CAIR criticizes state lawmaker for anti-Muslim Facebook comments

Posted on by Bob Pitt

John BennettThe leader of the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations on Wednesday called on Republican leaders to repudiate remarks made by Rep. John Bennett on his private Facebook account.

Adam Soltani, CAIR Oklahoma executive director, is also asking the Republican from Sallisaw to apologize for the remarks.

A Monday Facebook post from Bennett reads: “The Quran clearly states that non Muslims should be killed. Arab is the ethnicity, not Muslim or Islam. Be wary of the individuals who claim to be ‘Muslim American.’ Be especially wary if you are Christian.”

Soltani said Bennett has taken the phrase out of context. “This is something revealed in the context of them being at war,” Soltani said. “This is when you meet in battle. It doesn’t say just go out and kill people.”

He said elected leaders should not be seeking to instill fear of Islam or Muslims. “Anti-Muslim bigotry and statements that promote misunderstanding and incite hatred toward a minority group have no place in the Oklahoma Republican Party,” Soltani wrote in a letter to Bennett. “Individuals elected to represent the people of Oklahoma should be held accountable for such extremist, inaccurate and intolerant views.”

Bennett, 40, said he has no intention of apologizing, adding that he was referring to Muslims who hold extreme views.

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French court bans Muslim with ‘jihadist links’ from nuclear sites

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A French court this week upheld a ban on a Muslim engineer from entering nuclear sites citing his links with Islamist networks, in a move blasted by his lawyer as “Islamophobic”.

The 29-year-old, who works for a subcontractor to French energy giant EDF, had worked freely at nuclear power facilities throughout 2012 and 2013. But in March this year the man, who cannot be named under French law, had his pass to enter the Nogent-sur-Seine nuclear power station revoked.

Officials said he had links with a jihadist terrorist group and that he was in touch with an imam involved in recruiting youngsters to fight in Iraq.

A court in the northeastern town of Châlons-en-Champagne upheld the ban saying the management could prevent those “undergoing a process of political and religious radicalisation” from accessing sensitive sites.

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Muslim woman attacked on Vienna train

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Zeliha CicekA 37-year-old Muslim woman from Vienna has complained to police after being attacked by a woman whilst travelling on Vienna’s metro.

She believes that the woman, who hit her in the face, did so because she was wearing a headscarf. Police said they believed the attacker was “disturbed”.

Zeliha Cicek is the third Muslim to have been assaulted in Vienna in the last month.

Cicek, a school teacher and mother of three children, is ethnically Turkish. She said she was talking to her sister on an U3 underground train on her mobile phone when the woman started shouting at her in English. “I calmly told her she could speak to me in German and suddenly she stood up and slapped me in the face. I dropped my phone and it broke, I was so shocked,” she said.

An English man came to Cicek’s aid but the angry woman scratched his face. She got out of the train at Stephansplatz – and despite Cicek screaming that she had attacked her the woman was able to flee without being stopped.

Cicek told the Kurier newspaper that she didn’t believe that the woman was drunk or mad. “The English man also thought that she had a problem with me wearing the headscarf,” she said.

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Faith leader defends Islamic centre plan, says ‘there will never be a mosque in Basildon, because of all the opposition’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sarfraz Sarwar (2)An Islamic group is hoping to set up a new centre in a former Basildon call centre office – but insists it would not be a mosque.

Brother Sarfraz Sarwar of Basildon Islamic Centre, has applied for permission to change the use of 17 Buckwins Square, Burnt Mills Industrial Estate, Basildon, from a call centre to a place of worship.

Nigel Cooper, planning agent for the Islamic centre, said: “The building would be used in the week for prayers about five times a day and as many as ten times at night. There would never be more than about 50 people there. At weekends, it would be used for teaching children. I think they have chosen an industrial estate, so it is not near to any homes, so there is less chance of objections.”

The group has used a community centre in Vange Hill Drive for Friday prayers since it was forced out of the former Triangle Community Centre, in Landon High Road, by an arson attack in 2006.

Brother Sarwar, who has also faced attacks on his Pitsea home, said: “It is not a mosque. You know there will never be a mosque in Basildon, because of all the opposition. All this will be is an education centre. It is an Islamic centre for British and cultural studies. The problem is everything to do with Muslims ends up being a propaganda war.”

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Muslim academic draws hate fire

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anne AlyAs a proud and outspoken Muslim, Anne Aly has also become a target for anti-Islamic hate groups.

The Curtin University lecturer – who chooses not to wear a hijab and denounces Muslim extremists – has been bombarded with hate mail after a recent interview in which she defended Islam as a religion of peace. Her quotes were republished on a right-wing website called Jihad Watch, along with her work email address.

“I was just really speaking out against some of the false assumptions about my religion,” Dr Aly said. “But what they (the hate groups) really want is for me to denounce my religion. By saying that Islam is not about terrorism and Islam is not about beheadings or female genital mutilation, they can’t cope with that because it shatters the basis for their arguments.”

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Ombudswoman’s defence of hijab sparks heated debate in the Czech Republic

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anna ŠabatováTwo young women from Somalia and Afghanistan who were studying at a Prague nursing school left the institution last year after the headmistress refused to allow them to wear headscarves in class.

While the headmistress claimed that the dispute was not about religious freedoms but about adhering to the rules of a given institution, Ombudswoman Anna Šabatová has now defended their right to do so:

“It was indirect discrimination. The girls were, in effect, denied access to education. A school principal cannot use an internal regulation to decide if someone can cover their head with a scarf, which in this case happened to be a religious symbol.”

The Ombudswoman’s stand immediately sparked heated debate about whether students should be allowed to wear headscarves and other religious symbols. Radko Hokovský from the Prague-based European Values think tank argues that the Ombudswoman’s verdict does not reflect the broader situation in Europe:

“The veil is not only a religious symbol. According to a verdict by the German Constitutional Court and other international institutions in Europe, including the European Court of Human Rights, it is also perceived as a form of exclusion within schools and also as discrimination against women.”

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Crackdown on British jihadis ‘will push youth further towards extremism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

David Cameron’s renewed crackdown on British-born extremists will push marginalised young people further towards radicalisation, the UK’s biggest Muslim organisation has said.

Harun Khan, deputy secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), raised concerns about the prime minister’s anti-terrorism strategy amid signs of a wider impasse in relations between the government and Muslim groups.

“They need to be talking to us and others to understand what it is that’s leading these boys down this route,” Khan told the Guardian. “Part of the problem is the constant talk of legislation, harassment and monitoring, stripping people of their passports. This is what’s leading young people towards radicalism.”

The warning came as Cameron and Nick Clegg held further talks to try to agree on the final details of plans to stem the flow of British-born jihadis travelling to and from Syria and Iraq. Cameron is due to make a statement to MPs at 3.30pm on the proposals, which are expected to include measures to improve the flow of information about airline passengers to intelligence agencies and to intensify cooperation with Germany and Turkey, the main routes to Syria.

Khan said many young British-born Muslims felt pushed to the fringes of society and that the latest government crackdown could nudge them further into the grasp of radical clerics, instead of drawing them back into mainstream society.

“This is really unprecedented in what we’re seeing right now with young people,” he said. “People are watching the news and thinking: ‘These people are getting slaughtered, I need to do something’. Now we’ve put all these people out of the country and we’re saying you can’t come back in.”

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Another flop for the fascists in Cricklewood

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anti-SEA protest August 2014

Today the far-right South East Alliance staged a demonstration in Cricklewood, for the third time this year. They claimed to be protesting against the Muslim Brotherhood, who were once supposed to have an office there. As before, a large number of anti-fascists turned out for a counter-demo organised North West London United, among them Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt and London Assembly member Murad Qureshi.

It wasn’t looking good for the SEA, with a mere 15 “patriots” taking to the streets to resist the threat of Islamo-fascism. Having eventually managed to drag themselves out of the pub, they gathered on Cricklewood Broadway shortly after 1pm and seemed rather uncertain as to why they were there, shouting about Muslim grooming gangs and Muslim paedos. What that had to do with the Muslim Brotherhood was unclear.

Things picked up a bit for them an hour or so later when SEA leader Paul Pitt/Prodromou arrived with some more supporters, bringing flags and a few sheets of A4 paper with the words “Ban the Muslim Brotherhood” printed on them. The SEA’s banner was unfurled, featuring the slogan “One nation, one aim, one future” (presumably inspired by “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer”), alongside those of two other far-right groupuscules, the Scottish Defence League and Scottish Volunteer Force.

The SEA hung around for another hour, during which they shouted incoherent abuse at the counter-demonstrators and delivered a couple of speeches nobody but themselves could hear. They were then escorted out of Cricklewood under police protection.

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Muslim basketball player speaks out against international federation’s ban on religious headwear

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Indira KaljoThe International Basketball Association’s ban on religious headwear like turbans, hijabs, and yarmulkes worn by some Sikh, Muslim, and Jewish basketball players is an “extremely disrespectful” way of forcing players to choose between their favorite sport and their religion, one of the Muslim women fighting to overturn the ban told ThinkProgress this week.

Indira Kaljo, a Bosnian-American Muslim who played college basketball for Tulane University, began challenging FIBA’s ban on religious headwear this year, when she decided she wanted to wear a hijab during games but could not if she wanted to play professionally in Europe.

Kaljo did not wear the hijab while playing at Tulane or during a year of professional ball in Ireland. But after deciding to adhere more closely to her faith, Kaljo took her story to the Council on American-Islamic Relations in an effort to pressure FIBA into changing its policy. She played covered in an American summer league this year and does not want to return to Europe if she cannot wear a hijab.

“I shouldn’t have to decide between faith and sports,” Kaljo said in a phone interview with ThinkProgress this week. “And not just me, players around the world.”

“It’s extremely disrespectful,” Kaljo said. “There’s no other way to put it other than, it’s disrespectful.”

The policy has drawn international criticism in the form of official complaints from the Turkish basketball federation, social media movements, online petitions, and even a letter from American lawmakers after multiple Indian Sikh players were told they could not wear traditional religious turbans during games in different Asian federation tournaments. It has been a focus too of Muslim groups and women players who have challenged it, including the women’s team from the Maldives, which withdrew from an under-18 Asian tournament this month when officials refused to let players wear hijabs during games.

FIBA was scheduled to review the policy during executive meetings in Spain this week before the start of the men’s basketball World Cup. But it announced Thursday that it would indefinitely delay its review, meaning the ban will remain in place.

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74-year-old man sentenced for shots at neighbors

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A judge has sentenced a 74-year-old man to 30 years in prison for firing a shotgun at his southern Indiana neighbors who he had become convinced were Islamic terrorists.

Monroe County Judge Kenneth Todd said during Thursday’s sentencing hearing he believed Robert Walp of Gosport was delusional when he attacked the married couple and their 12-year-old son who were his longtime neighbors in the rural area north of Bloomington.

A jury convicted Walp in July on three counts of attempted murder for the May 2013 attack. The Herald-Times reports Walp’s neighbors weren’t wounded and mental health experts determined he was sane and able to understand events taking place around him.

Walp told the judge he didn’t commit the crimes and was considering whether to appeal his convictions.

Associated Press, 28 August 2014