An MP has called the wearing of burkas the religious equivalent of “going round with a paper bag over your head”.
In a parliamentary debate, Conservative MP Philip Hollobone said it was “offensive” for women to cut off face-to-face contact with other people. The Kettering MP said he had “huge sympathy” with those who wanted a ban on face-covering veils in public.
The Cambridge University Israel Society has cancelled a meeting at which the Israeli historian Benny Morris was to speak, after objections by the Islamic Society and others who drew attention to Morris’s record of anti-Muslim statements.
See the Facebook page “Cambridge protests Islamophobia on campus“.
The National Secular Society (NSC) has warned that Britain is “in a race” with France to see who can be the first country to formally incorporate Sharia law into their legal systems.
Although the NSC [sic] did not point out that this headlong flight into Sharia law is caused directly by mass Third World immigration, it did warn that Britain is “rushing into law a set of new regulations that will make the operation of sharia finance easier and facilitate the issuance of corporate sukuk.”
Sukuk are a broad class of financial instruments designed to replicate the economic function of bonds, but with a structure which complies with Islamic principles. The Treasury has laid before Parliament the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, Order 2010 that will clarify the regulatory treatment of corporate sukuk, reducing the legal costs for these types of investments and removing “unnecessary obstacles” to their issuance.
The British National Party is the only political party which has consistently pointed out that if a people are replaced though mass immigration, then the culture which those people created will also be replaced. The spread of Sharia law into the financial sector is only the beginning of this process. Left unchecked, Muslim numbers will soon reach the position where they will be able to demand – and get – full Sharia law implemented in Britain.
BNP news report, 31 January 2010
See also “Sharia makes its first incursion into British law”, NSS website, 29 January 2010
Taking advantage of another eccentric ruling by Mr Justice Eady, the Mail returns to its witch-hunt of Azad Ali.
The British people support some restrictions on wearing the burka in public but oppose an outright ban, according to a new poll for The Independent. The ComRes survey found that almost two out of three people believe it should be illegal to wear a burka in places such as banks and airports. But six out of 10 people oppose a ban on wearing it in all public places.
The ComRes survey of more than 1,000 people found that 52 per cent disagreed with the proposition that there should be no legal restrictions on wearing a burka, while 43 per cent agreed. But asked if it should be illegal to wear a burka in any public place, 36 per cent agreed and 59 per cent disagreed.
Some 64 per cent of people believed it should be illegal to wear a burka in places like banks and airports, while 33 per cent disagreed. By a similar margin (61 to 35 per cent), people thought schools should be allowed to prevent teachers wearing burkas if they wish.
The most striking variation of opinion among different groups of people was by age. Only 15 per cent of 18-24 year-olds believed that wearing the burka should be banned in any public place, compared to 57 per cent of those 65 and older. Women were more opposed to restrictions than men. The South east region, including London, was the most liberal, and northern England the least. The AB social group was the most liberal, with C2 skilled manual workers and the bottom DE group the least.
Full poll here.
These results are more positive that the recent Angus Reid poll which found that 72% of respondents favoured an outright ban on the burka in public places and 66% a ban on the niqab. And the strong support for religious freedom among young people (61% of 18-24 year-olds agreed that “there should be no legal restrictions on wearing a burkha”) is a hopeful sign.
Update: See also ENGAGE, 2 February 2010
David Cameron was last night challenged to deselect a Welsh Conservative MP who linked the case of a teenage Muslim rapist to “barbaric and medieval” views towards women “imported into this country”.
Monmouth MP David Davies made his controversial comments during a radio interview while discussing the case of Bilal Khan, 13, who was jailed for three years for raping a 20-year-old woman in a park at Stoke-on-Trent.
He said: “I think there is a wider question here. What is it about this young man’s upbringing, what about his community or his parental upbringing, that led him to think that women are second-class people whose rights can be trampled over like this?
“That is a very interesting question, and there are some sensitive issues here but there do seem to be some people in some communities who don’t respect women’s rights at all and who, I may say, without necessarily saying this is the case on this occasion, who have imported into this country barbaric and medieval views about women, and that is something that also needs to be addressed.”
Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said: “David Davies should be ashamed of himself. His was a knee-jerk reaction based on ignorance. Rather than concentrating on the facts of a shocking case, he chose to malign entire communities in a wholly unfair and divisive way.”
Naz Malik, chief executive of Awema, the All Wales Ethnic Minority Association, said: “By linking in this instance the rape case to undefined migrant communities, David Davies displays the thought processes of a racial bigot. I think it is time David Cameron reassured Britain’s ethnic minority communities by sending a very strong message to him that his remarks are wholly unacceptable. That could be achieved by deselecting him as a Conservative candidate in the coming general election.”
Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, a group representing young Muslims, said: “We in our communities find what Bilal Khan has done evil and totally unacceptable in Islam and for Mr Davies to suggest that somehow these rapist attitudes are engrained in some parts of [black and minority ethnic] communities is deeply offensive and of no substance.”
Plaid Cymru AM Leanne Wood said: “These comments not only display a crass ignorance of different cultures, but are highly inflammatory. To suggest that ‘backward, medieval and barbaric’ views towards women are being ‘imported’ into the UK is dangerous and irresponsible. Discriminatory attitudes towards women have to be tackled in all communities, regardless of race or religion. For David Davies to claim otherwise, suggests he is either very ill-informed or trying to court the anti-immigration brigade.”
A rise in the number of hate crimes against Muslims in London is being encouraged by mainstream politicians and sections of the media, a study written by a former Scotland Yard counter-terrorism officer, published yesterday, says. Attacks ranging from death threats and murder to persistent low-level assaults, such as spitting and name-calling, are in part whipped up by extremists and sections of mainstream society, the study says.
The document – from the University of Exeter’s European Muslim research centre – was written by Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer and former special branch detective Dr Robert Lambert.
“The report provides prima facie and empirical evidence to demonstrate that assailants of Muslims are invariably motivated by a negative view of Muslims they have acquired from either mainstream or extremist nationalist reports or commentaries in the media,” it says. “Islamophobic, negative and unwarranted portrayals of Muslim London as Londonistan and Muslim Londoners as terrorists, sympathisers and subversives in sections of the media appear to provide the motivation for a significant number of anti-Muslim hate crimes.”
In his foreword, the rightwing journalist Peter Oborne writes: “The constant assault on Muslims from certain politicians, and above all in the mainstream media, has created an atmosphere where hate crimes, ranging from casual abuse to arson and even murder, are bound to occur and are even in a sense encouraged by mainstream society.”
The report is based on interviews with witnesses to and victims of hate crimes, as well as police officers and former members of extremist organisations such as the British National Party. It says: “An experienced BNP activist in London explains that he believes that most BNP supporters simply followed the lead set by their favourite tabloid commentators that they read every day. When these commentators singled out Muslims as threats to security and social cohesion, he says that it was perfectly natural for BNP supporters to adopt the same thinking.”
The report says the extreme right are directing their violence more against Muslims than black or Asian Britons. “Interviewees with long experience of extremist nationalist street violence in London are unequivocal in their assessment that Muslim Londoners are now a prime target for serious violence and intimidation in the way that Londoners from minority ethnic communities once were,” it says.
The study focuses on anti-Muslim violence in London, with its authors saying they will produce one covering the whole of the UK by this summer.
The report, Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate-Crimes: a London Case Study, is available online from the European Muslim Research Centre website.
Update: See Jonathan Githens-Mazer and Robert Lambert, “Muslims in the UK: beyond the hype”, Comment is Free, 28 January 2010
Objectors to Camberley’s mosque have a final chance to sway a planning decision that apparently allowed the controversial plans to go ahead.
Surrey Heath Borough Council apologised for the “confusion” on Tuesday, but pointed out that the mosque plan had not yet been agreed and would need a second hearing before a decision could be reached.
The announcement will come as a major embarrassment for the council after it appeared to many people at Monday’s planning meeting that the mosque plans had already been formally agreed.
The apparent decision to allow the mosque to be built, against the recommendation of Surrey Heath’s planning experts, led to a massive public outcry from people opposing it, many of whom had assumed the plans would be blocked.
See also BBC Surrey, 28 January 2010
For an example of objections to the new mosque see the Facebook page “Say NO to mosque in Camberley!!!“
There is growing disenchantment at the government’s “lacklustre response” to rising anti-Islamic hostility, the Muslim Council of Britain has said.
The council wrote to the home secretary on the “growing problem” after a march by the English Defence League (EDL).
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), said there was a “growing disenchantment at the lacklustre response from our political leaders to speak out against anti-Muslim hatred” among many British Muslim communities.
His letter said: “Whether this exists in explicit form through the actions of far-right groups, or implicitly with hysterical headlines in our media, the policy response to any of these has been far from satisfactory. We ask you to take leadership in this matter, especially in a year where divisive elements may well flourish in the run-up to the next general election.”
The MCB accused political leaders of staying silent on the issue and said they had “ridden the wave of this disturbing trend” but failed to challenge hostility.
It hosted a meeting of Muslim groups at the weekend to discuss what it called “the growing trend of anti-Muslim hatred and violence”.
See also MCB press release, 26 January 2010
Double-decker buses started arriving at Wetherspoons in Hanley city centre shortly after noon. The passengers shouted “England, England, England” and “EDL, EDL, EDL”. Two were arrested within seconds of them getting off the bus. “I’m English ’til I die, English ’til I die,” was the next song, one of many chanted by the protesters throughout the afternoon.
Although many had travelled from the other side of the country, the Potteries was well represented. Adam Daniels, aged 23, from Tunstall, said: “We want equal opportunities. They seem to get housing before us.” Daniel Lucas, aged 28, from Ball Green, said: “The door should be shut to this country because it is full. We are a minority in our own community.”
Forty-two-year-old John Sanders, an HGV driver who travelled from Bristol, said: “I am here because Islam is taking over the country.” Former Stoke-on-Trent city councillor Jenny Holdcroft, aged 60, from Biddulph, said: “People have to come out and be strong and stand together because if not, we are going to lose this country.”
Several people hurled bottles and other missiles towards police. Some men jumped on the top of a bus stop outside Argos while two youths could be seen showing off with a police helmet on the top of the arcade roof. There was another surge towards the officers when they went to arrest those youths.
Lines of police stopped the mob walking down Percy Street and into the city centre. Thugs tried to tip over a yellow police van, brought in from Warwickshire, and one hooligan jumped on the bonnet and repeatedly kicked the windscreen until it smashed.
Paul Walker, spokesman for EDL Stoke-on-Trent, said he was upset by the trouble. He said: “EDL members have been antagonised by the police. We are not racist, not bigots, not Nazis, we are shocked how we have been portrayed.”
See also Lancaster Unity, which reports:
“EDL say they support British laws and that they’re not racist or connected to the BNP, but after the EDL demo in Stoke on 23 Jan 2010, EDL supporters ‘dispersed’ into side-streets to break windows and attack cars owned by Stoke residents. EDL co-founder and convicted knife criminal Jeff Marsh filmed the police ID-ing him by name (0:02 ‘Jeff Marsh, turn round and go back’) and then filmed EDL supporters chanting ‘BNP, BNP, BNP’ (0:26). Police then chased the EDL into a nearby park where EDL accused police officers of being ‘Paki loving bastards’ (0:35), ‘Fucking cunts’, and one officer of being a ‘wanker’ and ‘Fucking paki lover’.”