From the life of St Peter

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tatchell No Islamic StateOver at Harry’s Place they’ve been celebrating Peter Tatchell’s success in bullying a small publisher into making a public apology for supposedly libelling him. The issue arose from criticisms of Tatchell made in the chapter “Gay Imperialism: Gender and Sexuality Discourse in the ‘War on Terror'” (pdf here) by Jin Haritaworn, Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem, from the book Out of Place: Interrogating Silences in Queerness/Raciality, published last year.

The publishers’ statement of apology is comprehensive, not to say grovelling. It concedes that the offending chapter “contains serious, defamatory untruths concerning Peter Tatchell”. Tatchell apparently “is not Islamophobic” and “the insinuation that he is anti-Muslim is untrue”. In fact, “Mr Tatchell has never criticised Muslims in general, only Muslim fundamentalists”.

The publishers say they now recognise that “the human rights work of Mr Tatchell and OutRage! is motivated by a sincere support for people struggle against tyranny and injustice, and has involved valuable assistance to many LGBT campaigners in the UK and worldwide…. Peter Tatchell was one of the first LGBT campaigners to reject a western-centred approach to LGBT human rights and, from the early 1970s, to campaign for LGBT human rights universally and internationally.”

Indeed, it would appear that Tatchell bestrides our world like a colossus:

“From the 1960s, he has been active in anti-imperialist solidarity campaigns, supporting the national liberation struggles of the peoples of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Oman, Nicaragua, Palestine, Western Sahara, East Timor and West Papua…. Mr Tatchell continues to campaign for the independence of the Western Sahara, Palestine and West Papua. He supports the struggles for democracy and human rights in Iran, Russia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Burma, Turkey, Columbia, Somaliland, Baluchistan, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Belarus and elsewhere.”

It is evident that the author of this statement would fully endorse the adulatory description of Tatchell, by David Toube at Harry’s Place, as a “brave and saintly man”. And that is hardly surprising, since the statement was obviously dictated by Tatchell himself. Those of us who regretfully decided long ago that Tatchell had degenerated into a self-promoting narcissistic parody of his former self can only conclude that our judgement was spot on.

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Feminists face off over the veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“You might notice that as this conflagration spreads, more and more conservatives – many of whom do not identify as feminists – are rushing in to stoke the fire. As they do, the discussion becomes less about defending women’s rights and more about supporting their ongoing culture war. That reminds me of a line from Wolf’s essay: ‘Ideological battles are often waged with women’s bodies as their emblems, and Western Islamophobia is no exception’.”

Tracy Clark-Flory examines the debate between Naomi Wolf and Phyllis Chesler.

Salon, 5 September 2009

EDL’s anti-Muslim provocation results in violent clashes in Birmingham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL in BirminghamOfficers were trying today to identify more people involved in violent scenes at a right-wing protest which resulted in dozens of arrests.

More than 30 people were arrested in Birmingham city centre yesterday when anti-fascist campaigners fought with supporters of a rally against Islamic fundamentalism by The English Defence League (EDL).

The disorder involved around 200 people and spilled on to the adjoining Bennetts Hill, a street lined with a number of pubs popular with shoppers. West Midlands Police said a group of more than 20 men were arrested on a bus in Digbeth High Street. Later a “significant” number of people were also detained from buses that left the Bennetts Hill area. They were taken into custody at stations across the city.

Earlier this week the force, along with Birmingham City Council, obtained an order from the Home Secretary banning protesters from the Bullring area of the city, under section 14a of the Public Order Act. Under the same legislation, Chief Constable Chris Sims passed an order restricting the protests to two locations – Lancaster Circus and Old Square.

But after meeting on Broad Street in the city’s entertainment district, demonstrators proceeded to New Street, around half a mile away, and trouble ensued.

Mail on Sunday, 6 September 2009

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French anti-Muslim backlash hurts Jews

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The backlash against Muslims in France demanding religious rights in the public sphere has also hit Jews, who feel that their own, similar requests are being treated increasingly negatively. “Things have got worse since more and more Muslims started pushing demands, sometimes with political motives. Now we’re compared to assertive pushy militants and our own requests are denied outright,” said Marc Djebali, vice president of the Jewish community of Sarcelles, a suburb north of Paris.

Jewish Chronicle, 4 September 2009

Mosque fear over pensioner attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Worshippers at a south London mosque today said they were living in fear after a brutal gang attack that left a pensioner fighting for life and two other men injured.

A 67-year-old Muslim, named locally as Ikram ul-Haq, is on life support in hospital after being attacked from behind as he stood with his five-year-old granddaughter outside the Idara-e-Jaaferiya Islamic centre in Tooting.

Today one of the other victims described how a gang of 20 teenagers in hoodies ambushed them outside the mosque, on Church Lane, as they emerged from a prayer session. Minicab driver Imdad Buhkari, 39, who was standing with another victim, who is in his 70s, said:

“They came down the road and about six of them broke off from the rest and surrounded the two of us. They asked me for the time. I said I don’t wear a watch and suddenly someone from behind punched me hard on the jaw. I was attacked from behind with no warning. Then they hit the old man, whose name is Atameer, and ran off.

“I went round the corner and I was shocked when I saw Ikram lying unconscious on the ground. He was bleeding from his mouth and ear. Now he is in a coma. The doctors want to turn off his life support machine but his family say no. It is terrible. Who would do such a thing?”

Evening Standard, 4 September 2009

Update:  See “Pensioner attacked in street dies”, BBC News, 7 September 2009

Mosque demonstration in Czech Republic fizzles

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A gathering of supporters of the extreme right National Party in Brno to distribute leaflets warning against what the party termed as “Islamization” was dismissed as a media ploy in the run up to the October election. Eight party followers met outside the Brno mosque just after 1 p.m. Aug. 29 to protest plans for the construction of a new mosque, though National Party official Jiří Gaudin denied there was ever meant to be a rally.

Munib Hasan, a spokesman for the Brno Muslim community, said last month that Muslims would like to have a larger building for prayer as the existing place of worship was no longer sufficient for their growing numbers.

“The Brno mosque has been here for years, and, now, we need a bigger space,” he said. “There haven’t been any problems so far, and I hope there won’t be any in the future … I don’t see a reason why anyone should be against a new mosque. There are a number of Muslims living here peacefully. I believe that the National Party is attempting to catch the media’s attention before the upcoming election.”

But Ivo Strejček, an ODS MEP, spoke out against the mosque on his Web site. “Absolutely not! Can you imagine building a Christian church in Tehran?” he said. “It is not the time to be politically correct, and it is necessary to acknowledge that our civilization is losing the battle with aggressive Islam. It is necessary to refuse the argument of European leftist madmen who proclaim the policy of multiculturalism. The building of mosques in Europe is the symbol of cultural war, which we are losing.”

Prague Post, 2 September 2009

Fitzpatrick calls for ‘crackdown on extremists’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Ban HateBan Hate Meetings Meetings”. That is the front-page headline in this week’s East London Advertiser.

The subheading is “MP urges crackdown on extremists”, and the paper reports that Jim Fitzpatrick has called on Oxford House, a community centre in Bethnal Green, to stop hiring out meeting rooms to a youth group called Young Muslim Cooperation, which he claims is “a front for extremists”.

The report states that Islam for the UK, a successor organisation to al-Muhajiroun, has held a couple of meetings at Oxford House, and the suggestion is that YMC too is an arm of Anjem Choudary’s organisation.

As it happens, this contributor to Islamophobia Watch has a far from libertarian stance when it comes to al-Muhajiroun. I think Ken Livingstone was right to ban them from holding their provocative demonstrations in Trafalgar Square, and in my view their notorious protest against British troops in Luton earlier this year should have been suppressed under the Public Order Act. If Oxford House has indeed allowed Islam for the UK to book meetings there, I think that was a mistake (even though the East London Advertiser comes up with no evidence that any meetings at the centre were in fact used to incite “hate”).

If Fitzpatrick was genuinely interested in constructively addressing this issue, however, then the solution would have been to approach the management at Oxford House and raise his concerns with them privately. Instead he has gone running to the press in search of yet another scaremongering headline.

Anyone who was inclined to take the charitable view that Fitzpatrick’s recent much-publicised walk-out from a gender-segregated wedding at the London Muslim Centre was just an example of clodhopping cultural insensitivity was obviously wrong. It now seems clear that Fitzpatrick has consciously launched a campaign aimed at whipping up a moral panic over Islamism in the East End.

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Tory blogger defends Western values

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“I bloody knew it! I had a feeling that this story didn’t quite ring true and – surprise, surprise – we learn today that Noor Ramjanally lied when he said that he had been abducted by two men, was bundled into a car boot, driven to Epping Forest and ordered to stop his religious work.

“These self-styled, unelected community leaders only continue to wield the power that they do by perpetuating stereotypes in their communities. For them no level of division is too great if it advances their politically correct, anti-integrationist victimological agenda. We saw it in the US (with tales highlighted by Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter proving that supposed racist attacks on jihadists at Gitmo (the Koran down the lavatory lie) and on campuses are routinely faked by leftists with warped political agendas to advance). Now we see it here.”

Donal Blaney offers a characteristically reasoned response to the arrest of Noor Ramjanally.

Blaney’s Blarney, 4 September 2009

You might have thought that the “Western values” Blaney is so enthusiastic about defending (at the cost of other people’s lives rather than his own, of course) would include the principle of being presumed innocent until proven guilty, but apparently not. But then, what can you expect from a man who declares his admiration for right-wing fruitcakes like Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter?

Update:  Blaney replies: “He owned up and admitted his guilt, dumbass!”

What a charming man. But the Daily Mail article to which Blaney links doesn’t state that Noor Ramjanally has admitted his guilt, nor does any other report that I’ve read. So how could “we learn today that Noor Ramjanally lied”? The most we know is that he has now been charged with perverting the course of justice.

US mayor forwarded anti-Muslim email

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mayor PiperClarksville Mayor Johnny Piper forwarded an e-mail this morning that urges “patriotic Americans” to protest a U.S. Postal Service stamp commemorating two Islamic holidays.

According to a copy of the e-mail obtained by The Leaf-Chronicle, Piper forwarded the e-mail, which had been forwarded several times previously, without comment. Piper sent the e-mail to every City Council member, every department head, and numerous other city employees, friends and family members.

The e-mail falsely claims that the stamp is new, and its creation was ordered by President Barack Obama. In fact, the stamp was first issued in 2001, and was reissued in 2002, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

The e-mail asks readers to remember a series of what it calls “Muslim” terrorist attacks. For example, “Remember the MUSLIM bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993!” After listing a series of similar comments, the e-mail concludes, “To use this stamp would be a slap in the face to all those AMERICANS who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors.”

Piper today defended forwarding the e-mail, saying he sent it on as “information,” for others to read and make their own conclusions about.

Leaf-Chronicle, 4 September 2009

Muslim woman barred from New Zealand court for wearing headscarf

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yasmeen AliYasmeen Ali was attempting to enter Hastings District Court on Tuesday to support her brother Carlos Manuel Brooking, 22, who was appearing for sentencing on a charge of assault.

Ms Ali, a 25-year-old mother-of-three, was asked by a court attendant to remove her headscarf on entering the courthouse. She refused and took a seat. When she tried to re-enter court after the morning break, she was blocked. She complained to the court manager, who told her she could not enter wearing a headscarf because the judge, Geoff Rea, had forbidden it.

Her brother had earlier been put into custody after refusing to remove a hat while sitting in court awaiting his sentencing, despite being requested to do so by Judge Rea.

Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres today called for reassurance for the Muslim community. ”I can’t imagine a nun being told to remove such attire, and the same should apply to others who wear head coverings for religious reasons, such as Muslims, Sikhs and Jews,” he said.

Judicial communications adviser Neil Billington said the incident was the result of Judge Rea’s “mistaken  assumption of what was occurring in the courtroom”.

“The judge required the removal of the woman because of her association with [her brother] who had just been removed. The judge had mistakenly assumed that her headgear was a demonstration of protest at the court.”

Dominion Post, 3 September 2009

See also 3News, 3 September 2009