Category Archives: UK

Finsbury Park mosque calls on Khalid Mahmood to retract slanders

Posted on by Bob Pitt

North London Central Mosque

Press Release

Khalid Mahmood’s False Claims Increase Risk of Islamophobic Attacks on North London Central Mosque

We wish to put the record straight following false claims made by Khalid Mahmood MP for Birmingham Perry Bar, a former trustee of North London Central Mosque (NLCM). Until this week we intended to remain silent in the face of his provocative and ill-informed statements in the media but now we must speak out to defend the good name of our mosque, our community and our partners in Islington – Jeremy Corbyn, our MP, politicians and officials, police officers and faith and community leaders.

Equally, important, we must highlight the increased risk of Islamophobic attacks that we now face as a result of Khalid’s Mahmood’s false claims and the climate of anti-Muslim sentiment he is helping to stir up against NLCM.

Continue reading →

Leicester: Muslim women who wear veils suffer rise in hostility and abuse

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim women who wear face veils say they are seeing a rising tide of hostility and abuse because of the way they dress. Women spoke out as police reported a sharp rise in crimes, ranging from verbal abuse to physical attacks, against Muslims in the past year.

Two women who wear the niqab, a veil which leaves only the eyes showing, said Leicester had become more “hostile” since the French Government said it planned to ban the garment and the burka, which covers the entire body.

The women also believe publicity surrounding Conservative MP Philip Hollobone’s decision to refuse to meet constituents wearing veils had deepened public hostility.

Mr Hollobone, an MP in Northamptonshire, also attempted to introduce a private member’s bill in the House of Commons to pave the way for a law similar to that being considered in France.

One of the women, a 29-year-old from Leicester’s Clarendon Park, said: “There is a more hostile than usual atmosphere at the moment. I have been called names like ”Taliban” and ”terrorist” and one man, who was drunk in the middle of the day, told me to go back to where I came from.

“I just want to live my life in accordance with my faith, I don’t see what harm I am doing by wearing the niqab.

“People talk about women who wear these garments being outside of society in some way. I was born and brought up in this country and don’t want to live anywhere else. I have been to university and I have a well-paid job, I live by the law and I love my family. How am I not taking part in society?”

Another woman, aged 32, from Evington, Leicester, said: “Women are saying that they feel intimidated by some of the comments they hear in the media or in the street. There seems to be this feeling now that women who choose to dress this way are some kind of threat to the British way of life.”

Police in Leicester have seen the number of cases of Muslims being verbally abused or physically assaulted rise in the past year. Between April 2008 and March 2009, officers in the city recorded 25 offences. In the following 12 months, it rose to 42.

Continue reading →

Civitas claims that CPS discriminates in favour of Muslims against ‘White Christian Britons’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

New InquisitionWhite Christian Britons are being unfairly targeted compared with minority groups for committing hate crimes, a new report says.

The study from think-tank Civitas argues that new hate crime legislation is restricting freedom of speech, and has effectively introduced a new blasphemy law into Britain by the back door.

A foreword attached to the main report, “A New Inquisition: religious persecution in Britain today”, argues that prosecutors and police are unfairly singling out alleged crimes by white Christians, while ignoring other similar offences by minority groups.

It claims “there is evidence of biased application of the law”, citing the case of a Muslim man who sprayed the words “Islam will dominate the world – Osama is on his way” and “Kill Gordon Brown” on a war memorial in Burton-Upon-Trent. He was prosecuted for criminal damage – “that is neither a racially nor a religiously aggravated offence”.

The CPS had argued that “the defacing the memorial did not attach to any particular racial or religious group” despite the fact that the monument was “a Christian and British memorial, carrying Christian and British symbols. People who read the story found themselves thinking that, if a non-Muslim had defaced a Muslim building the system would have thrown the book at him”.

This compared with a Christian couple in Liverpool, Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang, who were prosecuted and then cleared last December of a religiously aggravated hate crime after a strongly worded discussion with a Muslim guest at their hotel about the relative merits of their respective religions.

Daily Telegraph, 19 July 2010

See also Civitas press release, 19 July 2010

Immigration minister opposes ban on veil – Toby Young not happy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Toby_YoungIn an interview with the Sunday Telegraph immigration minister Damian Green is quoted as saying:

“I stand personally on the feeling that telling people what they can and can’t wear, if they’re just walking down the street, is a rather un-British thing to do. We’re a tolerant and mutually respectful society.

“There are times, clearly, when you’ve got to be able to identify yourself, and people have got to be able to see your face, but I think it’s very unlikely and it would be undesirable for the British Parliament to try and pass a law dictating what people wore.

“I think very few women in France actually wear the burka. They [the French parliament] are doing it for demonstration effects.”

Elsewhere in the Telegraph, under the headline “By refusing to ban the burka, Damian Green is supporting the humiliation of millions of British women”, Toby Young informs his readers that “the burka is both a symbol and a source of the oppression of Muslim women”.

According to Young: “Few people can be in any doubt that Islam is a deeply misogynistic religion.” As for wearing the veil, according to Young “for most Muslim women it is not a free choice but something they’re forced to do by their fathers or brothers or husbands – and the consequences of disobeying can be a beating or worse”.

To which we can only respond: Few people can be in any doubt that Toby Young is a deeply ignorant bigot.

Continue reading →

‘Hate Sheikh’ speaks at Blackburn mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Al-Sudais BlackburnThe imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah told the world not to be afraid of Islam and Muslims, adding that Islam represents a message of peace, goodness and tolerance. Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais made the announcement while delivering his Friday sermon at the Tauheedul Islam Mosque in Blackburn, Lancashire, UK.

In his sermon, Al-Sudais said: “Islam came to protect the interests of humanity, prevent evils and build bridges with all communities. It offers a great message of mercy and tolerance.”

Continue reading →

Posted in UK

Dudley: police continue to disperse EDL members

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police and EDL in DudleyPolice are still trying to disperse pocket groups of EDL members who are still in the town centre following today’s protests.

Trouble again flared following a seemingly calm protest of around 500 gathered English Defence League protesters, who converged on Stafford Street. At around 3.30pm, as the protest finished, some members flooded out of the car park and began a further stand off with police, as they began loading on to their coaches.

Despite EDL leaders promising today’s protest would be peaceful, a group of around a couple of hundred supporters tried to get down The Inhedge, as they tried to make their way into the town centre and the Unite Against Fascism counter protest.

Continue reading →

Hollobone says he will ban veil-wearing constituents from surgeries

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Philip HolloboneA Conservative MP says he will refuse to hold meetings with Muslim women wearing full Islamic dress at his constituency surgery unless they lift their face veil. Last night Muslim groups condemned Philip Hollobone and accused him of failing in his duty as an MP.

In an interview with The Independent, the Kettering MP said: “I would ask her to remove her veil. If she said: ‘No’, I would take the view that she could see my face, I could not see hers, I am not able to satisfy myself she is who she says she is. I would invite her to communicate with me in a different way, probably in the form of a letter.”

Independent, 17 July 2010