Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Virginia cabbie pursues charges after anti-Muslim rant

Posted on by Bob Pitt

McLEAN, Va. — For the second time in as many months, a Muslim civil rights group is pursuing criminal charges on behalf of a taxicab driver who was subjected to an anti-Islamic rant caught on tape.

In the most recent case, an Ashburn, Va., woman unleashed a string of expletives and called 911 to report that she was afraid for her life because she said her cabbie, Abdikar Aden of Alexandria, was “very Muslim.”

Aden says the woman also poked him repeatedly in the back of his shoulder, though that part of the confrontation was not captured in a recording provided to The Associated Press.

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Civil rights groups sue NYPD over Muslim spying

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hina Shamsi announces civil rights suit
ACLU attorney Hina Shamsi announces the civil rights suit (Photo: Seth Freed Wessler)

The New York Police Department’s widespread spying programs directed at Muslims have undermined free worship by innocent people and should be declared unconstitutional, religious leaders and civil rights advocates said Tuesday after the filing of a federal lawsuit.

“Our mosque should be an open, religious and spiritual sanctuary, but NYPD spying has turned it into a place of suspicion and censorship,” Hamid Hassan Raza, an imam named as a plaintiff, told a rally outside police headquarters shortly after the suit was filed in federal court in Brooklyn.

The city’s legal department responded with a statement calling the intelligence-gathering an appropriate and legal tactic that helps keep the city safe from terrorism.

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Aberdeen councillors reject Scottish Defence League march plans

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scottish Defence League 2Aberdeen City Council have rejected an application by the Scottish Defence League to stage a march in the city on Saturday, June 29.

The right-wing organisation had submitted an application to take part in Armed Forces Day, but the route they had chosen included passing a mosque on Aberdeen’s Crown Street. However, the local authority’s Licencing Committee unanimously kicked the idea into touch when they convened on Tuesday morning, on the grounds that the SDL had failed to engage with the council or the police.

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Tower Hamlets: Labour accused over ‘inflammatory’ housing claims shared by EDL supporters

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lutfur Rahman talks to mediaLabour has been accused of making “inflammatory” claims after supporters of far right group the English Defence League circulated allegations that mayor of Tower Hamlets Lutfur Rahman prioritised supporters when allocating funding for home improvements.

The accusation that Independent mayor Mr Rahman targeted areas represented by his supporters followed the release of figures highlighting discrepancies in where renovations under the Decent Homes Programme have been completed since elections in 2010. The information was circulated by EDL supporters on social networking site Twitter.

A spokesman from the mayor’s office described Labour’s accusations as “inflammatory”, while cabinet member for housing Cllr Rabina Khan added: “The irresponsible and dangerous claims made by Labour have found their audience and are now doing the rounds with the EDL to stoke up fear within the community that some residents and areas are more deserving than others.”

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Argenteuil: Muslim woman loses baby after veil attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A young pregnant Muslim woman, who was allegedly attacked in the street for wearing a veil has lost her baby, her lawyer announced on Monday.

According to reports in the French media, the woman, who was four months pregnant, was assaulted in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil on June 13th. On Monday, the 21-year-old’s lawyer Hosni Maati told AFP that the woman had since suffered a miscarriage. “Her husband called me this afternoon. She lost the baby,” the lawyer said, before adding that the family were devastated by the tragedy and would not be making any further comment.

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Planning inquiry to examine council’s rejection of West Ham mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Newham Council’s rejection of a planning application for the UK’s biggest mosque is set to be the subject of a public inquiry this year.

Councillors voted unanimously to reject plans for a 9,000 capacity building for Muslim worshippers in December on the site – former industrial land at the end of Canning Road which is listed for strategic development. Officers argued that the mosque plans failed to provide a mixed-use development.

The Riverine Trust, who submitted the planning application, appealed and the decision is due to be examined in a public inquiry of the Planning Inspectorate over a number of weeks towards the end of 2013.

Last month, the High Court ordered the Trust to clear the site, also known as the Abbey Mills Mosque, where 3,000 Muslims currently worship. But instead the Trustees have now applied to a judge to appeal the injunction meaning no timetable to clear the site has been put in place.

They have also submitted proposals to the council for a new planning application for a mixed-use development.

Newham Recorder, 17 June 2013

US company advertises pork-coated bullets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jihawg Ammo

The right-wing US website BizPac Review reports on a new and particularly distasteful example of Islamophobia.

An Idaho company named Jihawg Ammo (company slogan “Peace through pork”) has begun producing bullets coated with “pork-infused paint”. It advertises this as “the only ammunition in the world that provides a peaceful and natural deterrent to radical Islam”.

BizPac Review explains: “The inclusion of pork in the paint makes the bullets haraam, or unclean. Under Islamic law, anyone who comes in contact with a haraam item is then unclean, and must engage in a cleansing ritual. No unclean person can be admitted into Paradise.”

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Far-right anti-Islamification protest in Burnley

Posted on by Bob Pitt

North West Frontline Firm Burnley demo

A group called the North West Frontline Firm are holding a demonstration in Burnley next Saturday to “highlight the Islamification of Great Britain and the ever growing problem of mass immigration”.

One of several far-right “unity” initiatives that emerged out of the fragmentation of the English Defence League, the organisation claims to have been “set up by affiliates of various Patriotic groups throughout the North West”. In a recent Facebook post they state piously: “We aren’t extremist nazis like the various left wing factions would have you believe. We are simply concerned British Patriots.”

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