Safiya Ghori-Ahmad claims the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom rescinded a job offer because she is Muslim. As Sarah Wildman reports, this isn’t the first time the commission has come under fire.
Mum Maroon Rafique banned from Manchester College parents’ evening… for wearing a veil
A mum was turned away from a college parents’ evening – because she was wearing a veil.
Maroon Rafique was refused entry to Manchester College by senior staff who told her there was a ban on face coverings. The mum-of-two, from Whalley Range, said she was left stunned and dismayed. She had to phone husband Abdul, who attended the meeting with their 18-year-old son Awais, while she sat in the lobby of the college’s Northenden campus.
BNP finds a new cause célèbre – a racist crank’s right to free speech
The British National Party has found a new heroine in the battle to defend free speech. Her name is Margaret Walker, and she was up in front of Fareham magistrates last week following complaints about a homemade leaflet she had circulated based on the cases of missing Blackpool teenagers Charlene Downes and Paige Chivers (who the far right claim were murdered by Muslims). Walker was given an interim ASBO preventing her from distributing any further copies of her leaflet before she returns to court on 20 July.
Despite the fact that she is clearly a crank of questionable mental stability (as can be seen from her leaflet here and here), the BNP organised a demonstration in solidarity with Walker outside Fareham Magistrates Court on Friday. Evidently it wasn’t very well attended. A BNP report carrying the rather plaintive headline “Were you in Fareham today?” stated that that Charlene’s mother, BNP supporter Karen Downes, came all the way from Blackpool for the protest “but many locals couldn’t be troubled”. However, the case does shed some light on current developments in the BNP.
Threats to Islamic centers in North Carolina
CHARLOTTE, NC — The head of the Islamic Center of Charlotte is speaking out after the center received a letter threatening physical violence against Muslims. According to the center’s director Jibril Hough, the letter was just one of several sent to Islamic centers around North Carolina.
Hough called the letter a “pretty detailed threat” and said the threat was serious enough that Charlotte police and the Federal Bureau of Investigations are now investigating the letter.
The letter, according to Hough, came from a person who claimed to be “part of a large network of folks from the business community, from the public services community, from the public school community that is seeking to make life harder on the public square for Muslims.”
Interfaith coalition decries hate group leader’s appearance at L.A. Jewish Federation
A Southern California interfaith coalition today expressed “deep shock and alarm” over the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles’ decision to offer a platform to the leader of an anti-Muslim hate group.
Pamela Geller, who will deliver a lecture this morning on “Islamic Jew-Hatred: The Root Cause of the Failure to Achieve Peace,” is co-founder of Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA), an organization designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and author of a book offering step-by-step instructions on how to stop mosque construction in America.
Four cautioned over Facebook comments on Azhar Ahmed prosecution
Four people have been cautioned over their response to Facebook comments about the Yorkshire Regiment soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
Azhar Ahmed, 19, of Fir Avenue, Ravensthorpe, denies making the initial offensive comments on the social networking site. Ahmed was charged under the Communications Act 2003 for remarks posted just two days after six British soldiers – including three from Huddersfield – died in Lashkar Gar in March this year.
The comments provoked outrage and many Facebook users posted angry replies. Some were subsequently investigated by police.
French Muslim refused entrance to bank because she wore headscarf
On the morning of Tuesday 19 June on her way to an appointment with her financial adviser, a woman wearing the hijab was refused entry to a Crédit Mutuel branch. The reason given: the employee required her to take off her headscarf. This action resulted in great indignation and a protest outside the offices of the bank. Crédit Mutuel officials quickly issued a statement expressing their regret and apologies for the “isolated mistake”.
See also “Pas de voile au Crédit Mutuel”, CCIF, 21 June 2012
Michele Bachmann claims that Muslim Brotherhood has ‘penetrated’ the U.S. government
Eli Clifton has the details.
Peter King: ‘almost 90 percent of the terrorist crimes are carried out by the Muslim community’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4ea1JhAExi4
Interviewed on Fox News yesterday, Republican Congressman Peter King justified the resumption of his hearings on the supposed radicalisation of Muslim Americans:
What I am very concerned about is that while the overwhelming majority of Muslims are good people, the fact is even though Muslims are 1 percent of the population, almost 90 percent of the terrorist crimes are carried out by the Muslim community. And there are not enough people in the community willing to step forward and speak out against this and cooperate with law enforcement.
Good news for Muslim-American presidential candidates – they are marginally less unpopular than atheists
While more than nine in 10 Americans would vote for a presidential candidate who is black, a woman, Catholic, Hispanic, or Jewish, significantly smaller percentages would vote for one who is an atheist (54%) or Muslim (58%). Americans’ willingness to vote for a Mormon (80%) or gay or lesbian (68%) candidate falls between these two extremes.