Category Archives: State Oppression

Intolerant ban dressed up as secular ruling

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Intolerant ban dressed up as secular ruling

By Yasmin Qureshi

Morning Star, 23 March 2005

It has now been just over one year since the introduction of a new law in France forbidding the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols in French state schools.

This law has been of considerable concern to London’s Asian communities in particular.

Sikh and Muslim groups in Britain asked the mayor of London to take the issue up and look into the impact on community relations across Europe of the so-called “headscarf ban.”

I visited Paris last week on the mayor’s behalf, meeting, among others, representatives of Muslim organisation le Collectif des Musulmans de France, as well as the French civil rights group the Ligue des droits de l’Homme and representatives of the Sikh community – including the two Sikh boys who have been excluded from their school as a direct result of the law .

There is a widely held view among those opposed to the ban that it came at a time when the French government needed to divert from the country’s economic problems.

As an attempt to divert attention from high unemployment and budget cuts it was very successful, tapping into long-held French secular political traditions.

The overwhelming focus of the debate about the new law – which is why it has become known as the “headscarf ban” – was the Muslim community.

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Federal court upholds Harkat’s detention

Posted on by Bob Pitt

OTTAWA — A Federal Court judge has upheld the use of a security certificate against Mohamed Harkat, who has been held in jail in Ottawa for more than two years after being accused of being a terrorist.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service says the Algerian-born man is a member of al-Qaeda who trained in Afghanistan, then entered Canada as a sleeper agent. Mohamed Harkat has been jailed for more than two years under a security certificate.

On Tuesday, Federal Court Justice Eleanor Dawson ruled that the grounds for the certificate are reasonable, opening the way to Harkat’s deportation to Algeria. She rejected Harkat’s constitutional argument that security certificates – which let authorities arrest and hold people they suspect of posing a threat to national security – violate fundamental justice.

CBC news report, 22 March 2005

Mayor of London condemns French hijab ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A basic right

Morning Star, 19 March 2005

By Ken Livingstone

This month marks the first anniversary of the French law banning students from wearing conspicuous religious symbols in schools.

I have given the fullest support to the campaign against this attack on the rights of minority religious communities in France.

In February last year, just before the French parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of the ban, I wrote to prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin warning that the new law would be a blow to good community relations throughout Europe, and would inflame tensions between communities and encourage attacks on minorities.

Earlier this month the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination drew attention to the problem of racism in France.

The committee urged the French government to prevent the law against conspicuous religious symbols “from denying any pupil the right to education and to ensure that everyone can always exercise that right”.

But this is precisely the right that the French law does deny many pupils.

According to the French government’s own figures, when the law came into force at the start of the September 2004 school term, over 600 students defied the ban.

Some were forced out of the state system and into private education, while many others were obliged to comply with the law under threat of expulsion.

At least 47 Muslim girls have been excluded from French schools for continuing to wear the hijab (Islamic headscarf), and hundreds more have been compelled to renounce a form of dress that they believe is an important aspect of their religion.

In addition, three Sikh students have been expelled for refusing to remove their turbans and another two have been refused admission to their school.

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Aljazeera relieved by Alluni’s release

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Aljazeera has said it is relieved at the decision by Spanish authorities to release its correspondent Taysir Alluni after a stretch of 119 days in solitary confinement. Aljazeera also thanked rights groups for support during the detention of their correspondent.

“Aljazeera takes this opportunity to extend its sincere appreciation to its viewers, regional and international human rights organisation, professional and civil societies and all those who supported Taysir, his family and Aljazeera,” the channel said in a statement.

Aljazeera’s correspondent Alluni had arrived at his Granada home, two days after a Spanish court ordered him moved from a maximum security cell to house arrest.

A frail and visibly fatigued Alluni emerged from a police van parked outside his Granada home at 3am (0200 GMT) after what he said was a gruelling five-hour journey from Madrid. “I was strapped into a metal chair for five hours,” he said.

While thanking his peers and the various organisations and individuals who laboured for his release, Alluni also criticised the Spanish government for his detention. “I no longer believe that the rule of law exists in this country (Spain),” he said.

“The trial will be highly politicised and a media affair. The prosecutor who ordered me re-jailed because he alleged I was a flight risk never presented any evidence to support his claim,” Alluni said.

Al-Jazeera, 18 March 2005

Mayor’s human rights adviser meets opponents of hijab ban in Paris

Posted on by Bob Pitt

On the first anniversary of the ban on the wearing of the Muslim headscarf in French schools, Yasmin Qureshi, the Mayor of London’s human rights adviser, is to visit Paris to meet opponents of the ban.

The visit follows a new poll conducted by MORI for the Greater London Authority which found that 53 percent of Londoners disagree with the ban with just 33 per cent supporting it.

In the same poll 63 percent said that children should be allowed to wear clothing or items that are part of their religion, such as the Muslim headscarf, Christian cross, Jewish skullcap and Sikh turban at school. Only 26 per cent disagreed.

Ms Qureshi will be in Paris to meet with faith, community, and human rights organisations as well as French local government representatives campaigning against the ban.  Among the groups she will be visiting are Collectif des Musulmans de France, United Sikhs and Ligue des Droits de l’Homme.

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Court orders 24-hour watch on Alluni

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Aljazeera has learned that a Spanish judge has ordered its correspondent Taysir Alluni released from jail and placed under mandatory house arrest pending his trial.

The release order was expected to be carried out late on Monday night or early on Tuesday, but has been set back after a series of delays.

Munzir al-Nimri, general-secretary of the International Committee for Defending Taysir Alluni, said Alluni had still not been released from prison due to procedural reasons and the need to complete more paperwork.

“The procedures involve accompanying Alluni, with his hands chained, by Spanish security guards and include signing an order that has not been signed yet. We are still awaiting completion of these procedures,” al-Nimri said.

Alluni will then be taken to his home in Granada where he was first arrested in September 2003.

Al-Jazeera, 15 March 2005

Protect Hijab vows to continue campaigning against the hijab ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“March 15th 2005 marks the first anniversary of the French Government’s decision to ban ‘religious symbols’. Since last year we have witnessed the oppression of an entire segment of the French society, namely, hundreds of Hijab wearing young Muslim women who have been forcibly excluded from schools by this draconian law. This open discrimination by France and other European countries is an unacceptable position for states that are party to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and makes a mockery of the French declaration of ‘Liberté, egalité, fraternité …’.”

Protect Hijab press release, 15 March 2005

Muslim miscarries in cell after grilling at airport

Posted on by Eddie Truman

A Muslim woman detained by officials at Glasgow Airport suffered a miscarriage in an immigration cell, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

Marina Miraj, a Canadian Afghan, collapsed in the airport detention room last month after being questioned for hours by immigration staff.

The woman, who is in her 30s and was three months pregnant, was rushed to Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital after being found by airport officials on the cell floor.

Miraj had flown into the UK from Toronto to make plans to settle in Glasgow with her husband. She claims the stress of the interrogation and detention contributed to the miscarriage and is now considering legal action.

She described the ordeal as: “the worst experience of my life.” She added: “I will never be able to forget how I lost my baby in a police cell.”

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Justice watchdog finds Muslim mistreatment

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The warden and guards at a federal prison discriminated and retaliated against Muslim inmates, the Justice Department’s inspector general said Friday in a report that also detailed allegations of mistreatment of Muslims at other US lockups.

In one instance at the unidentified federal prison, the warden “unjustly and inappropriately” ordered an inmate transferred to special housing similar to solitary confinement for more than four months, Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said. The move came five days after the inmate talked to Fine’s investigators.

Federal prosecutors declined to pursue criminal charges against the warden, and the incident was referred to the federal Bureau of Prisons, he said.

The treatment of Muslim prisoners was part of a semiannual report Fine produces about possible civil rights or civil liberties violations by the Justice Department.

The inspector general began one new investigation in the last half of 2004. It involves allegations that guards at another federal prison abused a Muslim inmate and allowed other inmates to assault him.

Fine also noted that the federal prison officials have yet to discipline anyone for the abuse more than a year after he documented the mistreatment of Arabs and Muslims detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

In addition, prison officials told the inspector general they discovered more videotapes of the detainees at the Brooklyn facility, as well as of meetings between detainees and their lawyers. Previously disclosed tapes helped confirm that guards slammed detainees against walls, twisted their arms and conducted unnecessary strip searches. The prisons bureau and Fine are investigating why the other tapes were not given to them sooner.

Muslim News, 12 March 2005

Austrian minister calls for banning hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Liese ProkopIn what some fear could be a curtain raiser for a major policy shift in a country considered somehow tolerant, Austrian Interior Minister Liese Prokop has called for banning hijab-clad Muslim women from teaching at schools.

“I consider now the legality of banning hijab in schools,” Prokop told the state-run Falter Magazine Tuesday, March 8. “But, anyhow, I will throw my weight about the ban.”

She argued that wearing the hijab in schools runs counter to the values of Austrian society.

“Muslim women suffer from oppression and their rights are down-trodden,” the minister claimed, urging for stopping what she called “forcible marriage” and “honor killing” spreading among Muslims.

Islam Online, 9 March 2005