creed of The First Amendment.”
And Democratic state Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit, the first Muslim elected to the Michigan Legislature, voiced her concerns directly with the company. She wrote a letter to Lowe’s CEO Robert Niblock. “I told them I was extremely disappointed that you give credibility to these hate groups,” Tlaib said. “People of Muslim faith are being attacked. It’s disappointing, disheartening.”
Canada: face veils banned for citizenship oaths
The government is placing a ban on face coverings such as niqabs for people swearing their oath of citizenship, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Monday. The ban takes effect immediately.
As a result, Muslim women will have to remove their niqabs or any other face-covering garments, such as burkas, before they can recite the oath of citizenship to become Canadians. Citizenship judges will be directed to enforce the rules at ceremonies over which they preside.
It’s a “public declaration that you are joining the Canadian family and it must be taken freely and openly,” he said, calling it “frankly, bizarre” that women were allowed to wear face veils while they swear their citizenship oaths.
Pamela Geller turns Hollywood shooting tragedy into an Islamophobic hate fest
On Friday, there was a tragic incident in Hollywood, California. A man began shooting people randomly near the corner of Hollywood and Vine, and injured two men, one critically, before he was finally shot and killed by police.
Pamela Geller had an article online right away titled HOLLYWOOD JIHAD: SHOOTOUT, GUNMAN CALMLY TARGETED DRIVERS AND PEOPLE WHILE SHOUTING ALLAHU AKBAR! She said in her lede: “What is most disturbing about this story, apart from the obvious horror, is that not one news account reported what one witness said the shooter was screaming: ‘allahu akbar.’ Not one news account. The media is the enemy.”
Mitt Romney: Islam is not an inherently violent faith
Mitt Romney responded today to a call for a tougher stance against Muslims by saying that most Muslims are peaceful people who deserve respect.
The issue came up during a question-and-answer session at a campaign stop here this morning. A man rose from the audience, claimed he had many Muslim friends, but said, “I have never heard one Muslim condemn Islamic jihad or terrorism. I see Islamic jihad as one of the greatest threats to America and the western world. Are you going to continue to give Islam and Islamic jihad in this country a pass like everybody before you continues to do? The only people that call Islam a religion of peace are the Muslims, and they are the most violent religion in the world.”