The Mail on Sunday continues its witch-hunt of Azad Ali.
Monthly Archives: July 2009
France: Racist campaign against burqa threatens democratic rights
“Though disguised under a hypocritical cover of secularism and protecting women’s rights, the anti-burqa campaign is a racist assault on basic individual liberties. It is also particularly dangerous in that it sets precedents whereby the state can outlaw political or religious beliefs it deems contrary to its interests.
“No credence can be given to claims that Muslim women’s rights can be defended by whipping up an anti-Muslim atmosphere and forcing women to modify their beliefs and conduct under the threat of punishment by the state.”
Mail on Sunday apologises to Inayat Bunglawala
The Mail on Sunday has today printed an apology to Inayat Bunglawala – Advisor on Research and Policy at ENGAGE – following a scurrilous story it ran about him on March 15 2009. The MoS apology – which also appears on the MoS website – reads as follows:
On March 15 we suggested that Inayat Bunglawala’s stabbing an intruder at his home questioned his suitability as a Government adviser on terrorism.
In fact Mr Bunglawala acted entirely in self-defence and no charges were brought against him.
Also, Mr Bunglawala does not support Al Qaeda or Abu Qatada as the article may have suggested.
We apologise to Mr Bunglawala for the distress caused and have agreed to pay him damages.
Why fears of a Muslim takeover of Europe are baseless
William Underhill challenges the “Eurabia” myth.
BNP’s Griffin: Islam is a cancer
The BNP leader Nick Griffin has described Islam as a “cancer” that should be removed from Europe by “chemotherapy”.
In an interview with Channel 4 News, Mr Griffin, who has just been elected to the European Parliament, said there was “no place in Europe for Islam”.
He added: “Western values, freedom of speech, democracy and rights for women are incompatible with Islam, which is a cancer eating away at our freedoms and our democracy and rights for our women and something needs to be done about it”.
The BNP leader said he agreed with a candidate for the Flemish far right party, Vlaams Belang, who had declared: “We urgently need global chemotherapy against Islam to save civilisation.”
Soaked in blood indeed
“Isn’t it ironic that someone writing against hijab can describe it as ‘soaked in blood’ less than a week after a pregnant woman was stabbed to death in Europe by a man who had harassed her for wearing hijab?”
Yusuf Smith replies to Rahila Gupta.
Anti-Islamic attacks are not history
Violence against Muslims across Britain and Europe shows we have failed to consign such far-right extremism to the past, argues Inayat Bunglawala.
Major book from Qaradawi reviewed
“Yusuf al-Qaradawi, probably the single most influential living Sunni Islamist figure, has just written a major book entitled Fiqh al-Jihad (The Jurisprudence of Jihad) which decisively repudiates al Qaeda’s conception of jihad as a ‘mad declaration of war upon the world’.
“At the same time, he strongly rejects what he calls efforts to remove jihad completely from Islam, and strongly reaffirms the duty of jihad in resisting the occupation of Muslim lands, specifically mentioning Israel as the arena of legitimate resistance.
“Qaradawi’s intervention has thus far received no attention at all in the English-language media. It should, because of his vast influence and his long track record as an accurate barometer of mainstream Arab views….
“Fiqh al-Jihad stakes out the centrist (wasatiyya) ground where Qaradawi has always comfortably resided (he has authored dozens of books about wasatiyya concept). He rejects two trends: those who seek to eliminate jihad completely from the Muslim world, stripping it of its power and its ability to resist (which is how he sees the project of much of so-called moderate Islam or secularists); and those who apply it indiscriminately in a mad campaign of killing of all with whom they disagree (like al-Qaeda)….
“Qaradawi also offers an intriguing broadening of the concept of jihad, away from violence to the realm of ideas, media, and communication – which he calls the ‘jihad of the age’. The weapons of this jihad should be TV, the internet, email and the like rather than guns. Persuading Muslims of the message of Islam and the importance of this jihad in the path of God should be the first priority, he argues: ‘the jihad of the age, a great jihad, and a long jihad’. He also goes into great detail about the different forms of jihad, the need for pragmatism, and the diverse nature of possible relations between Muslims and non-Muslims.”
Man charged with hate crime for threatening Muslim woman
A self-proclaimed white supremacist with a history of threats and harassment was charged under the state’s hate crime statute after he allegedly threatened a young Muslim woman with a knife while she was waiting in line for services at the Seattle Indian Health Board.
According to charging papers, Eric Lee Garner walked up to the woman on July 1, pointed at her head scarf and said, “you Muslim people scare people when you wear things like that!” He followed up with other derogatory remarks.
The woman, who was holding her six-month-old son, tried to reason with the 24-year-old Auburn man by saying that her “her clothing does not make her a bad person,” court documents said. When the insults didn’t stop, prosecutors said, the woman backed away from Garner and tried to shield her son from him.
Garner then cursed at the woman, got in her face and pulled out a large sheathed knife, court papers said. Garner told the woman he was going to “cut” the woman and her baby with the knife, charging documents said.
A health board employee then grabbed the knife and retreated behind the counter, prosecutors said. Garner jumped over the counter, grabbed the knife and ran out of the building.
Update: See “Auburn man sentenced in attack of Muslim woman, baby”, KOMO News, 23 April 2010
Secret ‘Sharia court’ claims are rejected
Muslim leaders have dismissed reports that a secret Sharia court is operating in Burton as “nonsense” and “completely misleading”. The Imam Jamia mosque, in Princess Street, is included in a list of centres which are alleged to put members breaking Islamic law on trial, independently of the Crown Prosecution Service.
The list was produced by researchers working on a report on Sharia courts in the UK. It was not included in the final report but was highlighted in regional newspaper The Sunday Mercury this week. However, prominent Muslims in Burton say the list, compiled following a study by think tank Civitas, is “nonsense”.