Anti-Muslim racism is on the increase. Dave Weltman looks at how Muslims have been scapegoated in Britain and across Europe.
The Muslims who support the ban on Zakir Naik
Inayat Bunglawala has the details.
A similar situation obtains in Canada, where the ban on Dr Naik was not only supported but actively promoted by Tarek Fatah and his so-called Muslim Canadian Congress. The National Post reports Fatah as boasting that he “sent a mass email to federal MPs last week, warning them of Dr. Naik’s views”. “We are very happy that government agencies, having been made aware of his statements, have taken this decision,” Fatah is quoted as saying. “We certainly don’t want hate-mongers to come here.”
South Carolina: anti-Islam billboard incites hate
Veil bans: are women’s rights really the issue?
On Wednesday, Spain became the latest European country to advance legislation to ban burqas and other such face veils. Many of those in favor of such laws cite women’s rights, but does criminalizing their clothing help?
Rooting out Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate crime
Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer says that racist attacks like that recently on Exeter Muslim woman Hayat Kaddouri Roddy are becoming all too common.
Express attacks ‘Eurocrats’ for defending right to wear the veil
Europe backed the burkha yesterday by ruling that the controversial Muslim veils should not be banned.
MPs from 47 countries voted unanimously that outlawing the full-face veils would deny women “who genuinely and freely desire to do so” the right to cover their faces.
The Council of Europe’s resolution is not binding on members of the group, which includes all European countries except Belarus, as well as Turkey. But the vote by the human rights group threatens to torpedo bans planned in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain as it could open governments up to costly legal battles.
Last night the ruling was condemned as “out of touch”. UKIP leader Lord Pearson said: “This vote just highlights the disconnection between the appointed politicians of the Council of Europe and the peoples of Europe. They refused to represent the people’s wishes, preferring to hold them in contempt.”
Tory MP Philip Hollobone said: “It just goes to show how out of touch European politicians are with popular opinion. I have no doubt that the majority of the British public are against the wearing of the burkha and the full-face niqab veil.”
The Council of Europe also branded the Swiss bigots for their ban on the construction of Islamic minarets. Last year Switzerland banned the building of the minarets – towers used to call Muslims to prayer – after a nationwide referendum. Politicians claimed the minarets represent militant Islam.
See also ENGAGE, 24 June 2010
Murfreesboro Islamic Centre: CAIR calls for investigation into second act of vandalism
A Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization is calling on local, state and national law enforcement agencies to investigate the latest act of vandalism at the site of the proposed Islamic Center of Murfreesboro.
Local authorities were alerted to the second case of vandalism of a sign at the future mosque site on Veals Road near Bradyville Pike Wednesday, when a passing motorist reported the sign had been beaten with “an unknown object.”
The original sign marking the center was vandalized in January by a still-unknown person who wrote “not welcome” in spray-paint.
“A mosque official told CAIR that the latest incident of vandalism has been reported to local police and the FBI,” said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper, via a press release on behalf of Washington based civil rights organization. “That same official said local law enforcement authorities have been very supportive of the Muslim community and have stepped up police patrols in the area of the proposed mosque.”
CAIR believes the planned expansion of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro is being opposed by individuals who “have made Islamophobic statements at recent public hearings concerning the mosque.”
A candlelight vigil for peace, tolerance and freedom of religion is scheduled for later this evening in Murfreesboro.
Mosque opponents using fear to divide
Last Thursday evening hundreds of residents in my hometown of Murfreesboro, Tenn., attended the Rutherford County Commission meeting to express their outrage over a proposed Islamic center of worship in the community.
This is just the latest in a string of incidents around the country threatening the constitutional rights of Americans just like you and I. A group of citizens recently blocked a proposed mosque in Brentwood, Tenn. There are a growing number of people who are opposed to a mosque planned near ground zero in Manhattan.
The events of 9/11 and other actions taken by al Qaeda planted the seeds of dissent, intolerance, hatred and fear. Those seeds are growing. Al Qaeda’s endgame is destroying our way of life, our American principles and values.
As a Marine who has deployed through out the Middle East, I have worked, trained and broken bread with Muslims. I have known their families and communities. I have fought with them and for them, as I have for this country and my fellow citizens, many of whom are also Muslims. I can’t stand by while some people are accused of being guilty by association of one’s religion and therefore discriminated against.
Ben Leming at The Hill’s Congress Blog, 23 June 2010
New York Post columnist warns against ‘New Yorkistan’
There’s no denying the elephant in the room. Neither is there any rejoicing over the mosques proposed for Sheepshead Bay, Staten Island and Ground Zero because where there are mosques, there are Muslims, and where there are Muslims, there are problems.
Before New York becomes New Yorkistan, it is worth noting that the capital of Great Britain was London until it became known as “Londonstan,” degenerated by a Muslim community predominantly from South Asia and Africa, whose first generation of “British Asians” has made the United Kingdom into a launching pad for terrorists….
Mindful of its controversial history, Great Britain welcomed its former colonials who fled their own oppressive regimes for refuge in the Free World….
The assimilation Great Britain had hoped for never happened, as British Asians insulated themselves from mainstream society even more than their parents had, and fomented a deadly, illogical wrath against the western world in which they had been born.
Then, in the 1990s, British Asians bogglingly began to wield Islam as a bargaining chip against the state, and eventually as a tool of terror against the world, using their mosques as dens of iniquity, and exposing the Muslim character which left a lot to be desired despite its obsession with religion….
There is a lot the United States can learn from Great Britain’s rotten experience with a community which refuses to assume responsibility for its evil subculture – and one that only it can successfully eradicate.
New Yorkistan? It’s happening before our eyes.
Shavana Abruzzo in the New York Post, 22 June 2010
European MPs vote against bans on veils and minarets
MPs from 47 countries have unanimously voted against a general ban on the wearing of the burka in public.
The Parliamentary Assembly of Europe’s human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, passed a resolution warning that if governments imposed such a ban they would be denying women “who genuinely and freely desire to do so” their right to cover their faces.
The resolution was part of a report on Islam, Islamism and Islamophobia, which also called on European governments to work to educate Muslim women, their families and communities on their human rights and to encourage them to take part in “public and professional life”.
It also called on Switzerland to repeal as soon as possible its general ban on the construction of minarets, which it described as discriminatory.
Associated Press, 23 June 2010
See also Swissinfo, 23 June 2010