Muslim woman ‘told to take off veil’ by bus driver in Australia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Khadijah Ouararhni-Grech was wearing a pink, floral niqab, which covers her hair and lower face, when she tried to board a bus in Greystanes, an outer suburb of the Astralian city.

“As I was stepping onto the bus the driver said ‘You can’t get on the bus wearing your mask’,” she told the Sydney Daily Telegraph newspaper. When she explained it was religious dress, the woman said the driver responded: “Sorry, it’s the law.”

“I told him it wasn’t the law and he said ‘You have to show me your face,'” she said. “I said to him, ‘There’s no difference between me and that lady sitting there who chooses to not wear what I’m wearing’.”

The bus company, Hillsbus, said the driver was being questioned over the claims.

Daily Telegraph, 24 July 2009

Martin Bright threatens legal action against ENGAGE

Posted on by Bob Pitt

martin_brightWriting on his Spectator blog, Martin Bright has threatened to sue ENGAGE over a piece they posted about his response to the MCB’s successful libel case against the BBC. (ENGAGE have understandably backed off in the face of Bright’s threats, and the piece now reads “Martin ‘The Great Koran Con Trick’ Bright criticises MCB libel win“.)

Bright objects to ENGAGE’s description of him as an “Islamophobe”. He writes:

“Under the disreputable headline ‘Veteran Islamophobe Martin Bright criticises MCB libel win’ an anonymous writer makes a seriesof unsubstantiated claims. I have already taken legal advice about this, although I wouldn’t have needed to do so to realise it is seriously defamatory. I object in the strongest terms to the way the insult ‘Islamophobe’ is thrown around so casually. It is essentially a charge of racism: the cheapest of shots and utterly without foundation….

“Should I take action against the Engage libel? As an anti-libel law campaigner it would provide an interesting moral conundrum. But it’s a serious defamation and my chances of success would be high.”

Oh yeah? Well, I can remember Bright telling a FOSIS conference at City Hall back in August 2005 that he had no problem being described as an Islamophobe – because, he said, there is a lot in Islam to be afraid of. He got himself booed, as you might expect. Around a hundred people were at the conference, so there is no lack of witnesses who can attest to this.

Here at Islamophobia Watch we have referred to Bright’s 2005 statement on numerous occasions, and on that basis we have described him as a “self-confessed Islamophobe“.

So if Bright would like to sue me – bring it on, I say. We might well consider a counter-claim against Bright himself over the piece in which he compared us to the notorious antisemite and Holocaust denier Michele Renouf.

Update:  For further comment on Bright’s double standards on defamation, see Sunny Hundal’s post “Is Martin Bright libelling Mehdi Hasan?” over at Pickled Politics.

The niqab, fact v fiction

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Fatima Barkatulla clears up misconceptions about the niqab.

Times, 22 July 2009

Not all of the paper’s readers are convinced. Some online comments:

“How can anyone but an absolute ignoramus justify wearing a mask bearing in mind the current dangers of terrorism from Muslims.”

“The niqab is a male-made obligation destined to show other men that ‘this female belongs to me’. Nothing else.”

“The reality is that in Britain, and Europe more generally, covering up women in this way is not accepted, it goes against both our traditions and standards…. In this country we pride ourselves on tolerence and fairness, and the problem is that there seems to be a clash between accomodating a religious practice and women’s rights.”

“The writer of this article should wake up – you can be subjugated and believe that you are exercising choice – this is the result of brainwashing.”

“You may wonder if Mrs Bartakulla is a brainwashed naive or an islamist propagandist. I think I know the answer.”

“You don’t want to comply with our culture in any way, whilst we are forced by the blind and stupid to pander to yours. You use it to control your women and push your intransigent religion on non-muslims.”

“If someone wants to wear the burqa, they have the right. I on the other hand also have to right to have nothing to do with them.”

“This is a western country with western culture and tradition and it’s about time people who choose to live her from other cultures showed some respect. The British people are far too tolerant and we get taken advantage of.”

“British and Western women must cherish their freedoms and not let foreign hostile beliefs do away with the freedoms that the Christian religion has given them.”

“As an atheist and an Englishman … I am saddened by the influence on my own culture of what I perceive as a socially backward faith…. Covering oneself is not ‘normal’ in my books and reveals an unhealthy mind. However many excuses are presented, it smacks of subjugation. To see the promotion and normalisation of such behaviour in The Times is both surreal and absurd…. tolerant though I consider myself to be, those who want a return to the Dark Ages can count me out.”

“… it is the basest form of ignorance which inflicts those rules on women and that is THE VERY REASON they should be OUTLAWED!!!”

“As a white man, how could [I] even become friends with a Muslim woman, who by wearing a burqa, straight away sends out a message of I do not want anything to do with you.”

Anti-Muslim bias in the media? Not according to Harry’s Place

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Harry's Place banner

“There’s a funny little spat going on. So last week Mehdi Hasan from the New Statesman wrote an article highlighting the different way the media treats a Muslim terrorist and a non-Muslim (far-right in this case) terrorist. Pretty obvious I thought. But Brett at Harry’s Place took umbrage on behalf of all people who feel white people are being victimised equally and there’s no bias obviously.

“I mean it’s not like there’s a media panic about Muslims is there? It’s not like there’s been stories of Muslim bus drivers chucking people off the bus so he could pray. Obviously there’s not been any on Muslims drawing up a hit-list of prominent Jews to get them back over Gaza. No one could ever imagine a story of Muslim youths attacking a soldier’s house after Afghanistan.

“You certainly would not believe that these stories would make the front page AND they turned out to be lies. That would never happen because our media is so balanced. Neither would you see prominent right-wing columnists writing about Eurabia and the ‘coming Muslim threat and all that’. Our press is the paragon of equal treatment to all nasty people. In group bias? That would never happen!”

Sunny Hundal at Pickled Politics, 22 July 2009

Sikh victims of crime can ask for own-faith officers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The BBC reports:

Sikh victims of crime in London are to be given the option of asking for a police officer of their own faith to work on their case. This new service from the Metropolitan Police (Met) aims to make use of the officers’ specialist knowledge of Punjabi culture to help with cases like forced marriage and so-called honour crime.

Officers within the Met have told the BBC Asian Network that crimes in the community have gone unsolved and unreported because of a lack of understanding of the culture by officers from a “white” background.

And how does the Daily Express report this story? Under the headline “Muslims could get own police“.

MCB libel win threatens ‘free speech’ claims Martin Bright

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ENGAGE replies to Bright, who writes: “There is a growing recognition that the libel laws are becoming an embarrassment to Britain. With large organisations consistently folding to the merest whiff of a threat from Carter Ruck, free speech (and the scientific principle) is seriously under threat. The latest to pay up is the BBC, which has just settled with the MCB’s ‘Secretary General’ Muhammad Abdul Bari.”

Defend multicultural Britain against the BNP

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Salma Yaqoob Respect“Today, it is anti-Muslim racism that is at the cutting edge of the fascist strategy. It is effective because it feeds on the suspicion and prejudice that is the theme of so much mainstream discussion of our lives as British Muslims.

“Its consequences are real. Already, there are signs that attacks on mosques and individual Muslims may be rising. The police are warning of the danger of far-right terrorism. And, earlier this month, we saw an openly racist provocation in Birmingham city centre, under the guise of a protest against ‘Islamic extremism’ – a label that the organiser made clear applied to all Muslims.

“We, as British Muslims, have a direct and immediate interest in defeating this fascist threat. The anti-fascist movement must reach out to Muslim communities who are at the sharp end of BNP attacks. But the rise in racism is not only a threat to Muslims. The BNP may be playing down their anti-Semitism and anti-Black racism in order to drive a wedge between Muslims and the rest of society. But to the BNP we are all ‘racial foreigners’. Our very existence as British people is denied.

“Our task is not only to unite all those targeted by the BNP, with every possible ally who rejects racism and fascism. We have to also positively assert our multicultural and pluralist society. It is a message of hope that is in tune in an increasingly interconnected world. It is a source of strength and vibrancy. We are one society and many cultures. And we will only remain so if we are prepared to stand up and be counted.”

Salma Yaqoob in the Morning Star, 20 July 2009

Soccer hooligans plan another anti-Muslim protest in Birmingham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Luton riotPolice are being urged to ban a “sinister” new soccer group – said to include football hooligans – from staging a Midland protest against Muslim extremists.

Casuals United was set up after British soldiers were abused by Islamic radicals at a homecoming parade in Luton earlier this year. The group allegedly includes trouble-makers from soccer clubs across the country, including Aston Villa, Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The Casuals have already staged a number of protests against Muslim extremists around the UK, including on July 4 at Birmingham Bullring when a 100-strong crowd was held back by riot police. Now the group are planning to return to the second city for a fresh rally on August 8 – leading to fears of violence.

Last night, Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood urged police to block the event. He said: “No matter what these groups say, people have to see that they have sinister intentions and only want to promote violence on our streets. This is the kind of thing we saw in the 1970s when the Far Right came to prominence and caused riots in our cities.”

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