Rosie Kane MSP: Muslims targeted by anti-terror legislation

Motion from SSP to Scottish Parliament: “That the Parliament condemns the remarks of the Home Office minister, Hazel Blears.” … “believes that the targeting of Muslims by the security services will be done on a racist basis and abhors the fact that a Labour government elected with the support of substantial sections of Muslim communities should now be targeting those communities as if they were ‘the enemy within’.”


*S2M-2519 Rosie Kane: Muslims Targeted by Anti-Terror Legislation—That the Parliament condemns the remarks of the Home Office minister, Hazel Blears, to the Home Affairs Select Committee, and widely reported in the press, in relation to counter-terrorism powers that “some of our counter-terrorism powers will be disproportionately experienced by the Muslim community” and that “the threat is most likely to come from those people associated with an extreme form of Islam”; regards these remarks as directly associating our Muslim communities with terrorism; believes that they will be used by racists and far-right thugs as a green light to attack Muslims and will result in an increase in racist attacks; believes that the targeting of Muslims by the security services will be done on a racist basis and abhors the fact that a Labour government elected with the support of substantial sections of Muslim communities should now be targeting those communities as if they were “the enemy within”, and further notes that the last terrorist outrage committed in the United Kingdom was by a far-right racist against the lesbian and gay community.

Muslims urged to ‘use vote as weapon’ for SNP

A leading Islamic spokes man has urged Muslims in Scotland to use their vote “like a weapon” and support the SNP in the forthcoming general elections. Dr Azzam Tamimi, director of The Institute of Islamic Political Thought (IIPT), told a conference in Glasgow yesterday that it would be a sin against Islam to vote for a pro-war candidate. He said the SNP was the best party in Scotland to represent Muslim interests and that its line on Iraq, Palestine and on the war on terror was the most acceptable of all the major Scottish parties.

Sunday Herald, 19 December 2004

Reported on Islam Online, 20 December 2004

Anti-Islamic bigotry is a blight on the West

“Prominent Muslims – and others – would have incitement to religious hatred rendered an offence in law. The atheist who began this column remains an atheist and cannot, in conscience, support such a notion. Justice and God tend to differ on certain important points. Islamophobia remains a fact, for all that, and it amounts to a declaration of war against some fellow citizens of mine. If they are the enemy within, these days, then so am I, God willing.”

Ian Bell writing in the Sunday Herald, 5 September 2004

The Left and Islam

“Since September 11 2001, Islamophobia – fear and hatred of Muslims – has been on the rampage across the Western world. In the UK, racist tabloid newspapers daily churn out frenzied reports of Muslim clerics declaring jihad against the West. The scaremongering of newspapers like the Sun, the Daily Mail and the Daily Express has succeeded in inciting widescale violence and abuse directed against the entire Muslim population.”

Eddie Truman in Scottish Socialist Voice.

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Scarf rally in Scottish capital

About 250 protesters have demonstrated outside the French Consulate in Edinburgh against plans to ban the wearing of headscarves in France’s state schools.

The protest was organised by the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) as part of an international day of action.

Other campaigners travelled from Scotland to join a march in London.

The association said it was encouraging non-Muslims to wear headscarves in the Scottish capital to show “solidarity” with those in France.

Organisers said 25 protests were planned across the world, including London, Paris and several other French cities.

BBC News, 17 January 2004

Taxi knife attacker jailed

A man who slashed a Muslim taxi driver across the neck after calling him a terrorist has been jailed for four years. Steven Jack was found guilty at the High Court in Glasgow of permanently disfiguring Mohammed Yusuf in a racially aggravated attack.

Jack and two companions were travelling in Mr Yusuf’s private hire taxi in Glasgow city centre in November 2001. During the journey 27-year-old Jack called Mr Yusuf a Taleban terrorist and said “you want to bomb our country”.

Mr Yusuf said he asked the passengers to leave the car. But Jack was carrying a knife and he slashed the driver across the neck, inflicting a wound which needed 11 stitches.

Mr Yusuf said that he was a practising Muslim and he became a target because of his beard and Afghan hat.

BBC News, 17 February 2003

Scottish Muslims describe fears

The leaders of Scotland’s Muslim community have been meeting to assess the extent of racist threats and attacks suffered since terrorists struck at the heart of the US.

Around the world many followers of Islam have reported heightened hostility since hijacked airliners were flown into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The American authorities have named Osama Bin Laden, who is a Muslim, as their prime suspect and that has triggered a backlash against followers of Islamic religions.

World leaders, including the US President George W Bush, have condemned violence against Muslims and have appealed for calm.

However, Muslim leaders met in Glasgow on Wednesday evening to discuss the situation in Scotland where some abuse has been reported.

They also drew up an action plan to help change the attitudes of those who hold them responsible for the terrorism.

BBC News, 19 September 2001