Islamophobia Watch

Paul Goodman, Tory shadow minister for communities, speaking in the House of Commons debate on antisemitism:

"We believe that it is wrong for institutions to participate in events that are hosted by anti-Semitic parties such as the British National party. It therefore follows that it is also wrong for them to participate in events hosted by other anti-Semitic organisations, such as Hizb ut-Tahrir. I make that point because it was reported this week that John Holmwood, a sociology professor at Birmingham university, which is an excellent institution, spoke at a local debate that was organised by Hizb ut-Tahrir.

"It should also be unacceptable for local authorities to support groups that are willing to engage actively with Hizb ut-Tahrir, such as the Cordoba Foundation; we understand that that is the case in Tower Hamlets. The Cordoba Foundation appears to be involved in Campusalam – a Government-sponsored programme to tackle extremism on campus – so we would welcome clarification from the Minister on that."

Hansard, 15 May 2008

The Cordoba Foundation in fact organised a public debate (see here, here and here) at the London Muslim Centre in which Osama Saeed and Lord Ahmed argued against the HT view that Muslims should not participate in electoral politics in Britain. Goodman, along with David Cameron, evidently prefers that such views should be left unchallenged – and, moreover, that organisations like the Cordoba Foundation that do challenge these views should be denied government support.

We already know that Cameron wants to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir and, if he wins the next general election, will no doubt proceed to do so. Of course, the double standards that allow the racist thugs of the BNP to operate legally while a peaceful Islamist organisation like HT is banned can only strengthen the arguments of the real extremists who preach the futility of non-violence.

The stupidity and irresponsibility of the Tories evidently knows no bounds.

"Islamophobia is intrinsically tied up with the loss of civil rights and the erosion of democracy. Hence the fight for civil liberties must incur the fight against Islamophobia. Conversely the fight against Islamophobia must incur the fight for civil liberties and democracy. There are no separate struggles here, but there are on the ground. That is why, whatever the particular struggle we are involved in – whether against war or poverty or Islamophobia or anti-Semitism – we must not lose sight of the larger struggle. And it is only then, in the process of coming together as communities of resistance, that we arrive at community cohesion. Integration and community cohesion cannot be imposed from above. They must grow from below."

A. Sivanandan contextualises the Institute of Race Relations' new report, Integration, Islamophobia and civil rights in Europe.

IRR website, 15 May 2008

Judges in the nation's courts will be banned from wearing headscarves and other religious apparel under a proposal put forward by the government on Wednesday.

The bill, which also stated that judges in all courts would be required to wear robes, has the support of a vast majority in parliament, including the Social Democrats, the largest opposition party.

The proposal comes after nearly a month of debate unleashed by a Court Administration decision that it had no legal grounds to exclude Muslim women who wore headscarves from becoming judges.

"Judges that make decisions in court cases, probate courts and county courts need to appear fair and neutral. And we are ready to pass legislation to ensure that," Lene Espersen, the justice minister, said.

In a commentary in Politiken newspaper on Wednesday, Birthe Rønn Hornbeck, who serves as both immigration minister and minister for ecclesiastical affairs, stated her opposition to a ban, suggesting that doing so would put Denmark on the path towards a "dictatorship". She also criticised "fanatic anti-Muslims" who had launched a misleading advertising campaign warning against permitting judges to wear headscarves.

Copenhagen Post, 15 May 2008

Via Islam in Europe

See also Associated Press, which reports: "The new legislation ... was prompted by discussions over a set of dress code guidelines issued last year by the court administration, which noted that Danish law does not bar judges from wearing head scarves. The guidelines went largely unnoticed until the government's ally, the nationalist Danish People's Party, decided to politicize the issue last month. The party, known for its anti-Muslim rhetoric, created a poster showing a woman wearing an all-encompassing burqa and holding a judge's gavel. The party urged the government to introduce legislation ensuring that courts remain 'neutral instances in the Danish judiciary'."

Update:  See also BBC News, 19 May 2008

A civil rights group is working again to debunk the myth that Muslims and dogs can't get along. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today is clarifying Muslim beliefs about dogs and expressing support for a St. Cloud State University student who felt his service dog was threatened. CAIR-MN issued a statement following a May 12 article in the St. Cloud Times, which said that graduate student Tyler Hurd left the university because he feared for the safety of his dog.

Hurd told the St. Cloud Times that while many Muslim students grew to like his dog, the dog was threatened by a student at one of the schools where he was doing his field training.

The Times article falsely states that Islam "forbids the touching of dogs". CAIR-MN clarifies that many Muslims are uncomfortable around dogs, as they believe the saliva of dogs invalidates the ritual ablution performed before prayer. For this reason, it has become a cultural norm for individuals not to have dogs in their homes. However, "the moral and legal need to accommodate individuals using service dogs far outweighs the discomfort an individual Muslim might feel about coming into contact with a dog, which is one of God's creatures," said CAIR-MN Communications Director Valerie Shirley.

One unfortunate result of the St. Cloud Times article is that threats have been turned on the larger Muslim community. By Wednesday, there were more than 300 comments on the St. Cloud Times website about Hurd's story, many of them hostile.

Engage Minnesota, 14 May 2008

Sample comments on the St. Cloud Times website:

"This is another craven, left-wing college administration giving in to soft jihad. America is giving in to these Muslim monsters. We let them lie, libel, and threaten with impunity. they never have to face up to anything. We are too nice in this country to our enemies. They exploit this weakness."

"Muslims are a foreign and vile presence in our country. How the hell is it that they murder Amercians and plot and dare to raise their foul voices against our citizens? We need grassroots support for a deportation law!"

"It's sad we carter [sic] to the needs of these people , we bring them in, feed them, cloth them, and house them, and they still turn on us."

"Ban this damned death cult/crime syndicate now! Islam is not a religion. It is an excuse, dreamed up by a pedophile moon-god worshipper, to justify his (Muhammeds' – may pigs blood be upon him) every lust for child-rape and violence."

One of Epping's BNP councillors is set to feature on a controversial television documentary which attracts millions of viewers. Councillor Pat Richardson will speak candidly about her attitude towards Muslims living in Britain on the Dispatches programme scheduled to be screened on Channel 4 in July.

Mrs Richardson, who has the rare distinction of being the BNP's only Jewish councillor, was interviewed for the programme during the local election count at Waltham Abbey Town Hall earlier this month, where she was elected to represent the Loughton Broadway ward.

Along with fellow BNP party members, she was questioned about her views on British Muslims by the show's producer James Jones. Mrs Richardson said: "He was very polite and he followed us around throughout the morning." Mr Jones said: "I chose to interview Pat Richardson as a subject because her background and political views make her an interesting subject."

Epping Forest Guardian, 13 May 2008

"When the media or individuals use Arabic terms such as jihad for acts of terrorism, or when they attach the word Islam in front of a word as in Islamo-fascism, Islamic terrorism, those words have an effect. They have an effect right here in America by linking the religion of Islam and terrorist acts in the mind of ordinary citizens. They have an effect on Muslims who are struggling to make clear to those Muslims who attempt to justify their crimes by some false interpretation of Islamic teachings that we do not accept their claims. They have an effect on Muslims worldwide who because of the use of language like Islamo-Fascist, have come to view the 'war on terror' not as a war on al Qaeda, but as a war on Islam itself."

Sheila Musaji at The American Muslim, 13 May 2008

A U.S. Federal Judge heard and dismissed a case on Monday involving a Muslim Detroit woman who claims that being forced to remove her veil in court caused her to lose her case.

In October 2006, 44-year old Ginnnah Muhammad donned a niqab – a traditional veil and scarf that covers the entire head and most of the face – during her hearing in which she was disputing a $3,000 fee from Enterprise Rent-A-Car to repair a vehicle which Muhammad claims burglars had broken into. According to the Associated Press, Judge Paul Paruk "told her he needed to see her face to judge her truthfulness and gave her a choice: Take off the veil or have the case dismissed."

Margaret Nelson, Assistant state attorney general, represented Paruk and argued that he needed to "fully observe" Muhammad in order to properly determine the facts. "It was a temporary, necessary, limited action (that had) only incidental impact on the practice of her religion," Nelson said.

Wired PR News, 13 May 2008

A University of Birmingham professor and student have come under fire for supporting a debate held by an extremist Islamist organisation.

Sociology professor John Holmwood spoke at a debate on secularism organised by the Hizb-ut-Tahrir group, which on its website constitution calls for a pan-Islamic caliphate and the execution of people who convert from Islam. Yasmin Patel, who was elected to be the minority students' support officer on the Guild of Students at the university, sent out emails encouraging attendance at the debate.

Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which translates as Party of Liberation, is a global political group, which has been accused of fostering extremism against women and Jews. Its constitution calls for a state of constant war against Israel.

Prof Holmwood said the meeting, held in Small Heath on Sunday, had not been involved with extremism and it was important to engage groups in debate. He said:

"There were about 100 people there, probably 100 per cent Muslim, but 90 per cent of them weren't Hizb-ut-Tahrir. Not engaging views is more dangerous than some of the opinions of those you are engaging with. I went there not knowing what to expect. What happened was there was a good debate and people came up afterwards and said some of them wanted to come up to the university and talk about issues of secularism, and that can only be a good thing."

Adam Sher, secretary of the University of Birmingham's Jewish Society, said: "A minority officer, in my opinion, shouldn't be espousing the views of Hizb-ut-Tahrir."

Birmingham Post, 13 May 2008

For the origins of this witch-hunt, see The Ministry of Truth and Harry's Place.

"When the Islam smear against Obama first came out, it was based on the idea that he is currently, a Muslim. Then the Pastor Wright controversy put that mess to rest, since Obama's affiliations to an obviously Christian Church became front and center. Now there is a new Islam smear. This one says that Obama was a Muslim – and as a result, he is going to arouse the wrath of Muslims around the world who are going to want to kill him for apostasy (converting away from Islam, punishable by death)."

Ali Eteraz responds to an article by Edward Luttwack in the New York Times, which he describes as "solid fear-mongering".

Huffington Post, 13 May 2008

Daily Telegraph leader writer and Catholic Herald editor Damian Thompson hails the NYT article as "fascinating stuff": Holy Smoke, 12 May 2008

"... there is an extraordinary passage when one of the most likeable and longest-serving members of the team, and a former radical Sixties firebrand to boot, turns on radical Islam and the fact that we are sleep-walking into an Islamic caliphate. He describes suicide bombers as 'racists, fascists and bastards', deplores the credulity of right-on, anti-American attitudes, and insists that 'self-hatred is the cancer at the heart of our nation'.

"It's always dangerous to assume that any character's words represent the view of the playwright..... But this play seems to me to mark a defining moment on the English stage when the conventional liberal pieties that largely obtain in our theatre are finally put under fierce scrutiny, and Jihadist Islam is at last denounced as a malign evil."

Charles Spencer reviews Richard Bean's new play The English Game.

Daily Telegraph, 13 May 2008