Cameron seeks ‘hate preachers’ ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

David Cameron 2Conservative leader David Cameron has called for a ban on “preachers of hate” entering the United Kingdom. Mr Cameron accused Prime Minister Gordon Brown of dithering over the case of Islamist cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, following press reports that he is to be granted permission to come to London for medical treatment.

The Tory leader branded Mr al-Qaradawi – and the head of Hezbollah’s TV station Ibrahim Moussawi, who recently spoke in Manchester – “dangerous and divisive” and said they should not be allowed in the country. And he called for a complete ban on Islamist political movements Hizb-ut-Tahrir and Hezbollah.

Speaking at the first meeting in London of a working group between the Conservatives and the main German centre-right party the CDU, Mr Cameron is due to say: “It’s clear for reasons of our security that we must expel or refuse entry to those who preach hate, pit one faith against another and divide our society.

“So I call on the Government to confirm that it will not be giving al-Qaradawi permission to enter this country and that it will not repeat the mistake of last December and make clear that Moussawi is not welcome in the UK.”

Press Association, 29 November 2008

See also Pink News, 28 November 2008

Mick Hulme gets it wrong again

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Islamophobia? It seems as if we are suffering more from Muslim-mania – an unhealthy obsession with all things Islamic, and a paranoid fixation with looking at the world from behind a veil…. Jacqui Smith has even officially renamed Islamic terrorism as ‘anti-Islamic activity’. Never mind walking Hackney’s mean streets, the Home Secretary appears most scared of treading on Muslim toes.”

Times, 29 January 2008

Another outburst of anti-Muslim bigotry from Bruce Bawer

Posted on by Bob Pitt

While Europe Slept“The reason for the rise in gay bashings in Europe is clear – and it’s the same reason for the rise in rape. As the number of Muslims in Europe grows, and as the proportion of those Muslims who were born and bred in Europe also grows, many Muslim men are more inclined to see Europe as a part of the umma (or Muslim world), to believe that they have the right and duty to enforce sharia law in the cities where they live, and to recognize that any aggression on their part will likely go unpunished…. Multiculturalists can’t face all this. So it is that even when there are brutal gay-bashings, few journalists write about them; of those who do, few mention that the perpetrators are Muslims….

“It’s very clear what’s going on here – and where it’s all headed. Europe is on its way down the road of Islamization, and it’s reached a point along that road at which gay people’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is being directly challenged, both by knife-wielding bullies on the street and by taxpayer-funded thugs whose organizations already enjoy quasi-governmental authority. Sharia law may still be an alien concept to some Westerners, but it’s staring gay Europeans right in the face – and pointing toward a chilling future for all free people. Pim Fortuyn saw all this coming years ago; most of today’s European leaders still refuse to see it even though it’s right before their eyes.”

Bruce Bawer at Pajamas Media, 29 January 2008

‘Anti-mosque initiatives tap into a fear of Islam’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Spiegel Online interviews Oliver Geden, an expert on right-wing populism at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. Regarding the tactics of far-right parties like the BZÖ and FPÖ in Austria, Geden states:

“These parties are very clever. They usually focus on the question of minarets, so they can say: ‘We’re not calling for a ban on Islam, but Muslims don’t need minarets to pray.’ If they claim that mosques or even small prayer halls should be banned, then many people would say that was going too far…. The man in the street has probably never thought about minarets before, but it taps into his fear of Islam and he can easily relate to the issue. The right-wing populist parties have an underlying narrative which is against Muslims, but in public they only say that they are against minarets, which they see as symbols of Islamic superiority. Then, if they are accused of being racist, they can counter by saying: ‘Well, we’re only against minarets – what’s your problem?'”

Muslim mums win discrimination appeal

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Two Muslim mothers have won a court appeal against a municipal pool in Gothenburg that required them to take off their veils and body-covering clothing. The Court of Appeal for western Sweden found the City of Gothenburg guilty of ethnic discrimination and ordered the authorities to pay the women 20,000 kronor ($3,000) each in damages.

The women, Houda Morabet and Hayal Eroglu, were at the pool separately on two different occasions in April 2004, accompanying their young children but not to swim themselves. Both were wearing veils, long pants and long-sleeved tee-shirts because their religion does not allow them to reveal parts of their body in public.

In its judgment, the court said that the actions of the swimming pool lifeguards, who insisted that the women should change into tee-shirts, could be deemed discriminatory even if this had not been their intention.

The nature of Sweden’s discrimination laws mean that it was up to the City of Gothenburg to prove that the request for the women to remove some of their clothing had nothing to do with their religion. “In the view of the Court of Appeal, the City of Gothenburg did not succeed in doing this,” the court said in a statement.

Continue reading →

Far-right party tries to ban mosque construction

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BZOA far-right party in the Austrian state of Carinthia, led by the notorious right-wing politician Jörg Haider, is trying to ban the construction of mosques and minarets. They’ve presented a draft law designed to prohibit “unusual” buildings that don’t fit in with traditional architecture.

In the latest anti-Islam initiative by right-wing politicians in Austria, the government in the state of Carinthia, which is led by right-wing populist Jörg Haider, has presented a bill that would hinder the future building of mosques in the state.

“With the help of this law, it will be de facto impossible to construct mosques or minarets in Carinthia,” Uwe Scheuch, the minister responsible for urban planning, told journalists Saturday at a press conference where he presented the draft law. Scheuch, who belongs to Haider’s right-wing Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) party, insisted, however, that the law would not infringe on Austria’s constitutional right to freedom of religion.

BZÖ will need the support of the conservative Austrian People’s Party if it is to get the draft law passed in the state government. That seems assured, however, as the People’s Party had asked the state government last year to prepare a draft law to ban the construction of mosques and minarets.

The draft law reflects a growing wave of anti-Muslim sentiment in Austria, where Muslims make up around 4 percent of the population. Another Austrian state, Vorarlberg, which has the highest proportion of Muslims in Austria, is also considering a ban on minarets.

Erwin Pröll, the governor of the state of Lower Austria, who belongs to the People’s Party, recently described minarets as “alien” to Austrian culture in a television interview. Susanne Winter, a politician for the right-wing Freedom Party, which Haider used to belong to before splitting off to set up the BZÖ, called the Prophet Muhammad a “child molester” during a recent election campaign.

Spiegel Online, 28 January 2008

Zoning panel’s rejection of proposed mosque raises questions – Is it religious intolerance?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SUGARCREEK TWP., Greene County — When the First Baptist Church here advertised a speaker last fall who would tell “the truth about Islam,” Dina Ezzeddine of Kettering assumed it would be an interfaith gathering aimed at dispelling negative publicity about her religion.

Instead, former Muslim and Christian convert Shahram Parvani told a gathering of 500 people that “Islam is not a religion of peace,” that Muslims “want to control, they want to dominate” and that they spread their religion “by the power of the sword.”

Pastor Barry Jude said the church invited Parvani to speak because he has attended discussion groups there. The church later made CDs of his talk available.

Sugarcreek Twp. officials say church opposition had no impact on the Board of Zoning Appeals’ 5-0 vote against a variance that would have allowed the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton to build a new mosque on South Alpha-Bellbrook Road. Township officials say the denial was based solely on the expected sewage and traffic impact on the neighborhood. “If (a Christian church) had the same issues, the vote would have been the same,” Administrator Barry Tiffany said.

But even if the township board had sound reasons for its decision, the issue has touched on larger questions: Does the presence of a mosque locally evoke feelings of fear or even hatred? Are church officials saying out loud what a lot of people are thinking privately?

Jude admits his opposition had little to do with traffic patterns or sewage. “We just feel that Christianity is right and that Islam is wrong. Therefore, we take a stand to see (a mosque) not in our community,” he said. “The wonderful thing about our American culture is that you have the right to speak out against something you don’t support.”

Dayton Daily News, 27 January 2008

Update:  See also “Christians launch crusade against new US mosque”, World Net Daily, 30 January 2008

Amis and the untermenschen

Posted on by Bob Pitt

William Dalrymple reviews The Second Plane, Martin Amis’s new collection of essays and short stories about the post-9/11 world:

“Only in one place in the book does Amis actually come across a living Muslim. Arriving at the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem after it has closed for the night, he tries to talk his way into the enclosure, and is rebuffed by the guard. ‘I will never forget the look on the gatekeeper’s face’, he writes, ‘when I suggested … that he … let me in anyway. His expression, previously cordial and cold, became a mask; and the mask was saying that killing me, my wife, and my children was something for which he now had warrant.’ This hysterical reaction, and the strong whiff of racial prejudice it gives off, is smelled again and again throughout this book.

“Islamists, in Amis’s view, are not people with a political complaint against the West and its foreign policy. Instead, they are all ‘irrationally abstract’ in their hatred of America, ‘haters of reason’ whose ‘armed doctrine is little better than a chaotic penal code underscored by impotent dreams of genocide’, ‘fanatics and nihilists’ who have created ‘a cult of death’ and wish to ‘eliminate all non-Muslims’.

“It is the lack of nuance that is most alarming. For Amis, all Islamists are the same, whether mass-murdering jihadis, or completely non-violent but religiously conservative democrats. Nor is it just the militant Islamists he dislikes: ordinary Muslims are regarded with equal contempt. He writes, with deep distaste, of ‘the writhing moustaches of Pakistan’ and ‘the shoving, jabbing, jeering brotherhood’ that Christopher Hitchens encounters in Peshawar. It seems, to Amis, that people’s religion and ethnicity can remove them from rational discourse, and relegate them to the position of untermenschen.”

Sunday Times, 27 January 2008

Row over Islamist cleric’s visa

Posted on by Bob Pitt

YusufalQaradawiAn Islamist cleric who has defended suicide bombings and the execution of homosexuals is to be allowed to enter the UK, sparking a major row between government departments.

The Observer understands that senior civil servants in the Home Office and Foreign Office have recommended that ministers approve an application by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is banned from entering the United States, to come to London for medical treatment.

The news has prompted unease in the Department for Communities and Local Government, which fears that allowing Qaradawi in might offend other faith groups as well as many Muslims.

There were calls last night for ministers to reject Qaradawi’s application. “Qaradawi has been banned from the US since 1999,” said Dr Irfan al-Alawi, international director of the Centre for Islamic Pluralism. “Why should the British government allow him to come here?”

Observer, 27 January 2008

See also “Foreign Office approves visit by anti-semitic Muslim fascist” by Adrian Morgan. The irony of a self-proclaimed admirer of Nick Griffin denouncing fascism will not be lost on readers of Islamophobia Watch.

For the views of actual fascists on Qaradawi see Stormfront.