Thurnby Lodge Islamic community centre plan ‘alternatives’ sought

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Islamic charity which plans to turn a former scout hut into a community centre has been told the city council is looking at “alternative premises”.

Leicester City Council said if no site could be found for the As-salaam Trust then negotiations on the sale of the lease would resume.

About 200 people attended a demonstration at Thurnby Lodge last week to oppose the group’s plans.

The As-salaam Trust said it was sad the community could not work together. It said its community centre aimed to provide food sharing services, drug and alcohol advice and education to make community life better for everyone.

Mohammed Lockhat, from the As-salaam Trust, said: “We are in discussions with the council. We are sad that we cannot work together as a community. We would love to, we’ve been trying to, and we are continuing to do so within our limits at the moment.

“The protests are supposed to be directed at the council, but on many occasions they haven’t been. It has been quite intimidating for many of our members.”

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New York: Predictably, the so-called ‘Islamorealism’ ads are based in bigotry and lies

Posted on by Bob Pitt

metro-north-billboard

“The above ads are appearing at Metro-North stations in New York. A continuation of Islamophobic activists Robert Spencer andPamela Geller‘s AFDI/SIOA racist and anti-Muslim/Islam advertisement campaign. In light of recent hate attacks, 8 over a period of 11 days, and another possible attack yesterday, theattempted firebombing of a Muslim family’s home in Panama City, Florida, can we not consider such advertisements to be an incitement to violence?”

Loonwatch poses the question.

Update:  See “Islamophobic billboard at Metro-North station causes outrage one month after pro-Palestinian billboard”,Huffington Post, 17 August 2012

Are Muslims and ‘mass migration’ a threat to secularism in Denmark?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Danish Regulation of Religion reportRamadan dinners in the Danish Parliament, staff parties without either pork or alcohol and prayer rooms at the airport are all examples of how religion is becoming more visible in public spaces.

“Prior to the mass migration of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, almost all Danes shared similar values and were members of the national Christian church, so religion was not an issue in everyday life. There was no need to discuss neither one’s own nor another person’s religious viewpoint, and secularisation was a matter of course. Today, it is difficult to be in a public place, read the newspaper, or go to school or work without encountering religious expressions and symbols,” says Niels Valdemar Vinding, a PhD student from the Centre for European Islamic Thought at University of Copenhagen and co-author of a recently published report from the European research project RELIGARE that examines religious diversity and secular models in Europe.

“Everywhere in Europe it is clear that the concept of secularism, where religion remains a private matter, is under pressure. Everything suggests that in the future religious organisations will have more influence on schools, workplaces and the media. This means that both private and public institutions will be dealing with religion more often,” explains Vinding.

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Muslim graves desecrated at Illinois cemetery

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Evergreen Park cemetery graffitiSeveral headstones at a cemetery in Evergreen Park were found desecrated with anti-Muslim graffiti this week, and Chicago’s Muslim community is shocked.

The Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago reported Friday morning that the graffiti had been scrawled on several graves at the Evergreen Cemetery, at 3401 W. 87th St. in Evergreen Park.

The group says a Palestinian-American man went to pay respects to his deceased father at the cemetery, and was horrified to see several Muslim graves desecrated.

“The Southwest Side has been home to a large Muslim and Arab American population for over 30 years; it is shocking to find such hatred, especially at a cemetery”, council associate director Ahlam Jbara said in a news release.

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Community groups issue statement on Geller’s San Francisco bus ads

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geller Support Israel ad

American Muslims for Palestine, the Asian Law Caucus, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Jewish Voice for Peace have issued a joint press release cautiously welcoming a statement by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency in response to complaints about the anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic advertisements that Pamela Geller’s so-called American Freedom Defense Initiative has placed on San Francisco buses.

The SFMTA has said that although the First Amendment prevents it from removing them, Geller’s advertisements have “no value in facilitating constructive dialogue or advancing the cause of peace and justice”. The statement went on to commit the SFMTA to directing all resulting advertising revenue to the SF Human Rights Commission.

It would, of course, have been preferable if the SFMTA had defied Geller and taken her on in the courts. She pursued her lawsuit in New York on the basis that the city’s Metropolitan Transport Authority had previously allowed ads critical of Israel and that she was being discriminated against. The SFMTA, however, has a policy of refusing all political advertising, so Geller’s case would surely have been much weaker here.

Still, at least Geller’s money will be going to support an organisation that really does defend freedom.

See Adam Serwer. “Who’s behind the anti-Islam ads on MTA and Muni?”, Mother Jones, 15 August 2012

And Sheila Musaji, “Bus ads: Of savages and idiots”, The American Muslim, 15 August 2012

Also “Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs: Bus ads inspired by Ayn Rand’s racist views of Arabs and Muslims?”, Loonwatch, 14 August 2012

Daily Mail can’t even condemn a racist attack on Muslims without employing anti-migrant rhetoric

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Daily Mail reports that a drunken couple of Polish origin, Beata Jopek and her partner Maciej Matysniak, racially abused two hijab-wearing Muslim women, Hana Farah and Ithil Ibrahim, on a Leeds-Sheffield train.

It was Matysniak who first approached the two women and told them: “Shut the f*** up”, why are you so “f****** loud, aren’t you embarrassed about how loud you are? You can’t even speak English.”

Jopek then told the women to “go back to your own country”, screaming “no-one wants you here, you are f****** disgusting”. She shouted at one of them: “Take that f****** thing off, a white person wouldn’t do what you are doing.” She ripped the headscarf from one of the women and when restrained by a guard said: “If I lose the baby I’m going to kill the black b****.”

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Florida: firebomb thrown at Muslim family’s home

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Panama City police are investigating what appears to be a fire bombing in the Forest Park area.

It happened about 3:45 Wednesday morning at a house on Timber Lane in phase-1 of the subdivision called The Woods.

The owner’s son said he heard a loud noise outside of his bedroom window, looked out and saw the ground below on-fire. He called 9-1-1, then put out the fire.

Police say they smelled gasoline and found what appeared to be a broken and burned mason jar, lying on the ground below the window.

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German far-right group’s plan to display anti-Islam caricatures does not incite hatred, court rules

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Berlin court has rejected an emergency appeal by three mosques to prohibit a far-right group from displaying caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad at a demonstration this weekend.

The Berlin administrative court ruled Thursday the caricatures were protected by laws allowing artistic free expression and their display alone did not violate laws against slander nor those against inciting hate or violence.

Three mosques had filed the appeal after the far-right “Citizens Movement – Pro Germany” had said it would display the caricatures during its Aug. 18 demonstration in the capital, being held under the slogan “Islam does not belong in Germany – stop Islamization“.

Associated Press, 16 August 2012

Update:  See “Anti-Islam group targets mosques and leftists”, The Local, 17 August 2012

Update 2:  See “Spencer-Geller allied group, ‘Pro-Deutschland’ targets Muslims and leftists”, Loonwatch, 17 August 2012

CAIR denounces PQ proposal to ban hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A national Muslim civil rights advocacy organization today condemned a proposal by Parti Québécois (PQ) leader Pauline Marois to ban the Muslim headscarf and other religious-based attire in provincial government offices if the PQ forms government after upcoming September elections.

The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) decried the remarks made Tuesday by Madame Marois at a campaign stop in Trois Riviere that, under a PQ government, Muslim women who wear the hijab would be barred from participating in the Quebec civil service. The PQ says other “overt religious symbols” would likewise be banned, while the Catholic crucifix would remain in Quebec’s National Assembly.

“Many Muslim women regard the hijab as an important and mandatory practice in their faith. The proposed exclusion of a targeted minority of women from the Quebec civil service under a PQ government undermines religious freedom and the democratic values of both Quebec and Canada. The PQ is once again using populist rhetoric and parochial ideas to advance their electoral strategy,” said CAIR-CAN Human Rights Officer Julia Williams.

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