Warsi’s voter fraud claims ‘fuel Islamophobia’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tory Party chairman Baroness Warsi was accused of fuelling Islamophobia after she claimed electoral fraud in Asian communities had cost the Conservatives at least three seats in the general election. Labour MP Khalid Mahmood said he did not believe it was possible to commit fraud on such a scale in Westminster elections and he challenged her to produce the evidence to support her claims.

Lady Warsi told the New Statesman magazine there were “at least three seats where we lost, where we didn’t gain the seat, based on electoral fraud”. She refused to identify the seats concerned but said the problems were “predominantly within the Asian community” and that Labour had been the beneficiary. “I have to look back and say we didn’t do well in those communities, but was there something over and above that we could have done? Well, actually not, if there is going to be voter fraud,” she said.

In the same interview, Lady Warsi, who is herself a Muslim, attacked Islamophobia in the media, saying it was “the last socially acceptable form of bigotry in Briton today”.

Mr Mahmood, the MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, said in accusing Asian communities of fraud, she was simply adding to the anti-Islamic sentiment. “If you read the article, what she is talking about in terms of Islamophobia, and I think that she is doing exactly the same thing,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One. “What she has done is open the door to which people can assume certain things, particularly about minority communities and the Muslim community.”

Asian Image, 30 September 2010

Update:  See also Mehdi Hasan, “Sayeeda Warsi says media is ‘anti-Islamic’…”, New Statesman blog, 1 October 2010

Further update:  Read the interview with Baroness Warsi here.

Posted in UK

North Carolina voters reject exploitation of ‘Ground Zero mosque’ controversy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Renee EllmersNorth Carolina isn’t exactly a bastion of liberalism but even there a majority of voters think it’s off base for candidates to exploit the proposed “Ground Zero mosque” as a campaign issue. 51% label doing so as “inappropriate” to just 37% who consider it to be an acceptable tactic.

This is particularly pertinent in the Triangle where Renee Ellmers, challenging long time Democratic Congressman Bob Etheridge, has run television ads about the mosque. Voters in that part of the state are particularly strong in their views that it’s inappropriate with 56% expressing that sentiment.

Invoking the mosque is seen as acceptable by the Republican base, with 60% of GOP voters saying they think it’s appropriate to only 29% who object. But for Ellmers to win she’s going to have to take an overwhelming share of independents and also capture a healthy level of Democratic support. With those key groups exploiting the mosque is seen as particularly inappropriate – 68% of Democrats and 50% of independents share that feeling.

Public Policy Polling, 30 September 2010

See also Huffington Post, 30 September 2010

What does Wilders get from the coalition deal? A ban on the veil and a crackdown on immigration

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Netherlands coalition deal announced2

The Netherlands will ban the burqa, anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders said Thursday following the announcement of a pact to form a minority coalition government backed by his party.

“There will also be a burqa ban,” Wilders told journalists in The Hague, announcing measures agreed on by three parties negotiating to form a new government.

The measures, which seek to cut government spending by 18 billion euros by 2015, should also halve the number of immigrants who enter the Netherlands, the politician said.

“A new wind will blow in the Netherlands,” Wilders said, standing alongside presumed prime minister in waiting Mark Rutte, who leads the pro-business VVD party, and Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) leader Maxime Verhagen – the two parties set to be in government.

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Netherlands: coalition deal with Wilders hinges on CDA conference vote

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The formation of a Dutch coalition government hinges on a Christian Democrat congress on Saturday after party legislators failed to resolve divisions over relying on support from the anti-Islam Freedom Party.

The legislators said on Thursday they were unable at a 15-hour meeting overnight to endorse a deal under which the Christian Democrats and Liberal Party would form a minority government with backing in parliament from the Freedom Party.

They said they had agreed to leave the issue to Saturday’s conference of all party members before making a final decision on forming the proposed coalition, whose main task will be to implement austerity measures.

Prominent members of both the Christian Democrats and Liberal Party have spoken out against working with Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders, who is on trial for inciting hatred against Muslims. Wilders, whose party was the biggest gainer in a June election, has compared the Koran to Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”.

“I have all confidence that an overwhelming majority of the conference (on Saturday) will give its approval,” Christian Democrat leader Maxime Verhagen told reporters in a statement aired live on national television.

Reuters, 30 September 2010

Vandals strike again at St Louis mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

St Louis mosque graffitiVandals have apparently struck again at a mosque in south St. Louis City. Authorities say they are not considering this a hate crime, but the FBI and the St. Louis Police are trying to find out who wrote “worship Satan” on the side of the building.

There are no details on who the suspect(s) might be, but sources say it may be the same person or people who vandalized the mosque two weekends ago.

Islamic leaders say they are concerned about this incident, and are making a unique offer to drop the charges against the vandal.

The mosque is a converted apartment building along Allen Street that is now a place of worship and an education center. It’s been in the neighborhood for 10 years.

KMOV, 29 September 2010

Posted in USA

Muslim men don’t do housework, insurance clerk claimed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Gothaer Versicherungen - Konzernzentrale in Köln

A German insurance company got into trouble for citing the Koran in its refusal to compensate a Muslim accident victim for the cost of hiring a maid. Muslim men leave the housework to their wives, a clerk for the Gothaer insurance firm argued. The company has apologized.

A Muslim immigrant in Germany who asked his insurance firm to cover the costs of a maid while he recovered from a serious accident had his claim rejected on the grounds that according to his religion, husbands don’t do the housework anyway.

The 79-year-old Algerian man had been seriously injured after being hit by a car and had already received a six-figure sum in damages from the Gothaer insurance company. When he filed an additional claim to cover the costs of running his household because he wasn’t healthy enough to do so himself, an insurance clerk responded by interpreting the Koran as placing the man above the woman.

In her letter, she wrote of Muslim marriage: “It can’t be assumed to resemble a German marriage. According to the patriarchical and traditional view of the man in the Muslim marriage, the husband doesn’t run the household.”

The clerk cited the big age difference between the man and his wife – he is 26 years older – as a further indication that the burden of doing the housework was likely to fall on the wife. However, media reports said the wife has a job, which was why he did most of the work around the home.

The company distanced itself from its insurance clerk this week and said it would apologize to the claimant. Company spokeswoman Martina Fassbender said the clerk’s tone had been unacceptable and that her arguments in no way corresponded with the views and policies of the company which adhered to very strict anti-discrimination rules and trained its employees accordingly. “Something like this simply must not happen,” said Fassbender. It is unclear whether the insurer will reverse the decision though.

Spiegel, 28 September 2010

Trade unions to freeze out Sweden Democrats

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Active Sweden Democrats will not be allowed to be members in one of Sweden’s main healthcare professionals unions, the chair of the labour group said on Wednesday.

“To be a nurse or a midwife is based on protecting people’s rights and equal value. You have to reflect on the fact that perhaps not everyone fulfills those guidelines,” Anna-Karin Eklund, chair of the Swedish Association of Health Professionals (Vårdförbundet) to the TT news agency.

According to a report in the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper, several labour groups are exploring various ways to shut Sweden Democrats out of their activities.

An elected member of the IF Metall industrial union is set to have his membership in the union put under review after he ran as a Sweden Democrat and won a seat on a municipal council. “The Sweden Democrats’ ideas stand in conflict with everything we stand for, but you can’t just throw them out automatically,” said IF Metall’s vice chair Anders Ferbe to DN.

The Swedish Transport Workers union (TransPort), which is part of LO, Sweden’s largest trade union confederation, has also given Sweden Democrats the cold shoulder. “We exclude active Sweden Democrats from membership. Their ideas aren’t compatible with our statutes and the fact that they’ve gotten some kind of legitimacy by getting elected to the Riksdag and local councils doesn’t matter,” said TransPort’s third vice-chair Martin Viredius to DN.

SKTF, a union representing salaried employees in the public sector, has previously made it clear that active Sweden Democrats cannot hold elected leadership positions within the union.

The Local, 29 September 2010

Bishop of Leicester calls for faith groups to unite against EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Bishop of Leicester has led a call for faith groups to stand together in “solidarity” ahead of a protest by the English Defence League. Bishop Tim Stevens is a founder member of the Leicester Faith Leaders Forum, which yesterday issued a declaration condemning the English Defence League (EDL) in “the strongest terms”.

Bishop Tim said: “Over the years, the faith groups have said an attack on one is to be regarded an attack on us all. The EDL’s tactic is to single out the Muslim community and we are clear that will not be allowed to happen in Leicester because we are all standing together in solidarity.”

Leicester Mercury, 29 September 2010

See also “Why we need a peaceful city centre protest to oppose the EDL on the 9th October”, Leicester UAF, 28 September 2010

John Howard attacks multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

John HowardAustralia’s former prime minister John Howard has attacked “multiculturalism” in English-speaking nations, saying that some sectors have gone too far in accommodating Muslim minorities.

The blunt-talking conservative, who led Australia for 11 years before losing 2007 elections, said Tuesday on a visit to Washington that the “Anglosphere” needed to take greater pride in its values and achievements.

“This is a time not to apologize for our particular identity but rather to firmly and respectfully and robustly reassert it,” Howard said at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank.

“I think one of the errors that some sections of the English-speaking world have made in the last few decades has been to confuse multiracialism and multiculturalism,” Howard said.

Howard pointed in particular to Britain, whose Muslim community came under a spotlight after the 2005 bombings on the London transport system.

While in office, Howard faced criticism from his opponents that he aggravated anti-Islamic sentiment through tough anti-terrorism laws and tighter immigration controls, including a test on “Australian values.”

AFP, 29 September 2014

Mosques want to ‘destroy western civilisation from within’, claims Gaffney

Posted on by Bob Pitt

After testifying at a hearing about a proposed mosque in Tennessee, Sharia law “expert” Frank Gaffney went on Anderson Cooper last night to explain why, exactly, the mosque could be another victory for radical American Muslims who want to destroy the United States from within.

Imams’ agenda to impose Sharia law “ultimately winds up becoming a cancer inside a society,” Gaffney claimed. “No-go zones are typically associated with it where the authorities dare not go. Sharia law is practiced in those no-go zones. They are expanded in due course. And ultimately, you have the groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, with whom many of these mosques and for that matter, Muslim-American organizations of any note, are associated, pursuing a mission that we know, from evidence introduced into another federal trial, is to destroy western civilization from within. That’s really worrying.”

On Anderson Cooper last night, he argued with Akbar Ahmed, chair of Islamic studies at American University and a former Pakistani ambassador for the United Kingdom. Ahmed pointed out that only two percent of Americans are Muslim, and even if all of them wanted to impose Sharia law, they couldn’t.

TPM, 29 September 2010