Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

English Defence League leader condemns attacks on Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stephen Lennon with anti-mosque placard2The leader of the English Defence League has said he “utterly condemns” attacks on Muslims.

Tommy Robinson denied claims his group had firebombed an Islamic community centre in London, where the letters EDL were sprayed on the building. He told the BBC the graffiti could have been placed there to make it look as if the group was responsible.

Mr Robinson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he condemned all acts of violence by EDL members and the group was about peaceful protest.

He denied his group was behind the blaze in Muswell Hill last week. “If something was set fire and someone wrote David Cameron on the side of it, does it mean he did it?” he said. “If I’m honest, I’m completely sceptical that it is even non-Muslims that have done that.”

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Reims: Young woman wearing hijab is attacked

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Reims demonstration

The attack took place on Sunday afternoon in Reims (Marne). While she was driving with her husband, the young veiled woman was violently set upon by a passer-by.

The 17-year adolescent, an apprentice with the Compagnons du Devoir, started to insult her. According to the prefecture, he repeatedly asked her to remove her headscarf before “pouring a stream of racist abuse on her and her husband”. According to the testimony of the couple and Muslim and anti-racist associations in Reims, the perpetrator “put his hand through the window of the vehicle in an attempt to forcibly remove the woman’s scarf”.

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Pro-Israel women’s group has history of anti-Islam activism, Matt Duss reveals

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Concerned Women for AmericaLast week, the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin hailed the arrival of “a strong new player in the pro-Israel community,” Concerned Women for America. It’s “music to the ears of Israel and her friends,” Rubin wrote, “that a 500,000-strong conservative group that has mostly focused on social and economic issues has adopted defense of Israel as part of its core mission.”

What Rubin doesn’t mention is that, in addition to a number of other very right-wing causes, CWFA has a history of anti-Muslim activism. In particular, the group pushes the “creeping sharia” conspiracy theory, which holds that Islamic religious law represents an imminent threat to the United States, and which my colleague Wajahat Ali and I debunked in a 2011 brief.

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Police patrol Islamic sites ‘at risk’ after fires

Posted on by Bob Pitt

There will be 24-hour police patrols at certain Islamic sites in London after two suspicious fires, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner has said.

Fires were started at a community centre in Muswell Hill on Wednesday, and a Chislehurst school on Saturday. An increased police presence has now been put in place around potentially “vulnerable” locations, said Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe. He called on Londoners not to be divided by the death of Lee Rigby.

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Dog returns to vomit

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Undeterred by criticisms of his article in last week’s Sunday Telegraph, in which he denied any serious post-Woolwich backlash against Muslims, Andrew Gilligan returns to the issue in this week’s paper, claiming that the government-backed Tell MAMA project has had its funding withdrawn because of objections to its recording of anti-Muslim hate crime. Tell MAMA’s response can be read here. Their account does provide a revealing insight into Gilligan’s contemptible journalistic methods, which involve deciding on the story he wants to report in advance and then manipulating the evidence to fit. But then, there’s nothing new there.

UK mosques urged to improve security measures

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An American Islamic group has been advising British mosques on security measures, including the installation of safe rooms and panic alarms, warning that they are at greater risk than in any other western country.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has discussed its revamped security regulations with the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) in light of the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby, 25, in Woolwich, south-east London, which it said had even provoked attacks in the United States.

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EDL returns to Sheffield

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Sheffield June 2013Hundreds of English Defence League supporters who protested in Sheffield city centre were able to lay their wreath – but have been accused of inciting counter demonstrators.

Sheffield Central MP Paul Blomfield claimed EDL supporters made Nazi salutes as well as Churchill-style “V” signs when they entered Barker’s Pool and approached the war memorial to lay the wreath.

Shouts of “there’s only one Lee Rigby” were chanted by the EDL as they entered, after leader Tommy Robinson had grabbed a megaphone and urged them to hold a “peaceful protest”. The Star filmed EDL supporters, who initially shouted “Yorkshire” changing their chants to “Allah is a paedophile” and “if you wear a yellow jacket, you’re a ****” at police.

Labour MP Mr Blomfield said: “I congratulate The Star for exposing the EDL for what they are. They claimed to be coming here peacefully but I am disgusted that they stood in front of the war memorial and gave a Nazi salute, then chanted obscenities at the police and towards Sheffield’s Muslim citizens.”

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Lincoln anti-mosque protest meets counter-demonstration

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anti-mosque protest Lincoln
Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Lincoln on Saturday, June 8, for a protest against plans to build a mosque in Lincoln, as well as a separate anti-racism demonstration.

Around 250 anti-mosque protestors were in the City Square area, while around 100 people took part in the counter-demonstration in Cornhill. There was a strong police presence in the city throughout the day, with Lincolnshire Police getting assistance from Thames Valley and Metropolitan Police forces. No arrests were made.

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Salma Yaqoob threat allegations lead to arrest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man has been arrested after death threats were allegedly made on Facebook following a TV appearance by a former Birmingham City Councillor.

Salma Yaqoob, a former Respect councillor, shared the threats with her Twitter followers after she appeared on the BBC’s Question Time on Thursday.

West Midlands Police said a 37-year-old man from Corby has been arrested on suspicion of malicious communications. He is being held by Northamptonshire police, a spokesperson said.

BBC News, 8 June 2013

Vicious attack on young Muslim woman in Argenteuil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rabia B.

The Coordination contre le Racisme et l’Islamophobie reports that on 20 May in the town of Argenteuil near Paris a 17-year-old Muslim woman named Rabia B., who was wearing a headscarf, was attacked by three men who punched and kicked her, and tore off her headscarf, while shouting “dirty Arab” and “dirty Muslim”. The CRI condemns the inadequate response of the police and local council to the incident.

In an interview with Oumma TV, Rabia describes the attackers as skinheads.

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