Why do Americans hate Muslims?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Horsey cartoon

“We have watched America attack us, destroy us, impose embargoes against our nations and then conquer our lands, imprison our people and generally deal with us as though we are savage animals whereby every single law be it international or even American is totally disregarded when it concerns the rights of Arab and Muslim individuals. Then they ask us why we hate them.”

Answering the question “Why do Muslims hate Americans?”, Reem Al-Faisal argues that a more appropriate question is “Why do Americans hate Muslims?”

Arab News, 26 May 2005

US Muslim sues over prison visit, headscarf

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cynthia RhouniA Muslim woman who was ordered by male prison guards to take off her headscarf before she could visit an inmate has filed a federal lawsuit alleging her constitutional right to practice religion had been violated.

Cynthia Rhouni, 43, of Madison, says the scarf, or hijab, that always covers her head and shoulders in the presence of men shows the world she is a devout Muslim.

Rhouni’s lawsuit claims that male prison guards at the maximum-security Columbia Correctional Facility north of Madison told her rules prohibited any head covering in the visiting room. They ordered her to take off her scarf before she could see her estranged husband in 2003, the suit alleges.

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Guantánamo is gulag of our time, says Amnesty

Posted on by Bob Pitt

guantanamo-bayBritain and the US are betraying the cause of human rights in pursuit of their “war on terror”, Amnesty International says in its annual report published yesterday.

Irene Khan, Amnesty’s general secretary, launching the report, accused the two governments of condoning torture while trying to keep their consciences clear. Britain used the language of freedom and justice in the context of Iraq, yet insisted that the Human Rights Act did not apply to British soldiers operating there, she said.

The British government was seeking diplomatic assurances from countries, including Algeria, to which it wanted to deport people. By seeking assurances for particular cases, it was admitting that torture was entrenched in those countries and was therefore, in effect, condoning the practice, she said.

“A new agenda is in the making, with the language of freedom and justice being used to pursue policies of fear and insecurity. This includes cynical attempts to redefine and sanitise torture,” said Ms Khan.

She said the US claimed to be promoting freedom in Iraq, yet its troops had committed appalling torture and had ill-treated detainees. She described Guantánamo Bay as “the gulag of our time”.

Guardian, 26 May 2005

Blaming the victim for Qur’an desecrations

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Blaming the victim for Qur’an desecrations

By Haroon Siddiqui

Toronto Star, 26 May 2005

It is hard to believe but there are commentators who are berating those who protested the desecration of the Qur’an, not those who did the desecrating. This attitude of blaming the victims fits the tenor of the times. The colonial British and the French were also adept at holding the Indians and Algerians responsible for their own plight.

The pundits are being even more bizarre than the Bush administration, which skewered Newsweek for reporting the sacrilege, not those who committed it.

Even as the Bush administration continues its cover-up for presiding over one of the most shameful chapters in prisoner abuse, here is New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, reprinted in the Toronto Star no less, hectoring the Afghans and others for being stupid enough to take to the streets in dismay.

He is not alone, and he and the other new Orientalists are entitled to their views, as also their logical contortions to continue rationalizing the war on Iraq. But their myopia does cause concern.

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the Left and multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

John Rosenthal boosts right-wing Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Transatlantic Intelligencer, 24 May 2005

Joe Katzman also applauds Ali’s attack on “the Left’s twisted version of multiculturalism”. As distinct from the true version of multiculturalism espoused by Mr Katzman, no doubt.

Winds of Change, 25 May 2005

It can only be a matter of time before Peter Tatchell issues a press release promoting the virtues of Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Why are we not banning the Qur’an?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Following its third summit in Warsaw on 16-17 May the Council of Europe issued a declaration containing the following statement: “We strongly condemn all forms of intolerance and discrimination, in particular those based on sex, race and religion, including antisemitism and islamophobia.” See here.

Ali Sina is appalled that Islamophobia should be bracketed with antisemitism: “Islam advocates the hatred of the Jews in particular but also of Christians who according to the Quran have corrupted their Scripture and call Jesus the son of God. The Quran’s biggest condemnation is reserved for the people of other religions and of no religion. All these people, including Jews and Christians are considered to be najis and fuels of hellfire. This is hate. This is hate-mongering. There is no other way to put it. Why are we not banning the Quran? Why are we not condemning Islam for blatantly advocating hate?”

FaithFreedom.org, 25 May 2005

Well, you can quite see why he might not be too keen on the suppression of Islamophobia, can’t you?

Robert Spencer, for his part, applauds “the courageous and insightful Ali Sina”.

Dhimmi Watch, 25 May 2005

Nick Cohen and Bethnal Green

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Philip Dore writes:

Hi

Just drawing your attention to an error on your website.

The entry “Nick Cohen – telling lies about Bethnal Green (2)” (Islamophobia Watch, 12 May 2005) states that Oona King’s press release on the attack of Jewish mourners by Muslim youths makes no mention of the attackers spitting, throwing eggs or shouting “you fucking Jews”.

There are in fact news reports of such actions having taken place. You can find a report detailing this here.

I draw your attention to the following paragraph: “One theory is that the abuse was directed at Oona King (…). However, quite a number of the attendees were wearing kippot (skull caps), and some of the abuse shouted was vocally anti-Semitic. I heard people shouting ‘you f***ing Jews’, he declared.”

I would also draw your action to a Guardian report on the incident here which reports those mourners present as stating that they believed they were attacked because they were Jewish, rather than because they were with Oona King. It also quotes a local youth as telling the reporter, “There’s a lot of hatred towards the Jewish. We’ve got hatred towards them.”

Given these two reports providing evidence of antisemitic attitudes, you might wish to consider removing or amending this post. Also, since the post accuses Nick Cohen of “telling lies”, I strongly suggest you remove that before he sees it, since the corroboration of his claims makes your post a defamatory one.

Cheers

Phil Dore

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The Evening Standard, Mad Mel and the Muslim Council of Britain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Flames of HateOn 20 May, during a protest outside the US embassy in London against the desecration of the Qu’ran at Guantánamo, a minority of demonstrators chanted extremist slogans. The Evening Standard reported:

“Led by a man on a megaphone, they chanted, ‘USA watch your back, Osama is coming back’ and ‘Kill, kill USA, kill, kill George Bush’. A small detail of police watched as they shouted: ‘Bomb, bomb New York’ and ‘George Bush, you will pay, with your blood, with your head’.”

Though the Standard mentioned that only “some among the crowd” were responsible for chanting these slogans, the overall impression given was that the demonstration was dominated by such elements. If more moderate voices were present, you’d never have known it from the Standard report.

Evening Standard, 20 May 2005

Predictably Melanie Phillips leaped on this. Basing herself on the Evening Standard report, she claimed that “among the organisers of this revealing hate-fest” was the Muslim Council of Britain.

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 24 May 2005

Yeah right, Melanie. The MCB is well known for its support of Osama bin Laden and its enthusiastic endorsement of 9/11. But why let facts get in the way of an outburst of anti-Muslim prejudice, eh?

For the MCB’s letter to the Evening Standard, see here.

See also Yusuf Smith’s comments, though he mistakenly accepts as good coin the Standard‘s false report that the MCB helped organise the demo.

Indigo Jo Blogs, 25 May 2005