Dutch Christian Democrat who opposed alliance with Wilders resigns from party

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Former Christian Democrat party chairman and cabinet minister Bert de Vries has confirmed he has resigned his party membership. Speaking on public radio, he said he decided to leave the party because of its “move to the right”.

Bert de Vries was one of the prominent Christian Democrats who spoke out against the minority coalition with the conservative VVD and its reliance on parliamentary support from Geert Wilders’ anti-Islamic Freedom Party.

He was quoted at the time as saying: “It was an extremely nasty surprise to discover that my party finds it acceptable to work with a party that does not recognize one of the world’s major faiths as a religion.”

RNW, 17 November 2010

Hillary Clinton criticises suppression of religious freedom in Europe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized Wednesday the state of religious freedom in Europe, as Washington highlighted policies and attitudes toward Muslim veils and Islam as a whole. “Several European countries have placed harsh restrictions on religious expression,” Clinton said, without elaborating as she unveiled the State Department’s report on international religious freedom for the last year.

Her assistant secretary for human rights, Michael Posner, cited France’s ban on wearing the niqab and other face coverings in public places and a Swiss motion passed last year that bans building new minarets. “We have gone to court in the United States to enforce the right of Muslim women and girls to wear a burqa, and on the streets, in schools, et cetera,” said Posner. “That’s our position. It’s a position we articulate when we talk to our European friends.”

AFP, 17 November 2010

Phyllis Chesler will be disappointed.

See also “Europe cited in US religious freedoms report”, Reuters, 17 November 2010

The US State Department 2010 Report on International Religious Freedom can be consulted here.

Muslim passengers sue US airline for discrimination

Posted on by Bob Pitt

AirTran logoNine Muslim American passengers from the Washington area sued AirTran Airways in federal court Wednesday, alleging that the airline discriminated against them by removing them from a Jan. 1, 2009, flight out of Reagan National Airport and refusing to rebook them.

“We want to send a clear message that discrimination will not be tolerated and ensure that others will not have to endure this unfair and embarrassing treatment,” said Michael Kirkpatrick, a lawyer with Public Citizen and co-counsel for the plaintiffs, brothers Kashif Irfan of Alexandria and Atif Irfan of Rockville; their families; and a friend, Abdul Razak Aziz of the District.

“As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, we hope that airlines will be more sensitive when Muslim Americans travel to spend time with family and friends,” said Kashif Irfan.

The lawsuit alleges that two teenaged girls seated nearby mistook an innocuous comment by the group about safety at the rear of the airplane as a threat. The suit claims that AirTran refused to rebook the group even after FBI investigators cleared them to travel.

Washington Post, 17 November 2010

Murfreesboro Islamic Center: judge rejects Islamophobes’ complaint

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Murfreesboro mosque protestA judge refused Wednesday to stop construction of a proposed mosque in Tennessee that was opposed by some local residents who tried to argue that there was a conspiracy by Muslims to impose extremist law on the United States.

Opponents filed a lawsuit claiming that Rutherford County planning officials violated Tennessee’s open meetings law when they approved the site plan for an Islamic Center in Murfreesboro, about 30 miles southeast of Nashville.

Rutherford County Chancellor Robert Corlew ruled after closing arguments that he could not find that the “county acted illegally, arbitrarily or capriciously” in approving the plan.

But much of the questioning from plaintiffs’ attorney Joe Brandon Jr. during seven days of testimony since late September was about whether Islam qualified as a religion. He pushed his theory that American Muslims want to replace the Constitution with extremist Islamic law.

Corlew said there was some concern about the public notice requirements and suggested county or state officials look at those requirements. But he said the court did not find that members of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro adhered to extremist religious ideas.

Washington Post, 17 November 2010

EDL supporter threatened waiter because restaurant served halal meat

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ashley WilsonStaff at an Indian restaurant in Bridgwater believe they are being targeted on religious and racist grounds following a spate of attacks.

This week a man was convicted for religiously aggravated criminal damage and provocation of violence at the Spice Club in Eastover. But there have been further reports of an assault on a waiter, racial abuse and criminal damage. Waiter Mehbub Kamali, 19, who claims he was punched on one occasion, told the Mercury: “I have been attacked for no other reason than the colour of my skin.”

Last Tuesday, Sedgemoor Magistrates heard how Ashley Wilson [pictured], 24, smashed a glass pane at the restaurant and threatened to cut waiters’ faces because they served Halal meat. The court heard he asked Mr Kamali and Sultan Ahmet “Are you Muslim?” When they said yes, he said “I’m going to cut your face” and that it was “because I’m EDL [English Defence League].”

Mr Kamali said: “It’s happening again and again and it’s terrifying. I wonder what’s next?”

Wilson, of Claremont Grove, admitted the attack on September 26 and was ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and to pay £165 compensation and £85 costs. In mitigation, Crispin Hayllar said he had drunk too much and acted out of character.

Police confirmed this week that a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage for an attack on the restaurant on November 3, and have been released on bail.

This is the West Country, 16 November 2010

Wilders trial: anti-racist organisations call for new prosecutors

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The anti-racism organisations which pressed the courts last year to take legal action against Geert Wilders for discrimination are to go to court again in an effort to have new prosecutors appointed to try the case.

Last year, Amsterdam appeal court told the public prosecution department it should take legal action against Wilders, despite the department’s reluctance to do so. But during the actual trial, which was abandoned last month, the two prosecutors called for the MP to be found not guilty on all charges.

The case was suspended after a special panel ruled a number of incidents involving the judges could give rise to the impression the court is biased. It is not yet clear when the case will be resumed or when the call for new prosecutors will be heard.

Dutch News, 16 November 2010

Shameful suppression of democratic rights in Muslim-majority country – no word from Harry’s Place yet

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Egyptian police have rounded up about 600 Muslim Brotherhood members ahead of this month’s parliamentary election and some 250 are still detained, a senior Brotherhood official said on Tuesday.

Mohammed Mursi told AFP that the crackdown on members of the opposition Islamist group began when the Brotherhood announced on October 9 plans to field candidates for the November 28 legislative polls.

“Arrests are still being made. Someone goes out to campaign, he gets harassed and arrested and then released in a few days,” said Mursi, a member of the Brotherhood’s politburo who heads the group’s election campaign. “About 600 have been arrested since we announced that we would run in the election. About 250 remain in jail.”

AFP, 16 November 2010

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You might have thought that sites like Harry’s Place, who were so vocal in defending the political opposition in Iran against state repression, would take a clear stand in defence of the democratic rights of the opposition in Egypt. But so far not a peep.

Could it be that Harry’s Place believes that democratic rights don’t extend to members and supporters of Islamist political parties? Given HP’s obsessive campaign to drive Islamists out of public life in the UK, that would seem to be a reasonable conclusion to draw.

Gilligan continues to smear North London Central Mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Over at his Telegraph blog, Andrew Gilligan responds to Bob Lambert’s recent Al-Jazeera article.

Gilligan sneers at the role of the Metropolitan Police’s Muslim Contact Unit in helping to oust Abu Hamza al-Masri from the North London Central Mosque in Finsbury Park, claiming that one gang of terrorist sympathisers was merely replaced by the present management which itself has “close links with another designated terrorist organisation, Hamas”.

NLCM can answer for themselves about the nature of their supposed “close links” with Hamas. But it is worth pointing out that Hamas is in fact a political party with mass support – it won a majority on the Palestinian Legislative Council through democratic elections in 2006, with 44% of the vote – and is not a proscribed terrorist group in the UK. It is the Izz al-Din al-Qassem Brigades that is proscribed. But when has Gilligan ever been interested in accurate reporting?

Gilligan also provides a link to his earlier piece attempting to associate NLCM with Anwar al-Awlaki and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Given that this allegation has been shown to be nonsense, you might have thought an apology to NLCM from Gilligan would be in order. But the day when Gilligan admits he was wrong, even after his misreporting has been thoroughly exposed, is yet to dawn.

Arizona: Islamophobes mistake church for mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Arizona_church_bannerIn an era saturated with absurd moments of anti-Muslim fear- mongering, mosques have become a touchstone for Islamophobia. Even unbuilt mosques have set off a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment in Tennessee, Texas, California, and most notably, New York.

Not to be outdone, the people of Pheonix, AZ were quick to call foul over the appearance of a dome-like structure along an interstate. But in the clamor over the impending Muslim takeover, these Arizonans missed one small detail – the building is not a mosque, it’s a church:

A new dome-like structure near 19th Avenue along Interstate 10 in Phoenix is the Light of the World church, a nondenominational Christian church hoping to modernize traditional worship services, a church spokesman said

Since the distinctive dome shape went up, church leaders said they have received phone calls from concerned neighbors who’ve mistaken the building for an Islamic mosque.

On Wednesday, church officials hung a sign reminding people they’re a Christian congregation. “We’re trying to let people know that we’re Christian and our churches are modern,” said Uzieo Martinez.

“It is unfortunate that people are so intolerant to differences that they aren’t willing to see that the place of worship is not a mosque,” said Tayyibah Amatullah of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Arizona chapter. But with so many high-profile figures selling unfounded, anti-Muslim fear to the public, is it any wonder that all many Americans can see in Islam is a phantom menace?

Tanya Somanader at Think Progress, 15 November 2010

Mob in Athens abuses Muslims as they celebrate Eid

Posted on by Bob Pitt

???????Dozens of far-right activists and local residents threw eggs and taunted hundreds of Muslim immigrants as they gathered to pray in a central square for Eid al-Adha surrounded by a protective cordon of riot police.

Greece, which has become the main immigrant gateway to the European Union, has a growing Muslim community and tensions between locals and incomers have run high in some Athens areas such as Attiki square, the scene of Tuesday’s incident.

Athens’ Muslim community is without an official mosque and prayers are usually held at cultural centers or community halls or private apartments around the city. The Muslim community in Greece is estimated at about 1 million, in a country where most people are Greek Orthodox Christians.

While the Muslims prayed, some locals shouted obscenities from their balconies and waved Greek flags. Leaflets that depicted pigs – an animal Muslims consider unclean – were scattered across the square.

“There is a (unofficial) mosque near here but we’re afraid to go there,” said a 30-year old migrant from Bangladesh, who gave his name as Shamasul. “Sometimes Greeks in the neighborhood threaten to kill us.”

Margarita Vassilatou, 56, who has lived in the square for more than 35 years said she wanted to leave as a result of the immigrants: “This is not a life … We are afraid of them. Many of them are criminals, they carry knifes and deal drugs.”

In another, more central square in front of Athens university, about 2,000 Muslim men and women prayed peacefully in front of the neo-classical university and ancient Greek statues.

In the past, moves to build a mosque in the capital have been met with opposition from local residents and some priests of the Greek orthodox church. However, the current archbishop supports the construction of a mosque and the socialist government has set aside a site close to the city center, although building has not yet begun.

The only mosques in Greece are in the northeastern region of Xanthi near the Turkish border, home to a large Muslim minority.

Reuters, 16 November 2010