Category Archives: Right wing

Australian MP calls for bar on HT … and debate on banning the veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Michael JohnsonPreachers of Islamic extremism should be barred from Australia, a federal MP says. Michael Johnson, a lower house independent, has also called for a debate on banning the burqa.

He said Prime Minister Julia Gillard and his former boss, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, needed to repudiate the leadership of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a global Islamic group which wants Australian Muslims to reject democracy. “Join together and repudiate the extremism of this global movement and … guarantee that none of its international preachers ever receive a visa to step on to Australian soil again,” Mr Johnson said in a statement.

The release was issued in response to an article in The Australian which reported Hizb ut-Tahrir leaders urging participants in a western Sydney conference to join the struggle for a transnational Islamic state.

Mr Johnson said Australia’s Judeo-Christian heritage promoted inclusion, openness and transparency. “It is not our culture to exclude, nor is it one that aims to suppress women’s rights of equality, openness and full political participation,” he said. “Therefore, let us have a full and fearless debate on whether women should be required to wear the head to toe covering niqab, or the burqa.”

Mr Johnson’s comments make him potentially the most vocal Queenslander to criticise a minority group since Pauline Hanson said in her 1996 parliamentary maiden speech that Australia was in danger of being “swamped by Asians”.

AAP, 5 July 2010

Johnson evidently suffers from an irony by-pass. You’ll note that he calls for representatives of a peaceful if highly sectarian Islamist organisation to be denied entry to Australia, while simultaneously declaring that “it is not in our culture to exclude”. Clearly Australia’s “Judeo-Christian heritage”, is not without its contradictions.

Another political campaign based on religious hatred

Posted on by Bob Pitt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_DGNu6dI_ZE

INDIANAPOLIS — Congressman André Carson’s Republican opponent, Marvin Scott, is now calling on Carson (D-7th District), who is Muslim, to “stand up against Muslim extremism.” It’s a tactic that has local Islamic leaders condemning Scott’s actions.

It’s a normal Friday at Al-Fajr, a mosque on the northwest side of town, where Muslims gather for Jumu’a, the Friday prayer service. Before the service we asked the Chairman of the board, Dr. Haroon Qazi and another leader, Tim Palmer, to give us their reaction to the website created this week by GOP Congressional candidate Marvin Scott, drmarvinscottforcongress.com.

On it, Scott lists “fight Muslim extremism” as one of his guiding principles. Click on the words and you will find an image from 9/11 and ten reasons why radical Islam is a threat. They include “Islam commands homosexuals must be executed.” “Islam allows husbands to hit their wives.” And “Islam commands that drinkers and gamblers should be whipped.”

Dr. Haroon Qazi, Chairman of the Board at the Al-Fajr Mosque says, “You can take anything out of context and make a peaceful religion into something which is demonic.”

Scott is trying to unseat Carson, one of two Muslims in Congress but, at the mosque there is a belief that in the process he is smearing, not just Carson, but all Muslims. Al-Fajr Mosque public relations chair Tim Palmer points to website saying, “The change in word phrase, ‘Muslim extremism’ transitioning into just “Muslims”, is painting all Muslims as extremists.”

Wish TV, 2 July 2010

See also Sheila Musaji at The American Muslim, 2 July 2010

Another political campaign based on religious hatred

Posted on by Bob Pitt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_DGNu6dI_ZE

INDIANAPOLIS — Congressman André Carson’s Republican opponent, Marvin Scott, is now calling on Carson (D-7th District), who is Muslim, to “stand up against Muslim extremism.” It’s a tactic that has local Islamic leaders condemning Scott’s actions.

It’s a normal Friday at Al-Fajr, a mosque on the northwest side of town, where Muslims gather for Jumu’a, the Friday prayer service. Before the service we asked the Chairman of the board, Dr. Haroon Qazi and another leader, Tim Palmer, to give us their reaction to the website created this week by GOP Congressional candidate Marvin Scott, drmarvinscottforcongress.com.

On it, Scott lists “fight Muslim extremism” as one of his guiding principles. Click on the words and you will find an image from 9/11 and ten reasons why radical Islam is a threat. They include “Islam commands homosexuals must be executed.” “Islam allows husbands to hit their wives.” And “Islam commands that drinkers and gamblers should be whipped.”

Dr. Haroon Qazi, Chairman of the Board at the Al-Fajr Mosque says, “You can take anything out of context and make a peaceful religion into something which is demonic.”

Scott is trying to unseat Carson, one of two Muslims in Congress but, at the mosque there is a belief that in the process he is smearing, not just Carson, but all Muslims. Al-Fajr Mosque public relations chair Tim Palmer points to website saying, “The change in word phrase, ‘Muslim extremism’ transitioning into just “Muslims”, is painting all Muslims as extremists.”

Wish TV, 2 July 2010

See also Sheila Musaji at The American Muslim, 2 July 2010

Catalonia: veil ban motion defeated

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Catalonia’s parliament rejected Thursday a move to ban the wearing of the Islamic burqa in public places across the Spanish region after reversing an initial vote.

A resolution moved by conservatives and centre-right nationalists was passed, but opponents said there had been a technical error and some absentees at the moment of the vote.

After the session was suspended, the parliamentary speaker ordered the vote to be put again, prompting a walk-out by the motion’s supporters and a victory for its left-wing opponents.

The motion would have called on the government of the northeastern region to ban the Islamic women’s garment which conceals all but the eyes, in the street as well as in public buildings.

Right-wing deputy Rafael Lopez said it was a question of values, of voicing opposition to clothing which he said kept women in a “degrading prison.”

AFP, 1 July 2010

Catalan parliament postpones vote on Islamic veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Parlament de CatalunyaCatalonia’s regional parliament Wednesday postponed a vote on a motion to ban the use of the face-covering Islamic veil in public places, an issue that has sparked a debate throughout Spain.

Two conservative deputies had presented the motion under which Catalonia would “adopt the legal reforms necessary to ban the wearing of clothes that totally cover the face.” The ban would be in place “in public spaces as well as public buildings” throughout the northeastern region.

The motion said Catalan authorities “cannot remain on the sidelines of the European debate,” citing moves in both France and Belgium to ban the full-face Islamic veil.

The vote was on the parliament’s agenda for Wednesday but was postponed to a date that has yet to be announced, apparently due to backlog of business in the chamber.

AFP, 30 June 2010

Hollobone introduces veil ban bill

Posted on by Bob Pitt

One Conservative MP, Philip Hollobone, is hoping that Britain will follow Belgium and introduce a repressive ban on the niqab and the burqa. He will present his Private Members Face Coverings (Regulation) Bill in the House of Commons today. The Parliament website describes it as:

A Bill to regulate the wearing of certain face coverings; and for connected purposes.

The bill appears to stop short of calling for a full ban, although it would restrict the wearing of the full-face veil in public places such as banks, post offices and school entrances.

But Hollobone clearly views it as a first step and has previously made his support for a full ban clear. During a Commons debate on International Women’s Day he said:

The phrase that has been given to me time and again is, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” This is Britain; we are not a Muslim country. Covering one’s face in public is strange, and to many people it is intimidating and offensive. I seriously think that a ban on wearing the niqab or the burka in public should be considered.

Like other supporters of an illiberal ban, Hollobone has yet to provide a convincing answer to the point that those who complain that Islamist men tell women how to dress are doing precisely this by calling for a ban. On matters of sexual equality, Muslim women would be better served by the enforcement of existing laws against domestic violence than by the enactment of new laws restricting their dress.

The Staggers, 30 June 2010

See also “Tory MP launches first legal bid to ban burkha in Britain”, Daily Mail, 30 June 2010

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Residents rally to show support for Islamic Center of Murfreesboro

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Freedom of religion badgeA Murfreesboro mosque opened its doors to the community in the hopes of opening minds about a new 52,000 square foot worship center in the works.

Muslims, Baptists, Catholics, Jews, Agnostics and others checked their religious difference along with their shoes at the door of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro.

“We feel like the reason for opposition is because maybe they are misinformed; or its something they don’t know about,” Mosque spokeswoman Camie Ayash said. “So what we decided to do was open the doors and allow them to come in and get to know us.”

Around 100 people mingled and ate traditional Muslim foods inside the current worship center on Middle Tennessee Boulevard.  250 families currently worship at the center.

Liz Sodergren wore a blue pin Mosque members gave out to visitors. It said Freedom of Religion for Everyone. “I really love this button because it really summarizes what I believe as an American is important,” she said.

WKRN, 27 June 2010

See also The Tennessean, 27 June 2010

What kind of America is this? Hate-filled rally to stop mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sheepshead Bay anti-mosque protestAngry Sheepshead Bay residents came out in a show of force on Sunday to protest a planned mosque and Muslim community center in their neighborhood.

“If they build a mosque there, I’m going to bomb the mosque,” said one outraged resident who lives across the street from the proposed house of worship between East 28th and East 29th streets on Voorhies Avenue. The resident, who refused to give his name, identified himself as a former Israeli soldier who had lived on Voorhies Avenue for eight years. “I will give them a lot of trouble,” he added. “They’re not going to stay here alive.”

Such comments were certainly the most violent, though intolerance was common at the rally, which was organized by the group Bay People. Political correctness was shoved aside as members of the group put out its agenda: We don’t want a mosque here.

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