French police fine Muslim driver for wearing veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A French Muslim woman has been fined for wearing a full-face veil while driving a car. Police in the western city of Nantes said the veil – which showed only her eyes – restricted her vision and could have caused an accident. The woman’s lawyer says they will appeal against the decision, which he described as a breach of human rights.

After stopping the 31-year-old woman – who has not been named – police asked her to raise her veil to confirm her identity, which she did. They then fined her 22 euros ($29; £19), saying her clothing posed a “safety risk”.

“This fine is not justified on road safety grounds and constitutes a breach of human and women’s rights,” her lawyer, Jean-Michel Pollono, told AFP news agency. He said the woman’s field of vision was not obstructed and added that a veil was no different from a motorcycle helmet in terms of hindrance to vision. He said he had formally complained to the state prosecutor. “The ball is clearly in the authorities’ court,” he said. “Currently no law forbids the wearing of the niqab.”

BBC News, 23 April 2010

BNP under fire over anti-Islamic leaflet

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A rabbi has branded an election leaflet put out by the British National Party as “blatantly Islamaphobic”. The leaflets have been sent to Jewish voters showing people dressed in Islamic clothing performing Nazi salutes and holding banners bearing anti-Semitic claims such as “God Bless Hitler”.

Rabbi David Hulbert, of Bet Tikvah Synagogue, Newbury Park, and a member of the borough’s Three Faiths Forum, which is a coalition between Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities, said: “It’s blatantly Islamaphobic. I really don’t think they will be picking up many votes from the Jewish community here.”

BNP Cllr Julian Leppert, who is hoping to regain his council seat for Hainault and is also standing as an MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, said the images on the leaflet were designed to be attention grabbing. He said: “We’re using this election to bury some of the myths about the British National Party. If you read the Jewish press, they are still banging on about the same old rubbish, saying we’re Nazis.”

Ilford Recorder, 23 April 2010

Well, you can understand how the Jewish press might come to that conclusion, can’t you?

Muslim girl’s headscarf divides Spain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pressure was mounting in Spain on Friday to resolve the case of a Muslim girl who was expelled from school because she started wearing the Islamic headscarf in class.

Najwa Malha, 16, a Spaniard of Moroccan origin, would not accept to go to another school which admits headscarves, her father Mohammed Malha told the daily El Pais. The governing board of the school in Pozuelo de Alarcon near Madrid recently confirmed the school’s earlier decision not to admit Najwa to class unless she took her scarf off.

Three of Najwa’s classmates, who were also Muslims, started wearing the hijab to show their solidarity with her. But the girls have now removed the scarves for fear of being attacked, after anti-Islamic stickers appeared and were removed from the school gates, reports said.

An internet support forum for Najwa has collected hundreds of signatures while the human rights group Amnesty International also sided with her. Islamic associations have called protests and pledged to take the case to courts.

Najwa’s case has divided politicians, with the governing Socialists generally stressing the need for tolerance and dialogue, while some politicians in the ranks of the opposition conservatives described the hijab as a sign of discrimination against women. Children’s right to education was more important than anything else, Education Minister Angel Gabilondo said, describing the hijab as a “sign of a particular identity which does not attack others.”

Earth Times, 23 April 2010

BNP will end ‘the Islamic colonisation of Britain’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Under the heading “Counter Jihad: Confronting the Islamic Colonisation of Britain”, the British National Party’s 2010 election manifesto features the following policies:

• The BNP is implacably opposed to the Labour/Tory regime’s mass immigration policies which, if left unchecked, will see Britain and most of Europe colonised by Islam within a few decades.

• The BNP believes that the historical record shows that Islam is by its very nature incompatible with modern secular western democracy.

• The BNP will ban the burka, ritual slaughter and the building of further mosques in Britain.

• The BNP believes that there should be absolutely no further immigration from any Muslim countries, as it presents one of the most deadly threats yet to the survival of our nation.

• We propose the immediate deportation of all radical Islamist preachers, those proven to have attended any of their inflammatory sermons, and any other members of their community who object to these reasonable security measures.

Update:  The BNP’s manifesto does have an admirer, though – Sean Gabb of the Libertarian Alliance, who declares his support for the fascists’ policies on “climate change, Europe, guns, smoking, multiculturalism, taxation, and so forth”. Gabb writes: “I think the time has come to stop denouncing the BNP for what it used to be saying, or for its alleged hidden agenda, and to start looking at what it is saying now.”

Gabb, you may recall, was one of the featured speakers at the so-called March for Free Expression in 2006, along with Peter Tatchell and Maryam Namazie.

Nick Clegg says ‘Let Islam prayer call ring’ – Express attacks Lib Dem leader

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Lib Dem leader is in favour of mosques being able to broadcast calls to prayer from loudspeakers in towns and cities across Britain. He says the Islamic “muezzin” cry should be ­allowed to ring out just like Christian church bells. He described it as “a joyful thing”.

Mr Clegg spoke out two years ago after the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, told of a “creeping” Islamification of Britain. He also admitted that he was not a practising Christian. Tory MP Mark Pritchard said his views were “disturbing” for “someone who seeks to lead a country based on Judaeo-Christian principles”.

Daily Express, 23 April 2010

See also ENGAGE, 23 April 2010

Virginia stamps out license to hate: plate with coded racist message is recalled

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Racist truck

The owner of a Ford truck bearing the license plate 14CV88 will have to find a new message after the DMV on Wednesday canceled its earlier approval of that series of letters and numbers.

A photo of the truck hit the Web a few days ago, went viral on car and other blogs and finally came to the attention of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group for American Muslims. On Wednesday morning, the group complained to the DMV that the plate contained a white supremacist and neo-Nazi statement.

Continue reading →

Is anything too far in Fox’s relentless crusade against Islam?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Media Matters poses the question.

On today’s edition of Fox & Friends, evangelist Rev. Franklin Graham, son of Rev. Billy Graham, appeared on the show to discuss reports that the Army is considering rescinding its invitation for Graham to appear at the Pentagon on the National Day of Prayer, due to objections over Graham’s past controversial comments about Islam.

During his Fox & Friends appearance, Franklin certainly proved those who objected to his invitation’s point. He claimed that he “loves the Muslim people” and just wanted them to “know what I know.” What he knows, apparently is that “Christ can come into their heart and change them, and they can have the hope of eternal life, salvation. I want them to know that they don’t have to die in a car bomb, they don’t have to die in some holy war to be accepted by God, but it’s through faith in Jesus Christ and Christ alone.”

And, he was just getting started. Graham also said he just wanted people who were “enslaved by Islam” to know that they could be “free through faith in Jesus Christ and Christ alone.” Graham preached all of this on a news network (sort of), so, as you can imagine, the “Fair and Balanced” host of this show was outraged that someone would think they could appear on the show, proselytize, and attack Islam and Muslims.

Nope! Instead, host Gretchen Carlson wondered if reports that the Army is reconsidering its invitation, coupled with a judge’s ruling that the National Prayer Day was unconstitutional was evidence of an “assault against Christianity, against prayer.”

Update:  See “Ask Pentagon to drop anti-Islam speaker”, CAIR action alert, 22 April 2010

Student Islamic societies are radical, not extremist

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“I was radicalised by my student Islamic society (Isoc). It started as an innocent means through which to meet down-to-earth and like-minded people. Then we started to break fast together in the prayer room, one thing led to another and before I knew it, I was raising money for orphans and contributing to interfaith campaigns.”

FOSIS president Faisal Hanjra at Comment is Free, 22 April 2010

Amnesty: Belgium full face veil ban would breach international law

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Amnesty International has urged the Belgian Parliament not to pass a draft law which would prohibit the wearing of full face veils anywhere in public as the country’s Chamber of Deputies prepares to vote on the issue on 22 April 2010.

“A general ban on the wearing of full face veils would violate the rights to freedom of expression and religion of those women who choose to express their identity or beliefs in this way,” said Claudio Cordone, Amnesty International’s Interim Secretary General.

Amnesty International news release, 22 April 2010

Faith groups speak with one voice against far-right ahead of general election

Posted on by Bob Pitt

With racism and hatred manifesting itself so starkly recently in the form of anti-Muslim hatred, Islamophobia and xenophobia, the Muslim Council of Britain today voiced its support for the following pledge:

“With the approach of the General Election we are all too aware of those political forces who would seek to divide our country by promoting ideologies of racism and prejudice. We are immensely proud of the fundamentally British characteristics of equality, respect and fairness and of British society’s uncompromising rejection of the demonisation of any group, whether religious, ethnic or otherwise.

“We therefore urge every British citizen to use their vote to support any party of their choice which stands opposed to the destructive politics of hatred, to vote for freedom not fear, partnerships not prejudice, and hope not hate.”

This pledge is pertinent now when there is a very real prospect that far-right parties – emboldened by their hatred of Muslims and others – may make significant electoral gains at the General Election.

The pledge unites organisations from across all of British society, including a range of faith-based and minority community bodies. It brings together people of diverse religious affiliations and political persuasions to deliver a clear message to those that seek to divide and cause conflict between people because of their religion, culture or ethnicity: we are united in our opposition to the politics of hate.

MCB press release, 22 April 2010