Category Archives: UK

School bus drivers ‘refusing to stop for young Muslim girls who are wearing the hijab’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

School bus drivers have been accused of racism after failing to stop for pupils wearing Muslim hijabs.

Young girls have claimed they are being bullied on board for dressing in the traditional veil which covers the head. To avoid trouble, “cowardly” drivers are allegedly ignoring pupils who wait at bus stops wearing the headscarf.

Following a police investigation, officers will now be drafted on to board the buses to protect the students from “racist” taunts of other passengers.

The problems centre on Merseytravel and pupils attending West Derby’s Holly Lodge Girls’ College in Merseyside, where 10 per cent of the 11,274 11 to 18-year-old students are from ethnic minorities.

Members of the Muslim community said the issue was a long-running one. Amina Ismail, who works at Liverpool John Moores University, was approached by the victims. She said: “They said people driving past were being abusive because they were wearing the hijab.”

Ms Ismail said bus drivers refusing to stop were “cowardly” and that “they should not push their own personal prejudices on young people”. She urged people to “see past the scarf or skin colour and look beyond this”.

Tower Hamlets Council leader replies to ‘hijab gates’ nonsense

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lutfur Rahman, leader of Tower Hamlets Council, replies to the Guardian‘s full-page scaremongering article, “Brick Lane plan for hijab gates angers residents“, in which bigoted residents were given a platform to claim, entirely inaccurately, that the proposed new arches in Brick Lane are “undoubtedly faith-specific to Islam” and “both Islamic and representing a specifically conservative form of Islam”.

He writes: “We would never go into this kind of programme with the blinkered intention of favouring one section of the community – which, judging by some of the Islamophobic reaction on your website, is clearly the impression left in the minds of many people reading your original article.”

Guardian, 26 February 2010

City University closes Muslim prayer room

Posted on by Bob Pitt

City University protest

Hundreds of Muslim students and staff have turned Northampton Square into a makeshift mosque after university bosses padlocked their prayer room.

For the past week, Muslims at City University in Finsbury have endured the wind, rain and snow to pray three times a day on the pavement.

And at Friday lunchtime, up to 350 students and staff turned out for the weekly congregational prayer. Shafiq Mundiya, 26, a technical support officer, said: “We need a place to pray and we have been praying outside to tell people that we are upset and that we want our prayer room back. The prayer room was constantly being used by staff and students. The fact that the university closed it is quite devastating.”

For 10-plus years, the university’s Muslims have performed several of their five daily prayers in the basement of the Gloucester Building in Whiskin Street, Finsbury. Students say it was used by about 100 people a day, and up to 450 on Friday lunchtimes. But City University decided it was not safe to keep it open after four Muslim students were stabbed in St John Street by racist thugs in November. The 23-year-old undergraduate said: “We have had no problems with that gang since. They have even approached one of us, apologised and said it was a misunderstanding.”

Last Monday, the Gloucester Building prayer room was padlocked and Muslim students were directed to a new multi-faith room nearer the centre of the university. But campaigners say they cannot use a room that is also for the worship of other deities and that it only has space for 40 men and 40 women.

Islington Gazette, 24 February 2010

Did the ‘war on terror’ damage Muslims’ support for Labour?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Iraq war protest placards

Yesterday’s Comment is Free featured a piece by Nick Spencer on “Muslim voters’ loyalty to Labour” which made the following bizarre claim:

“The Iraq war was supposed to have poisoned Labour’s relations with British Muslims. Tony Blair’s apparently unqualified support for a bellicose Republican administration despised around the Muslim world was deeply unpalatable. Years of anti-terror legislation were judged by some to have stigmatised Muslims and fanned Islamophobic flames. The government’s attempt to outlaw religious hate speech was seen, by sceptics at least, as simply a desperate, ill-thought through peace offering with which they might woo disaffected Muslim supporters.

“According to new Theos/ComRes research, however, no wooing is necessary. If there were a general election tomorrow, 35% of voting Muslims (meaning those Muslims who claim they are more likely than not to vote) would vote Labour.”

Spencer does not provide earlier figures that would allow us to determine whether Muslims’ support for Labour has risen or fallen. He would have been advised to consult a Guardian/ICM poll from November 2004 which showed a dramatic decline in the number of Muslims who said they would vote Labour compared with the period before the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The Guardian reported at the time:

“The Guardian/ICM poll confirms that political support for Labour has halved since the 2001 general election and the Liberal Democrats have emerged as the leading political party within the Muslim community.

“The role of Britain in the Iraq war and Tony Blair’s strong support for the war on terror which is widely seen by the Muslim community to be an attack on Islam, has undoubtedly played a part in eroding Labour’s support among British Muslims. In the 2001 general election it is believed that 75% of those who voted backed Labour.

“The voting intention figures in this poll show that support in the Muslim community for the government is slipping away fast. In March, ICM recorded Labour support at 38% and it has now fallen a further six points to 32% of Muslim voters.”

And now the Theos/ComRes poll shows that 35% of Muslims would vote Labour. What that statistic quite clearly demonstrates is that Labour has failed to win back most of those Muslim voters who abandoned it in response to the government’s support for the “war on terror”.

A parliamentary inquiry into Islamophobia is needed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Osama Saeed, SNP parliamentary candidate for Glasgow Central makes the following commitment:

“I will … if elected this year, work across the House of Commons to establish an all-party inquiry into Islamophobia. We have precedent in this from the similar committee looking into anti-semitism which examined the causes and made recommendations on the way forward. Rigourous investigation needs to be brought to the phenomenon of Islamophobia to stop the hate spiralling further in the tough years to come.”

Rolled Up Trousers, 19 February 2010

‘Gigantic mosque’ poses threat to Sandhurst cadets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Generals are trying to block plans to build a mosque with two 100ft minarets next to Sandhurst. The £3million building would have a clear view over the military academy and is just 400 yards from its parade ground.

Senior officers oppose the project saying it could pose a security threat to cadets. Yesterday an Army source said: ‘This has gone right to the top of the chain of command. There is very real concern that if this thing gets built then soldiers could be put at risk. It is outrageous to even think that the officers of the future would have to watch their backs while they are still in training.”

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Scottish Defence League flop in Edinburgh

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SDL Edinburgh2The Royal Mile was closed yesterday by a huge police operation to prevent a violent confrontation between the far-right Scottish Defence League and anti-fascist protestors.

Hundreds of police took to the streets of Edinburgh amid concerns that large numbers of SDL supporters would converge on the city at the same time as a rally by Scotland United, a loose coalition of politicians, Christian and Islamic faith groups, and trade unionists.

But only about 40 supporters of the SDL turned up, and they found themselves corralled into a pub at the bottom of the Royal Mile for several hours. There were five arrests for public order offences but the Scotland United rally, attended by about 2,000 people, passed off peacefully in Princes Street Gardens, about half a mile away.

The SDL members congregated in Jenny Ha’s opposite the Scottish Parliament at about 11am yesterday, forcing police to erect two cordons on the Royal Mile, separating them from members of the Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliance.

While the majority of those in attendance – among them teenagers and women – said they refused to speak to the press for fear of being misquoted, others said they expected a considerable turnout from SDL supporters. “There’s people up from Leeds, Stockport, Wolverhampton, London, all over. We’re getting 3,000 bodies here,” said a member of the English Defence League. We’re coming in from everywhere – Spain, Gilbraltar, Bulgaria.”

The group unfurled banners with slogans such as “Say no to fundamentalist Muslims” and sporadically raised chants, including “We want our country back” and “Muslim bombers off our streets”. Despite attempts to break through the police cordon, they were contained in the pub, until two double-decker buses took them out of the city centre at about 4pm.

At the formal Scotland United rally, which included a march from Princes Street Gardens to the Meadows, speakers said the SDL had failed to gain support, but warned against complacency. Justice secretary Kenny MacAskill said: “Today is about making a stand against those who would seek to divide and saying to them that their views are not welcome.”

Osama Saeed, of the Scottish Islamic Foundation and an SNP candidate for Glasgow Central, said it was a “further humiliation” for the SDL. “They only got ten minutes in the rain last November in Glasgow. They didn’t even get that today.”

Scotland on Sunday, 21 February 2010

Update:  The EDL reports that its “leadership team” were arrested on their way to the Edinburgh demonstration and their homes have been raided by the police. As a result, the planned EDL demonstration in Bradford on 30 May has been cancelled.

Further update:  See Richard Bartholomew’s coverage of the EDL arrests at Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, 22 February 2010

Hundreds join Facebook protest against Valleys anti-Muslim march

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Facebook page against Rhondda March

More than 700 people have joined a Facebook group to oppose a proposed anti-Muslim march through the Rhondda, which five men have been arrested and bailed in connection with.

“We Say No To The Planned Rhondda Valleys Racist March” is described on Facebook as “a group for intelligent, informed, peace-loving residents of the Rhondda Valleys, who are opposed to the planned anti-Muslim march from Treherbert to Pontypridd on February 28”.

Police arrested five men for religiously aggravated public order offences two weeks ago, after Wales MEP Jill Evans alerted them to some of the comments being made on the social networking site in relation to the Rhondda March, a group set up to organise a protest in favour of moving Muslim people out of Wales.

Teacher Kelly Robson, who formerly taught French at Porth County Comprehensive School, explained that she decided to set up the opposition group after reading about the Rhondda March on the Rhondda Leader page of WalesOnline website.

The former Treorchy Comprehensive School student said: “I was disgusted by the kind of comments that had been posted on the original Facebook group. I know a lot of people who live in the Valleys and I know the majority of them don’t share these views. So I decided to set up this group so that these people could make their views heard as well.”

Within three days of setting up the group, the 33-year-old received positive messages from anti-racism groups from as far away as Canada, as well as backing from hundreds of supporters, such as Rhondda AM Leighton Andrews and South Wales Central AM Leanne Wood.

“The first group had 150 members but hundreds more people joined this group within a week, which just goes to show how strongly people feel about this,” she said.

Some members of the opposition group have suggested marching on February 28, which was the intended day of the original march. But Mrs Robson has stressed that if anyone decides to organise a protest it should be peaceful.

“I set up this group as a peaceful outlet for residents of the Rhondda Valleys who wish to declare their opposition to an anti-Muslim march,” she said. “I do not wish to antagonise the situation.”

Police have confirmed that they do not believe the Rhondda March will take place but will be monitoring the situation.

The five arrested men have been bailed pending further inquiries until February 28.

No one from the Rhondda March would comment when contacted by the Leader.

Wales Online, 18 February 2010

Peace protestor hits out at BNP

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Luton PatriotA Luton peace protestor has called for a ban on British National Party propaganda being posted through residents’ doors.

Peter Wakeham, from Luton for Peace with Justice, has called for BNP campaign material to be stopped after leaflets were put through the door of his Bushmead home by the postman on Monday.

Mr Wakeham said: “One leaflet is pure racial hatred against Muslim people and I’m sure contravenes the current anti-hatred laws. I wish to take this matter further to find out if indeed the police consider this kind of material racial hatred and that the local BNP can be prosecuted. I’m not a Muslim, but I find the attached leaflet revolting and offensive.”

He said: “Not that many years ago this kind of filth would not have been allowed to be posted to people’s homes.”

Luton Today, 18 February 2010