Jesse Jackson endorses letter on anti-Islam FBI training

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, one of the nation’s leading civil rights activists, and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) have endorsed an open letter by a coalition of Muslim, Sikh, Asian-American, and other civil liberties groups sent to FBI Director Robert Mueller seeking an explanation of why a leader of an anti-Islam hate group was recently invited to train state and federal law enforcement officers.

Robert Spencer, co-founder of the hate group Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA), claimed in a blog post that he “gave two two-hour seminars on the belief-system of Islamic jihadists to the Tidewater Joint Terrorism Task Force.” Those attending the training reportedly included FBI agents.

In its letter to Mueller, the coalition outlined Spencer’s bigoted views on Islam and Muslims, including referring to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad as a “con man.”

SEE: Coalition Letter to Director Mueller
http://www.cair.com/Portals/0/pdf/coalition_letter_to_FBI.pdf

The letter cited the independent national media watch group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), which identified Spencer as one of “Islamophobia’s Dirty Dozen” who systematically “spread fear, bigotry, and misinformation.”

In its report, FAIR said, “By selectively ignoring inconvenient Islamic texts and commentaries, Spencer concludes that Islam is innately extremist and violent.”

CAIR press release, 6 August 2010

Packed organising meeting for ‘We are Bradford’ event

Posted on by Bob Pitt

We Are Bradford

Around 150 people crowded into a meeting called to organise for the “We are Bradford” unity event on Saturday 28 August. The “We are Bradford” event will be a peaceful, united and multicultural response to plans by the racist English Defence League to bring their anti-Muslim hatred to Bradford.

Last night’s meeting brought together a broad mix of local people, including black, white and Asian people, Muslims and members of other faith groups, trade unionists and young people. The mood of the meeting was positive but serious, with participants resolved not to abandon their city to the EDL. The meeting heard confirmation from the police that a static demonstration by the EDL would not be banned.

Bradford East MP David Ward told the meeting that he wanted to attend the “We are Bradford” celebration to show that the EDL was not welcome in the city.

UAF joint secretary Weyman Bennett said a peaceful, multicultural event in Bradford was essential. The experience of Stoke and Luton has shown that where the EDL is unopposed its supporters are more likely to go on the rampage. Weyman poined out that support for the “We are Bradford” event is coming from across the country, with the trade unions PCS, CWU, UCU and TSSA already giving their backing.

The Rev Chris Howson, City Mission priest and one of the ‘We Are Bradford’ organisers, called for a peaceful response to the EDL to show the world that the EDL only wanted to use racism to divide the city. ‘We are Bradford’ unites all those who stand for peace and unity, he argued.

The meeting also heard Kanja Sesay, Black students’ officer for the National Union of Students speak about the importance of providing a safe focus for young people to show their opposition to the racism of the EDL.

Bradford trade unionists from the PCS civil servants’ union and the NUT teachers’ union spoke from the floor about how they were building the event.

Local activist Ashiq Hussain, who chaired the meeting, urged everyone to play their part in building a peaceful, united response to the EDL, to sign the campaign statement and volunteer as stewards for the event.

Thousands of leaflets were distributed to be handed out across the city.

What you can do

UAF is mobilising for the event nationally. You can download aleaflet here. Please see our transport page for regularly updated coach details.

UAF news report, 6 August 2010

More witch-hunting from Quilliam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A secret list prepared for a top British security official accuses peaceful Muslim groups, politicians, a television channel and a Scotland Yard unit of sharing the ideology of terrorists.

The list was drawn up for Charles Farr, the director general of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT), a directorate of the Home Office. Farr is a former senior intelligence officer.

It was sent to him in June by the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism thinktank which has received about £1m in government funding.

Quilliam was co-founded by Ed Husain and Maajid Nawaz, former activists in the radical Islamist party Hizb ut-Tahrir. Critics of the foundation accused it of McCarthyite smear tactics and branded its claims ridiculous. The foundation declined repeated requests for comment.

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Posted in UK

SIOA co-founder: kill your liberal relatives and all Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Daily Kos examines the record of John Joseph Jay, a founding members of the board of Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer’s American Freedom Defense Initiative, the organisation behind Stop Islamization of America.

A sample quote from Jay: “there are no innocent muslims. islam is subject to killing on grounds of political expediency on the same basis as islam kills its victims, and islam cannot ethically and morally claim otherwise.”

Rightwing campaign fails – ‘Ground Zero’ mosque moves forward

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islam builds mosques placardMonths of rising rhetoric about religious freedom came to a head on Tuesday when a city commission voted that a contentious plan to build a mosque two blocks from “Ground Zero” could move forward.

The proposal to demolish an old Burlington Coat Factory building and replace it with a 13-storey Islamic centre has reopened the wounds of September 11 2001 and provoked some of the most heated anti-Muslim rhetoric since the attacks on the World Trade Center.

On Tuesday, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously that the proposed site of the centre, which includes a mosque, should not be given protected landmark status, a label that would have limited the scope of its development

Developers and opponents of the mosque alike had anxiously awaited the ruling from the landmarks commission to determine the fate of the project, originally called Cordoba House and recently rebranded Park 51 after weeks of criticism. The $100m project hinged on whether the existing structure was considered historically significant, meaning it could be refurbished but not demolished.

About 100 people gathered in an auditorium near Ground Zero to hear the verdict, with a mix of cheers and tears erupting when the commissioners said the mosque could move forward. The stone-faced building with Italian palazzo columns was built in 1858 but was not deemed exceptional enough to warrant city protection.

In spite of the backlash, publicity surrounding the project has made it more likely to succeed. Soho Properties, which owns the building, and Park 51, the non-profit organisation that will be its tenant, say new backers have been “knocking down our door” to make donations.

“The controversy has had a negative impact on us as individuals,” said Daisy Khan, spokeswoman for Park 51 and the wife of Faisal Abdul Rauf, the mosque’s future imam. “We’re still moving ahead with the planning and now it will be easier for us to do a national fundraising campaign.”

A few seats away from Ms Khan at the meeting, Linda Rivera held a sign that read “Islam builds mosques at the site of their conquests”. Another nearby protester screamed “Trojan horse”.

Financial Times, 4 August 2010

See also “Attempt to block ‘Ground Zero mosque’ fails”, BBC News, 3 August 2010

For the admirable stand by the Mayor of New York City in opposition to the outbreak of Islamophobic hysteria over the issue, see “Michael Bloomberg delivers stirring defense of mosque”, Salon, 3 August 2010

See also “Mike Bloomberg’s remarks on the proposed mosque and community center in Lower Manhattan”, mikebloomberg.com, 3 August 2010

Also worth reading is Jeffrey Goldberg, “If he could, Bin Laden would bomb the Cordoba Initiative”, The Atlantic, 3 August 2010

Update:  See “Right-wing group sues city over WTC mosque: conservatives try to block Ground Zero construction”, New York Daily News, 4 August 2010

Dutch MPs condemn plan for coalition backed by Wilders

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dutch MPs returned temporarily from their summer recess today for a special debate with chief negotiator Ruud Lubbers about the progress of the coalition talks.

The public gallery was jammed solid as the party leaders on the left and the right passed judgment on the proposed coalition of the conservative VVD and the centre-right Christian Democrats which could become the first minority government in the Netherlands since World War II. They plan to rule with parliamentary support from Geert Wilders’ anti-Islamic Freedom Party.

Labour Party leader Job Cohen said Geert Wilders was the real winner. He was “the puppet master pulling the strings behind the scenes. With all the advantages and none of the responsibility.”

Green Left’s Femke Halsema called the minority coalition the “worst conceivable alternative” and accused Christian Democrat leader Maxime Verhagen of betraying his principles. She quoted his own words about Geert Wilders about whom he once said “by spreading fear and hatred he is involved only in destruction”.

RNW, 4 August 2010

Schools and universities should have power to ban veil says Swedish education minister

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The leaders of Swedish schools and universities should be allowed to ban students from wearing clothes that cover their faces, including Islamic veils such as the full-body burqa and the full-face niqab, Education Minister Jan Bjorklund said Wednesday.

“Education is based on an interaction between teacher and students. You have to be able see each others’ faces,” Bjorklund said. “I think that it is questionable if the school can fulfil its task if a student wears clothing that covers the face, like the burqa and niqab.”

The Left Party’s education spokeswoman, Rossana Dinamarca, said the proposal would “force more girls with full-face veils to (religious) independent schools” and criticized the proposal as populistic, noting the upcoming elections in September.

DPA, 4 August 2010

Home Office adviser suspended for criticising ban on Zakir Naik

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In the Sunday Times David Leppard reveals that Sabin Khan, a senior adviser to home secretary Theresa May, has been suspended for opposing May’s decision to ban Zakir Naik from entering the UK. Apparently Khan’s offence was to describe this stupid and ignorant decision, entirely accurately, as “a huge error of judgment”. Leppard reports that Charles Farr, Khan’s boss at the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism (the Home Office directorate responsible for counter-terrorism in the UK), also opposed the ban.

Of course, both Leppard and the Sunday Times have an axe to grind here, as it was Leppard’s misleading and scaremongering article (“Muslim preacher of hate is let into Britain”, Sunday Times, 30 May 2010) that provided the basis for the ban on Dr Naik.

A statement by the Islamic Research Foundation rebutting the Home Office’s charges against Dr Naik can be consulted here. It points out that the apparently damning quote produced by Leppard and echoed by the Home Office, that “every Muslim should be a terrorist”, was actually in defence of police repression of violent criminals – a stance on law and order that you might have thought would endear Dr Naik to a Tory home secretary.

Leppard reports that Charles Farr welcomed the IRF’s response as “a good strong statement”. Unfortunately, instead of reassessing the Naik ban and rectifying her mistake, it would appear that May prefers to discipline her critics.

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Is fear of Islam the new McCarthyism?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite poses the question over at the Washington Post. She takes on the Islamophobic views of veteran Republican right-winger Newt Gingrich who, she writes, “believes that Americans are ‘at risk’ as a nation, not only from the violence of a ‘militant Islam’, but also from the cultural integration of Muslims in the West. The latter he calls ‘stealth jihadists’. A close historical parallel, Gingrich argued in a lengthy address to the American Enterprise Institute entitled America at Risk: Camus, National Security and Afghanistan, where he is now a senior fellow, is the struggle with communism.”