Sharia is a misunderstood term in the west and Lady Cox’s bill only perpetuates the myth that it conflicts with British law, argues Musleh Faradhi.
Socialist mayoral candidate backs second mosque in Sofia
Georgi Kadiev, the leftist Bulgarian Socialist Party’s runner for Mayor of the capital Sofia, has stated he has “nothing against” the possible construction of a second mosque in the city. If necessary, even a third and a fourth mosque may be built, as well as a synagogue or an Armenian temple.
However, Kadiev, who on Wednesday met the Chief Mufti of the Bulgarian Muslim Community, has set a restriction for the potential future mosque – it should not have loudspeakers, as their sound may be found too aggressive by the rest of the citizens.
Kadiev pointed out that most of Sofia’s Muslim community, between 30,000 and 50,000 people, are foreigners and do not have the right to vote, stating his endorsement is not populism.
At the beginning of June, Bulgaria’s ethnic Turkish party, Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, demanded to have a second mosque built in the capital Sofia.
On May 20, supporters of the far-right, nationalist Ataka party, led by party Chair, Volen Siderov, shocked Bulgaria as its rally protesting against the use of loudspeakers by the mosque got out of hand, and activists of Ataka assaulted praying Muslims in front of the mosque.
The anti-Muslim inner circle
The apparent recent surge in popular anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States has been driven by a surprisingly small and, for the most part, closely knit cadre of activists. Their influence extends far beyond their limited numbers, in part because of an amenable legion of right-wing media personalities – and lately, politicians like U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who held controversial hearings into the radicalization of American Muslims this March – who are eager to promote them as impartial experts or grassroots leaders. Yet a close look at their rhetoric reveals how doggedly this group works to provoke and guide populist anger over what is seen as the threat posed by the 0.6% of Americans who are Muslim – an agenda that goes beyond reasonable concern about terrorism into the realm of demonization.
The summer issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report profiles ten of the leading US Islamophobes.
Via LoonWatch
Lyon: deputy mayor conducting marriage ceremony forces bride to remove headscarf
French news sources (see here, here and here) have reported on the case of a Muslim couple, Samira and Mohamed ****, who went to the town hall in the 9th district of Lyon on 4 June to get married.
The Coalition Against Racism and Islamophobia (CRI) reported that Samira was immediately challenged by the deputy mayor, Fatiha ben Ahmed of the Europe Écologie – Les Verts party, who was responsible for conducting the marriage ceremony. Ben Ahmed demanded that Samira should remove her headscarf and threatened the couple that she would not proceed with the ceremony unless the bride did as she was told. Under pressure from the deputy mayor and lacking knowledge of the regulations, Samira complied and removed her hijab.
It has been pointed out that there is in fact no legislation that allows a mayor or his deputy to refuse to marry a couple on the grounds that the bride wears a headscarf. Fatiha ben Ahmed’s demand was particularly discriminatory, given that it is a French tradition that brides wear a tulle veil at marriage ceremonies.
The Coalition Against Racism and Islamophobia wrote to the mayor Alain Giordano protesting about the couple’s disgraceful treatment. Giordano replied that he had summoned ben Ahmed to his office to explain her behaviour and that the case would be discussed at a council meeting. The mayor gave his assurance that there would be no repetition of the incident.
Why did DC cancel Superman’s team-up with a Muslim hero?
Ever since it was solicited three months ago, DC has been billing Superman #712 as a story where Superman goes to Los Angeles and meets the West Coast’s newest super-hero, Sharif, a young man dealing with a public that might not want his help. If you go to your local comic shop and pick the issue up today, however, that’s not the story you’re going to get. Instead, the issue now contains a completely different story.
At first glance, this might not seem like a big deal, because after all, fill-ins happen all the time. But given that writer Chris Roberson has said that the entire issue has been completed, it seems like there might be a deeper reason that this story got the axe – and it’s hard to believe it doesn’t have something to do with the fact that Sharif is a Muslim.
Wilders trial verdict due tomorrow
The trial of Geert Wilders is nearly over. On Thursday, the three Amsterdam district court judges conducting the trial will announce their verdict. It is widely expected that Mr Wilders will be acquitted on all the charges facing him.
If that is the case, the 29-month legal struggle which saw one of the country’s most popular and influential politicians accused of hate-mongering will come to an end.
It started back in January 2009 when justices of the Amsterdam court ordered the public prosecutor to bring charges against Mr Wilders of inciting hatred and discrimination, based on a number of his anti-Islamic statements published in the national media, as well as Mr Wilders’ film, Fitna.
One moment during the dozens of courtroom sessions encapsulated what, for many, the trial was supposed to be about. Twenty-four-year-old law student Naoual Abaida, daughter of a Moroccan immigrant, stood in the courtroom not two metres from Geert Wilders. She was allowed to speak as one of the “injured parties”; one of the people who had initially petitioned the Justice Ministry to prosecute Geert Wilders.
Looking into his eyes she said his “insulting, polarising and provocative language has set the tone for a country becoming increasingly intolerant”.
EHRC publishes report on religious discrimination in Britain
The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report Religious Discrimination in Britain: A review of research evidence, 2000- 2010 has just been published. ENGAGE has provided excerpts from the sections of the report dealing with Islamophobia.
Right-wing blogger charged with harassing Muslim women
A St. Paul blogger faces misdemeanor charges after he allegedly harassed two Muslim women last week in downtown Minneapolis. Minneapolis police say John Hugh Gilmore, 52, who writes a blog called Minnesota Conservatives, caused a scene Thursday night on Nicollet Mall.
Sgt. Bill Palmer, a police spokesman, said Gilmore appeared to be drunk when he confronted the two women wearing the Muslim headscarf known as the hijab. “Mr. Gilmore made some comments that he didn’t believe the women should be in the United States, and that he thought that they were ruining America,” Palmer said.
Police say several onlookers intervened, and Gilmore allegedly threatened to assault one of the men.
The Muslim women had been attending the liberal NetRoots Nation convention, which was taking place at the same time as the conservative RightOnline conference.
Rise in racist abuse reported in Switzerland
Reported cases of racism against blacks and Muslims went up in Switzerland in 2010.
Incidents mainly happened in public areas, at work and in contact with the police, according to the 2010 report by the Federal Commission against Racism and the non-governmental humanrights.ch.
It mainly took the form of verbal abuse.
“It is striking how often those accused were in socio-economic positions of power and used this position, directly or indirectly against the victims,” the report says.
Those affected came from a wide range of backgrounds, and were both Swiss and immigrants.
Not all abuse is reported and the real figure is believed to be much higher, the report says.
The report calls on cantons to improve measures protecting people against discrimination.
The report can be downloaded here.
German state interior ministers call for crackdown on Salafis
German state interior ministers are warning of a rise in radical Salafist Islam that poses a risk of home-grown terrorism, with one politician calling for changes to residency laws so “hate preachers” can be more easily deported.
Hesse Interior Minister Boris Rhein of the conservative Christian Democratic Union told daily Die Welt that Salafism was a “centre and pivot for those who want to participate in so-called holy war”.
“Salafism can in this way lay the path to Islamist terrorism,” he said, adding that the law needed to be changed so that “hate preachers” can be more easily thrown out of the country. “In future, this should be possible when someone spreads material that goes against the liberal democratic basic order or that fosters radicalisation or, as the case may be, terrorism recruitment. We should also change the corresponding laws covering the right to assembly and paragraphs of the sedition law.”
Interior ministers from Germany’s 16 federal states plan to discuss the issue when they hold a regular meeting on Tuesday. TheFinancial Times Deutschland reported Tuesday that theVerfassungsschutz domestic intelligence agencies would be intensifying their monitoring of the Salafist scene. “Salafism is seen both in Germany and on the international level as the dynamic Islamist movement at the moment,” a Verfassungsschutz expert, who was not named, told the FTD.
Rhein said that Salafists wanted “a return to a stone-age Islam and want to turn Germany into a theocracy”. “They demonise anything western. The preach hate, intolerance and exclusion. They call for the stoning of adulterers and death sentences for homosexuals. They reject the equality of men and women. This ideology is at odds with our fundamental values. It is in every way unconstitutional and dangerous.”
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann of the conservative Christian Social Union also warned of the growing danger. “I am warning against underestimating the danger arising from Salafism,” he told the FTD. “Almost all terrorism issues in the past have been somehow or other traced back to a tendency to radicalisation from Salafism. We have to be especially watchful here.”
Herrmann said: “We must not allow home-grown terrorists to breed and gain control under our noses. We have to come down on Salafism and its ideology decisively and with all legal means.”