Man charged with arson at Texas mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dar El Eman Islamic Center playground fireA 34-year-old Arlington man faces federal civil rights charges on allegations that he set fire to playground equipment at a South Arlington mosque last summer.

Henry Glaspell faces a maximum of 20 years if convicted of damaging or destroying religious property in a July 25 fire at the Dar El Eman Islamic Center on Mansfield Road near Green Oaks Boulevard.

Glaspell is accused of setting playground equipment on fire there “because of the race, color and ethnic characteristics of the individuals associated with that property,” according to the criminal complaint.

Continue reading →

Lawsuit alleges FBI violated Muslims’ freedom of religion

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An FBI informant who infiltrated a California mosque violated the constitutional rights of hundreds of Muslims by targeting them for surveillance because of their religion, the ACLU and a Muslim group said in a lawsuit Tuesday.

The lawsuit, filed against the FBI and seven of its agents and supervisors, focuses on the actions several years ago of Craig Monteilh, a paid FBI informant. Monteilh has said he was instructed to spy on worshipers at an Irvine mosque in a quest for potential terrorists, allegations that prompted fierce criticism of the FBI from some Muslims in Southern California and nationwide.

The lawsuit alleges that Monteilh was ordered by his FBI handlers to conduct “indiscriminate surveillance” of Muslims, violating their First Amendment right to freedom of religion. Filed on behalf of three Muslim plaintiffs, the 64-page document seeks class action status, unspecified damages and a court order instructing the FBI to destroy or return the information Monteilh collected.

“The FBI should be spending its time and resources investigating actual threats, not spying on every American who happens to worship at a mosque,” said Peter Bibring, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern California, which filed the complaint along with the Los Angeles office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Washington Post, 22 February 2011

See also “Lawsuit contends FBI violated rights of hundreds of Muslim Americans”, L.A. Now, 22 February 2011

Nearly half of Australians are anti-Muslim: study

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A decade-long national study has found that nearly 50 per cent of Australians identify themselves as having anti-Muslim attitudes.

Researchers from universities across the country polled thousands of people about their attitudes to different cultures and whether they had experienced racism. The research found around one in 10 Australians identified themselves as prejudiced against other cultures.

About one-quarter of those surveyed said they had anti-Semitic or anti-Asian attitudes, while a slightly larger number were prejudiced against Aborigines. Anti-Muslim sentiment was even higher, at 48.6 per cent.

Lead researcher Professor Kevin Dunn from the University of Western Sydney says recent political rhetoric has not helped. “If you continue to speak about a group as a problem, whether that be asylum seekers or Muslims, that will [be] cast within the public mind,” he said.

ABC Online, 23 February 2011

See also Michael Brull, “Islamophobia, not Islam, is the real threat”, ABC Online, 23 February 2011

‘Say no to burqas’ mural is replaced … with pro-Israel mural

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Fiona Byrne muralThe Greens candidate tipped to take the once-safe Labor seat of Marrickville from the Deputy Premier, Carmel Tebbutt, in the state election has been targeted in a mural over her council’s decision to boycott Israel.

Marrickville Council’s support for the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) against Israel in December has already been the subject of hostile questions to the Greens candidate and mayor of Marrickville, Fiona Byrne, at a debate with Ms Tebbutt last week.

Yesterday a mural in Newtown stating “Say no to the burqa” was temporarily repainted by its artist, Sergio Redegalli, to read “Say no to Fiona Byrne”. The burqa-clad woman with a strike through her was replaced by a figure in green and a mayoral sceptre stabbing a Star of David.

Mr Redegalli, a Newtown resident, said he was only keeping the new mural up for 24 hours to document it.

The artist said he was not a member of any political party and “hates” Labor. “[I wanted to] get people to look up Fiona Byrne, see who she is, what she stands for,” he said.

Sydney Morning Herald, 23 February 2011

EDL protestors in Barnsley ‘intent on causing disorder’ say police

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL BarnsleyAbout 60 English Defence League supporters from across the north came to Barnsley “intent on causing disorder”, said Barnsley’s commanding police officer.

Ch Supt Andy Brooke admitted the force was surprised by the arrival of the EDL group, which marched to Churchfields where a Unite Against Fascism parade was congregating.

Mr Brooke said officers acted quickly to contain the EDL and prevent disorder. He said: “About 60 or 70 EDL arrived in the Courthouse car park. They marched en masse towards the UAF intent on confronting them and causing disorder. Officers put a cordon in place and dispersed them. It was extremely problematic because there were a few officers and a significant number of EDL.”

There were no arrests but a number of public order offences are being investigated.

Barnsley Chronicle, 21 February 2011

The UAF march was in fact against the British National Party, and the EDL intervention against UAF was in solidarity with the BNP. See “Barnsley: antifascists march as EDL’s links to BNP exposed”, UAF news report, 19 February 2011

Australia: opposition leader is deliberately allowing extremists to promote Islamophobia, says Labor

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Labor has accused Opposition Leader Tony Abbott of harbouring extremists, as debate heated up over MPs’ comments on Muslims and immigration policy.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has called on Mr Abbott to send two senior coalition members – Senator Cory Bernardi and immigration spokesman Scott Morrison – to the backbench over their recent comments.

While Mr Abbott has resisted the call, he used a party room meeting on Tuesday to admonish the two members for going “a little too far” in their public comments.

Senator Bernardi told a radio station last week that: “Islam itself is the problem – it’s not Muslims”. He added that: “Islam is a totalitarian, political and religious ideology”.

Mr Morrison gave a qualified apology a day after he publicly questioned the taxpayer-funded travel arrangements for asylum seekers attending the funerals of people killed in the Christmas Island boat tragedy. It also was reported that Mr Morrison had suggested to shadow cabinet last year the coalition capitalise on fears about Muslim immigration.

But, Mr Abbott said, the coalition did not support a discriminatory immigration policy and believed Australia benefited from being a multicultural society. “We will never say to perfectly good Australians that they are not fully valued in their own country,” he told coalition MPs.

However, the federal parliament’s only Muslim MP, Labor’s Ed Husic, said Mr Abbott had allowed the comments to be “deliberately floated in the public arena for political advantage”. “The extremists continue to cloud commonsense and decency within the coalition,” Mr Husic said.

AAP, 23 February 2011

‘European free speech under attack’ claims Wilders

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Wilders posterThe Wall Street Journal has provided Geert Wilders with a platform to re-run his “lights are going out all over Europe” spiel, though suitably toned down in order to present a more respectable image toWSJ readers.

According to Wilders, “Islam is primarily a totalitarian ideology aiming for world domination” and “the Koran orders Muslims to establish the realm of Allah in this world, if necessary by force”, but he indignantly denies that he has anything against Muslims as people.

The fact that he, along with fellow anti-Muslim racists like Lars Hedegaard and Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, has been prosecuted for inciting hatred against Muslims represents a major threat to freedom of expression, Wilders claims:

“When I stand before my judges I do so in defense of free speech and human liberty. Freedom is the source of human creativity and development. People and nations wither away without the freedom to question what is presented to them as the truth. There is reason for concern if the erosion of our freedom of speech is the price we must pay to accommodate Islam. There is reason for concern if those who deny that Islam is a problem do not grant us the right to debate the issue. I want to be able to make my case without needing to fear criminal prosecution.”

In Wilders’ world-view, of course, freedom of speech doesn’t extend to Muslims. This is, after all, the man who wants to ban the Qur’an. It doesn’t extend to his leftist opponents either. A spoof anti-Wilders website parodying the official PVV website that was set up by a Dutch anti-fascist group has now been taken offline after threats of legal action by Wilders.

Leo McKinstry rails against the ‘malevolent traits of Islam’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ENGAGE has posted a reply to Leo McKinstry’s column in yesterday’s Daily Express, where he warned against celebrating the overthrow of tyrants like Mubarak and Ben Ali.

McKinstry spouts the usual right-wing nonsense about the possible “installation of hardline Muslim theocracies in Cairo, Algiers or Tripoli”, resulting in “a terrifying new era of totalitarian repression, which would also grievously threaten the security of both Israel and Europe”. It is clear, however, that McKinstry’s real hatred is directed not so much against the “hardline Muslim theocracies” of his imagination but rather against Islam as a faith.

Referring to the horrific assault on US reporter Lara Logan in Tahrir Square, McKinstry writes: “Two of the most malevolent traits of Islam were captured during her terrifying ordeal. One, the rampant misogyny we see all the time in Britain, whether it be in the imposition of the burkha or the activities of Muslim sex gangs preying on young white girls. The other, the ingrained anti-semitism of the creed.”

He continues:

Islam has long proved incompatible with Western ideas of secular liberalism, which makes the events in Africa all the more concerning. Thanks to the malign twin forces of mass immigration and multi-culturalism, all our societies have large Muslim populations: three million in Britain, five million in Germany and 10 million in France.

Instead of integrating, many Muslims in Europe have clung to separatism, reflected in everything from the incidence of domestic terrorism to the demands for the acceptance of Sharia law. One shocking survey of Muslim students at British universities showed that a third supported killing in the name of Islam.

The response of Western politicians is sickening. Rather than strive to uphold our civilisation, they tell us there is no cause for worry. The real problem, they tell us, is the nasty prejudice of Islamophobia, so they try to impose a climate of censorship with accusations of racism.

Even worse, parts of the Left have sought to make common cause with Muslim zealots, pretending that the anti-Western, anti-Israeli, anticapitalist sentiment of Islam is somehow progressive when in truth it is deeply reactionary.

We have to open our eyes. The West will not survive if we continue to deceive ourselves.

If you’re ever inclined wonder where the likes of the EDL and the BNP acquire their ignorant racist fantasies about Islam, just read Leo McKinstry’s column.