New York police commissioner apologises for ‘Third Jihad’ interview

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Third Jihad(2)New York’s police commissioner apologized Wednesday for appearing in a documentary movie about terrorism that Muslim groups have criticized as inflammatory, and said his department acted wrongly when it later showed the film to counterterrorism trainees.

A spokesman for Raymond Kelly had previously denied the commissioner had any participation in the making of the “The Third Jihad,” suggesting last year that footage of Kelly was lifted from another source.

But on Wednesday Kelly said he had sat for an interview in 2007 because the filmmaker had “bona fides” in television and with the White House. The movie later was shown on a continuous loop on the sidelines during New York Police Department counterterrorism sessions.

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Former Test cricketer tweets Australia Day slur against Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Former Test cricketer Rodney Hogg’s anti-Muslim slur on Twitter was “more than despicable, it’s the pits really”, the leader of an Islamic group said today.

Hogg is embroiled in a racial controversy after an ill-advised attempt at humour on Australia Day.

“Just put out my aussie flag for Australia Day but I wasn’t sure if it would offend Muslims…So I wrote ‘Allah is a shit’ on it to make sure,” Hogg tweeted at midday today.

Sydney Morning Herald, 26 January 2012

‘Strict Muslim’ raped four women at knifepoint to ‘punish them for being on the streets at night’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Thus the headline to an article in today’s Daily Mail. As is almost invariably the case when this newspaper reports on any issue involving Muslims, the headline is intentionally misleading.

If you read the article, you’ll see it is the rapist’s family background that is characterised as “strict Muslim” not the individual himself. In fact the judge in passing sentence made the point that the rapist carried out the attacks despite and in contradiction to his religious upbringing: “The fact that you have attacked these women not withstanding your background must represent your own wholly warped personality.”

But the headline suggests to the reader that it was the man’s strict adherence to his faith which produced the violent misogyny that led him to commit these crimes.

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Florida: school board faces down anti-Muslim bigots

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Parents Say NO to HAMAS!

Some wore neckties that resembled U.S. flags. Some were parents or grandparents. One was not yet even a teenager.

They all were united by a mission. And one by one, the speakers took the Hillsborough County School Board to task Tuesday over what they said was the improper teaching of Islam in a high school classroom last year by the leader of the local Council on American-Islamic Relations.

They said the presentation by CAIR’s Hassan Shibly – made to an advanced-placement world history class in November at Steinbrenner High – was a threat to children, to schools, to America.

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Protests against Maryland mayor attending prayer breakfast featuring notorious Islamophobe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

William G. BoykinProtesters are pressuring Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan to shun a prayer breakfast that features a former high-ranking Army officer who has made anti-Muslim remarks.

Leaders of People for the American Way, a left-leaning advocacy group based in Washington, say they have sent hundreds of emails to town officials this week over retired Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin‘s scheduled appearance at the breakfast Thursday.

Boykin, a former senior Pentagon official, bills himself as a warrior for Jesus Christ. He made headlines nationally for describing Muslims as idol-worshipers and comparing the war on terrorism to the biblical fight between Christians and the devil.

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California: jury sides with Muslim guard in harassment case

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A San Francisco jury has awarded $465,400 to a Muslim of African descent who quit his job as a security guard after a co-worker called him a “goddamn terrorist,” supervisors made racist comments and a top company official endorsed a statement that “Muslims kill people.”

The Superior Court jury found Thursday that Abas Idris’ employer, Andrews International, was responsible for harassment and a hostile work environment that forced Idris to resign, and awarded him $65,400 for lost wages and emotional distress. On Monday, the jury added $400,000 in punitive damages.

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Negative portrayal of Muslims in media fuels prejudice, Leveson Inquiry told

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ENGAGE logoThe amount of negative stories about Muslims in the UK was demonising a whole religion the Leveson Inquiry has heard. Inayat Bunglawala, consultant editor to ENGAGE, appeared at the Inquiry to present evidence on representations of Islam and Muslims in the British media.

In its written submission to the Leveson Inquiry, ENGAGE highlighted the inadequate provisions in the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice to handle third party complaints and its negative cumulative impact on processes for redress of grievance.

It also heard that the excessive media attention granted to fringe Muslim groups to demonised the wider British Muslim population; and instances of gross misrepresentation or fabrication in the production of news stories relating to Islam and British Muslims fuelled a false narrative.

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Dutch veil ban legislation criticised by government advisory body

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Draft legislation aimed at banning burkas in the Netherlands has been heavily criticised by the government’s most important advisory body and needs significant amendments, news agency ANP reports, citing regional newspapers.

The GPD papers, who base their claim on sources in The Hague, say the Council of State delivered its recommendations to the home affairs ministry in November, but the legislation is only due to be sent to parliament this week – eight weeks later.

The Council of State has given the draft law “one of the most critical judgments possible”, ANP says. Estimates of how many women wear a burka in the Netherlands range from a handful to around 100.

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Terrorism supporting blog opposes Alternative Leveson Inquiry, wins backing from racist right

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Over at the terrorism supporting blog Harry’s Place, “Lucy Lips” (probably David Toube discovering his feminine side) takes exception to the letter in today’s Guardian endorsing the launch of an Alternative Leveson Inquiry that will address the problem of anti-Muslim bigotry in the press.

For Harry’s Place this welcome initiative is to be dismissed as a project of the “Islamist-Far Left Alliance” (is Bianca Jagger part of the Islamist or the far-left component of this alliance, I wonder). Toube and his friends evidently prefer to promote a political line that brings them into an alliance with the far right.

Update:  Jihad Watch reports the Guardian letter under the headline “UK: Islamic supremacists, Leftists demand ‘inquiry into anti-Islam press'”. You do wonder why Harry’s Place and Robert Spencer don’t get on better than they do. They have so much in common.