Category Archives: Women

Anti-Muslim hate crime on rise in Wales

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim woman has described her fear during a racist attack on her Cardiff home, as a UK-wide study into the effects of hate crime is launched.

The £100,000 Victim Support research project aims to develop new guidelines and support for victims of hate and race crime. It comes as Muslims in Wales face rising levels of violence and intimidation after the London bombings. In July, animal parts and a racist letter were left at a Cardiff mosque. And on Wednesday, a Muslim woman, who did not want to be identified, told BBC Wales how her home had been attacked last week.

She said: “We were sitting in our living room when we heard this man shouting outside our door. He was throwing things, picking up stones from our front garden and throwing them at our door and our window. And then he smashed a section of our double-glazed window. He was shouting [a series of abusive names]. It was quite scary, because we didn’t know what he had. My niece was sleeping in the front room.

“We don’t feel secure at all. When you are in the house you are always fearing whether someone will come in or try and force their way in. They can do anything, they can put things in our letter boxes. And when you go out, you are always paranoid, always looking around and people do give you funny looks anyway, especially since the London bombings.

“You kind of think ‘I shouldn’t wear traditional clothing just in case somebody makes a comment, I’d rather fit in with the crowd and look more westernised’ and I don’t like doing that. I’m British but I’m also Pakistani. I’m Muslim and that’s my culture.”

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VA Muslim attacked by men shouting racist slurs

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called on law enforcement authorities to treat an assault this morning on a Virginia Muslim woman as a hate crime.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reported that a 23-year-old Muslim woman, who is 8 months pregnant and wears and Islamic head scarf, said she was out for her morning walk in Arlington, Va., when three white men in a pick-up truck began screaming anti-Muslim and racist slurs at her. According to the victim, the men shouted, “You terrorist b*tch, go back to your country. . .You n*gger b*tch.” (The woman is African-American.) The truck drove away and then returned as the woman continued on her walk. One of the men, who was wearing military-style clothing, allegedly got out of the vehicle and began shoving the woman and preventing her from moving away. During the assault, he shouted, “You terrorist b*tch. . . We’re going to kick your a*s. . . you’re nothing.” The other men then called the attacker back to the truck and it sped off.

“We believe these types of incidents are the direct result of the growing level of virulent anti-Muslim rhetoric Americans are exposed to on the Internet, in newspaper editorial pages and on radio talk shows,” said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. “Our nation’s political and religious leaders must begin to challenge Islamophobic hate-mongers.” Hooper noted that a Washington, D.C., radio talk show host was recently suspended without pay for stating repeatedly that “Islam is a terrorist organization.” He added that an Illinois man was arrested just last Friday for threatening to bomb CAIR’s Capitol Hill headquarters. In July, a national council of American Muslim religious scholars issued a “fatwa,” or formal Islamic legal ruling, against terrorism and religious extremism. That fatwa has been endorsed by some 200 Islamic groups, leaders and institutions.

CAIR news release, 9 August 2005

Telegraph readers debate hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hijab is Our RightAs you might anticipate, there is the usual racist crap: “… the real intention of this apparel is to denigrate women and deny them their individuality. As a Western woman, I regard this apparel as insulting to my sex, my religious beliefs and my cultural mores. If Muslims wish to enjoy the manifold benefits of living in the West, they must both respect and observe our customs as well as our rules.” (Katherine Barlow, Vienna, Austria)

However, some letter writers take a very different line:

“It will be a very poor outcome for all of us if we, the British people, allow ourselves to be manipulated by this campaign into attacking Muslim women. I would hope that the ideals inherent in the whole of our British culture would continue to respect women of all races, colours and creeds. Whatever these terrorists think, we are now a multicultural society…. Muslim women should not discard their hijabs. Otherwise the terrorists will have won.” (Geoffrey Collingwood, Brackley, Northants)

“Katherine Barlow (Letters, Aug 5) regards Muslim women’s apparel as an insult to her mores. I am English and have lived here all my life. I prefer not to wear the cleavage-displaying, thigh-revealing garb favoured by many of my compatriots. If I can choose to dress how I please, why on earth should Muslim women be criticised for similar choices?” (Linda Garrett, Potters Bar, Herts)

Daily Telegraph, 5 August and 8 August 2005

It’s a disturbing thought that there are Torygraph readers who take a much more progressive position on this issue than many liberals do.

The price of multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“If young Muslim women have embraced the hijab as a badge of identity in a way their mothers never did, as a public political symbol, this is more a result of the demands of British multiculturalism than a spontaneous assertion of allegiance. Furthermore, the distinctive character of the identity promoted by multiculturalism is the identity of victim. In the world of multiculturalism, claims of victimhood provide the basis for recognition and status. Thus British Muslims proclaim a litany of persecutions and humiliations of Muslims around the world – in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Israel, in Bosnia – as the justification for their sense of grievance and their claim to a privileged position in the hierarchy of victimhood…. But the cult of victimhood in Britain has merely a vicarious relationship with the sufferings of people in Iraq or Palestine – its real origins are to be found in Britain. In the competitive struggle for prestige (and state resources) unleashed by multiculturalism, every minority must justify its claim by elevating its sufferings…. Muslims inflate every personal slight into a manifestation of Islamophobia.”

Another rant by Mark Steyn in the Telegraph, perhaps? No, it’s ex-RCPer Michael Fitzpatrick.

Spiked Online, 5 August 2005

Anti-Muslim hatred transcends hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

IHRC is deeply concerned at the message being sent out by Zaki Badawi’s attributed statement that Muslim women should remove their hijab to avoid being attacked in the wake of 7/7. The devastating rise in faith hate crimes post 7/7 cannot simply be linked to the wearing of hijab. Whilst incidents against Muslim women have risen, it is worth noting that there have been many complaints both by women who do not wear hijab and also women who are not Muslim but who have been mistaken to be Muslim.

IHRC press release, 4 August 2005

British Muslims feel backlash after bomb attacks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“You filthy Muslim dogs. You will be torched this Friday. Many Muslim pigs will burn,” the hand-scrawled note reads.

At a recently vandalised mosque in the east of Britain’s capital, a shocked 65-year-old Siddique Ali handles one example of hate mail targeting British Muslims after the deadly bomb attacks on London’s transport system on 7 July.

“We are afraid,” said Ali, a member of the committee which runs the mosque. “These people are giving us warnings. But if they came in front of us we could give a reply or try to understand, but they are not coming.”

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Faith hate hotline launched as attacks on Muslims increase

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The police are to launch an emergency hotline to report “faith hate” attacks after a steep rise in abuse and assaults on Muslims in London in the wake of the suicide bombings.

Police reports seen by The Independent on Sunday show the number of attacks in the capital rose to more than 20 a day after the first bombings on 7 July. The police have recorded 230 religious hatred offences in the past three weeks.

After the first blasts and the attempted bombings two weeks later, racist attacks more than doubled to a peak of nearly 60 a day. The police have logged more than 800 racist crimes since the first bombings, reversing a long downward trend.

Somali Muslim women, who tend to wear long robes and hijab head-coverings, have been singled out after it emerged several of the suspected bombers arrested last week are of East African origin. One woman had her hijab torn off.

The new hotline will be set up tomorrow by the Met’s Assistant Commissioner Tariq Ghaffur. Mr Ghaffur, the most senior Asian and Muslim policeman, said there had been a “very substantial increase” in faith crimes in London.

There had also been an increase in the severity of attacks. “What used to be abuse has now escalated into assault. What was minor damage could escalate into a lot more serious damage. I think that is trend across the country,” he said.

Mr Ghaffur will ask people to report incidents to the hotline because he fears some ethnic and religious minorities could “retreat” and not report incidents to the police. “Quite clearly, we fear there will be an escalation,” he said.

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Minister backs school hijab appeal

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, is to back the appeal of a school found guilty of discriminating against a student for wearing strict Islamic dress.

Shabina Begum, 16, claimed a victory for all Muslims in March when she won a landmark Court of Appeal ruling that Denbigh High School in Luton had unlawfully excluded her for flouting its uniform policy by wearing a jilbab, which leaves only the hands and face exposed.

Miss Begum said at the time of the ruling that the schools decision had been caused by an atmosphere in which Islam was a target for vilification in the name of the War on Terror.

The Court of Appeal said that Miss Begums human rights had been infringed because she had been denied the right to education and to manifest her religious beliefs.

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British Muslim women respect fatwa, keep hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

While respecting a recent fatwa by a leading British Muslim scholar allowing them to take off hijab to avoid spiraling harassment, a number of young British Muslim women said they would keep their religious dress code and seek police protection against racists.

“As a British citizen I have every right to wear my hijab, which is part of my Muslim identity,” Yusra, a University of London student, told IslamOnline.net by phone. “If harassed because of my religion, I would immediately resort to the Metropolitan Police to protect me from racists.”

She maintained that taking off her hijab would be tantamount to giving in to extremists and racists “who would not stop at that”.

Islam Online, 30 July 2005