Racist went on ‘wicked’ campaign of harassment against Muslim shop owner

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A racist man went on a “wicked and upsetting” campaign of harassment against a newsagent after claiming the shop owner stole his £10m winning lottery ticket.

James Young produced leaflets claiming shopkeeper Imran Hussain was a “Muslim lottery ticket thief” then posted them to shops and homes near the newsagent in Broughty Ferry, Dundee.

Young at one stage told Mr Hussain: “You’re a Muslim – maybe the Koran tells you to cheat people.” He also made covert videos in Thornton’s Newsagents, run by Mr Hussain, then posted one of them on YouTube. The YouTube video – titled Lottery ticket thief – was accompanied by text branding Mr Hussain a “Muslim thief” and claiming he had “conned old people”.

He was later arrested after going into the shop in the city’s Gray Street and threatening Mr Hussain’s wife, Shubnum, stating he would kill them both.

Fiscal depute Ross Cargill told Dundee Sheriff Court on Monday: “The accused first entered Mr Hussain’s shop on April 3 this year and claimed he handed over a winning Euromillions lottery ticket to a member of staff.

“He stated that the member of staff must have kept the ticket for himself. On April 13 the accused came back in and said he had contacted Camelot about the ticket and was going to the police and Mr Hussain agreed that was the correct course of action. Unknown to Mr Hussain the accused filmed the conversation with a camera located in the pocket of his top.”

Young, of Aboyne Avenue, Dundee, pled guilty to a racially aggravated breach of the peace and to uttering threats against Mr and Mrs Hussain.

Mr Cargill added: “The accused cannot remember the numbers on the ticket or prove it was a winner.”

Sheriff Alistair Duff described Young’s behaviour as “nasty harassment” and warned him he could face jail. He told the accused: “I take the view that this is extremely serious bad behaviour. The reality is that whether it is imagined or real injustice your behaviour towards the gentleman was wicked and upsetting.”

Young will be sentenced later this month.

STV, 1 August 2011

Labour Party surges in Norway polls as terrorist attacks delegitimise anti-Islam rhetoric and boost support for multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Norway BombingAnders Behring Breivik’s efforts to galvanize anti-Islam sentiment in Norway after last month’s hate killings have given the ruling party he sought to destroy its biggest tailwind in more than a decade.

Support for Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s Labor Party, targeted by Breivik in the July 22 bombing and shootings that left 77 dead, soared to more than 40 percent, two polls showed this week. If a vote were held today, that would be the best result since the 1985 election. Approval of Stoltenberg’s handling of the crisis is at more than 90 percent, polls show.

Breivik’s 1,500-page manifesto, published a few hours before his killing spree, railed against the “Islamization” of Norway and Europe, a trend he said he would try to halt through his terror acts. Yet the anti-immigration Progress Party that Breivik had sought to champion now faces a backlash as a key campaigning point is stigmatized ahead of local elections on Sept. 12. That’s left the group, Parliament’s second-biggest, with an identity crisis.

“They will try to keep a low profile on immigration, immigrants, threats from the Muslims,” Anders Todal Jenssen, a political science professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, said by phone. Without the attacks “they would have focused on immigration as a very important issue,” he said.

Backing for Labor, which was re-elected in 2009 on pledges to improve welfare without raising taxes, surged 11 percentage points in the month through July 30 to 41.7 percent, the highest result since September 1998, according to a Synovate poll. A TNS Gallup poll for TV2 showed a 9.2 point rise in support for Labor to 40.5 percent, a 12-year high. The opposition Conservatives slipped almost five points to 23.7 percent in the Synovate poll, while the Progress Party, of which Breivik was a member from 1999 to 2004, dropped three points to 16.5 percent.

Since the killings, more Norwegians say they now embrace multiculturalism, according to an Aug. 1 InFact AS poll published by Verdens Gang. Twenty-six percent of those questioned said they were more positive toward a multi-ethnic Norway than before the attacks. Nine percent were more negative and 49 percent said they hadn’t changed their opinion.

“The anti-Islam argument has lost its legitimacy,” said Johannes Bergh, a political scientist at the Institute for Social Research in Oslo, in a phone interview. “You can’t make the type of arguments that the Progress Party has been making in terms of Islam being a danger to society or a threat to Norwegian culture. You just can’t say that anymore.”

The prime minister’s party is now poised to win next month’s local elections. Polls before July 22 had shown it was set to lose.

Bloomberg, 2 August 2011

Gallup publishes poll of US Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Gallup reports: “A decade following September 11, 2001, Muslim Americans still face some public distrust and are more skeptical of law enforcement than are other U.S. faith communities. Despite these challenges, American followers of Islam are optimistic about their future, and they embrace their country’s civic institutions and religious pluralism.”

Download the Gallup survey Muslim Americans: Faith, Freedom, and the Future here.

See also Washington Post, 3 August 2011

And Christian Science Monitor, 2 August 2011

Update:  See “U.S. Muslims most likely to reject violence: poll”,Daily Star, 4 August 2011

PFAW report: The Right Wing Playbook on Anti-Muslim Extremism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

People for the American Way press release

Right-Wing extremists are leading a sustained attack against American Muslims, attempting to prevent them from freely practicing their religion, curtail their political rights, and in some cases, compel their deportation, according to a new report by People For the American Way. The report lays out how the Right Wing is using a set of specific strategies to stir up destructive fears, and as a result are putting our fundamental tradition of equality and justice at risk. The report, The Right Wing Playbook on Anti-Muslim Extremism, identifies the scare tactics used by the Right Wing to conjure up anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States and outlines some ways that concerned Americans can push back against anti-Muslim extremism.

“Right-wing activists, elected officials and even some presidential candidates have launched an overt assault on American Muslims, using a religious minority as a scapegoat for any number of national fears and frustrations,” said Michael Keegan, President of People For the American Way. “In doing so, they compromise some of our dearest national values. Anti-Muslim extremists and the political leaders who repeat their talking points are spreading baseless and destructive fears and explicitly disregarding the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of religion and equal treatment under the law.”

The report discusses eight strategies employed by anti-Muslim activists to cast doubt on the validity of Islam as a religion and the integrity of American Muslims in order to justify prejudice and illegal discrimination:

  • Framing American Muslims as dangerous to America
  • Twisting statistics and using fake research to “prove” the Muslim threat
  • Inventing the danger of “creeping Sharia”
  • Justifying taking away freedoms and liberties from Muslims in order to “defend liberty”
  • Denying the validity of Islam as a religion
  • Arguing that Muslims have no First Amendment rights under the Constitution
  • Linking anti-Muslim prejudice to anti-Obama rhetoric
  • Slandering progressives and non-Christians as unholy and anti-American

The report is available here.

Fears of far-right rise in crisis-hit Greece

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Golden Dawn anti-Muslim poster (2)

They descended by the hundreds – black-shirted, bat-wielding youths chasing down dark-skinned immigrants through the streets of Athens and beating them senseless in an unprecedented show of force by Greece’s far-right extremists.

In Greece, alarm is rising that the twin crises of financial meltdown and soaring illegal immigration are creating the conditions for a right-wing rise – and the recent massacre in Norway drove authorities to beef up security on Monday.

The move comes amid spiraling social unrest that has unleashed waves of rioting and vigilante thuggery on the streets of Athens. The U.N.’s refugee agency warns that some Athens neighborhoods have become zones where “fascist groups have established an odd lawless regime.”

Greek police on Monday said they have increased security checks at Muslim prayer houses and other immigrant sites in response to the Norway shooting rampage that claimed 77 lives. “There has been an increase in monitoring at these sites since the events occurred in Norway,” said police spokesman Thanassis Kokkalakis.

The xenophobic rage exploded in May, when youths rampaged through a heavily immigrant neighborhood in broad daylight, knifing and beating foreigners. The attacks left at least 25 people hospitalized with stab wounds or severe beatings. Athens has since suffered a spate of hate attacks by far-rightists.

Last November, the leader of a neo-Nazi group won a seat on Athens’ city council, with an unprecedented 5.3 percent of the vote.

The UNHCR warns of daily attacks by fascist groups in central Athens. “There has been a dangerous escalation in phenomena of racist violence targeting indiscriminately aliens, based solely on their skin color or country of origin,” the UNHCR wrote in a June report. “In certain areas of Athens, cruel and criminal attacks are nearly a daily phenomenon staged by fascist groups that have established an odd lawless regime.”

“I receive threats all the time,” Naim Elgandour, the Egyptian-born head of the Muslim Association of Greece, said in an interview. “Things have gotten much worse lately. It’s an alarm bell from the rest for Europe,” he said. “There may be 5,000 hardcore extremists in Athens, by they are gaining sympathy and tolerance by the day.”

Elgandour said at least 10 makeshift mosques – basements and coffee shops converted by immigrants to use as prayer sites – have been damaged in firebomb and vandalism attacks in the past year.

Since winning a seat on Athens City Council, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, head of the violent far-right group Golden Dawn, has tailored his recent rhetoric to the financial crisis.

“We are living in an enslaved country, financially and nationally,” Michaloliakos, a 54-year-old mathematician, told supporters last month, giving a speech under a statue of Alexander the Great.

“We have a bankrupt economy and the thieving politicians responsible go unpunished,” he said. “How long do they think they can keep lying and fooling the Greek people? Whether they like it or not, the hour of Golden Dawn and nationalist revolution is coming.”

Associated Press, 2 August 2011 

How Policy Exchange and the Centre for Social Cohesion encourage the Cold War on British Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Spinwatch logo

In a report published today, Spinwatch examines the Centre for Social Cohesion and Policy Exchange: two key right-wing think-tanks involved in the debate on Islam and multiculturalism which are thought to have influenced the Coalition Government’s new Prevent strategy.

The report, which was completed before the recent terrorist attacks in Norway, argues that right-wing think-tanks have understated the rise of Islamophobia on the far-right and in some cases condoned the rise of groups such as the English Defence League because of their own links to the “counterjihad movement”.

Continue reading →

Italy: parliamentary committee approves veil ban bill

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Italian parliamentary committee has passed a draft law which will ban women from wearing veils which cover their faces in public.

The bill, which has the backing of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s central-right coalition, would prohibit the wearing of a burka, niqab or any headwear which covers the face. The bill will go to a parliamentary vote after the summer recess.

Belgium and France have already banned the full-face veil in public.

If passed, those who defied the ban would face a fine of 150-300 euros ($213-426; £130-260) and some kind of community service, according to Ansa news agency. For those who forced someone else to wear the covering, the penalty would be 30,000 euros and up to 12 months in jail, Ansa reports.

Lawmaker Barbara Saltamartini, from Mr Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party, said she welcomed the move. “Final approval will put an end to the suffering of many women who are often forced to wear the burka or niqab, which annihilates their dignity and gets in the way of integration,” Ms Saltamartini said in a statement.

The opposition voted against the move.

BBC News, 2 August 2011

See also Daily Mail, 2 August 2011

Why’s everybody always pickin’ on me? Wilders accuses Left of witch-hunt over Breivik links

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geert_WildersAnti-Islam MP Geert Wilders has accused Dutch left-wing parties of playing “a dirty political game”. He says they are taking advantage of the recent terrorist attacks in Norway to conduct a “witch hunt” against him.

Several politicians and commentators have pointed out that Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian man who has admitted carrying out the attacks, mentions Mr Wilders in his some of his writings. They also note that both men use a similar rhetoric when calling for a war against Islam, which they present as a threat to Europe.

RNW, 1 August 2011

Update:  Wilders’ website has a (barely literate) translation of an interview from De Telegraaf, headlined “Wilders furious at ‘witch hunt’ after the Norwegian drama”.

In the interview he attacks Labour Party leader Job Cohen, who was one of the politicians to point out that Breivik employed the same anti-Muslim rhetoric as Wilders. And Wilders procedes defiantly to repeat that same inflammatory rhetoric:

“Islam is the biggest danger threatening our country and the free West. We have too much mass-immigration from Islamic countries and too many hate palaces – Cohen call them mosques, I believe – and immigrants are still overrepresented in the crime figures. Enough is enough.”

See also “Prime minister should comment on Wilders Norway links: D66 leader”, Dutch News, 2 August 2011

Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s speech to United East End public meeting July 29th 2011

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mayor_Rahman_signs_book_of_condolences_at_Norwegian_Embassy
Mayor Rahman signs book of condolences at Norwegian Embassy

This is the speech given by Lutfur Rahman, Mayor of Tower Hamlets, at the United East End rally on 29 July.

Good evening and Assalamu Alaikum.

Thank you all for attending this wonderful display of community unity in Tower Hamlets. I know the dangers of extremism has been in your minds this week in the aftermath of the horrors committed in Norway.

I know that your hearts will have been moved, like mine has, by the grief of the Norwegian people.

So earlier today, I was both proud and saddened to go as your Mayor to Norwegian Embassy. I went with a delegation of faith and community leaders from our borough, to offer condolences and solidarity to all the people of Norway from all the people of Tower Hamlets.

And I came away from that visit more committed and determined to a very simple message from my administration – there is no place for hate in Tower Hamlets.

There is no place for hate against people on the basis of sexual identity.

There is no place for hate against people on the basis of racial identity.

There is no place for hate against people on the basis of religious identity.

We are One Tower Hamlets.

We are not going to let the preachers of hate and extremism, whatever community they come from, divide us.

And we certainly have no intention of the letting the EDL divide us!

Because when the man responsible for the mass slaughter of dozens of Norwegian teenagers boasts about his strong links with EDL leaders;

when he brags about his 600 EDL friends on Facebook;

when he tells the EDL to ‘keep up the good work’;

we all know only too well what the EDL’s idea of ‘good work’ is.

Their idea of ‘good work’ is when they sow the seeds of hate and intolerance.

And the sole purpose of their visit to Tower Hamlets on September 3 is to promote the politics of hatred and division on our streets.

That’s why one of the messages that must go from this meeting is to the Home Secretary, Theresa May, and that message is this:

We don’t want the EDL in our borough;

The people of Tower Hamlets don’t want the EDL in our borough;

And you, Home Secretary, have to the power to stop the EDL from coming into our borough on September 3.

But if the EDL do march, we know full well what their intentions are.

The Norwegian killer Anders Breivik praised them for it; they want to try ‘lure’ the local community, and especially Muslim communities, into street violence.

They want images on our TV screens of Muslim and white youth fighting on our streets.

They want to use these images as evidence of our communities at war with each other so they can claim multicultural Britain does not work

We know the EDL want to set us a trap.

Well, my message to them is this; we are not going to fall into your trap!

Between now and September 3 Tower Hamlets is not going to be a divided borough – it is going to be a united borough.

And on September 3 we are going to have a massive, united and peaceful celebration of multiculturalism and anti-racism.

We are going to have inter-faith groups, LBGT groups, youth groups, pensioners groups, Muslims, Jews, Christians and Atheists; members of all political parties and members of no political parties; all standing together to send one message:

We are One Tower Hamlets.

We are a United Tower Hamlets.

And we are not going to let the EDL or any other bunch of extremists divide us.

The truth behind the anti-Sharia movement

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Over the past few years, anti-Sharia organizations and politicians have introduced versions of anti-Sharia legislation in 26 states – with some bills expressly singling out Sharia law for condemnation, and others sweeping Islamic law under broader categories of “foreign” or “international” law. The ACLU is currently working to overturn an example of this kind of legislation in Oklahoma.

The anti-Sharia movement would have you believe that Islamic law is encroaching on our legal system and is a threat to an American way of life.

This is simply not true, and in fact the court cases cited by anti-Muslim groups as symptoms of some kind of “Muslim threat” actually show the opposite. Courts treat lawsuits that are brought by Muslims or that address the Islamic faith in the same way that they deal with similar claims brought by people of other faiths or that involve no religion at all. The cases show that protections already exist in our legal system to ensure that courts do not become wrongly entangled with religion or improperly consider, defer to, or apply religious law where it would violate basic principles of U.S. federal or state policy.

Prohibiting courts from considering Islamic law serves only one purpose: to bar Muslims from having the same rights and access to the courts as any other individuals. Attempts to prevent courts from considering international or foreign law suffer from constitutional flaws and undermine the ability of courts to interpret laws and treaties regarding global business, international human rights and family law issues such as international marriages and adoptions.

Daniel Mach, Director of the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, said today in a statement:

“The anti-Sharia law movement clearly seeks to ride the recent wave of anti-Muslim bias in this country, pushing laws that are rooted in the baseless idea that U.S. Muslims wish to impose Islamic law on American courts. Proponents of these misguided measures rely on the ugly implication that anything Islamic is inherently un-American, pressing for a legislative solution to a non-existent problem.”

ACLU Blog of Rights, 1 August 2011