The Collectif contre l’Islamophobe en France has condemned comments by UMP deputy mayor of Nice and former government minister, Christian Estrosi.
Asked whether he agreed with prime minister François Hollande’s statement during a visit to Tunisia that Islam and democracy are compatible, Estrosi replied: “Absolutely not! We can’t claim adherence to secularism everywhere and at the same time say that Islam and democracy are perfectly compatible.”
The expansion of a Clayton mosque has been approved by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal after residents who objected to the plan didn’t show at Tuesday morning’s hearing.
Channel 4 News reports on the aftermath of the burning down of the al-Rahma Islamic centre in Muswell Hill.
A new survey by Ipsos MORI for the Royal Statistical Society and King’s College London shows just how wrong public opinion can be on key social issues such as crime, benefit fraud and immigration.
Among the findings is that the public on average believe that Muslims make up 24% of the population while Christians account for 34%. The actual figures for England & Wales are 5% and 59% respectively. The public also think that 31% of the population are immigrants, when the official figure is 13%.
The RSS recommends that “politicians need to be better at talking about the real state of affairs of the country, rather than spinning the numbers” and “the media has to try and genuinely illuminate issues, rather than use statistics to sensationalise”.
Is there no end to the vile rumours that the English Defence leadership is prepared to spread in order to incite hatred against Muslims?
In recent months a succession of lying Islamophobic accusations have been publicised by the EDL via Facebook and Twitter. In May, EDL co-leaders Stephen Lennon and Kevin Carroll claimed that a 7-year-old girl had been gang-raped in school toilets by Muslims. Later that month, in the highly-charged atmosphere following the killing of Lee Rigby, the EDL whipped their followers up into a frenzy by claiming that Muslims in Oldham had publicly celebrated the murder. Last month the EDL found another rumour to circulate, with Lennon accusing Muslims of having launched a “violent attack on innocent English boys and girls” in Ashton-Under-Lyne. Needless to say, all of these claims turned out to be false.
Yesterday Lennon was at it again, accusing the Barnsley Chronicle of covering up the fact that a recent assault on a serving soldier was carried out by Muslims – an allegation for which he offered no evidence at all. The Chronicle tweeted back that the victim’s mother had made clear that this was not the case.
The far-right Scottish Defence League is planning a march in one of Scotland’s most multi-cultural areas in the middle of Ramadan.
The group has applied to Glasgow City Council for the event, which is timed to coincide with the birthday of Kriss Donald, the teenager murdered by an Asian gang in the city almost a decade ago.
However, talks were held with the group on Friday with an aim of steering them away from the Pollokshields area on Glasgow’s south side to an alternative venue. The Herald understands, though, that the group has refused the offer of a static protest at nearby Queens Park and is insisting upon marching.
Author Joyce Carol Oates has sparked a social media ruckus with a series of tweets linking rape culture to Islam, drawing a stream of responses from other writers and users of the site.
Oates is not the first high-profile writer to stumble into the political arena, but her choice of timing, topic and media were particularly incendiary.
Oates’s 140-word political tweet-bombs began by remarking: “Something dispiriting about ‘Brotherhood’ political parties – wonder what it is.”
And drove on with “Where 99.3% of women report having been sexually harassed & rape is epidemic – Egypt – natural to inquire: what’s the predominant religion?”
Muslims who show no interest in adopting Danish values ought to think about why they settled in Denmark in the first place, the immigration spokesperson for leading opposition party Venstre argued in an opinion piece published in Politiken newspaper today.
In her piece, Inger Støjberg criticises Danish Muslims who actively try to shield themselves from Danish values and norms and who think that their religious beliefs should not be allowed to be mocked. Støjberg pointed to a study of Danish Muslims in which 55 percent responded that criticising religion should be banned and 64 percent thought that free speech should be limited in particular circumstances.
“Denmark is the land of the Danes and you are more than welcome to become a Dane and take part in the work and community,” Støjberg wrote. “But to those Muslims who constantly work against us, constantly question us, are unsatisfied, encourage going to holy war in Syria, commit honour killings, belittle our values, flag or way of living – to all of you: Go and find somewhere else to live. No one is forcing you to stay. We accepted you and now it’s up to you to show the necessary respect for our society and the values it is built upon.”
Over at the Daily Telegraph, Con Coughlin draws the lessons from the departure of Abu Qatada to Jordan:
“While the Government’s focus is rightly centred on tightening up our liberal immigration laws, there is another area that requires urgent attention. The majority of this [sic] mosques in this country preach the traditional virtues of Islam, but there remains a minority that continue to subscribe to a more radical agenda, and are highly influential in persuading impressionable young Muslims – many of them British citizens who cannot be deported to places like Jordan – to take up the cause of jihad against the West.”
Perhaps Coughlin could provide us with a list of these mosques? Indeed, if he knows for a fact that such preaching is going on in the UK, doesn’t he have an obligation to inform the police? Or could it just possibly be that he has no evidence whatsoever for this inflammatory claim and made the whole thing up?
A volunteer soldier posted a comment on Facebook suggesting racist violent revenge should be taken on the day drummer Lee Rigby was murdered.
Mark Tonner wrote “Get the boys together we need to paint the town red with Muslim blood”. He was arrested after a member of the public complained on the Lancashire Police website about what Tonner had written.
Tonner, 36, of Ashton Road, Blackpool, pleaded guilty to sending an offensive message. He was bailed for pre-sentence reports and will be sentenced at a later date by Blackpool magistrates.