A Muslim woman was told to get back to her own country twice in a week by a racist yob – despite her being white and British.
Police said it appeared the woman’s headscarf attracted the attention of the man. She was subjected to abuse on two separate occasions within days. The lady was walking in the Beaumont Park area with her son when she was verbally attacked.
The Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France reports on the conviction of an individual who posted an anti-Muslim hate message on the website of Le Figaro in 2011. The court imposed a one-month suspended prison sentence and a €1680 fine.
The message read: “… as for the Muslims who increasingly provoke the indigenous French with their shit halal meals … I advise them to immediately stop these provocations or leave France as soon as possible and return to their Muslim countries if they don’t know how to live in harmony with other religions, otherwise they will eventually only have the choice of the suitcase or the coffin as was the case for the ‘pieds noirs’ in the ’60s.”
An anonymous group has threatened to unleash a campaign of mosque burnings across Norway, in an email sent last week to the World Islamic Mission Mosque. “Before 2013 is over, all mosques in Norway be burned to the ground,” the email read. “We are a group of men who have planned this for seven years.”
Ghulam Sarwar, Chairman of the Norway branch of Jamaat Ahle Sunnat, an international Muslim organisation, dismissed the threat. “I think this is just some crazies who want attention,” he told TV2.
But the email was one of a several anti-Muslim actions that took place over the last week, leading Oslo Police to arrange an emergency meeting with the country’s Islamic Council on Monday.
On Friday morning, before Muslims came to pray, a huge banner of a sausage was erected outside a mosque in Fredrikstad, with the inscription “Always a wiener for a Muslim” written on it. Then on Saturday, a severed pig’s head was found outside Norway’s largest mosque, Central Jamaat-e Ahl-e Sunnat, in Oslo.
Yesterday it was reported that the clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch had lost two lawsuits brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after the company sacked one young Muslim woman and refused to employ another because they wore headscarves. The company announced that it had now changed its policy and would allow employees to wear the hijab.
Most of us would think this was a welcome victory against discrimination. But how does the National Secular Society report it? Under the headline “Abercrombie & Fitch accede to Islamist demands”. It’s the sort of response you would expect from the likes of Pamela Geller.
Al-Kanz reports that this afternoon, while worshippers were at prayer, dog excrement was thrown at the door of a prayer room at Montrouge, in the suburbs of Paris.
Al-Kanz points out that Montrouge has been the site of a conflict between the local Muslim community and the mayor, who attempted to close down the same prayer room, which is the only mosque in the town. (Via LoonWatch)
Update: See also “Mosquée de Montrouge souillée par des jets d’excréments”, CCIF, 24 September 2013
Trendy clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) has agreed to make religious accommodations and allow workers to wear head scarves as part of a settlement of discrimination lawsuits filed in California, lawyers announced Monday. The retailer will now allow hijabs, the traditional head scarves worn by many Muslim women when in public.
One judge determined the company fired a Muslim worker from a California store, while another judge said it refused to hire another woman in the state because of their refusal to remove their hijabs during work. The rulings came after the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed lawsuits on behalf of both women.
In court papers filed Friday, Abercrombie agreed to pay the women a combined $71,000 and unspecified attorney fees. Additionally, it has established an appeals process for workers who believe they were denied religious accommodations.
A controversial plan to open a mosque in Worcester Park is set to be rejected for the second time after almost 4,000 people signed petitions.
Plans to convert a disused bank building in Green Lane into a mosque are due to go before Sutton Council’s development control committee for a second time on Wednesday night. And, for a second time, the authority’s planning officers have recommended councillors on the committee refuse planning permission.
The original plan to convert the building into a place of worship for the local Muslim community was rejected in December last year on the grounds it would bring too much traffic to the area.
A Columbia University professor was assaulted on Saturday night in what police say is being investigated as a hate crime.
According to a New York Police Department source, Dr. Prabhjot Singh, who is Sikh and wears a turban and a beard, was attacked at 8:15 p.m. while walking along 110th Street near Lennox Avenue in upper Manhattan. An unknown suspect or suspects shouted anti-Muslim statements, knocked the professor down and punched him numerous times in the face.
Simran Jeet Singh, a student and friend of Dr. Singh, visited the victim at Mt. Sinai Hospital where he is recovering from several severe but non-life-threatening injuries. According to Simran Jeet Singh, Dr. Singh said that during the attack the assailants shouted “get Osama” and “terrorist.”
Reports and comment from Islamophobia Watch 16-22 September 2013
Voters in Switzerland’s Italian-speaking region on Sunday slapped a ban on wearing full-face veils, a move condemned by the country’s Muslim community and Amnesty International. Results from a referendum in the southern canton of Ticino showed that 65 percent of the electorate backed a proposal to forbid the covering of faces in public areas by any group.
Echoing bans in France and Belgium, the measure does not single out Muslims directly. It states that “no-one may mask or hide their face on the public highway, nor in places open to the public, except places of worship, nor those offering a public service”. But in a clear nod to the Islamic tradition of veils for women, it adds that “no-one may require another person to cover their face for reasons of gender”.
The measure was the brainchild of right-wing Ticino populist party “Il Guastafeste” – whose kingpin Giorgio Ghiringhelli [pictured] makes no secret of his criticism of Islam. “This is an historic vote for Ticino,” Ghiringhelli told Switzerland’s Italian-language broadcaster RSI. “And not just for Ticino, but also for Switzerland and abroad, where the Ticino example could spread.”