"As Channel 4 controversially celebrated women covering their faces and critics are dismissed as Islamophobics, Joan Smith talks to a group of women who fear the consequences of the veil's acceptance."

Independent on Sunday, 31 December 2006

Yes, it's the familiar strategy pursued by Islamophobes of finding some Muslims who agree with them on a particular issue and then using this as a cover for attacks which feed into the wider media campaign being waged against the entire Muslim community. You'd have hoped that people wouldn't fall for this, but they do. The irony here is that Khadijah Atkinson, the presenter of Channel 4's "alternative Christmas message", is a member of Minhaj-ul-Quran, which has aligned itself with an Islamophobic campaign against the proposed so-called "mega-mosque" in Newham. And now some of her fellow Muslims are collaborating with an anti-Islamic bigot like Joan Smith in attacking Khadijah and other veiled women. It's not really the business of Islamophobia Watch to intervene in these matters, but surely some basic solidarity and an elementary sense of tactics wouldn't come amiss here?

For the sort of comment Smith's article has prompted from right-wing bloggers, see here and here

Many adults in the United States are against a proposal developed by the Dutch government that seeks to ban Islamic veils, according to a six-country poll by Harris Interactive published in the Financial Times. 59 per cent of Americans believe Islamic women should have the right to wear the garments if they wish to do so.

Angus Reid Global Monitor, 31 December 2006

Hostile coverage is driving Muslims away from the rest of society says Rageh Omaar, a Muslim journalist and former BBC correspondent now with Al-Jazeera. He blames self-proclaimed "liberals" for the negative media coverage: "I think that how you show that you really are liberal is your stance against what you perceive to be the threat of Islam, which journalists see as this monolithic backward looking, extremist threat to your liberal traditions. And I think it is just a knee-jerk reaction amongst a lot of my friends and colleagues in the media."

BBC News, 28 December 2006

See Charlie Beckett's piece at Comment is Free, 29 December 2006

Both of these pieces confuse the issue by portraying Islamophobic bigots like John Ware and Martin Bright as honest reporters ("tough liberals") who are only eager to get at the truth.

See also Mukul Devichand's article at Open Democracy, 29 December 2006

The transcript of the Analysis programme is here

The Homeland Security Department apologized to a Muslim woman who was detained at Tampa International Airport in April and strip searched at a county jail. Safana Jawad, 45, a Spanish citizen who was born in Iraq, was detained on April 11 because of a suspected tie to a suspicious person, authorities said. Jawad was taken to jail, strip searched and held for two days before being deported to England.

Jawad filed a complaint and the agency apologized on Dec. 8. "On behalf of the Department of Homeland Security, I offer you my sincere apology for having to undergo a strip search," wrote Timothy J. Keefer, acting chief counsel for the department's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

Associated Press, 29 December 2006

Conference: A World Civilisation or a Clash of Civilisations

20 January 2007, Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London SW1

The controversial "clash of civilisations" theory is the subject of a special one-day conference organised by the GLA on Saturday 20 January.

The view has been put forward that the world is going into an era of conflict and war driven by a clash of civilisations. The Mayor's policies are based on the exact opposite idea: that the multicultural city is part of creating a new concept of world civilisation that corresponds to a globalised world.

This conference will debate these contrasting approaches and their implications. The conference will feature a debate between the Mayor and Daniel Pipes, Director of the Middle East Forum, an American think tank that advises US policymakers on the Middle East. He has argued that "there is not so much a clash of civilisations as there is one of civilisations vs. barbarism".

Other sessions will see scholars and policy-makers discuss the impact of international events on London's communities and examine issues such as religious tolerance, human rights, diversity and the approach to multiculturalism.

Further details on GLA website here and here

The British National Party announces the latest issue of its "Jihad Watch bulletin" (no organisational link to Robert Spencer's site – though no doubt there's a considerable ideological overlap). It promotes a particularly barking piece from The American Daily detailing the Islamist "plan for world domination". The BNP may have have dispensed with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, but they have evidently retained their enthusiasm for wacko racist conspiracy theories.

BNP news article, 29 December 2006

"She was presented by Channel 4 as an authentic – but anonymous – voice of moderate British Islam. And on Christmas Day the veiled woman described only as 'Khadijah' was given a national televison platform for propagating her views in an 'alternative Christmas message' designed to rival the Queen's. She told viewers Jack Straw was wrong to criticise the veil, claiming concealing facial features 'liberated' women. But the Daily Mail can now unveil 'Khadijah' – and reveal that she is in fact Elaine Atkinson, an English convert to Islam who travels the country working for a radical muslim group trying to take political control of Pakistan."

Daily Mail, 29 December 2006

The "radical Muslim group" is Mihaj-ul-Quran, an organisation associated with a political party – Pakistan Awami Tehrik – that gained precisely 0.7% of the popular vote in the last parliamentary elections in Pakistan and elected just one MP. So clearly it has some way to go before it takes political control of Pakistan. And although the Daily Mail pours scorn on Khadijah's "claims of being moderate", the same paper recently quoted another supporter of Minhaj-ul-Quran as an example of the "moderate Muslims" who the Mail claims are opposed to Tablighi Jamaat building a new mosque in Newham.

The BNP have applauded the Mail for exposing Khadijah Atkinson's "rejection of her traditional English background, and her determination to embrace radical Islam". BNP news article, 30 December 2006

You can watch the "alternative Christmas message here by the way (hat tip: Yusuf Smith). 

Public meeting organised by Media Workers Against the War. Speakers: Gary Younge (The Guardian), Louise Christian (lawyer for Guantanámo detainees), Craig Murray (former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan), Noreen Fatima (National Union of Students – invited). Monday January 22, 7.30pm, Bloomsbury Central CHurch Hall, 235 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2.

Further details on MWAW website

"Some Muslims are undermining the battle to rid Britain's hospitals of killer infections by refusing to wash their hands when visiting sick relatives. Dispensers containing anti-bacterial gel have been placed outside wards at hospitals all over Britain in a bid to get rid of superbugs like MRSA and PVL. It prevents people bringing in more infections. But some Muslims refuse to use the hand cleansers on religious grounds because they contain alcohol. Health watchdogs are so concerned they intend to meet with NHS bosses in the New Year to try and hammer out a solution."

Sun, 29 December 2006

(Note also the accompanying "Outrage at ethnic pool" story.)

For a discussion of the Sun article see Rolled Up Trousers, 29 December 2006

A Muslim couple are threatening to take action against the police after they were held by Special Branch detectives at Cardiff Airport – missing their flight as their luggage and identities were checked. Aisha Pritchard and her Palestinian husband Sadi Eihaloul claim their detention was racist and are now considering bringing a test case against South Wales Police.

The couple, from Pentwyn, Cardiff, were due to fly to Dubai via Amsterdam for a four-day break on December 14 but they never made the trip after being stopped by security at the boarding gate. Ms Pritchard, 40, said: "We understand that there have to be security measures at all airports. It is the way we were treated we cannot accept. We feel we were deliberately stopped from boarding the plane, that it was racist and because we are Muslims."

By the time they had been given the all-clear by the detectives, the couple's flight had already left. And because their tickets were non-transferable, they were faced with having to pay out £1,500 if they wanted the next flight. Instead, they caught a taxi home.

icWales, 28 December 2006

See also the Independent, 29 December 2006