The Independent asks five Muslim women about their views on hijab.
Category Archives: UK
Harry’s Place attempts to smear Ajmal Masroor
“You know what annoys me? Dumb, idiotic bloggers who try to smear others by vague ‘nth degree‘ associations. Usually because they happen to be Muslims.” Sunny Hundal responds to an attack by Harry’s Place on Ajmal Masroor.
CCTV cameras and security lights installed to beat racist grave yobs
CCTV cameras and security lights have been installed at a cemetery in a bid to stop attacks on Muslim graves.
The move comes after racists were blamed for vandalising headstones four times over the spaces of three months. The camera and light have now been installed on a pole overlooking the Muslim section of Southern Cemetery on Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton.
The move was welcomed by relatives of those whose graves were damaged. “I’m delighted – this is the best new year’s present I could have hoped for,” said Habib Dar. His father Abdul Rehman Dar’s grave was toppled in one of the attacks. “Hopefully this will stop any more vandalism. I would like to thank the police for this because now something is being done about the vandalism which has taken place.”
Mark Krantz, a campaigner for Chorlton Unite Against Fascism, who have organised peace vigils at the cemetery, said: “It’s a sad indication that we have to have CCTV cameras to protect our graves, but after four attacks it’s probably necessary. If it does help deter people from more vandalism that’s a good thing. Sadly what CCTV can’t do is address a wider climate of hatred against Muslims by a small minority in our community.”
Islam4UK: bad, but not worth banning
Banning groups like Islam4UK – repugnant as they undoubtedly are – is not only ineffective, but threatens our open society, argues Inayat Bunglawala.
Comment is Free, 12 January 2010
Update: See also ENGAGE, 12 January 2010
Evening Standard says don’t give publicity to Choudary
“The decision by the Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, to ban the group Islam4UK will achieve little.
“As with some previous bans on extremist organisations, the group will simply reorganise under a new name, as it already has on at least one occasion. Worse, though, the Home Secretary appears to have fallen into the trap set him by the group’s notorious but media-savvy leader, Anjem Choudary.
“Mr Choudary has proven himself adept at grabbing publicity for what is apparently an almost entirely paper organisation. His announcement earlier this month that it planned to hold a protest march in Wootton Basset against the war in Afghanistan appears to have had no basis in fact: no application to hold a demonstration was ever made. This did not prevent much of the media from covering it at length, however; now the Home Secretary has simply given Choudary new victim status.
“There are real terrorist organisations that deserve to be banned. But Mr Choudary is telling the truth when he denies that his is a terrorist group: rather, it is a benefit claimants’ exercise in macho fantasy and a prop for his own ego. Most people find Choudary’s views repellent but he should be allowed to express them, if only to remind us just how silly and narcissistic is this armchair warrior from Welling. He will be delighted that Mr Johnson has instead taken the bait as intended.”
Is Google censoring Islam suggestions?
The question has been posed by Wired and others. The answer, unsurprisingly, is no. Pamela Geller will be disappointed.
Surprise, surprise – Choudary cancels Wootton Bassett demonstration
A radical Islamic group has cancelled plans to hold an anti-war march through a town famous for honouring the UK’s servicemen and women killed abroad.
Members of Islam4UK had planned to march through Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, to honour Muslims killed in the Afghanistan conflict. On Sunday, a statement from Islam4UK’s leader, Anjem Choudary, said it had “successfully highlighted the plight of Muslims in Afghanistan”.
“We at Islam4UK have decided, after consultation with others including our Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, that no more could be achieved even if a procession were to take place in Wootton Bassett,” he said.
Weekend witch-hunts
In the Observer, with the assistance of such reliable informants as Irfan al-Alawi (of Stephen Schwartz’s Center for Islamic Pluralism), Haras Rafiq (formerly of the Sufi Muslim Council and now of the “counter-extremism consultancy” Centri) and Maajid Nawaz (co-director of the Quilliam Foundation), Jamie Doward reveals that the Islam Channel is “linked to al-Qaida cleric al-Awlaki”.
Meanwhile, over at the Sunday Express, Paul Goodman MP accuses Wakkas Khan, the former FOSIS president who is part of Communities Secretary John Denham’s panel of faith advisers, of having “links to hardline Islamist party Hizb ut-Tahrir”.
You might not have thought it possible, but it does seem that anti-Muslim witch-hunts are becoming even more stupid and baseless than before.
Britons are suspicious towards Muslims, study finds
The British public are concerned at the rise of Islam in the UK and fear that the country is deeply divided along religious lines, according to a major survey.
More than half the population would be strongly opposed to a mosque being built in their neighbourhood, the study found.
A large proportion of the country believes that the multicultural experiment has failed, with 52 per cent considering that Britain is deeply divided along religious lines and 45 per cent saying that religious diversity has had a negative impact.
The findings, to be published later this month in the respected British Social Attitudes Survey, show that far greater opposition to Islam than to any other faith and reveal that most people are willing to limit freedom of speech in an attempt to silence religious extremists.
Sunday Telegraph, 10 January 2010
Update: See also ENGAGE, 11 January 2010
Caldwell backs ‘desperate measures’ against Islam
Writing in the Financial Times Christopher Caldwell, author of Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, draws the lessons from the alleged attempt on the life of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard:
“Political violence is aimed at promoting a cause – in this case, special consideration for Islam. If a country cannot stop the violence directly, then the public will demand that it stop the violence indirectly, by thwarting the cause the violence serves. The rise of Geert Wilders’s party in the Netherlands, the referendum to ban minarets in Switzerland, theproposed ban on burkas in France – these are all desperate measures to declare that Islam is not the first religion of Europe.
“‘This is a war,’ the mainstream French weekly L’Express editorialised in the wake of the attempt on Mr Westergaard’s life. ‘To flee this conflict would be to buy tranquillity today at an exorbitant price in blood tomorrow.’ It concluded: ‘Banning every kind of full-body cover [the burka] in our public spaces is a necessity.’ This is not the non-sequitur it appears to be.”