Islamophobia Watch

The union that represents workers at a Tyson Foods poultry plant in Tennessee has negotiated a contract that substitutes a Muslim holiday for Labor Day as one of the eight paid holidays at the plant.

The provision, which was proposed by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, has delighted the plant's Somali workers, who account for hundreds of its 1,200 employees. But it has infuriated many outsiders, leading some to denounce Tyson and the union alike.

“You are a union that is proud of achieving a Muslim holiday and prayer room?” one person wrote the union. "A union in the U.S.A., a country based on Christianity. You call yourselves Americans? Have you forgotten 9/11?"

Another wrote: "You had no right to drop Labor Day. Muslim employees must integrate Labor Day into THEIR lives if they are going to live in America."

Stung by the criticism, Stuart Appelbaum, the union's president, said the decision was fully consistent with the spirit of Labor Day.

"We in the labor movement have always understood that unions are only strong when we work to protect the dignity of all faiths, and that includes Muslims," said Mr. Appelbaum, who also serves as president of the Jewish Labor Committee.

"What we negotiated was the will of the workers," said Mr. Appelbaum, who added that his was the first union to negotiate a paid day off for a Muslim holiday and that he was sure Tyson would not be the last employer to agree.

New York Times, 6 August 2008

Over at Front Page Magazine Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch warns that this represents one more step down the slippery slope towards the Islamisation of the USA: "The problem is that the accommodation of Islamic holidays and practices abets, however unwittingly, an avowedly supremacist agenda that is directed toward supplanting American laws and mores and imposing Islamic law here."

And the inimitable Debbie Schlussel writes: "Well, folks, here it is – the beginning (or maybe the middle) of the end of America as we know it.... Since I keep kosher, I don't eat Tyson Foods products anyway, but I call on you my readers to boycott the company. It's absurd to replace labor day with the holiday of those bent on our destruction. Any company that does that doesn't deserve your business."

"The government is to set up a board of Muslim theologians. Once established, it will steer the more radical elements of the Muslim community away from violent extremism and issue fatwas on controversial issues such as the position of women and loyalty to the UK. This is bonkers! And everyone should know it. Who in our diverse Muslim communities would actually listen to such a board?

"... There is a stench of social engineering and misguided and misbegotten patronage about the project. A steering committee of the government's favourite Muslim advisers, people who themselves command little respect among Muslims, will be established. The committee will hand-pick 'theologians' and weed out extremists, undesirables, and those critical of the government and its foreign policy. Not surprisingly, the whole exercise has generated suspicion. It is doomed to failure....

"There is, however, a particularly Islamic way of rescuing the enterprise. Why not let Muslim communities themselves decide who should be on the board? In Islamic parlance, such an exercise would be shura, or consultation. Muslim communities could nominate their representatives."

Ziauddin Sardar in the New Statesman, 7 August 2008

A proposal to turn a medieval palace in Genoa founded by Crusader knights into a multi faith prayer centre for Muslims, Jews and Christians has run into opposition from local politicians who say Muslims are "not welcome".

Members of the anti immigrant Northern League – which is part of the centre Right government led by Silvio Berlusconi – said the Genoa council's plan to use the Commenda di Pre for multi faith prayer was unacceptable.

Francesco Bruzzone, a regional councillor for the Northern League, said Muslims had "no business coming" to the hospital and hostel where crusaders and pilgrims had gathered and said mass before leaving for the Holy Land."This shows a lack of respect for history" Mr Bruzzone said. He said he had been due to go on holiday but instead had decided to stay in Genoa to protest.

Ken Livingstone has told his Leftwing supporters in City Hall to hang on in there, however unpleasant it may be working for a Tory Mayor such as Boris Johnson, because he intends to be back in 2012.

Among those who probably will not be able to survive the regime change at City Hall is the Lokahi Foundation, an outfit with extremist Islamist links that boasts academic Tariq Ramadan as a leading light.

Almost half a million pounds of council taxpayers' money was handed over to its coffers under Ken. "The funding agreement ran out in July 2008 and I understand that all payments have been made," says a City Hall spokesman.

Ramadan, Lokahi's "Senior Research Fellow", sparked controversy in the mayoral elections by signing a letter urging Muslims to vote for Livingstone without declaring the £450,000 his organisation had been paid by the then Mayor. He has been denied entry to the United States in the past because of allegations concerning his terrorist sympathies.

"Our funding has run out from the Greater London Authority," Lokahi's director, Gwen Griffith-Dickson, tells me. "There might be a problem about Tariq Ramadan's personal letter urging people to vote for Ken Livingstone and the tug of war over some of his comments but he is one of a team."

Evening Standard, 6 August 2008

Arabist Hans Jansen is accusing SNS bank of using Islamist propaganda on their site. Islam in Europe has a translation of the correspondence between Jansen and SNS.

"Now that Richard Dawkins has said it, perhaps chattering Islingtonians will take note: Muslim parents are importing crude Creationism into our schools on an unprecedented scale."

Damian Thompson at Holy Smoke, 5 August 2008

Devout Muslims are importing creationist theories into science and are not being challenged because of political correctness, one of the country's most famous scientists said tonight. Professor Richard Dawkins argued that as a result teachers were promoting the 'mythology' of creationism over the science of evolution.

Professor Dawkins, a geneticist and author of the best-selling book The God Delusion, said:

"Islam is importing creationism into this country. Most devout Muslims are creationists – so when you go to schools, there are a large number of children of Islamic parents who trot out what they have been taught. Teachers are bending over backwards to respect home prejudices that children have been brought up with. The Government could do more but it doesn't want to because it is fanatical about multiculturalism and the need to respect the different traditions from which these children come."

He added: "It seems as though teachers are terribly frightened of being thought racist. It's almost impossible to say anything against Islam in this country because if you do you are accused of being racist or Islamophobic."

Daily Mail, 4 August 2008

On the other hand, there are those of us who would argue that paranoid delusions about the impact on educational policy of a minority faith community who comprise less than 3% of the population of the UK are quite accurately categorisable as Islamophobia.

See also the Daily Telegraph, which reports: "Prof Dawkins said the failure in classrooms meant religious fanatics had a chance to get hold. 'Because we are all brought up to respect faith, it leaves open a gap through which fanatics can charge', he said."

Update:  Predictably, Dawkins' views are approvingly reproduced by the British National Party. Of course, the BNP's own position is that they're defending "Christian civilisation" against Islam. But they're prepared to overlook minor differences like that when it comes to whipping up hatred against Muslims.

The Islam on Campus report and the way it was promoted by the Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC) has been criticised by universities, students and academics (Muslim students back Islamic killings, News, last week). The 120-page report concludes that “British Muslim students hold a diverse and broad range of opinions. The majority of Muslim students have tolerant ideas towards other minorities, reject violence in the name of their faith and support Britain's secular and democratic society as well as its system of governance”.

The University and College Union (UCU), like the majority of people, takes the threat of terrorism seriously. We welcome the recent emphasis the government has put on community cohesion in regards to tackling violent extremism, but we reject the headline-grabbing tactics of groups such as CSC.

Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary

I am a lecturer in history at Queen Mary University of London, born, raised and educated in Israel. I teach the history of medieval Islam (society, culture and politics) to Muslim and non-Muslim students alike. The students contribute to debate about Islam from their diverse backgrounds and perspectives. The article published last week bears no similarity to my own experience at Queen Mary; it disparages the intellectual integrity of the young men and women who study with me and can only make open discussion more difficult.

Yossi Rapoport, Department of History, Queen Mary University

Sunday Times, 3 August 2008

The Dallas Morning News reports that Texan companies are increasingly recognising the need to provide prayer rooms for their Muslim employees. Dhimmi Watch is not happy.

The Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-OK) announced today that it has filed an EEOC complaint on behalf of a Muslim woman who was allegedly denied employment at an Abercrombie Kids store in that state because of the applicant's religiously-mandated headscarf, or hijab.

The woman told CAIR-OK that a district manager claimed he could not hire her because her Islamic headscarf "does not fit the Abercrombie image."

"Employers have a clear legal duty to accommodate the religious practices of their workers," said CAIR-OK Executive Director Razi Hashmi. "To deny someone employment because of apparent religious bias goes against long-standing American traditions of tolerance and inclusion."

Hashmi noted that Abercrombie & Fitch's corporate "Code of Business Conduct and Ethics" states: "The Company will adhere to its employment policies of non-discrimination as it relates to race, color, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation or handicap and will ensure compliance with all legal and other regulations governing employment."

In a letter to Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jefferies, CAIR-OK asked the company to 1) offer the Muslim applicant a formal apology, 2) clarify the company's policy on religious accommodation, and 3) institute workplace sensitivity and diversity training.

CAIR press release, 31 July 2008

See also 'Prayer, Hijab in US Job Rights Manual' at IslamOnline, 31 July 2008