Category Archives: USA

‘Infidel’ author: Islam, West incompatible

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ayaan Hirsi AliWASHINGTON – A former member of the Dutch parliament whose life has been threatened by Muslim radicals warns that Islam is incompatible with Western civilization.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was raised as a Muslim in Somalia, but renounced Islam and moved to Europe, a story she recounts in her autobiography, titled “Infidel.” She moved to the United States last year.

In a speech Monday at the National Press Club in Washington, Ali urged journalists to recognize that all religions are not equal, and that Islam is violent, intolerant and oppresses women.

Ali said she was brought up believing in “a ferocious aggressive god,” but is now an atheist. She said Islam is growing because Saudi Arabia and Iran finance Muslim schools and mosques, while Christian churches have lost their missionary zeal.

CBN News, 19 June 2007

Read Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s speech here

For the impact of Hirsi Ali’s visit to Australia, see Herald Sun, 20 June 2007

US Muslim civil rights cases jumped 25 percent last year – CAIR

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A report released today by a prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group indicates a 25 percent increase in the total number of complaints of anti-Muslim bias from 2005 to 2006, with citizenship delays being the major issue.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) report – the only annual study of its kind – outlines 2,467 incidents and experiences of anti-Muslim violence, discrimination and harassment in 2006, the highest number of civil rights cases ever recorded in the Washington-based group’s report. (Hundreds of anti-Muslim incidents reported immediately following the 9/11 attacks were detailed in a separate report.)

According to the study, called “Presumption of Guilt,” that total is a 25.1 percent increase over the preceding year’s total of 1,972 cases. One of the most significant increases is in the category dealing with government agencies, which rose sharply from 19.22 percent of total reports in 2005 to 36.32 percent in 2006. This increase was due primarily to the number of cases related to immigration issues such as citizenship and naturalization delays. CAIR also received 167 reports of anti-Muslim hate crime complaints, a 9.2 percent increase from the 153 complaints received in 2005.

CAIR press release, 14 June 2007

Wearing a headscarf in Detroit

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“You have nuns totally covered … and no one questions it. But when a Muslim does it, we’re from outer space.” The Detroit Free Press interviews Muslim women who wear the hijab.

One reader is not impressed: “There is no comparison between a covered nun and Islamic hijab. No one living in a Christian community has to worry about armed gangs breaking into a family home to threaten, beat or kill them because their daughters haven’t become nuns. Islamic women have to worry about that daily in the Islamic world, and even in European countries Islamic women are subject to ‘honor killings’.”

Muslim in final appeal to stop extradition to US

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ashfaq AhmadLawyers acting for Babar Ahmad are making a final appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to prevent the computer expert from London’s prestigious Imperial College being extradited to the US for allegedly running terrorist websites.

A decision on the case is expected to be made Thursday after Britain’s highest judicial authorities, the House of Lords, refused permission to appeal at the weekend.

“After three years of imprisonment without charge, Babar is being sent to face a flawed justice system in the United States,” said his family, who live in Tooting, south London. They said that his supporters from all over the UK will “hold the British Government responsible if he is subjected to any physical or psychological abuse.”

Law Lords rejected Babar’s appeal on Sunday when concluding that two points of law presented to them were not matters of “public importance”. But his family said that the refusal was a “complete travesty of justice”. The Attorney General and the Crown Prosecution Service had confirmed in writing several times that there is “insufficient evidence to charge Babar with any crime,” they said.

Muslim News, 13 June 2007

US to let toddler reunite with family

Posted on by Bob Pitt

WASHINGTON — After two years of inaction, U.S. immigration authorities approved a request Thursday for the 3-year-old son of a U.S. citizen to emigrate from Morocco and join his family in Virginia.

Abdeloihab Boujrad, 38, of Alexandria, and his wife, Leila, have been trying since June 2005 to get authorities to allow their son, Ahmedyassine, to join them. The toddler has been living with an aunt in Morocco. The application languished without any action by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. An Islamic civil rights group that took up Boujrad’s cause suspected the delay was caused by a similarity in Ahmedyassine’s name to the founder of the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated by Israel in 2004.

The decision to approve the application came a day after The Associated Press and other media detailed the Boujrads’ plight. “The matter has been resolved favorably,” USCIS spokesman Dan Kane said. “Once the issue was brought to our attention, we worked expeditiously to resolve it.” Kane would not comment on what caused the delay.

“The matter has been resolved favorably,” USCIS spokesman Dan Kane said. “Once the issue was brought to our attention, we worked expeditiously to resolve it.” Kane would not comment on what caused the delay.

Boujrad said he did not receive an explanation for the delay when he was told Thursday morning the application had finally been approved. But he was so ecstatic he did not care. “I was shocked,” Boujrad said of being informed about the good news. “They said, ‘We apologize for the delay.’”

Morris Days, a legal director with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he appreciates how quickly the issue was resolved once Boujrad’s case was publicized. But he said he’d like more information on what caused the delay, so that similar incidents can be avoided. “If they’ve looked into this, they must have been able to research, ‘How did this happen?’” Days said.

Days said he has nearly a dozen cases in the last few months involving Muslims in the D.C. region who are facing unexplained delays on various immigration applications.

Boujrad was living in Morocco in 1997 and engaged to Leila when he won an immigration lottery that allowed him to come to the United States. He married his wife in 1999 but was unable to bring her to the U.S. until 2005. She is now a legal permanent resident.

In the interim, Ahmedyassine was born in May 2004 in Morocco. Leila reluctantly left the boy in the care of her sister in the fall of 2005 when her visa allowing her to emigrate to the U.S. was about to expire. Neither Abdeloihab nor Leila Boujrad have seen their son in person since then.

Associated Press, 14 June 2007

US Baptists warned about Islam, atheism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Southern Baptist ConventionSAN ANTONIO – Watergate figure Chuck Colson warned a gathering of Southern Baptist pastors Sunday night against what he described as two dire threats: the deadly marriage of Islam and fascism and a new, militant atheism growing in popularity in the West.

Colson, a former Nixon “hatchet man” who became a born-again Christian and founded an evangelical ministry to prisoners, called on Christians to do a better job of explaining their religion’s worldview.

Colson, 75, spoke at a conference that precedes the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, which begins here Tuesday. At one point, Colson said “Islam is a vicious, evil …” and then before finishing the sentence, said, “Islamo-fascism is evil incarnate.” “Islamists,” Colson said, “are very different. We will die for what we believe. They will kill for what they believe.”

Comments about Islam have generated controversy at past Southern Baptist meetings. In 2002, a former Southern Baptist Convention president, the Rev. Jerry Vines, called Muhammad, the Muslim prophet, a “demon-possessed pedophile.”

Associated Press, 11 June 2007

Rendition flights still using UK

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The CIA seems to be still using British territories to fly terror suspects to secret prisons in countries notorious for using torture, The Mail on Sunday revealed on Sunday, June 10. Quoting eyewitness, the British paper said a plane linked to the CIA’s infamous rendition program landed at the Royal Air Force station of Mildenhall in the county of Suffolk last week. It substantiated the report with a photo taken by spotters of the CASA-212 Aviocar plane as it prepared to land. Flights records show that the plane was given landing rights by the Ministry of Defense although there was no record of passenger lists or details of the flight purpose. No sooner had the plane landed in the British military base than it was secured by four US security men armed with M16 assault rifles, according to eyewitnesses.

Islam Online, 10 June 2007

Livingstone ‘plays the Islamophobia card’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

nss2Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society is not impressed by the coalition to defend religious freedom launched at City Hall in London earlier this week. Sanderson opines that “there is very little in the way of aggression towards Muslims beyond the racism that all minority communities suffer”. Well, Sanderson and the NSS – who in the past have called for the publication of racist anti-Muslim cartoons and happily repeated denunciations of “Muslim foreigners who have forced themselves on us” – would know all about that.

NSS news report, 8 June 2007

The NSS has the backing of Robert Spencer over at Jihad Watch.

Anti-Muslim comments of US talk show host

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Media Matters exposes US radio host “Gunny” Bob Newman, who has demanded that “every Muslim immigrant to America … be required by law to wear a GPS tracking bracelet at all times” and suggested that the federal government “bug [Muslims’] places of work and their residences” and monitor “all mosques and community centers.” Newman also called for a moratorium on Muslim immigration to the United States, adding, “If they don’t like the idea, or if they refuse, throw their asses out of this country.”