Bill 94 scapegoats Muslims, Canadian parliamentary committee told

Posted on by Bob Pitt

No Bill 94A bill restricting the wearing of the niqab is unconstitutional because it would limit personal choice and freedom of religion, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Canada told a National Assembly committee on Bill 94 yesterday.

Audrey Brousseau, a lawyer for the Islamic association, told MNAs that although Bill 94 is framed in general terms, “It clearly targets women who wear the niqab.” Brousseau said Bill 94 would discourage niqab-wearing women from seeking public services and working in the public service.

Julia Williams, the Ottawabased association’s human rights and civil liberties officer, who wore a hijab Islamic head covering, leaving her face uncovered, questioned whether banning the niqab was a neutral gesture.

“Muslim women are being scapegoated by this legislation'” Williams said. “How does barring women from essential services promote their integration?” she asked, recalling the case last spring of a woman wearing a niqab who was expelled from a French class for immigrants.

Bill 94 would require people receiving or offering health care, education or government services to do so with their face uncovered.

Montreal Gazette, 16 November 2010

SPD mayor applauds neo-Nazis, says they should be elected to parliament

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hans PŸschelA politician in Germany’s main centre-left party has sparked outcry within his Social Democrats (SPD) by coming to the defence of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD), who have been compared to the Nazis.

Hans Pueschel, a longstanding SPD mayor of Krauschwitz, a village of some 560 people in eastern Germany, published a letter in defence of the NPD after attending one of their rallies and said he agreed with much of what they said.

Fears have arisen that Germany could see the rise of an extreme right party since SPD politician and ex-central banker Thilo Sarrazin became a bestselling author and earned widespread backing for a slew of remarks about Muslim immigrants.

Pueschel said that like Sarrazin, the NPD were addressing issues which had been ignored for too long in Germany, arguing that the state was doing too much to help immigrant families who refused to integrate and failing to look after its own people.

“I want them to get into parliament so that the parties in the centre get a fire lit under their backsides. Otherwise nothing will get done,” Pueschel told Reuters, looking ahead to a state vote in his home state of Saxony-Anhalt next year.

Katrin Budde, head of the SPD in Saxony-Anhalt, where the party rules in coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), said Pueschel’s actions were helping to make neo-Nazi views acceptable in Germany. “We saw where all that led in the Weimar Republic,” she told MDR radio, referring to the period before the Nazis took power.

Pueschel, who is head of his local church council, said he spent 1½ hours at an NPD rally earlier this month, and found much to agree with in the speeches they heard. “I barely encountered one sentence that I couldn’t have signed up to myself,” he wrote in an open letter which a local newspaper refused to publish and is now on the NPD’s website.

“I don’t think Sarrazin has had a negative impact on support for the SPD, more likely a positive one. And it’s the same here. I stand by what I said,” he said.

Reuters, 16 November 2010

Islam Channel appeals against Ofcom ruling, condemns Quilliam’s ‘junk research’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islam ChannelIslam Channel is planning to appeal against Ofcom’s ruling that the satellite TV network breached the regulator’s broadcasting code for advocating marital rape and violence against women.

Five programmes broadcast on the London-based Islam Channel between 2008 and 2009 were in breach of Ofcom’s broadcasting code, the regulator ruled last week.

Islam Channel was censured for breaching impartiality rules in programmes on the Middle East conflict and for programmes appearing to advocate marital rape, violence against women and describing women who wore perfume outside of the home as “prostitutes”.

Ofcom launched its investigation into Islam Channel programmes in March, following a report by the Quilliam Foundation thinktank accusing the broadcaster of regularly promoting extremist views and regressive attitudes towards women.

Continue reading →

How Islamophobia swayed vote in Oklahoma elections

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cory Williams, a Democratic state representative from Stillwater, expected his opponent in the recent election to label him a free-spending liberal allied with President Obama. He did not foresee that he would be accused of trying to subject Oklahomans to Islamic law.

Mr. Williams was one of 10 Democrats who voted against putting a state constitutional amendment on the ballot that would forbid state judges from considering international or Islamic law in deciding cases. He considered the idea unnecessary, since the First Amendment already bans state-imposed religion.

His Republican challenger sent out mailers showing him next to a shadowy figure in an Arab headdress. On the other side, the flier said Mr. Williams wanted to allow “Islamic ‘Shariah’ law to be used by Oklahoma courts” and suggested that he was part of “an international movement, supported by militant Muslims and liberals,” to establish Islamic law throughout the world. “At the end of the day, it was just fearmongering,” Mr. Williams said.

He won by 280 votes, but many of his fellow Democrats failed to hold their seats. The amendment passed with 70 percent of the vote and helped drive record turnout in Republican strongholds. For the first time in the state, Republicans will now control the governor’s office and have veto-proof majorities in both houses of the Legislature.

New York Times, 14 November 2010

See also “Poll shows majority of Oklahomans have unfavorable view of Islam”, Tulsa World, 14 November 2010

EDL joins poppy protest outside Portsmouth mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Portsmouth mosque graffitiPolice say they will investigate the protests which took place outside a Portsmouth mosque on Saturday.

Scores of demonstrators gathered outside Portsmouth’s Jami Mosque. They were protesting after a small group of Muslims – not from the city – burned poppies in London during the two minutes’ silence on Armistice Day.

The protest, led by former soldier David Tallard, congregated outside the mosque at midday and numbered about 40. It broke for Pompey’s home game against Doncaster, and gathered again shortly after 5pm this time with about 100 taking part.

Peace protesters who had heard about the protest also gathered outside the mosque. Shouting between the two groups then ensued with firecrackers, an egg and a golf ball being thrown into the peace campaigners.

A 6ft poppy had also been graffitied on the mosque the day before.

Continue reading →

EDL leader charged with assault

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stephen Lennon arrestedThe founder of the English Defence League has been charged with assaulting a police officer during clashes with Islamic protesters in London.

Stephen Lennon, 27, of Layham Drive, Luton, was held by police in Kensington, west London, as the nation stopped to mark the anniversary of Armistice Day. Father-of-two Lennon, also known as Yaxley-Lennon and Tommy Robinson, has spoken on behalf of the EDL after a series of violent and intimidating confrontations.

Five others associated with his group were also arrested as members of Muslims Against Crusades burned remembrance poppies.

Press Association, 12 November 2010

White powder, threats sent to French mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An official at Strasbourg City Hall says an area mosque has received an envelope containing a suspicious white powder and anti-Muslim threats.

The official said two employees of the Eyyub Sultan mosque, serving Strasbourg’s Turkish community, opened the letter Friday. It contained a half-burned page from the Quran and a threatening letter, the official said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak with the media. She says the powder has not yet been identified, but is not anthrax.

In a statement, Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries condemned the “racist act” and pledged to identify those behind it as soon as possible.

Associated Press, 12 November 2010

See also EMISCO press release, 13 November 2010