ISLAMOPHOBIA: Anti Muslim Racism
Entries by Martin Sullivan (3115)
'Dispatches' to provide platform for BNP's anti-Muslim bigotry
One of Epping's BNP councillors is set to feature on a controversial television documentary which attracts millions of viewers. Councillor Pat Richardson will speak candidly about her attitude towards Muslims living in Britain on the Dispatches programme scheduled to be screened on Channel 4 in July.
Mrs Richardson, who has the rare distinction of being the BNP's only Jewish councillor, was interviewed for the programme during the local election count at Waltham Abbey Town Hall earlier this month, where she was elected to represent the Loughton Broadway ward.
Along with fellow BNP party members, she was questioned about her views on British Muslims by the show's producer James Jones. Mrs Richardson said: "He was very polite and he followed us around throughout the morning." Mr Jones said: "I chose to interview Pat Richardson as a subject because her background and political views make her an interesting subject."
Martin Sullivan
Terrorism is not jihad
"When the media or individuals use Arabic terms such as jihad for acts of terrorism, or when they attach the word Islam in front of a word as in Islamo-fascism, Islamic terrorism, those words have an effect. They have an effect right here in America by linking the religion of Islam and terrorist acts in the mind of ordinary citizens. They have an effect on Muslims who are struggling to make clear to those Muslims who attempt to justify their crimes by some false interpretation of Islamic teachings that we do not accept their claims. They have an effect on Muslims worldwide who because of the use of language like Islamo-Fascist, have come to view the 'war on terror' not as a war on al Qaeda, but as a war on Islam itself."
Sheila Musaji at The American Muslim, 13 May 2008
Detroit Muslim woman loses case – take off the veil demands judge
A U.S. Federal Judge heard and dismissed a case on Monday involving a Muslim Detroit woman who claims that being forced to remove her veil in court caused her to lose her case.
In October 2006, 44-year old Ginnnah Muhammad donned a niqab – a traditional veil and scarf that covers the entire head and most of the face – during her hearing in which she was disputing a $3,000 fee from Enterprise Rent-A-Car to repair a vehicle which Muhammad claims burglars had broken into. According to the Associated Press, Judge Paul Paruk "told her he needed to see her face to judge her truthfulness and gave her a choice: Take off the veil or have the case dismissed."
Margaret Nelson, Assistant state attorney general, represented Paruk and argued that he needed to "fully observe" Muhammad in order to properly determine the facts. "It was a temporary, necessary, limited action (that had) only incidental impact on the practice of her religion," Nelson said.
Birmingham professor speaks at extremist Islamic group debate
A University of Birmingham professor and student have come under fire for supporting a debate held by an extremist Islamist organisation.
Sociology professor John Holmwood spoke at a debate on secularism organised by the Hizb-ut-Tahrir group, which on its website constitution calls for a pan-Islamic caliphate and the execution of people who convert from Islam. Yasmin Patel, who was elected to be the minority students' support officer on the Guild of Students at the university, sent out emails encouraging attendance at the debate.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which translates as Party of Liberation, is a global political group, which has been accused of fostering extremism against women and Jews. Its constitution calls for a state of constant war against Israel.
Prof Holmwood said the meeting, held in Small Heath on Sunday, had not been involved with extremism and it was important to engage groups in debate. He said:
"There were about 100 people there, probably 100 per cent Muslim, but 90 per cent of them weren't Hizb-ut-Tahrir. Not engaging views is more dangerous than some of the opinions of those you are engaging with. I went there not knowing what to expect. What happened was there was a good debate and people came up afterwards and said some of them wanted to come up to the university and talk about issues of secularism, and that can only be a good thing."
Adam Sher, secretary of the University of Birmingham's Jewish Society, said: "A minority officer, in my opinion, shouldn’t be espousing the views of Hizb-ut-Tahrir."
For the origins of this witch-hunt, see The Ministry of Truth and Harry's Place.
Obama Islam smear changes stripes
"When the Islam smear against Obama first came out, it was based on the idea that he is currently, a Muslim. Then the Pastor Wright controversy put that mess to rest, since Obama's affiliations to an obviously Christian Church became front and center. Now there is a new Islam smear. This one says that Obama was a Muslim – and as a result, he is going to arouse the wrath of Muslims around the world who are going to want to kill him for apostasy (converting away from Islam, punishable by death)."
Ali Eteraz responds to an article by Edward Luttwack in the New York Times, which he describes as "solid fear-mongering".
Daily Telegraph leader writer and Catholic Herald editor Damian Thompson hails the NYT article as "fascinating stuff": Holy Smoke, 12 May 2008
'We are sleep-walking into an Islamic caliphate'
"... there is an extraordinary passage when one of the most likeable and longest-serving members of the team, and a former radical Sixties firebrand to boot, turns on radical Islam and the fact that we are sleep-walking into an Islamic caliphate. He describes suicide bombers as 'racists, fascists and bastards', deplores the credulity of right-on, anti-American attitudes, and insists that 'self-hatred is the cancer at the heart of our nation'.
"It's always dangerous to assume that any character's words represent the view of the playwright..... But this play seems to me to mark a defining moment on the English stage when the conventional liberal pieties that largely obtain in our theatre are finally put under fierce scrutiny, and Jihadist Islam is at last denounced as a malign evil."
Charles Spencer reviews Richard Bean's new play The English Game.
Islam's refuseniks
Nesrine Malik takes on Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji and Wafa Sultan.
McCain's war on 'Islamic terror'
"With Senator Obama the presumptive Democratic nominee, the question facing America, increasingly, boils down to this: intensify the 'clash of civilizations', at the continued expense of domestic needs, or turn to diplomacy to resolve international conflict, so we can re-orient our national priorities to health care, education, economic recovery, and protecting the environment."
Writing in the Huffington Post Robert Naiman observes that John McCain "continues to flog the idea of a war on 'Islamic terrorism', even though the official policy of the United States Government is that there is no US war on 'Islamic Terror'." Naiman points out: "Of course, if America sees itself as facing an enemy of 'Islamic terror', while that might be very harmful to the U.S. internationally, it could be very useful domestically. It would be much easier to rationalize a military attack on Iran."
Munira Mirza joins Boris's team
A glamorous young Muslim [sic] woman is the latest Cameron favourite to be parachuted in to keep a close eye on Johnson. Munira Mirza, who argues that racism in the UK is greatly exaggerated, is to serve as a cultural adviser to the mayor.
She is the third member of his new team to have worked for Policy Exchange, the organisation behind many of the policies adopted by Cameron's Conservatives.
Mirza's appointment will also be viewed as an attempt to neutralise any accusations that Johnson is racist, especially as he seeks to slash grants to fringe ethnic groups, many of which received lavish funding from Livingstone.
Mirza believes race relations policies based on multicultural ideas have been divisive.
For more on Munira Mirza and Policy Exchange see here. Pointing to Mirza's asssociation with the tendency around Spiked Online and the Institute of Ideas, which was formerly the Revolutionary Communist Party, we wrote that the ideology promoted by the ex-RCP these days "fits in quite well with Tory values". And in another piece we observed that the RCP had "morphed into a bunch of right-wing libertarian individualists whose obvious natural home now is the Tory party". How right we were.
History textbooks 'blatantly promoting Islam' shock
History textbooks being used by hundreds of thousands of public school students across the U.S. are blatantly promoting Islam, according to a new report by an independent organization that researches and reviews textbooks.
WND has reported several times on issues involving the promotion of Islam in public school texts, including a recent situation in which California parents complained their children were being taught that "jihad" to Muslims means "doing good works."
The new report is from the American Textbook Council, which was established in 1989 as an independent national research organization to review social studies textbooks and advance the quality of instructional materials in history.
In the two-year project, whose report was authored by Gilbert T. Sewall, the ATC reviewed five junior and five high school world and American history texts, concluding:
"Many political and religious groups try to use the textbook process to their advantage, but the deficiencies in Islam-related lessons are uniquely disturbing. History textbooks present an incomplete and confected view of Islam that misrepresents its foundations and challenges to international security."
See also Right Side News, 11 May 2008