Spain: far right tries to exploit opposition to new mosque

PXL anti-mosque protestThe mosque in Torrejón de Ardoz doesn’t look much like a mosque. It occupies the ground floor of a drab block of flats near the main square in this town of 120,000 inhabitants just east of Madrid. But for the last decade and a half, it has been the only place of worship for Muslims here.

“This mosque is too small for us and we need a new site that is bigger and more apt for our needs,” says Farid Bahoudi, the spokesman for Torrejón’s Islamic community, pointing to the old building. He says there are now about 10,000 Muslims in the town, mostly from north Africa.

But local Muslims’ attempts to find a more suitable site for their mosque have sparked a dispute that has pitted politicians on the far right against activists from the radical left and highlighted the issue of race relations in crisis-ridden Spain.

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EDL raise funds inside the European Parliament

Far right members from organisations in Germany, Sweden and the UK attended a meeting in the European Parliament on 9 July at which literature was sold to attendees.

While one keynote speaker described how “The pansy left are auditioning to be the Muslim’s prison b*tch” and said the mainstream media represented “a threat to life and liberty.”

The same speaker stated: “A society which becomes more Muslim becomes less everything else.”

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Canberra: mosque proposal divides residents

Gungahlin mosque

ACT planners have been told that women in burqas will scare children in Gungahlin if Canberra’s Muslim community proceeds with plans to build a mosque in the area.

The ACT Planning and Land Authority has received more than 50 submissions in response to the proposed development on The Valley Avenue.

It follows a campaign by a group called the “Concerned Citizens of Canberra” that urged residents to object to the development because of its “social impact” and concerns about traffic and noise.

The Canberra Times revealed on Saturday that the group’s spokesman, Irwin Ross, is a Christian fundamentalist activist who describes himself as a pastor with Olive Tree Ministries.

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Bad news for ‘Islamisation’ scaremongerers – even al-Qaeda doesn’t seek to impose Islam everywhere

How Islamist Extremists Quote the Qur'anA common belief in the West is that al Qaeda wishes to impose Islam everywhere. This might be a pipe dream for the group, but a new study of their use of religious texts suggests that Islamists’ goals are much more modest.

Researchers with Arizona State University’s Center for Strategic Communication (CSC) analyzed more than 2,000 items of propaganda from al Qaeda and related Islamist groups from 1998 to 2011. They catalogued more than 1,500 quotes from the Qur’an that extremists used to support their arguments, and identified the chapter (surah) and verse represented in the quote.

Results showed that most of quotes are about enduring hardships and maintaining faith and hope in the face of attacks by enemies of Islam. The so-called “Verse of the Sword” (9:5) that says “fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them” was used only three times.

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Posted in USA

Ottawa: girl banned from soccer game for refusing to remove hijab

Rayane BenattiA nine-year-old Gatineau girl who refused to remove her headscarf was forced to stand on the sidelines Sunday as her team played – and won – the final match of a soccer tournament.

The order came just days after the International Football Association Board voted to lift its ban based on the fact that “there is no medical literature concerning injuries as a result of wearing a headscarf,” the organization stated on its website.

Rayane Benatti was told to take off her headscarf for safety reasons, but she refused. “It made me feel very sad,” she told the Citizen in French on Monday. “I love soccer. I get to run around and do teamwork – I really like that.”

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Sikhs to join demonstration against EDL in Bristol

Sikhs Against EDL (2)

‘Sikhs Against the EDL’ to join the counter demonstration against the EDL march in Bristol on Saturday 14th July

Sikhs from London, West Midlands and Cardiff will be marching against the English Defence League (EDL) in Bristol on Saturday 14th July under the banner of ‘Sikhs Against the EDL’.

They will be there to support the counter demonstration against the EDL march in Bristol on the same day. The counter demonstration is being organised by a multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-faith organisation known as ‘We Are Bristol’. It is a broad-based network of local community groups, political organisations and trade unions. Their aim is to ‘celebrate diversity and oppose racism and fascism’ and to show the EDL that they are not welcome in Bristol.

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Bristol council leader says EDL have right to march and refuses to join counter-demonstration

Simon CookThe far right English Defence League has been given a clear message by city council leader Simon Cook [pictured] – “We don’t want you in Bristol.”

The EDL, which describes itself as an anti-Islamist group, is planning to press ahead on Saturday with its controversial march through the city.

Meanwhile, a group of trade unions, community groups and anti-racist organisations called We Are Bristol will stage a counter demonstration opposite the Bristol Hippodrome at the same time.

Labour councillor Mike Wollacott (Brislington East) wrote to Mr Cook, inviting him to attend the anti-EDL demo. But Mr Cook has turned down the invitation, saying he thought it would send out the wrong message.

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Picnic held to support Islamic Center of Murfreesboro

I Support ICMSunday in Murfreesboro, people of all faiths gathered in support of a new Islamic center struggling to open on Veals Road.

A picnic at Barfield Crescent Park was meant to be a morale boost to the Muslim community who have seen protests and legal complications surround the controversial building of the mosque.

“I’m really happy if they donate money to help build the mosque because I really want to have a better mosque,” said 10-year-old Lian Sader.

“The freedom of religion is the right of everyone in this country,” added Zulfat Suara of the American Muslim Advisory Council. “I feel like that’s something the people of Murfreesboro should be entitled to.”

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Expose the Islamophobia industry

The Islamophobia IndustryNathan Lean, author of the forthcoming study The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims, calls for a campaign to expose the poisonous anti-Muslim ideology promoted by the likes of Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer and Frank Gaffney, which provided the inspiration for Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik.

Lean writes: “Society has a responsibility to counter these individuals with overwhelming overtures of pluralism – and to systematically push the fearmongers out of public discourse. The consequences of inaction are grave. Just as Bin Laden had several copycats, so too may Breivik. In his closing statement, the Norway killer said that, ‘My brothers in the Norwegian and European resistance movements are sitting and watching this case while they plan new attacks’.”

New York Daily News, 9 July 2012