Trevor Kavanagh had a comment piece in yesterday’s Sun, titled “Muslim leaders must re-brand religion for 21st Century Britain”, in which he responded to two recent press reports concerning the British Muslim community.
‘The real Islamist threat to Britain comes from mass immigration and multiculturalism’, says Peter Hitchens
“The real Islamist threat to Britain comes from mass immigration and multiculturalism. Having encouraged large numbers of Muslims to come and live here, we now also officially urge them to stay separate from the rest of society, and apologise to them for our Christian traditions. In the end, I fear this will lead to great trouble.”
Peter Hitchens returns to the familar theme that deporting individual Islamists is a diversion and it’s the entire Muslim community that represents a threat to western civilisation.
Via ENGAGE
Muslim man returns to Oklahoma after being on U.S. ‘no-fly’ list
A McAlester native returned from the Middle East to Oklahoma on Monday after being on the nation’s “no-fly” list.
Saadiq Long, a 43-year-old Muslim and U.S. Air Force veteran, arrived at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City about 6:30 p.m. Monday where he was greeted by his sister and officials from the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Oklahoma chapter.
Long declined to talk to the media, citing exhaustion from the 36-hour trip. However, CAIR-Oklahoma representatives said he was overjoyed to be home.
Islamic Center of Murfreesboro celebrates opening
More than two years of a rocky path behind it, the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro celebrated its opening Sunday with food, fellowship and special guests.
Arson attack on West Bank mosque
Vandals set fire to the entrance of a West Bank mosque on Monday, damaging the door, in an attack that villagers blamed on Jewish settlers.
Residents of the Palestinian village of Orif, near the city of Nablus, said a group of settlers from a nearby settlement came to the mosque before dawn, poured gasoline on an old carpet near the mosque’s door, and set it ablaze.
“The settlers tried to break into the mosque, but it was locked,” Orif resident Issam al-Safadi told Reuters. “So they settled with burning the old carpet and the door.”
Israeli rights group B’tselem says vigilante settler groups are suspected of vandalizing at least 10 mosques in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since 2009.
Update: See “Israeli settlers burn mosque in Palestinian village”, Press TV, 19 November 2012
Bristol EDL leader arrested in connection with graffiti attacks on mosques and Sikh temple
The leader of the English Defence League (EDL) in Bristol has been arrested in connection with graffiti sprayed on mosques and Sikh temples.
Mickey Bayliss, from Upton Cheyney near Bitton, was arrested on Wednesday, along with another man.
The two had their properties searched but were not charged and have been released on bail.
University of Virginia: Martha Nussbaum berates Western Islamophobia
Renowned philosopher Martha Nussbaum addressed a packed auditorium Friday afternoon, berating Western Islamophobia, a problem Nussbaum said continues to plague the country today.
“Once, not very long ago, Americans and Europeans prided themselves on their enlightened attitudes of religious toleration, although everyone knew that the history of the West has actually been characterized by intense religious animosity and violence,” she said.
Nussbaum, a service professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago, said blatant legislative discrimination against Muslims in the United States, France, Belgium, Germany, and Spain, among other countries, requires examination.
“Our situation calls urgently for critical self examination as we try to uncover the roots of ugly fears and suspicions that currently disfigure all Western societies,” Nussbaum said.
New York: man stabbed outside mosque, attacker screamed anti-Muslim rant, say cops
A Queens man was stabbed repeatedly outside a mosque by a would-be killer who shouted anti-Muslim comments, police said.
The victim, identified by friends as Bashar Mohammod, 57, was attacked from behind while opening the Masjid Al-Saaliheen mosque for prayer around 4:45 a.m., police said.
Oklahoma Muslim on no-fly list to return to U.S.
On Monday, November 19, representatives of the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-OK) will meet a Muslim Air force veteran who had been barred from returning to Oklahoma when he finally arrives at Will Rogers World Airport.
“We welcome the positive development in this case and hope Mr. Long will not face any bureaucratic difficulties when he returns to his native land,” said CAIR-OK Executive Director Adam Soltani.
Following intervention by CAIR-OK, Saadiq Long, a U.S. citizen and Air Force veteran living in Qatar, was allowed to board a Delta Airlines flight (3316) due to arrive at 5:02 p.m. on Monday. He has been struggling to return home for six months after being denied boarding on two previous flights to visit his terminally-ill mother, apparently because he had been placed on a government no-fly list.
CAIR press release, 18 November 2012
See also “Oklahoman on ‘no fly’ list allowed to fly home”, KOCO.com, 18 November 2012
Michigan church bans Islamic prayer from service
The word seemingly came out of the blue:
Choral director Jeffrey Cobb told his singers and orchestra – roughly 180 local adults and teens drawn from college, a high school, and churches – that a pastor barred an Islamic prayer from the piece they planned to sing.
Their concert was to be performed the next day, on Veterans Day, at First Congregational Church in Traverse City for the annual Mel Larimer Concert Series.
Pastor David Walls and other church officials wanted nothing to do with the Islamic Call to Prayers portion of the performance. They did not want to offend their congregation and military veterans they planned to honor that day, church leaders said.