Islamic Center celebrates reopening after arson

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic Center of Greater ToledoNearly 15 months after an Indiana man set fire to the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, members of the mosque will celebrate a “Grand Reopening” and express their thanks to the public with tours and a dinner program Dec. 14.

“For our own community, it’s a chance to come together just to say, ‘Good! We’re finished! We’re done!’ And it’s also to thank the community for everything,” said Cherrefe Kadri, president of the mosque. “It’s a joyous celebration.”

The arson attack occurred Sept. 30, 2012, when 52-year-old Randy Linn of St. Joe, Ind., drove to the mosque, poured gasoline on the prayer room carpet and set it ablaze. He told U.S. District Court Judge Jack Zouhary that he was drunk and angry at Muslims after seeing a TV news broadcast about wounded American soldiers.

“That day, Sept. 30th, that wasn’t me,” Linn said at his sentencing. “I mean, it was me that did it, but it’s not me usually. I was drinking a lot.”

The blaze was so intense that it melted a chandelier hanging from the ceiling and set off emergency sprinklers throughout the 60,000-square-foot building. Repairs from the fire, smoke and water damage have reached $1.6 million, Kadri said, all covered by insurance.

Linn pleaded guilty and was sentenced in April to 20 years in federal prison, and was ordered to pay $1.4 million in restitution.

Continue reading →

Paris: Far-right demonstrators defend ‘secularism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Résistance républicaine demonstration December 2013

Last weekend the French “secularist” organisation Résistance Républicaine organised an anti-Islam demonstration in Paris.

It was held under what some might consider the rather contradictory slogan of “pour la laïcité et la sauvegarde des fêtes chrétiennes” (for secularism and safeguarding Christian holidays). The role of secularists, according to Résistance Républicaine and its co-thinkers, is to defend the Christian culture of France against the onslaught of Islam. The participants chanted “Islamists – racists, fascists and assassins!” and “Fascism shall not pass, Sharia shall not pass”.

Continue reading →

Muslim gardener suffered abuse and harassment at work

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A gardener in Gothenburg who said he suffered months of racist and sexual abuse at work has taken his case to Sweden’s equality watchdog, stating he was told to cut his Islamic beard to resemble George Michael in order not to upset “racist Swedes”.

The alleged abuse began at the interview stage, as the man was told he would have to cut his beard to work at the company. “Swedes are racist,” the employer said. Therefore it was necessary for the man to cut his beard as “we work for a Swedish company”.

Continue reading →

Mosque development plans rejected

Posted on by Bob Pitt

South Woodford Muslim Community Centre
South Woodford Muslim Community Centre as it is at present

A controversial proposal to build a new mosque in South Woodford has been rejected.

The Qu’rani Murkaz Trust applied to demolish its existing South Woodford Community Centre Mosque in Mulberry Way and erect a new three-storey building.

The six councillors on the planning committee were last night split down the middle on the plan, leaving chairman Cllr Robin Turbefield with the deciding vote.

The development, which included a ground floor prayer room, a community hall on the first floor and four residential flats on the second floor.

Cllr Turbefield decided the plan was not compatible with, or contributing to, the distinctive character of the area. It was said the height of the building would also ‘unreasonably’ restrict sunlight and undermine privacy.

Continue reading →

French veil ban anti-Muslim, lawyer argues

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A lawyer representing a young woman arrested for wearing a full-face veil is trying to get France’s burka ban ruled unconstitutional. The trial of Cassandra Belin, whose arrest was followed by riots in Trappes, near Paris, began in Versailles on Wednesday.

Supporters of the ban, which was approved by the Constitutional Council in 2010 after three years of intense debate, is required for security reasons and to uphold the France’s secular traditions. But Belin’s lawyer, Philippe Bataille, argues that it targeted Muslims and is calling on the council to change its mind.

“The goal of this trial is to talk about this law that was approved too easily,” Bataille told RFI. “With this law, I feel as if the government wanted to defend the Republic with a capital R, against the Islamisation of society. It’s unfair and unacceptable. How does a woman walking on the street completely veiled poses a threat to public order?”

Continue reading →

International forum in Paris to discuss fight against Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Forum international contre l’islamophobieOn Saturday iReMMO (institut de Recherche et d’études Méditerranée Moyen-Orient) is holding an International Forum Against Islamophobia in Paris.

The aim of the forum is to discuss the contours of what some prefer to call “anti-Muslim racism” and how to intensify the fight against a changing racist system, with the participation of grassroots organisations, political or community activists and researchers, both French and international.

EDL threatens to burn down proposed mosque in Bristol

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jesters, Woody, Smith, Johnson
The former Jesters building, and EDL supporters Gerry Woody, Andrew Smith and David Croc Johnson

In September the Bristol Post reported that a planning application had been submitted to convert the former Jesters Comedy Club in Stokes Croft into a mosque. The proposal was initially uncontroversial – according to the Post, no objections or comments had been received in relation to the application. The English Defence League, though, were not about to let this latest act of aggression in the ongoing Islamic conquest of Britain pass without resistance.

A protest announced by the EDL Bristol division, which was to have been held on 7 December, was postponed until the new year, supposedly because it clashed with various charity events. However, as Steven Rose revealed last month, the EDL also launched a campaign to get their supporters to register objections to the planning application on the Bristol City Council website. The EDL appeal read:

“Please sign and share. this is a grade 2 listed building in bristol and holds a great deal of history for the city. once again, we see another part of english heritage under threat and being forced to make way for yet another mosque. put a stop to this now.”

Following objections posted by the EDL, public comments on the planning application had to be temporarily closed.

Continue reading →

Leading Sweden Democrat resigns positions in party after exposure of racist comments

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Marie Stensby Sunni Shia commentA leading Sweden Democrat has been forced to resign following revelations that she had posted xenophobic and insulting messages on various far-right websites.

“For us it’s primarily a question that representatives must never represent extremism regardless of platform,” Sweden Democrat spokesperson Martin Kinnunen said on Tuesday.

Marie Stensby represented the Sweden Democrats in Jämtland in northern Sweden and was voted in as an alternate member of executive board at the recent party conference; until Tuesday’s revelation in the Expressen daily she had furthermore intended to stand for election to Sweden’s Riksdag in 2014.

The local politician previously leapt to national media attention in November 2012 when she called for the establishment of a “reservation for Sweden’s indigenous peoples” in her home county of Jämtland. “In my darkest moments I wonder if you (Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt)… would consider adopting an old American model. For us Swedes who want to carry on being just that, Swedes,” she explained at the time.

Stensby is among some eleven representatives for the Sweden Democrats named by Expressen on Tuesday to be the people behind aliases used to express insulting and xenophobic comments on various websites frequented by Sweden’s far-right. The aliases have been exposed by a group named Researchgruppen which is credited by the newspaper with having established their identities via the forum platform Disqus.

Continue reading →

LSE students’ union adopts resolution condemning ‘Student Rights’ group

Posted on by Bob Pitt

LSE Students' UnionLast week the London School of Economics students’ union debated a motion opposing Islamophobia, which was passed by 347 votes to 118 with 32 undecided. The motion condemned the misnamed Student Rights campaign, stating:

“Student Rights activities fuel Islamophobia, by disproportionately and unfairly targeting Muslim students, contributing to their marginalisation and ostracisation, damaging campus cohesion and feeding into a growing trend of Islamophobic discourse in wider society which should always be challenged, particularly in Islamophobia Awareness Month.”

The motion mandated union officers to issue a statement criticising Student Rights and write to university management expressing concerns about the activities of the group. Officers were also mandated to circulate the Real Student Rights petition.