Islamophobia Watch

"They speak in a heavily accented version of English, suffocating beneath tent-like cloaks. Voiceless and enslaved, these Muslim women wrap themselves up in head scarves in public. While the rest of American women take the slightest sunray as a signal for baring flesh and flaunting assets, these fully covered women stand out as more than unfashionable but as victims of oppression.

"Such are the tragic misconceptions of American Muslim women-barbaric, veiled housewives victimized by an Islamic lifestyle. To about 10 million Muslim women, that lifestyle includes the female head covering, an Islamic dress code called Hijab and a symbol of modesty and freedom."

Hanan Salem in The Connection, 1 May 2008

Danish Justice Minister Lene Espersen has set up a new coordination committee in order to overrule the Court Administration's decision to allow judges to wear a hijab and other religious symbols. After meeting with the committee Espersen said that they starting point is that judges should appear neutral and completely objective.

Islam in Europe, 1 May 2008

The government's attempts to placate Muslims will cause long-term damage to communities, a charity said yesterday.

The warning came from Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, chair and co-founder of the British Muslims for Secular Democracy, a new organisation claiming to represent the "silent majority who feel no conflict between their faith and democracy".

Speaking before the launch, attended by Baroness Kishwer Faulkner and former Islamist Ed Husain, the journalist said the government was pandering to Muslims by granting too many concessions, fuelling their separation from the rest of society.

"The government has found a way of placating Muslims in a way that will only damage us in the long term, Muslims wanting separate schools or different measures. There must be one law for all. This differential accommodation leads to us being pushed to the edges. How is it that the Sikhs and Hindus can live in democracy but not Muslims?"

She added: "The perception is that Muslims receive a disproportionate amount of attention and funding and that perception is justified. This ridiculous, distorted, exaggerated single identity has made us no friends."

Guardian, 2 May 2008

But what else can you expect from an organisation whose leading figures include Taj Hargey and Shaaz Mahboob? And since when did these characters represent the majority of British Muslims, silent or otherwise?

Update:  See Yusuf Smith's comments on Indigo Jo Blogs, 4 May 2008 

A Muslim policeman removed from his job guarding the Prime Minister on "national security grounds" yesterday launched a claim for compensation.

Firearms officer Amjad Farooq, 40, was transferred from the elite Diplomatic Protection Group on the advice of MI5, after it had carried out vetting checks on him.

Now, in what is believed to be a first for employment tribunals, the hearing into his claim that he suffered racial and religious discrimination is being held behind closed doors on the grounds of national security.

The case centres on concerns over a mosque that PC Farooq and his family attended in Swindon.

Daily Mail, 2 May 2008

See also "Muslim PC barred from own tribunal" in the Swindon Advertiser, 2 May 2008

"Muslims have no problems at all with the Jews themselves. Our main conflict is with the Zionist movement. I hope that the Neturei Karta can introduce its stance to the Arab media so that people can know that there is a big segment of Jews opposing the Zionist entity."

The noted "anti-semite" Yusuf al-Qaradawi comments on his meeting with Ahron Cohen and Yisroel Dovid Weiss.

It is a relief to hear that Cohen and Weiss emerged from their meeting with Qaradawi unscathed. After all, we have it on the reliable authority of Peter Tatchell that Qaradawi's message is "destroy the Jews – all of them".

Gulf Times, 1 May 2008

See also Islam Online, 1 May 2008

"From the East London Advertiser comes further news of the progressive Islamisation of London's East End, and the lengths to which Ken Livingstone is going to court the Muslim vote for tomorrow's mayoral election."

Melanie Phillips responds to the report that – shock, horror – Ken Livingstone has pledged to help raise funds for a major revamp of the Jamme Masjid mosque in Brick Lane. And, what's worse, the proposed development would feature a minaret.

"The height of this proposed minaret is no incidental matter", Phillips informs us. "The fact that it would tower over Brick Lane is designed to make a powerful symbolic statement of the supremacy of Islam over that area and the subjugation of all non-Islamic creeds. Like the proposed vast Olympic village mosque, also in east London, it is thus in itself an act of jihad against British society. That is what Ken is endorsing."

Melanie Phillips's blog, 30 April 2008

Predictably, the fascists of the British National Party find common ground with Phillips on this issue.

See BNP news article, 27 April 2008

A Christian party has lost a High Court bid to have its party election broadcast (PEB) repeated, after claims it was censored by the BBC and ITV. Christian Choice said the BBC forced changes to its description of a Muslim group in a PEB aired in London. Alan Craig, the party's candidate for London mayor, had argued the action breached his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights – which guarantees the right to freedom of expression.

BBC News, 30 April 2008

Mad Melanie Phillips is not happy: "There is clearly no limit to British pusillanimity and sheer unadulterated funk when it comes to calling Islamic radicalism by even the most polite and restrained of proper names." Melanie Phliips's blog, 29 April 2008

A Muslim woman who lost a small-claims suit in Hamtramck district court in 2006 after she refused to remove her religious veil during testimony took her case before a federal judge today, hoping to overturn the district judge's decision and establish precedent in eastern Michigan courtrooms.

But after 30 minutes of legal arguments, U.S. District Judge John Feikens said that he would issue a written decision in the case. He gave no indication of when he might rule, but hinted through questions to lawyers that he may take no action at all, which lawyers conceded he could do under Supreme Court decisions.

To get into the courthouse today, Ginnah Muhammad had to remove her veil and show a photo ID. She had to remove her veil in a private area in the presence of a female court security officer and show her Michigan license, which contains her photo. After court, Muhammad and her attorney, Nahib Ayad, said she routinely is required to remove her veil in the presence of female security officers when she goes to airports, and is accommodated by female officers.

"If the judge rules in our favor, it would preclude other judges from doing the same thing to others," Ayad, of Plymouth, said Monday. "It is one of those cases that probably will go to the U.S. Supreme Court." Ayad said he would appeal if the decision goes against his client.

Detroit Free press, 29 April 2008

"In London, Livingstone is relying on a huge turnout among innercity Muslims. If previous experience is anything to go by, 'community leaders' will simply collect the ballot papers from bewildered Muslims, especially women, and 'help' them cast their votes. Don't be surprised to discover subsequently that a bloke in a burqa has voted a few dozen times using someone else's polling cards. Officials would be too petrified to challenge him.

"There's nothing new in vote-rigging. In 1960, the Mayor of Chicago turned out the dead to push John F. Kennedy over the line in the U.S. Presidential election. The Mayor of London wouldn't complain if something similar happened in the Islamic Republic of Tower Hamlets provided it kept him in office."

Richard Littlejohn offers his thoughts on the London mayoral election.

Daily Mail, 29 April 2008

"Motivated by fear and multiculturalism, too many Westerners are acquiescing to creeping sharia." Another paranoid Islamophobic rant by Briuce Bawer, author of While Europe Slept.

City Journal, Spring 2008