ISLAMOPHOBIA: Anti Muslim Racism
Entries from June 17, 2007 - June 23, 2007
The 'misogyny, homophobia and authoritarian impulses' of Islam
Rod Liddle explains why the Left has little time for Salman Rushdie: "It has long carried a torch for Islam, despite the misogyny, homophobia and authoritarian impulses of the ideology – a political mispositioning occasioned, first and foremost, by the doctrine of multiculturalism."
German cardinal against 'equal' Muslims
BERLIN — In statements endorsed by the ruling Christian Democratic Union party and harshly criticized by MPs, Germany's top cardinal has warned against "uncritical tolerance" which could lead to Islam enjoying equal standing with Christianity in the country, Deutsche Welle reported Friday, June 22.
"The neutrality of the state regarding individual religions must not be confused with indifference and uncritical tolerance toward the impact of religions on society," the German news network quoted Cardinal Karl Lehmann as saying. Lehmann, the head of the German conference of bishops, expressed concern about religious freedom leading to all faiths being treated equally regardless of the size of their flock and their history. He pointed to Christianity's role in shaping European history and even its legal culture.
Ronald Pofalla, the general secretary of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union party, said Lehmann was right to say Islam could not be afforded the same legal standing in Germany as Christianity. "Unlike Christianity, Islam is not in Europe's cultural centre and is not reflected in everyday life in the same way," Pofalla said in a statement.
Jewish activist attacks Muslims at Mighty Heart screening
Michael Winterbottom's true-life drama A Mighty Heart, about the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, was at the centre of a fresh controversy last night following a preview screening in Los Angeles. At a post-film panel discussion featuring representatives from Muslim, Jewish and Christian groups, a Jewish activist denounced the event saying, "The only reason [Muslims] like this film is because it's about a dead Jew." The activist said the participation of members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was like "David Duke co-sponsoring Schindler's List", referring to the former Klu Klux Klan Grand Master and Louisiana politician.
See also MeeVee, 22 June 2007
The Jewish activist was one Allyson Rowen Taylor. Last year when the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission voted to give an award to a local Muslim leader, Dr Maher Hathout, Taylor accused them of bowing to Muslim intimidation: "They're afraid of the Muslim community burning cars, burning effigies and burning synagogues."
Another boost for the 'Council of Ex-Muslims' fraud
A new group of secular-minded former Muslims in the UK has urged the government to cut all state funding to religious groups and to stop pandering to political Islam.
The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, launched yesterday in London, opposes the interference of religion in public life. Its spokeswoman, Maryam Namazie, said the group provided an alternative voice to the "regressive, parasitical and self-appointed leaders" from organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain and the "oxymoronic" Islamic Human Rights Commission.
'Salman Rushdie is not the problem. Muslims are'
Daniel Pipes' favourite Muslim, Irshad Manji, adds her ten cents to the Rushdie controversy.
As does Melanie Phillips's favourite Trotskyist, Sean Matgamna.
Bright backs Rushdie (and Pope found to be Catholic)
"The attacks on Rushdie from self-appointed representatives of the Muslim community this time around have been utterly predictable. But it has been useful to flush out the miserable Lord Ahmed for the out-of-touch Islamist he really is. It was, therefore, a pleasant surprise to see Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain recanting on Comment is Free over his previous wish to see Rushdie dead. I only hope he can bring himself to do the same over the MBC's shameful position on Holocaust Memorial Day, homosexuality and declarations of the apostasy of Muslim sects of which it doesn't approve."
It appears that Bright is incapable of referring to representatives of the Muslim community without adding the qualifier "self-appointed", and this despite the fact that the MCB has 500 affiliates and elects its leadership every two years. Bright, of course, prefers the self-styled Sufi Muslim Council which represents nothing whatsoever in the Muslim communities and whose leadership has never been elected by anybody.
Meanwhile, over at Comment is Free, Oliver Miles offers a more thoughtful response to the Rushdie knighthood controversy: "Did no one really understand that far from being in the category of those who have made a positive contribution, Rushdie has deepened the divisions in our society, and this accolade was likely to deepen them still further?"
Ignore Islam, 'ex-Muslims' urge
BBC News gives favourable publicity to the Worker Communist Party of Iran's fraudulent front organisation, the so-called Council of Ex-Muslims, as does the Washington Post and the Daily Telegraph. See also A.C. Grayling's ridiculous remarks at Comment is Free. Meanwhile, frothing-at-the-mouth right-wing US Islamophobe Michelle Malkin has hailed Maryam Namazie and her comrades as "the bravest of the brave", who are "putting their necks on the line for Western civilization". Malkin urges her readers: "Find a way to show your support."
Stop the extradition of Babar Ahmad
Please click on the link below and sign the petition to demand the government stops the extradition of British citizen Babar Ahmad to the US and puts him on trial in the UK.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/BabarAhmad/sign
See also Socialist Worker, 23 June 2007
Martin Sullivan
in USA, UK, Resisting Islamophobia, State Oppression
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Gay rights, Islamophobia and double standards
Over at the neocon blog Harry's Place, Brett Lock of gay rights group OutRage! finally gets round to addressing the disgraceful campaign in Israel to ban the Jerusalem Pride march, which takes place tomorrow. Brett omits any condemnation of, or indeed reference to, the threats of violence from Orthodox Jews or the appeal by the Mayor of Jerusalem to Israel's High Court to stop the march, and it is now fully two weeks since the anti-Pride bills successfully passed their first reading in the Knesset.
This tardy and rather half-hearted response by Brett – and the failure of OutRage! or the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association to make any statement at all on the issue – stands in sharp contrast to the energy with which they all laid into Russia's grand mufti last year over Moscow Pride. Somehow, OutRage! and GALHA seem to find homophobia so much more worthy of denunciation when it's Muslims who are responsible for it.
In fact one might suspect that Brett's belated post at Harry's Place is little more than an attempt to cover OutRage! against criticisms by the Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism, who issued a statement last weekend accusing Brett and his chums of hypocrisy. We can only endorse those criticisms.
'Infidel' author: Islam, West incompatible
WASHINGTON – A former member of the Dutch parliament whose life has been threatened by Muslim radicals warns that Islam is incompatible with Western civilization. Ayaan Hirsi Ali was raised as a Muslim in Somalia, but renounced Islam and moved to Europe, a story she recounts in her autobiography, titled "Infidel." She moved to the United States last year.
In a speech Monday at the National Press Club in Washington, Ali urged journalists to recognize that all religions are not equal, and that Islam is violent, intolerant and oppresses women. Ali said she was brought up believing in "a ferocious aggressive god," but is now an atheist. She said Islam is growing because Saudi Arabia and Iran finance Muslim schools and mosques, while Christian churches have lost their missionary zeal.
Read Ayaan Hirsi Ali's speech here
For the impact of Hirsi Ali's visit to Australia, see Herald Sun, 20 June 2007