Category Archives: USA

Americans oppose Dutch Islamic veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Many adults in the United States are against a proposal developed by the Dutch government that seeks to ban Islamic veils, according to a six-country poll by Harris Interactive published in the Financial Times.

59 per cent of Americans believe Islamic women should have the right to wear the garments if they wish to do so.

Support is significantly lower in the five European nations surveyed, with Spain at 39 per cent, Italy at 34 per cent, Germany at 33 per cent, Britain at 23 per cent, and France at 23 per cent.

Angus Reid Global Monitor, 31 December 2006

Dutch veil ban poll

Top Jewish group ‘terror’ apology

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain’s top Jewish body has apologised for branding a Muslim charity a “terrorist organisation”. In an out-of-court settlement, the Board of Deputies of British Jews said it should not have described Interpal in these terms.

London-based Interpal, which raises millions for Palestinian causes, had launched a libel action against the Board, due in the High Court next year. The board has now published a retraction and apology on its website.

In the statement, the Board said it had reached a settlement with Interpal in relation to a September 2003 article on its website which referred to “terrorist organisations such as Hamas and Interpal”. “We would like to make it clear that we should not have described Interpal in this way and we regret the upset and distress our item caused,” said the statement.

Interpal is one of the largest Muslim-led charities in Europe and says its funds humanitarian, educational and medical projects in the Palestinian territories. The charity, which spends approximately £5m a year, insists it keeps exhaustive records and audit trails of how its Palestinian partners spend money.

BBC News, 29 December 2005

For the BoD’s retraction, see here.

Fascists announce Jihad Watch Bulletin

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The British National Party announces the latest issue of its “Jihad Watch bulletin” (no organisational link to Robert Spencer’s site – though no doubt there’s a considerable ideological overlap). It promotes a particularly barking piece from The American Daily detailing the Islamist “plan for world domination”. The BNP may have have dispensed with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, but they have evidently retained their enthusiasm for wacko racist conspiracy theories.

BNP news article, 29 December 2006

A people under siege

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Five years after the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001, “Islamophobia” – intensified by the war in Iraq and government actions – has left millions of Muslims here and in other Western countries fearful of harassment, discrimination and questionable prosecutions, and confused about their place in society.

Recent polls indicate that almost half of U.S. citizens have a negative perception of Islam and that one in four of those surveyed have “extreme” anti-Muslim views. A survey by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) found that a quarter of people here consistently believe stereotypes such as: “Muslims value life less than other people” and “The Muslim religion teaches violence and hatred.”

In 2005, CAIR received 1,972 civil rights complaints, compared to 1,522 in 2004. This constitutes a 29.6 percent increase in the total number of complaints of anti-Muslim harassment, violence and discriminatory treatment from 2004. It is the highest number of Muslim civil rights complaints ever reported to CAIR.

IPS, 19 December 2006

US congressman asked to apologize for anti-Muslim remarks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Keith EllisonThe Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) tonight called on Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) to apologize for anti-Muslim remarks he made in a recent letter to a constituent.

Goode’s letter to the head of the local Sierra Club chapter slammed the planned use of a Quran for the ceremonial swearing-in of Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress. (No religious texts of any kind are used for the official swearing-in ceremony.)

“I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way,” wrote Goode. “The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.”

Goode also decried the growth of the American Muslim community. He wrote, “I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America.” (Keith Ellison has traced his family’s roots in America to the year 1742.)

“Representative Goode’s Islamophobic remarks send a message of intolerance that is unworthy of anyone elected to public office,” said CAIR National Legislative Director Corey Saylor. “There can be no reasonable defense for such bigotry.”

CAIR news release, 19 December 2006

Florida web host asked to drop ‘kill all Muslim kids’ site

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rightwing HowlerThe Tampa, Fla., office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Tampa) is calling on an Internet web hosting company in that state to drop a hate site that supports calls to “kill all Muslim kids”.

Under the headline, “Love Your Kids? Fear For Their Future? Kill All Muslim Kids!!!!”, the website’s owner, who lives in the Tampa area, wrote: “Makes sense to me. After all, if Muslims are raising their little crumb-snatching, curtain climbing, ankle biting rug rats to strap on bombs in order to kill us, it is logically correct to assume that in order to stop that from happening we need to kill all Muslim kids. Starting now.”

Other entries on the site contain obscene and hate-filled attacks on Islam and Muslims, as well as support for violent actions. One entry states: “It’s bad enough some [expletive deleted] in Minnesota elect a Muslim to Congress but the people in Michigan might have done them one better… Start sticking [sic] up on guns and ammo. The war will start soon.”

In a letter to Boca Raton-based Hostgator.com LLC, CAIR-Tampa Executive Director Ahmed Bedier wrote: “While we respect an individual’s right to freedom of speech, we oppose hate-filled speech that calls for violence against innocent people. . .It’s clear that [the website is] in violation of your company’s ‘Terms of Service’ agreement which states: ‘…Any material that, in our judgment, is obscene or threatening is prohibited and will be removed from our servers with or without notice.’ The agreement also clearly defines ‘hate sites’ under ‘Examples of unacceptable material.'”

Bedier asked Hostgator to stop hosting the site. He noted that CAIR had raised concerns about the anti-Muslim site at a local forum on hate crimes in November.

CAIR press release, 14 December 2006

Over 100 prisons identified worldwide for illegal detention in ‘War on Terror’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Disappearances in the War on Terror have formed an integral part of the Bush administration’s programme of secret detention.

This latest report by Cageprisoners: Beyond the Law: The War on Terror’s Secret Network of Global Detentions, highlights the wide-reaching extent of those countries that house these detainees, generally at the behest of the US government. The report shows that out of the 120 prisons identified worldwide, 72 have been, or are currently being used by the US to interrogate detainees.

By piecing together statements of released detainees, work of investigative journalists and human rights organisations, we provide the most definitive and up to date list of prisons used in the “War on Terror”.

Commenting on the findings of the report, Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, wrote, “… Cageprisoners publishes a comprehensive report which reveals the systematic practice of enforced disappearances in a global network of secret places of detention.”

Further the Chair of the British Institute of Human Rights, Geoffrey Bindman, states that in the policies of the War on Terror, “This report is directed at one glaringly disgraceful element in that strategy: the detention without charge or trial and the physical abuse of those suspected of involvement in terrorism.”

Cageprisoners press release, 13 December 2006

‘Muslim Ellison should not sit in Congress’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Keith EllisonAnd you thought Dennis Prager was a raving bigot. His attack on US Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison comes over as quite mild and restrained in comparison with this piece by one Roy Porter:

“Enough evidence exists for Congress to question Ellison’s qualifications to be a member of Congress as well as his commitment to the Constitution in view of his apparent determination to embrace the Quran and an Islamic philosophy directly contrary to the principles of the Constitution. But common sense alone dictates that in the midst of a war with Islamic terrorists we should not place someone in a position of great power who shares their doctrine. In 1943, we would never have allowed a member of Congress to take their oath on ‘Mein Kampf’, or someone in the 1950s to swear allegiance to the ‘Communist Manifesto’. Congress has the authority and should act to prohibit Ellison from taking the congressional oath today!”

World Net Daily, 13 December 2006