Hutaree Christian militia, not an isolated phenomenon

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“It is obvious that the Hutaree are not an isolated case of specifically militia terrorism and violence. It is also obvious that terrorism generally is not a Muslim only phenomenon. Extremists of any stripe are dangerous and should be arrested if they break the law. If the criminals arrested are Christian, that is not an attack on the Christian faith. Plotting to kill policemen is not an issue of free speech. There is a lot of evidence of non-Muslim terrorism.”

Sheila Musaji at The American Muslim, 18 April 2010

Green Scare: the making of the new Muslim enemy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Deepa Kumar argues that the US has seen “a new turn in Islamophobia and the politics of fear that has striking parallels with the Red Scare of the Cold War. Like the Red Scare, this new ‘Green Scare’ (green referring here to Islam, as opposed to environmental activists) also attempts to promote fear and suspicion of our friends, neighbors and co-workers.”

MRZine, 15 April 2010

Support grows for Aylesbury May Day carnival against racism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Support grows for Aylesbury May Day carnival against racism

Aylesbury May Day Carnival Against Racism Organising Committee press release, 16 April 2010

Support for the Aylesbury Carnival Against Racism to be held on May 1st to challenge the ideas of the English Defence League received a boost in support this week when Cllr Ranjula Takodra, Aylesbury’s Town Mayor, Rt Revd Alan Wilson Bishop of Buckingham and Rabbi Rachel Benjamin joined the growing list of supporters.

The numbers involved in organising the carnival has also grown, with more individuals from Aylesbury’s Muslim and youth communities joining with delegates from the Aylesbury Interfaith Group, Justice4Paps and civil servant (PCS), shop workers (USDAW), teaching (NUT) and postal (CWU) unions who have also brought substantial financial support to the campaign launched by Bucks health branch of UNISON that represents healthworkers.

It was clear at last night’s organising committee that many people in Aylesbury oppose the English Defence League descending on the town to promote their racist views and want to take action against this. The carnival is aimed to focus this opposition in a peaceful celebration of international diversity with a clear message that racism in Aylesbury will not go unchallenged and that the EDL’s ideas are not representative of Bucks people.

Kate Douglas, branch secretary of Oxon and Bucks PCS (DWP) who chaired the meeting said: “We do not believe people should be intimidated off the streets of Aylesbury by the EDL on May Day. We want to see an outpouring of support from the local community with schools, youth groups, campaigns and trade unions making and bring their banners with their messages of solidarity and slogans against racism. Trade unions especially should come out as it is also International Workers Day when unions traditionally stand in solidarity with the oppressed.”

An indication of the growing support in the local community was also seen last Saturday when thousands of leaflets were handed out to a welcoming public with people taking bundles to hand out in their communities. Volunteers at last night’s meeting took on to approach local MPs and councillors and to leaflet youth groups, colleges, community centres and workplaces calling for them to speak out against racism.

Organisers plan the for day to be a colourful contrast to the EDL’s march. Julie Simmons from Love Music Hate Racism said: “We have rap artists, DJs, MCs, bands and solo artists performing for free because they believe passionately that racism must never go unchallenged. We are confident our event will be a vibrant celebration of our many cultures through the fusion of many types of music with speeches from community representatives.”

One area of contention is whether the EDL or the Carnival Against Racism will go ahead in market Square. Carnival organisers have rejected the police suggestion that both events be held in the same place for safety reasons. Yet the carnival organisers do not see why the unrepresentative EDL should be given the keys to the town while Aylesbury people opposed to racism are denied a licence.

Continue reading →

Three men cautioned over racist response to a proposed new mosque in Weston-super-Mare

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Three men have been cautioned by police for their part in a mass bigoted response to a proposed new mosque in Weston.

The Weston men, aged 20, 22 and 23, received the punishment on March 31 after sending racist letters objecting to a Muslim Centre in Orchard Street. Authority planners had alerted police to more than 150 prejudiced letters received in opposition to applicant Weston Islamic Centre’s plan last October.

This week centre member Rafiq Islam welcomed the punishment, adding it sent out the “right message”.

Continue reading →

Why Tariq Ramadan has come to Canada – to organise a ‘fifth column against Western civilization’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tariq Ramadan 5MONTREAL — This charming, erudite Muslim scholar is secretly out to destroy the free world. That pretty much sums up the message critics of Tariq Ramadan sent Thursday at a press conference on the eve of two lectures by the controversial Oxford University professor at the Palais des Congrès.

“Tariq Ramadan has come here to make sure our children become the fifth column against Western civilization,” Tarek Fatah, founder of the Canadian Muslim Congress, told the conference organized by Point de Bascule, a group opposed to Islamic fundamentalism.

On his last visit in November, the organizers of Thursday’s press conference sponsored a full-page advertisement in Le Devoiraccusing Ramadan of hiding his true views on Muslim fundamentalism behind a facade of moderation. That didn’t stop more than 800 people from attending the sold-out speech.

Update:  Cf. the report of Professor Ramadan’s speech in the Montreal Gazette, 16 April 2010

Further update:  See also “Tariq Ramadan, ‘stealth jihadist’, exposed!”, LoonWatch, 16 April 2010

Vandals attack Eccles and Salford Mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Eccles mosque attackedVandals carried out two attacks in one night on a mosque. They were captured on camera as they removed fencing and threw bricks through the windows.

The vandalism is the latest in a spate of racially-motivated attacks on the premises in Liverpool Road, Eccles. CCTV cameras were installed after a break-in 2006 when intruders caused extensive damage.

Ali Anees, chairman of the Eccles and Salford Mosque, said:

“We have had problems regularly. In March, someone threw paint over the outside of the mosque and wrote graffiti. Then at about 2am last Saturday two men got into the grounds. One is on film throwing bricks which had been taken from a wall of a neighbouring building. They attacked the building twice in about 20 minutes. Three sections of the windows were smashed and bricks were found inside the office of the mosque. We had another incident in March when eggs were thrown at people leaving the mosque by people driving past.

“After a lot of damage was caused in 2006, we had people come forward to help us and in the last two years we have spent £425,000 on new buildings. We have up to 500 members and they are very angry about the attacks. We want the culprits caught.”

One vandal is seen to hurl at least five bricks through windows and temporary fencing is pulled down. Det Chief Insp Bill McGreavy, of Salford Police, said: “We are treating these incidents very seriously and believe they are racially aggravated. Anyone with information should contact us.”

Manchester Evening News, 16 April 2010

Spain – student banned from school for wearing hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Najwa MalhaA 16-year-old schoolgirl has been banned from classes in Spain after refusing to remove her Islamic headscarf, re-igniting the national debate over the hijab.

Najwa Malha, who was born is Spain to Moroccan immigrants, has been excluded from classes at the state-run Camilo Jose Cela School in the Madrid suburb of Pozuelo after being told that her hijab was in violation of school dress code.

The decision has sparked debate in Spain where there are no clear guidelines over the wearing of Islamic headdress in state schools. The enforcement of dress codes is left up to individual school boards but previous cases of exclusion have been overturned by the state with the argument that the constitutional right to an educational overrides the school’s right to determine its own policies.

“I feel totally discriminated against,” said Miss Malha, who said she began wearing the hijab two months ago as an expression of her religious belief. Her father, Mohamed, told Spanish newspaper El Pais that he had originally objected to his daughter wearing the hijab to school. “I asked her to reconsider […] because I figured it would cause her problems,” he said.

Last November, a Muslim lawyer was ejected from Spain’s national court, where she was defending a client, because she refused to remove her headscarf.

Daily Telegraph, 16 April 2010

Update:  See also Bikya Masr, 19 April 2010

Far right candidate contests Austrian presidential election on anti-Islam platform

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Barbara RosenkranzAustrians will go to the polls April 25 to vote for president after a volatile campaign that focused in part on right-wing extremism and raised the ghosts of Austria’s Nazi past.

Incumbent President Heinz Fischer, a Social Democrat, is expected to win a landslide victory over his main rival, Barbara Rosenkranz, a regional leader of the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), which once was led by the late Jöerg Haider.

Rosenkranz, a 51-year-old mother of 10, entered the race in early March in a bid many experts saw as a test for the Freedom Party’s staunchly anti-immigrant, law-and-order, anti-European Union platform ahead of regional elections later this year. The wife of a key longtime member of a now banned neo-Nazi party, Rosenkranz quickly sparked an outcry over ambiguous statements about the Holocaust and criticism of Austria’s tough 1947 anti-Nazi law.

Immigrants and Muslims, rather than Jews, are the main target of the Freedom Party’s rhetoric. About 500,000 Muslims live in Austria, and the party campaigns under slogans such as “The West is for Christians” and “Homeland instead of Islam.” Still, Jews also feel targeted. In March, vandals defaced the Mauthausen concentration camp, where more than 100,000 people were killed, with staunch anti-Jewish and anti-Turkish graffiti.

The Freedom Party’s outspoken leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, said his party’s views were justified by a poll last week showing that 54 percent of Austrians believe that Islam poses “a threat for the West and our familiar lifestyle.”

JWeekly, 15 April 2010

Afghan women condemn European plans to ban veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A firm believer in women’s rights, the only thing Afghan lawmaker Shinkai Karokhail finds as appalling as being forced to wear a burqa is a law banning it.

Karokhail is one of many Afghan women who see a double standard in efforts by some European nations to outlaw face veils and burqas – a move they say restricts a Muslim woman’s choice in countries that otherwise make a fuss about personal rights.

“Democratic countries should not become dictatorships and Muslim women should not be deprived from all kinds of opportunities. It should be their choice,” said Karokhail. “Otherwise, what is the difference between forcing women to wear a burqa and forcing them not to? It is discrimination.”

Even one of Afghanistan’s most outspoken and controversial women, former lawmaker Malalai Joya, is a staunch opponent of efforts to ban burqas or tight headscarves called hijabs.

“As much as I am against imposing the hijab on women, I am also against its total ban. It should be regarded a personal matter of every human being and it should be up to women if they prefer to wear it or not,” she told Reuters by email. “It is against the very basic element of democracy to restrict a human being from wearing the clothes of his/her choice.”

Reuters, 16 April 2010

Bus company removes Spencer-Geller anti-Islam ad

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SIOA ad

Miami-Dade Transit is pulling advertisements from 10 buses that South Florida Muslims have said are offensive to Islam.

The ads, which went up Tuesday, said “Fatwa on your head? Is your community or family threatening you?” and directed Muslims to a website encouraging them to leave Islam.

Robert Spencer, who heads New York-based Stop the Islamization of America, which purchased the ads for one-month as the first leg of a national campaign, said they were “offered in defense of religious liberty.”

But on Thursday, Miami-Dade Transit spokeswoman Karla Damian said that after reviewing the ads, the department decided they “may be offensive to Islam” and would remove them before the buses ran on Friday.

Damian said the ads were able to initially go up because Miami-Dade Transit has an outside company sell ad space and does not routinely review ads before they run.

The South Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations had critiqued the ads as promoting “bigotry” and making false statements about Islam.

“Islam guarantees freedom to and freedom from religion…. [We] reject as un-Islamic any extremist interpretation that sanctions the killing of any individual because she decided to ‘leave Islam’,” said director Muhammed Malik.

Miami Herald, 16 April 2010

See also “Miami-Dade Transit bows to Sharia, pulls religious liberty bus ads as ‘offensive to Islam'” at Jihad Watch, and “Miami Transit pulls SIOA ‘Leaving Islam’ ads: living under Sharia in the USA” at Atlas Shrugs.

Update:  Spencer and Geller have announced that they are suing Miami-Dade Transit for breach of contract and violation of their First Amendment rights.