Muslim leader decries American ‘bigotry’ against Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

American culture’s view of American Muslims and Islam is steadily deteriorating under an onslaught of “bigotry” on cable news shows, newspaper op-ed pages and in the blogosphere, an Arab-American activist told an audience at Tulane University here Tuesday. That’s a significant shift, said Hussein Ibish, founder of the Foundation for Arab-American Leadership in Washington, D.C.

Since 9/11, he said, commentators such as Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter, Charles Krauthammer, Daniel Pipes and David Horowitz have transferred old anti-Arab stereotypes to Islam, in a stream of “incredibly bigoted commentary” that would not have been tolerated before then.

In this context, Ibish said, the West sees Islam as bent on its destruction and American Muslims as suspected allies who cannot credibly deny otherwise. Thus, ethnic profiling becomes reasonable and forced internment or mandatory identification of Muslims becomes a potential remedy, he said.

While most of the anti-Islamic rhetoric comes from the right, it occasionally comes from the left as well, he said.

Finally, a student of American popular culture would find that anti-Islamic rhetoric sounds vaguely familiar, Ibish said. That’s because in tone and substance it almost exactly tracks the anti-Semitic messages that filled American culture between the world wars.

USA Today, 21 February 2008

Campaigners to protest against racist Express coverage

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anti-racism campaigners will protest outside the offices of the right-wing Daily Express newspaper today over the paper’s incessant attacks on refugees and Muslims.

The protest has been called in response to inflammatory headlines such as “Over 860 migrants flood in every day,” “Migrants send our crime rate soaring” and “Soft touch Britain: You pay £21m benefits to migrant workers.”

The lunchtime protest has been organised by Media Workers Against the War, Stop the War Coalition, Stop the War Muslim Activists Network and the British Muslim Initiative.

A Media Workers Against the War spokesman said that the headlines in pornographer Richard Desmond’s papers and the stories that go with them “twist flimsy, inadequate and misleading ‘evidence’ in order to pander to prejudice. They do nothing to inform Express readers. On the contrary, they incite race hatred,” he said.

Stop the War Coalition spokesman Chris Nineham added that such “disgusting attacks” on Muslims are a threat both to the Muslim community and to all those who value civil liberties.

The protest will take place from 12.30-2pm outside the Northern & Shell Building, 10 Lower Thames Street, London EC3R.

Morning Star, 21 February 2008

Resisting Islamic law

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Westerners opposed to the application of the Islamic law (the Shari’a) watch with dismay as it goes from strength to strength in their countries – harems increasingly accepted, a church leader endorsing Islamic law, a judge referring to the Koran, clandestine Muslim courts meting out justice. What can be done to stop the progress of this medieval legal system so deeply at odds with modern life, one that oppresses women and turns non-Muslims into second-class citizens?”

Daniel Pipes poses the question.

Jerusalem Post, 20 February 2008

March today over Qaradawi visa

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Qaradawi 5DOHA — While supporters of Qatar-based Islamic scholar Dr Yousuf Al Qaradawi have announced to protest in front of the British embassy this afternoon, a senior official of the embassy said here yesterday that the mission is welcoming any “peaceful protest”.

The protest plan follows the recent denial of entry visa for Qaradawi to the UK. “We recognize people’s right to protest peacefully and we have no problem about that,” Roddy Drummond, Head of Mission told the press yesterday.

Asked why Qaradawi was denied the visa, he said, “It was a decision by the British government and the reason was conveyed to Qaradawi.”

“We will inform our government about the demonstration but we can’t say whether it would make any change in their decision,” he added.

The official said the embassy had no security concerns arising from the demonstration plan. “We believe it will be a peaceful protest and we have full trust on the Qatari law enforcing authorities,” said Drummond, adding that the mission had not requested any special security arrangements.

The Peninsula, 20 February 2008

JP back on bench after veil uproar

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The magistrate reprimanded for refusing to deal with a Muslim woman because she was wearing a veil says he is delighted to have returned to sit on the bench.

Ian Murray, of Bath Crescent, Cheadle Hulme, was back at Manchester Crown Court last week following an absence of more than six months. But he says the furore surrounding his decision to walk out when faced with niqab-wearing Zoobia Hussain – who subsequently complained – has not diminished his appetite to be part of the judicial process.

He is currently awaiting the outcome of his own complaint over the treatment he received during a probe into his actions, which resulted in a formal reprimand and training on “appropriate judicial guidelines”.

Stockport Express, 20 February 2008

Pigs’ heads left at mosque site in Sweden

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pigs' heads at Gothenburg mosque site

Göteborgs-Posten reports that severed pig’s heads were left in Ramberget at a site where the construction of a new mosque is planned. Bachar Ghanoum of the Swedish Muslim Foundation is quoted as saying that the anti-Muslim climate has grown worse and people now openly express bigoted views that they previously kept to themselves. He says that he regularly receives hostile letters and phone calls.

Qataris slam British denial of visa to Qaradawi

Posted on by Bob Pitt

YusufalQaradawiDOHA – Supporters of Qatar-based Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi staged a sit-in outside the British embassy in Doha on Wednesday to protest at London’s denial of a visa to the controversial cleric.

“Mr Brown: Why are you rejecting tolerance and dialogue?” read one of the banners raised by the protesters, who numbered around 400, referring to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Lawyer Najib al-Nuaimi, a former Qatari justice minister acting as Qaradawi’s representative in the affair, handed the deputy head of the British mission, Claire Evans, a letter of protest. The letter demands that the British government reconsider its “unfair and illegal” decision to deny Qaradawi a visa, Nuaimi said.

Qatari Muslim preacher Sheikh Mohieddin al-Qaradaghi told reporters that Britain had taken an “unfair decision” against a “symbol of centrism in Islam,” and this would “benefit extremists from both sides”.

Middle East Online, 20 February 2008

Protest to the BBC over coverage of the Williams row

Posted on by Bob Pitt

As the furore over Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’ remarks about religious and civil law subsides into a more considered debate beyond the headlines, the Anglican leader is receiving backing from what might be considered some unexpected quarters.

Well-known media commentator Sunny Hundal, who is from a Sikh background but is not religious, has written a letter of protest to the BBC about its coverage of Dr Williams’ speech on Islam and the law – and in particular his Radio 4 World at One interview.

Hundal, a left-of-centre journalist who was voted the Guardian newspaper’s blogger of the year in 2007, runs Asians in Media, and has launched two of the most successful UK-based group current affairs blogs, Pickled Politics and Liberal Conspiracy, finds himself in the same camp of concern as right-of-centre commentator Matt Wardman, of The Wardman Wire.

Mr Hundal’s letter to the BBC says: “[My] complaint refers principally to coverage on BBC News 24 and news bulletins on BBC television and radio on Friday 8 February and the weekend of 9 & 10th February 2008. I found BBC News coverage sensationalist and biased against the Archbishop, muddying the waters over what he said in the speech and with no attempt at giving it context – that is, who it was aimed at, what the current law is on civil arbitration, etc.”

Hundal stresses: “[T]his does not mean I endorse sharia or want it to be fully introduced in the UK. I believe in one civil law for all citizens. However, BBC News bulletins did not make any attempts to offer any context to its own coverage.”

Commentator Matt Wardman goes further, accusing the BBC of instigating the political firestorm with a misleading headline trailing its interview with him. Of the headline, “The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the adoption of Sharia Law in some parts of Britain is inevitable”, Wardman remarks: “No he didn’t, or not in the way that your headline was inevitably going to make people think.”

Ekklesia, 19 February 2008