Burnley College bans students and visitors from wearing veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Burnley College logoMuslim students and visitors have been banned from wearing veils in a controversial new crackdown on security at a leading sixth-form college. Staff posted a notice in the reception area advising anyone coming on site to “remove items of clothing which cover their face”. But the move has angered Muslim groups who say people should be allowed to wear what they like.

The ban is “an essential element for a safe environment” said Burnley College in Lancashire. However, the University of Central Lancashire, which operates out of the same campus, permits veils.

“There are human rights issues at stake here. People have the right and freedom to wear what they want,” said Abdul Hamid Qureshi, chairman of the Lancashire Council of Mosques. “It seems Burnley College has one policy on veils and the university has another and I just think to ban veils altogether is excessive. If security is an issue the person coming in a burka should show their face to the security guard at the college,” he added.

Labour councillor Wajid Khan said: “People should be able to wear what they want – this is the beautiful thing about our society, to be able to wear what you want. This choice and diversity is why our country is so great. We have this equality of opportunity and we have this real tolerance,” added Mr Khan, a course leader at the University of Central Lancashire.

In 2009, the same college sparked a row when Shawana Bilqes, 18, was banned from wearing a burka, a move she claimed forced her to abandon a HE Diploma course. “It is not possible to maintain essential full communication if the face of any student is not fully visible,” said the then principal John Smith.

Metro, 23 September 2010

See also the Daily Express which reports that “bosses at a leading sixth-form college were praised yesterday for their ‘commonsense approach’ in banning Islamic veils, including burkhas, in a security crackdown”. The two individuals quoted as supporting Burnley College’s decision are Tory MPs Philip Davies and Philip Hollobone.

Update:  See “Call for Burnley College to rethink headwear ban”, BBC News, 24 September 2010

Six arrested for burning Qur’ans

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Six people have been arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred after a recording of what appeared to be Korans being burned appeared on the internet.

Officers detained two men on September 15 and four more on Wednesday and all six were bailed pending further inquiries, Northumbria Police said. “The arrests followed the burning of what are believed to have been two Korans in Gateshead on September 11,” the spokesman said. “The incident was recorded and a video placed on the internet.”

In a video still accessible on YouTube, six young men in hooded tops or wearing scarves over their faces can be seen pouring petrol on a book and setting it alight, before burning another. On the video, which appeared to have been filmed behind a pub, they cheer as the first book bursts into flames.

Northumbria Police said the men were not arrested for watching or distributing the video, but on suspicion of burning the Koran.

Press Association, 23 September 2010

See also Daily Mail, 23 September 2010

St Louis mosque vandalised

Posted on by Bob Pitt

St Louis mosque vandalismThe FBI is investigating an act of vandalism against a south St. Louis mosque, amid rising rhetoric against Muslims.

Two FBI agents took photographs and interviewed members of the Masjid Qooba at 1925 Allen, after someone spray painted the side of the building with a pentagram and the words “worship Satan.”

Mosque member Tim Kaminski says it’s no accident. “We know it’s directed at us, “Kaminski said, “because they know we’re a house of worship, a house of prayer.” Kaminski says the mosque has received no threats, and the graffiti appeared on the side of the building this weekend. “You never know if somebody means you harm,” Kaminski said.  ”This could be a kid who is bored. It could be somebody out of work and angry. We don’t know who it is.”

Meanwhile,  an attorney for the local chapter of the Council on American/Islamic Relations believes the graffiti attack is part of a pattern of escalating rhetoric against Muslims. Jim Hacking cites this summer’s tension over the New York City Mosque, the Florida pastor threatening to burn the Koran,  and this week’s Fairview Heights, Illinois standoff with the man accused of threatening Muslims.

“Nationally on things like FOX News, you have people like Newt Gingrich comparing Muslims to Nazis,” Hacking said, “Just really negative, stereotypical hatred that’s been spewing out, and it’s really at its worse level, even worse than after 911.”

KMOX, 23 September 2010

Posted in USA

Italy: veil ban back in the spotlight

Posted on by Bob Pitt

National debate over a “burqa ban” was back in the spotlight on Tuesday following an official request for the Senate to discuss the security implications of Islamic face coverings. Senator Ada Spadoni Urbani of Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party group (PdL) presented a motion on behalf of her party addressing the issue. The motion is aimed “at resolving the public security issues raised by the custom of wearing the burqa or other clothing that prevents accurate identification,” she explained. “This is not intended to discriminate in any way against religious beliefs”.

The rightwing Northern League party promised a bill on the issue on Friday, while a row has been simmering for a number of days over whether a mother should be permitted to wear a face veil while dropping her child off at nursery school. Other parents at the school in the small Lazio village of Sonnino had reportedly complained to the school’s head that the woman’s niqab scared their own children. On Monday, Sonnino Mayor Gino Cesare Gasbarrone announced a compromise had been reached following a meeting with all parties whereby the woman had agreed to remove the veil once on the school premises.

Meanwhile, the Northern League proposal, a translation of the recently approved French bill, will join eight other draft laws already under consideration by parliament. The bill would prevent women from wearing a face veil in public, including in schools, on public transport or in any kind of office. The penalty for transgressors would be a fine of between 150 and 300 euros or alternatively some kind of community service “aimed at encouraging integration”, explained League Deputy Whip Carolina.

But unlike other proposals, the new bill will also punish anyone “who forces someone else to wear it, using either physical or psychological violence”. This offence would be punishable by a year in prison and a 30,000 euro fine.

A 1975 law already prohibits any mask or clothing that makes it impossible to identify the wearer. In its current form, it permits exceptions for “justified cause”, which has been interpreted as including religious reasons in court rulings against local attempts to ban the burqa and niqab. Most of the bills currently before the Italian parliament would amend the 1975 law to make specific reference to Islamic face coverings.

Commenting on the Sonnino case, Isabella Bertolini of the PdL said the case demonstrated a “growing imperative for a complete ban on the burqa in all places, not just in schools”. “Our society’s flexibility leads our institutions at all levels to interpret laws in the most politically correct way possible, causing incalculable damage,” she said.

ANSA, 21 September 2010

Abba to sue Danish People’s Party

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mamma_PiaBenny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, the Abba stars behind the hit musical Mamma Mia have instructed their lawyers to contact the Danish People’s Party after the far-right party used and changed one of their songs to honour its leader.

Andersson, who last year donated a million kronor ($145,694) to aid the EU election campaign of Sweden’s Feminist Initiative, has reacted angrily to the Danish anti-immigrant party taking liberties with his copyrighted material, reported news agency TT Spectra. “They can bugger off,” Andersson told the agency.

Björn and Benny’s hit song Mamma Mia is the source of their anger after it given a revamp by the Danish People’s Party youth league in honour of the party leader, Pia Kjærsgaard. The young nationalists amended the text to “Mamma Pia” and gave the leader a rousing rendition at the party congress, but declined to seek the permission of the Swedes first.

“Firstly, you can not just re-write songs as you like and secondly we want them to understand that we have absolutely no interest in supporting their party,” said Benny Andersson.

The Local, 23 September 2010

US Muslims face increased discrimination at work

Posted on by Bob Pitt

At a time of growing tensions involving Muslims in the United States, a record number of Muslim workers are complaining of employment discrimination, from co-workers calling them “terrorist” or “Osama” to employers barring them from wearing head scarves or taking prayer breaks.

Such complaints were increasing even before frictions erupted over the planned Islamic center in Lower Manhattan, with Muslim workers filing a record 803 such claims in the year ended Sept. 30, 2009. That was up 20 percent from the previous year and up nearly 60 percent from 2005, according to federal data.

The number of complaints filed since then will not be announced until January, but Islamic groups say they have received a surge in complaints recently, suggesting that 2010’s figure will set another record.

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has found enough merit in some of the complaints that it has filed several prominent lawsuits on behalf of Muslim workers.

“There’s a level of hatred and animosity that is shocking,” said Mary Jo O’Neill, regional attorney of the E.E.O.C.’s Phoenix office. “I’ve been doing this for 31 years, and I’ve never seen such antipathy toward Muslim workers.”

New York Times, 23 September 2010

A reply to George Readings on Qaradawi

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Crossposted from Socialist Unity

The Quilliam Foundation claims to be a think-tank combating extremism, particularly within the Muslim community. However, as the recently leaked briefing document “Preventing terrorism: where next for Britain?” has demonstrated, Quilliam’s real objective is to misrepresent and smear those mainstream Muslim organisations and individuals who are the leading forces in countering extremist interpretations of their faith.

An article at Left Foot Forward (“Livingstone: Al-Qaradawi is a ‘leading progressive voice’ in Muslim world”) by George Readings, who holds the post of Communications Officer and Research Fellow at the Quilliam Foundation, is exactly the sort of dishonest hatchet-job against a leading Muslim figure we have come to expect from the organisation that employs Readings. Predictably, he completely ignores the actual role played by Yusuf al-Qaradawi across the Muslim world and in the Arabic-speaking Middle East in particular.

Continue reading →

Republican candidate attacks ‘victory mosque’ in campaign ad

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Republican House candidate claims in new ad that Muslims want to build a “victory mosque” near Ground Zero.

The building of an Islamic cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero has faded from the midterm campaign conversation over the past week, but here’s an ad that might change that. It’s the first offering from the campaign of Republican Renee Ellmers, who is challenging Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.), and the message is a provocative one.

“After the Muslims conquered Jerusalem and Cordoba and Constantinople, they built victory mosques,” the ad’s narrator says. “And now, they want to build a mosque by ground zero. Where does Bob Etheridge stand? He won’t say.”

The Hill, 21 September 2010

Daniel Pipes accuses Obama of enforcing Sharia law

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pipes 9-11Over at the Washington Times Daniel Pipes opines that he found Pastor Terry Jones’ plan to ban the Qur’an “distasteful”. But the actual object of his attack is the Obama administration, who Pipes claims capitulated to the threat of “Muslim violence” when they persuaded Jones to call off his book-burning stunt.

Pipes explains: “That violence stems from Islamic law, Shariah, which insists that Islam, and the Koran in particular, enjoy a privileged status. Islam ferociously punishes anyone, Muslim or non-Muslim, who trespasses against Islam’s sanctity.”

Pipes concludes with the following charge against the Obama administration: “Its pressure on Mr. Jones further eroded freedom of speech about Islam and implicitly established Islam’s privileged status in the United States, whereby Muslims may insult others but not be insulted. This moves the country toward dhimmitude, a condition whereby non-Muslims acknowledge the superiority of Islam. Finally, Mr. Obama, in effect, enforced Islamic law, a precedent that could lead to other forms of compulsory Shariah compliance.”

Pipes has found himself rather sidelined recently by more newsworthy Islamophobes like Pamela Geller or Newt Gingrich. Maybe this is Pipes’ attempt to show he is still a major player when it comes to whipping up hysteria against the US Muslim community.