Another Catalan town council to consider veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The full council of El Vendrell (Tarragona), in line with the motion adopted in Lleida, will examine in the second week of June a proposal from CiU, to prohibit the use of the burqa and niqab in public facilities in the municipality.

To date, the CiU initiative has not been seconded by any other relevant council of the Tarragona region, although the PP de Catalunya is “gathering information” in the capital of Tarragona, and its leader, Alejandro Fernandez, advanced to meet the mayor, Josep Felix Ballesteros to reach a consensus position on this matter, “without trying to draw political benefits of such a sensitive issue.”

Fernandez made no secret that he would be in favour of banning the burka “not only in public facilities but also in public places” because “the standard bearer for the progressive multiculturalism has a very clear limit on human rights.”

Barcelona Reporter, 2 June 2010

See also “Spanish towns consider Islamic veil ban: reports”, Expatica, 2 June 2010

East End stands against EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The English Defence League is a violent, bigoted organisation and an embarrassment to our country. They should be condemned everywhere, but will be particularly unwelcome if they come to Tower Hamlets. Most people in the East End live in peace and mutual respect for neighbours, regardless of their faith or skin colour. As residents and workers in the borough, we will not tolerate attempts to divide us or stir up hatred. The real enemies of Tower Hamlets are poverty and inequality, not Islam. At Cable Street in 1936 the people of the East End united to block the way to Mosley’s fascist blackshirts. We stand ready to do the same to the EDL.

Glyn Robbins, Cllr Helal Abbas Leader, Tower Hamlets council, Mowlana Shamsul Hoque and Musaddiq Ahmed Chair and secretary general, Council of Mosques, Tower Hamletsand 24 others

Guardian, 2 June 2010

Contesting white supremacy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

I wish I could believe that the BNP, or even the BNP plus UKIP vote, represented the extent of the “racist vote” in Britain. The reality is that racist ideas, myths, assumptions, stereotypes and “explanations” are widespread and deep rooted in British society. The far right are part of a nexus which includes the racism of the state (in immigration, policing, criminal justice), the media and educational institutions; it’s a racism that has elite, middle and working class variants. One of the weaknesses of the left approach has been to fix on the latter – on working class racism – as if it existed separately from the others. Perhaps that’s why we sometimes sidestep the question of UKIP, whose election campaign relied heavily on anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim messages; its xenophobia is no less noxious than the BNP’s, though it is deemed more respectable, a fact not unrelated to its different – middle class, Tory-voting – constituency.

In particular, the current virulence of anti-Muslim racism cannot be isolated to the far right, which in this case has taken its cue from the middle class and a significant section of what passes for the intelligentsia. “Islamophobia,” writes A. Sivanandan, “in its most sophisticated form, is the province of middle-class opinion formers, erstwhile liberals, defenders of the true liberal faith against the encroachments of illiberal Islam, as defined by them, the ‘liberati’. Anti-Muslim racism is the province of the working class and is no different from past working-class racisms. Except that now it finds its justification in Islamophobia – suitably translated into the vernacular of stereotype and scapegoat by the tabloids, the carriers of racist culture.” Crucially, Islamophobia “is not just a body of ideas in a vacuum. It is connected to the war in Iraq and the war on terror and tied therefore to the state, its laws and executive decisions.”

Mike Marqusee in Red Pepper, June-July 2010

EDL’s hatred shows that Islamophobia needs to be taken seriously

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Guardian’s brave and insightful undercover investigation into the activities of the EDL should finally persuade Westminster politicians to take the issue of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim violence seriously. Our own research supports the findings of the Guardian investigation, most importantly concerning the extent to which the EDL is fuelled by visceral, violent anti-Muslim hatred.

The video that accompanies the Guardian report should leave no room for doubt that members of the EDL are echoing sentiments about Muslims they have adopted from sections of the mainstream media and the BNP. It is no coincidence that Nick Griffin has been peddling exactly the same hatred towards Muslims for the last decade. Similarly, a cursory examination of the records of Islamophobia Watch over the last five years provides a sense of the extent of Islamophobia in the mainstream media.

Daily Mail commentator Peter Oborne is right to argue that it has become “permissible to fabricate malicious falsehoods and therefore foment hatred against Muslims in a way which would be regarded as immoral and illegal if perpetrated against any other vulnerable section of society”.

Robert Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer at Comment is Free, 1 June 2010

Faith leaders oppose ‘crude and dangerous’ Welsh Defence League demonstration

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Two of Wales’ religious leaders have issued a joint statement condemning a planned demonstration by Welsh Defence League as “crude and dangerous”. The Archbishop of Wales Dr Barry Morgan and the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Wales Saleem Kidwai say Saturday’s protest in Cardiff will “undermine efforts to promote tolerance and diversity”.

Wales Online, 1 June 2010

MP condemns EDL plan to ‘hit’ Tower Hamlets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Close East London MosqueLabour MP Rushanara Ali has added her support to a campaign to stop a right-wing march in East London.

Members of the English Defence League were caught planning to ‘hit’ Tower Hamlets with a large demonstration this summer. But local politicians have reacted angrily to the proposals and a petition is already circulating to try and stop the march.

Ms Ali told the Advertiser: “Over the years many groups have come to the East End trying to foster hatred and division. The English Defence League is now attempting to join this dishonourable list. I condemn the EDL, and all attempts to divide this community and stir up hatred. Racism, Islamophobia, and bigotry have no place in modern Britain, and if the EDL insist on coming to Tower Hamlets they will find East Enders ready to stand up and reject this latest attempt to divide us.”

East London Advertiser, 1 June 2010

See also “Politicians attack right-wing group plan to ‘hit’ London’s East End”, East London Advertiser, 1 June 2010

Call for veil ban in Australia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

For obviously superficial reasons, I’ve always associated Belgium with expensive chocolates, rather than political acts of bravery. That changed with its decision to ban the burqa. For a tiny country to be prepared to publicly reject this symbol of oppression gave me great hope that other open societies like ours could follow suit.

Since then, of course, an Australian MP, Senator Cory Bernardi, inflamed the Muslim community by describing the burqa as the “preferred disguise of bandits” in the wake of it being used by an armed robber in a Sydney shopping centre.

Notwithstanding the Senator’s cultural foot-in-mouth routine, far greater politicians have also expressed opposition, such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who described the burqa as a “sign of subservience” and said that, in France, “we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity”.

And so it should be in this country that a stand is taken to expressly reject the eye-slitted, head-to-toe covering that renders a woman a shapeless non-person. On the basis of human decency and basic equality between the sexes, that position would seem a no-brainer but incredibly such a move is seen by some as intolerant.

What is it about the Australian condition that makes us feel as though we have to continuously apologise for who we are and what we stand for? Tolerating the burqa is not about multicultural harmony, it merely allows us to turn a blind eye to subjugation.

Liam Bartlett in the Sunday Telegraph, 30 May 2010

Radio talk show host calls for ‘Ground zero mosque’ to be blown up

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Houston talk show host this week called for the bombing of a mosque if it’s built near the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City.

In comments Wednesday on KPRC-950 AM, Michael Berry said, “I’ll tell you this – if you do build a mosque, I hope somebody blows it up.” Berry added: “I hope the mosque isn’t built, and if it is, I hope it’s blown up, and I mean that.”

The remarks came in an angry exchange with a caller who insulted Berry and said Muslims should be able to build mosques wherever they want. They were discussing a pending proposal to build an Islamic Center just a few blocks from the attack site in Manhattan.

Houston Chronicle, 28 May 2010

Detroit bus system rejects ‘Leaving Islam?’ ads

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Motown has no use for the anti-Muslim ads plastered across the sides of buses in New York City. Detroit’s SMART bus system has rejected the button-pushing placards that read “Fatwa on your head? Is your community or family threatening you? Leaving Islam?” – and direct Muslims to a Web site urging them to leave the “falsity of Islam.”

“It’s a purely anti-Muslim hate issue,” Dawud Walid of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told the Detroit News on Friday. “The SMART bus company, or any bus company, should not be used to marginalize a minority group.”

Defenders of the ads, dreamed up by Manhattan-based right wing blogger Pamela Geller and the New York-based Stop the Islamization of America, say it’s a free speech issue and they have sued. Americans have a right to know the truth; Islam is a religion of intolerance and violence,” said Michigan lawyer Richard Thompson, who filed the suit.

New York Daily News, 28 May 2010

See also “Bus agency sued for refusing Muslim defector ads”, Associated Press, 28 May 2010

And “The truth behind the ‘Leaving Islam’ campaign in Detroit”, Dawud Walid’s blog, 28 May 2010