“Those of us Muslims who are heartily sick of the politicisation of our faith and the Islamicisation of politics and society are this week rejoicing over a small but significant victory.”
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on the defeat of the proposal for so-called “Sharia courts” in Canada.
The Swedish right-wing Liberal People’s Party has called on school teachers to spy on their Muslim students under the pretext of combating extremism, drawing immediate rebuke from the teachers union.
“We want Swedish teachers to spy on their Muslim students who have extremist tendencies,” the party’s education spokesman, Jan Björklund, said Wednesday, September 21.
Liberal People’s Party MP Lotta Edholm has also proposed cooperation between the teachers and Säpo (intelligence service) to hunt down “Muslim extremists”. “We see for us a form of information exchange: Säpo should inform teachers about these groups but the schools should also give important information to Säpo about how young people think,” she added.
Since 2002 the Liberal People’s Party has been seeking to attract voters by adopting right-wing populist policies. Party leader Lars Leijonborg has proposed tougher rules for immigrants applying for the Swedish citizenship. The party recently hosted controversial Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a vocal critic of Islam.
The proposal of the Liberal People’s Party drew immediate fire from the teachers’ union Lärarförbundet. “If one is going to observe students on a very vague basis and do what Säpo has asked it could have long-term and destructive consequences for the individual student,” Eva-Lis Preisz, the union’s chairwoman, told Aftonbladet newspaper.
In an opinion poll by the Dagens Nyheter newspaper, some 64% of the respondents opposed spying on Muslim school children, while 34% supported the proposal.
“Last Friday night I went on Alan Colmes’ radio show to discuss Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s suggestion that American mosques be wiretapped. Romney was right, I said, because American Muslims had not taken any concrete steps to separate jihadists and those with jihadist sympathies from their ranks. Colmes invoked in reply the condemnations of terror by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). He chided me for not taking CAIR’s condemnation of terrorism at face value.”
Robert Spencer explains that Muslims who condemn terrorism can’t be taken seriously.
Incidents of racial violence and harassment in the eleventh week since the London bombings.
The LGBT Muslim organisation Imaan has issued the following statement in response to the false story that Yusuf al-Qaradawi called for the Crown Prince of Qatar to be stoned to death:
“We are concerned about the impact that continued distortion of Dr Yusuf Al-Qaradawi’s views is likely to have. There was another example of this distortion in last week’s Observer (Mandarins in a Mess, 4th September). Nick Cohen quoted an Outrage press release which claimed that Al-Qaradawi had called for the stoning of an Arab if claims he was gay were true. The source was an inaccurate report in Aljazeera magazine (no link to the well known electronic media station), which claimed to have sourced Al-Qaradawi’s view from Islam Online. A careful reading of this website reveals this was the view of Sheikh Al-Munajjid. Both Aljazeera magazine and GALHA have removed articles from their websites following this clarification. Outrage has not. We disagree with Al-Qaradawi’s views on homosexuality, which mirror views of Jewish and Christian leaders, but we believe that singling out Islam as being uniquely reactionary encourages Islamophobia and divides the Muslim and Lesbian and Gay communities. We believe it is correct for institutions such as the Foreign Office to work with all religious leaders on issues for those communities.
“What is not helpful in the fight against homophobia and Islamophobia, oppressions that equally victimise LGBT Muslims, is having the media and groups such as GALHA, Outrage and others continuously misrepresenting Islam. Journalists should ensure their facts are accurate. Consulting with lesbian and gay Muslim representative groups, before publishing articles that could have an adverse effect on these communities, would also be a courtesy.”
“Hizb ut-Tahrir does not espouse violence even against dictatorial Arab governments, much less against western states. If Britain bans such an organisation even though it is not supporting terrorism, it will be an echo of what the US government did from the late 1940s amid McCarthyist paranoia. Then Communist party members were named and blacklisted, foreign-born members deported, leaders put on trial for plotting the overthrow of the government – though the US government never banned the Communist party outright.”
Natasha Walter in the Guardian, 21 September 2005
Asian community leaders say they are in doubt that an arson attack on Chester’s only mosque was racially motivated. The firebugs struck at the Shahjalal mosque in Clifton Drive, Blacon, on Monday just after 1am when they poured petrol near to the doorway of the building and set it alight. More than 20 people were in the mosque at the time for a special service, as it is about 12 days to Ramadan.
The higher education minister says he is “extremely worried” by a Muslim student survey showing one in 10 would not warn the police of a terror attack. Bill Rammell called for a “mature debate” about the attitudes and grievances expressed by young Muslims. But he welcomed the finding that an “overwhelming majority of students have a distinct affinity to Britain”.
Muslim students spoke of the prejudice and hostility they had experienced since the London terror attacks. And they said the student survey revealed that fears over extremism on campus were “grossly exaggerated” – with 96% of Muslim students unequivocally condemning political violence.
Muslim students feel isolated following the attacks of July 7 and the row over extremism on campus is further alienating them from university life, a survey showed today.
Only 72% of those polled said they would immediately tell the police if they discovered a Muslim friend was planning a terrorist attack. The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (Fosis), which undertook the survey, said that this was testimony to the lack of trust between the Muslim community and the police.
The survey of 466 Muslim students and recent graduates, mostly members of Islamic societies on campuses, was launched this morning at the House of Commons Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the secretary general of the Muslim Council for Britain, Anas Al-Tikriti, from the Muslim Association of Britain and the minister for higher education, Bill Rammell.
Before the July 7 attacks only 5% of those polled recalled feeling uncomfortable being Muslim in Britain, but after the attacks that figure rose to 31%. Of the respondents, 85% condemned the attacks, 4% did not and 11% gave no response. Some 47% reported having experienced Islamophobia.
If they knew of someone planning an attack, 72% of those polled would tell the police straight away; 8% would try to talk them out of it; 10% did not answer; 6% said no but gave no reason; 2% said no, mistrustful; and 2% said no, would never grass on a Muslim.
It reveals that most students believe that changing foreign policy would be the most effective way of reducing the threat of terrorism against Britain. A further 62% believe that British foreign policy played either a complete or major role in causing the London attacks.
The report goes on to recommend that police work harder to ensure they gain the trust of young Muslims to help tackle terrorism, and that Muslims should recognise suspicious activity, and understand it is a religious duty to inform the police.
On recent allegations that extremism is rife on some university campuses, the report said: “The accusation of Islamic extremism being widespread on campus is largely unfounded and thus universities must balance the need for national security with the need for freedom of speech and religious practice.
“Student unions and university authorities work with Islamic societies to remove suspicion and misconceptions about extremism on campuses.”
“Iranian exile Homa Arjomand scores a key victory for Western civilization,” Front Page Magazine proclaims. Alyssa A. Lappen (for further articles by this author, see here and here) offers a gushing endorsement of the Islamophobic activities of a central committee member of the Worker Communist Party of Iran:
“When Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced on Sunday September 11 that Ontario would outlaw all forms of religious arbitration, including Islamic law or Shari’a, Western civilization won a great victory. For that success, Canada and the US owe their thanks to Iranian exile Homa Arjomand, director of the International Campaign Against Sharia Court (ICASC).”
Front Page Magazine, 20 September 2005
Homa Arjomand takes her place alongside Robert Spencer, Daniel Pipes and Jamie Glazov – which is exactly where she belongs.