Islamophobia Watch

"The atheist comedian Pat Condell (who we are pleased to say is a member of the NSS) placed a five minute 'video monologue' entitled 'The Trouble with Islam' on the web and it has now scored over a million hits. If you haven't seen it yet, take a look.

"Pat Condell reveals: 'It has also received well over 100,000 hits on YouTube, proving that there is an enthusiastic audience for comedy ideas and opinions which are routinely censored out of existence in the UK’s mainstream media, thanks to misguided political correctness.'

"In May this year, members of the City of Berkeley's Peace and Justice Commission drew widespread ridicule when they publicly condemned the video as racist hate speech."

National Secular Society Newsline, 10 August 2007

Well, you can understand why Condell's bigoted rant would attract a lot of traffic, given the way it has been enthusiastically embraced by the racist Right, including fascists. See for example here

For the Berkeley controversy, see here

Inayat Bunglawala and others reply to Geoffrey Alderman's article in last week's JC.

Jewish Chronicle, 10 August 2007

DEARBORN, Mich. — When pools of water began accumulating on the floor in some restrooms at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and the sinks pulling away from the walls, the problem was easy to pinpoint. On this campus, more than 10 percent of the students are Muslims, and as part of ritual ablutions required before their five-times-a-day prayers, some were washing their feet in the sinks. The solution seemed straightforward. After discussions with the Muslim Students' Association, the university announced that it would install $25,000 foot-washing stations in several restrooms.

But as a legal and political matter, that solution has not been quite so simple. When word of the plan got out this spring, it created instant controversy, with bloggers going on about the Islamification of the university. On her Web site, Debbie Schlussel, a conservative lawyer and blogger in Southfield, Mich., posted, "Forget about the Constitutionally mandated separation of church and state ... at least when it comes to mosque and state."

New York Times, 7 August 2007

The Ramadhan Foundation welcomes the complaint made by West Midlands Police to Ofcom that Channel 4 may have distorted the views of the people interviewed in the Dispatches programme Undercover Mosque (Channel 4 under fire over film on mosque preachers, August 9).

We totally condemn Channel 4 for its arrogance in defending this programme, when it was clear to us that the makers had taken contributions out of context and edited speeches.

We urge Channel 4 to suspend all the Dispatches programmes immediately so that corrective action can be taken to ensure that this sort of journalism is eliminated.

The Ramadhan Foundation has always been very clear that the mosques have an important role in promoting tolerance and peaceful coexistence, but to use these sensitive issues to demonise Muslims shown in the programme is shocking and deeply disturbing. There can be no justification for this kind of journalism. The complaint is total vindication for the Muslim organisations which complained that the Undercover Mosque programme had taken the views of contributors out of context.

Channel 4 should apologise immediately for the hurt they have caused those people. Channel 4 has given journalism a bad name and this adds to their failings over the past few months. We will also be urging Ofcom to investigate Channel 4's behaviour.

Mohammed Shafiq
Ramadhan Foundation, Rochdale

Letter in Guardian, 10 August 2007

When the Channel 4 documentary "Undercover Mosque" was broadcast last January it received an enthusiastic response from right-wing Islamophobes.

The Guardian's Organ Grinder blog reported that an online video of the Dispatches programme had been "leapt on by anti-Muslim bloggers, and the weight of traffic even threatened to bring down the infamous Little Green Footballs for a while".

The British National Party was particularly taken with the documentary, which of course helped legitimise the fascists' ravings about the Islamic threat to Western civilisation. The BNP website directed its supporters to a video of the programme, while Der Führer himself Nick Griffin sent off a pompous letter to West Midlands Police and the Met calling for the preachers "exposed" in the programme to be prosecuted and the mosques closed down.

So you can understand the fascists' disappointment at the outcome of the West Midlands Police investigation. A news article on the BNP website solidarises with the progamme makers and expresses indignation that the police "at one stage bizarrely considered charging Channel 4 for broadcasting material likely to stir up racial hatred".

"TV documentary makers have had a rough ride lately, with claims of doctored footage. No allegations of this sort can be substantiated against Channel 4's excellent Undercover Mosque.

"A highly professional team filmed preachers praising the Taliban for killing British soldiers and showed chilling propaganda against infidels and homosexuals.... The programme was in tune with authoritative surveys showing how young Muslims are being persuaded by imams and preachers to sympathise with terrorists.

"West Midlands police could have used some of the clips as evidence of glorifying terrorism. Instead, they urged the Crown Prosecution Service to put C4 in the dock for stirring up racial hatred ... now Plod wants TV watchdogs Ofcom to step in.

"Why don't they just get on with their job? And crack down on the fanatics who really are trying to stir up murderous feelings by turning gullible young Muslims into killing machines."

Sun editorial, 9 August 2007

See also coverage in the Guardian  the Independent  the Times  and the Telegraph

And a statement by the Muslim Council of Britain

See also the MCB statement from last January, when "Undercover Mosque" was broadcast. This accuses the programme makers of "resorting to the dishonest tactic of selectively quoting from some recorded speeches for the purpose of misrepresentation" – an accusation now endorsed by West Midlands Police and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Dutch populist MP Geert Wilders Wednesday called for a ban on the Koran in the Netherlands, describing the Islamic holy book as a "fascist" text that exhorts followers to kill and rape.

The leader of the far-right Freedom Party, which holds nine of the 150 seats in parliament, called for the ban in a letter published in the De Volkskrant newspaper. Wilders compared the Koran to Adolf Hitler's autobiography Mein Kampf and said that it has "no place in our constitutional state."

"I have been saying this for years: there is no such thing as a moderate Islam," Wilders wrote, adding that there were several chapters in the Koran "that call on Muslims to oppress, persecute, or kill Christians, Jews, dissidents, and non-believers, to beat and rape women, and to establish an Islamic state by force."

"I am fed up with Islam in the Netherlands: no more Muslim immigrants allowed. I am fed up with the worship of Allah and Mohammed in the Netherlands: no more mosques," he finished his letter.

Middle East Times, 8 August 2007

Police are reporting Channel 4 to industry regulator Ofcom over the way an undercover programme was edited. West Midlands Police carried out an investigation into three speakers in the programme Undercover Mosque. The Crown Prosecution Service says the programme "completely distorted" what the speakers said.

BBC News, 8 August 2007

See also Inayat Bunglawala's post at Comment is Free, 8 August 2007

Read the joint police/CPS statement here

Human rights activists congratulated the Brown government on Tuesday for requesting the return of five British residents being detained at the US concentration camp at Guantánamo Bay. The Foreign Office and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith have announced that they will request the return to Britain of Jamil el-Banna, Omar Deghayes, Shaker Abdur Raheem Aamer, Binyam Mohammed and Abdennour Sameur. Foreign Secretary David Miliband has written to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to formally make the request.

Amnesty International campaigns director Tim Hancock called on the government to "move quickly. We've been saying for several years that Britain should have been seeking the fair trial or safe release of the British residents imprisoned at Guantánamo," Mr Hancock pointed out. "Guantánamo is a travesty of justice and it's important that the government starts speaking out about the hundreds of men who are still held there – they must not become Guantánamo's forgotten prisoners," he insisted.

Click to read more ...

News that the UK government is seeking the release of five British residents from US detention is very welcome. But it is not the end of our campaign, says Moazzam Begg.

Comment is Free, 7 August 2007