Monthly Archives: November 2006

Netherlands moves toward total ban on Muslim veils

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Netherlands may become the first European country to ban Muslim face veils after its government pledged yesterday to outlaw the wearing in public spaces of the niqab, or veil, and the burka, or full-length cloak covering the head.

The right-leaning coalition said last night that it would look for a way to outlaw the wearing of all Muslim face veils. The grounds for a ban were laid last December when parliament voted in favour of a proposal to criminalise face coverings, as part of a security measure proposed by a far-right politician, Geert Wilders.

Rita Verdonk, the immigration minister, signalled that the government would now push for a total ban, even though the legislation would be likely to contravene Dutch religious freedom laws.

“The cabinet finds the wearing of a burka undesirable … but cannot at present enforce a total ban,” the Dutch news agency ANP quoted her as saying after a cabinet meeting.

Ms Verdonk suggested that existing legislation which limits the wearing of burkas and other full-body coverings on public transport and in schools did not go far enough, and that the cabinet would discuss as wide a ban as possible in the coming week.

“The government will search for the possibility to provide a ban,” her spokeswoman told the Reuters news agency.

Guardian, 11 November 2006

Lawyers ‘can wear veils in court’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Legal advisers and solicitors may wear the Islamic veil in court unless it interferes with the “interests of justice”, judges have been told. The judiciary were told to use their discretion to interpret the temporary guidance, which covers all courts.

The advice was issued by immigration tribunals chief Mr Justice Hodge after a case had to be halted when a legal adviser refused to remove her veil. The Lord Chief Justice said full rules on the veils issue were being drawn up.

Earlier this week it emerged legal adviser Shabnam Mughal had refused to remove her headwear during an immigration tribunal in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. She had been asked to do so by Judge George Glossop, who said he could not hear her properly.

Eventually Judge Glossop adjourned the hearing to seek advice from president of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) Mr Justice Hodge. It is understood the hearing will now go ahead next week with a different judge presiding.

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‘Fury as top judge gives in to Muslim hardliners on veils’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Now Law Backs Veils“A High Court judge sparked outrage last night after he gave lawyers the green light to wear veils in court. The ruling was made after a Muslim solicitor twice refused an immigration judge’s request to reveal her face – despite him explaining that he could not hear her speak.

“Mr Justice Hodge, who was asked to issue guidance over the case, yesterday defended the right of lawyers to wear the niqab and said it was ‘important to be sensitive’. His decision was widely condemned by critics, who claimed he had caved in to Islamic hardliners….

“David Davies, Conservative MP for Monmouth, said the decision caved in to Islamic pressure. He added: ‘British courts are there to determine whether the truth is being told. How can they do that if they cannot hear? Allowing people to hide their faces in a court where all should be laid bare in the search for truth and justice is not good enough. If we were in a Muslim court we would be expected to abide by their rules on dress. So why is it that this lady can work in a British court and wear whatever she likes?'”

Daily Express, 10 November 2006

The Express editorial, headed “Allowing veils in court is a deeply disturbing move”, condemns the decision as “yet another act of multicultural surrender” which has allowed “Islamic pressures to undermine yet another foundation of our society”. It adds: “The very idea of a disembodied voice, steeped in a defiantly alien culture and covered entirely in black, being able to take away the liberty of any Briton is quite disgusting.”

Londoners urged to unite against ‘rising tide of Islamophobia’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

People from all backgrounds were today coming together at an event in London to show unity against a “rising tide of Islamophobia” across the capital. With organisations such as the British National Party (BNP) accused of “cashing in” on racial tensions across the capital, the Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR) group has organised a celebration to hit back over inflammatory anti-Muslim remarks. The organisation has joined forces with Westminster University Students’ Union to provide a focus and forum which can raise the level of debate around this issue.

24dash.com, 10 November 2006

The event starts at 5pm. See Love Music Hate Racism website.

Sacked Muslim officer wants police protection

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Muslim firearms officer who was sacked from an elite Scotland Yard unit guarding dignitaries, including Tony Blair, is seeking special police protection after he was forced to move to a secret location amid fears for the safety of his family.

Pc Amjad Farooq, 39, is suing the Metropolitan Police for race and religious discrimination after he was removed from Scotland Yard’s Diplomatic Protection Group (S016) when he was told he had failed a security check because his children went to the same mosque as an imam suspected of having links to terrorism.

Yesterday, friends of Pc Farooq said a house where he had been staying had been visited by an unknown man who made unfounded accusations linking Pc Farooq’s friends to al-Qa’ida. Pc Farooq also feels harassed after an article was published yesterday that he believes links him to the international terrorist group. Friends say that the officer, his wife and five children have been exposed to a possible backlash from far right groups after his legal action against the Met was made public on Tuesday. He denies any links or sympathies with any extremist group.

In a letter to Dr Tim Brain, Chief Constable of Gloucestershire Police, Pc Farooq’s lawyer, Lawrence Davies, has officially requested police protection for his client and his client’s family. The letter makes the police aware of an incident in which an “unnamed person approached the person with whom our client is temporary staying at a secret location and falsely accused that person of having links to the same imam which is entirely untrue”.

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Fascists acquitted again

Posted on by Bob Pitt

bnp-islam-posterBNP leader Nick Griffin and party activist Mark Collett have been cleared of inciting racial hatred after a retrial at Leeds Crown Court.

Mr Griffin, 46, from Powys, Wales, had denied two charges of using words or behaviour intended to stir up racial hatred in a speech in Keighley. Mr Collett, 26, of Leicestershire, was cleared of four similar charges. The pair were charged in April 2005 after the BBC showed a secretly-filmed documentary “The Secret Agent” in 2004.

Mr Griffin smiled and nodded as the foreman of the jury read out the unanimous not guilty plea. Mr Collett, the party’s head of the publicity, said: “This is the BNP – two, BBC – nil.” He branded the BBC “cockroaches” and added: “The BBC have abused their position. They are a politically correct, politically biased organisation which has wasted licence fee payers money to bring two people in a legal, democratic, peaceful party to court over speaking nothing more than the truth.”

During the trial, the jury heard extracts from a speech Griffin made in the Reservoir Tavern in Keighley, on 19 January 2004, in which he described Islam as a “wicked, vicious faith” and said Muslims were turning Britain into a “multi-racial hell hole”. At the same event, Mr Collett addressed the audience by saying: “Let’s show these ethnics the door in 2004.”

In his closing argument, Nick Griffin’s barrister said his client’s speech was a “campaign speech of an official and legitimate party”.

BBC News, 10 November 2006

1990 Trust survey challenges UK spy chief’s claim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The findings of a new survey conducted by The 1990 Trust, are countering new claims linking sizeable Muslim support for terrorism in a hard-hitting public speech Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, Head of MI5 made yesterday.

The survey, ‘Muslim views: Foreign policy and its effects’ (sample: 1,213) carried out across the Muslim community in October concludes that there is almost no support for terrorism amongst the Muslim community with just 1% of those surveyed supporting the 7/7 London bombings.

THE REPORT CAN BE VIEWED BY LOGGING ONTO: www.blink.org.uk or clicking http://www.blink.org.uk/docs/muslim_survey_report_screen.pdf

The report directly questions Dame Manningham-Buller’s comments claiming that,”If the opinion polls conducted in the UK since July are only broadly accurate, over 100,000 of our citizens consider that the July bomb attacks in London were justified,” which the Daily Express reported as “widespread sympathy for terrorism within Britain”.

The 1990 Trust found that surveys by respected pollsters such as ICM and YouGov are showing artificially high rates of support for extremism due to the way questions are asked, which are taken and spun by the media, and believe their new survey more accurately reflects the real views of Muslims.Dame Manningham-Buller’s speech was short on “radicalisation” and the impact of UK’s foreign policy on disaffection within the Muslim community. Key points in the survey show:

a. 91% of Muslims in Britain disagree with the UK’s foreign policy.
b. 82% of Muslims have become more radicalised in recent times but in the form of attending demonstrations, writing to their MPs etc (46%).
c. Less than 1% of Muslims say they obtain information on the Middle East from mosques and clerics.

The opinions held mirror attitudes in the wider society.

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PC Farooq case shows ‘our Islamic blind spot’, says Nick Cohen

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nick Cohen 3“The case of PC Amjad Farooq shows how, despite all the fuss since 9/11, we don’t have a yardstick against which to judge radical Islam. After six weeks with the Diplomatic Protection Group, Special Branch revoked his counter-terrorism clearance. Its vetters found that he sent his children to a mosque that the police suspected ‘radical’ Islamist groups had infiltrated….

“If the mosque where Farooq’s children were sent to study the Koran really was a centre of extremism its worshippers would believe in the subjugation of women, the death penalty for homosexuals and Muslims who abandon their religion, Adolf Hitler’s conspiracy theories about the Jews and the replacement of democracy with tyranny. In short, they would be parroting a large part of the agenda of white fascists. Yet it is the height of bad taste to point this out in polite society….

“The best way to keep the peace is to do what many still can’t do: admit the Islamist far Right exists and isolate it. If you pretend that sensible measures against it are an attack on all Muslims, you will only give aid and comfort to those least deserving of it.”

Nick Cohen in the Evening Standard, 8 November 2006

Perhaps PC Farooq should be grateful that Cohen isn’t calling for him to delivered into the hands of some foreign dictatorship and tortured.

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Condescending advice to Muslims from Margaret Beckett

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett is to call on mainstream Muslims to “stand up and be counted” in the struggle against terrorism. The UK’s 1.6 million Muslims have a “special ability” to counter extremist propaganda about a “clash of civilisations” between Islam and the West, she will say.

Press Association, 9 November 2006

Their job would be made rather easier if Beckett was prepared to “stand up and be counted” in condemning US and Israeli state terrorism.

See also BBC News, 9 November 2006

Posted in UK