Mayor of London condemns French hijab ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A basic right

Morning Star, 19 March 2005

By Ken Livingstone

This month marks the first anniversary of the French law banning students from wearing conspicuous religious symbols in schools.

I have given the fullest support to the campaign against this attack on the rights of minority religious communities in France.

In February last year, just before the French parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of the ban, I wrote to prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin warning that the new law would be a blow to good community relations throughout Europe, and would inflame tensions between communities and encourage attacks on minorities.

Earlier this month the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination drew attention to the problem of racism in France.

The committee urged the French government to prevent the law against conspicuous religious symbols “from denying any pupil the right to education and to ensure that everyone can always exercise that right”.

But this is precisely the right that the French law does deny many pupils.

According to the French government’s own figures, when the law came into force at the start of the September 2004 school term, over 600 students defied the ban.

Some were forced out of the state system and into private education, while many others were obliged to comply with the law under threat of expulsion.

At least 47 Muslim girls have been excluded from French schools for continuing to wear the hijab (Islamic headscarf), and hundreds more have been compelled to renounce a form of dress that they believe is an important aspect of their religion.

In addition, three Sikh students have been expelled for refusing to remove their turbans and another two have been refused admission to their school.

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Aljazeera relieved by Alluni’s release

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Aljazeera has said it is relieved at the decision by Spanish authorities to release its correspondent Taysir Alluni after a stretch of 119 days in solitary confinement. Aljazeera also thanked rights groups for support during the detention of their correspondent.

“Aljazeera takes this opportunity to extend its sincere appreciation to its viewers, regional and international human rights organisation, professional and civil societies and all those who supported Taysir, his family and Aljazeera,” the channel said in a statement.

Aljazeera’s correspondent Alluni had arrived at his Granada home, two days after a Spanish court ordered him moved from a maximum security cell to house arrest.

A frail and visibly fatigued Alluni emerged from a police van parked outside his Granada home at 3am (0200 GMT) after what he said was a gruelling five-hour journey from Madrid. “I was strapped into a metal chair for five hours,” he said.

While thanking his peers and the various organisations and individuals who laboured for his release, Alluni also criticised the Spanish government for his detention. “I no longer believe that the rule of law exists in this country (Spain),” he said.

“The trial will be highly politicised and a media affair. The prosecutor who ordered me re-jailed because he alleged I was a flight risk never presented any evidence to support his claim,” Alluni said.

Al-Jazeera, 18 March 2005

Muslims reach settlement with Dell on workplace prayer

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today announced that Muslim contract employees at a Dell Inc. plant in Nashville, Tenn., have reached a settlement on issues related to a recent dispute over prayer in the workplace.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the 31 Muslim employees, who left work last month in a disagreement over Islamic prayers, will be reinstated, receive back pay and be granted continued religious accommodation. Managers will also receive additional training on existing religious accommodation policies and practices. Other terms of the settlement will not be made public.

Announcement of the settlement came following a meeting today between representatives of CAIR, Dell, the Muslim workers, the Nashville Metro Human Relations Commission, and Spherion Corp., the company that provided the workers to Dell. (In a meeting on Saturday, most of the Muslim workers retained CAIR as their legal counsel.)

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Swastikas daubed on French mosque and schools

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Vandals scrawled dozens of swastikas and racial slurs on the walls of a mosque and two schools in eastern France, police said Friday.

Early Friday, police in the town of Soultz, located south of Strasbourg, discovered five swastikas and racial slurs written in black marker on the bulletin board of the local mosque.

Local Muslim leader Abdelhaq Nabaoui denounced the incident, saying: “These criminal schemes come on top of numerous acts in recent months that have directly targeted Alsacians who are practicing Muslims.”

“This has to stop,” Nabaoui added, calling on local authorities to find the guilty parties and bring them to justice.

In the nearby town of Guebwiller, intruders used black marker to daub four dozen swastikas, as well as racial epithets, on the walls of a middle school in the early hours of Thursday, police said.

A few more swastikas were scrawled on the walls of a nearby high school and a bus shelter in a neighbouring town, probably by the same vandals, whom police described as teenagers “who are not necessarily linked to neo-Nazi groups”.

Police said the incident could be a “silly provocation” aimed at German exchange students attending classes in the two schools.

AFP report on AFP, 18 March 2005

Neocon mag promotes anti-Muslim hate literature

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on a prominent national neoconservative magazine to clarify its policy on anti-Muslim hate following revelations that the publication distributed an Internet advertisement for an virulently Islamophobic book. CAIR’s request came in response to a complaint from a member of the National Review’s e-mail list who received a message promoting an apparently self-published book that, according to the magazine, is a “guide into the dark mind of [the Prophet] Mohammed.”

The National Review’s review of the book states: “[The author] explains why Mohammed couldn’t possibly be a true prophet, and reveals the true sources of his ‘revelations.’” It quotes the author as claiming: “Mohammed posed as the apostle of God…while his life is marked by innumerable marriages; and great licentiousness, deeds of rapine, warfare, conquests, unmerciful butcheries, all the time invoking God’s holy name to sanction his evil deeds.”

According to the National Review, the book shows how “Mohammed again and again justified his rapine and licentiousness with new ‘divine revelations.’” “This anti-Muslim screed is the literary equivalent of ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ and should not be promoted by a publication that has any sense of decency,” said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. “The National Review must clarify its position on Islamophobic hate speech and offer a public apology for promoting a book that so viciously attacks the faith of one-fifth of the world’s population.”

Hooper said anti-Muslim rhetoric often leads to discrimination and even violence.

CAIR news report, 17 March 2005

Update:  “Mohammed posed as the apostle of God … while his life is marked by innumerable marriages, and great licentiousness, deeds of rapine, warfare, conquests, unmerciful butcheries, all the time invoking God’s holy name to sanction his evil deeds.” Sounds fair enough to me, says Robert Spencer.

Jihad Watch, 23 March 2005

Police probe arson attack at Worthing mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A sickening fire-bomb attack on Worthing’s mosque has rocked the town’s Muslim community.

Muslims have been left deeply shocked by Friday’s arson attack on the mosque in Ivy Arch Road, which was started in a downstairs prayer room at around 5.30am.

The fire-bombers, according to members of the Worthing Islamic Society, broke in through the mosque’s back door and set light to a gas pipe they had cut. And if it wasn’t for worshippers turning up for early morning prayers, the mosque could have been burnt to cinders.

Ali Abdul Rahman, chairman of the Worthing Islamic Society, said: “We are very sad someone could do this and we are just hoping it is not a racist or religious attack. “We are peace-loving people and we would hope if the people who did it would come and see us and talk to us we could help them and make them better people.”

Two people, a 17-year-old girl and a 27-year-old man, who are both from Worthing, have since been arrested on suspicion of arson and have been released on bail. They have not been charged.

The fire started sometime before 5.30am and it is believed, by members of Worthing Islamic Society, arsonists broke into the mosque through a back door. Once inside, they started a fire in a ground floor room, which is used as an over-flow prayer room, by setting light to a gas pipe they had cut. They spread white spirit on the floor and attempted to make a bonfire of a mattress and some chairs.

The mosque was badly smoke damaged.

Worthing Herald, 17 March 2005

Update:  See “Man found guilty of mosque arson”, BBC News, 18 May 2007

Update 2:  See “Man who set fire to mosque jailed for three years”, The Argus, 11 June 2007

Mayor’s human rights adviser meets opponents of hijab ban in Paris

Posted on by Bob Pitt

On the first anniversary of the ban on the wearing of the Muslim headscarf in French schools, Yasmin Qureshi, the Mayor of London’s human rights adviser, is to visit Paris to meet opponents of the ban.

The visit follows a new poll conducted by MORI for the Greater London Authority which found that 53 percent of Londoners disagree with the ban with just 33 per cent supporting it.

In the same poll 63 percent said that children should be allowed to wear clothing or items that are part of their religion, such as the Muslim headscarf, Christian cross, Jewish skullcap and Sikh turban at school. Only 26 per cent disagreed.

Ms Qureshi will be in Paris to meet with faith, community, and human rights organisations as well as French local government representatives campaigning against the ban.  Among the groups she will be visiting are Collectif des Musulmans de France, United Sikhs and Ligue des Droits de l’Homme.

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Rushdie resists religious hatred law

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“In Europe, the bombing of a railway station in Madrid and the murder of the Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh are being seen as warnings that the secular principles that underlie any humanist democracy need to be defended and reinforced. Even before these atrocities occurred, the French decision to ban religious attire such as Islamic headscarves from state schools had the support of the entire political spectrum….

“The exception to European secularism can be found in Britain, or at least in the government of the devoutly Christian and increasingly authoritarian Tony Blair, which is presently trying to steamroller parliament into passing a law against ‘incitement to religious hatred’, in a cynical vote-getting attempt to placate British Muslim spokesmen, in whose eyes just about any critique of Islam is offensive.”

Salman Rushdie in the Guardian, 14 March 2005

Court orders 24-hour watch on Alluni

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Aljazeera has learned that a Spanish judge has ordered its correspondent Taysir Alluni released from jail and placed under mandatory house arrest pending his trial.

The release order was expected to be carried out late on Monday night or early on Tuesday, but has been set back after a series of delays.

Munzir al-Nimri, general-secretary of the International Committee for Defending Taysir Alluni, said Alluni had still not been released from prison due to procedural reasons and the need to complete more paperwork.

“The procedures involve accompanying Alluni, with his hands chained, by Spanish security guards and include signing an order that has not been signed yet. We are still awaiting completion of these procedures,” al-Nimri said.

Alluni will then be taken to his home in Granada where he was first arrested in September 2003.

Al-Jazeera, 15 March 2005