Dawkins’ comment, tweeted yesterday, is a belated response to this article published in the News Statesman last December.
Category Archives: UK
Brigitte Gabriel says Boston bombers are part of ‘an army of Islam’
News Hounds reports that Fox News host Neil Cavuto provided a platform for rabid Islamophobe Brigitte Gabriel of ACT! for America to whip up fear and hatred over the Boston bombings.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s wife Katherine Russell wore the hijab after converting to Islam
That’s the headline to a report in today’s Daily Telegraph, the consequence (and no doubt the intention) of which can only be to associate the hijab with terrorism.
This is during the same week in which it was reported that one headscarf-wearing Muslim woman in Bristol had been threatened with a knife, while another in Massachusetts was attacked by a man shouting “F*** You, F*** Muslims, You are terrorists”.
EDL organiser released without charge
The South West’s English Defence League coordinator has been released without charge by police investigating graffiti on a mosque and a Sikh temple.
Mickey Bayliss, 47, who lives near Bitton, was arrested on November 14 along with another man believed to have connections with the EDL.
Their arrests came after the letters “EDL” were daubed in red paint on the Sikh temple in Church Road, Redfield, and in grey paint on a mosque in Valley Road, Bedminster, in September.
After their arrests on suspicion of criminal damage, the homes of the two men were searched. But after months investigating the incident the two men were released from bail on Tuesday, police confirmed yesterday.
‘Terrorist scumbags’ graffiti on Cambridge mosque site
Anti-Islamic vandals have targeted the site of Cambridge’s planned new mosque. The graffiti artists daubed offensive messages on the hoardings of the Mill Road building site including “terrorist scumbags”. Police have launched an appeal for witnesses to the attack on the city’s Muslim community.
Planning permission was granted in August last year for Cambridge’s £17.5 million new mosque. The three-storey domed building will be built on the site of the former Robert Sayle warehouse. It will include a prayer hall with capacity for 1,000 people, a café and teaching rooms, plus a library, a mortuary, and a large public garden fronting the street.
‘Medieval’ coroner’s courts delay burials, claim Muslim families
Two Muslim families who claim they had to wait days to bury their loved ones have called for changes to a “medieval” coroner’s court system operating without an out-of-hours service.
Relatives of Joynal Kaji and Abdul Gafur, who both died suddenly at home, said they were stopped from meeting the traditions of the Islamic faith under which the dead are buried as soon as possible. Muslim families are normally expected to organise burials by the day after death at the latest.
The Kaji and Gafur families say delays caused by a lack of out-of-hours or bank holiday service at St Pancras Coroner’s Court meant both families were left in limbo for up to a week while post-mortems were completed.
Fascists claim they’re protesting against sexism
A protest date has been fixed by a new right-wing organisation over “sexist and offensive” signs at a Crayford mosque. Members of the English National Resistance (ENR) are angry the North West Kent Muslim Association’s mosque in Crayford High Street has separate entrances for men and women.
Knifeman ordered Bristol women to take off hijabs
A man racially abused a Muslim woman and demanded she took off her hijab before putting a kitchen knife to her throat. David Norris, 39, approached Farduja Jama who was with her eight-year-old son in Morton Street, Barton Hill at 9am.
Drunken Norris, who was brandishing a six-inch knife told her: “Take the hijab off. This is England, you are not allowed. Take the hijab off before I stab you.” He then pointed the blade at Miss Jama and put the blade to the left and right of her throat.
Later the same day Norris approached Iqbal Osman who was watching her four-year-old play in Barton Hill Urban Park. He asked her why she was wearing too many clothes and accused Muslims of “taking over” his country. He again brandished the knife before leaving.
Inquiry launched after Islamic group holds segregated lecture
T
hat’s the headline to a report in the Guardian. Essentially, it’s just a repeat of the nonsense that was published about the iERA debate at University College London last month, although this story concerns an iERA meeting at the University of Leicester.
To the credit of the authorities at that university, and in contrast to their counterparts at UCL, they appear to have taken a stand against this ignorant and bigoted witch-hunting. Contrary to the headline, Leicester University has launched no formal inquiry into the allegation that gender separation was enforced at the iERA meeting.
A university spokesperson is quoted as saying: “The University will not interfere with people’s right to choose where to sit. If some people choose to sit in a segregated manner because of their religious convictions then they are free to do so. By the same token, if people attending do not wish to sit in a segregated manner, they are free to do so.”
Muslim communities successfully integrating
Despite anxiety from the public and politicians, Muslim ethnic minority communities have been integrating into British and German cities for some time, according to research by Dr Sarah Hackett.
She compared the level of integration of the South Asian community in Newcastle-upon-Tyne with that of the Turkish community in Bremen from the 1960s onwards, looking specifically at employment, housing and education.
She found that employment and housing patterns have often led to cohesion, integration and multiculturalism within both cities’ neighbourhoods. According to the study’s findings, Muslim migrants in both cities have long been able to achieve their employment and housing ambitions – often in the form of running businesses, owning their own homes and forming neighbourhoods. Their success has often been the result of interaction and in-depth understanding of their local surroundings and the indigenous population.
“The debate on the integration of Muslims in Europe is marred by claims of incompatibility and conflict,” comments Dr Hackett. “Yet this research strongly suggests that Islam should not be seen as a barrier to integration, and that European anxiety regarding Muslim communities is greatly exaggerated. It shows that not only is integration possible, but that in Newcastle and Bremen it has been underway for some time.”