Meanwhile the Guardian‘s Viral Video Chart reveals that the YouTube posting of Channel 4’s Dispatches programme Undercover Mosque “has been leapt on by anti-Muslim bloggers, and the weight of traffic even threatened to bring down the infamous Little Green Footballs for a while”.
Category Archives: USA
24 under fire from Muslim groups
TV drama 24 is under fire from Muslim groups in the US, which say the show’s latest storyline fuels intolerance. The current series begins with Islamic terrorists waging an 11-day campaign of suicide bombings across America. The Council on American-Islam Relations said: “Repeated association of acts of terrorism with Islam will only serve to increase anti-Muslim prejudice”.
40 Michigan Muslims claim racial profiling by airline
DETROIT — A group of 40 Michigan Muslims said Tuesday they were unfairly profiled earlier this month when they were not allowed to board a Northwest Airlines flight in Germany on their way home from a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
A Northwest spokesman said that the travelers reported to the gate Jan. 7 in Frankfurt, Germany, only about 20 minutes before their connecting flight was due to take off. Airline and international rules stipulate that passengers must check in for international flights at least an hour before departure and be onboard the aircraft at least 30 minutes beforehand. “They showed up at the last minute,” spokesman Dean Breest told The Detroit News.
But the Muslim pilgrims and the Council on American Islamic Relations rejected the airline’s statement at a news conference Tuesday, saying flight rules are at least the third reason given for the incident. “We arrived at the gate at least an hour and 30 minutes before the departure,” said Imam Sayed Hassan al-Qazwini of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn. “Others who came after us were allowed to board the airplane.” Al-Qazwini told the Detroit Free Press the airline was likely afraid of having 40 Muslims together on one flight.
Update: See “MI Muslim pilgrims offered apology, compensation by NW Airlines”, CAIR press release, 17 January 2007
Guantánamo protest at US embassy
A British boy whose father has been detained at the Guantanamo Bay camp delivered a letter to Downing St, ahead of a protest outside the US Embassy.
Anas el-Banna, 10, handed in his fourth letter to Tony Blair, reflecting the years his father had been held. He was accompanied by MP Sarah Teather, as campaigners marked the fifth anniversary of the camp’s opening.
The demonstration was one of a number organised around the world by human rights group Amnesty International. A petition was also handed in.
More than 300 protesters gathered outside the US embassy for the hour-long demonstration. They were dressed in orange boiler-suits, as worn by prisoners in the early stages of the camp, as well as blindfolds, goggles and face-masks.
‘Britain’s new preachers of hate’
Yet another plug for next Monday’s Dispatches documentary, this one by Bobby Pathak, a journalist directly involved in the programme.
“Read it all”, urges Robert Spencer: Jihad Watch, 11 January 2007
Islamophobia: alarming statements
Sheila Musaji provides a selection of Islamophobic statements.
Why is my dad far away in that place called Guantanamo Bay?
Ten-year-old Anas el-Banna will walk to the door of Number 10 Downing Street this week to ask for an answer to the question he has been trying to have answered for four years: Why can’t my Dad come home?
His father, Jamil, is one of eight British residents languishing among the almost 400 inmates at the American base at Guantanamo Bay, which opened five years ago to the day this Thursday – the day of Anas’s protest.
Mr Banna, was taken to Guantanamo Bay four years ago after being seized in Gambia along with fellow detainee Bisher al-Rawi. He was accused of having a suspicious device in his luggage. It turned out to be a battery charger. No charges have been made. He suffers from severe diabetes, but his lawyers say he has not been offered medication and has been denied the food he needs. His eyesight is now failing.
A year ago, his son wrote to Tony Blair for the second time to ask why the Government was not helping him return home. The then six-year-old did not even receive a reply. The second letter elicited a cursory note from the Foreign Office. It stated that because Mr Banna is not a British citizen, although his wife and children are, nothing could be done for him.
Right-wing US Christian group polls supporters on Islam
The American Family Association is currently polling Americans on their opinion of Islam as more Americans are converting to be Muslims. The growth of Islam in America is “concerning for a great many people,” said Randy Sharp, director of special projects for AFA, according to Agape Press.
According to the poll, the majority of respondents do not consider Islam to be a peaceful religion or a tolerant religion. The majority of respondents also said “no” to placing equal emphasis on the Koran and the Bible in America. In terms of politics, most Americans do not believe it would be good for America to have more Muslims in elected offices and most said they would not vote for a Muslim presidential candidate.
Christian Post, 8 January 2007
See also “AFA poll on Islam”, Daily Kos, 4 January 2007
Abbey Mills: Pat Robertson’s TV station warns against religious extremism
Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) gets in on the scaremongering campaign over the proposed Islamic Centre at Abbey Mills in London. The CBN piece features an interview with Irfan al-Alawi of Stephen Schwartz’s Center for Islamic Pluralism (co-author with Schwartz of last week’s Spectator article) who states that the Abbey Mills mosque will become a threat to security “once the youth have been brainwashed, and been captured by the satanic ideology of the Tablighis”. Al-Alawi adds: “The person who is really behind it is Ken Livingstone.”
Religious leaders push back against Rep. Goode
More than 20 prominent religious leaders have launched an on-line petition demanding that Rep. Vigil Goode (R-Va) reexamine his opposition to newly-elected Rep. Keith Ellison, a Muslim from Minnesota, taking his unofficial oath of office using the Qur’an, and to apologize for his statement that, without punitive immigration reform, “there will be many more Muslims elected to office demanding the use of the Qur’an.”
The petition warns, “An attack against one religion is an attack against them all. Next week, it could be Jews. Next month, it could be Christian fundamentalists or evangelicals. Right now, it is Muslims. It is they who feel targeted by repression and abuse, and they who live among us in a growing climate of fear…. We hold it to be self-evident that all Americans have the right to practice their faith, whatever it may be, and that any Americans – regardless of race, color or creed – may be elected and sworn into office holding whatever book they consider sacred…. We would point out that there are some five million Muslims in the US. Many have been here for generations. They are every bit as American as Rep. Goode. Some Americans have also converted to Islam, including Rep. Ellison. We call for a renewed unity among people of conscience and of faith.”
The petition adds, “In a spirit of reconciliation and peace, we invite Rep. Goode to join with us in an inter-religious delegation to visit a mosque in his district, in order that the healing may begin.”
Atlantic Free Press, 7 January 2007
The online petition is here.