Close ‘extremist’ schools – Kelly

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic schools that promote “isolationism” and extremism should be closed, Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly has said. She said the government had to “stamp out” Muslim schools which were trying to change British society to fit Islamic values. “They should be shut down,” she said. “Different institutions are open to abuse and where we find abuse we have got to stamp it out and prevent that happening.”

BBC News, 27 August 2006

No doubt schools whose objective is to change British society to fit Catholic values will also be threatened with closure. Or, then again, perhaps not.

MPACUK alert: Muslims thrown off plane for acting ‘suspiciously’!

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Muslim Public Affairs Committee has issued a call for complaints to be made in response to the case of Sohail Ashraf and Khurram Zeb, the two innocent Asian students who were marched off a Monarch  jet at gunpoint because other passengers feared they were terrorists:

We request you to make your feelings known to Monarch airline as well as the Department of Transport using the following contact details, calling for an apology by the airline and stating clearly that you object to the victimisation of particularly Muslim passengers because of their appearance and creed.

MOREOVER should the airline decline to make an official apology we will be calling for a complete boycott of all travel with the airline.

Copy all of these organisations in your email!

Monarch Airlines

  • Geoff Atkinson – Monarch Group Lawyer and Company Secretary
  • Tel: 01582 398 043
  • Send your complaints by clicking here.

Copy the message to:

  • Department for Transport Aviation Team – responsible for all aviation policy!
  • David McMillan (Director of Aviation) david.mcmillan@dft.gsi.gov.uk

U.S. wages of Arab, Muslim men fell after 9/11: study

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The earnings of Arab and Muslim men working in the United States dropped about 10 percent in the years following the 9/11 attacks, according to a new study. The drop in wages was most dramatic in areas that reported high rates of hate crimes, according to the study due to be published in the Journal of Human Resources.

The study measured changes in wages of first- and second-generation immigrants, from countries with predominantly Arab or Muslim populations from September 1997 to September 2005. It then compared them to changes in the wages of immigrants with similar skills from other countries.

The average wage was approximately $20 an hour ahead of the attacks in 2001 and dropped by $2 an hour after them, Robert Kaestner, co-author of the study and a University of Illinois at Chicago professor of economics, said on Thursday. That drop persisted through 2004 but showed signs of abating in 2005, he said.

“I was surprised,” Kaestner said. “We see an immediate and significant connection between personal prejudice and economic harm.”

Continue reading →

New Zealand MP tells Muslims to unveil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

bob clarksonNational MP Bob Clarkson’s mouth has landed him in trouble again after he said “Islam religion-type people” who wore burqas could be crooks hiding guns.

The Tauranga MP, who is known to shoot from the lip, said Muslim women should not wear the full-body veils if they wanted to “fit into our country”.

“Even walking down the street, to a certain extent, how do we know there’s not a crook with a gun hiding under a burqa? Who’s under that gown?” he said.

He was tolerant of all religions, but Muslims who wore burqas because of deeply held beliefs should “go back to Islam or Iraq”.

The comments, made days after a major diversity forum in Wellington, brought an angry reaction from Federation of Islamic Associations president Javed Khan.

Khan said: “If he is tolerant of all types of religion, why is he picking on Muslims wearing scarves and burqas? Would he have any problems with nuns wearing the same type of clothes, head covers and long skirts? Would he have problems with the Sikhs wearing turbans? When he says that people should fit into the country, what does that mean? That they should go in their bikinis?”

Stuff, 26 August 2006

‘We need a political solution’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The fundamental mistake made after 9/11 was that any stirrings of a debate addressing the root causes of the terror were ruthlessly suppressed…. Rather than addressing the known political causes, the terrorist attacks were portrayed as a religious struggle: radical Islam v the west.

“Al-Qaida was supposed to have conducted the 9/11 attacks because it deplores western values – its freedom, its democracy – and desires the establishment of a global empire of Islamic emirates. But as Robert Fisk makes clear in his book, The Great War for Civilisation, Osama bin Laden’s rage against the US arose from its support for Israel, the Saudi monarchy, and the garrisoning of US troops in the land of Islam’s holiest sites.

“The very deliberate policy of converting political struggles into religious ones had a very specific purpose: to induce fear of an impending threat to western way of life from encroaching radical Islam so that the population of the west would fall in line behind Bush and his neocon policies. Radical Muslims – and now ‘Islamic fascists’ – were as deadly as communism and Nazism. Unless the American public blindly supported every Bush policy in countering terrorism, the whole of western civilisation was imperilled.”

Imran Khan at the Guardian’s Comment is Free, 26 August 2006

Tiptoeing around the truth

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The plain fact is, in a diverse, multi-faith society such as ours, it would be foolish to believe that we can continue to unleash devastation upon peoples abroad while expecting there to be no social consequences back at home.”

Inayat Bunglawala points out that Ruth Kelly’s call for an “honest debate” on the causes of extremism rings a little hollow when the terms of reference of the new Commission on Integration and Cohesion explicitly exclude”foreign policy’s relationship to radical Islamism”.

Comment is Free, 25 August 2006

Muslims on front line as racism rises across EU

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ENARRacism, xenophobia and far-right extremism are on the rise across Europe, according to a comprehensive survey which found that Muslim communities face mounting discrimination and prejudice. The report, by non-governmental organisations in 20 EU countries, criticises governments for losing interest in the battle against racism, and says the political reaction to terrorist attacks has made life harder for ethnic minorities.

The inquiry by the European Network against Racism highlights a trend towards “increased tolerance for discriminatory behaviour particularly against immigrants and Muslims”. It adds that “a lack of political will to address racism is sometimes evident and disturbing”.

Victims of racism range from Europe’s Jewish communities to its Roma minorities. But a separate document on Islamophobia reports a dramatic increase in incidents against Muslims, particularly in France. It says: “The rise of intolerance and discrimination towards Muslims has risen in the last year and the underlying tones of Islamophobia have infiltrated all forms of public and private lives for Muslims in Europe.”

Independent, 26 July 2006

The ENAR report “Islamophobia in Europe” (pdf) can be found here.