Muslim woman PC could face sack says Mail

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“A Muslim woman police officer has sparked a new debate by refusing to shake hands with Britain’s most senior police chief for religious reasons. The incident happened at a passing-out parade where Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair was inspecting a line-up of 200 recruits…. An inquiry has now been launched and the unidentified WPC – described as ‘a non-Asian Muslim’ – could face the sack if it is considered that her strict religious beliefs prevent her performing as an effective police officer.”

Mail on Sunday, 21 January 2007

Postscript:  Brett Lock of Outrage offers the following advice to the WPC: “act reasonably, or find another occupation.”

Harry’s Place, 22 January 2007

Meanwhile one of Brett’s fellow bloggers is extending his range of prejudices from Islamophobia to homophobia. David T, commenting on the Clash of Civilisations conference which he refused to attend, writes that he “missed the opportunity to see Oliver Kamm in discussion with the Islamist activist, Inayat Bunglawala, and Linda Bellos: a former politician whose name is an anagram of ‘lesbian doll’.”

Harry’s Place, 22 January 2007

Californian Islamophobes disrupt talk on Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stockton anti-Muslim hecklerOne woman was forced to leave early in the two-hour program after she accused guest speaker Tarek Mourad of lying, yelling that Islam’s holy book teaches Muslims to kill Jews and Christians and that Muslims are trying to take over the Western world.

Another was nearly arrested by Stockton Police Chief Wayne Hose, who said he came to the talk on his day off to learn more about Islam. The woman, who would only give her name as Barbara, handed out photocopied pages from a book critical of Islam and on numerous occasions interrupted Mourad’s talk to read passages about Islam that conflicted with her Christian views.

Hose finally called a police officer to the library in case the interruptions continued and after “Barbara” asked if he was Christian. “Don’t talk to me,” Hose told her, rejecting her offer of anti-Muslim reading material. “I can’t hear what he (Mourad) has to say.”

Mourad, an engineer from Santa Clara, was invited to the Chavez Library after making a similar presentation in Tracy. He explained the six basic beliefs, including a belief in God and a day of judgment, to the five “pillars” of Islam, such as praying five times a day and making a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam.

His presentation, which happened to be on the Muslim New Year, turned to near chaos during the question-and-answer session. Hose and librarian Mary Jo Gohlke, who organizes adult programs at the library, each nearly pulled “Barbara” from the audience of nearly 70 people after she wouldn’t stop reading aloud. Barbara recommended the audience read “Islam and Terrorists,” issued by a company that publishes Christian-themed books and written by a convert from Islam to Christianity.

“Just go back and listen to Pat Robertson on TV,” yelled one man, who walked out in a huff.

Stockton Record, 21 January 2007

You’ll note that the book the anti-Muslim heckler is brandishing is Walid Shoebat’s Why I Left Jihad.

Whose ‘Aussie values’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“John Howard’s government is using the idea of protecting ‘Aussie values’ – such as ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ – to justify both its brutal foreign policies, such as its participation in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and its attempts to criminalise political dissent. The Coalition, aided by some state Labor governments and the media, has been whipping up Islamophobia and racism, trying to convince us that this is consistent with ‘Australian values’. …

“The resurgence of racism and nationalism is not unique to Australia; it is happening in nearly every advanced capitalist country. First World governments are using racism and Islamophobia to win public support for – or at least passive acceptance of – their big attacks on working conditions and civil liberties….

“Recognising that, in fact, we are all under the same whip is the essential basis for moving forward, towards a just world in which everyone stands for values that are universal, that reflect and safeguard the needs and interests of the great majority of people in all nations.”

Green Left Weekly, 20 January 2007

Dispatches and the demonisation of Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“This week, Channel 4 broadcast a very controversial documentary, Dispatches: Undercover Mosque, which appeared to have a clear agenda to demonise Muslims and incite fear of and hatred against them. Preachers’ statements were taken completely out of context … that a mainstream figure like Lord Nazir Ahmad was even castigated as having extremist tendencies indicated the immense bias which ran throughout the documentary.

“Moreover, by singling out Muslims for demonisation for holding beliefs shared by many other religious communities, the programme’s inherent Islamophobia was all too clear to see. Certain Muslim beliefs which were negatively portrayed as the doctrine of extremists are actually shared by Judaism and Christianity.”

Fahad Ansari at Open Minds, 19 January 2007

Muslims can never be British say fascists, citing Dispatches programme

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP Islam Out of Britain“Gordon Brown today signalled that his first task as Prime Minister would be to get Muslims to rally around a ‘Churchillian’ pride in Britain. Admitting that he expected to take over from Tony Blair this year, the Chancellor said that he wanted to promote a ‘modern patriotism’ as an alternative to Islamic extremism. Mr. Brown said: ‘I believe we can do more to separate some Muslims from the dark forces that they can be susceptible to.’

“His apparent lack of understanding of the word ‘patriotism’ is a characteristic symbol of the vapid thinking of desperate liberal-leftists clinging onto power. Patriotism is loyalty to one’s own country and one’s own nation. Muslims can never be part of the British family of nations – they will always be outsiders because that is the basis of their faith, thus any attempt, which Brown doesn’t detail, to force Muslims to be patriotic to Britain is futile from the outset.

“Clearly Gordo didn’t get to see the C4 Dispatches documentary broadcast on Monday evening. The voice of ‘moderate’ Muslims in that programme confirmed what many have known for a long time. One is either a Muslim or one isn’t. There are no moderate or extremist Muslims, all Muslims believe in the writings of the Prophet laid down in the Koran and accept the struggle to achieve total domination of the world’s free people under the embrace of Islam.”

BNP news article, 19 January 2007

Like ‘a cheap Fox News report’ – Press Gazette on Undercover Mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Zoe Smith reviews the Channel 4 Dispatches “documentary” Undercover Mosque:

The reporter attended talks at mosques run by key organisations claiming to be ‘mainstream’and found preachers condemning integration, democracy and homosexuality. The hour limped on with little new or revealing information. So some Muslims hate non-Muslims. Some Christians hate gays and some Jews hate Arabs, but broadcasters don’t feel the need to make hour-long programmes insinuating that entire religions are to be mistrusted.

The irritating background music, which cranked into gear whenever a preacher used the word kaffir or kuffr, gave the feel of a cheap Fox News report. Patronising in the extreme, the decision to make dramatic cuts to footage of women in hijabs and burkhas whenever ignorant mullahs spouted off about male supremacy, was bewildering. Does Dispatches think the majority of viewers equate the hijab with the subjugation of women? I expected a huge pay-off. ‘Our programme has uncovered bigotry and intolerance,’ it concluded. What else would one expect from an hour-long programme about religion?

Press Gazette, 18 January 2007

Anti-Muslim incidents on the rise at Ontario college

Posted on by Bob Pitt

McMaster University’s director of human rights and equity services is worried that racism and Islamophobia are growing on campus. Mark Walma said it is often subtle but it is affecting the environment for the school’s minorities, which include 1,500 students who are Muslim. He organized a seminar on campus yesterday to address the problem. It was attended by about 100 students. “We’ve been tracking an alarming number of racist incidents ranging from derogatory comments and opinions expressed by students and faculty to physical violence against Arab and Muslim students and it’s not a healthy climate for studying or working,” says Walma.

Hamilton Spectator, 19 January 2007

31% back MCB over ‘Genocide Day’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Remember how Islamophobic commentators attacked the Muslim Council of Britain because it argued that Holocaust Memorial Day was too narrow and instead advocated commemorating a wider “Genocide Day”? Melanie Phillips claimed that this was proof of “the open anti-Jewish hatred of supposedly mainstream Muslims“, while Peter Tatchell declared that the MCB’s stance “reeks of prejudice and hypocrisy“.

Well, a YouGov poll (pdf) commissioned by the Jewish Chronicle has found that 35% of respondents agreed that “the main focus of Holocaust Memorial Day should be to commemorate the victims of Nazi persecution”, while 31% said that “the day should be renamed ‘Genocide Day’, and be used to commemorate the victims of all persecution throughout the world”.

So, there’s evidently an awful lot of anti-semites reeking of prejudice and hypocrisy out there.

Postcript:  I should perhaps add that personally I think the MCB (who reportedly are currently discussing their position on this issue) are mistaken in boycotting Holocaust Memorial Day. My point here is that their motivation is not anti-semitic.

24 under fire from Muslim groups

Posted on by Bob Pitt

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”.

BBC News, 19 January 2007