Canadian journalism continues to stereotype Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“A quick glance at mainstream Canadian papers these days reveals an incorrigible penchant for cultural racism. Through the use of terms that are not conventionally associated with discrimination, the media is separating Muslims from the rest of society…. In an article titled, ‘How racism has invaded Canada‘, published in the U.K. paper The Independent, celebrated correspondent Robert Fisk precisely elucidates that ‘there are now two types of Canadian citizens: The Canadian-born variety (Muslims) and Canadians (the rest)’.”

Saad Sayeed in Excalibur, 13 September 2006

Muslims must do more to integrate, says Archbishop

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Archbishop of York yesterday urged Muslims to do more to integrate into British society. Dr John Sentamu said Muslims should follow Christian teaching to ‘love thy neighbour’.

The advice came in a lecture in which Dr Sentamu condemned Islamic terrorists as murderers who pervert their faith. But he said that like others who speak out on the subject, he risked being accused of Islamophobia.

Daily Mail, 14 September 2006 

More lies about Qaradawi

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Qaradawi and MayorJonathan Freedland spares a moment from attacking the Mayor of London over his relations with Hugo Chávez to take a swipe at Yusuf al-Qaradawi:

“It’s only on foreign policy that the Mayor gets the chance to strike some of the old, Leftist poses. I am sure that the folk at City Hall are sincere in their admiration for Chavez’s social reforms – but they also love that el presidente styles himself as George W Bush’s great Latin nemesis. Standing next to him gives the Livingstone circle a rush of ideological blood.

“The less forgivable example is the relationship with Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Egyptian cleric still hailed by Livingstone as the voice of moderate Islam – yet who recently added to his earlier positions condoning wife-beating and the stoning of homosexuals with a declaration that today’s Jews bear responsibility for the death of Jesus.

“The Mayor likes al-Qaradawi’s tough line on Israel – the sheikh supports suicide bombings against Israeli civilians – so he ends up hugging a man who bends Islamic theology to take on the vilest tropes of Christian anti-Semitism.”

Evening Standard, 14 September 2006

Except that Qaradawi supports neither wife-beating, nor the stoning of homosexuals nor suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. And the story about Jews bearing responsibility for the death of Jesus originates with the Middle East Media Research Institute – an organisation headed by a former colonel in Israeli military intelligence which has a long history of misrepresenting Qaradawi’s views by publishing carefully selected extracts from his speeches and interviews. By these means MEMRI has been able to “prove”, for example, that Qaradawi believed the victims of the tsunami deserved to die and that he argued it was a duty for Muslims to become suicide bombers in Iraq.

You can see why a right-wing rag like the Evening Standard hires a supposedly liberal journalist like Freedland to write for them. His standards of journalistic integrity fit right in with theirs.

US senator rejects Bush’s ‘Islamic fascists’ slur

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold called on President Bush to refrain from using the phrase “Islamic fascists,” saying it was offensive to Muslims and has nothing to do with terrorists fighting the United States.”We must avoid using misleading and offensive terms that link Islam with those who subvert this great religion or who distort its teachings to justify terrorist activities,” Feingold said Tuesday in a speech to the Arab American Institute on Capitol Hill.

The Wisconsin senator, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, said the label “Islamic fascists” makes no sense and doesn’t help the U.S. effort to combat terrorism. “Fascist ideology doesn’t have anything to do with the way global terrorist networks think or operate, and it doesn’t have anything to do with the overwhelming majority of Muslims around the world who practice the peaceful teachings of Islam,” Feingold said.

Associated Press, 12 September 2006

Stand by for a denunciation at Dhimmi Watch.

Attacks on multicultural Britain pave the way for enforced assimilation

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Now, after 7/7, despite the discovery that the suicide bombers were homegrown and wholly British, the thinking in the UK is to embrace the backward and undoubtedly Islamophobic discourse issuing from mainland Europe. Cultural pluralism has gone too far; it threatens our values and our national safety. A line has to be drawn on difference. Ethnic minorities have now, in the domestic context of the war on terror, effectively to subsume their cultural heritage within Britishness.

“Going against the grain of its history, the UK has taken a leaf out of Europe’s monoculturalist book and descended into nativism – conflating multiculturalism with culturalism and ethnicism, assimilation with integration, and extolling British values to the exclusion of all others – foreshadowing a monolithic society and a centralised state.”

A. Sivanandan in the Guardian, 13 September 2006

An interesting article, though some might question his negative view of ’80s multiculturalism. But the last bit hits the nail on the head.

Church sign stirs anger in Florida

Posted on by Bob Pitt

muslims can convert“Muslims can convert to Christianity here!” read the sign Monday in front of the Congregational Church on Laurel Road. It was an invitation that the church’s pastor, K.C. McCay, admitted he didn’t expect anyone to accept. But coming on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it was bound to stir a response. And it did.

“If church leaders are really interested in saving people, they would find much less offensive ways to do it,” said Ahmed Bedier, director of the Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “Religious leaders are adding fuel to the fire. It’s a shame.”

The church, which was founded by McCay’s father in 1977, has between 50 and 100 members, depending on the time of year. It is a conservative church that views Christianity as the only path to God. “We will not vary from that,” McCay said. “If Muslims want us to water it down, that might be all right for you, but we’re not biting.”

HeraldTribune.com, 12 September 2006

Workers’ Liberty rejects MCB-TUC alliance

Posted on by Bob Pitt

You might have thought that the TUC/MCB joint statement opposing Islamophobia and encouraging Muslim workers to join trade unions would be welcomed by all anti-racists as a progressive alliance between the labour movement and an oppressed minority community. But apparently not. Over at the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, Janine Booth complains: “the statement was a liberal mush through which the MCB gets itself a new ally and the TUC promotes a religious organisation with an anti-gay stance.”

AWL website, 12 September 2006

Pope pontificates on Islam and jihad

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict stepped into the controversy over Islam and violence Tuesday, citing historic Christian commentary on holy war and forced conversion.

The German Roman Catholic Pope quoted from a book recounting a conversation between a 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and an educated Persian on the truths of Christianity and Islam.

“The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war,” the Pope said. “He said, I quote, ‘Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached’.”

Toronto Star, 12 September 2006

Pope Benedict XVI weighed on the delicate issue of rapport between Islam and the West. He said that violence, embodied in the Muslim idea of jihad, or holy war, is contrary to reason and God’s plan, while the West was so beholden to reason that Islam could not understand it. In a major lecture at Regensburg University in Germany, where he taught theology from1969 to 1977, he said Christianity was tightly linked to reason and contrasted this view with those who believe in spreading their faith by the sword.

Several Vatican watchers believe the Pope’s speech seemed to reflect the struggle of Vatican over how to confront Islam and terrorism. The 79-year-old Pope pursues what is often considered a more provocative, hard-nosed and skeptical approach to Islam than his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. In his speech, the Pope used language open to interpretations that could inflame Muslims, at a time of high tension among religions and three months before he makes a trip to Turkey.

TimesNow.tv, 13 September 2006

See also Islam Online, 13 September 2006

Robert Spencer applauds this example of “anti-dhimmitude from Pope Benedict XVI”.

Dhimmi Watch, 13 September 2006

5 years on, US Muslims decry prejudice

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Five years after the terrorist 9/11 attacks, many American Muslims complain they continue to face discrimination and stereotyping because of their Islamic attires or identities, while others blame the problem on the misconception of Islam and urge fellow Muslims to work hard to reflect the right picture of their faith.

“The prejudice against Muslims is widespread since 9/11,” Dr. Siraj Islam Mufti, a retired faculty from the University of Arizona and a retired chaplain from the US Department of Justice told IslamOnline.net. “Some advocate profiling based on ethnicity, religion and even identification cards. As a result, there is an increase in a variety of hate crimes committed against Muslims,” added Mufti, now a Contractor to the Federal Correctional Institutions as Imam and a contract Imam with the Corrections Corporation of America in Arizona.

“I experienced some difficult moments of racial profiles,” insists hijab-clad Iman Hadi, remembering she faced her worst experience at the JFK airport in her way back from Egypt. “We were singled out and were detained for about 6 hours for no reason,” she complained. “They took us to a room where I found tens of Arabs and Muslims, even Egypt Air’s pilots were waiting there. They asked us several questions and treated us in a very aggressive way. And the officer was very rude and was trying to humiliate us.”

For Hadi, this was the moment when she felt stranger and unsafe in her own country where she lived for more than 20 years.

Islam Online, 12 September 2006