Islamophobia on the rise

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Two letters in today’s Guardian on the French veil ban. One is from Liz Fekete of the Institute of Race Relations who writes:

The observation of French niqab wearer “Anne” (Facing the ban, 12 April) that the debate on the ban on the full-face veil has led to stigmatisation and hate is also true here.

On Monday I attended an anti-racist rally in London outside the French embassy, where peaceful demonstrators protested against the ban on the grounds that Muslim women should not be criminalised for what they choose to wear. We were attacked on two sides by members of the English Defence League.

Over the last few years we have seen how Islamophobia breeds a culture of suspicion. As that morphs into a culture of hate, one must fear for the future.

Police probe racist bullying claim at Stockport school

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police are investigating claims of racist bullying at a school.

Khadeja Fahat, 13, has now left Bramhall High in Stockport claiming she was targeted by bullies more than 30 times since September. The Year Eight pupil claims other children called her racist names, tipped out the contents of her bag, vandalised her school work and, on one occasion, punched her. Her mum, Saiqa Shabir, claims the school has refused to tackle the problem and has reported the alleged bullying to the police.

Greater Manchester Police confirm they have recorded Khadeja’s complaint as a hate crime and plan to visit the school, which insists it has fully investigated the claims and has done everything to support her.

Mrs Shabir, a Muslim of Pakistani origin, said: “I feel my daughter has been robbed of her education. We can’t believe that in the 21st century this has happened. The school has not done enough to stop it happening. The attitude is if those responsible apologise afterwards then it is all okay. The school is letting my daughter down. This whole thing has left her very insecure and withdrawn. She used to be a bright confident young girl.”

Manchester Evening News, 13 April 2011

Murfreesboro Islamic Center hearing resumes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rutherford County attorneys will ask Chancellor Robert Corlew III today to reject nearly all aspects of a lawsuit to stop the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro from building a mosque and community center. County Attorney Jim Cope and his firm’s partner Josh McCreary contend that 14 new plaintiffs who recently joined the three original plaintiffs have no standing in a September-filed lawsuit against the county.

The county was sued after the Regional Planning Commission approved the local Muslim congregation’s site plans last May for a 52,960-square-foot community center with a mosque on Veals Road off Bradyville Pike southeast of the city.

The case began with plaintiffs Kevin Fisher, Lisa Moore and Henry Golczynski seeking an injunction to stop the county from issuing more building permits. Their attorneys’ Joe Brandon Jr. of Murfreesboro and Tom Smith of Franklin argued the future ICM building would be a Shariah training center for jihad rather than a place of worship, but Corlew by November ruled against their request and stated that “Islam is in fact a religion.”

Brandon and Smith filed new motions Tuesday arguing that all 17 plaintiffs have standing when it comes to the proposed ICM building.

They contend that Fisher has standing because he’s an African American Christian who’d be discriminated against and subjugated as a second-class citizen under Shariah law and be denied his civil rights; Moore has standing because she’s a Jewish female who’s targeted in a Muslim call to kill Jews in “jihad” in support of Palestine and as a woman whose rights would be subordinate to those of men in Shariah law; and Golczynski, who lost a son killed while serving in the U.S. Marines in a combat in Fallujah, Iraq, by insurgents pursuing jihad as dictated by Shariah law.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys also stand by the other 14 plaintiffs who joined the case because they live near the proposed ICM building. The document goes on to say that all such Shariah teaching and practices will interfere with the plaintiffs’ use and enjoyment of their land and cause them extreme emotional distress, which discriminates against them and denies them their civil rights to equal protection.

Daily News Journal, 13 April 2011

Three in court over Kingston Mosque attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Three more men have appeared in court accused of being part of a gang which targeted Kingston Mosque in an Islamophobic attack.

Jordan Ellingham, 20, of Camden Avenue, Feltham, Martin Pottle, 22, of Hounslow Road, Hanworth, and James Stacey, 18, of Ashurst Drive, Shepperton, appeared in Kingston Magistrates’ Court on the morning of Tuesday, April 12.

They were jointly charged with being part of a mob which smashed a window at the East Road mosque, urinated in the foyer, threatened the congregation and laid bacon on windows and cars on November 21 last year.

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Hitler admirer who describes Muslims as ‘ragheads’ is BNP candidate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Steven Moore BNPA BNP Assembly candidate is exposed as a racist who calls Muslims “Ragheads” and refers to Catholics as “Taigs”. And Steven Moore, who will contest both the East Antrim Assembly and council elections, also has a fascination with Hitler

The party’s Ulster Organiser is one of the first BNP candidates to finally put themselves at the mercy of the electorate. On Wednesday the far-right party announced they would be contesting three Assembly seats and would also be targeting four council seats.

Last week before the Northern Ireland soccer match at Windsor Park, BNP activists connected to football hooligans from Leeds handed out sick anti-Muslim leaflets to fans. The shocking leaflet carried the headline, “Our Children are not Halal Meat” and warned how Muslim paedophile gangs are “preying on vulnerable white girls”.

Despite attempts from the far-right party, led by convicted racist Nick Griffin, to re-brand themselves as a friendly non-racist party they continue to be run by people like Moore.

When Moore isn’t posting videos by white power bands such as Skrewdriver on Facebook, he reveals his fancy for all things “Third Reich” by sharing videos of Adolf Hitler with his online friends. One apparent favourite is entitled: “Why the world cannot forget Adolf Hitler”. He also has a penchant for songs and videos of the German Wehrmacht.

Elsewhere, Moore has thrown his energies into trying to stop a mosque allegedly being built in Ballymena and more recently launched a campaign to terrify the people of Larne that a proposed detention centre for failed asylum seekers will turn their town into some sort of Asian ghetto.

Sunday World, 10 April 2011

France: first Muslim woman fined for wearing veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police have fined a woman in a shopping centre car park outside Paris for wearing a niqab, or full-face Islamic veil, in the first enforcement of France’s burqa ban.

The 28-year-old woman was stopped by police in the car park in Les Mureaux, north-west of Paris, at 5.30pm on Monday, the day the niqab ban came into force. Police said she was stopped “without incident” for a few minutes and given a €150 (£132) fine. She has one month to pay.

Under the law backed by Nicolas Sarkozy, it is illegal for women in full-face veils to go anywhere in public, including walk down the street, enter shops, use public transport, attend doctors’ surgeries or town halls. They face a fine or a citizenship class.

On Tuesday morning another woman in a full-face veil was stopped by police after she tried to enter a town hall in Saint-Denis, north of Paris. Followed by a French TV crew, she had brought some paperwork to the town hall for a bureaucratic issue just before 11am. She was refused by officials on the grounds that she was wearing a niqab. On the way out police asked her to remove her face-veil to check her identity.

When she refused she was taken to a local police station, where she lifted her veil but insisted on putting it back on again. She was not fined but Le Parisien reported that she had been given a written reminder and a leaflet explaining that full-face veils were no longer allowed in public and she risked a fine.

After police warned that the law banning niqabs was “infinitely difficult” to enforce and would not be a priority, the interior minister Claude Guéant insisted the law would be fully applied in the name of “secularism” and gender equality.

Guardian, 12 April 2011

Islamophobia and the media – a timely book

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pointing the FingerRoy Greenslade reviews a new book Pointing the Finger: Islam and Muslims in the British Media, edited by Julian Petley and Robin Richardson. He writes:

“It is a timely and important book, as another author who has written widely on the same subject, Elizabeth Poole, points out. There are terrific contributions from several media academics and a key chapter  ‘Keeping your integrity – and your job: voices from the newsroom’ – was written by The Guardian columnist Hugh Muir and fellow journalist Laura Smith.

“Few topics are as controversial as the media treatment of Muslims, and too few journalists take it seriously. They should, because they are responsible for the stories people retell. It is press-generated myths about Islam that fuel misunderstandings and feed prejudice, and thus bedevil rational discussion.”

‘Call for UK burka ban grows’ claims Express

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police made the first arrests yesterday of women flouting France’s new burka ban amid fresh calls to outlaw them in Britain too. Anyone who appears veiled in public in France can now be fined £130 under a law that came into effect yesterday. The move sparked calls for a similar approach in this country, with surveys showing there was widespread public support for a law that would make it illegal for anyone to cover their face in public.

Tory MP Philip Hollobone has tabled a private member’s bill that would ban veils in public, while UKIP has won public support for its policy on outlawing the burka. Mr Hollobone announced his bill last year, saying: “This is Britain. We are not a Muslim country. Covering your face in public is strange, and to many people both intimidating and offensive. We are never going to get along with having a fully integrated society if a substantial minority insist on concealing their identity from everyone else.”

Last night, UKIP’s Gerard Batten said: “UKIP is opposed to the burka because it is a physical manifestation of extremist Islam which is intolerant and incompatible with Western liberal democracy. UKIP policy is to ban it from all public institutions, buildings and public transport; private organisations and buildings must have a blanket ban on all face-coverings or no policy at all.”

Daily Express, 12 April 2011

Quite how two notorious Islamophobes reiterating their views on the veil demonstrates that the call for a ban is “growing” is unclear.

BNP mayor for Lancashire town

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A town is to become the first in the country to have a mayor from the far-right BNP, in a move branded divisive and worrying by campaigners. John Cave was chosen by an overwhelming vote to take over the chains of office as next year’s mayor of Padiham, near Burnley.

With a population of around 10,000, Padiham’s town council only has limited powers, and elected members do not stand on party political grounds. However, the next mayor is a long-term BNP activist in nearby Burnley and his wife, Sharon Wilkinson – expected to be his mayoress – became the party’s first county councillor, representing the town, in 2009.

He contributed a clip of former Labour minister Shahid Malik speaking about British aid being given to Muslim countries to a website under the heading “The threat of Islam”. Mr Cave also wrote a letter to a local newspaper last year demanding that Britain’s political and religious leaders “admit their multicultural folly” and direct their efforts to benefit the majority.

Daily Mail, 13 April 2011