Islam cartoon student apologises for offence

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Cambridge University student who sparked a huge row when he published anti- Islamic material has issued a grovelling apology. The 19-year-old second-year Clare College student went into hiding after he printed a cartoon and material satirising religion in college magazine Clareification. Cartoons which had sparked worldwide protests in the Muslim community were reprinted in the edition. The college has promised to take action to prevent a similar incident occurring.

Part of the student’s apology read: “I understand that this edition has caused deep offence and hurt to very many people, both inside and outside Clare, through its derogatory references to individuals and also to various groups, including women, Jews, Christians and Muslims.”

Asim Mumtaz, president of Cambridge’s Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, welcomed the apology, and said he was satisfied with the way the college had dealt with the situation. He said: “Religion teaches us that God is merciful and forgives, and we should forgive others as well, so long as this student realised the impact of their actions and that this was wrong. This student has a full life ahead of him and if he had been thrown out of the university that would have had a huge impact.”

Cambridge Evening News, 16 April 2007

Posted in UK

UK Muslims ‘more loyal than most’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims in the UK are more likely to identify strongly with Britain and have confidence in its institutions than the population as a whole, a poll suggests. The survey says they are also more likely to take a positive view of living side-by-side with people of different races and religions.

The majority of Muslims do not believe the veil is a barrier to integration – unlike most of the wider population.

Gallup interviewed 500 Muslims and 1,200 members of the wider population. The full results of the survey – described as the most comprehensive poll on Muslims and non-Muslims to date – will be published later this week.

Fifty-seven per cent of the Muslims polled said they identified strongly with their country, compared with 48% of the general public. Muslims were also more likely to express confidence in the police (78% to 69%), national government (64% to 36%), the justice system (67% to 55%) and elections (73% to 60%).

Nearly three-quarters of the Muslims said they felt loyal to the UK, and 82% said they respected other religions. But just 45% of the wider population said Muslims living in the UK were loyal to the nation, and only 55% said they were respectful.

The poll found the general public were more likely to prefer living in a neighbourhood made up mostly of people who shared their religious or ethnic background (35%) than Muslims were (25%).

Only 13% of British Muslims said they believed that women removing the veil was necessary for integration, compared with 55% of the wider population.

BBC News, 15 April 2007

Reported in the Sunday Telegraph under the headline “Muslims will not waver over veils”.

Update:  See “European Muslims show no conflict between religious and national identities”, Gallup, 26 April 2007

German media, politicians launch chauvinist campaign over ‘Muslim takeover’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Spiegel Mekka DeutschlandCampaigns alleging that a nation is being ‘swamped’ by foreigners have always been part of the repertoire of right-wing extremist politics. The influx of immigrants, their culture and language is regarded as a threat to one’s ‘own’ people and – depending upon which version is being promulgated – Western or German culture.

In recent times, the danger of being ‘swamped’ has been replaced by that of a ‘Muslim-takeover’, with the difference, however, that such agitation is not limited to right-wing extremist circles. Magazines such as Der Spiegel, Christian Democratic and Social Democratic politicians, and former liberals or leftwing intellectuals have now joined in the chorus.

Der Spiegel appeared on March 26 with the headline, “Mecca Germany. The quiet Muslim takeover.” The front page showed the familiar sight of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, swathed in darkness with the Islamic crescent moon and star above.

Regular Spiegel columnist Franz Josef Wagner commented, “Our symbols of justice wear a headscarf or a burka. What sort of country do we live in that our laws are no longer valid?”

The deputy chairman of the Christian Democratic Union’s (CDU) parliamentary faction Wolfgang Bosbach told the press he had long feared “the fact that we are gradually importing moral values from other cultures into Germany, even making them the basis of the legal system.”

The feminist Alice Schwarzer opined that the German legal system had “for a long time, been systematically infiltrated by Islamist forces” and Edmund Stoiber, the Bavarian state premier and Christian Social Union (CSU) chairman, warned, the “rule of law in Germany” should not “kow-tow to the Koran” or let itself be “undermined.”

What has occasioned this extreme agitation? It revolves around a divorce case being heard by the Family Court in Frankfurt am Main, in which a German woman of Moroccan origin wants to divorce her Moroccan husband.

World Socialist Web Site, 14 April 2007

Study exposes discrimination against Muslim prisoners

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Prison barsThe Prison Service’s attempts to curb the growth of radical Islam in jails by restricting communal prayers and reading of the Qur’an during work breaks are exacerbating the problem, according to the first in-depth study of Muslim prisoners. The research, based on interviews with 170 current and former Muslim prisoners, also reveals that bans on access to certain TV programmes and newspapers in high-security prisons have also backfired.

The four-year research project by Aberdeen University anthropologist Gabriele Marranci also finds that a small minority of former young Muslim offenders are vulnerable to recruitment by militant organisations as a result of their prison experiences. “I found no evidence to suggest that the Muslim chaplains are behaving or preaching in a way that facilitates radicalisation,” said Dr Marranci. “On the contrary, my findings suggest that they are extremely important in preventing dangerous forms of extremism. However, the distrust that they face, both internally and externally, is jeopardising their important function.”

The research shows that Muslim prisoners were subject to stricter surveillance than other inmates, especially when they adopted religious symbols such as beards, veils and caps: “Growing a beard is, in almost all establishments I visited, interpreted as ‘radicalisation’ of the individual,” said Dr Marranci, a lecturer in the anthropology of religion. He warns that the continuing atmosphere of suspicion surrounding Muslim prisoners increases a sense of frustration and depression which a strong view of Islam can help to overcome.

Guardian, 13 April 2007.

Florida mosque burns – arson suspected

Posted on by Bob Pitt

TAMPA – The fire melted the mosque’s photographs, burned the thick, green carpet down to bare concrete. A pile of singed prayer rugs sat on the floor. Bookcases along a wall held dozens of scorched Korans. Outside, investigators discovered a can of gasoline, said Hillsborough Fire Rescue spokesman Ray Yeakley.

Someone deliberately set fire Thursday morning to the Islamic Education Center of Tampa, a mosque tucked into a neighborhood of tidy suburban homes in Town ‘N Country, according to Hillsborough Fire Rescue and the FBI. Whether hate fueled the fire remained under investigation, said FBI Special Agent Dave Couvertier.

The arsonist found the building empty when the blaze began about 9:30 a.m. Fire crews say someone poured gasoline in a window and set it ablaze. A neighbor called 911, and fire crews controlled the fire within 20 minutes, Yeakley said.

The fire stunned Hamid Faraji, one of the center’s leaders. He wondered why someone would burn a place of worship. But, he said, the fire won’t disrupt religious services. “Even if we had a tent and had to operate out of a tent, I don’t believe something as materialistic as that should stop education,” said Faraji.

There’s been trouble before at the mosque, a block building on Rockpointe Drive. In July 2005, burglars vandalized the building. They burned two pictures on the wall. No one was arrested. There also have been two minor break-ins – the most recent was nine months ago – where people shifted things around inside the building, said Ahmed Bedier, spokesman for the Tampa office of the Council on American Islamic Relations.

There are those with concerns about the mosque, said Bruce Tokarski, 26, a neighbor. “Some of the neighbors seem kind of freaked out about it,” he said. “I think there’s a racist assumption that just because they’re Muslim they could be involved in, you know, terrorism.”

Tampa Bay Times, 13 April 2007

Hundreds send the message ‘not on this campus’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

HAMILTON – A clear message has been delivered this afternoon on the campus of McMaster University. Dozens of community, labour and student groups banding together to say no to racism. The Hamilton District Labour Council’s Don Fraser among those speaking out, after anti-islamic graffiti was spray-painted on the office door of a professor who organized a recent event promoting diversity. Fraser calling an injury to one, an injury to all. McMaster President Dr. Peter George also spoke to the gathering saying islamophobia, anti-semitism and racism will not be tolerated “on this campus”.

AM900-CHML, 13 April 2007

Asylum seeker and baby sexually attacked in Glasgow

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Algerian woman and her one-year-old baby were sexually assaulted in broad daylight in Glasgow in a racially aggravated attack.

The 33-year-old woman was pushing her son in his pram through the Yoker area of the city when a group of young men threw stones at them and kicked the woman. One man then exposed himself, indecently assaulted the woman and attempted to perform an indecent act on the one-year-old boy.

The woman, who cannot be identified, had her headscarf torn from her head. She escaped by snatching her son from his pram and running away, leaving behind the pram, headscarf and a baby’s bottle.

She took her son to hospital and he was released later that day. Her son was assaulted but she rescued him before the man could commit any sexual act.

Police are appealing for the young men involved to come forward and identify the man who committed the assault. The suspect is described as a white male, aged 20 to 25, with very short hair, who is tall and thin. He was wearing white and blue track suit trousers.

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Police probe racist slurs sprayed on prof’s door

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Racist graffiti at McMasterA McMaster University professor who organized a campus day in support of Muslim students says racial slurs sprayed onto her office door have left her in complete shock.

Hamilton police have launched a hate crime investigation into the racist attack condemned by Hamilton’s Muslim community and McMaster officials. Investigators believe the incident is a backlash against last week’s Wear a Hijab Day, an event organized by associate French professor Muriel Walker to help sensitize people about Islam.

“What have I done, not just to deserve this, but to inspire this kind of strong reaction?” she said. “I am still in disbelief.”

Campus cleaning staff discovered the racist and profane graffiti on Walker’s door early Tuesday morning. They also found copies of controversial Danish editorial cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed glued to her door.

“Did I really do something that bad to trigger this whole hysteria?” Walker said

Hamilton Spectator, 12 April 2007

See also “Hate graffiti targets McMaster professor”, Toronto Star, 12 April 2007

Update:  See “Racist cowards at work”, Toronto Star, 13 April 2007

And “McMaster professor was targeted before, she says”, Globe & Mail, 14 April 2007