Damaging relations with the Muslim community

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Relations between Muslims and police in central Scotland have been battered by the country’s first al-Qaeda-linked terrorist case, with community leaders claiming the investigation has created mistrust and ‘left a bad taste in the mouth’. They are angry at the way Mohammed Atif Siddique’s family was treated. His parents, brothers – one of whom was 13 – and 15-year-old sister were shackled by police who raided the family home in Alva, Clackmannanshire.”

Scotsman, 19 September 2007

Note the casual reference to Mohammed Atif Siddique as an “al-Qaeda-linked terrorist”, which takes things to a new level of absurdity – and demonstrates that the police are not exactly alone in damaging relations with Scotland’s Muslim community.

ACLU, Muslims sue FBI over records

Posted on by Bob Pitt

FBI logoThe American Civil Liberties Union and Muslim advocacy groups sued the FBI and the Justice Department on Tuesday, alleging that authorities failed to turn over records detailing suspected surveillance of the Muslim-American community.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, alleges that the FBI has turned over only four pages of documents to community leaders, despite a Freedom of Information Act request filed more than a year ago.

The request sought records that described FBI guidelines and policies for surveillance and investigation of Muslim religious organizations, as well as specific information about FBI inquiries targeting 11 groups or people. The lawsuit states that all the plaintiffs – who include some of the most prominent Muslim leaders in California – have reason to believe they have been investigated by the FBI since January 2001.

The groups filed an initial FOIA request in May 2006, several months after federal law enforcement officials confirmed the existence of a classified radiation monitoring program used in surveillance at mosques, homes and businesses. The FBI responded to the request first by saying it couldn’t identify any records that met the criteria requested.

After an appeal, the agency turned over four pages that dealt with the Council of American-Islamic Relations and Hussam Ayloush, the council’s executive director for Southern California. Those documents dealt with a suspected hate crime at a mosque that the council had reported to the FBI and a conversation Ayloush had with an FBI agent about cooperating with federal law enforcers.

Ayloush, who said he is questioned by federal agents every time he flies internationally, said he had hoped the FOIA request would help him determine why he is stopped. “Either … we’re being stopped because we’re Muslims – which is morally wrong – or the government must have some erroneous info linked to me that I need to be able to clear,” he said.

Associated Press, 19 September 2007

Siddique trial was a travesty of justice

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The media this morning are asking ‘Guilty… But is Siddique really a terrorist?’ Of course Mohammed Atif Siddique isn’t a terrorist. With a prosecution case that sought to manipulate the emotions of the jury, and terrorism laws so ill-drafted that it seems they can mean anything at all, the jury can hardly be blamed for getting it wrong. But even under our Kafka-esque laws it makes no sense to call this young man a terrorist, and it is to be hoped that the argument will be taken successfully to the appeal court. The case has been a travesty of justice from start to finish.”

SACC press release, 18 September 2007

Scary Muslims in the Times of London

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Arthur Dudney responds to the recent anti-Deobandi witch-hunt in the Times:

“Who are these dreaded ‘Islamists’ destroying Britain from within? Well, they’re Deobandis, which probably means little to non-Muslim Britons. The Deobandi movement is an Islamic revivalist movement founded in the northern Indian town of Deoband in the mid-nineteenth century in reaction to the failure of Indian society to mount an effective opposition to British colonialism….

“As someone who studies South Asia and knows something about Islamic revival, I don’t think there is cause for concern over the fact that many Muslim scholars in Britain have Deobandi affiliations. Among the diverse group, there are liberals and conservatives, radicals and centrists. Instead of recognizing this, the Times latches on to Deobandi influence as a convenient explanation for radicalization of British Muslims.

“The worst offender is Andrew Norfolk, whose article ‘A movement fostered by the fear of “imperial” rule’ describes the rise of the Deobandi movement and shifts from a restrained, historical tone to unsubstantiated accusations against the British Muslim community. By playing up the opposition to colonialism, the lede implies that if the Deobandis were hostile to British colonial rule once, then they should also be hostile to modern ‘British values’. Does he really believe that opposing colonialism was about opposing ‘British values’?”

SAJA Forum, 17 September 2007

For an example of the hysteria generated by the Times articles, see the letter in today’s Telegraph by Winston S. Churchill, who writes:

“Not for 70 years has there been a more clear or present danger to our internal security, to our free society and to our democracy, than that posed by this vipers’ nest in our midst. The Deobandi, an ultra- conservative sect, outlaws music, art, television and football, and also demands the entire concealment of women…. When will the Government wake up to this mortal threat which – if not swiftly dealt with – threatens to bring strife and bloodshed to the streets of Britain on a scale far exceeding anything seen in the bombings of recent years?”

MP accused of using gay issues to win Muslim votes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Galloway at Lebanon demoOver at Pink News we’re treated to another of Benjamin Cohen’s favourite “Muslim homophobia” scare stories, this one courtesy of Peter Tatchell, who attacks George Galloway for having included on his website a reference to the voting record of Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick on gay equality.

“George appears to be appeasing homophobic sections of the Muslim community by attacking Jim Fitzpatrick over his support for gay rights,” Tatchell is quoted as saying. “He’s using homophobia to gain political advantage and he is betraying his own past appeal for gay equality…. His apparent volte face is a cynical attempt to win the votes of homophobic factions within the constituency. I’m saddened that he’s using gay rights as a stick to beat his political opponent.”

This statement is quoted from the 14 September issue of the Evening Standard, which to be fair also included the following in its report: “Galloway’s office denies he has changed his position on gay rights and says he doesn’t necessarily disagree with Fitzpatrick’s policies anyway. ‘I don’t think he is doing that’, says a spokesman. ‘He hasn’t changed his mind at all. George has always been in favour of gay rights. He has been entirely consistent and if the website gives a different impression we’ll have to have a look at it’.” Needless to say, this is omitted from the Pink News report.

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‘Scotland’s first home grown Islamic terrorist’

Posted on by Eddie Truman

After a 4 week trial and a 9 hour jury deliberation, Scotland has its first home grown Islamic terrorist plot and plotter.

But without the near impossible to defend charges under the amended Terrorism Act of 2000, it is unlikely that the prosecution would have been able to make a Breach of the Peace charge stick.

As the news of the Siddique verdict came in, the 24 hour news channels put the headline up on their news ticker; “guilty of Islamist terror offences” said both Sky and BBC News 24.

Real Radio news led with “Scotland has its first home grown Islamic terrorist”.

The day after the end of the case saw the Scottish press carry security service sourced stories that they believed Siddique had been intending to carry out a terrorist attack in Canada.

There was no evidence produced in court to back up this far more serious accusation.
Lawyer Aamer Anwar said Siddique was doing what millions of people did every day: “looking for answers on the internet”.

He added: “Atif Siddique states that he is not a terrorist and is innocent of the charges and it is not a crime to be a young Muslim angry at global injustice.”

And that’s the central point in this farce: Siddique was not a terrorist or even a terrorist plotter.

He was an angry young man, angry about the situation Muslims in Palestine and Iraq face.

It was anti-social of him to show people footage he had on his mobile phone and reasonable that he should face a charge of breach of the peace if those people gave evidence that it put them in a state of fear and distress.

But they didn’t give such evidence; they testified that although unpleasant, they didn’t feel threatened.

So without the ludicrous charges of possessing video footage which is to be found without trying very hard on the internet, it is unlikely that Siddique would have even been convicted of a breach of the peace.

But there’s a point that needs to be made here about the people of Glasgow’s previous relationship to and support for terrorism.

All through the Irish war, the “troubles” as they are known, every Friday and Saturday night teams of people would methodically move through the bars and clubs of Glasgow frequented by both Catholics and Protestants and collect money for organisations who were actively involved in acts of violence.

In an era before the internet, predominantly young men would obsessively collect information on the activities of both Protestant and Republican armed groups.

This was something that went on pretty much unhindered by the state and yet in 21st century Scotland to have video footage on a computer of insurgents in Iraq is to be guilty of supporting terrorism.

This verdict will do more to push young, disaffected Muslims into the arms of extremist groups than any number of Jihadist DVDs on sale on the internet.

While right wing extremist groups openly use the internet to threaten groups and individuals with violence, publishing home addresses for example, the police and security services are using the draconian powers available to them to target angry young Muslims with footage from Iraq on their computers.

What we don’t get to hear about are the many family, friends and relatives of such people who are also being arrested and held without charge for days on end under the Terrorism Act, people for whom their only crime is to be a Muslim.

Europe can feel at home with 16m Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“When Italians immigrated to France in the late 19th century, many French be­lieved these often under­educated, religious newcomers would never integrate. Some Italians were killed in race riots, write Jonathan Laurence and Justin Vaisse in their book Integrating Islam. Later, Portuguese, Polish or Jewish immigrants were deemed ‘unable to integrate’ into France, but they did.

“Now the European Union’s 16m or so Muslims are often considered unassimilable. Fifty years after they began arriving in Europe, their rates of joblessness and incarceration remain high. A very small number are fundamentalist terrorists, as in the recently foiled plot in Germany. Muslims also traditionally have more children than native Europeans. Hence the American neo-conservative Norman Podhoretz, in his new book, predicts that western Europe will be ‘conquered from within by Islamofascism’.

“Yet the Financial Times’ recent series of articles on Muslims in Europe showed nothing of the kind. We found that most concerns about Europe’s Muslims were overblown – despite the terrorists – and in time may fade like those ancient fears of Italians.”

Simon Kuper in the Financial Times, 17 September 2007

UCU stands firm against ‘spying’ on Muslim students

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UCU logoAcademics’ union UCU rejected criticism from new Universities Secretary John Denham on Sunday over its refusal to “inform” on Islamic students.

At the union’s conference this spring, delegates overwhelmingly voted to oppose the government’s guidance to universities on how to deal with so-called “radicals” who try to recruit students.

In the guidance last year, ministers urged universities to work with the police to “isolate and challenge the very small minority who promote violent extremism in the name of Islam.” It advised universities how to identify Muslim students suspected of being radicalised by preachers or rogue Islamist societies on campus.

UCU delegates condemned what lecturers described as a “witch-hunt” in which ministers wanted them to “inform on” their students.

But Mr Denham claimed on Sunday that “the opposition from the University and College Union was misplaced. Everybody understands the nature of the threat that we face, which is a threat to people involved in higher education as much as anyone else,” he declared. “All we are trying to do is to make sure that everybody has the strength to ensure that people are not recruited to the sort of organisations which are promoting and organising violence of whatever sort.”

However, a UCU spokesman stressed that the union’s views had not changed since the government’s original guidance was published in November 2006. He said that lecturers supported the view that “campus harmony is achieved by openness, tolerance and dialogue and not focusing on any particular group of students.” UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: “Lecturers want to teach students. If they wanted to police them, they would have joined the force.”

Morning Star, 17 September 2007

See also BBC News, 17 September 2007

Long Island Muslim woman victim of hate crime

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Zohreh Assemi, 50, owns Givan Nail and Skin Center, a high-end nail salon in a cluster of chic stores near Birch Hill Road called The Plaza. At 6:30 a.m. Saturday, Assemi was opening her second-floor shop when two men burst out of a bathroom across the hall. They grabbed her from behind, put a gun to her head and forced her inside, she said. There, they slammed her head on a counter, shoved a towel in her mouth, smashed her hand with a hammer and sliced her face, neck, back and chest with a knife and a box cutter, she said. “They were cursing, ‘ — — Muslim, leave Locust Valley, leave The Plaza. Go back to the place you came from,'” she recalled. They scrawled anti-Muslim messages on her mirrors and tore the place up, she said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations called on the FBI Sunday to investigate the beating as a hate crime. “The bias attack on Zohreh Assemi is an indicator of the rising trend of Islamophobia that is growing in certain segments of American society and is promoted by a small minority of Islamophobes,” said Aliya Latif, civil rights director of the group’s New York chapter. Last year, the group saw a 9 percent increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes across the country, she said.

Newsday, 16 September 2007