Islamophobia Watch

"This is about the fundamental freedom to choose. Those who chose not to wear the Hijab have joined forces with those who chose to wear it."

Speech by Abeer Pharaon (Coordinator of Assembly for the Protection of Hijab) at the fringe meeting organised by National Assembly Against Racism at the 2004 Labour Party Conference.

From the Pro-Hijab website

It was ironic that the French government's attack on the right of young Muslim women to observe their religion while pursuing their education met with a distinct lack of enthusiasm from the extreme right-wing Front National. FN leader Jean-Marie Le Pen commented at one point that he supported the wearing of the veil ... because it meant he didn't have to look at ugly women: "Le voile musulman: il nous protège des femmes laides" (Le Monde, 22 April 2002). Some on the Left have used the FN's semi-opposition as an argument in favour of the hijab ban.

However, the following article by FN general secretary Carl Lang, "Vous avez aimé l'immigration? Vous allez adorer l'islamisation" (You liked immigration? You'll love Islamicisation), from Le Pen's publication Français D'Abord (15 December 2003), shows that the main reason the FN failed to throw its weight behind the hijab ban was that the measure failed to deal with what the FN argues is the real problem – the encroaching Islamicisation of French society arising from an influx of Muslim migrants.

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"On Tuesday, US authorities diverted a United Airlines London-Washington flight to Bangor, Maine, where the ex-pop singer formerly known as Cat Stevens, now as Yusuf Islam, was questioned by federal security agents, and then ordered deported back to Britain. Yusuf Islam, it turns out, is on the official 'no-fly list'.

"This action will doubtless provoke loud and prolonged guffaws from those who consider American security policies to be excessive. But a look at the career and associations of Yusuf Islam since he became a Muslim in 1977 shows that the decision was correct."

Stephen Schwartz in Front Page Magazine, 23 September 2004

MCB Deputy Secretary General Dr Abdul Bari met today, with Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) Minister of State Douglas Alexander to raise the grave concerns of the Muslim community about the detention of Yusuf Islam in the US.

Dr Abdul Bari said "Yusuf Islam is a deeply respected and very popular British Muslim figure and his detention by the US authorities is completely unacceptable."

Muslim Council of Britain press release, 22 September 2004

American officials diverted a transatlantic flight 600 miles in the belief that the presence of Yusuf Islam, the charity worker and pop star formerly known as Cat Stevens, posed an imminent threat to national security.

Tania Branigan reports in the Guardian, 23 September 2004

The Church of England said yesterday that police counter-terrorism operations were directed disproportionately against Muslims and risked alienating them. In a submission to the Commons home affairs committee, the church's mission and public affairs council supported a proposed law against incitement to religious hatred, including towards Muslims, to preserve community relations.

Stephen Bates reports in the Guardian, 21 September 2004

"If the US government is serious about winning hearts and minds in the Muslim world and avoiding a clash of civilizations, it might consider sitting down for lengthy discussions with Tariq Ramadan, rather than barring his entrance."

Jane Lampman in the Christian Science Monitor, 21 September 2004

"Ramadan should not be admitted to the U.S. He has written extensively on the challenge of assimilating Islam in Europe, but has shown by his public statements there that he is not an Islamic moderate at all..."

Stephen Schwartz in Tech Central Station, 16 September 2004

"Have you read or listened to any of my material? Can you prove your allegations?" Prominent Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan was left asking these questions when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security revoked his visa in August.

Socialist Worker (US), 17 September 2005

The accusation against Yusuf al-Qaradawi that he had called for the abduction and killing of US civilians in Iraq, during talk to the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate in Cairo at the end of August, has received widespread coverage, despite the fact that Dr al-Qaradawi himself immediately denied the accuracy of the report in an interview with Al-Jazeera

Abu Aardvark reveals that leading Egyptian journalist Fahmi Huwaydi obtained a recording of the Cairo meeting and was able to confirm the truth of Qaradawi's denial. Abu Aardvark also complains that "a number of American magazines and newspapers have expressed no interest in this information when I presented it to them. As I feared, the conventional wisdom has congealed around a lie".

See here