Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer says that racist attacks like that recently on Exeter Muslim woman Hayat Kaddouri Roddy are becoming all too common.
Category Archives: UK
Express attacks ‘Eurocrats’ for defending right to wear the veil
Europe backed the burkha yesterday by ruling that the controversial Muslim veils should not be banned.
MPs from 47 countries voted unanimously that outlawing the full-face veils would deny women “who genuinely and freely desire to do so” the right to cover their faces.
The Council of Europe’s resolution is not binding on members of the group, which includes all European countries except Belarus, as well as Turkey. But the vote by the human rights group threatens to torpedo bans planned in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain as it could open governments up to costly legal battles.
Last night the ruling was condemned as “out of touch”. UKIP leader Lord Pearson said: “This vote just highlights the disconnection between the appointed politicians of the Council of Europe and the peoples of Europe. They refused to represent the people’s wishes, preferring to hold them in contempt.”
Tory MP Philip Hollobone said: “It just goes to show how out of touch European politicians are with popular opinion. I have no doubt that the majority of the British public are against the wearing of the burkha and the full-face niqab veil.”
The Council of Europe also branded the Swiss bigots for their ban on the construction of Islamic minarets. Last year Switzerland banned the building of the minarets – towers used to call Muslims to prayer – after a nationwide referendum. Politicians claimed the minarets represent militant Islam.
See also ENGAGE, 24 June 2010
Lawyers condemn Zakir Naik ban
Lawyers representing an Indian Muslim preacher banned from entering the UK say the move was rushed and he was not given a proper chance to respond to it.
Majeed Memon, representing Mumbai-based television preacher Zakir Naik, described the move by the UK government as “barbaric and inhuman”. Mr Memon said the move was all the more extraordinary because Dr Naik was granted a five year UK visa in 2008.
The Islamic Research Foundation, based in Mumbai, India, said on Saturday that it was seeking a judicial review of the decision in the London High Court. Dr Naik said the move to exclude him was more of a political decision than a legal one.
His lawyers say that complimentary references he made in a speech about Osama Bin Laden were uttered in 1996 – and not 10 years later as detailed in the exclusion order made by the British government. Mr Memon said the comments were made before the 9/11 attacks and “should not be read into”. He accused the newly-elected British coalition government of making a “political decision to gain political mileage”.
Dr Naik – who is based in Mumbai (Bombay) and works for the Peace TV channel – is president of the Islamic Research Foundation. He has won support for his campaign against the exclusion order from Bollywood film maker Mahesh Bhatt, who praised him for “locking horns with the might of the British empire”.
Update: Zakir Naik has apparently been told that he will be refused entry to Canada, where he was due to speak at a conference in Toronto early next month. See the Toronto Star, 22 June 2010
Further update: See also “Muslim preachers, Zakir Naik & Bilal Phillips, denied entry into UK”, Muslim Matters, 23 June 2010
Respect Party councillors lodge complaints over spy cameras
Two Birmingham councillors have lodged official complaints with the Independent Police Complaints Commission claiming they were deliberately misled over a hugely controversial project to tackle terrorism.
Sparkbrook Respect Party councillors Mohammed Ishtiaq and Salma Yaqoob have written to the IPPC demanding action is taken against senior officers who they said told them the prime focus of a £3million project would be to prevent crime in Sparkbrook and Moseley and not to spy on Muslims.
Police and council leaders were last week forced to put bags over 216 CCTV and ANPR equipment, which were installed in April, after accepting they had failed to consult community leaders from the wards affected.
Coun Salma Yaqoob said: “The way they went about it was very misleading and makes us lose confidence and trust. This is the only way to bring to light what’s gone on.”
Mother and daughter left ‘heartbroken’ by vicious race assault
Racists launched a vicious attack on a Muslim woman who was struck on the head and almost had her headscarf torn off. They also hurled racial abuse at the mother and her young daughter as they walked through the city.
The shocking assault has been condemned by the city’s Muslim community, along with religious leaders across Exeter. Hayat Kaddouri Roddy, of Polsloe Road, Exeter, has spoken of the frightening attack in which she describes her attackers as “animals”.
The 37-year-old was with her 13-year-old daughter Huda when the assault happened in Edmund Street, in the St David’s area of Exeter, close to the subway, at around 12.30pm on Tuesday. Both were wearing hijab head-dresses, and Hayat also had on a traditional Muslim jilbab – a long dress.
Moroccan-born Hayat, who has lived in the UK for 17 years and in Exeter for several years, and her daughter were stopped by two teenagers, a boy and girl aged around 17 to 18, who refused to let them pass. They racially abused the woman before a man aged around 27 joined in the attack.
Police are investigating the incident and are appealing for witnesses to contact them.
Hayat said: “This couple stopped us and said they weren’t going to let us pass. They said ‘you don’t belong to this country’. I kept really calm and there was a man behind me and I told him the couple wouldn’t let me pass.
“I thought maybe he would be supportive and help but all of a sudden, he stopped next to me and hit me on the head and tried to pull off my headscarf. He didn’t manage to pull it off completely but he really pulled it hard. And he was saying nasty words to me.”
Via London Muslim
Bristol: two jailed over Panorama race abuse probe
Two men who racially abused two Asian reporters working undercover for a BBC Panorama programme have been jailed.
Sean Ganderton, 23, and Martin Durnell, 18, admitted racially-aggravated harassment during various incidents in Southmead, Bristol, last year. Bristol Crown Court was shown footage which revealed Ganderton verbally and physically abusing the men.
Sentencing them Judge Michael Roach said their behaviour was “cowardly and not to be tolerated”.
The programme featured the two undercover Asian reporters posing as a couple living in the Southmead area of Bristol. Tamanna Rahman and Amil Khan spent two months living on an estate to find out if racism was still an issue in 2009.
The programme was broadcast on BBC One in October 2009.
BNP activist cleared of inciting hatred against Muslims
A BNP activist from Lancashire who wrote and distributed leaflets which blamed Muslims collectively for the heroin trade has been cleared of intending to incite religious hatred. Anthony Bamber, 54, told a jury his intention was to create a debate about the “crime against humanity” that was the flow of the drug on to Britain’s streets.
London: thousands demonstrate against EDL in East End
Around 5,000 people marched through the East End of London today in a huge show of unity and defiance against racism and fascism.
The demonstration organised by UAF and United East End was orginally called as a counter-protest against the racist English Defence League, which has links with the British National Party and other fascist groups – but the racists abandoned their plans to come to Tower Hamlets as the scale of opposition to them became clear.
There was a great turnout on today’s antiracist demo anyway, with marchers determined to show that racism and fascism are not welcome in the East End. Large numbers of local young people were joined by trade unionists and people from every part of the area’s diverse population in an exuberant demonstration.
See also Socialist Worker, 20 June 2010
Update: Read Dave Hill’s take on the afternoon’s events at Dave Hill’s London Blog, 21 June 2010
Spying on British Muslims
This is an awful example of treating entire Muslim communities as suspicious and their democratic representatives as too unreliable to be trusted.
It stems from the same mentality that saw parts of the “Prevent” anti-extremism programme degenerate into police forces spying on Muslims’ political and religious views.
It is no accident that this has happened in Birmingham. Last year an Institute of Race Relations report revealed that Prevent work in Birmingham was being directly managed by a counterterrorism police officer.
Anwar Akhtar on the installation of spy cameras in Muslim neighbourhoods in Birmingham.
Legal challenge to ban on Zakir Naik
An Indian Muslim preacher banned by the home secretary from entering the UK for his “unacceptable behaviour” is to challenge the ruling in the courts.
Zakir Naik, a 44-year-old television preacher, had been due to give lectures in Sheffield on 25 June and Wembley Arena the following day. Mr Naik is based in Mumbai, where he works for the Peace TV channel. The Islamic Research Foundation said in a statement:
“It is deeply regrettable the British Government has bowed to pressure from sectarian and Islamophobic pressure groups by preventing the entry of Dr Zakir Naik, who has been visiting and delivering talks in the United Kingdom for the past 15 years.
“Dr Zakir Naik is undoubtedly an opponent of terrorism and as such has often spoken out against all acts of violence and violent extremism. He has emphatically and unequivocally condemned the killing of civilians and is one of the world’s regular noted orators on this topic.
“In the wake of the exclusion order and based on legal advice, Dr Zakir Naik intends to bring the matter before the High Court … and request a judicial review to have the exclusion order overturned.”
Meanwhile, the English Defence League are celebrating having secured “another victory by getting hate preacher Zakir Naik banned from entering Britain”. They have announced that they are calling off their Wembley demonstration on 26 June and holding it in Barking instead.