Ian Birrell disputes the view, promoted by former archbishop of Canterbury George Carey among others, that it is Christians who are the main victims of persecution in Britain.
Richard Dawkins thinks Muslims can’t be serious journalists
Dawkins’ comment, tweeted yesterday, is a belated response to this article published in the News Statesman last December.
Australian Defence Force takes action against bigot
Controversial former Katter’s Australian Party member Bernard Gaynor has been charged by the Australian Defence Force over comments he made about Islam and the ADF’s participation in the 2013 Mardi Gras.
Mr Gaynor, an Army Reservist intelligence officer, said he was called to appear before his unit this morning where he was charged with seven offences including three counts of failure to comply with an order, three counts of prejudicial conduct and one count of disobeying a lawful command.
“Basically what I have been charged for is failing to comply with orders and for bringing the ADF into disrepute because I have suggested that the ADF understand Islam and why it leads some people to conduct violent activities and also because I criticised the ADF’s decision to march in the Mardi Gras,” he said. “I was requested to come into my unit this morning.”
Mr Gaynor said he would fight the charges, which are due to heard on May 3.
Doveton mosque row heads to tribunal
The controversial Doveton mosque is headed for a hearing at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal after its planning permit was declared invalid last week.
Casey Council issued a permit for the mosque, in Green Street, earlier this month after the VCAT advised it had received no objections.
However, at a brief hearing at the VCAT on Thursday, deputy commissioner Helen Gibson acknowledged that Catch the Fire Ministries, which plans to build its new church and headquarters next to the mosque site, had lodged an appeal within the required 21 days. She said the permit was therefore invalid and must be revoked. Ms Gibson apologised to the church group and the council for the error.
Catch the Fire’s objection will be heard at the VCAT in July on a date yet to be set.
Weekly summary 15-21 April
Reports and comment from Islamophobia Watch 15-21 April 2013
‘They gave into Islamophobia’: Omar Mustafa criticises Social Democrat leaders
‘Social Democracy, yes. No to Islamophobia!’ – demonstration last week in support of Omar Mustafa
Omar Mustafa has spoken out about his disappointment in the Social Democrat party, saying he felt let down by the leadership after being ousted from the party’s governing board just a week after his appointment.
“My involvement in different Muslim civil society organizations was seen as a burden and they asked me to give up my position,” Mustafa told newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD).
Mustafa, who chairs Sweden’s Islamic Association (Islamiska förbundet), resigned from all his duties with the party after mounting criticism centring on the Islamic Association’s links to individuals with known anti-Semitic and homophobic views.
Asked if there was a particular incident that made him agree to quit the Social Democrats, Sweden’s left-of-centre opposition party, Mustafa replied that the leadership had sent a clear signal that the party lacked confidence in him.
“There was neither will nor ability to handle the media hunt against me even though they know very well that I have done nothing wrong and that the media hunt turned Islamophobic in character,” Mustafa wrote in the email interview with SvD.
He declined to clarify who “they” are but said it felt like “one, without reflecting properly, gave into Islamophobic forces within and outside the party”.
Bill Maher: Comparing violence of Islam to Christianity ‘liberal bullsh*t’
On HBO’s “Real Time” on Friday night, host Bill Maher entertained CSU-San Bernardino professor Brian Levin, director of the Center for Study of Hate and Extremism, who maintained that despite the events in recent days, religious extremism isn’t only a product of Islam.
But Maher took issue with that claim, calling it “liberal bullshit” and said there was no comparison.
“You know what, yeah, yeah,” Maher said. “You know what — that’s liberal bullshit right there … they’re not as dangerous. I mean there’s only one faith, for example, that kills you or wants to kill you if you draw a bad cartoon of the prophet. There’s only one faith that kills you or wants to kill you if you renounce the faith. An ex-Muslim is a very dangerous thing. Talk to Salman Rushdie after the show about Christian versus Islam. So you know, I’m just saying let’s keep it real.”
Brigitte Gabriel says Boston bombers are part of ‘an army of Islam’
News Hounds reports that Fox News host Neil Cavuto provided a platform for rabid Islamophobe Brigitte Gabriel of ACT! for America to whip up fear and hatred over the Boston bombings.
After Boston, we should put Muslims under surveillance, says Rep. King
President Obama cautioned the nation not to rush to judgment about the Boston Marathon bombers. But that’s not stopping Republican Rep. Peter King.
King, who chairs the House subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, is urging authorities to beef up their surveillance of Muslims in the U.S. following Friday night’s arrest of bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Police must “realize that the threat is coming from the Muslim community and increase surveillance there,” the New York lawmaker told National Review.
King – who spearheaded controversial hearings on the radicalization of Muslim-Americans in 2011 – also told CNN that “we can’t be politically correct. I think we have to see, has radicalization extended into the Chechen community?”
Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s wife Katherine Russell wore the hijab after converting to Islam
That’s the headline to a report in today’s Daily Telegraph, the consequence (and no doubt the intention) of which can only be to associate the hijab with terrorism.
This is during the same week in which it was reported that one headscarf-wearing Muslim woman in Bristol had been threatened with a knife, while another in Massachusetts was attacked by a man shouting “F*** You, F*** Muslims, You are terrorists”.