Category Archives: UK

Muslim students beaten for defending woman wearing hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An 18-year-old Muslim student was attacked and beaten even after he lost consciousness by a gang of white youths on November 6. As they attacked him, they shouted “Where is your Allah now” and “Where is He to help you now.”

The first year business and computer undergraduate student had just left De Montfort University, Leicester, library with his friend at around 8.30 pm when they were attacked by around 10 white youths in Great Central Way, near the junction with Briton Street, Bede Island. The two students, Ahmed and Umar, (not their real name as they wish to remain anonymous) saw the gang taunting and abusing a Muslim woman wearing the hijab. She was with two other women who had gone ahead of her.

Ahmed told The Muslim News that he and Umar heard the gang tell the middle aged woman, “How do you like it if I walked in a balaclava. This is England. You should not be wearing a scarf.” They were concerned about what would happen to the Muslim woman and so they waited. One of the white youths turned towards them and asked them why were they were watching them. “I told them, ‘Leave her alone’.”

The woman tried to tell the white youths not to attack the students but they didn’t listen. The white youths assaulted Ahmed and Umar, and began beating them. Ahmed fell down and the gang continued to punch and kick him even after he was unconscious. They “jumped” on his head and kicked his body. He was picked up and thrown on to the ground.

Ahmed said the attack was “Islamophobic as they were talking about her scarf and also when they told me ‘Where is your Allah’ is to do with religion. How did they know we were Muslims? We could have been Sikhs for all they know.” Umar said the attack was both Islamophobic and racist as they had also shouted “Pakis”. He was “very angry” and said he never experienced racism in East London where he was from.

Muslim News, 27 November 2009

See also the comment piece by Kawsar Zaman, vice-chair of the MCB’s Youth Committee, “Can the BBC shirk its responsibility if anti-Muslim attacks increase?”

Islamophobes are front-runners in UKIP leadership contest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lord Pearson and WildersThe UK Independence Party is set to head in a fresh direction, fighting radical Islam, with the election today of a replacement for Nigel Farage as its national leader. The two favourites to take over from Mr Farage are committed to adding the battle against Islamic fundamentalism to the party’s main goal of withdrawing Britain from the European Union.

Mr Farage resisted strong grassroots pressure during his three-year leadership to broaden UKIP’s focus to include actively campaigning against Islamism and immigration. But both Lord Pearson of Rannoch and the London MEP Gerard Batten – the two front-runners in a field of five candidates – say that they are determined to target Islamic fundamentalism.

Lord Pearson invited the anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders to the House of Lords in February only for Jacqui Smith, then the Home Secretary, to issue a banning order so that Mr Wilders was turned away at Heathrow. The Dutchman travelled to Britain in October after overturning the ban.

Lord Pearson’s own outspoken views about Islam were recorded in Washington DC last month. Asked how much time Britain had before losing control of its cultural identity he said: “What is going to decide the answer to that is the birthrate. The fact that Muslims are breeding ten times faster than us. I do not know at what point they reach such a number that we are no longer able to resist the rest of their demands … but if we do not do something now within the next year or two we have in effect lost.”

Mr Batten, 55, has also invited Mr Wilders to speaking engagements and has called the Dutch politician “a brave man trying to defend western civilisation”. This year, writing in the magazine Freedom Today, Mr Batten addressed the notion of the confrontation of Islamism and the West. “It is a clash between civilisation and barbarism. It is a clash between everything that has made the modern world what it is and an ideology that wants to enslave us to a belief system that belongs in seventh-century Arabia and which was primitive and backward even then.”

Times, 27 November 2009

Media double standards over Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tabloid Watch examines two recent examples:

Yesterday, a man admitted 22 charges, including six under the Terrorism Act, after 54 homemade ball-bearing and nail bombs were found in his West Yorkshire home, along with guns, ammunition and weapons manuals. The charges included:

  • four counts of making explosives
  • four counts of possessing explosives
  • three counts of manufacturing prohibited weapons
  • four counts of possession of prohibited weapons
  • one count of possession of ammunition without a certificate.

Now it doesn’t take a genius to work out that if this man was Muslim, this would be all over the media. But he isn’t and so, apart from three Yorkshire papers, it hasn’t been mentioned at all. By contrast, this Muslim woman only had a memory stick with explosives manuals on and the Mail reported that. But they ignored this.

And the reports from Hope Not Hate and Searchlight that this bombmaker (Terence Gavan) was also a member of the BNP should only heighten the news interest. Or so you would have thought…

At the start of October, this blog noted the desecration of Muslim graves in Southern Cemetery in Manchester. Although covered by the BBC, it was ignored by everyone else in the mainstream media.

Now, the BBC are reporting the graveyard has been targeted for a third time, as 20 headstones were pushed over. The BBC says: “Det Ch Insp Steve Eckersley called it ‘mindless racist behaviour’ that was being treated as a hate crime. On 29 September, 26 Muslim headstones were vandalised and three days later 27 were targeted.”

So at what point does this become news to the newspapers? Or is it because the targets are Muslims that it never does?

More anti-Muslim hysteria in the Express

Posted on by Bob Pitt

113000 Aid to Fanatics“After yet another stupid health scare story yesterday (too much salt is bad for you, shock), the Express was back to one of its other favourite topics today: Islam. Or should that be anti-Islam hysteria?

“There is so much wrong with the Express‘ article that it’s hard to know where to start. But let’s try this: the headline ‘£113,000 aid to fanatics who want to kill us’ no longer exists on the Express website. They have changed it to a much less inflammatory David Cameron: Brown soft on Muslim fanatics, which strongly suggests they have backed away from their own ridiculous front page.”

Tabloid Watch, 26 November 2009

Tabloid Watch quotes the Express editorial, which is not available online. This states: “What these exchanges demonstrate is just how deeply in hock the Labour party is at every level to Muslim vested interests.” Under the heading “No funding for Christians”, the editorial quotes actor David Suchet as saying: “A charity I work for got turned down for Government funding recently because it was a Christian charity, even though it had been funded by the Government for several years.”

The Express comments: “It does not take a brilliant detective to work out what is going on here, just an ordinarily observant person: Britain’s cultural identity is being systematically dismantled by a government of traitors.” As Tabloid Watch notes, this directly echoes the language of the BNP.

The Express article reporting Suchet’s comments also quotes Alan Craig of the Christian Peoples Alliance as claiming: “Christianity is being marginalised by those who rule our society. Christianity can stand up for itself, but my concern is that it is not a level playing field. It seems everything is being done to accommodate the Islamic faith at the expense of society.”

BNP campaigns against ‘Islamification’ of Dalton-in-Furness

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ashburner BNPTwo parties are going head to head in a town council by-election. Labour and the British National Party are to fight for a seat on Dalton Town Council. Dan Martin, for Labour, and Mike Ashburner, Furness and South Lakeland BNP organiser, were the only two nominations received by last Friday’s closing date. The by-election is set to take place on December 10.

Mr Ashburner, from Barrow, who admitted he has no links with Dalton, said it was the BNP’s policy to go for any vacancies that come up. He denied the party was out to cause trouble. Mr Ashburner said:

“My main aims are to tackle anti-social behaviour and clean up the streets. I noticed walking around just how much rubbish there was. My other main problem I aim to tackle is the Islamification of Dalton. There are proposals to build a mosque in the area and they are currently looking for plots. I am going to make sure there is not a mosque built in Dalton.”

Cumbria County Council spokesman Gareth Cosslett said the council knows of no current plans to build a new place of worship in Dalton. He said:

“Nothing is being built locally. The only thing that happens every Friday afternoon is one room in the Multicultural Centre in Barrow is used by Muslims as a prayer room. The rest of the week it’s used to teach English and a variety of other things. The whole point of the centre is to connect people and help them with social issues.

“The county council isn’t aware of anyone wanting to build a mosque in Dalton or anywhere nearby – but we’re not the planning authority. Our view would be that if they did, they would have as much right to build it as anyone would to build a church.”

North-West Evening Mail, 26 November 2009

Racist yobs vandalise Muslim graves

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Chadderton Cemetery vandalism

Racist vandals have targeted Muslim graves at a south Manchester cemetery for a third time. Sometime between 4pm on Friday 20 November and 9am on Monday 23 November unknown offenders pushed over 20 headstones at the Southern Cemetery on Barlow Moor Road. The vandalism is being treated as racially motivated as only a Muslim section of graves were targeted.

On 29 September 2009, 26 Muslim headstones were vandalised and on 2 November 2009, 27 were similarly targeted. Police are now appealing to anyone who has information to come forward. Detective Chief Inspector Steve Eckersley said:

“It is an absolute disgrace that whoever is responsible thinks it acceptable to repeatedly target the graves of loved ones. The repeated nature of these attacks and the fact the offenders are only targeting Muslim graves means we are treating this as a hate crime. This sort of mindless, racist behaviour must be utterly condemned and I’m sure the whole community will be outraged, that is why I want to reassure them, and in particular the families affected that we are doing all we can to catch the culprits.”

Manchester Evening News, 25 November 2009

Mosque vote threatens to isolate Swiss

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamisierung stoppenIn Switzerland, home of the referendum, voters decide on everything from reducing fighter jet noise in tourist areas to boosting funding for complementary medicine. Although generally of narrow interest, even at home, once in a while, a plebiscite comes up that stirs passions well beyond national borders. That will be the case on Sunday, when voters decide on a call to ban construction of minarets at mosques.

On the face of it, the referendum is of negligible relevance, even by Swiss standards. The country has few mosques and fewer minarets. Only a tiny fraction of Switzerland’s 300,000-400,000 Muslims, drawn largely from the Balkans, are practising; most mosques are inconspicuous and there is scant demand for minarets. Any building schemes are subject to the same planning procedures that limit skyscrapers.

But, as with immigration and citizenship rights, the vote has touched a sensitive nerve – one with resonance elsewhere in Europe. Immigration, integration and the dilution of national identity have become big themes in the UK, France, Belgium and beyond. Recently, they have grown even more prominent because of recession and spiralling unemployment. Far-right groups have exploited popular unease to boost representation and influence agendas. Austria’s two far-right groups took more than 28 per cent of the vote in elections last year.

Sunday’s vote is typical of the Swiss People’s party (SVP) – the ultraconservative group that regularly and expertly exploits national emotions to mobilise support. Reinforced by simple, yet striking images and terse, but effective language, the SVP has become Switzerland’s biggest party.

SVP leaders maintain they are simply performing their duty to protect Swiss national values. They say minarets have no religious significance, but symbolise Islamic intolerance. Warning against a creeping “Islamisation” of society, Ulrich Schlüer, an SVP MP, notes: “The anti-minaret initiative is particularly important for the younger generation. The young will be the ones particularly affected if Islamisation comes off.”

The SVP’s message has been conveyed with arresting and provocative images. Building on previous emotive – and widely criticised – posters, the latest campaign has been galvanised by a poster of a woman in a burka, standing on a Swiss flag, flanked by minarets looking like missiles.

Opinion polls suggest the initiative will be rejected comfortably, even if the margin appears to be narrowing. But even if Sunday’s vote goes against the SVP, observers say the damage for Switzerland may already have been done.

Financial Times, 24 November 2009

Writing on his Telegraph blog, Damian Thompson has mixed feeling about the introduction of a similar referendum in the UK: “A legal ban on the construction of a certain sort of building strikes me as a very un-British, top-down solution. Giving local people the right to decide whether they want a minaret in their midst, on the other hand, is very British. But what if the locality is a Muslim ghetto? I wish I could say that last question is hypothetical, but increasingly it isn’t.”

Update:  See Amnesty International press release, 25 November 2009

Four arrested in protest against mosques in Wrexham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

WDL WrexhamFour people were arrested at an anti-Muslim demonstration amid a strong police presence in Wrexham. Around 40 members of a group calling themselves the Welsh Defence League (WDL) shouted racial abuse and gestured towards locals, saying they were protesting against plans for a new mosque.

Four people were arrested for public order offences, and North Wales’s Temporary Deputy Chief Constable, Ian Shannon said the day passed without “significant incident”. Meanwhile Unite Against Fascism held a counter-protest, near where the WDL gathered on Saturday.

And a Wrexham Communities Against Racism festival attracted around 200 people. Residents were joined by faith groups, the Wales TUC, Searchlight, Unison and members of Wrexham Council. Searchlight Cymru secretary Ian Titherington said none of the WDL protestors were Welsh, and they appeared to be members of the English Defence League (EDL).

He said: “This was the final humiliation for the EDL’s disastrous visits to Wales. The only way they could hold an event was to bus in 30 from Bolton, who on arrival went to the nearest pub, got drunk and bawled out racist chants. The EDL gathering did not exactly sell any local links, by displaying a Bolton Wanderers FC English flag and singing God Save the Queen.”

The WDL was formed in June 2009 as an off-shoot of the EDL, which claims to campaign against Islamic extremism. The group insists it is not fascist. But at a march in Swansea in October, onlookers were confronted by jeering men giving Nazi salutes, and one was arrested for a racially aggravated public order offence.

Daily Post, 23 November 2009

‘Just say no to Sharia law’ urges Tatchell

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tatchell No Islamic StatePeter Tatchell is given space at Comment is Free to promote the “Universal Children’s Day and International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women” demonstration on Saturday – which, despite its grandiose title, is just another stupid stunt by One Law for All, a front organisation for Mariam Namazie and the Worker Communist Party of Iran.

Tatchell writes plaintively that “the turn out in Hyde Park will probably be quite small” – which, based on previous experience, is a realistic prediction. The explanation is that anyone with a shred of political judgement baulks at stirring up Islamophobia in co-operation with a bunch of sectarian cranks like the WPI. For Tatchell, however, the problem is that leftists and liberals “get squeamish when it comes to challenging human rights abuses committed in the name of Islam”.

The WPI appeals to its supporters to “Show your opposition to Sharia law and all religious-based tribunals in Britain, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and elsewhere” (emphasis added), and Tatchell himself claims that he and other supporters of Saturday’s demonstration “reject all religious laws and courts, including those inspired by Judaist and Christian fundamentalism”. Why, then, do Tatchell and the WPI concentrate exclusively on attacking Islamic religious tribunals? We never hear a peep from them about the Beth Din courts that operate within the Orthodox Jewish community, even though their rules on divorce are considerably more discriminatory against women than those of Sharia tribunals.

The reason of course is that Tatchell is less interested in women’s rights than in generating some publicity for himself by stoking the fires of anti-Muslim bigotry.