Islamophobia Watch

The burqa and the new religious intolerance

Bob Pitt — Tue, 22 May 2012 06:49:57 +0000

American philosopher Martha Nussbaum, author of the recently published book The New Religious Intolerance, examines the spurious justifications given for banning the niqab and burqa.

She concludes that "traditions of religious liberty and equality in both the United States and Europe" are under threat as the result of "a climate of fear and suspicion, directed primarily against Muslims".

ABC, 22 May 2012

New Jersey: Muslim woman told to remove niqab in mall

Bob Pitt — Mon, 21 May 2012 23:12:00 +0000

Wakeelah Salaam had been shopping by herself for less than ten minutes at the Bridegwater Commons Mall when a security guard approached her and told her to remove her traditional Muslim face covering.

"He said, 'ma'am, I'm telling you, you cannot wear that mask in here. He came as close to me as though he was going to kiss me, and then he made the hand gesture like he was going to lift it up for me," Salaam said.

Baroness Warsi and the EDL join hands on grooming

Bob Pitt — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:20:16 +0000

"The Baroness has inadvertently and quite clumsily given her full support to the far right and Islamophobes who are looking to peddle misinformation and hate based on religion."

Mohammed Ansar replies to comments made by Sayeeda Warsi in her Evening Standard interview.

Ansar's on a Postcard, 21 May 2012

Sympathy for the devil: Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Anders Breivik

Bob Pitt — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:42:00 +0000

Darling of the Islamophobic right, fellow at the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute and serial liar Ayaan Hirsi Ali was in Berlin last week to receive the Axel Springer Honorary Prize. In her acceptance speech, which was delivered in English, she attacked the "advocates of silence" who censor the truth about Islam and the Muslim extremists who are destroying Europe:

The advocates of silence warn us that publishing these facts or debating them in the media and in parliament will transform the existing resentment towards Muslims into violent behavior. Censorship and silence, we are told, are the best preventive remedies against hatred and violence.

I believe that the advocates of silence are wrong, profoundly and dangerously wrong.

Just who these "advocates of silence" are Ayaan Hirsi Ali never says, but presumably they are anyone who rejects hate speech against Muslims or anyone who proposes peaceful dialogue and reconciliation among different faiths.

But Ayaan Hirsi Ali has a great deal of understanding for mass murder Anders Behring Breivik, who was forced to kill 77 mostly young people because of the treachery of the "advocates of silence":

Fourthly and finally, that one man who killed 77 people in Norway, because he fears that Europe will be overrun by Islam, may have cited the work of those who speak and write against political Islam in Europe and America – myself among them – but he does not say in his 1500 page manifesto that it was these people who inspired him to kill. He says very clearly that it was the advocates of silence. Because all outlets to express his views were censored, he says, he had no other choice but to use violence.

Yes, the "advocates of silence" left Breivik with no other choice than to hunt down teenagers systematically. Who wouldn't be driven to desperate acts by this terrible "leftist" conspiracy?

Dialog International, 19 May 2012

EDL and BFP leaders hold 'strategy meeting'

Bob Pitt — Mon, 21 May 2012 09:50:00 +0000

British Freedom (as the British Freedom Party has been renamed, because BFP is "too closely sounding to BNP") reports that its executive council has held a meeting with the English Defence League leaders to discuss future political plans.