Category Archives: State Oppression

Head scarf ban for Antwerp city counter clerks raises protests

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A head scarf ban for municipal counter clerks in the northern port city of Antwerp has raised protest from Muslims and women activists, officials said Tuesday.

The city council decided late Monday that civil servants dealing directly with the public should not wear visible religious symbols like a Muslim head scarf or a Christian cross. Some 150 mostly Muslim women protested the decision late Monday and the organizers said they were considering further action.

Antwerp has been a stronghold of the far-right Flemish Interest party, but it was defeated in local elections last October by the socialists, who had run a campaign stressing the multicultural makeup of Belgium’s second-largest city.

Opponents of the ban were disappointed that the coalition of socialists, liberals and Christian democrats who run the city council had outlawed head scarves for frontdesk staff. “It was a surprise, especially after a campaign like that,” said Sophie De Graeve of the women’s rights group VOK.

Associated Press, 16 January 2007

German court upholds ban on head scarves

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A court on Monday upheld a ban on Muslim teachers wearing head scarves in the schools of a German state under a law that says teachers’ attire must be in line with “western Christian” values.

A Berlin-based Islamic association had complained about the law, which authorities in the conservative-run state of Bavaria have used to ban head scarves while allowing Roman Catholic nuns to continue to wear their head-covering habits in schools.

The Bavarian Constitutional Court ruled on Monday that the application of the law in the state neither violated religious freedom nor was discriminatory.

However, a lawyer for the Islamic Religious Community said some of its members were considering taking their case to the Federal Constitutional Court, Germany’s highest court.

Authorities in several states, including Baden-Wuerttemberg and Hesse, have introduced similar head scarf bans.

Judge Karl Huber insisted the Bavarian law did not favor the Christian faith. But because teachers must transmit the values of the constitution, the religious feelings of students and parents must be considered, the court said.

Associated Press, 15 January 2007

See also “Bavaria bans teacher headscarves”, BBC News, 12 November 2004

Guantánamo protest at US embassy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Guantanamo protestA British boy whose father has been detained at the Guantanamo Bay camp delivered a letter to Downing St, ahead of a protest outside the US Embassy.

Anas el-Banna, 10, handed in his fourth letter to Tony Blair, reflecting the years his father had been held. He was accompanied by MP Sarah Teather, as campaigners marked the fifth anniversary of the camp’s opening.

The demonstration was one of a number organised around the world by human rights group Amnesty International. A petition was also handed in.

More than 300 protesters gathered outside the US embassy for the hour-long demonstration. They were dressed in orange boiler-suits, as worn by prisoners in the early stages of the camp, as well as blindfolds, goggles and face-masks.

BBC News, 11 January 2007

Canberra vetoes mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic leaders are demanding an explanation from Foreign Minister Alexander Downer after plans for the Saudi Government to invest in the construction of an Adelaide mosque were vetoed by Canberra.

The Foreign Minister revealed yesterday that the Government objected to a proposal for Saudi cash to be injected into development of the new mosque, which is believed to be located at Park Holme in Adelaide’s southern suburbs. Mr Downer said federal authorities had also been investigating broad concerns on funding sourced from the Middle East after concerns that mosques could become breeding grounds for extremists. “Obviously we don’t want to see any extremist organisation penetrate into Australia,” he said.

But Ali Vachor, secretary of the Islamic Society of South Australia, which manages the Park Holme mosque, told The Australian the decision had halted construction of the building. Mr Vachor said a “great portion” of funding for the development was being sourced from overseas and had not been approved.

Construction was halted after the laying of a concrete slab and prayers are being conducted in a recreation room. Mr Vachor said yesterday the Islamic Society of South Australia would seek an urgent meeting with Mr Downer to determine the reasons behind the Government’s decision.

The Australian, 9 January 2006

Why is my dad far away in that place called Guantanamo Bay?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Guantanamo5Ten-year-old Anas el-Banna will walk to the door of Number 10 Downing Street this week to ask for an answer to the question he has been trying to have answered for four years: Why can’t my Dad come home?

His father, Jamil, is one of eight British residents languishing among the almost 400 inmates at the American base at Guantanamo Bay, which opened five years ago to the day this Thursday – the day of Anas’s protest.

Mr Banna, was taken to Guantanamo Bay four years ago after being seized in Gambia along with fellow detainee Bisher al-Rawi. He was accused of having a suspicious device in his luggage. It turned out to be a battery charger. No charges have been made. He suffers from severe diabetes, but his lawyers say he has not been offered medication and has been denied the food he needs. His eyesight is now failing.

A year ago, his son wrote to Tony Blair for the second time to ask why the Government was not helping him return home. The then six-year-old did not even receive a reply. The second letter elicited a cursory note from the Foreign Office. It stated that because Mr Banna is not a British citizen, although his wife and children are, nothing could be done for him.

Independent, 9 January 2007

Local councils to ‘spy’ on British Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The British government is launching a controversial multi-million-pound package to help local authorities spy on Muslims to tackle so-called “extremism”, a British daily reported Saturday. Council staff will be asked to “establish systems to share potential risks or concerns at the local level with councils and staff acting as the eyes and ears for police in countering threats”, the Daily Mirror said.

The government’s tactics in tackling extremism has been criticized by Muslim leaders as misguided, counterproductive and a virtual “witch-hunt”. Some of its policies and comments by ministers have been blamed for provoking Islamophobia and alienating the country’s 1.8 million Muslim community, at a time when the government refuses to accept the damaging effects of its foreign policy, including the Iraq war.

Muslim News, 7 January 2007

See also Daily Mirror, 6 January 2007

Report links lawyer’s religion to FBI’s zeal

Posted on by Bob Pitt

FBI fingerprint examiners were reluctant to admit that they had mistakenly linked an Oregon lawyer to the 2004 Madrid train bombings in part because he was a Muslim convert and had represented a terrorism defendant in court, according to a report released yesterday by the Justice Department’s inspector general.

The 20-page summary report by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said that Brandon Mayfield’s religion “was not the sole or primary cause” of the FBI Laboratory’s mistaken identification of him, but it contributed to the bureau’s reluctance to reexamine conclusions in the case. Several FBI and Justice Department officials acknowledged that “Mayfield’s religion was a factor in the investigation,” the report said, in part because officials expected that any suspect in the bombings was likely to be Muslim.

Washington Post, 7 January 2006

No foreign finance for Italian mosques

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Giuliano AmatoROME: Italy’s interior minister said the threat of terrorism remains a reality in Italy, and vowed to take a close look at who is financing Italy’s many mosques and who is teaching at Islamic schools.

Giuliano Amato proposed following France’s example of creating a foundation to manage money destined for religious groups, in remarks published Friday in Italy’s leading dailies and confirmed by his office.

“The spread of mosques in Italy that are built with money from foreign states is unacceptable,” Amato told Italian reporters. “There’s something about that that I don’t like. I want to know who is financing what in my country.”

Last year, France created a new foundation to handle financing for France’s Muslim community, for building and renovating mosques and other projects. The foundation has representatives on the board and allows France’s government to play a role in the issue, without breaking its 1905 rule that forbids the government from financing religions.

“The idea is to at least have foundations so we can have some transparency,” said Amato’s spokesman, Fabrizio Forquet. In Italy “mosques are set up by whomever and are financed by such foreign countries as Saudi Arabia,” Forquet added. “So what are these mosques? Are they a religious site or centers for propaganda?”

Hamza Roberto Piccardo, secretary of the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy, an umbrella group for Italy’s Muslims that has a reputation for radicalism, dismissed the idea.

“Free church in a free country, that’s all I’m going to say,” Piccardo said. “The constitution says religious communities set themselves up according to their own statutes, and a secular state only needs to worry that everything is done legally.”

Associated Press, 5 January 2007

See also “Italy to monitor mosque funding”, BBC News, 5 January 2007

FBI: we saw shock Guantánamo abuse

Posted on by Bob Pitt

guantanamo-bayFBI agents have blown the whistle on sickening abuse of prisoners at the notorious Guantánamo Bay camp in Cuba.

A dossier compiled by agency bosses on guards’ conduct has been released in full for the first time. It tells how prisoners suspected of being al-Qaeda sympathisers and held without charge were subjected to horrifying physical and psychological torture.

Some guards allegedly dressed as priests to “baptise” Muslim prisoners. A detainee was subjected to a degrading lap dance by a topless female guard and others had their prayers interrupted by guards splashing fluid on their faces and telling them it was menstrual blood.

An inmate was badly beaten after revealing he had recently had abdominal surgery. And several were placed in unheated, darkened cells and interrogated for 24 hours non-stop. One FBI witness reported being told that then US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld had approved this technique.

Glasgow Daily Record, 4 January 2007

The Pentagon plans no action as a result of a newly released FBI report on detainee abuse at the Guantánamo Bay military prison, a spokesman said Wednesday, asserting there is nothing new in the report.

Associated Press, 3 January 2007