Category Archives: UK

Don’t make the same errors with Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Today’s Muslims are portrayed as dangerous and disloyal when, just like Roman Catholics 200 to 300 years ago, the vast majority want nothing more than to get on with their lives, earn a living and practise their religion in peace. Like the 17th and 18th century Catholics, they have been assaulted, abused and discriminated against. Once again, legitimate suspicion of a tiny minority is being used to promote hysteria against the loyal and law-abiding majority.”

Frank Dobson argues that Muslims should not have to wait as long as Roman Catholics for equal rights.

Camden New Journal, 24 March 2005

Harry’s Place and Islamophobia Watch

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Over at Harry’s Place, the eponymous blogger offers a critique of Islamophobia Watch and challenges our characterisation of certain leftists and liberals as Islamophobes. Compared with some of the anti-Muslim rants that have appeared on his site, it’s quite a reasoned piece – but entirely wrong, of course.

In his critique Harry quotes part of the Runnymede Trust’s definition of Islamophobia, which is reproduced on our site: “Islam is seen as a monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to change.”

He claims that most of the leftists and liberals criticised on our blog would reject that view and therefore cannot be characterised as Islamophobes: “The whole point of supporting liberal progressives, socialists or gay activists in Muslim countries or in the ‘Muslim community’ is that there is the potential for change and that Islam most certainly isn’t a monolothic bloc.”

The problem with this argument is that, if you take the Runnymede Trust definition absolutely literally, then Islamophobia doesn’t exist anywhere in the world. Even fascists are prepared to make a formal distinction between different tendencies within Islam, along the lines Harry proposes.

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Islam and Democracy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Perhaps the Muslim world has to go through a new Islamist phase as the result of democratic change – whether Washington likes it or not, Lindsey Hilsum argues.

New Statesman, 21 March 2005

This is evidently not a view that finds favour with the NS editor, who has added the sarcastic headline “Lindsey Hilsum predicts good times for Arab clerics”. But it’s what people like John Esposito and Noah Feldman have been saying for years – that if the citizens of majority Muslim countries are allowed a democratic choice, they will often vote for Islamists.

In defence of tyranny

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Outrage! proposes that Iraq should remain under foreign occupation for some time to come, on the grounds that “a hasty withdrawal could pave the way for the seizure of power by Islamic fundamentalists”:

Outrage! press release, 20 March 2005

Daniel Pipes agrees that “a too-quick removal of tyranny unleashes Islamist ideologues and opens their way to power”:

Front Page Magazine, 8 March 2005

Faith hate attack on Muslim graves

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The UK’s Islamic community was yesterday horrified to learn that 40 Muslim graves in a London cemetery had been desecrated in a faith hate attack thought to have been sparked by the Madrid bombings.

Headstones were smashed and pictures removed from the graves in Charlton cemetery in the south-east of the city.

Police believe the vandals struck between 4pm on Wednesday and 8am yesterday and are treating the desecration as a crime motivated by religious hatred.

Guardian, 19 March 2005

Mayor of London condemns French hijab ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A basic right

Morning Star, 19 March 2005

By Ken Livingstone

This month marks the first anniversary of the French law banning students from wearing conspicuous religious symbols in schools.

I have given the fullest support to the campaign against this attack on the rights of minority religious communities in France.

In February last year, just before the French parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of the ban, I wrote to prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin warning that the new law would be a blow to good community relations throughout Europe, and would inflame tensions between communities and encourage attacks on minorities.

Earlier this month the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination drew attention to the problem of racism in France.

The committee urged the French government to prevent the law against conspicuous religious symbols “from denying any pupil the right to education and to ensure that everyone can always exercise that right”.

But this is precisely the right that the French law does deny many pupils.

According to the French government’s own figures, when the law came into force at the start of the September 2004 school term, over 600 students defied the ban.

Some were forced out of the state system and into private education, while many others were obliged to comply with the law under threat of expulsion.

At least 47 Muslim girls have been excluded from French schools for continuing to wear the hijab (Islamic headscarf), and hundreds more have been compelled to renounce a form of dress that they believe is an important aspect of their religion.

In addition, three Sikh students have been expelled for refusing to remove their turbans and another two have been refused admission to their school.

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Police probe arson attack at Worthing mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A sickening fire-bomb attack on Worthing’s mosque has rocked the town’s Muslim community.

Muslims have been left deeply shocked by Friday’s arson attack on the mosque in Ivy Arch Road, which was started in a downstairs prayer room at around 5.30am.

The fire-bombers, according to members of the Worthing Islamic Society, broke in through the mosque’s back door and set light to a gas pipe they had cut. And if it wasn’t for worshippers turning up for early morning prayers, the mosque could have been burnt to cinders.

Ali Abdul Rahman, chairman of the Worthing Islamic Society, said: “We are very sad someone could do this and we are just hoping it is not a racist or religious attack. “We are peace-loving people and we would hope if the people who did it would come and see us and talk to us we could help them and make them better people.”

Two people, a 17-year-old girl and a 27-year-old man, who are both from Worthing, have since been arrested on suspicion of arson and have been released on bail. They have not been charged.

The fire started sometime before 5.30am and it is believed, by members of Worthing Islamic Society, arsonists broke into the mosque through a back door. Once inside, they started a fire in a ground floor room, which is used as an over-flow prayer room, by setting light to a gas pipe they had cut. They spread white spirit on the floor and attempted to make a bonfire of a mattress and some chairs.

The mosque was badly smoke damaged.

Worthing Herald, 17 March 2005

Update:  See “Man found guilty of mosque arson”, BBC News, 18 May 2007

Update 2:  See “Man who set fire to mosque jailed for three years”, The Argus, 11 June 2007

Mayor’s human rights adviser meets opponents of hijab ban in Paris

Posted on by Bob Pitt

On the first anniversary of the ban on the wearing of the Muslim headscarf in French schools, Yasmin Qureshi, the Mayor of London’s human rights adviser, is to visit Paris to meet opponents of the ban.

The visit follows a new poll conducted by MORI for the Greater London Authority which found that 53 percent of Londoners disagree with the ban with just 33 per cent supporting it.

In the same poll 63 percent said that children should be allowed to wear clothing or items that are part of their religion, such as the Muslim headscarf, Christian cross, Jewish skullcap and Sikh turban at school. Only 26 per cent disagreed.

Ms Qureshi will be in Paris to meet with faith, community, and human rights organisations as well as French local government representatives campaigning against the ban.  Among the groups she will be visiting are Collectif des Musulmans de France, United Sikhs and Ligue des Droits de l’Homme.

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