Category Archives: State Oppression

5 years on, US Muslims decry prejudice

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Five years after the terrorist 9/11 attacks, many American Muslims complain they continue to face discrimination and stereotyping because of their Islamic attires or identities, while others blame the problem on the misconception of Islam and urge fellow Muslims to work hard to reflect the right picture of their faith.

“The prejudice against Muslims is widespread since 9/11,” Dr. Siraj Islam Mufti, a retired faculty from the University of Arizona and a retired chaplain from the US Department of Justice told IslamOnline.net. “Some advocate profiling based on ethnicity, religion and even identification cards. As a result, there is an increase in a variety of hate crimes committed against Muslims,” added Mufti, now a Contractor to the Federal Correctional Institutions as Imam and a contract Imam with the Corrections Corporation of America in Arizona.

“I experienced some difficult moments of racial profiles,” insists hijab-clad Iman Hadi, remembering she faced her worst experience at the JFK airport in her way back from Egypt. “We were singled out and were detained for about 6 hours for no reason,” she complained. “They took us to a room where I found tens of Arabs and Muslims, even Egypt Air’s pilots were waiting there. They asked us several questions and treated us in a very aggressive way. And the officer was very rude and was trying to humiliate us.”

For Hadi, this was the moment when she felt stranger and unsafe in her own country where she lived for more than 20 years.

Islam Online, 12 September 2006

For Canadian Muslims, guilt by association

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“When Ahmed Farooq crosses the Canada-U.S. border, he isn’t surprised when he is singled out for questioning. He is, after all, a young, single, Muslim man born in Saudi Arabia who fits the racial profile of would-be terrorists. But the fourth-year medical resident at the University of Winnipeg never expected to be hauled off a United Airlines flight for praying. That’s what happened last month, after a fellow passenger complained that Dr. Farooq was trying to ‘control the aisles’ when he exchanged seats to pray next to a window.”

Globe & Mail, 8 September 2006

Minaret ban in Switzerland?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Projects to build minarets in several communities in German-speaking Switzerland have come up against strong opposition from local residents.

On Monday the Zurich cantonal parliament said it would look into banning the construction of minarets across the canton. The decision came after parliament accepted an initiative from the rightwing Swiss People’s Party calling for the canton’s planning laws to be altered to forbid minarets.

The move has been condemned by centre-left and centre-right parties as well as by a leading Muslim organisation in the canton.

The Swiss Federal Commission against Racism last week called for more tolerance towards Muslims. It called on local authorities to show greater flexibility over building and zoning restrictions to allow the construction of religious buildings and to “reduce populist pressures”.

Swissinfo, 5 September 2006

‘The State is saying that all Muslims are complicit in acts of terrorism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

imran khan with neville lawrenceImran Khan, lawyer for Stephen Lawrence’s family, speaks to the Independent Lawyer journal:

“The police and the Government are saying that all Muslims – and this generality is clear in some quarters – are all complicit in acts of terrorism either by not condemning or not revealing those who do it, or you’re planning it. In some way, you’re all complicit…. Senior government ministers simply don’t accept when I tell them what’s happening in Bradford, Leeds and elsewhere. When they talk about Muslims and terrorism, they don’t understand what impact that has. As one minister said, it is those communities committing those acts, so they’ve got to expect to be stopped and searched disproportionately. That sort of statement produces a self-defence mechanism. At meetings in Bradford, two or three hundred people are absolutely petrified. They don’t know what they can speak about, what they can publish, what sermons they can give at mosques. It gives comfort to white racists who want to attack them. I draw a parallel with Lawrence. Those who killed him did so in an environment where they knew they could get away with it. That’s what happening in the Muslim community.”

Times, 5 September 2006

‘This prejudice is forcing me to leave Britain’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Ever since the London bombings I have been more and more disquieted by the attitude of so many people towards the Asian community, in particular the Muslim section. The fact that there are few visible differences to most people between a Hindu, Sikh or Muslim has meant that everyone in this community is now suffering from increased, negative, racially motivated attention.

“Finally I have come to the conclusion that for most liberally minded British Asians like myself, the answer is to get out. I am weary of prolonged searches at airports, ferry ports and the like. My last encounter at the Eurostar terminal in Paris involved being asked: ‘What is the purpose of your visit to the UK?’ Bearing in mind that I have a UK passport which shows my place of birth as Glasgow, I was puzzled by this question.”

Nadeem Butt in the Independent, 1 September 2006

‘Muslims feel like victims. The West feels guilty. Is the world going mad?’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Gerard Baker supports racial/religious profiling as long as it is “carried out properly and indeed respectfully”. He continues:

“But to argue, as is now common, that it is another example of harassment of and discrimination against Muslims by an increasingly aggressive and hostile State and society, is not only a bit rich. It sounds disturbing like another example of what is becoming a dangerous pathology among many Muslims – to wallow in a self-imposed and eagerly embraced status of victimhood. This condition places the blame for every ill in their lives, in their communities, in the West and in the countries of the Middle East, on the imperialist oppression of the white man, the American and, of course, the Jew, never once stopping to consider even the possibility that their plight might be, in part at least, their own making….

“The failure of Palestinians to create an orderly and successful society is blamed on ‘the occupation’. The failure of many Muslims in Europe, especially in Britain, to integrate effectively is laid at the feet of a white racist society that excludes them…. Of course, this celebration of victimhood plays to the West’s deep sense of guilt, producing a fearful complementarity that makes today’s crisis so potent – a civilisation all too willing to accept the blame for the woes of a people all too willing to blame them.”

Times, 1 September 2006

Australian banned from contacting Bin Laden

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Australian magistrate has ridiculed as “farcical” a government order banning a terrorism suspect from contacting the world’s most wanted man, Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

Magistrate Graham Mowbray made the comment while hearing an application to extend an interim “control order” placed on Joseph “Jihad Jack” Thomas after his conviction on terrorism charges was overturned on appeal. The control order restricts Thomas’s movements, imposes a curfew and prohibits him from contacting a list of people – including Bin Laden.

Political commentators have also scorned the inclusion of Bin Laden on the list, suggesting the government should instead be delighted if Thomas could lead them to the man the US has been hunting for five years. Thomas’ lawyer Lex Lasry, said the list included 13 people who were either dead or in custody at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He described the situation as “ridiculous”.

The government used controversial new anti-terror laws for the first time on Monday to place the control order on Thomas after an appeal court overturned his conviction and five-year jail sentence for receiving money and an air ticket from Al-Qaeda.

A control order can be granted if it is thought it might prevent a terrorist attack, or if it is suspected a person has received training from a terrorist organisation.

AFP, 31 August 2006

Media and politicians incite Islamophobia in the West

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The banning of Muslim prayer from planes and the demands that Muslims should carry special IDs is showing the rapid rate at which Islamophobia is spreading in the Western world.

Islamophobia, quickly increasing following the Sept. 11 attacks has now reached dangerous levels. According to the Gallup Research company, 39 percent of American citizens believe that Muslims should carry a special ID card in society. The occurrence of two events after the revelation of these frightening poll results, however, increased anxiety about the issue.

A U.S. citizen and Muslim, Ahmed Faruk, was kicked out of a plane for praying in his seat. In another event, two passengers were prevented from boarding a flight bound for England from Spain after pressure from the other passengers. The other passengers complained that the two people were terrorists, basing their accusations only on their Middle Eastern appearance.

American specialists speaking to Zaman said that it was politicians and the media which were contributing to the rise of Islamophobia in the West. Joseph Grieboski, Institute on Religion and Public Policy Chairman, said: “The media does nothing to help demonstrate the positive impact of Islam in the U.S.” National Council of Churches (NCC) Chief Bob Edgar said there were two groups that were doing adding pressure on the Islamic religion: the U.S. Government and the Christian religious right. Edgar added “Unfortunately, our government spends more time with the far evangelical Christian right.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Research Center Director Mohamed Nimer emphasized that the U.S. Government did not acknowledge that Islamophobia was an epidemic and serious problem. Professor John Esposito of Georgetown University said there is a “strong and growing” Islamophobic minority in the U.S.

Zaman, 28 August 2006

London Mayor opposes racial profiling

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Racial profiling a recipe for alienation

By Ken Livingstone

Morning Star, 26 August 2006

The recent anti-terror raids and the subsequent charging of individuals for alleged terror offences has led to demands that Britain introduce profiling of passengers at airports.This would mean that some passengers would be targeted for much tighter checks at the airports.

But what this “profiling” really means is racial profiling.

It is important that anti-terrorism policing in London is intelligence-led and targets those engaged in terrorist activity. As Sir Ian Blair has repeatedly stressed, community support is essential to isolate terrorists and bring them to justice.

Racial profiling as increasingly advocated in some sections of the media is a totally opposite strategy. It alienates entire communities by making them potential suspects.hat would destroy the community confidence on which our defences against terrorism depend and fuel a sense of injustice amongst young people affected by it.It will also legitimise outbursts of racism which destroy good community relations.

If the media and some politicians are allowed to put whole communities under suspicion, then incidents like the passengers who demanded that two entirely innocent Asian men be removed their plane, or the family who were apparently turned away from the London Eye because they spoke Arabic, will become common.

If those kind of incidents are tolerated they will provoke precisely the breakdown in community relations which the terrorists and the extreme right want to see.