Dutch government moves step closer to banning veil

September 2010: Verhagen and Wilders shake hands on their political dealThe Dutch Cabinet moved a step closer Friday to banning the burqa, making good on an election promise that is largely symbolic but has broad public support.

Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Verhagen said the Cabinet agreed on plans to ban the head-to-toe Islamic gown along with other forms of face-covering clothing including ski masks. The legislation must still be approved by both houses of the Dutch Parliament, a process that could take months. "We are confident we have a majority," Interior Minister Liesbeth Spies said.

Once seen as one of the world's most tolerant nations, the Netherlands has turned increasingly conservative in recent years and is pushing immigrants more to fully assimilate into mainstream Dutch society. Anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders welcomed the decision in a tweet as "fantastic news."

Like neighboring Belgium, the Dutch government cited security concerns as a reason for the ban and framed it as a move to safeguard public order and allow all people to "fully participate in society". "People must be able to look one another in the eye," Verhagen said.

The Dutch decision came despite criticism of the ban from independent advisory panel the Council of State, which reportedly suggested it could amount to an attack on freedom of religion. Verhagen denied ignoring the advice and said ministers took it into account when laying out the reasons underpinning the legislation. The government is confident that by citing public order concerns, the legislation will not breach the European Convention on Human Rights.

Leyla Cakir, head of Muslim women's organization Al Nisa, said she was surprised and shocked by the decision. "You are taking away women's right of self-determination, and it is all based on fear," she said.

But in a statement announcing the decision, the government said it was helping women. "Having to wear a burqa or niqab in public goes against equality of men and women," the government said. "With this legislation, the Cabinet is removing a barrier to these women participating in society."

Associated Press, 27 January 2012

See also "Ministers vote for Dutch 'burqa ban'", RNW, 27 January 2012

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Longview resident welcomes mosque

A Longview resident said Thursday he is disappointed by the negative reaction from a portion of the Longview community toward a mosque being built on Amy Street.

"Quite frankly it was very disheartening to me to see that type of discussion taking place here in our community," Vik Verma said during public comment at a Longview City Council meeting.

"I believe it's strongly unwarranted. The Islamic community of Longview is merely wanting to have a house of worship just like any other faith in Longview, in Gregg County, in Texas and in the United States. I think this is a value that our community should embrace."

Verma said freedom of religion is a right granted in the U.S. Constitution and that the community should embrace it. "I support the mosque. I'm glad it's coming to Gregg County," Verma said. "I think it's good for diversity in our area, and I think it's good for the community as a whole."

Longview News-Journal, 27 January 2012

Wilders' party helps critic to top European job

Geert Wilders' populist Freedom Party (PVV) this week helped ensure one of its fiercest international critics got a top European job.

The PVV was so determined to block the appointment of Dutch Labour MP Frans Timmermans as human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe that it inadvertently helped Latvia's Nils Muiznieks get the post.

Mr Timmermans is a vociferous opponent of the PVV, but Mr Muiznieks is also no friend to the anti-Islam party. He has gone on record fiercely criticising the PVV for being Islamophobic and using racist and xenophobic language.

Peter van Dijk, the PVV's representative on the Council of Europe, says he was not acquainted with Mr Muiznieks' position until after the vote had been taken. He was unwilling when interviewed on Dutch television to admit whom he did vote for, but would only say he didn't vote for Mr Timmermans.

RNW, 27 January 2012

EDL supporter attacked family with knives, threatened to kill them

A family barricaded themselves in their home as a neighbour armed with knives threatened to kill them, a court heard. Daniel Smith is said to have shouted racist abuse and English Defence League slogans as he smashed his way into the Thornhill Lees home.

Yesterday, victim Waaqas Ahmed said: "He was like a vicious animal against his prey, lunging. It’s a miracle I didn't get hurt."

Leeds Crown Court heard the attack on August 26, 2011, was the culmination of a long-running dispute between Smith's girlfriend and their neighbours in Victoria Road.

Prosecutor Christopher Tehrani said Smith started a fight in the street with two of his neighbour's brothers at around 7.30pm. When the fight was broken up, the brothers went into their sister's house and locked the front door.

Soon after, Smith, 38, arrived armed with two knives and a screwdriver. Jurors saw mobile phone footage of him banging at the door and making threats.

Zubair Yasin said: "Everyone was on their phones calling the police. My little niece was screaming, my sister was crying. We could not imagine how this could be happening in our own home."

Mr Tehrani said the family wedged an ironing board against the door, but Smith forced his way in. He threatened family members one-by-one with a knife.

Junaid Azad's arm was cut when he tried to protect his sister. "It was pandemonium," he said. Mr Azad said he defended himself and his family with a broom handle and exercise bar, and threw a milkshake at Smith.

Smith denies assault by beating and aggravated burglary.

Dewsbury Reporter, 27 January 2012

Sookhdeo on the Arab Spring: dictatorships have been replaced by 'a political ideology rooted in a religion that wants our destruction'

WASHINGTON – An expert on Islam said Thursday that the United States and other Western nations are indirectly aiding the spread of radical Islamic groups abroad.

Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, international director of U.K.-based Barnabas Fund, said at a lecture hosted by Family Research Council that the "Arab Spring" is a good example of how the United States and other nations are enabling the spread of Islamism, especially in Libya and Egypt.

In Libya, he said, the support given by NATO and the U.S. to the rebel group, known as the NTC, is a matter of concern.

"We had to support the NTC, which was the rebel group," said Sookhdeo, who added that "they were a coalition of groups that included al-Qaida."

"We have removed one dictator and replaced that dictator with a political ideology rooted in a religion that wants our destruction."

From that example, Sookhdeo moved to Egypt, which also recently had a dictatorship toppled by the civilian uprising.

"The conclusion is the Salafist Wahhabists have effectively triumphed," said Sookhdeo, noting that the elections resulted in the Salafists gaining around 60 percent of the seats in the legislature.

Christian Post, 26 January 2012

In reality, of course, the Salafi al-Nour party got only 29% of the seats in the newly elected People's Assembly. Sookhdeo presumably arrives at his figure by adding the 38% of seats won by the Muslim Brotherhood. Is this "expert on Islam" really so ignorant of Egyptian Islamist politics that he thinks the Brotherhood are "Salafist Wahhabists"?

For a rather more informed discussion of the impact of political Islam on the Arab world, see Gulf News, 27 January 2012

Boykin to be keynote speaker at West Point prayer breakfast

A controversial retired Army officer who has drawn attention worldwide for speeches against Islam will be the keynote speaker at a prayer breakfast Feb 8 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin was a top Pentagon official in 2004 when he was reprimanded for saying in uniform that Muslims worship idols and not "a real God," and for depicting the war against Muslim radicals as a Christian struggle against satan.

Since he retired, Boykin has been on the lecture circuit, speaking more candidly about his belief that the practice of Islam shouldn't be covered by the First Amendment because it's "a totalitarian way of life," and that mosques should be banned.

Several advocacy groups criticized the beach community of Ocean City, Md., for hosting Boykin Thursday at the city's annual prayer breakfast. The groups called for organizers to withdraw the invitation and for city leaders to speak out against Boykin's comments.

On Thursday, a veterans' group released a letter to West Point's superintendent, asking him to retract the invite for Boykin to speak at the annual prayer breakfast on Feb. 8.

Boykins' past remarks about Muslims and mosques, the letter reads, "are incompatible with the Army values, and a person who is incompatible with Army values should not address the cadets of the United States Military Academy ... (His address) would be a slap to the face to Muslim Americans who have served their country, not to mention those who gave the fullest sacrifice for their nation and their comrades."

Washington Post, 27 January 2012

See also "Veterans call on West Point to cancel planned speech by Islamophobic general", Think Progress, 26 January 2012

And "Iraq and Afghanistan veterans call on West Point to retract invite to vocal anti-Muslim Boykin", VoteVets press release, 26 January 2012

Update:  See "CAIR joins vets in asking West Point to disinvite anti-Islam speaker", CAIR press release, 26 January 2012

Update 2:   See "Gen Boykin: Muslims are 'precious... I respect them and their right to worship'", Bartholomew's Notes on Religion, 27 January 2012

90% of anti-semitic crimes in Germany committed by right-wing extremists

LoonWatch draws our attention to a report (via the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth) of a new study of antisemitism in Germany which reveals that the overwhelming majority of antisemitic crimes there are committed by the far right – not, as Islamophobic propagandists repeatedly assert, by Muslims.

Former Test cricketer tweets Australia Day slur against Muslims

Former Test cricketer Rodney Hogg's anti-Muslim slur on Twitter was "more than despicable, it's the pits really", the leader of an Islamic group said today.

Hogg is embroiled in a racial controversy after an ill-advised attempt at humour on Australia Day.

"Just put out my aussie flag for Australia Day but I wasn't sure if it would offend Muslims...So I wrote 'Allah is a shit' on it to make sure," Hogg tweeted at midday today.

Sydney Morning Herald, 26 January 2012

New York police commissioner apologises for 'Third Jihad' interview

New York's police commissioner apologized Wednesday for appearing in a documentary movie about terrorism that Muslim groups have criticized as inflammatory, and said his department acted wrongly when it later showed the film to counterterrorism trainees.

A spokesman for Raymond Kelly had previously denied the commissioner had any participation in the making of the "The Third Jihad," suggesting last year that footage of Kelly was lifted from another source.

But on Wednesday Kelly said he had sat for an interview in 2007 because the filmmaker had "bona fides" in television and with the White House. The movie later was shown on a continuous loop on the sidelines during New York Police Department counterterrorism sessions.

"While it never became part of the Department's curriculum, and was not authorized for any training, regrettably it was shown in a room where officers who were filling out paperwork or on break from actual training had an opportunity to view it over an extended period in 2010," Kelly said in a written statement.

Police stopped playing the film after one of the trainees complained, he said.

"I offer my apologies to members of the Muslim community, in particular, who would find the film inflammatory and its airing on Department property, though unauthorized, to be inappropriate," Kelly wrote.

On Thursday activists planned to call for Kelly's resignation at an event outside New York's City Hall. Some of the activists were those singled out in the film.

The film's producer, Raphael Shore, issued a statement defending his work on Wednesday, saying, "Those that have blasted the film are attempting to stifle an important debate about the internal state of the Muslim community in America, and whether politicized Islam and indoctrination pose tangible security threats."

New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne told reporters last year that he believed the footage of Kelly speaking was lifted from another source. "The New York Police Department did not participate in its production," Kelly wrote in a March 7, 2011, letter to Majlis Ash-Shura of Metropolitan New York, a Muslim group.

Clarion Fund spokesman Alex Traiman said Kelly spoke on camera for 90 minutes and was fully aware of the movie's focus. "The commissioner wasn't duped," Traiman said. "If he was unhappy with the line of questioning you'd think he would have broken off the interview before 90 minutes."

He accused Bloomberg and Kelly of bending to the will of Muslim activists.

Associated Press, 26 January 2012

Update:  See "Anti-Islam documentary producer was arrested for impersonating Secret Service agent", New York Post, 26 January 2012

Update 2:  Still, Commissioner Kelly does have his supporters. See "AFDI/SIOA deplores Hamas-linked Islamic supremacist hate group CAIR's attempts to impede New York counter-jihad training", Stop Islamization of America press release, 26 January 2012

Update 3:  See "Rally calls for NYPD commissioner to quit over anti-Muslim training film", Guardian, 26 January 2012

'Strict Muslim' raped four women at knifepoint to 'punish them for being on the streets at night'

Thus the headline to an article in today's Daily Mail. As is almost invariably the case when this newspaper reports on any issue involving Muslims, the headline is intentionally misleading.

If you read the article, you'll see it is the rapist's family background that is characterised as "strict Muslim" not the individual himself. In fact the judge in passing sentence made the point that the rapist carried out the attacks despite and in contradiction to his religious upbringing: "The fact that you have attacked these women not withstanding your background must represent your own wholly warped personality."

But the headline suggests to the reader that it was the man's strict adherence to his faith which produced the violent misogyny that led him to commit these crimes.

Update:  Predictably, if belatedly, the English Defence League have seized on the story: