‘Britain must end the appeasement of Islamist terrorists: the Human Rights Act should be scrapped’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nile Gardiner denounces the ruling by the Special Immigration and Appeals Commission that two terror suspects could not be deported to Pakistan on the grounds they might be tortured there.

His colleague Douglas Murray goes with “Why do al-Qaeda’s rights trump those of the British people?”

Neither Gardiner nor Murray bothers to mention that the two individuals have not been convicted of any offence – or indeed allowed to hear, still less to challenge, the evidence against them.

See also ENGAGE, 19 May 2010

Quebec: ‘secularists’ demand that religion should be excluded from the public sphere

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CCIEL logoQuebecers fought hard to free themselves from the Roman Catholic Church’s control during the Quiet Revolution and they must prevent newcomers from imposing religious values here again, speakers said last night at the start of a three-day conference on secularism.

“We must not let other religious groups bring back religious practices,” said conference organizer Djemila Benhabib, co-founder of the Collectif citoyen pour l’égalité et la laïcité (CCIEL). “The rights of women, children and homosexuals are threatened by the demands of reasonable accommodation,” Benhabib told an audience of about 225 at the Bibliothèque Nationale.

Her group is part of a diverse coalition of feminists, Quebec nationalists, defenders of gay rights and anti-immigration activists calling on the government to ban all religious symbols and teachings from the public sphere.

Quebec’s Conseil du statut de la femme helped pay for the conference along with the French consulate. The movement also has support from public-sector unions and media personalities including columnists Marie-Claire Lortie of La Presse and Richard Martineau of the Journal de Montréal, who moderated panels at the conference. In March, 100 intellectuals signed a manifesto calling for Quebec to adopt a charter of secularism that would ban all vestiges of religion from the public sphere.

Montreal Gazette, 20 May 2010

CAIR calls on Tea Party Convention to exclude Geller

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CAIR is calling on American Muslims and other people of conscience to contact the organizers of the inaugural Tennessee Tea Party Convention to be held this weekend in Gatlinburg and ask that they drop an anti-Islam speaker who claims that “Hitler and the Nazis were inspired by Islam” and that Islam “mandates” lies and deception.

The extremist anti-Islam speaker, far-right blogger Pamela Geller, is also head of the hate group Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA). At the convention, Geller is scheduled to speak about “The Threat of Islam.”

Today, Geller posted images on her blog purporting to depict Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. Several of those images show the prophet as a pig. Another image, headlined “Piss Be Upon Him,” shows one of the controversial Danish cartoons of the prophet covered in urine. (“Piss Be Upon Him” is designed to mock the traditional phrase “Peace Be Upon Him” that Muslims use when mentioning any prophet of God.)

CAIR’s request comes just a day after the Washington-based civil rights and advocacy organization called on the Tea Party to repudiate “ignorant” comments made by one of its leaders, who wrote that Muslims worship a “monkey-god.” Mark Williams, chairman of the Tea Party Express, also wrote on his blog that Muslims are “animals of allah [sic].”

“The Tea Party needs to decide whether it is a legitimate national political movement or just a safe haven for bigots and extremists,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. “We ask that convention organizers not legitimize Geller’s extremist anti-Muslim rhetoric by offering her an official platform.”

CAIR press release, 20 May 2010

What has provoked CAIR, Geller claims, is her campaign against the plan to build a mosque and community centre near the former site of the World Trade Center in New York: “The grand jihadist Muslim Brotherhood at CAIR know what that means. It will be the icon, the rally call for every devout Muslim and jihadist across the world. They must have their symbol of conquest.”

French veil bill criminalises ‘incitement to hide the face’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

French passportA bill to ban Muslim veils covering the face to be presented to France’s Cabinet on Wednesday calls for fines and, in some cases, citizenship classes.

The bill turns on the “dignity of the person,” rather than security issues as many speculated would be the case, according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press. Article 1 of the bill stipulates that “no one can wear a garment intended to hide the face in the public space.” The ban covers streets.

The divisive legislation proposed by the conservative government of President Nicolas Sarkozy is to go to the lower house of parliament for debate in July and to the Senate in September. There is little doubt the bill will pass despite opposition.

The bill calls for a fine of €150 ($185) for those breaking the law and eventual citizenship classes. The measure creates a new crime – inciting to hide the face – and anyone convicted of forcing a woman to wear such a veil would risk a year in prison and a €15,000 ($18,555) fine.

Associated Press, 18 May 2010

Update:  See also “Women protest as French Cabinet gets veil ban bill”, Associated Press, 19 May 2010

Ann Widdecombe makes a contribution to interfaith harmony

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Writing in the Daily Express, Anne Widdecome offers her views on the case of the Ellesmere Port pupil whose mother refused to allow her to participate in a school visit to a mosque (a story from last month belatedly latched onto by the Daily Mail, followed by the Express, the Telegraph, the Daily Star and the Mirror):

Learning about another religion should not mean having to practise it and insisting that a Catholic schoolgirl should dress as a Muslim and visit a mosque is a nonsense that her parents would not have expected to encounter when they chose a specifically Catholic school.

Indeed why does the head think they selected a Catholic school? Presumably it was to enable that child to learn that faith.

The bishop should have a quiet word with the headmaster of Ellesmere Port Catholic High School and suggest that he revert to the usual practice of teaching children to defend not surrender their faith and to know the difference between tolerating other faiths and adopting them.

If he cannot pass that test the diocese should find a head who can. Would that same head insist a Muslim child attend Mass wearing a crucifix?

No, of course he wouldn’t, but he would undoubtedly ask pupils to dress appropriately for a visit to any place of worship. And that is what the pupil at the centre of this controversy was asked to do – not “dress as a Muslim”. Is Widdecombe perhaps suggesting that the head would have no problem with a pupil attending Mass dressed in a bikini?

It’s worth noting that other parents at Ellesmere Port Catholic High School voiced their objections to the mosque visit, without bothering to hide behind the nonsense about “dressing as a Muslim”. As one of them explained: “I’m not racist or anything but I live in England, I send my daughter to an English speaking catholic school, so I don’t see why she should go to a mosque.”

French government adopts veil ban bill

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The French government on Wednesday approved a draft law to ban garments which cover the face in public. The bill, which targets the burka and niqab worn by some Muslim women, will now go to parliament.

“On this question, the government is taking, in all conscience, a path which is difficult but just,” President Nicolas Sarkozy told the ministers at the cabinet meeting. “We are an old nation assembled around a certain idea of personal dignity, in particular the dignity of women, and around a certain idea of married life.”

A veil which covers the face contradicts values which are fundamental to the French republic, he said.

RFI, 19 May 2010

Netherlands: mosque opponents hang dead sheep at building site

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Unidentified persons hung a dead sheep from the front of a building due for demolition in the Burgemeester Schneiderlaan in Roosendaal. On the fleece of the sheep was written with green paint “No Mosk”, i.e. “No Mosque”. This was made public by the police on Saturday.

The site where the building due for demolition stands is reserved for the building of a mosque. According to the police a number of people must have been involved in this act, considering the weight of the animal and the position it was placed in. The sheep was hanging at a height of four to five meters with its head upside down and tied to a strap. Firefighters brought the dead animal down.

The police started an inquiry in the neighbourhood on Saturday morning. “This has not yet produced any concrete information about the possible offenders”, according to the police.

NU.nl, 15 May 2010

French lawyer abuses and attacks veiled Muslim woman

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A 60-year-old lawyer ripped a Muslim woman’s Islamic veil off in a row in a clothing shop in what police say is France’s first case of “burka rage”.

The astonishing scene unfolded during a weekend shopping trip after the woman lawyer took offence at the attire of a fellow shopper resulting in argument during which the pair came to blows before being arrested. It came as racial tensions grow in the country as it prepares to introduce a total ban on burkas and other forms of religious dress which cover the face.

A 26-year-old Muslim convert was walking through the store in Trignac, near Nantes, in the western Loire-Atlantique region, when she overhead the woman lawyer making “snide remarks about her black burka”. A police officer close to the case said: “The lawyer said she was not happy seeing a fellow shopper wearing a veil and wanted the ban introduced as soon as possible.”

At one point the lawyer, who was out with her daughter, is said to have likened the Muslim woman to Belphegor, a horror demon character well known to French TV viewers. Belphegor is said to haunt the Louvre museum in Paris and frequently covers up his hideous features using a mask.

An argument started before the older woman is said to have ripped the other woman’s veil off. As they came to blows, the lawyer’s daughter joined in.

Daily Telegraph, 18 May 2010

France: Muslim graves desecrated

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Vienne cemetery graffitiOffensive racist graffiti were found on graves in the Muslim section of the cemetery at Vienne (Isère) on Friday morning.

The graffiti specifically targeted the Harki community. Written in black felt-tip pen on the gravestones, they were removed after investigations by the police in charge of the inquiry.

In order to condemn these acts, on Monday afternoon a ceremony honouring the families was held in the Muslim section of the cemetery. Government representatives, the mayor of Vienne, army veterans and representatives of different faith communities attended the ceremony.

France 3, 18 May 2010

See also Nouvel Observateur, 16 May 2010

Vienne cemetery ceremony

Catalan town council to debate veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Spanish town is to debate calls for a ban on wearing the full-face Islamic veil in public amid growing cross-party opposition to the burqa in the country, a local party said Tuesday.

The moderate Catalan nationalists of the Convergence and Union (CiU) party proposed the ban, calling the veil “an obstacle to the dignity and integration of women in our society,” they said in a statement.

The presence in the town Lerida “of Salafist representatives (hardline Islamists) has facilitated the spread of practices incompatible with the values of sexual equality and respect for women.”

El Pais daily said the town’s socialist mayor Angel Ros has also expressed his opposition to the Islamic veil in the past.

Spain’s Labour and Immigration Minister Celestino Corbacho said Monday he was in favour of a ban on the full veil in work spaces. “Totally covering women with a piece of clothing, whatever the symbolism, completely goes against our society and stops the move towards equality between men and women,” he said.

The council debate in Lerida, a town of some 140,000 inhabitants in north east Catalonia, will take place on May 28.

Expatica, 18 May 2010