US Senate candidate says ‘militant terrorists’ are imposing Sharia law on US cities

Tea Party Express Candidate Sharron Angle Wins GOP Senate Primary In NevadaU.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle told a crowd of supporters that the country needs to address a “militant terrorist situation” that has allowed Islamic religious law to take hold in some American cities.

Her comments came at a rally of tea party supporters in the Nevada resort town of Mesquite last week after the candidate was asked about Muslims angling to take over the country, and marked the latest of several controversial remarks by the Nevada Republican.

In a recording of the rally provided to The Associated Press by the Mesquite Local News, a man is heard asking Angle : “I keep hearing about Muslims wanting to take over the United States … on a TV program just last night, I saw that they are taking over a city in Michigan and the residents of the city, they want them out. They want them out. So, I want to hear your thoughts about that.”

Angle responds that “we’re talking about a militant terrorist situation, which I believe it isn’t a widespread thing, but it is enough that we need to address, and we have been addressing it.”

“My thoughts are these, first of all, Dearborn, Michigan, and Frankford, Texas are on American soil, and under constitutional law. Not Sharia law. And I don’t know how that happened in the United States,” she said. “It seems to me there is something fundamentally wrong with allowing a foreign system of law to even take hold in any municipality or government situation in our United States.”

Dearborn, Mich., has a thriving Muslim community. It was not immediately clear why Angle singled out Frankford, Texas, a former town that was annexed into Dallas around 1975.

Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly called Angle’s comments “shameful.” He said tea party groups inaccurately spread the word that his Detroit suburb was ruled by Islamic law after members of an anti-Islam group were arrested at an Arab cultural festival in June because a Christian volunteer complained of harassment.

Angle is in a dead-heat race against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. A recent poll showed Reid and Angle tied in the high-profile campaign.

Reid’s campaign said Angle’s comments advances its ongoing campaign to portray her as outside mainstream America. “The fact that Sharron Angle believes American cities have been taken over by militant terrorist organizations that are ruling our citizens under Sharia law shows a terrifying lack of connection with reality and a willingness to subscribe to conspiracy theories that demonstrates she’s far too extreme and dangerous to represent Nevada in the U.S. Senate,” spokesman Kelly Steele said.

Associated Press, 7 October 2010

Czech neo-Nazi takes inspiration from Wilders

Tom Vandas4Tomas Vandas, chairman of the Czech Workers’ Party of Social Justice (DSSS), the most famous representative of the Czech far right, is learning from Dutch populist Geert Wilders, but without success as yet, daily Hospodarske noviny (HN) writes yesterday.

Just as Wilders, Vandas wants to drive immigrants and Muslims away from the country and just as Wilders he has been put on trial for his hateful statements. “In our country it is not yet so pressing like in the Netherlands, but the time may come in a few years. They (Muslims) will start to build mosques here and pull down Christian churches,” HN quotes Vandas as saying. He said it is time to warn against Muslims. “Yes, our party will soon focus on this, too,” HNquotes Vandas as saying.

Continue reading

French student sues employer who refused to let him use Muslim name

A 19-year-old secondary school student is suing his former employer for racism, claiming that he was fired for refusing to tell clients his name was Alexander, not Mohamed, France Info radio reported Wednesday.

Mohamed was to carry out a one-month training period as a marketing agent at a food delivery company in the northern city of Tournes when he was let go because he refused to lie about his name.

His job was to have been to phone clients and propose special offers. Apparently, his employer felt that the name Mohamed would alienate potential customers.

According to a 2009 ruling by the French Court of Cassation, the country’s top court, forcing employees to change their name because of their origin constitutes discrimination.

DPA, 6 October 2010

Swiss canton rejects veil ban

The government of Solothurn does not want a cantonal initiative against the burqa or niqab. It has rejected the request by a member of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, saying the phenomenon is too insignificant in Switzerland and in the canton. The canton of Aargau has already filed an initiative with Bern for a cantonal intiative to prohibit the Islamic veil.

WRS, 6 October 2010

Do Muslim countries ban churches and synagogues?

Truth-o-meterLast Sunday ABC’s This Week programme organised a television debate under the title “Holy War: Should Americans Fear Islam?”. One of the guests was right-wing Christian evangelist Franklin Graham, who said of US Muslims:

“They want to build as many mosques and cultural centers as they possibly can so they can convert as many Americans as they can to Islam…. I just don’t have the freedom to do this in most Muslim countries. We can’t have a church. We’re not able to build synagogues. It’s forbidden.”

Do most Muslim countries really ban the construction of churches and synagogues? PolitiFact.com subjects Graham’s claim to its Truth-O-Meter.

Imam Zijad Delic’s speech

CIC logoZijad Delic, national executive director of the Canadian Islamic Congress, was to deliver a speech earlier this week at a National Defence headquarters event marking Islamic History Month. But his invitation was withdrawn by Defence Minister Peter MacKay who accused the CIC of inciting hatred and said that Imam Delic had no place at an event honouring Muslim contributions to Canada.

The CIC has now posted the text of the speech that Delic would have made at the Islamic History Month event on their website, so the public can make up their own minds about the accuracy of MacKay’s charge that Delic and the CIC are guilty of promoting “extremist views”.

The campaign that resulted in the ban on Imam Delic appears to have been led by right-wing bloggers, but MacKay’s decision to cancel the speech was also warmly welcomed by an outfit calling itself the Muslim Canadian Congress.

Muslims must accept that German culture is ‘based on Christian and Jewish values’ says Merkel

Merkel and Westergaard
Merkel presenting an award to anti-Muslim cartoonist Kurt Westergaard

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday Muslims must obey the constitution and not sharia law if they want to live in Germany, which is debating the integration of its 4 million-strong Muslim population.

In the furor following a German central banker’s blunt comments about Muslims failing to integrate, moderate leaders including President Christian Wulff have urged Germans to accept that “Islam also belongs in Germany.”

But whereas the media stressed Wulff’s comments about Islam, Merkel – the daughter of a Protestant pastor brought up in East Germany, who leads a predominantly Catholic party – said Wulff had emphasized Germany’s “Christian roots and its Jewish roots.”

“Now we obviously also have Muslims in Germany. But it’s important in regard to Islam that the values represented by Islam must correspond with our constitution,” said Merkel. “What applies here is the constitution, not sharia.”

Merkel said Germany needed imams “educated in Germany and who have their social roots here” and concluded: “Our culture is based on Christian and Jewish values and has been for hundreds of years, not to say thousands.”

Reuters, 6 October 2010

Court hears how Wilders has poisoned attitudes towards Muslims

Wilders_in_courtMuslims in the Netherlands say that remarks by politician Geert Wilders have poisoned attitudes toward them, making them feel unwelcome and at risk, according to complaints disclosed at his hate speech trial Wednesday.

“My family and I no longer feel safe in the Netherlands because Mr. Wilders is continually making hateful remarks about Islamic Dutch people,” said one complaint read out by the judge. “It’s getting scary…. Soon the kids won’t be able to say that they’re Muslim or half-Moroccan,” wrote the citizen, whose name was not released.

Dozens of similar complaints filed with public prosecutors eventually led them to file charges against Wilders, citing frequent statements he has made comparing Islam to Fascism, calling for a ban on Muslim immigration and for banning the Quran.

Continue reading

Christian Democrat MPs back deal with Wilders

Dutch Christian Democrats (CDA) endorsed a government coalition with liberals relying on the support of an outspokenly anti-Islamic party on Tuesday, but analysts said the pact could prove frail.

The coalition born of three months of wrangling will rely on backing from the Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders, currently on trial for public criticisms of Islam including a comparison with Nazism. Concessions to the PVV include a pledge to ban the Islamic burqa face covering and tighter immigration rules.

The deal was sealed when all 21 CDA MPs voted to back a pact with the Liberal VVD. Two MPs had echoed reservations expressed on Saturday by a CDA congress about the recourse to PVV support.

Reuters, 5 October 2010

Update:  See also “Christian Democrat dissidents back coalition but remain anti-Wilders”, Dutch News, 6 October 2010

Further update:  See “Another Dutch Christian Democrat resigns”, RNW, 6 October 2010

Wilders refuses to answer questions at trial, challenges legitimacy of court

Geert Wilders trialA special court in Amsterdam will decide on Tuesday afternoon if new judges should be sworn in for the trial of anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders on charges of inciting hatred.

On Monday, Wilders’ lawyer Bram Moszkowicz challenged the legitimacy of the court after the presiding judge appeared to criticise Wilders’ decision not to answer any questions. Jan Moors said Wilders had often been accused of avoiding discussion about his views on Islam and Muslims. “By remaining silent, it seems you’re doing that today as well,” he said.

Wilders evoked his right to silence at the start of the trial, saying he would not answer any questions and that his lawyer would answer on his behalf.

Continue reading