ISLAMOPHOBIA: Anti Muslim Racism
Entries from November 18, 2007 - November 24, 2007
Maker of Undercover Mosque documentary considers suing police
The documentary maker cleared by regulators of misleadingly editing a Channel 4 programme about extreme Islamic preachers is considering legal action. David Henshaw, the managing director of Hardcash Productions which made the Dispatches film Undercover Mosque, said he was still "very, very angry".
With the backing of Channel 4 he hoped to launch a libel action against the West Midlands police and a Crown Prosecution Service lawyer who was quoted in a joint press release accusing Hardcash Productions of "completely distorting" what some of the preachers were saying. The media regulator dismissed the complaint saying it was a legitimate investigation.
See also National Secular Society news relase, 23 November 2007
Defending the indefensible
Why is Christopher Hitchens springing to Martin Amis's defence – does he think they can both continue to get away with hate speech?
Steven Rose at Comment is Free, 23 November 2007
Nationalist leader says Danish identity under threat from Muslim immigrants
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Raving xenophobe or fearless defender of Danish values Nationalist leader Pia Kjaersgaard's anti-Muslim outbursts have earned her many labels – and many votes. Despite predictions of her populist Danish People's Party's demise, Kjaersgaard remains a powerful force in domestic politics after winning 14 percent of the vote in last week's election.
"The most important thing for the Danish People's Party is to maintain the Danish identity," Kjaersgaard, 60, told The Associated Press in an interview. "I am convinced that the Islamists want to sneak Sharia (Islamic law) through the back door, that they want to combat Western society and they want Islam to become the main religion," she said.
But critics say the Danish People's Party has polarized Danish society by bashing Islam and stereotyping immigrants as welfare cheats. "She is a scare-mongering populist and opportunist," said Holger K. Nielsen of the left-wing opposition Socialist People's Party.
She rejects accusations of racism and comparisons to far-right parties across Europe such as the National Front in France. "There is nothing racist about what I have said, I know that. I have a clean conscience," she said. When asked if she thought Islam can contribute to Danish society in any way, she replied: "I don't think so at all."
Islamophobia and the media: no common ground with Brendan O'Neill
"As someone who recently defended media freedom in spiked and is co-chair of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, I was somewhat taken aback to find Brendan O'Neill last week including me (albeit implicitly) amongst the ranks of those mounting 'an intolerable attack on media freedom', wanting to 'turn the press into an offshoot of Ken Livingstone's political fiefdom' and making 'explicit demands for increased government intervention in the press'."
Julian Petley, one of the contributors to The Search for Common Ground: Muslims, non-Muslims and the UK Media, replies to O'Neill's piece "London's PC despot".
What do you call terrorists?
Osama Saeed replies to Timothy Garton Ash's article in today's Guardian.
The politics of the veil
"'A kind of aggression'. 'successor to the Berlin Wall'. 'lever in the long power struggle between democratic values and fundamentalism'. 'An insult to education'. 'A terrorist operation'. These descriptions – by former French President Jacques Chirac; economist Jacques Attali; and philosophers Bernard-Henri Lévy, Alain Finkielkraut and André Glucksmann – do not refer to the next great menace to human civilization but rather to the Muslim woman's headscarf, which covers the hair and neck, or, as it is known in France, the foulard islamique."
Laila Lalami reviews Joan Wallach Scott's recently published book The Politics of the Veil.
Martin Sullivan
in France, Resisting Islamophobia, Hijab, Women
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Amis and McEwan – reinforcing stereotypes
Letter in today's Guardian:
"Ian McEwan's defence of his friend Martin Amis (Letters, November 21) rests on two arguments, which are conflated. The first is the freedom of speech argument. But just because one has the right to express an opinion does not mean it is right to express it. In any case, Ronan Bennett's article (G2, November 19) did not argue that one should not criticise Islam or Muslims per se; rather, it was the manner of the criticism – sweeping generalisations and stereotypes, holding all Muslims responsible for the opinions and actions of just some – that he found objectionable, and rightly so.... McEwan's logic would have us believe that a non-religious or secularised Muslim is an impossibility for fear of the repercussions – an Orwellian vision of a totalitarian Islam that is itself a stereotype. In defending his friend, he merely confirms that both of them do not really know what they are talking about."
Dr Anshuman Mondal
Brunel University
'Let's stop handling Islam with kid gloves'
"The failed action West Midlands police took against a Channel 4 programme exposing extremist Islamic preachers highlights our dysfunctional attitude to free speech.... The job of the police is to uphold the law but, deeming no law had been broken, they instead decided to be media watchdogs. They stepped wildly beyond their remit here.
"I think they did so in a public effort to seem sensitive to the Muslim community, which is apparently 'demonised' by the media (according to last week's farcical report commissioned by Ken Livingstone). On the contrary: Islam is treated with kid gloves in Britain.... The police shouldn't exceed their powers when addressing discussion of Islam. It only legitimises the misplaced sense of victimisation that extremists exploit in instances where they have no cause for complaint."
Nirpal Dhaliwal (writing from another planet, apparently) in the Evening Standard, 21 November 2007
Aussie Tories' vile race tactics exposed
The Liberal Party has been hugely embarrassed over a campaign team caught delivering fake letters linking Labor with the Bali bombers. The grubby night-time operation in St Marys, in the seat of Lindsay, was busted by a squad of ALP sleuths who conducted a stake-out.
The letter appeared to be from a Muslim organisation, the Islamic Australia Federation. But the organisation does not exist.
The fictitious group was said to be backing Kevin Rudd because Labor supported forgiveness for "our Muslim brothers who have been unjustly sentenced to death for the Bali bombings". It also said Labor endorsed construction of a mosque in St Marys. "In the upcoming federal election we strongly support the ALP as our preferred party to govern this country and urge all other Muslims to do the same," the letter read.
It was clumsily worded and ended with "Ala Akba", a dismal attempt at the traditional Islamic salute of "God is Great" – "Allah Akbar".
Daily Telegraph, 21 November 2007
See also ABC News
'Top cop shares platform with Islamic extremists', fascists complain
"The head of the Metropolitan Police Sir Ian Blair is due to speak at an Islamic conference where Hizb ut Tahrir is advocating its extremist Caliphate message. Sir Ian is one of several dhimmis lined up to speak at the Global Peace and Unity Conference taking place at London’s Dockside this coming weekend. The Met is an official sponsor of the event along with the London Mayor's Office, The Islam Channel and the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). Sharing the platform over the two day event will be MPs including George Galloway, Lord Chancellor Jack Straw and Acting LibDem leader Vincent Cable."