Act now to stop deportation of Hicham Yezza

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Free HichSTOP THE ATTACKS ON MUSLIMS
ACT NOW TO STOP DEPORTATION OF HICHAM YEZZA

As the “war on terror” unravels, attacks on the Muslim community are increasing alarmingly. Almost every day the tabloid press carries scurrilous stories about Muslims. College authorities are suppressing Muslim groups and curtailing academic freedoms. Prominent intellectuals regularly denounce Islam. The government is trying to extend powers of detention without trial for ‘terrorist suspects’. All this threatens to create a divisive and dangerous atmosphere in Britain.

What happened to Hicham Yezza and Rizwaan Sabir is a frightening example of where this official hysteria can lead. Yessir works at Nottingham University, where his friend Sabir is a student. When, as part of his research into political Islam, Sabir downloaded from the internet an Al Quaeda training manual, he emailed it to Hicham and – unable to afford the cost of printing – asked him to print it. The university authorities informed the police, who immediately arrested the two friends under the Terrorism Act.

They were held without charge for six days, their homes searched, their computers seized and friends and family interrogated. Upon release, Hicham was re-arrested under unrelated immigration charges. Although he was initially given a hearing date for 16 July, he was served with a deportation notice last Friday, which informed him he was to be removed on Sunday 1 June on flight BA894 from Heathrow to Algiers. Campaigners have been mobilising to prevent his deportation and last Wednesday held a demonstration at the University of Nottingham, attended by up to 500 people.

Stop the War is urging its supporters to support the campaign to prevent this deportation by:

1) Most urgently, using the model letter (http://tinyurl.com/4a6va7) or write one yourself and e-mail and/or fax it the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith before 5pm today. Quote Home Office reference number Y76064.

Jacqui Smith has the power to stop Hicham’s deportation
* Telephone: 020 7035 0198
* Fax: 020 7035 0900
* Email: indpublicenquiries@ind.homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

2) Before 5pm today, use the template provided by the campaign to fax the deportation centre where Hicham is being held: http://tinyurl.com/3w8sm7

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO CONTACT THE DEFENCE CAMPAIGN:
WEBSITE: http://freehichamyezza.wordpress.com
EMAIL: staffandstudents@googlemail.com
PHONE: 07948590262

UPDATE:  At 12.30 hours today, an application to the High Court in London was issued seeking a judicial review of the decisions of the Home Office in this matter. The removal directions set for Sunday 1st June have now been cancelled by the Home Office, and an application will be made to them this afternoon for Mr Yezza to be released while his case is reconsidered. David Smith, of Cartwright King solicitors in Nottingham, says “We hope and trust that the Home Office will now release Mr Yezza and reconsider his case properly and in accordance with the law; we will proceed vigorously with the High Court action unless they agree to do so.”

Stop the Deportation of Hicham Yezza campaign press release, 30 May 2008

See also “Deportation plan to be reviewed”, BBC News, 31 May 2008

Islamophobia forces Danish Muslims to consider emigration

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pia Kjærsgaard DFPia Kjaersgaard’s Danish People’s Party has a genius for attracting attention. Over the past month its campaign to ban public employees from wearing Islamic headscarves has dominated the headlines and also triggered squabbles within most of the country’s other political parties.

The campaign began with a poster of a burka-clad woman wielding a judge’s gavel. The implicit message was that Danes risk having their courts invaded by Muslim hordes and sharia law. Birthe Ronn Hornbech, the immigration minister, denounced theDPP as “fanatically anti-Muslim” and said the judiciary was capable of policing its own impartiality and dress code. Stig Glent-Madsen, a high-court judge, confirmed that the judiciary had always managed this itself.

Yet the government, which relies on the DPP‘s support to stay in power, has decided that a new law is needed to ban the wearing of all religious symbols by judges – from Christian crosses to Jewish skullcaps and even Sikh turbans. The hapless Ms Ronn Hornbech will have to frame the law. And the DPP is now calling for even broader bans. Muslim headscarves, says Ms Kjaersgaard, are a “symbol of political Islam and the discrimination against women”. She wants them “out of schools, off the streets and outside the doors of parliament”.

Many Danes share Ms Kjaersgaard’s sentiments. A poll by Megafon for TV2 found 48% in favour of a ban on public employees wearing “religious garb”, and only 39% against.

One response has come from Danish-born Muslims. A poll by Politiken, a daily, of 315 young Muslim students, found that two-thirds of them were considering emigrating after graduation. Most gave as their reason “the tone of the Danish debate about Muslims”.

Economist, 29 May 2008

Bishop of Rochester ‘doing the BNP’s work’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

nss2The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, this week claimed the influence of Christianity had been practically wiped out in recent decades, destroying Britishness and leading to the breakdown in family life and an increase in drunkenness and violence.

The bishop, a leading conservative who believes the Church of England should be doing more to convert Muslims, then warned that radical Islam is starting to fill the “moral vacuum” left by the decline in Christianity, which could lead to different values taking hold.

But his words have been condemned by some groups who have accused him of spreading fear and intolerance, and of putting across a similar message to the far-right British National Party.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “Dr Nazir-Ali’s remarks are ill-advised, dangerous and manipulative. He is playing a very dangerous game with these repeated scaremongering tactics against Muslims, and risks doing the BNP’s work for them. He risks creating even more hostility towards the Muslim community in this country – and community relations are already very fragile in some places.”

The NSS, which campaigns against what it calls the privileged position of religious groups in society, called on the Archbishop of Canterbury to discipline the bishop for his remarks and prevent him from making “further inflammatory statements”.

Daily Telegraph, 30 May 2008

We couldn’t agree more. However, we can’t avoid noting some double standards here. If the National Secular Society is genuinely concerned about irresponsible attacks on Islam giving assistance to the fascists they could start by dissociating themselves from NSS member Pat Condell, whose Islamophobic rants on YouTube have been applauded by Terry Sanderson. It would appear that the incitement of hostility towards the Muslim community is OK with Sanderson when it’s done by fellow secularists.

See also Inayat Bunglawala at Comment is Free and the excellent leader in today’s Guardian.

For the BNP’s endorsement of Nazir-Ali, see here.

Fears of ‘the Islamic problem’ brought BNP success at polls

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The principal strategy of Nick Griffin, its Cambridge-educated leader, has been to escape the jackbooted, knuckle-dragging image of street-fighting neo-Nazis and to become a popular anti-immigration party. The East End of London has become a stronghold, with the BNP installed as the official opposition on Barking & Dagenham council under the leadership of the artist Richard Barnbrook. Mr Barnbrook made a breakthrough by winning the BNP’s first seat in the London Assembly. The party’s electoral success came after it began concentrating its attacks on Muslims.

Times, 29 May 2008

See also “BNP seeks to make a martyr of activist killed by Muslim elder“. And yes, that’s a reference to Keith Brown, “an unemployed father of seven with a long criminal record” who was responsible for “a frightening campaign of intimidation, violence and racial abuse” against his Muslim neighbours – precisely the sort of racist thug who would make an appropriate “martyr” for the BNP.

Dunkin’ Donuts and ‘the bloody Islamic jihad’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

rachael_ray_dunkin_donutsIs Rachael Ray, the talk-show host, cookbook author and magazine editor, a terrorist sympathizer?

Dunkin’ Donuts, worried that its customers might think so, abruptly yanked an ad in which Ray wears a scarf that resembles a keffiyeh – a traditional headdress worn by Arab men – after conservative commentators became enraged by the ad and even threatened to boycott the company.

The controversial ad, which appeared earlier this month on the doughnut chain’s Web site to promote its iced coffee, came under fire nearly two weeks ago when blogger Pam Geller posted it under the headline “Rachel [sic] Ray: Dunkin Donuts Jihad Tool.”

“Have you seen Rachel Ray wearing the icon of Yasser Arafatbastard and the bloody Islamic jihad,” Geller wrote. “This is part of the cultural jihad.”

Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin took up the cause when she wrote: “The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not so ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities and left-wing icons.”

After pulling the ad, Dunkin’ Donuts issued a statement from Margie Myers, senior vice president of communications for Dunkin’ Brands:

“In a recent online ad, Rachael Ray is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design. It was selected by the stylist for the advertising shoot. Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, as of this past weekend, we are no longer using the online ad because the possibility of misperception detracted from its original intention to promote our iced coffee.”

ABC News, 29 May 2008

See also the Boston Globe, 28 May 2008

State surveillance of US mosques challenged

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A report that mosques in Los Angeles and San Diego are under federal surveillance has resurrected fears in the Muslim community about government monitoring and led two civil rights groups Wednesday to call for congressional hearings.

The request for public hearings followed a newspaper article last week that cited FBI and Defense Department files pertaining to surveillance of mosques and Muslims in Southern California.

Corey Saylor, Washington spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the article in the San Diego Union-Tribune “has again raised concerns that our community is being watched.” “We’ve heard about this in the past, but this article appears to be the first confirmation that surveillance is taking place,” Saylor said. “Has faith moved from a personal choice to probable cause?”

Council chapters in Anaheim and San Diego joined the American Civil Liberties Union and Islamic Shura Council of Southern California in asking the U.S. House and Senate judiciary committees and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for hearings. In a letter to the committee chairmen and ranking minority members, the groups said hearings are needed to determine the extent of the surveillance and whether people are being monitored because they are Muslim.

Los Angeles Times, 29 May 2008

Fly the flag in opposition to mosque, urges UKIP councillor

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Malcolm DavisA Dudley councillor is calling on the people of the town to “create crowds” outside Dudley Council House as the future of the mosque is discussed inside.

For two days in June (10 and 11) the planning inspectorate from Bristol will be holding a public inquiry as to whether the council were right to refuse the application made by the Dudley Muslim Association last year. The council’s development control committee unanimously rejected the proposals after the project received opposition via petitions with more than 22,000 names.

Cllr Davis also asked residents to show their support by flying a flag on the two days the inquiry is being held. He said: “I think it is important for everyone to fly the flag every day, but it would be nice if we all flew them on those two days to show our loyalty to our town.”

Halesowen News, 28 May 2008

School ban sparks Belgian hijab campaign

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Belgian hijab campaignBRUSSELS — The decision of a Brussels school to deny Muslim girls the right to wear hijab has motivated them to champion a protest campaign, the latest episode of the hijab debate in the European country.

“The hijab ban has no ground and the administration offered no explanation and did not consult with teachers or parents,” reads a petition circulated by Muslim students in the Institut des Ursulines in the Brussels borough of Molenbeek.

The Catholic school, where Muslims comprise some 85 percent of the students, has decided to ban hijab starting the next academic year. The controversial decision promoted Muslim students to launch a protest campaign, including a rally outside the school, which is located in an area with a large Muslim population.

“The decision, a violation of women rights, is unacceptable,” says the petition. “It has caused us much distraction during our exam period and will threaten the educational future of tens of students next year. It was never reported before that the hijab has caused any disruption of the educational process.”

Many students have already announced they will leave the school if forced to take off their hijab.

Islam Online, 28 May 2008

Muslim women say company’s dress code violates faith

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A group of Muslim workers allege they were fired by a New Brighton tortilla factory for refusing to wear uniforms that they say were immodest by Islamic standards. Six Somali women claim they were ordered by a manager to wear pants and shirts to work instead of their traditional Islamic clothing of loose-fitting skirts and scarves, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil liberties group that is representing the women. The women have filed a religious discrimination complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Minneapolis Star Tribune, 27 May 2008

See also CAIR press release, 27 May 2008

Fascists expose ‘Islam’s 1,300 year war on Western Civilisation’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

jihad-book-final-cover-front.p65“Excalibur Books is proud to announce the launch of ‘Jihad: Islam’s 1,300 Year War on Western Civilisation’ by Arthur Kemp. This book, the first of its kind, maps out how, for centuries, violent Muslims have been trying to capture Europe for Islam.

“Sweeping out from its origin in Saudi Arabia, Islam has expanded through violent conquest into North Africa, the Middle and Near East – and very nearly into Europe itself, attacking through Spain, Italy, and the Balkans. Each time, the Islamic hordes were turned back by a united European military effort.

“Today, the Islamic invasion is not being carried out with sieges, scimitars, or cannon, but rather by immigration, birth rates, and demographics. Given current trends, Europe is set to be overrun before the end of this century.

“This book puts the current crisis into historical perspective, showing that instead of being a ‘religion of peace’, violent Islam has, in fact, been waging war on all its self-appointed opponents since its inception.

“Finally, this book dares to say what must be done if Europe is to avoid succumbing to the new invasion. The choice is hard, but is one which will determine whether Western Civilisation lives or dies.”

BNP news article, 27 May 2008

A fitting follow-up to Kemp’s earlier book March of the Titans: A History of the White Race.

For more on Arthur Kemp see here.