Sarkozy joins attack on multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sarkozy3French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared Thursday that multiculturalism had failed, joining a growing number of world leaders or ex-leaders who have condemned it.

“My answer is clearly yes, it is a failure,” he said in a television interview when asked about the policy which advocates that host societies welcome and foster distinct cultural and religious immigrant groups. Of course we must all respect differences, but we do not want … a society where communities coexist side by side.

“If you come to France, you accept to melt into a single community, which is the national community, and if you do not want to accept that, you cannot be welcome in France,” the right-wing president said. “The French national community cannot accept a change in its lifestyle, equality between men and women… freedom for little girls to go to school.”

“We have been too concerned about the identity of the person who was arriving and not enough about the identity of the country that was receiving him,” Sarkozy said in the TFI channel show.

Sarkozy said in his television interview Thursday that “our Muslim compatriots must be able to practise their religion, as any citizen can,” but he noted “we in France do not want people to pray in an ostentatious way in the street.”

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen late last year came under fire for comparing Muslims praying in the streets outside overcrowded mosques in France to the Nazi occupation. Marine Le Pen said there were “ten to fifteen” places in France where Muslims worshipped in the streets outside mosques when these were full.

AFP, 10 February 2011

Exeter: police prepare for right-wing ‘ban the burka’ demonstration in city centre

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Devon and Cornwall Police are preparing for a potential flash point with the right-wing English Defence League and anti-fascist campaigners set to converge on Exeter at the weekend.

The controversial group is understood to be taking part in a “ban the burka” protest in the city centre on Saturday while there is expected to be a counter rally by anti-racist campaigners, including the group Unite Against Fascism.

English Defence League supporter Jim Myers, from Exeter, said the protest was not being organised by EDL. “We haven’t organised it, we’re just supporting it,” he said. “It has been organised by another group, the United People of Britain.”

Supporters of the group, which claims to be non-racially or politically motivated, say they will be wearing balaclavas and burkas to emphasise their message.

Meanwhile, Unite Against Fascism (UAF) is planning to meet at Bedford Square, in the city centre, between 11am and 2pm.

Liz Allnatt, of UAF, said: “People of Exeter are more concerned about jobs and pay and what is going to happen to their local services. Exeter is a beautiful city and people of all different beliefs and backgrounds usually get along here. The Muslim community has added to the city. The annual Respect Festival is a huge, well-attended celebration of Exeter’s diversity.”

This is Cornwall, 10 February 2011

See also “Groups will stage event to celebrate city’s diversity”, Express & Echo, 9 February 2011

London Assembly member condemns Cameron’s attack on multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Murad at SRtRC launchAn influential voice of the Bangladeshi Diaspora has weighed in against British and German governments move rejecting multiculturalism.

Murad Qureshi, since 2004 a powerful London-wide elected Assembly Member in the capital’s City Hall, was responding to the British prime minister David Cameron’s assertion last week that multiculturalism was a failed policy.

He appeared to be echoing similar remarks made by German chancellor Angela Merkel last October in which she said Germany’s attempts to form a multicultural society have utterly failed. Cameron’s speech at the Munich Security Conference on Feb 5 focused on the challenges posed to the UK by ‘home-grown’, British Islamic extremism and radicalisation.

Bangladeshi-born Qureshi, in his second term as a Labour politician at City Hall, was scathing about Cameron’s statement. He pointed out that while Merkel was at pains to underline that “Islam is part of Germany”, the British leader did not offer any such qualification in his comments.

Qureshi says: “We did not hear a similar condemnation of right-wing extremism from the PM. All this while many thousands of Londoners celebrated with the Chinese community the beginning of their new year in Central London. We did not hear him talking about this aspect of multiculturalism, its cultural and linguistic form but just its recent religious manifestation, largely in response to world affairs. In his attempt to curry favour with Merkel, he picked on the Muslim communities of the UK.”

Qureshi also launched a broadside at apparent divisions within the Conservative Party about Islam and multiculturalism. On January 20, the party’s Muslim co-chairman Baroness Warsi expressed her views that it had become socially acceptable to be prejudiced against Muslims. Her fellow cabinet member, the secretary of state for education, Michael Gove, is meanwhile on record as saying: “Islamism [is] a totalitarian ideology [which turns to] hellish violence and oppression'”. Qureshi said: “So clearly in the cabinet, Gove has won the debate and got the ear of the PM and not Warsi.”

Cameron’s speech in Germany coincided with a demonstration in Luton in the UK by the newly-emergent far-right street protest group the English Defence League. An exasperated Qureshi stated: “The final insult is that the EDL supporters were quoting him as justification for their march”.

bdnews24.com, 11 February 2011

Surprise, surprise – Douglas Murray agrees with Cameron, says multiculturalism has failed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The BBC website has a video of part of last night’s Question Time, in which Centre for Social Cohesion director and EDL admirer Douglas Murray expressed his agreement with David Cameron’s attack on multiculturalism.

This is hardly surprising, though from Murray’s perspective Cameron no doubt classes as a bit of liberal wimp on such issues. After all, Murray notoriously calls for resistance to “the demographic time-bomb which will soon see a number of our largest cities fall to Muslim majorities”, favours a complete ban on immigration from Muslim countries, holds that “conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board” and concludes that “from long before we were first attacked it should have been made plain that people who come into Europe are here under our rules and not theirs”.

Thankfully, the New Statesman‘s political editor Mehdi Hasan was on hand to give Cameron and Murray’s views the trashing they deserve.

Canada: Christian fundamentalist party calls for ban on Muslim immigration, applauds Cameron’s comments on multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CHP-logoThe federal Christian Heritage Party is calling for a national moratorium on immigration from Muslim countries to curb increasing radical Islamist power in Canada.

Mike Schouten, CHP candidate for South Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale, admits his party’s stance on this issue will likely result in charges of racism. But he says it’s about protecting Canadian values as outlined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. “This issue, because of the climate of political correctness, is not allowed to be talked about,” Schouten noted.

The CHP’s call for the moratorium comes on the heels of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s recent speech at the Munich Security Conference. His nation’s “hands-off tolerance” approach to immigrants who reject Western values has failed, he admitted. “I believe it’s time to turn the page on the failed policies of the past.”

Shouten considers Cameron’s comments “powerful”. “Prime Minister Cameron’s acknowledgment that multiculturalism has, in essence, been a failure shows just how complacent the West has been towards radical Islam.” At issue, Schouten argues, is the attempt to import Islamic sharia law into Canada.

Twenty percent rise in racist incidents in Scotland

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Increased levels of Islamophobia and negative attitudes towards Polish people could be behind a 20% rise in racist incidents in Scotland, experts have said.

Every day in Scotland, 17 people are abused, threatened or violently attacked because of the colour of their skin, ethnicity or nationality. Statistics showed that 6171 incidents of racism were recorded in 2009/10 – a rise of 20.4% from the 5123 racist incidents recorded in 2008/9.

The figures, revealed in a freedom of information request to Scotland’s eight police forces, come despite there only being a 13% increase over the previous five years. Part of the rise is thought to be down to an increase in anti-Polish attacks, with the Federation of Poles in Great Britain saying there has been an annual 20% rise in racist incidents.

Alastair McIntosh, fellow at the Centre of Human Ecology and a co-author of studies into racism in Scotland, said Islamophobia is also a problem in Scotland. He said:

“Whenever you have the fear of poverty, people tend to become xenophobic, and I think that’s an increasing issue in Scotland with the economic problems we’ve had recently. Muslims in particular are having a hard time of it, and they all seem to get tarred with the same brush. It would be true to say Islamophobia is a problem in this country.”

According to figures released in 2010, race hate victims were most likely to be of Pakistani origin, with 48% of all those targeted classed as Asian, followed by white British. The majority of victims – 76% – were men and the vast majority of race hate perpetrators – 96% – were classed as white British. Of these, most were men aged 16-20, followed by men under the age of 16.

Strathclyde Police reported the highest number of incidents with 2826, while Lothian and Borders Police dealt with 1494 incidents. The lowest recorded total was in Dumfries and Galloway, where police dealt with 70 racist incidents.

STV, 11 February 2011

Canada: Conservative MP wants to ban veiled voting

Posted on by Bob Pitt

OTTAWA — A Quebec Conservative MP introduced a private member’s bill Friday that would require Canadians to show their faces before they vote, reviving a debate first sparked more than three years ago.

Steven Blaney, who represents the Quebec riding of Levis-Bellechasse, said the bill would fix a “gap” in the electoral system and is not meant to discriminate against religious groups, such as Muslims. “For me it is important that we all share this transparency,” he said.

“We are all proud to live in this country, we are all proud to share (its) basic principles. I think one of these basic principles is transparency through our election and democratic process, so that’s why I’m presenting this bill and it is applying to everybody and treating everybody in the same way.”

Vancouver Sun, 11 February 2011

Sweden: UPS sued for sacking Muslim who refused to shave beard

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sweden’s Equality Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen, DO) has filed a lawsuit against parcel delivery company United Parcel Service (UPS) after the company dismissed a Muslim driver who refused to shave his beard.

In a lawsuit filed with Sweden’s Labour Court (Arbetsdomstolen) on Monday, the ombudsman argued that the company should pay the man, a resident of Spånga northwest of Stockholm, 150,000 kronor ($23,000) in compensation plus 42,000 kronor in lost income, as well as interest on both amounts.

“The rule has no legitimate purpose and is not appropriate and necessary,” wrote Anders Wilhelmsson, the ombudsman office lawyer representing the man, in the filing.

The man was employed in June 2010 by the Uniflex staffing company, which intended to subcontract him to UPS as a driver. The contract was to last through the summer until August 31st, but the stated aim was a permanent position with UPS if all went well, according to DO.

During the recruitment process, the man was informed that UPS had a uniform policy under which drivers were not allowed to have beards. During the recruitment process, no one asked if he was prepared to shave his beard. In addition, his beard growth was very minimal. As such, he believed his beard would not be a problem.

The man began his employment at UPS on June 7th, 2010. The first week was devoted to training. During that time, no one remarked about his beard, according to the lawsuit.

However, the following Monday just before his first run, his immediate supervisor told him he had to shave the beard the next day.

Since there were other colleagues in the vicinity, the man waited until the afternoon to speak to his supervisor again, but was nevertheless unable to make contact with his boss until the following morning.

The man told his supervisor that he was a Muslim and it was against his religious convictions to shave his beard. The supervisor said it sounded strange to him because there were other Muslims at UPS who had shaved their beards, reiterating the policy was in place so that drivers would look clean and neat and that a beard was unacceptable.

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Cameron’s scapegoating will have a chilling, toxic impact

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Blaming Islamists and multiculturalism for the backlash from US and British wars risks fuelling violence on the streets, Seumas Milne argues.

Guardian, 10 February 2011

As Milne points out, Cameron’s line on Muslims and multiculturalism “has been hailed by the far right”. And not just in the UK. The Financial Times quotes Front National leader Marine Le Pen applauding Cameron’s speech for endorsing the politics of her own party: “It is exactly this type of statement that has barred us from public life for 30 years. I sense an evolution at European level, even in classic governments. I can only congratulate him.”

Most Tennesseans back Muslims’ right to build houses of worship

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Murfreesboro mosque supportersThe recent battle over plans to build a mosque in Murfreesboro put tensions about the meaning of Islam in high relief, generating noisy denunciations of Muslims’ faith. But the people making the most noise were outnumbered, a recent poll found.

The statewide poll by Vanderbilt University revealed that 62.6 percent of respondents believe Muslims should have the same rights as other groups to build houses of worship, while 37.4 percent believe local communities should be able to prohibit construction of mosques.

Eric Bell, a Murfreesboro resident and filmmaker who is working on a documentary about the mosque controversy, said he wasn’t surprised by the poll results. “I have found that a lot of your everyday, mainstream people in Murfreesboro are afraid to speak out against the more vocal, xenophobic people,” Bell said.

Bell said he was troubled that the percentage of people expressing tolerance for Muslims wasn’t higher. Conversely, Rebecca Bynum, publisher and managing editor of the Nashville-based publication New English Review, was “encouraged” to find more than one-third of respondents “are wary of having a mosque built in their neighborhood”. “They’re correct to be concerned about the teachings of Islam,” she said.

The Tennessean, 9 February 2011