Judge blocks Oklahoma anti-Islam constitutional amendment

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A federal judge in Oklahoma today temporarily blocked an anti-Islam state ballot measure (officially known as SQ 755) that would have amended that state’s constitution to forbid judges from considering Islamic principles (Shariah) or international law when making a ruling.

U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange of the United States District Court – Western District of Oklahoma granted a temporary restraining order blocking certification of the November 2nd passed ballot measure by the Oklahoma State Board of Elections.

The court ruling came one day before the certification of the election results. If the voting result is certified on November 9, the measure would amend the Oklahoma state constitution to forbid judges from considering Islamic principles (Shariah) or international law to guide their decisions.

Judge Miles-LaGrange also scheduled a hearing on November 22 for arguments as to whether she should grant a preliminary injunction that would extend the restraining order until a final determination is made in the case.

OpEd News, 8 November 2010

Express says Shias are ‘Islamic fanatics’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic fanatics are mutilating themselves at a British mosque in a bloody ceremony carried out only yards from a busy high street.

Shia Muslims use a five-bladed chain called a Zanjeer to whip their own backs and make cuts in their foreheads with razor blades in homage to their faith. Bare-chested men were left bleeding heavily during the ritual known as Matam – self-flagellation – which a witness described as being “like a scene from a horror film”.

The Sunday Express found that up to 800 men performed the bloody ceremony in secret at the Imamia Mosque in Forest Gate, east London, last year.

Sunday Express, 7 November 2010

Parcel bomb forces evacuation of Dutch mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A suspicious package has forced police officers to evacuate Muslim worshippers from a mosque in Netherlands, according to officials. There has been no information about who was behind the attack, according to police.

The parcel was found at a mosque located on the Bella Vista street in Almelo town in eastern Netherlands on Wednesday morning. Police announced later that the suspicious package was a homemade bomb and the mosque was opened to people on Wednesday afternoon.

PressTV, 7 November 2010

It appears that the bomb was a dud. See Islam in Europe, 8 November 2010

Wilders accuses Merkel of copying him

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders says German Chancellor Angela Merkel is copying his politics. In an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel, the anti-Islam MP said Chancellor Merkel is scared that a charismatic figure, like himself, who can attract 20 percent of the vote, will emerge in Germany.

“That is a threat to the traditional parties,” says Mr Wilders. “That is why she is trying to copy us; Merkel declared the multicultural society a failure.” The controversial politician criticised a pattern he also sees in the Netherlands; he thinks the political elite is in disarray. As an example he pointed out that CSU leader Horst Seehofer says he does not want any more Turkish or Arabic immigrants.

RNW, 7 November 2010

Does Mr Justice Cooke think Islam is a religion of hate?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sentencing Roshonara Choudhry after her conviction for the attempted murder of Stephen Timms MP, Mr Justice Cooke told her: “You said you wanted to die because you wanted to be a martyr and that it was Islamic teaching that to fight and die for your religion is the highest honour. You said that you thought you had fulfilled your obligation and your Islamic duties to stand up for the people of Iraq and to punish someone who wanted to make war with them.”

Cooke observed of Timms: “I understand that he brings to bear his own faith, which upholds very different values to those which appear to have driven this defendant. Those values are those upon which the common law of this country was founded and include respect and love for one’s neighbour, for the foreigner in the land, and for those who consider themselves enemies, all as part of one’s love of God. These values were the basis of our system of law and justice and I trust that they will remain so as well as motivating those, like Mr Timms, who hold public office.”

If Cooke was saying that Timms’ interpretation of his faith led him to do good, whereas Choudhry’s interpretation of hers led her to an act of attempted murder, that would be fair enough (allowing for the fact that a judge is hardly likely to view a vote for the Iraq war as an act of evil). All faiths are open to conflicting interpretations. But Cooke’s words could also be taken as arguing that Christianity is a religion of love and peace whereas Islam is a religion that inspires violence. Trying to be charitable, I initially concluded that his statements were ambiguous.

However, Tom Leonard draws our attention to the fact that Mr Justice Cooke is a prominent figure in the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship, a right-wing evangelical organisation with a record of promoting anti-Muslim bigotry.

For example, the LCF joined with other fundamentalist Christian groups in whipping up hysteria over the plan to build a so-called “mega-mosque” in Newham. The LCF website published a letter to MPs and peers by Christian Concern For Our Nation headed “Terrorist links for Olympics mosque?”, and in the aftermath of the attempted 2007 car bombings in London and Glasgow the LCF reproduced a press release by Alan Craig of the Christian People’s Alliance accusing Tablighi Jamaat of inspiring the attacks.

In 2008 the LCF’s then public policy director Andrea Minichiello Williams hosted a conference called Understanding Islam, where the featured speaker was one Sam Solomon, who told his audience: “The Christian faith, it is all about love…. What is Islam based on? It’s based on this one word: Hate.” Solomon added: “The closer you get in Islam to the Koran and to the Islamic sources the more radical you become and the more hateful a personality you develop.” Solomon claimed that Muslims “are brainwashed, they are indoctrinated in accepting that we are the enemies and we must be liquidated and eradicated”. (See video here here from 2:30.)

This certainly sheds some light on the thinking behind Cooke’s comments, doesn’t it? That a man with close links to Christian fundamentalism should have been allowed to preside over such a sensitive case as Choudhry’s is unbelievable, and it is even more unacceptable that he should use the trial as a platform to promote his own religious views.

Exuberant demo says no to racism, fascism and Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

November 2010 demo

Around 5,000 black, white and Asian people marched through central London today in a lively and spirited demonstration against racism, fascism and Islamophobia.

The march, called by UAF and Love Music Hate Racism, was supported by the TUC and the Muslim Council of Britain. But it was the presence of large number of young people, school and university students that gave the demo its exuberant character.

Marchers showed their opposition to the fascist British National Party and the racist thugs of the English Defence League – which particularly targets Muslims.

The demonstrators chanted: “Whose streets? Our streets” and “EDL, go to hell – take your Nazi mates as well” as the march wound out of the West End and down Whitehall to Westminster.

Along with the chanting, many danced along behind carnival floats, with music from artists supporting LMHR.

At Westminster, the protesters heard from a range of speakers, including George Galloway, Hugh Lanning, deputy general secretary of the PCS civil service union and poet Zita Holbourne of Black Activists Rising Against Cuts.

UAF officer and LMHR national coordinator Martin Smith told the crowd that it was important for antiracists and antifascists to mobilise against the EDL, criticising those who argued that we should “stay away or hide behind doors”. He said:

If you give an inch to fascists they will come for more – we must not give an inch. We have to stand together, united.

He urged everyone to join a national mobilisation against the EDL in Luton in February.

There was more music, featuring artists including radical rapper Lowkey and up-and-coming young band Flow Dem, who caught the mood with their song Racial Ting: “It’s not a racial ting, it’s a white black mixed race Asian ting!”

Speaking after the demo, UAF joint secretary Weyman Bennett said:

Thousands of people turned out on a very lively demo to show they reject racism, fascism and Islamophobia. Now we need to build on that success, building bigger local groups and setting up new ones around the country.

We will also be mobilising for a national counter-demonstration against the EDL in Luton on 5 February 2011.

UAF news report, 6 November 2010

‘Radicalisation via YouTube’? Jonathan Githens-Mazer examines Roshonara Choudhry’s turn to violent extremism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

First, we can definitively put to rest Tony Blair’s claims that foreign policy isn’t linked to terrorism at home. We can’t say that Blair’s analysis caused Timms to be stabbed, but we can say that this wishful thinking has been proven inaccurate.

Second, the transcripts elucidate the dangers of internalised political-religious outlooks. It is quite telling that Choudhry said that she only prayed at home, and talked to no one about what she was thinking or planning. For groups that I work with in my research into this area, this is the No 1 danger sign – being political but not participating in politics; not attending large scale gatherings of Muslims with groups that may (or may not) be Islamically inspired in character, but withdrawing from all forms of political engagement.

This contradicts many of the claims of those who brand organisations like the MCB and mosques such as East London and North London Central Mosque as dangerous. It is exactly these entities which have been proven to help to channel anger about foreign policy away from this internalised, isolating and potentially dangerous way of thinking about issues into heated, heartfelt, and challenging but ultimately constructive wider political debates. If you cut off these constructive release valves, these problems will only get worse.

This was exactly the kind of thinking that sat at the heart of Prevent thinking and the Home Office Channel project when they were first conceived. At the start, Prevent wasn’t about surreptitious traffic cameras in Muslim neighbourhoods. The precursors to Prevent, in activities such as the Muslim Contact Unit, were about empowering, through shared agendas and partnership, Muslim communities to address and tackle exactly these kinds of isolated individuals.

Comment is Free, 4 November 2010