Category Archives: Secular

Wilders helps to launch anti-Islam party in Australia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Wilders Q SocietyAn anti-Islam party based on the hardline views of Dutch politician Geert Wilders plans to field candidates at the next federal election, raising fears among moderate Muslims of a rise in extremism.

Mr Wilders, an influential far-right figure expected to shape the results of this year’s European elections, told followers in a video message that the Australian Liberty Alliance was being formed to “offer civil minded Australians fresh political vision and better policies”. Policies advocated by Wilders’ Party for Freedom include deporting immigrants convicted of a crime and stopping all immigration from Islamic countries.

“Many of you are disappointed by current political parties and have had enough of politicians who sell our Western civilisation,” Mr Wilders said in his video. “Like you, good people in Europe, America, Canada have had enough of politicians who don’t share our values and foolishly declare all cultures are equal, and who lack the courage to speak the truth and say that Islam is the biggest threat to freedom today.”

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Marine Le Pen calls for strict application of secularism … to defend France’s ‘Christian roots’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Marine Le Pen Front NationalMarine Le Pen, whose party is riding a wave of anti-immigration and anti-Muslim voter sentiment around Europe, says it will cut public funds to religious groups in towns where it wins municipal elections this month.

Le Pen told The Associated Press in an interview Monday that secularism will be strictly applied in towns where her far-right National Front prevails on March 23 and 30, and that referendums will be held on major issues.

Le Pen, 45, praised the recent Swiss decision, in a referendum, to cap immigration, saying countries have an “inalienable right” to control their borders. Le Pen claimed the Swiss decision, passed by a razor-thin 50.3 percent “yes” vote, would have sailed through France with a 65 percent approval rating if such a referendum held here.

Le Pen – who took the helm from her father, party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, in 2010 – has worked to remove the stigma that has kept the party out of mainstream politics by giving it a kinder, more politically correct face. But the National Front has forged ahead with its anti-immigrant stance, especially regarding Muslims.

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Belgian Jewish organisation condemns ‘obsession with the Muslim headscarf’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CEJI logoCEJI: “Obsession with headscarf works negatively on the integration of Muslim women”

Brussels, 26 February 2014.
CEJI – A Jewish Contribution to an Inclusive Europe is deeply troubled by escalating racism and racial tensions in Belgium, highlighted in reports issued this week by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) (1) and by the Center for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism submitted to the United Nations Committee on Racial Discrimination (CERD) (2).

CEJI is deeply concerned about the division within the Belgian anti-racism movement today on the Muslim headscarf. CEJI believes strongly in the fundamental right of religious freedom and sees more harm than good coming out of this obsession with the Muslim headscarf. Not only has this obsession had negative consequences on the integration of Muslim women in the education and employment system of Belgium, but it also has had a serious impact on the freedom of Jews, Sikhs, Hindus and even Christians to wear religio-cultural dress and symbols. Neutrality is defined only by what is considered an acceptable norm, and we are challenged to re-consider how to make our public space effectively inclusive. Social coercion to wear or not to wear the headscarf is counterproductive to the goal of women’s emancipation.

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Quebec halal butchers vandalised and shot at

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Souibgui AbdelbariA halal shop owner in Quebec’s Eastern Townships is blaming the provincial government’s secularism charter for acts of vandalism and violence, including air-rifle shots fired at his window.

Vandals have also showered Souibgui Abdelbari’s store with “No to Islam” placards and hundreds of paper crosses. “In my opinion, this is related to the charter,” he said, referring to the Parti Quebecois’ proposed ban on religious symbols in the public service. These things didn’t happen in Sherbrooke before that.”

Attacks against Abdelbari’s shop have intensified in recent weeks. A storefront window was shattered twice and he also found bullet holes in a window. More recently, the front of his shop was littered with about 500 small crosses. “It makes me fear for my family’s safety,” he said. “Someone who does things like that could do something worse.”

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French firm bans Muslim headscarves at work

Posted on by Bob Pitt

PaprecA privately-owned French company claims to have become the first in the country to ban the wearing of Muslim headscarves and other prominent religious symbols at work. But critics say the move, which had the backing of employees, is against the law.

From Tuesday onward the 4,000 workers at recycling company Paprec, based in the Parisian suburbs will no longer be allowed to demonstrate their religious faith by wearing items like the Yarmulke/Kippah (the Jewish skullcap), Christian crosses and Muslim head or face covers.

Paprec’s CEO Jean-Luc Petithuguenin said he set the new rules, which he claims are the first of their kind, after four months of negotiations with representatives of the company’s employees. The result was an eight-article agreement that follows closely the principles already laid in French secular laws.

“I am applying the same model that prevails in the public sphere, only I am applying it to a company,” Petithuguenin told AFP. “I am applying the founding principles of the French republic.”

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Quebec’s politicians present spineless spectacle over ‘charter of values’ debate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Liberal leader Philippe Couillard migrated from saying the Charter was unnecessary and would pass “over my dead body” all the way to stipulating what “must be included in the Charter” in order to “affirm [the] values of the host society.” (For some reason this includes a ban on public sector workers wearing niqabs and burkas because they cover the face, and chadors despite the fact they don’t.) Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault’s “moderate” compromise proposal would still ban teachers from wearing religious symbols. The hard-left Québec Solidaire is the acme of tolerance, drawing the line on such restrictions at judges and police officers — but it only has two MNAs and 8% support in the latest Léger Marketing poll, published Jan. 20. (After QS MNA Amir Khadir was recently photographed in discussion with Muslims wearing hijabs, the pro-labour, pro-sovereignty, pro-charter group SPQ Libre stridently accused him of cuddling up to fundamentalists.)

Chris Selley argues that even if the Parti Québécois gets its way and manages to impose the so-called secularism charter it may well face defiance over the actual implementation of the proposed bans. In the meantime, rival political parties of left and right have demonstrated a spineless failure to take a stand against the PQ on this issue.

National Post, 7 February 2014

Highly qualified Muslim immigrants face employment discrimination

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Last week, Quebec business interests sounded an alarm about the negative economic ramifications on the province of the proposed values charter. First the Conseil du patronat and then the head of a cable and media company warned that Bill 60 would discourage immigrants needed for economic growth.

This issue arose the first day of the charter hearings last month, when the leader of a Muslim organization talked about a crisis among families of highly qualified North Africans who are being shut out of jobs in their fields.

Samira Laouni, of Communication pour l’ouverture et le rapprochement interculturel, estimated that current unemployment in the North African community is around 30 per cent – even though overall unemployment in Montreal is roughly 8 per cent. Laouni contends that employment discrimination against Muslims started after 9/11 and deteriorated after the Herouxville incident in 2007, when the town council there passed a code of conduct for minorities targeting Muslims. She commented that since the proposal of the Quebec values charter, the employment situation for Muslims has worsened.

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Montreal metro death leads to outburst of anti-Muslim hatred

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Naima Rharouity was a 47-year-old mother who lived in Villeray with her two young boys, ages five and seven. “She really took care of her kids,” said her niece Soukaina Rharouity. “They were the centre of her life.” Rharouity lost her life in the most horrific way. Her scarf and hair somehow got caught between the moving steps in a metro escalator, strangling her. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Overnight, the incident has gone from tragic accident to an intense internet debate, and media misfire. Several news outlets were reporting that Rharouity had been strangled not by a scarf, but by a hijab.

“The lead of TVA and Journal de Montreal to allege that the woman was wearing a hijab fails on a basic level of journalistic discipline and that’s the level of verification,” said Alan Conter, a Concordia Journalism Law and Ethics Professor. “Obviously there was no verification done.”

“Maybe it was a hijab but why would you insist in telling us?” said Julien Day, a writer for Voir. “For me it’s a no news.” Day says he was shocked by the replies he got on an article he wrote criticizing the media’s coverage. “There were pretty violent reactions like she deserved it and maybe people will learn that you wear your hijab at home and no where else,” he said.

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Family at Charter hearings describes being ‘marked’ by Muslim customs

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Claude PineaultA family’s presentation at the Charter of Values hearings in the National Assembly is getting a lot of attention online.

A YouTube video where the Pineault-Caron family spoke of their travels to Morocco and Turkey shows them concerned and dumbfounded by common Muslim customs.

Among these customs was taking off shoes upon entering a mosque and praying on all fours. “Taking off your shoes, what is that?” said Genevieve Caron. “Praying on all fours on a little carpet – what is that?” Caron said they complied because they had gone there to visit, but when she toured the mosque and saw a large curtain, with men praying on one side and women praying on the other, she remained “marked” by what she’s seen.

Claude Pineault [pictured] went on to describe his experience in a marketplace in Tangier, Morocco, where he said he was pickpocketed by two men wearing religious headgear. “Who was under those disguises? Women? Men? I don’t know,” he said, “What I do know is it’s unthinkable to permit people to walk around in Quebec – on the streets, in public places, anywhere besides houses and in private – wearing these disguises.”

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Quebec values charter takes a beating at opening day of public hearings

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Samira LaouniA Muslim woman wearing a hijab put the Parti Québécois on the defensive in a sharp exchange on the first day of hearings over the secular charter that would prohibit public sector employees from wearing overt religious symbols.

Samira Laouni told the minority PQ government that its proposed legislation was creating social tensions unheard of in Quebec until now. Some Muslim women have been spat on and have had their head scarf torn off, she said. “I’ve been here for 15 years. I have never seen it like this until now,” she told the committee.

Ms. Laouni was among the first seven to appear at the National Assembly, but 250 parties have submitted briefs and 200 hours have been set aside for presentations over the next several weeks.

The issue has divided Quebeckers, and opposition parties accuse the PQ of trying to take advantage of the storm of protest to attract enough voter support, especially in predominantly francophone ridings, to win a majority government in an election many expect will be held this spring.

The PQ minister responsible for democratic institutions, Bernard Drainville, went to great lengths to defend the bill he tabled last November. He argued that only 20 per cent of Muslim women in Quebec wear the veil. “That is one in five that won’t be affected by the restrictive measures,” he said.

Ms. Laouni lashed back by reminding the minister that it was his responsibility to protect minorities. “In a democratic country you need to think about the 1 per cent that is affected. You don’t think about the absolute majority, you think about the minority that is being crushed,” she said.

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