Islamophobia Watch

Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch and US feminist Phyllis Chesler have co-authored a pamphlet, The Violent Oppression of Women in Islam, as their contribution to "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week".

What with Julie Bindel's Sunday Times article endorsing fascist myths about "Asian grooming", an Islamophobic alliance between the racist Right and a warped version of feminism would appear to be a theme of anti-Muslim bigotry this week.

See Front Page Magazine, 5 October 2007  Download the pamphlet (pdf) here

The cover of the pamphlet reproduces the notorious illustration which, as Spencer and Chesler admit in their article, also featured in the Front Page Magazine press release announcing Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week. It is in fact fictional, having been taken from a 1944 Dutch film called De Steen. Yet the press release assured readers: "The photo accompanying this article, which shows a teenage girl buried before being stoned to death for alleged sexual offenses, will serve as the poster for the protest Week. The stoning took place in Iran."

Thus the title to another anti-Islam article by Geoffrey Alderman, who claims that Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are motivated by a hatred of non-Muslims that is inspired by the Qur'an. "Of course, these views do not reflect the totality of Islamic thought on infidels, Jews and the West", writes Alderman. "But they appear to mirror an important part of that thinking, enthusiastically embraced by Muslims the world over."

Jewish Chronicle, 5 October 2007

Yes, and it's not difficult to predict what Alderman's reaction would be if the Muslim press published an article entitled "My hostility to Judaism is rational", which argued that Baruch Goldstein took his ideological inspiration from the Torah and concluded: "Of course, these views do not reflect the totality of Jewish thought on Palestinians, Arabs and the Muslim world. But they appear to mirror an important part of that thinking, enthusiastically embraced by Jews the world over."

Fundamentalist Christians in Germany are using populist slogans to incite hatred against Muslims, whom they see as the new source of danger for Europe. The number of internet users who visit their websites is alarmingly high. Claudia Mende reports.

Qantara, 26 September 2007  Via The American Muslim

For the Politically Incorrect anti-Muslim website, see Frankfurt No-Go-Area für Nazis and Watchdog Islamophobie

ANTWERP – Followers of right wing party Vlaams Belang gathered on Thursday evening to protest the construction of a new mosque in the Antwerp district of Deurne. Police say about 150 people with banners and protest signs gathered at the Boterlaarbaan, the planned site for the mosque, at about 7.30 pm last night.

The protestors' message was loud and clear as expressed by prominent VB member Filip Dewinter. He shouted slogans like "Adapt or go back where you came from" through a megaphone. The protest is part of a larger campaign started by the VB a few weeks ago calling for a stop to the "further Islamisation of Antwerp." Banners with the slogans "Keep Europe European" and "Keep Muslims out" were carried as well.

Expatica, 5 October 2007

Veils will not be banned in schools, ministers have decided. Guidelines issued by the Government yesterday state that heads "may be justified" in outlawing religious dress that covers pupils' faces. But ministers stopped short of issuing an outright ban on full-face Islamic veils, saying it was up to schools to decide uniform policy for themselves.

Yesterday's updated guidance follows the case of a 12-year-old girl whose campaign to be allowed to wear the niqab at her Buckinghamshire school was rejected by the Law Lords after a lengthy appeal process.

A draft version of the new rules published in March suggested that schools would be allowed to outlaw certain religious dress in order to ensure proper learning, prevent bullying and maintain security on school grounds. But an extra paragraph inserted in the revised version makes it clear there is no automatic right to ban veils. It states that the judgment against the 12-year-old girl and two other similar cases do not imply schools can impose a blanket ban.

Tory MP Paul Goodman, whose Wycombe constituency includes the school challenged in court over its policy on the niqab, said the guidance had been weakened by the Human Rights Act, which provides for "the right to education and to manifest religious beliefs".

Daily Mail, 5 October 2007

The Federal Opposition has called on political leaders to stop equating Islam with terrorism, saying the support of Australia's Muslim community is critical to fighting extremism. Seeking to differentiate Labor from the Government on national security, homeland security spokesman Arch Bevis called for "responsible leadership" in tackling fundamentalism.

He said Australia's Muslim community was the country's greatest asset in fighting terrorism, pointing out that Australian Muslims had provided essential information that prevented attacks in the past. "We are in real danger of losing that support as political leaders, community leaders and the media opt for simplistic and ultimately harmful characterisations that juxtapose 'terrorist' with 'Muslim'," Mr Bevis said.

The Age, 5 October 2007

For an alternative Australian view see ASSIST news service, 4 October 2007

Here's an interesting article on the position of the Muslim minority in Burma, which points out that media coverage of recent events in that country demonstrates that there are "some hard stereotypes which affect how the mass media represent religions ... Buddhism is the most peaceful religion; Islam the aggressive and violent".

While the author makes clear that the primary responsibility for the current oppression of the Rohingya Muslims lies with the Burmese military regime, he also observes that there is a history of Buddhist monks organising pogroms against the Muslim minority:

"Muslims in Burma are not considered to be citizens. They have no rights and often suffer discrimination and indiscriminate killings. Many of them, in particular after 1962, had to flee the country and still today live in refugee camps in Bangladesh, which actually do not welcome them. Although Muslims have taken active part in the 1988 revolt, and paid the consequences more than the Buddhist population, the majority of monks and Buddhists in Burma have anti-Muslim sentiments, in particular based on the fear of possible intermarriages.

"Pamphlets glorifying race purity and Buddhism and actually reinforcing anti-Muslim sentiments have been distributed since 2001 (i.e. Myo Pyauk Hmar Soe Kyauk Hla Tai or The Fear of Losing One's Race). These inflammatory publications, preaching against the Muslim minority, as well as rumors spread about Muslims raping children in the streets, provoked a series of monk-led riots against Muslim families and the destruction of mosques. Muslims were killed and mosques destroyed, and again the Rohingya Muslims had to flee to Bangladesh."

Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network expresses concern at the "Islamification" of the White House:

"President Bush is hosting a controversial event at the White House Thursday evening, with an invitation to Muslim officials and clerics to join him for prayer and dinner in observance of the holy month of Ramadan. Many Christians question the president's decision to make the Islamic celebration of 'iftar' into a standard religious observance for the White House....

"Islam, referred to by some politicians as a religion of peace, is viewed by many conservative Americans as a faith rooted in violence and hostility toward non-Muslims, collectively referred to as 'infidels'.... The Bible teaches that leaders who embraced, tolerated or celebrated foreign gods brought suffering and disaster upon their nation."

CBN News,4 October 2007

If Martin Amis, who has just taken up a teaching post at the University of Manchester, should happen to bump into the Marxist literary critic Terry Eagleton on campus, it could be an uncomfortable meeting. In the new introduction to the 2007 edition of his classic book, Ideology: An Introduction, Eagleton launches an impassioned attack on the views of "Amis and his ilk" who argue that the West needs to clamp down on Islam.

The spur for Eagleton's criticism is Amis's assertion that, as the Islamic population swells, "the Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order". Amis has suggested "strip-searching people who look like they're from the Middle East or from Pakistan", preventing Muslims from travelling, and further down the road, deportation. "Not the ramblings of a British National Party thug," writes Eagleton, "but the reflections of Martin Amis, leading luminary of the English metropolitan literary world."

Independent, 4 October 2007

"If you wanted to know what Sen. Joe McCarthy would sound like if he came back from the dead, read David Horowitz's explanation for 'Islamofascism Awareness Week', an event he is sponsoring on college campuses across the country from October 22-26."

Aaron Hess reveals the veteran witch-hunter behind a new round of Islamophobia coming to US campuses.

Socialist Worker (US), 5 October 2007