‘Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

PuppyA postcard featuring a cute puppy sitting in a policeman’s hat advertising a Scottish police force’s new telephone number has sparked outrage from Muslims.

Tayside Police’s new non-emergency phone number has prompted complaints from members of the Islamic community.

The choice of image on the Tayside Police cards – a black dog sitting in a police officer’s hat – has now been raised with Chief Constable John Vine.

The advert has upset Muslims because dogs are considered ritually unclean and has sparked such anger that some shopkeepers in Dundee have refused to display the advert.

Daily Mail, 1 July 2008

See also the Daily Telegraph, whose readers helpfully draw out the subtext to this story:

“Why are the police apologising for doing their job. This is just another case of kowtowing to people who do not understand the BRITISH way of life.”

“Stop all this namby pamby nonsence. As you say the British are a nation of dog lovers…. We are British and this is Britain. If you don’t like it leave.”

“what next no pictures of pigs in the butchers! We are supposedly living in a multi cultural country, but it seems that we are dominated by the views of the muslims and their communities.”

“OMG, im sorry but if you dont like what people in OUR country do then go away.”

“Who cares what the Muslims think/say. Really, what are they going to do about it? It’s our culture, our traditions, our beliefs.”

“This is absurd. Why should Britons change their culture to accomodate Muslims? … This political correctness will cause the downfall of your society. What happened to majority rule?”

“If muslims don’t like dogs – or any other facet of our national characteristics – then they should bugger off to Iran or some other Islamic wonderland. When will we stop pandering to these barbarians? Why have we let them in to our country at all?”

Update:  For Gabriele Marranci’s comments, see Islam, Muslims and an Anthropologist, 3 July 2008

Study suggests ‘turban effect’ as a source of Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim-style turban is perceived as a threat, according to a new study, even by people who don’t realize they hold the prejudice, dubbed “the turban effect” by researchers. Research volunteers played a computer game that showed apartment balconies on which different figures appeared, some wearing Muslim-style turbans or hijabs and others bare-headed. They were told to shoot at the targets carrying guns and spare those who were unarmed, with points awarded accordingly.

People were much more likely to shoot Muslim-looking characters – men or women – even if they were carrying an innocent item instead of a weapon, the researchers found. “Whether they’re holding a steel coffee mug or a gun, people are just more likely to shoot at someone who is wearing a turban,” says author Christian Unkelbach, a visiting scholar at Australia’s University of New South Wales. “Just putting on this piece of clothing changes people’s behaviour.”

Unkelbach largely blames one-sided media portrayals for the bias.

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Damned for trying to do some good

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Osama Saeed replies to the Centre for Social Cohesion.

Sunday Herald, 29 June 2008

Update:  For the full version of the article, see Rolled Up Trousers, 30 June 2008

Osama also reples to the hysterical nonsense posted by Melanie Phillips on her Spectator blog, where she warned of the danger of Scottish Muslims establishing a “Caledonian caliphate”. As Osama observes: “This conspiratorial nonsense is very reminiscent of how Jewish people have in years gone by been demonised, you could call it the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Caledonistan’.”

Muslim officers challenge police racism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

NAMP_logoThe home secretary is at the centre of the worst race row to engulf the police service for almost a decade as chief constables stand accused of blocking an inquiry into discrimination against Muslim officers. Jacqui Smith will be asked to intervene tomorrow after the damning revelation that at least 20 police forces refused to co-operate with the first audit into the treatment of Muslim and black officers. Information from those forces that did take part suggested there was routine racial discrimination against them.

Accusations that police forces refused to co-operate with the audit, which was conducted jointly by the National Association of Muslim Police and the think-tank Demos, is bound to cause consternation in government. Initially, only 11 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales replied to the questionnaire on the promotional prospects, rank and number of Muslim and black officers employed. As a result of this ‘poor rate of return’, the deadline was extended by another month. Even then barely half – only 23 – co-operated. The association condemned a seeming ‘widespread squeamishness’ on issues of race among a number of forces.

A letter sent to Smith and all chief constables in England and Wales by the association asks: ‘Why were some forces unable or unwilling to co-operate, while others completed in full and on time? Why did some forces refuse to complete on grounds of the pretext of the Data Protection Act, while others said they did not have the time to take part?’

Senior Muslim officers warned forces last night that they would lodge Freedom of Information requests if they continued to refuse to take part.

The letter says: ‘If the police are serious about ensuring that Muslim officers are able to rise through the ranks at the same speed as their fellow white officers, and ensuring that Muslims are deployed to counter-terrorism duties at a time of heightened national security, we must have reliable data to track progress and measure success.’ It adds that the ‘paucity’ of information ‘means that each individual case of discrimination, or alleged discrimination, can only be assumed to be symptomatic of the conditions facing Muslim officers across the UK’.

Observer, 29 June 2008

US air base ex-guard convicted of hiding Muslim name

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Southeast Washington man who did not disclose his Muslim name on an application for a job as a private security guard at Andrews Air Force Base was convicted yesterday of making a false statement. Darrick Jackson, 38, left his Muslim name off the application, prosecutors said, to conceal his ties to a local imam known for inflammatory comments.

Jackson, whose first trial ended last year with a hung jury, was tried again this week in federal court in Greenbelt. After deliberating for about a day and a half, the jury found Jackson guilty. He faces up to five years in prison.

Jackson was trying to avoid being linked to Abdul Alim Musa, prosecutors said. Musa has led a mosque in Southeast for almost 20 years and is known for his provocative comments about the United States, Israel and other subjects.

In an interview last night, Musa said the prosecution was “hassling Muslims.” “We regard all of this as just harassment, just the federal government playing around,” Musa said.

Washington Post, 28 June 2008

Posted in USA

Islam is real threat to church, says Synod member

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Alison RuoffNext week the General Synod, the Church of England’s parliament, gathers in York to discuss the introduction of women bishops without provisions for those who oppose the historic move, which could see dozens of conservative clergy leave the church and claim millions in compensation.

But Alison Ruoff, an evangelical lay member of the Synod and a former magistrate who is at the Gafcon summit in Jerusalem, told The Daily Telegraph that the church needs to get past these divisions and concentrate on fighting the rise of Islam in Britain.

She says that under an Archbishop of Canterbury who said it is inevitable that elements of Sharia will be introduced in the UK, the church has not done enough to put its message across. And she believes the Government, out of politically correct sensitivity, is not preventing the growth of Muslim communities which do not integrate with those around them.

Mrs Ruoff, who earlier this year called for a halt to mosque building in Britain, said: “The church is sleepwalking into an Islamic state. Hopefully we can unite against it. The leaders of the church have lost their confidence in the Gospel. We have got an Archbishop of Canterbury who doesn’t stand up for Christianity but wants a degree of Sharia law. The church should be getting out with the Christian message. Our Government is allowing it to happen out of political correctness, but it should be protecting our values and heritage.”

She added that many people share her fears but do not like to speak out about it in case they are criticised. “People are genuinely worried. There’s a general concern in the nation about its building blocks being rapidly eroded. But we are very afraid of the law and of being persecuted. The police in many respects are standing up for Islam rather than Christianity.”

Mrs Ruoff believes the problem with the growth of Islam in Britain is that some communities do not integrate, and that some immigrant imams do not learn English, leading to segregation. She fears that if these communities introduce Islamic law, all non-Muslims and women will be treated as second-class citizens by them.

Daily Telegraph, 28 June 2008

Scottish Islamic Foundation Launch

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Islamophobia Watch was delighted to take up our invitation to attend the launch of the Scottish Islamic Foundation in Edinburgh on Thursday 26th June.

We were in auspicious company; representatives from all 4 of Scotland’s major political parties spoke from the platform, including Alex Salmond, the First Minister.

The event had been the subject of much angst from the Islamophobes, Melanie Philips leading the charge.

Attempts by Tory blog ConservativeHome to smear the SNP Scottish Government backfired spectacularly with the appearance of the Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie at the event and her fulsome praise of the Scottish Islamic Foundation.

The audience also included representatives from Lothian and Borders Police and the Jewish community, further undermining Islamophobic attempts to portray SIF, and Osama Saeed in particular, as secret Islamic fundamentalists, intent on creating a “Caledonian Caliphate”.

From the perspective of this member of the Islamophobia Watch collective, the real story of the launch of SIF is the prominence of social justice and opposition to imperialism in its objectives.

Osama Saeed has repeatedly advocated the need for young, disaffected, Scottish Muslims to be given space to engage in political discourse.

The launch of the Scottish Islamic Foundation is exactly the space that is needed to develop that discourse.

Another baseless, scaremongering article from the Express

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sniffer dogs offend Muslims“Generally, if a story’s on the front page of the Daily Express, you can guarantee that the slant they’ve given it isn’t warranted. Whether it’s blaming Gordon Brown for something he hasn’t done, scaremongering about how we’re not going to be able to afford anything shortly due to run-away inflation, or its favourite subject now that Diana has finally been shuffled off the front page, how terrible Muslims are.

“Today is no exception. Screaming in bold type, the front page informs us that ‘SNIFFER DOGS OFFEND MUSLIMS’.”

Obsolete, 27 June 2008

Having examined the government report on which the article is based, the author concludes that “the whole Express story is bollocks”.

Hassan Butt, liar and fraud

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hassan Butt, ‘al-Qa’ida activist or charlatan’?

By Inayat Bunglawala

The Muslim News, 27 June 2008

We were told by the would-be book publishers that this was a story “that must be told”. Hassan Butt, a Wolverhampton University drop-out and one time ranting al-Muhajiroun activist was – with the help of an ambitious freelancer called Shiv Malik – going to reveal all about his al-Qa’ida associations and how he had finally come to his senses in a forthcoming book called Leaving-Al-Qaeda by Hassan-Butt and Shiv Malik.

The American network CBS had, back in March 2007, broadcast a lengthy interview with Hassan Butt on its flagship 60 Minutes programme in which viewers were told that Butt was revealing “what it was like to be inside that [al-Qa’ida] network for ten years” and told of his meeting with the ringleader of the 7/7 bombings, Mohammed Siddique Khan, but this book promised to be the most detailed account yet by a self-proclaimed al-Qa’ida insider.

In a couple of sceptical Guardian Comment is Free blogs [see here and here – ed.] I noted how at the end of 2001, after Butt first gained notoriety in the UK media with his calls from Pakistan on British Muslims to travel to Afghanistan and fight on behalf of the Taliban, he returned back to the UK and tried – unsuccessfully – to sell his story to the Daily Mirror for a cool £100,000. So, was this guy a real al-Qa’ida activist or merely an opportunist looking to make a quick buck? And if he really was an al-Qa’ida activist then why hadn’t he been prosecuted when other British Muslims have found themselves convicted on far more questionable grounds for having downloaded “al-Qa’ida manuals” which are easily available on the internet?

Later, following the 7/7 bombings, Butt renounced his former extremism and became a vocal critic of al-Qa’ida. Whereas in the past he had criticised mainstream Islamic organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain for being “sell-outs” he turned 180 degrees and declared that he now believed that they were in fact “extremists”. Unsurprisingly, he quickly gained the admiration and support of several prominent pro-Iraq war commentators with his curt dismissal of those who argued that Western warmongering and ongoing backing for Middle Eastern despots had a significant impact on the emerging terror threat.

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Exploiting the Muslim-Jewish divide

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“There’s a disturbing trend in this 2008 election. We are witnessing the manipulation and exploitation of Muslim-Jewish differences by political candidates in pursuit of votes. As advocates for our respective communities, we believe it’s in America’s interest that it stop.

“It appears that the political logic of the candidates and their handlers calls for winning Jewish American support at the expense of Muslim American voters. This takes the shape of aggressive outreach to the Jewish community while Muslims go ignored. That strategy may be politically expedient, but it is inherently flawed. Muslims see their exclusion as a betrayal of American values, and many Jews are alarmed by the parallels to their own historical political exclusion.

“American Jews are all too familiar with institutionalized bigotry. In the late 1940s and 1950s, Rep. John Rankin opposed the immigration of Holocaust survivors, and he opposed integration. In that McCarthyite, anti-Communist era, politicians clamped down against those who they thought threatened the changing fabric of America – namely, Jews. Now, Muslims are on the receiving end of similar suspicions, this time in the name of fighting terrorism.”

Salam Al-Marayati and Steven B. Jacobs  in the Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2008