EDL founder Tommy Robinson speaks at the Oxford Union

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lennon at Oxford UnionEnglish Defence League (EDL) founder Tommy Robinson has given a talk to an audience of 250 at the Oxford Union as demonstrators gathered outside.

Unite Against Fascism (UAF) criticised the union for allowing him the platform, saying he had not renounced the views of the EDL since leaving.

Mr Robinson, 31, said: “I have a difference of opinion to them and they’re the ones acting fascist.” The union said it was founded to promote the freedom of speech.

It was the third attempt to get Mr Robinson, real name Stephen Lennon, to talk at the union – the first having been cancelled amid security concerns and the second because he was sent back to prison.

Protesters from the Socialist Workers Party, Unite, Unison, and UAF gathered outside.

Speaking to the BBC afterwards, Mr Robinson said: “It was a good reaction. A lot of people said I was not what they expected and what the media had portrayed, and that they were happy to hear what I had to say from my own mouth.

“Some people would demonstrate over the rain in that UAF organisation. If you’re not going to allow people to talk about these serious issues that need talking about in places like the Oxford Union, don’t moan about them on street corners.

“I was completely honoured and privileged and I don’t think many people get to have that opportunity, especially from a working class town and community like Luton. To know that William Gladstone spoke there, to know that Winston Churchill spoke there, for me, is a huge honour.”

Speaking for two hours, Mr Robinson criticised politicians, the media and police for failing to tackle certain criminal activities because of the fear of being labelled Islamaphobic. “No-one wants to rock the multi-cultural boat,” he said.

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Two teenagers charged over pig’s head attack on NSW mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Newcastle mosque pig's headNewcastle police have charged two teenagers over an incident in which a pig’s head was thrown into the grounds of the city’s mosque.

Police said the two 17-year-olds have “made admissions” regarding the incident last week and will be dealt with under the young offenders act. They have been charged with offensive behaviour and aggravated littering.

The attack happened a week after a worshipper was assaulted following evening prayers and several weeks after two Newcastle Muslim women were verbally abused while sitting in a car.

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Burqa bans in all public places have no place in a liberal democracy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Writing in the Leicester Mercury, Professor Jill Marshall of the School of Law at the University of Leicester, author of Human Rights Law and Personal Identity, takes issue with the French ban on the face veil:

In 2011 it became a criminal offence to wear face coverings, including the burqa and niqab, in any public place in France. This summer the European Court of Human Rights decided this law did not violate human rights. It interferes with rights to religious freedom of expression and our private life, “personality” or “identity” rights. However, these interferences are justified by the “rights and freedoms of others”: “living together” argued by the French government.

As the two dissenting judges say this is notion is “far-fetched and vague”. It makes a mockery of rights to freedom of expression, religious or otherwise, identity or personality.

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PVV calls for closure of all Dutch mosques to ‘de-Islam’ the Netherlands

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Machiel de Graaf and WildersThe anti-Islam PVV on Wednesday night called for the closure of all mosques in the Netherlands.

“We want to de-Islam the Netherlands,” MP Machiel de Graaf said during a debate on integration. Until now the PVV has only called for a freeze in mosque building programmes and the closure of mosques funded from abroad or which support violence.

De Graaf said schools are being hit by a landslide of children called Mohammed. “We will experience that a majority of school pupils are Islamic…. Dutch unity, identity and culture are being wrecked by immigration and via wombs,” he said. “Various Islamic leaders have said this, such as Gaddafi,” he continued. “But no one but the PVV takes it seriously.”

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FPÖ wants to target Muslim kindergartens that promote ‘violent ideology’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Heinz-Christian Strache with anti-mosque placardFreedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache was re-elected as Vienna’s state party chairman on Sunday and has put fighting radical Islam, crime on the U-Bahn network, and immigration top of his agenda.

In a speech at the Hofburg he said that religious education at kindergarten level needed to be carefully monitored “to counteract dangerous currents”.

According to statistics sourced by the FPÖ 43 percent of teachers responsible for Islamic religious education are against democracy and are in favour of introducing Sharia law. Five percent of Muslim students would consider joining jihad fighters in Syria and Iraq, and 66 percent of Muslims believe that women should not work, regardless of their education.

“We need to find out which kindergartens and schools are committed to a violent ideology and and may be sending young Muslims off to fight alongside Isis terrorists abroad,” a parliamentary motion tabled by the FPÖ said.

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British Muslims raise concern over new anti-terror law

Posted on by Bob Pitt

British Muslim rights groups and ordinary faithful said they felt singled out by a tough new anti-terror law unveiled on Wednesday, labelling the planned legislation divisive and rushed. While there is agreement on the need to prevent would-be British jihadists from joining the ranks of the Islamic State group, there is also unease over the government’s hardline strategy.

“For us to live in the same community and work together, we have to fight together. I think these laws will separate us,” said Fatima Ali, 46, a nurse. “I think they were made too hastily,” she said.

Britain has around 2.8 million Muslims, making up 4.4 percent of the population, and many are concentrated in London in ethnically diverse areas like Whitechapel where Ali works.

The area is home to the East London Mosque, billed as the city’s oldest and as serving the country’s largest Muslim congregation. Stalls line the streets near the mosque selling headscarves and long robes, and most shops nearby sell either Halal food or Islamic books.

A short walk down the road is Aldgate tube station, site of one of a series of coordinated bombings that killed 52 people in London in 2005, carried out by four radicalised young Muslim men.

“I don’t think they can stop the terrorists with this law,” said market trader Mohammed Ali, 55, against a backdrop of multi-coloured and sequined cloths. “This law targets the Muslim community…. Just because one part of the community is criminal, it doesn’t make the whole community criminal,” he said.

The new laws would increase surveillance and relocation for people identified as Muslim radicals, force universities to bar extremist preachers and toughen laws against would-be jihadists planning to leave for Iraq and Syria and those returning.

There is broad support from the main parties in parliament for the draft Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill, which also includes the establishment of a civil liberties panel to monitor implementation. But campaign groups like Liberty, the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) and CAGE have already come out against the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill, defining it as hasty and counter-productive.

“The new anti-terror drive seems to be more geared to creating otherness in our society than security,” IHRC chair Massoud Shadjareh told AFP. “I don’t think there has been any consultation with the Muslim community,” he said, adding: “The consultation seems to be only with a narrow group of people who think like the government.”

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Experts to gather to discuss strategies against institutional Islamophobia and racism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

INSTITUTIONAL ISLAMOPHOBIA POSTER

INSTITUTIONAL ISLAMOPHOBIA: A conference to examine state racism and social engineering of the Muslim community

Saturday 13 December
2pm – 6.30pm
Rooms MAL 414 and 415
Birkbeck, University of London
Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX

The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) will be holding a conference focused on tackling Islamophobia that will take place on Saturday 13 December featuring an expert panel of speakers.

The focus of the event is to analyse institutional and structural forms of prejudice and hatred with some focus on recent events, particularly surrounding education, political activism, the criminalisation of dissent, the role of the media and the Prevent agenda.

Chair of IHRC, Massoud Shadjareh said: “The last few years have seen exceptional increase in public discourse around Muslims, perpetuating bigotry towards Muslims and resulting in an intensified climate of fear that prevents people from expressing their ideas and beliefs. The extreme marginalisation of Muslims is an issue that affects everyone – it is an issue of democratic deficit where all citizens must look to the adverse effects.”

The aim of the conference is not simply to rehash and configure what Islamophobia entails, but to instead discuss strategies and solutions with systematic approaches and bridging together ways to move forward.

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Ex-UKIP leader condemned for Qur’an comments over Lee Rigby murder

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pearson and FarageA former leader of Ukip has been accused of “diabolical” behaviour after he responded to the publication of a report on the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby by calling on Muslims to “address the violence” in the Qur’an and in “the life and the example” of the prophet Muhammad.

Lord Pearson of Rannoch, who led Ukip during the last general election, is to be reported to the speaker of the upper house, Lady D’Souza, after he suggested that the Qur’an had inspired Rigby’s killers.

Ukip defended Pearson’s remarks but the Labour MP Khalid Mahmood said the peer’s intervention showed that Nigel Farage led a “party of Islamophobes”.

Pearson, who defected to Ukip from the Tories in 2004, took issue with David Cameron’s statement that Rigby’s murder was a betrayal of Islam and of Britain’s Muslim communities.

He told peers: “My lords, are the government aware that Fusilier Rigby’s murderers quoted 22 verses of the Qur’an to justify their atrocity? Therefore, is the prime minister accurate or helpful when he describes it as a betrayal of Islam? Since the vast majority of Muslims are our peace-loving friends, should we not encourage them to address the violence in the Qur’an – and indeed in the life and the example of Muhammad?”

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How to spot a ‘radical’ Muslim – advice for Poitiers schools

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Poitiers Powerpoint presentation (2)

The Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France draws our attention to an exposé by the online investigative journal Mediapart of a 14-page Powerpoint presentation circulated to school heads by the Poitiers educational authority, on the subject of preventing radicalisation among students. It has been produced as part of the “national plan to combat radicalisation” announced by interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve earlier this year.

Mediapart points out that the only form of “radicalisation” addressed in the presentation concerns Muslim students. Apparently Christian and Jewish students are immune to extremist ideology. As for the problem of far-right influence among students, that doesn’t rate a mention as far as the Poitiers educational authority is concerned.

The advice offered to heads to assist them in spotting signs of “radicalisation” among their Muslim students is beyond stupid. These include growing a beard without a moustache, wearing “Muslim clothing” and losing weight due to fasting. Another telltale sign of extremism is a tendency to engage in “political rhetoric” that refers to injustices in Palestine, Chechnya, Iraq, Syria or Egypt.

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