ISLAMOPHOBIA: Anti Muslim Racism
Entries from February 17, 2008 - February 23, 2008
Britain did host US torture flights
Foreign Secretary David Miliband made a forced apology yesterday after admitting that an air base on the British territory of Diego Garcia was used by CIA torture flights.
Mr Miliband's belated admission stood in stark contrast to new Labour's previous claims that the US had not used British territory or airspace for "rendition" flights.
In the face of credible evidence gathered by human rights organisations, former foreign secretary Jack Straw and former prime minister Tony Blair both flatly denied that rendition flights had touched down on British soil.
In a Commons statement, Mr Miliband told MPs that he was "very sorry" that previous information given by ministers had been "incorrect."
Details of the two flights, which stopped to refuel at the Indian Ocean island in 2002, were only passed to the government by US authorities last week.
Mr Miliband claimed that this was due to an "administration error" on the part of the US.
Muslim convert not a threat, says judge
The high court today quashed a control order restricting the movements of a British convert to Islam on the grounds that there was "no reasonable suspicion" that he was planning to travel abroad to engage in terrorist activity.
Cerie Bullivant, 25, from Dagenham, Essex said he was pulled into "the depths of despair" after MI5 alleged that the order was necessary because of suspicions that he planned to travel to Iraq or Afghanistan.
But Mr Justice Collins, sitting at London's high court, quashed the order, which had been imposed under anti-terrorism laws. He ruled: "There is no reasonable suspicion that establishes that."
Lawyers for Bullivant had argued that the accusations were "baseless" and that he was the victim of an abuse of power.
Towards the end of last year, Bullivant attempted suicide while being detained in Belmarsh prison.
Britain's refusal of visa to cleric sparks anger in Muslim world
The British government has recently refused an entry visa to prominent Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi on the grounds that he justifies terrorism. The decision, announced on 7 February, has drawn angry reactions from the Muslim world. Mohamed Shokry of BBC Monitoring reports.
Martin Sullivan
in UK, Resisting Islamophobia, Yusuf al-Qaradawi
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Resisting Islamic law
"Westerners opposed to the application of the Islamic law (the Shari'a) watch with dismay as it goes from strength to strength in their countries – harems increasingly accepted, a church leader endorsing Islamic law, a judge referring to the Koran, clandestine Muslim courts meting out justice. What can be done to stop the progress of this medieval legal system so deeply at odds with modern life, one that oppresses women and turns non-Muslims into second-class citizens?"
Daniel Pipes poses the question.
Campaigners to protest against racist Express coverage
Anti-racism campaigners will protest outside the offices of the right-wing Daily Express newspaper today over the paper's incessant attacks on refugees and Muslims.
The protest has been called in response to inflammatory headlines such as "Over 860 migrants flood in every day," "Migrants send our crime rate soaring" and "Soft touch Britain: You pay £21m benefits to migrant workers."
The lunchtime protest has been organised by Media Workers Against the War, Stop the War Coalition, Stop the War Muslim Activists Network and the British Muslim Initiative.
A Media Workers Against the War spokesman said that the headlines in pornographer Richard Desmond's papers and the stories that go with them "twist flimsy, inadequate and misleading 'evidence' in order to pander to prejudice. They do nothing to inform Express readers. On the contrary, they incite race hatred," he said.
Stop the War Coalition spokesman Chris Nineham added that such "disgusting attacks" on Muslims are a threat both to the Muslim community and to all those who value civil liberties.
The protest will take place from 12.30-2pm outside the Northern & Shell Building, 10 Lower Thames Street, London EC3R.
Morning Star, 21 February 2008
Muslim leader decries American 'bigotry' against Islam
American culture's view of American Muslims and Islam is steadily deteriorating under an onslaught of "bigotry" on cable news shows, newspaper op-ed pages and in the blogosphere, an Arab-American activist told an audience at Tulane University here Tuesday. That's a significant shift, said Hussein Ibish, founder of the Foundation for Arab-American Leadership in Washington, D.C.
Since 9/11, he said, commentators such as Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter, Charles Krauthammer, Daniel Pipes and David Horowitz have transferred old anti-Arab stereotypes to Islam, in a stream of "incredibly bigoted commentary" that would not have been tolerated before then.
In this context, Ibish said, the West sees Islam as bent on its destruction and American Muslims as suspected allies who cannot credibly deny otherwise. Thus, ethnic profiling becomes reasonable and forced internment or mandatory identification of Muslims becomes a potential remedy, he said.
While most of the anti-Islamic rhetoric comes from the right, it occasionally comes from the left as well, he said.
Finally, a student of American popular culture would find that anti-Islamic rhetoric sounds vaguely familiar, Ibish said. That's because in tone and substance it almost exactly tracks the anti-Semitic messages that filled American culture between the world wars.
Qataris slam British denial of visa to Qaradawi
DOHA – Supporters of Qatar-based Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi staged a sit-in outside the British embassy in Doha on Wednesday to protest at London's denial of a visa to the controversial cleric.
"Mr Brown: Why are you rejecting tolerance and dialogue?" read one of the banners raised by the protesters, who numbered around 400, referring to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Lawyer Najib al-Nuaimi, a former Qatari justice minister acting as Qaradawi's representative in the affair, handed the deputy head of the British mission, Claire Evans, a letter of protest. The letter demands that the British government reconsider its "unfair and illegal" decision to deny Qaradawi a visa, Nuaimi said.
Qatari Muslim preacher Sheikh Mohieddin al-Qaradaghi told reporters that Britain had taken an "unfair decision" against a "symbol of centrism in Islam," and this would "benefit extremists from both sides".
Middle East Online, 20 February 2008
See also The Peninsula, 21 February 2008
Another media attack on the King Fahad Academy
The London Evening Standard resumes the witch-hunt of the King Fahad Academy in Acton. For previous coverage see here, here and here.
JP back on bench after veil uproar
The magistrate reprimanded for refusing to deal with a Muslim woman because she was wearing a veil says he is delighted to have returned to sit on the bench. Ian Murray, of Bath Crescent, Cheadle Hulme, was back at Manchester Crown Court last week following an absence of more than six months. But he says the furore surrounding his decision to walk out when faced with niqab-wearing Zoobia Hussain – who subsequently complained – has not diminished his appetite to be part of the judicial process.
He is currently awaiting the outcome of his own complaint over the treatment he received during a probe into his actions, which resulted in a formal reprimand and training on "appropriate judicial guidelines".