Islamophobia Watch

"Last Orders promoted many racist myths unchallenged. The BNP was the party favoured by most of those who mentioned voting in the programme, unchallenged by the narrator, who failed to point out it wants an all-white Britain and has a history of leading members with convictions for inciting racial hatred and violence. Instead, we see myths about Asians and Muslims presented as fact, the culmination of which is a young BNP supporter in front of a union flag with a swastika saying: 'If I saw a young Paki getting kicked and knocked over, I would not blink an eyelid, I hate them so much.'

"This was not debate, but allowing a space where such attacks go unchallenged on mainstream television. The prophesising of a war coming to Bradford would have been chilling for any Asian person watching. In my experience, debunking the myths displayed here is the first step to challenging and eradicating the racism and violence that it breeds....

"There is in reality a growing climate of hostility which blames Muslims for 'changing the complexion' of Britain, in much the same way that the migrant Jewish community was attacked at the start of the last century. The isolation resulting from racism is what underlies the issues, which the White season fleetingly dabbles with. It singles out Bradford, where racism in housing and poverty and economic disadvantage has created barriers.... the BBC must do more to challenge racist myths, especially as they tend to gain currency, which is exploited by the far right in the runup to elections."

Ruqayyah Collector responds to the BBC's "White season".

Comment is Free, 13 March 2008

The Times interviews Maryam Namazie of the Worker Communist Party of Iran and gives a boost to her fraudulent outfit, the so-called Council of Ex-Muslims in Britain.

Televangelist Rod Parsley, a key McCain ally in Ohio, has called for eradicating the "false religion." Will the GOP presidential candidate renounce him?

Mother Jones, 12 March 2008

Fears are rife that racial tension could erupt in Solihull following a campaign by the BNP against plans for a Muslim community centre. For 25 years Solihull Muslim Community Association (SMCA) has been searching for a home in the borough to no avail. Now the group has applied for planning permission to establish a cultural centre, which includes a prayer hall, in Dog Kennel Lane, Shirley, with 50 parking spaces. However, the plans, which also include a wudu room for washing before prayer, have resulted in the Far Right BNP posting leaflets in the area claiming there is an "Islamification" of Solihull.

Birmingham Mail, 11 March 2008

Jason Leopold examines the case of a United States Navy chaplain, Lieutenant Commander Brian K. Waite, who has been accused of abusing his position to promote right-wing evangelical Christianity within the US military:

"Waite is the author of Islam Uncovered, which holds that the Muslim faith is itself culpable for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Military.com reported. 'Undoubtedly our world will experience additional terrorist attempts or strikes all in the name of Allah. Some of these attacks may occur within the borders of our own nation by the remaining cell groups interspersed and hiding among the Muslim population of the United States. My words may make a number of Muslims in this country and abroad very uncomfortable. To them I would say, "Deal with it!" The suspicion that you encounter is merely a consequence to your own belief system....' Waite's book says. '...Should Islam be immune from attack because it calls itself a religion? If Adolf Hitler called Nazism a religion, would we be speaking German today? Evil is evil, no matter what nomenclature it hides under.' The book was removed from bookstore shelves after it was discovered that Waite had plagiarized much of the material and that the supporting blurbs on the back cover of the book from prominent members of the religious community had been fabricated."

OpEdNews.com, 11 March 2008

The Bishop of Oxford was sent a death threat calling for his beheading after backing a plan to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer. The Rt Rev John Pritchard today told a meeting discussing the issue he had received a bundle of "extraordinary mail" containing a number of threats.

The Bishop gave his backing, in principle, for the call to prayer to be broadcast from the Oxford Central Mosque, in Manzil Way, East Oxford, in interviews with the Oxford Mail and local radio in January.

Speaking at a public meeting organised by the Anglo Asian Association in East Oxford at Oxford Community School, he said: "After the interview, I received extraordinary mail. One said, on a piece of A4, 'resign' six times in large font. One called on me to be beheaded and one said 'I wish I was closer so I could spit on you'. The dark underbelly of British society was coming out."

Oxford Mail, 9 March 2008

Update:  See also the Telegraph report and Julaybib Ayoub's comments.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) announced in a report released over the weekend that it will take a number of steps to circumvent escalating Islamophobia in the West.

The OIC report, a 60-page assessment of the reasons behind Islamophobia, offers a detailed action plan to combat Islamophobia. The measures include explaining to Westerners that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance and correcting bias and misunderstandings about Islam. Islam's bright past will be explained and the message that Islam does not support terrorism will be emphasized. The Western world will also be warned against provocative actions against Islam's sacred symbols, such as happened during the crisis sparked when a Danish newspaper printed obscene cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed.

Zaman, 10 March 2008 

"So Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, claims that the adoption of Islamic law in Britain is unavoidable. He believes that in a multi-cultural society our laws must be adapted to accommodate the other law traditions of the immigrant population, especially the Muslim community, in Britain.

"It doesn't seem to worry the leader of the Anglican Church that Muslims regard sharia law as the word of God, their God, and as a divine law that regulates all areas of their lives. It doesn't seem to worry him either that sharia law discriminates against women and against non-Muslims and lays down a multitude of punishments, including imprisonment, beating, annulment of marriage, disinheritance and death, for Muslims who leave their faith.

"The introduction of state-sanctioned sharia courts will further encourage the growth of fundamental Islam in Britain and will attract more Muslim immigrants to come to these shores. More mosques will be built and more churches will be closed yet Williams still seems determined on feeding and defending this dangerous cuckoo in our nest which is hellbent on destroying Christianity in Britain."

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Another plug from the fascists for the National Secular Society's favourite "comedian", Pat Condell.

BNP news article, 10 March 2008

On the principle of "we read this reactionary crap so you don't have to", Islamophobia Watch has invested in a copy of Brother Tariq, the English language edition of Caroline Fourest's attack on Tariq Ramadan, recently published by the right-wing Tory think-tank the Social Affairs Unit.

The book's jacket features accolades from Peter Tatchell and Joan Smith. Tatchell poses the rhetorical question: "Is Tariq Ramadan an Islamic liberal or a clever Islamist strategist who uses the language of liberalism to disguise a fundamentalist agenda?" Fourest's book, of course, comes down firmly in favour of the latter, and in recommending it Tatchell clearly does too. Smith, for her part, tells us that "political Islam, catalogued in this book in forensic detail, loathes the modern world" and recommends Fourest's anti-Ramadan polemic as "an essential guide to decoding Islamist rhetoric, exposing the political project which lies behind contrived controversies such as the veil".

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