Category Archives: UK

‘Inspired by Muhammad’ campaign launched

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Inspired by Muhammad

CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED AS POLL REVEALS MOST BRITONS LINK ISLAM WITH VIOLENCE AND EXTREMISM

A new awareness campaign to improve public understanding of Islam and Muslims has been launched in London as an opinion poll shows widespread public concern at Islam’s impact on Britain today (Monday 7th June).

The campaign – “Inspired by Muhammad” – showcases how Muslims are inspired by their faith to contribute positively to British society. The public campaign focuses on women’s rights, social justice and the environment.

It was launched by TV presenter Kristiane Backer in a London cab decorated with the campaign’s logo, in front of Tower Bridge on the River Thames.

The high profile media campaign, commissioned by the Exploring Islam Foundation, will include adverts at bus stops, tube stations and on London’s iconic cabs. A new website www.inspiredbymuhammad.com has been launched to explain Islam’s ethical principles and core beliefs.

Alongside the launch, a YouGov national opinion poll commissioned by the EIF at the end of May 2010 has been published. It shows:

  • More than half the British population associate Islam with extremism (58%) and terrorism (50%)
  • Fewer than one in seven believe that it is a religion of peace (13%) and only one in 16 a religion of justice (6%).
  • Less than one in five Britons believe that Islam has a positive impact on British society (19%) with almost a third believing it is a violent religion (33%)
  • Two-thirds of people believe it encourages the repression of women (68%)
  • Only 16% of the British population believe that Islam promotes fairness and equality and just 6% believe it promotes active measures to protect the environment.
  • Most people get their information about Islam through the media such as newspapers (41%) and TV (57%) yet a third of people questioned they would be interested in finding out more about Islam (33%).

EIF is a charity established in 2009, to challenge popular stereotypes about Islam.

EIF press release, 7 June 2010

Inspired by Muhammad2

EDL outnumbered by anti-fascists in Cardiff

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UAF demonstration Cardiff

One of Wales’ biggest-ever police operations yesterday saw three events in the capital pass off without serious incident yesterday. The rival rallies between the UAF and EDL had the most potential for trouble but police said that, despite security fears, they had made just four arrests and were pleased with the way the day went.

Nearly 400 UAF supporters marched from Cardiff Bay’s Millennium Centre through Riverside and the city centre in protest at the EDL rally, and arrived at City Hall shortly before 1pm. Roughly 200 EDL activists were later bused in to a nearby rallying point at 2pm and verbal exchanges and scuffles broke out.

Former First Minister Rhodri Morgan, wife Julie, MP for Cardiff South and Penarth Alun Michael and MP for Caerphilly Wayne David joined the UAF march, holding banners and chanting with protesters.

Mr Michael said: “It has been a terrific turnout and a very strong and positive message about the nature of Cardiff as a multi-racial city which is determined to maintain harmony. The whole city is increasingly multi-racial and proud, and confident in it. It is a quiet, peaceful demonstration that has real authority – we don’t need conflict with the EDL, we just need to demonstrate Cardiff is not an environment in which they can flourish.”

Unemployed Jamie O’Brien, 30, left Newcastle at 3am to get to Cardiff to support the EDL. He said: “We want to keep the Muslim bombers off our streets – they are getting away with blue murder. We’re ultimately cast as racists by the UAF but they haven’t got a clue. I’m sick of seeing these Muslims – why do they want to change our country to suit them?”

Wales On Sunday, 6 June 2010

See also Unite Against Fascism, Welsh Icons and the Morning Star.

Anti-Islam website run by 16-year-old

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Carmarthenshire_Front

An extreme right-wing website calling for the closure of all mosques and warning of the threat to “the white man” is the work of a 16-year-old Welsh schoolboy, Wales on Sunday has learnt.

Website “The Carmarthenshire Front” – named after the far-right National Front – features videos of BNP leader Nick Griffin talking about the “Islamification” of Europe, and describes the dangers facing the “white man” from the “tsunami of immigration” coming into Britain.

But rather than a large-scale organisation, the website is written and run by a GCSE pupil at Queen Elizabeth High School in Carmarthen.

The website fights against mosques, saying: “Say NO, Vote NO, Mosques must GO!” It particularly attacks plans to build a mosque near the site of the 9/11 massacre in New York, saying: “This is the sickest thing I have ever heard, and it’s perhaps no surprise when we note that Obama is a Muslim himself, which I would say must go a long way to explaining why this evil plan has been passed.”

Wales on Sunday, 6 June 2010

‘We must unite to stop the war on Muslims’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Activists, journalists and trade unionists have urged communities nationwide to fight the “last socially acceptable form of racism” – Islamophobia.

At Saturday’s Stop Islamophobia conference, supported by an array of organisations including Stop the War Coalition, the British Muslim Initiative and Unite, speakers highlighted the relationship between daily attacks on Muslims promoted by mainstream politics and the media and the “war on terror.” Conference heard that paranoia over Islam and the “mushrooming” of the English Defence League “were no accident.”

Respect councillor Salma Yaqoob said Islamophobic attitudes were not just the preserve of far-right parties like the BNP and Ukip but were entrenched in mainstream political discourse. “It’s shocking that a country like Switzerland that we associate with being neutral and progressive is so paranoid that it is banning the building of any more mosques with minarets, even though there’s only four in the country,” she said.

Journalist Seumas Milne said the current situation where “white male politicians in Europe are dictating to women what to wear in the cause of freedom and liberal values” evoked British and French colonial history in north Africa. He said:

“They were trying to ban the hijab in the supposed cause of progress and freedom, but actually in the cause of empire and repression. In its modern incarnation Islamophobia is the direct result and ideological underpinning of modern imperial wars, of occupation and intervention.”

Morning Star, 7 June 2010

Richard Dawkins reproduces Pat Condell’s ‘Ground Zero mosque’ rant

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Here. In response to a request that the video be removed, Dawkins writes:

“I believe Pat Condell deserves a hearing. He may sound extreme, but that could just reflect the extremes he is fighting against. I don’t know the corresponding figures for America, but polls in Britain suggest that an alarmingly high percentage of young British Muslims support the terrorists of 9/11 and 7/7, and some 40% of Muslims want Sharia Law introduced into Britain. Disquietingly high percentages supported the death sentence against Salman Rushdie and the threats of violence against the Danish cartoonists. Even ‘moderate’ Muslim leaders support the principle that apostasy deserves the death penalty, even if they are too nice to carry out the sentence themselves. I think it is well arguable that Islam is the greatest man-made force for evil in the world today. Pat Condell is one of the few with the courage to say so.”

CST and BoD reject EDL’s ‘Jewish division’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL We Support IsraelThe English Defence League, the extreme right-wing anti-Islamic-fundamentalism group, has launched a “Jewish division”, encouraging members of the community to “lead the counter-Jihad fight in England”.

It has signed up hundreds of followers on Facebook since the launch last week. Supporters include an ex-Community Security Trust volunteer who claims “a lot of Jewish guys want to get stuck in”.

One follower wrote on Facebook “we are all Shayetet 13”, in support of the IDF naval special forces unit involved in the Gaza flotilla incident.

But Jewish community organisations responded to the initiative with shock, saying the EDL intimidated Muslim communities and claiming its support for Israel was “empty and duplicitous”.

The former CST member, Mark Israel, claimed Jews should back the EDL as an alternative to existing community groups. He said: “I’ve been involved with groups like CST and the 62 Group for 40 years. At first I thought the EDL was an off-shoot of the BNP but I have been investigating them. They are very pro-active, unlike the Board of Deputies. They are our allies. We have a common cause. These guys want to have dialogue with the Jewish community.

“I know a lot of Jewish guys who want to get stuck in and want to support a physical presence. It is not your typical thing people want to be associated with, but in this day and age we need something like this. Is the CST enough?”

The EDL mission statement says the new division is for “Jewish supporters of the EDL, and supporters of Jewish people everywhere. We are non-racist/fascist and anyone is welcome if they want to live under English values and fully integrate into our way of life”.

Last September the EDL brandished the Israeli flag at a demonstration and called on supporters to launch a counter-protest against a pro-Hizbollah march in Trafalgar Square.

Mark Gardner, CST communications director, said: “The EDL intimidate entire Muslim communities, causing tension and fear. Jews ought to remember that we have long experience of being on the receiving end of this kind of bigotry.”

Jon Benjamin, Board of Deputies chief executive, said: “The EDL’s supposed ‘support’ for Israel is empty and duplicitous. It is built on a foundation of Islamophobia and hatred which we reject entirely. Sadly, we know only too well what hatred for hatred’s sake can cause. The overwhelming majority will not be drawn in by this transparent attempt to manipulate a tense political conflict.”

Jewish Chronicle, 3 June 2010

EDL to hit Lincoln this summer?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A right-wing group, which claims to protest against militant Islam, is planning a Lincoln demonstration this summer, The Linc can reveal.

The English Defence League (EDL) wants to protest against plans to build a mosque in Boultham Park Road. The mosque was originally rejected by City of Lincoln Council on the grounds that it would cause traffic problems, but an appeal against the decision has been launched.

A spokesman for the EDL’s Lincoln Division says: “We will be protesting against the building of the mosque in Lincoln and using it as a platform to say no to all mosques in England. You may say that this is against all Muslims [by] saying no more mosques, but it’s not.

“The reason we don’t want mosques in our country is because many of them are funded by an..extremist group, Tablighi Jamaat, which means that they will have a say in what is taught in these mosques.”

They also insist that the EDL isn’t racist because “there is [sic] muslim members within the EDL…Do you think they would be supporting us if they felt we was [sic] racist or islamaphobic?”.

One member of Lincoln EDL’s Facebook group, writing under the name “Jem England Cook”, said: “Great that all the houses will be worth 50% less around Boultham if these rag heads get their way. Wasn’t it an old chapel they was [sic] turning into a paedo palace? Sums up this fucked up country when they are taking over our religious places. Keep them out of Lincoln full stop.”

The Linc, 4 June 2010

Muslim graves vandalised in Scunthorpe cemetery

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scunthorpe cemetery attackMuslim leaders have expressed their outrage and sadness after 11 graves in a North Lincolnshire cemetery were vandalised. The attack was the second in 21 months on Muslim graves in the Brumby Cemetery in Scunthorpe’s Cemetery Road.

The Deputy Mayor of North Lincolnshire, Councillor Mashook Ali, said: “We prayed this would never happen again – but it has.” Mr Ali said he felt the graves had been deliberately targeted as there are three sections of the cemetery designated for Muslims. “We want those responsible brought to justice,” he said. “The latest attacks have shocked the local Muslim community to the core. We shall be pressing for extra security measures on the site.”

Mr Ali said the community rented areas of the Brumby Cemetery as burial ground under a 99-year-old lease agreement with North Lincolnshire Council and more than 100 Muslims were buried there.

In August 2008, police were called in after 24 headstones, some of them on children’s graves, were attacked in two separate areas of the cemetery. No arrests were ever made.

Scunthorpe Telegraph, 3 June 2010

Posted in UK

The £3m CCTV cameras that spy on Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

When the cameras appeared above the rooftops in the Birmingham suburbs, some people realised they were mostly automatic number plate reading (ANPR) cameras, used to track drivers’ movements. Protesters sprayed the camera posts with messages such as “1984 Big Brother” and “You are now entering a police state.”

Those suspicious enough to ask what the cameras were for were given the impression they were part of a Home Office initiative to tackle vehicle crime on the Stratford Road corridor, an arterial route into the city.

For the vast majority of people on the bustling streets of Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook, two of the city’s predominantly Muslim areas, the cameras were inconspicuous, melting into pavements filled with fruit stalls and fabric shops.

But an investigation by the Guardian has established that the surveillance cameras are the first of a kind in the UK. While they may be used for ordinary crime fighting, they were put up to monitor extremists that the police and MI5 know to be living among the city’s Muslim population.

The cameras appeared at 81 sites without consultation, after being requested by West Midlands police counterterrorism unit more than two years ago. They include around 150 ANPR cameras, 40 of which have been classified as “covert”, and are thought to be concealed in walls and trees by the side of the road.

Guardian, 5 June 2010

See also Guardian, 4 June 2010

Stop Islamophobia conference tomorrow

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stop Islamophobia

Stop Islamophobia: Defend the Muslim Community

Conference, Saturday 5 June 9am to 1:30pm

Camden Centre London WC1H 9JE

Speakers include:

Daud Abdullah Muslim Council of Britain  • Mohammed AliIslam Channel  • Anas Al-Tikriti British Muslim Initiative  • Tre Azam ex of The Apprentice  • Moazzam Begg former Guantanamo Bay prisoner  • Lindsey German convenor Stop the War Coalition  • Muhammad Habibur-Rahman vice-president Islamic Forum of Europe  • Kate Hudson CND  • Imran Khansolicitor  • Dr Robert Lambert former head of Scotland Yard’s Muslim Contact Unit  • Seumas Milne journalist  • Peter Oborne journalist  • Salma Yaqoob Respect Party

Update

Because of the attacks on the aid flotilla to Gaza, there is now an emergency protest demonstration being held in London on 5th June. Stop the War and BMI are fully involved in organising this protest, given the outrage at the deaths of at least ten on the flotilla and the continued imprisonment of hundreds more.

We have therefore decided to continue with the conference until lunchtime, but then to curtail it and ask delegates to join the demonstration in the afternoon.

This means that conference registration will begin at 9.00 for a 9.30 start, the conference will continue until 1pm with a final session which talks about Islamophobia, the war on terror and how they are linked. We will then adjourn to Downing St to join the march to the Israeli embassy.