Bearded Muslim firefighters win (temporary) victory against DC fire department

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A federal judge yesterday ordered the D.C. fire department to allow three bearded Muslim firefighters to serve on full duty until Aug. 1, when he expects to decide whether the safety issues outweigh the men’s claims that shaving would violate their religious rights.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson told an attorney for the city and an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union that he would decide the case after a one-day hearing Aug. 1 that will examine whether facial hair puts firefighters at risk. The case was first filed in 2001.

“This is definitely a victory, even though it is temporary,” said plaintiff Hassan A. Umrani, a city firefighter who has worn a full beard since his first day on the job 16 years ago.

Fire Chief Adrian H. Thompson last month ordered that all firefighters be cleanshaven so that they could be tested to determine whether their protective masks properly protect their faces.

Arthur Spitzer, an attorney for the D.C. chapter of the ACLU, said the order violated a preliminary injunction issued in a 2001 case in which six firefighters challenged the department on the point the policy violated their religious freedom.

The case was never settled, and the preliminary injunction remains in place.

Washington Times, 14 June 2005

Inayat Bunglawala defends religious hatred law

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“One day in November 2001 a large group of protesters from the British National Party dressed as Crusaders and paraded outside the Houses of Parliament with placards reading ‘Get Islam Out Of Britain’. Had they been overtly targeting a racial group, they would have been breaking the law – incitement to racial hatred has been a crime since 1986. To get round the law, groups on the far Right have been cunningly reformulating their noxious rants. Instead of targeting racial groups, they target unprotected religious groups.”

Inayat Bunglawala of the MCB defends the proposed law against inciting religious hatred.

Times, 13 June 2005

Sensationalism shrouds the debate on sharia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“More than stopping sharia, we need to stop the hysteria surrounding it. So misleading and dishonest has the debate been that it reveals more about our political and media prejudices than the minority in question. A request by a small Ontario Muslim group to start faith-based family mediation or arbitration between two consenting adults – a practice long used by Christians (Mennonites and Catholics in particular), Jews (especially the Orthodox) and one sect of Muslims, the Ismailis – has been blown up into the spectre of Taliban-like justice coming to Canada.”

Haroon Siddiqui in the Toronto Star, 12 June 2005

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Court rejects Jose Padilla’s appeal

Posted on by Bob Pitt

chargepadillaThe Supreme Court rejected on Monday a request by Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen held for three years as a suspected enemy combatant, for an immediate decision on his detention instead of waiting for a federal appeals court to rule. His attorneys asked the justices to decide whether President Bush has the power to seize U.S. citizens in civilian settings on American soil and subject them to indefinite military detention without criminal charges or a trial.

Reuters, 13 June 2005

NAAR replies to Toynbee

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Everyone has the right to live free from harassment and hatred. The bill to ban incitement to religious hatred should be supported.

Polly Toynbee confuses the rights to freedom of speech and artistic expression – which will remain – with a right to whip up hatred against people because of their religion, which will be made unlawful. Currently, only some religious groups, such as Jews and Sikhs, are legally protected from incitement to hatred, while Muslims are not. It is this inconsistency that the extreme right exploits.

The bill is proposing legislation similar to that which criminalised incitement to racial hatred in 1986, which has not curtailed any of the freedoms to tackle controversial issues Ms Toynbee implies. Islamophobia is not a nonsense. Recent Crown Prosecution Service figures show 50% of religiously aggravated offences were directed against Muslims. This hatred needs to be combated by the law.

Milena Buyum
National Assembly Against Racism

Guardian, 13 June 2005

Rebecca ‘Oops’ Bynum pays tribute to David Horowitz

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“As we confront Islamists and their fellow travelers … we should remember that the choice between Islam and reason was made long ago…. The question before us now is, will Islam win against reason today? Let us hope that with valiant truth seekers like David Horowitz in our corner, the light of reason will prevail and go on to eventually triumph in the end.”

So writes Jihad Watch’s news editor Rebecca Bynum in a gushing review of David Horowitz’s memoirs. Yup, the same Rebecca Bynum who derives amusement from the fact that US forces target Al-Jazeera’s offices and kill its journalists (see here). Such a sensitive soul. Who could be better qualified to pay tribute to the “intimate immediacy” of Horowitz’s book?

Front Page Magazine, 13 June 2005

Pipes denounces knighthood for Iqbal Sacranie

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Iqbal Sacranie“Sacranie has been one of the most important advocates of radical Islam in the United Kingdom…. Among Sacranie’s actions: calling for censorship of religious speech, trying to change the plot of the action series 24, boycotting Holocaust Remembrance ceremonies, denying the existence of Islamic terrorists, interpreting the Bush administration’s true agenda as the ‘recolonization and the re-mapping of the Middle East’, and accusing Israel of genocide.”

Daniel Pipes takes exception to Iqbal Sacranie of the MCB being included in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Among the authorities Pipes cites for evidence of Sacranie’s extremism is Militant Islam Monitor. Well, you can’t find a much more reliable source than that, can you? And to think there are sceptics who question Pipes’ standing as an expert in Islamic studies.

Daniel Pipes’ blog, 12 June 2005

MCB on Religious Hatred Bill

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The MCB welcomes the move by Government to present the Incitement to Religious Hatred Bill to Parliament. Courts have already extended such protection to Sikh and Jewish people, and it was an anomaly that other faiths too did not enjoy the same protection under the law. Rightwing groups have taken advantage of this to harass Muslims. The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has issued a news release (9th June) welcoming the Bill outlawing incitement to religious hatred and noting that this proposal is massively supported by Londoners: ‘Our polls show that 72 per cent of Londoners support new laws to outlaw incitement of hatred against people on grounds of their religion. Just 15 per cent oppose such laws’.”

Muslim Council of Britain statement, 13 June 2005

US campaign produces few convictions on terrorism charges

Posted on by Bob Pitt

On Thursday, President Bush stepped to a lectern at the Ohio State Highway Patrol Academy in Columbus to urge renewal of the USA Patriot Act and to boast of the government’s success in prosecuting terrorists. Flanked by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Bush said that “federal terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against more than 400 suspects, and more than half of those charged have been convicted.”

Those statistics have been used repeatedly by Bush and other administration officials, including Gonzales and his predecessor, John D. Ashcroft, to characterize the government’s efforts against terrorism. But the numbers are misleading at best.

An analysis of the Justice Department’s own list of terrorism prosecutions by The Washington Post shows that 39 people – not 200, as officials have implied – were convicted of crimes related to terrorism or national security.
Most of the others were convicted of relatively minor crimes such as making false statements and violating immigration law – and had nothing to do with terrorism, the analysis shows. For the entire list, the median sentence was just 11 months.

Washington Post. 12 June 2005

Time magazine reveals abuse of Guantánamo detainee

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Time GitmoA secret document obtained by Time magazine shows the pressure tactics used against a major al-Qaida suspect by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The magazine said in an article set to hit stands Monday it obtained a secret 84-page interrogation log for Mohammed al Qahtani, believed by the U.S. government to have entered the country in August 2001, intending to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The document says al Qahtani’s head and facial hair were forcefully shaved; he was deprived of sleep, submitted to a drill known as “Invasion of Space by a Female,” strip-searched and forced to stand nude, and intimidated with a dog. The magazine said in an article set to hit stands Monday it obtained a secret 84-page interrogation log for Mohammed al Qahtani, believed by the U.S. government to have entered the country in August 2001, intending to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

UPI report, 12 June 2005

See also New York Times, 12 June 2005

For the official response, see US Department of Defense news release, 12 June 2005

And for further details of abuse at Guantánamo, see Cageprisoners.com, 12 June 2005