Category Archives: Right wing

Martin Bright (of all people) to lead discussion on Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

martin_brightThe Festival of Spirituality and Peace in Edinburgh on 16 August features a session on the subject of “Antisemitism and Islamophobia”.

And who is the main speaker at this session? The festival programme informs us: “Martin Bright, political editor of the Jewish Chronicle (and formerly of the New Statesman) and presenter of C4’s Who Speaks for the Muslims? discusses Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia – and other expressions of discrimination or hate crime – with members of the Jewish and Muslim communities. When does comment or criticism of a group become discriminatory and how much objection to the criticism is ‘crying wolf’?”

The programme omits to mention that Bright is also notorious as the author of When Progressives Treat With Reactionaries, published by the right-wing propaganda organisation Policy Exchange, which depicted the MCB and other mainstream Muslim organisations as extremists and called on the government to break all links with them. Indeed, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Bright was hired by the Jewish Chronicle precisely because of his record in attacking representative Muslim organisations.

Is Bright really an appropriate person to introduce a discussion on Islamophobia – particularly at a festival billed as “a celebration of diverse cultures and communities”?

Veil ban doesn’t target Muslims, French minister claims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Michele Alliot-MarieFrance’s justice minister went before parliament to defend a hotly debated bill that would ban burka-style Islamic veils in public, arguing that hiding your face from your neighbours is a violation of French values.

Michele Alliot-Marie’s speech at the National Assembly marked the start of parliamentary debate on the bill. It is widely expected to become law, despite the concerns of many French Muslims, who fear it will stigmatise them. Many law scholars also argue it would violate the constitution.

The government has used various strategies to sell the proposal, casting it at times as a way to promote equality between the sexes, to protect oppressed women or to ensure security in public places.

Ms Alliot-Marie argued that it has nothing to do with religion or security – she argued simply that life in the French Republic “is carried out with a bare face”.

“It is a question of dignity, equality and transparency,” she said in a speech that made little mention of Muslim veils. Officials have taken pains to craft language that does not single out Muslims: While the proposed legislation is colloquially referred to as the “anti-burka law”, it is officially called “the bill to forbid covering one’s face in public”.

Press Association, 7 July 2010

See also Al Jazeera, 7 July 2010

Republican candidate jumps on ‘Ground Zero mosque’ bandwagon

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rick Lazio press conference

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio challenged his Democratic opponent Wednesday morning to examine the legality of the funding for the proposed mosque near Ground Zero. “New Yorkers have a right to feel safe and be safe,” Lazio told reporters in Lower Manhattan. “There are serious security questions about the appropriateness of this mosque.”

Lazio demanded Attorney General Cuomo figure out where the backers of the Cordoba Mosque expect to get $100 million to build it. “Anyone who has evidence of wrongdoing should send it to us and we will review it,” Cuomo replied in a statement released later Wednesday.

In a letter he sent to Cuomo, Lazio cited press accounts that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who’s spearheading the mosque’s construction, is a “key figure” in an organization that funded the flotilla that sought to break Israel’s Gaza blockade.

Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles was a pilot on the plane terrorists crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11, said the Imam has written about his hopes of bringing strict Islamic Shariah law to the United States. “He means to use the Ground Zero location of the mosque to ‘leverage’ people to Islam,” said Burlingame, the co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America.

New York Daily News, 7 July 2010

Text of Lazio’s letter here.

See also New York Magazine, 7 July 2010

Update:  See Debra Burlingame’s contribution to Lazio’s press conference on YouTube.

Demonstration in support of Staten Island mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Staten Island mosque demo

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Asking that they be treated like believers of other religions, about 50 supporters of a proposed mosque in Midland Beach today rallied support for the project on the steps of Borough Hall in St. George.

“The reaction to the sale of the convent hurt us,” said New Springville resident Heshm El-Meligy, speaking on behalf of the Arab Muslim American Federation. “We are Staten Islanders. We have the right to have a house of worship anywhere of our choosing according to the law of the land.”

The rally was organized by the Muslim American Society (MAS).

There has been fierce debate across the borough about whether MAS should convert an empty former convent, owned by St. Margaret Mary R.C. Church in Midland Beach, into a mosque and community center.

But Muslims have argued that they have as much right to be there as Catholics or Jews. “We don’t want a privilege that no one else has,” said El-Meligy, one of several speakers who addressed the crowd.

SILive, 7 July 2010

Update:  See “A move on Staten Island to broker mosque peace”, SILive, 8 July 2010

The right to incite religious hatred: Brendan O’Neill rallies to the defence of fascists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP heroin leaflet

Over at spiked, the website of the cranky sect formerly known as the Revolutionary Communist Party, there is a particularly silly and ignorant article by Brendan O’Neill calling for the repeal of the 2006 Racial and Religious Hatred Act, which he describes as “an attack on what is for spiked the most important freedom of all, the freedom upon which all other freedoms are built, the freedom without which we cannot be free-thinking, free-associating, independent citizens: freedom of speech”. The legisation was, O’Neill asserts, motivated by an “outrageously Orwellian desire to make it a crime to ridicule religion”.

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French parliament to debate veil ban today

Posted on by Bob Pitt

France moves closer to banning the full-face veil today when its parliament begins debating a law that would outlaw the wearing of the burqa or the niqab anywhere in public. It is a measure that seems popular with the public. Polls suggest 70% back a ban.

The numbers that wear the full-face veil in France are tiny. Perhaps 2,000 and then the tourists from the Gulf, who like to shop in the luxury stores on the Champs Elysees.

The French government says this is not an argument about religion but about values. By adopting this legislation the French are insisting that those who live in France abide by their values. As the writers of the legislation say, hiding your face in public is “an offence to the nation’s values”. It violates the republican ideals of secularism and gender equality.

The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, said it was “a sign of debasement”. The Immigration Minister, Eric Besson, described the burqa as a “walking coffin”. The French Prime Minister, Francois Fillon, said Muslims who wear face coverings are “hijacking Islam” and provoking a “dark and sectarian image”.

Gavin Hewitt’s Europe, 6 July 2010

See also “French opposition to boycott vote on burqa ban”, AFP, 6 July 2010

‘Swimming pool blacked out to appease Muslims’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims force pool cover upTown hall chiefs were yesterday accused of “political correctness gone stark-raving mad” for forcing pool users to swim in the gloom to protect Muslim women’s modesty. The bizarre council diktat is the latest example of bureaucrats taking an extreme decision to avoid upsetting a minority group.

Residents are outraged after council chiefs ordered the windows of their glass-panelled swimming pool to be blacked out after complaints were received from Muslim groups. That has meant all swimmers at Darlaston Leisure Centre in Walsall, West Midlands, have been forced to swim in a darkened, gloomy pool.

The centre won plaudits from architects for its “ultra-modern” design when it opened to the public 10 years ago. But now council staff have covered ground-level ­windows with opaque film at a cost of £1,400 following complaints, mainly from Muslims concerned that they might be spotted in their swimwear.

Regular users of the pool are furious that the tinted windows, installed a fortnight ago, have plunged the pool into gloom – and all in the name of political correctness.

Jean Merchant, from Wolverhampton, said: “Regular swimmers should boycott the pool for as long as the film is in place. It seems they are not bothered about what we find offensive, as long as the Muslim community is kept happy.”

Retired building surveyor John Ewart, 63, from Walsall, said: “I cannot believe this council has agreed to something so loony. The whole thing smacks of political correctness gone stark raving mad.”

Daily Express, 6 July 2010

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‘Islam is of the devil’ church stages protest against Islamic centre

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Florida anti-Islam protestA Gainesville church known for wearing its opinion on its shirts protested an Islamic Center on Monday.

The Dove World Outreach Center, which touts the saying “Islam is of the devil,” portrayed that message outside the Islamic Center of Gainesville at its protest, which lasted about two hours. Protesters said what they were doing is the role of Christians to bring their message to the public.

“They’re not going to change,” Pastor Wayne Sapp said of other churches. “Half of our message is how evil Islam is. The other half of our message is the only reason it has grown in the capacity that it has grown – it’s because the church is so cowardly, it will not stand up for simply what the Bible says, not an interpretation of the Bible, but what it says word for word.”

“How can something like this continue to go on?” Sapp said of Islam. “We have to stand up.”

Members of the Islamic Center referred to the group as a “30-member cult.” Channel 4 talked to a member of the Islamic Center on the phone, but he did not want to go on camera because he said he did not want to give the church any credibility. “There are only 30 of them, meaning they don’t have a lot of support,” the spokesperson said. “If they’re studying the word of Jesus, they’re way off.”

News4Jax, 5 July 2010

Conservative parliamentary candidate rejects Hollobone’s ‘burqa ban’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

I fear that some of the sweeping statements made on the subject of the niqab and the burqa are actually thinly veiled (no pun intended) expressions of anti-Muslim sentiment and curtail the freedom of women in their choice to dress as they wish, despite claiming the contrary view. In stating that banning the burqa or niqab will empower women, it actually does just the opposite by dictating to them what they can and cannot wear. Philip Hollobone MP, in his speech on the subject reported on ConHome this week, made such a contradictory assertion.

His view that the woman he encountered in the park dressed in full burqa did not want any normal human interaction with anyone else is pure speculation, as is the view that she wears the burqa because she finds our society objectionable. He said: “In my view and that of my constituents, the burqa is not an acceptable form of dress and banning it should be seriously considered”. Was the woman he met in the park not one of his constituents?

Susan Williams, who was the Conservative parliamentary candidate in the Bolton West constituency, at ConservativeHome, 3 July 2010