More idiotic bashing of British Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Text message“You would have thought that after relying on the dubious claims of Glen Jenvey for a front page lead story, only for it to have been withdrawn less than a week later might have made the Sun‘s journalists slightly more circumspect in accusing British Muslims of stirring up hate or targeting Jews.

“Then you of course remember that you’re dealing with the Sun, where few of the journalists in the first place have enough brains or probably the time to make a Google search before taking to slamming their keyboard and banging out another idiotic piece. So it is with today’s banner boosting, potentially baseless claim, that ‘menacing texts sent … by Hamas supporters’ originated in this country.”

The Sun – Tabloid Lies, 15 January 2009

Australian retail lobby slams call for hijab shop ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A national retail lobby boss has taken a swipe at Queensland retailers for backing calls to ban Muslim women wearing traditional hijabs in shops.

The state’s retail association came out in support of Brisbane’s 4BC radio presenter Michael Smith after he claimed on Wednesday that wearing the hijab or burqa posed a security risk. The Queensland body says the ban should be in line with riders being forced to remove their helmets when entering a store or bank.

But the National Retailers Association, which has no association with the Queensland organisation, has rejected calls for the ban. “I think it’s a bit of dog whistle,” executive director Richard Evans told ABC Radio, adding there was no evidence to support claims the wearing of hijabs was a security concern for shopkeepers.

He accused the Queensland retail group of trying to categorise a certain group of women and create fear among them. “It’s outrageous, to be honest with you, absolutely outrageous. It diminishes not only those folks who wear those outfits, but diminishes all of us.”

AAP, 16 January 2009

Avoid marrying Muslims says cardinal

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Portugal’s Cardinal Jose Policarpo has warned young women in the predominantly Catholic nation against marrying Muslims.

“The advice that I give to young Portuguese girls is – be careful with relationships, think twice about marrying Muslims,” the patriarch of Lisbon said. “It is getting into a pile of troubles, that not even Allah knows where would end.”

Policarpo made the statement at a gathering on Tuesday evening in a well-known casino that organises meetings of public figures with paying guests. His comments were repeated on several television stations on Wednesday.

The Vatican discourages Catholic women from marrying Muslims and Policarpo echoed that position in blunt terms. “I know that if a young European of Christian background marries a Muslim, as soon as they go to his country, they’ll be subject to the regime of Muslim women,” Policarpo said. “Just imagine it.”

Policarpo, a leading cardinal who was tipped as a contender in the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict, also said dialogue with Muslims was not easy in Portugal.

“It is only possible to dialogue with those who want to have dialogue, for example with our Muslim brothers dialogue is very difficult,” he said.

Reuters, 14 January 2009

Australia – groups say veil ban unlawful, unfairly targets Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Shopkeepers are demanding sunglasses, baseball caps and religious face veils be banned to guard against criminals trying to hide their identities.

The Queensland Retailers Association yesterday declared its members should have the right to ban customers from wearing any clothing that obscured faces. But the proposed ban has outraged civil libertarians, Islamic groups and Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Commission. They say the move would be unlawful and unfairly target Muslims and teenagers.

QRA executive director Scott Driscoll said retailers were increasingly concerned they could not identify robbers and thugs whose faces were hidden by headgear. “This is about ensuring a more safe and secure retail environment for all and being able to readily identify any and all perpetrators of armed holdups or shop theft,” he said.

But critics – including federal Labor MP Graham Perrett, who represents the multicultural electorate of Moreton in Brisbane’s south – attacked Mr Driscoll’s call as unfounded and unnecessary. “Kids in hoodies, Muslim women wearing face veils, they are simply not an issue for the retailers I speak to,” Mr Perrett said.

Queensland police have no record of any robbery committed by a person wearing a Muslim face veil.

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Italian minister blasts Muslim protesters’ prayers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Italy’s defense minister warned the country’s Muslims to stop further “provocations” after thousands held prayers in public squares in Milan during pro-Palestinian demonstrations over the past week.

Ignazio La Russa, from the right-wing National Alliance, said he did not oppose protests or want to deny anyone the right to pray, but called the public prayers a challenge to peace. “I say enough of the provocations of Islamists in Milan,” he told Il Giornale newspaper on Sunday. “In Milan, a legitimate demonstration ended in a deliberately provocative mosque under the open sky.”

Thousands of Muslims knelt with their heads bowed to the ground in prayer before Milan’s central train station in one of several pro-Palestinian protests on Saturday. A week ago, Muslims held prayers in front of Milan’s central cathedral, angering right-wing politicians in the overwhelming Catholic country who called it an affront to Christianity.

“What would have happened if a group of Christians gathered together to pray with a rosary before Mecca? They probably would have been stoned,” said La Russa, who described himself as a practicising Catholic who attends Mass almost every Sunday.

Milan’s deputy mayor issued a similar warning to Muslims, saying four protests in seven days was too much. “Enough with pro-Hamas marches now,” said Riccardo De Corato. “Milan is not a province of Gaza and has no intention of reluctantly instituting this type of ‘Gaza Saturdays.'”

Protests against the Israeli offensive continued in Italy on Sunday, with 3,000 people marching through the center of Naples. Another 1,000 held hands to form a human chain and march through Rome’s historic center to demand an end to violence in Gaza.

Reuters, 11 January 2009

Seattle report: men hit, told to ‘speak English’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Seattle police say they’re looking for a pickup truck driver who became so angry when he heard a man speaking a language other than English that he attacked the man and a friend.

Police described the victims in the Monday afternoon attack as African men. One stepped outside a store on Rainier Avenue South to talk on his cell phone. The man heard a pickup truck driver stopped in traffic yell at him to “speak English.”

According to the police report, the driver grew angrier when the man with the phone tried to say he didn’t speak English very well. Police say the driver got out of his truck, called the victim a Muslim, using a slur, and told him to “go back home.”

Police say the driver grabbed the victim and punched him twice. When the victim’s friend came out of the store, he was punched in the eye.

Associated Press, 14 January 2009

Aussie radio announcer accused of anti-Islamic remarks over hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

4BC RadioA Brisbane radio station may have to explain why it should keep its licence after an announcer was accused of making anti-Islamic comments.

Former Victorian police officer, now 4BC drive-time announcer, Michael Smith called for Muslim women who wear an Islamic hijab in public to be fined for offensive behaviour. He made the remarks on-air and on the 4BC website, saying: “Any reasonable person would find this offensive.” Islamic Council of Queensland president Suliman Sabdia said Mr Smith’s remarks amounted to “a clear case of intolerance”.

Under the Commercial Radio Code of Practice, a licensee must not broadcast a program likely to incite hatred against or vilify any person or group on the basis of age, ethnicity, nationality, race, gender, sexual preference, religion, or disability. Christine Donnelly from the Australian Communications and Media Authority said Mr Smith’s comments could be a breach of the Code of Practice.

4BC general manager David McDonald said Mr Smith’s remarks were not intended to be anti-religion or anti-Muslim.

Courier-Mail, 14 January 2009

Update:  See also “Retailers back shock jock Michael Smith’s call for hijab ban” at News.com.au, which reports:

“A radio announcer’s call for a ban on Islamic hijabs has been backed by the Retailers Association. The body has called for all hijabs, helmets and hoodies to be banned in shops and banks for security purposes…. Retailers association executive directorScott Driscoll said it had been a long accepted practice to require customers to remove helmets and other identity obscuring headwear when entering a shop or bank. ‘Retailers should not have to fear any form of retribution or backlash for requiring the removal of any obscuring headwear, including hijabs, as a condition of entry’, Mr Driscoll said.”

Reining in the preachers of hate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Commentators who rail against Islam risk producing terrorists of their own. The right must speak out against its own extremists, argues James Brandon.

And who might these extremists be? Brandon names Mark Steyn, Melanie Phillips, Rod Liddle and Douglas Murray.

Brandon recounts: “until recently I worked with Murray at his Centre for Social Cohesion, which I joined because, in mid-2007, few other thinktanks were willing to seriously address the problem of Islamism at all. My time there was a constant struggle to ‘de-radicalise’ Murray and to ensure that the centre’s output targeted only Islamists – and not Muslims as a whole. This October, however, I had finally had enough of this constant battle and resigned.”

Comment is Free, 13 January 2008

The migrants who just don’t belong, by the Archbishop of York

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Immigrants to Britain in the past five decades have been treated like hotel guests who “do not belong”, the Archbishop of York said yesterday. Dr John Sentamu said the failure of migrants to integrate had contributed to the collapse of a common British culture and the lack of a national sense of direction. He called for recognition of the Christian heritage which used to bind the nation together.

The Archbishop’s powerful attack on uncontrolled immigration and on the Left-wing interpretation of multiculturalism that encourages migrants to ignore traditional British values, was made in a speech to Gordon Brown’s think tank, the Smith Institute.

Ugandan-born Dr Sentamu, who came to Britain in the 1970s, said it was important to remember that Britain had always provided refuge for economic migrants. He said 250,000 Jewish people had come before the First World War, and had integrated and been accepted. “What happened after the Second World War was a different phenomenon,” Dr Sentamu continued. “For the first time, significant numbers of immigrants from a non Judaeo-Christian background settled in the UK.”

He referred to the view of Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks that until the 1950s immigrants were like guests in a country house, who were expected to assimilate British values and to belong to the existing society. But with the decline of empire and the growth of Commonwealth immigration, the pattern had become more like a hotel.

“Guests are entitled to stay if they can pay their way and receive basic services in return for their payment,” he said. “But they are guests – they do not belong. In the same way, migrants to Britain from the 1960s onwards have made their home with their cultural rights protected under legislation framed under a multicultural perspective. Consequently, any sense of a shared common culture is eroded, risking increasing segregation.”

Daily Mail, 14 January 2008

NHS staff told not to hold meetings where alcohol served in order not to offend Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

So the Daily Telegraph asserts. However, if you read the article, you find that the basis for this claim is that the document Religion or Belief: a Practical Guide for the NHS “warns that staff training or bonding events may alienate followers of some faiths if they take place at weekends or in pubs”. Which is not the same thing, is it? So what we have here is another inaccurate scaremongering headline aimed at promoting the right-wing myth about the threatened “Islamisation” of the West.

You’ll note that the advice about problems arising from events held at weekends is clearly intended to show sensitivity not only towards practising Christians but also towards Jewish NHS employees who wish to observe the Shabbat. But for some reason the Torygraph doesn’t think it appropriate to run the headline “NHS staff told not to hold meetings at weekends in order not to offend Jews”.