The Economist examines the contrasting approaches to the hijab and veil in France and the UK.
Belated step towards first official Athens mosque
Golden Dawn poster
A month after denying reports that Turkey will pay for the construction of Athens’ first official purpose-built mosque, the government has finally announced it will publish a tender for this long-awaited and controversial project.
The 1m euro tender will soon be published on the government’s Diavgeia website for the construction of a mosque (without minarets) on a vacant lot of a disused naval base in Eleonas, west of Athens.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is reportedly eager to move ahead with this project – after a seven-year delay, and after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly offered to foot the bill during a recent meeting with the prime minister.
Stop hounding Muslims and mosques over terrorism
Falsely linked to terrorism: Islamic Centre of Southwest Ontario
After the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation identified two young Canadians as having been part of the hostage-taking at an Algerian gas plant in January, the media took the opportunity to link the mosques and Muslim community in London Ontario to terrorism, without any proof.
Russia: Prosecutor says student illegally expelled over hijab
Prosecutors in Russia’s Siberian region said Wednesday that a local university’s expulsion of a female student for wearing a hijab was unlawful.
Senior regional prosecutor’s aide Yelena Pimonenko told RIA Novosti that it was contrary to the Russian law on education to ban students from wearing items of clothing that reflect their faith. The university’s administration has ten days to appeal the ruling.
Texas man arrested over anti-Muslim death threats
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — Authorities are investigating possible hate crimes at several convenient stores in north Houston and Harris County.
On Monday morning, Harris County Precinct 4 deputy constables arrested 32-year-old Carlos Marroquin after a convenience store clerk at the Shell gas station at 6007 FM 2920 reported a man saying racial slurs and making terroristic threats.
Deputy constables said the suspect threatened to kill the store clerk and burn his store down because he was a Muslim.
Marroquin went to at least three different convenient store locations Monday morning making similar threats, according to investigators. Deputy constables obtained statements from witnesses at each location.
See also Cypress Creek Mirror, 3 April 2013
And “CAIR-Texas asks that bail be revoked for anti-Muslim threats”, CAIR press release, 3 April 2013
Feds indict alleged anti-Muslim bigot on hate crime charge
A Federal Way man accused of viciously beating a Sikh cab driver while shouting anti-Muslim slurs now faces a federal hate crime indictment.
Initially charged in King County Superior Court, Jamie W. Larson is accused of attacking a cab driver during an Oct. 17 ride after commenting on the man’s turban. Larson, who is alleged to have torn at the man’s beard and injured his mouth in the attack, apparently believed the Sikh driver to be Muslim.
Stop trying to split gays and Muslims
Chris Stedman, author of Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious, takes on Pamela Geller over her current ad campaign aimed at turning the LGBT community against Muslims.
CAIR wins judgement for Muslim centre’s freedom of religion
A federal judge has ruled that DuPage County was “arbitrary and capricious” when it denied permission for an Iranian Muslim group to build a mosque on a 3-acre residential property near west-suburban Naperville. Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer issued a 70-page summary judgment Friday that could force the county to reconsider the zoning petition of the Irshad Learning Center.
“I think it’s significant not only for this one Muslim institution but all Muslim religious institutions who are facing problematic decisions by their local governments,” said Kevin Vodak, an attorney with the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which represented the center. DuPage County has had a number of disputed zoning bids by mosques in recent years, but this is the only one that CAIR has stepped in to represent.
Scientific racism, militarism, and the new atheists
Leading figures in the new atheist movement are heirs to the disreputable scientific racists of the past, argues Murtaza Hussain.
Update: Sam Harris, the main target of Murtaza Hussain’s polemic, has posted an email exchange with Glenn Greenwald in which, predictably, Harris indignantly denies the charge of racism and Islamophobia.
Update 2: See Glenn Greenwald, “Sam Harris, the New Atheists, and anti-Muslim animus”, Guardian, 3 April 2013
Islamic headscarf debate rekindled in France
BBC News reports on the new assault on the rights of French Muslim women following the recent court ruling that the “Baby Loup” creche discriminated against nursery assistant Fatima Afif when they sacked her for refusing to remove her headscarf.
See also “Hijab ruling exposes Islamophobia in French politics—on right and left”, Socialist Worker, 2 April 2013