Vote to ban minarets wasn’t necessarily Islamophobic (it says here)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SVP anti-minaret posterJoan Smith offers her profound thoughts on the result of the Swiss referendum:

“I don’t doubt that some people voted for the ban for racist reasons, but damning them all as ‘Islamophobes’ is an attempt to suppress entirely reasonable arguments about the role of religion in secular modern societies. Tariq Ramadan doesn’t use the word in his polemic but he does claim without qualification that ‘voters were drawn to the cause by a manipulative appeal to popular fears and emotions’.

“Corralling a wide range of people, many of whom disagree profoundly with each other, under one great Islamophobic umbrella is a familiar tactic but it’s not conducive to civilised discussion. If the debate about the powers demanded and enjoyed by religion – all of them, not just Islam – pops up in distorted forms in European countries, it is as much the responsibility of religious apologists such as Ramadan as it is the racist right….

“Any notion of universal human rights recognises the right of individuals to practise their religion, but that isn’t incompatible with believing that religion is divisive and seeks to exercise unelected power…. If you take that position, it’s perfectly reasonable to believe that public displays of religious symbols should be kept to a minimum, whether they take the form of crucifixes or hijabs. As Ian Traynor reports in today’s Guardian, the proposed ban on minarets in Switzerland received ‘substantial support on the left and among secularists worried about the status of women in Islamic cultures’.”

Comment is Free, 30 November 2009

Cf. Sholto Byrne’s comments on his New Statesman God Blog. He too notes left-wing and secularist support for the minaret ban, and observes that “it is part of the paradox of Western liberalism that its pluralism only extends so far, and that it is essentially intolerant of anything that does not stem from its own ‘definitive’ culture”.

Feminist support for Swiss minaret ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SVP campaigns for ban on minaretsA right-wing campaign to outlaw minarets on mosques in a referendum being held in Switzerland today has received an unlikely boost from radical feminists arguing that the tower-like structures are “male power symbols” and reminders of Islam’s oppression of women.

A “stop the minarets” campaign has provoked ferment in the land of Heidi, where women are more likely than men to vote for the ban after warnings from prominent feminists that Islam threatens their rights.

Forget about tranquil Alpine scenery and cowbells: one of the most startling features of the referendum campaign has been a poster showing a menacing woman in a burqa beside minarets rising from the Swiss flag. It seems to have struck a nerve in Langenthal, a small town near Bern where Muslims plan to put up a minaret next to their prayer room in a bleak former paint factory.

“If we give them a minaret, they’ll have us all wearing burqas,” said Julia Werner, a local housewife. “Before you know it, we’ll have sharia law and women being stoned to death in our streets. We won’t be Swiss any more.”

A spoof video game on the internet called Minaret Attack shows minarets popping up all over the idyllic Swiss countryside, after which a message proclaims: “Game over! Switzerland is covered in minarets. Vote to ban them on November 29.”

Socialist politicians have been furious to see icons of the left joining what is regarded as an anti-immigrant campaign by the populist Swiss People’s party, the biggest group in parliament. One of them, Julia Onken, warned that failure to ban minarets would be “a signal of the state’s acceptance of the oppression of women”. She has sent out 4,000 emails attacking Muslims who condone forced marriage, honour killings and beating women.

Sunday Times, 29 November 2009

Vigil at Manchester cemetery after Muslim graves damaged

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A vigil is to be held at Manchester’s Southern Cemetery after Muslim graves were desecrated for the third time in two months. The Unite Against Fascism peace vigil is due to take place at the cemetery on Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton at 1400 GMT.

Police are treating the latest attack, which happened between 20 and 23 November and left about 20 graves damaged, as racially-motivated. Headstones were also damaged on 29 September and again three days later.

Mark Krantz, from the Chorlton Unite Against Fascism group, said: “This attack is designed to hurt the living. It is meant to bring hurt, hatred, and division. Our response will be to build unity and solidarity.”

Rev Sarah Brewerton, from Chorlton Central Church, added that she hoped the vigil would show a united front against racism. “When you go to visit loved ones at a grave you are already in a distressed state. Even worse to then find the desecration,” she said. “We’re hoping to gain some act of solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters in the community here in Manchester, but also as a statement that this is totally unacceptable behaviour.”

BBC News, 29 November 2009

Swiss voters back ban on minarets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SVP racist posterSwiss voters defied their Government and churches today and approved a ban on building minarets — reflecting an alarming hostility to a rising Muslim minority.

Fifty-seven per cent of voters in a referendum supported the direct democracy initiative, which ensured international embarrassment for Switzerland and a backlash in the Muslim world, upon which the country depends for exports.

A big majority of the 27 cantons supported the right-wing inspired move, with opposition strongest in the German-speaking part of the country, according to initial results. In Geneva, home to United Nations agencies, the voters rejected the initiative by nearly 60 per cent. Turnout was 53 per cent, a relatively low figure by the standards of Swiss democracy. Opponents of the measure saw this as a reflection of apathy among many voters who would not have approved of the ban.

The referendum was initiated by the nationalist Swiss People’s Party (SVP), the largest group in the federal Parliament, after residents opposed the construction of a minaret in Langenthal, north of Berne.

The “yes” is the latest act by European voters in support of anti-immigrant parties after electoral successes over the past decade by far-right groups in Austria, the Netherlands and France. A jubilant SVP insisted that the vote had nothing to do with intolerance, only with the imposition of Islamic politics and culture.

Ulrich Schlüer, an SVP parliamentarian who drafted the initiative, told The Times that he had been certain of victory because the Swiss had had enough of the Muslim community. “We are still at the beginning of the process. We compare our situation to Germany, France or England – the problems they have in their suburbs,” he said. “That is what we do not want here.”

Times, 29 November 2009

Meanwhile, the fascist BNP applauds Swiss voters for having taken “a daring and dramatic stand against the Islamic colonisation of their country”.

Lord Pearson plays the Islam card to win leadership of UKIP

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pearson with Pamela GellerA millionaire peer was elected leader of the UK Independence Party yesterday after putting “the growing threat of Islamism” and curbing immigration at the heart of his campaign. Lord Pearson of Rannoch, who defected from the Conservatives two years ago, comfortably beat four rivals to assume command of the anti-European Union party.

Lord Pearson, one of two Ukip peers, has protested that the “political class” is complacent about Islamism and claimed that some of “our people” were “strangers in our own land”. The 67-year-old former insurance broker invited the right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders in February to screen a controversial film about radical Islam. He has called for a zero net increase in immigration, arguing that the issue was the main concern for many voters.

Independent, 28 November 2009

Pearson has an admirer in Damian Thompson, who writes: “You may think that Ukip’s new focus on the Islamification of parts of Britain is a dangerous strategy. And so it would be, if the party was in other hands. But Lord Pearson is still essentially a libertarian Tory: he would never stoop to sending out dog whistles to wavering BNP racists. His campaign against uncontrolled immigration and Sharia will be rooted in a defence of liberal democracy of the sort that other parties are too gutless to make.”

The photo is of Pearson with another admirer, mad US Islamophobe Pamela Geller, who has hailed his election as “great news“.

BNP incites hatred over St Albans mosque plan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Vicious leaflets aimed at keeping a mosque out of London Colney have been referred to the police’s harm reduction unit.

Police are now examining the British National Party (BNP) leaflets headed up “Do you want to live under an oppressive Islamic Sharia government?” as a possible incitement to racial hatred. The leaflets were delivered to homes in London Colney claiming a planning application to turn Cemex House in Barnet Road into a mosque ousewas part of a wider plot to turn St Albans into an Islamic city.

The man behind the leaflets is Danny Seabrook, 36, a divorced self-employed builder who lives in London Colney. He stood as a county council candidate for the BNP recently in Watford. He denies incitement to racial hatred saying the leaflets are “factual and to the point”. He went on: “A mosque would be out of keeping in the village. St Albans is a Christian city. You give an inch and they take a mile. They’ll have minarets up there next.”

Some of the propagandist language used in the leaflet includes accusations that politicians pander to Islamists’ every demand and the majority of residents want to keep the area as it is now.

County Cllr for London Colney, Chris Brazier, said: “This is detestable and I don’t think there would have been this reaction if the plan was to turn it into a Christian church. The BNP do seem to be targeting London Colney since they picked up 200 votes in the recent county council elections.”

Cllr Brazier conceded that he had received almost 100 letters from residents opposing the plans on legitimate planning grounds including traffic fears, narrowness of the access road, insufficient parking and noise. He maintained there was no suggestion of racism in any of the moderately-worded letters.

He said the application had aroused fears that such a large mosque would attract significant numbers of visitors from outside the area, raising traffic and parking issues for residents.

But Peter Trevelyan, acting for the London Colney Islamic Group which has submitted the application, said: “Having been frustrated in its search for suitable premises, the local community currently uses the parish meeting room on White Horse Lane once a week for Friday prayers. The main hall is small and inconvenient in shape and, with 50 people present, is cramped and over-crowded.”

He said prayers would take place five times a day but the principal focus for prayer would be at 1pm on Fridays when attendance varied between 40 and 50 men and a handful of women. The majority would walk to the site from homes and employment nearby.

But council officers have recommended to a planning meeting on Monday that the scheme should be approved because there would be adequate off street parking and no acceptable harm to highway safety or the free and safe flow of traffic.

Herts Advertiser, 28 November 2009

Via Lancaster Unity

Why Conservatives failed the test on Islamic schools

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Writing in the Independent, Richard Garner explains how the Tory leader’s attack on the Government has unravelled.

In the Sun, Ken Livingstone comments:

“Devious David Cameron blundered in smearing two Muslim schools as training grounds for terrorists. Encouraged by his swivel-eyed schools adviser, Michael Gove, he thought he could get a few votes by whipping up fear of Islam. What the Tories must realise is that the Muslims who left the villages of Pakistan and Bangladesh to come here and work did so because they wanted their kids to grow up with our traditions of democracy, law and fair play. All the opinion polls show British Muslims are as loyal to Britain and its values as those of us who have been here for 1,000 years. Our media should stop giving publicity to the few mad mullahs and their handful of followers. They no more represent British Muslims than 1999 nailbomber David Copeland represented the mass of decent and tolerant Brits.”

Muslim students beaten for defending woman wearing hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An 18-year-old Muslim student was attacked and beaten even after he lost consciousness by a gang of white youths on November 6. As they attacked him, they shouted “Where is your Allah now” and “Where is He to help you now.”

The first year business and computer undergraduate student had just left De Montfort University, Leicester, library with his friend at around 8.30 pm when they were attacked by around 10 white youths in Great Central Way, near the junction with Briton Street, Bede Island. The two students, Ahmed and Umar, (not their real name as they wish to remain anonymous) saw the gang taunting and abusing a Muslim woman wearing the hijab. She was with two other women who had gone ahead of her.

Ahmed told The Muslim News that he and Umar heard the gang tell the middle aged woman, “How do you like it if I walked in a balaclava. This is England. You should not be wearing a scarf.” They were concerned about what would happen to the Muslim woman and so they waited. One of the white youths turned towards them and asked them why were they were watching them. “I told them, ‘Leave her alone’.”

The woman tried to tell the white youths not to attack the students but they didn’t listen. The white youths assaulted Ahmed and Umar, and began beating them. Ahmed fell down and the gang continued to punch and kick him even after he was unconscious. They “jumped” on his head and kicked his body. He was picked up and thrown on to the ground.

Ahmed said the attack was “Islamophobic as they were talking about her scarf and also when they told me ‘Where is your Allah’ is to do with religion. How did they know we were Muslims? We could have been Sikhs for all they know.” Umar said the attack was both Islamophobic and racist as they had also shouted “Pakis”. He was “very angry” and said he never experienced racism in East London where he was from.

Muslim News, 27 November 2009

See also the comment piece by Kawsar Zaman, vice-chair of the MCB’s Youth Committee, “Can the BBC shirk its responsibility if anti-Muslim attacks increase?”

Islamophobes are front-runners in UKIP leadership contest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lord Pearson and WildersThe UK Independence Party is set to head in a fresh direction, fighting radical Islam, with the election today of a replacement for Nigel Farage as its national leader. The two favourites to take over from Mr Farage are committed to adding the battle against Islamic fundamentalism to the party’s main goal of withdrawing Britain from the European Union.

Mr Farage resisted strong grassroots pressure during his three-year leadership to broaden UKIP’s focus to include actively campaigning against Islamism and immigration. But both Lord Pearson of Rannoch and the London MEP Gerard Batten – the two front-runners in a field of five candidates – say that they are determined to target Islamic fundamentalism.

Lord Pearson invited the anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders to the House of Lords in February only for Jacqui Smith, then the Home Secretary, to issue a banning order so that Mr Wilders was turned away at Heathrow. The Dutchman travelled to Britain in October after overturning the ban.

Lord Pearson’s own outspoken views about Islam were recorded in Washington DC last month. Asked how much time Britain had before losing control of its cultural identity he said: “What is going to decide the answer to that is the birthrate. The fact that Muslims are breeding ten times faster than us. I do not know at what point they reach such a number that we are no longer able to resist the rest of their demands … but if we do not do something now within the next year or two we have in effect lost.”

Mr Batten, 55, has also invited Mr Wilders to speaking engagements and has called the Dutch politician “a brave man trying to defend western civilisation”. This year, writing in the magazine Freedom Today, Mr Batten addressed the notion of the confrontation of Islamism and the West. “It is a clash between civilisation and barbarism. It is a clash between everything that has made the modern world what it is and an ideology that wants to enslave us to a belief system that belongs in seventh-century Arabia and which was primitive and backward even then.”

Times, 27 November 2009

Media double standards over Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tabloid Watch examines two recent examples:

Yesterday, a man admitted 22 charges, including six under the Terrorism Act, after 54 homemade ball-bearing and nail bombs were found in his West Yorkshire home, along with guns, ammunition and weapons manuals. The charges included:

  • four counts of making explosives
  • four counts of possessing explosives
  • three counts of manufacturing prohibited weapons
  • four counts of possession of prohibited weapons
  • one count of possession of ammunition without a certificate.

Now it doesn’t take a genius to work out that if this man was Muslim, this would be all over the media. But he isn’t and so, apart from three Yorkshire papers, it hasn’t been mentioned at all. By contrast, this Muslim woman only had a memory stick with explosives manuals on and the Mail reported that. But they ignored this.

And the reports from Hope Not Hate and Searchlight that this bombmaker (Terence Gavan) was also a member of the BNP should only heighten the news interest. Or so you would have thought…

At the start of October, this blog noted the desecration of Muslim graves in Southern Cemetery in Manchester. Although covered by the BBC, it was ignored by everyone else in the mainstream media.

Now, the BBC are reporting the graveyard has been targeted for a third time, as 20 headstones were pushed over. The BBC says: “Det Ch Insp Steve Eckersley called it ‘mindless racist behaviour’ that was being treated as a hate crime. On 29 September, 26 Muslim headstones were vandalised and three days later 27 were targeted.”

So at what point does this become news to the newspapers? Or is it because the targets are Muslims that it never does?