Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Dudley Muslim Association proposes negotiations over mosque plan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dudley mosque new plan

Muslim leaders say they will consider another site for a mosque in Dudley in a bid to halt a costly legal battle with the council.

They want to have fresh talks with council chiefs, despite their plans for a mosque on land off Hall Street getting the go-ahead earlier this week.

Dudley Muslim Association is locked in a legal battle with Dudley Council over the land earmarked for the 52-ft high mosque. Despite winning planning permission the group won’t be able to build unless they win a Court of Appeal hearing, which will rule on the council’s bid to buy back the land.

The dispute has so far gone on for seven years and is next in court in February.

But today, Dr Khurshid Ahmed declared he wanted a sit-down with council bosses and said he would consider an alternative mosque site. He said: “I would like to see the council reflect on the whole issue and look at a number of options. One option is to continue the court hearing, which will be costly and will not solve community division, it could escalate it further.

“Second option is the council backs off from the court case and allows the community to build the mosque. The council have a third option where they can negotiate with all sides to find a viable resolution, which I think would be the sensible way forward.

“To continue with the case would cause a lot of expense on behalf of the tax payers, as well as for the Muslim association, we would rather spend the money on a mosque than solicitors. I would not rule out an alternative site if that was acceptable. For the sake of the community, if there was an alternative acceptable to the Muslim community, we would be more than happy to consider it.”

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Houston: Parents object to anti‑Muslim bigot teaching their children

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Angela BoxBreast squeezing, profanity spewing, Muslim baiting Angela Box is by obvious personal design quite the spectacle on the cable access show “Tommy’s Garage.”

“I am so sick of the bacon haters coming here and demanding we bend to their culture,” said Box in a recent episode, referring to Muslims.

And in this country where free speech is sacred, Box’s expression is simply an indisputable right.

But just as sacred is the privilege of parents to object when they deem the calculated public behavior of a 3rd grade teacher is bigoted and a potential threat to their kids.

“We all understand that she is entitled to her views and opinions, but it goes back to the classroom. How are the kids being treated in the classroom when the very people that you have such a disdain for, their kids are in your classroom,” said Ladonna Begelton, a parent with two children at Ray Daily Elementary where Box teaches.

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Former soldier condemns far-right BNP for ‘hijacking’ his robbery ordeal

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP exploits George Gill assaultAn old soldier robbed by a gang of youths as he made his way to a Remembrance service last night told of his disgust and anger after the far-right BNP ‘hijacked’ his ordeal for a recruitment poster.

Former infantryman George Gill, 69, lost his medals and had his beret and poppy stripped off when he was attacked by the thugs, described by police as being of Asian appearance, in Lund Park, Keighley, last Sunday.

Now, unbeknown to him, the BNP is using a photograph of him on poster that is headlined ‘Muslim gang steal medals after attacking British Army veteran’ and states ‘Enough Is Enough’. A quote even appears next to Mr Gill’s picture, stating: “I want my medals back, I was proud to earn them and wear them!”

Mr Gill said he knew nothing of the poster’s existence until he was contacted by the Telegraph & Argus yesterday. “I think it is disgusting and ridiculous,” he said. “I knew nothing about it all. It is shameful and it has made me angry. I am shocked.”

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EDL whips up hatred and violence against Muslim taxi drivers in Weston‑super‑Mare

Posted on by Bob Pitt

John SheridanReports of taxi drivers telling passengers to remove poppies before they will accept the fare has led to a Weston firm promising to sack any employee who is prejudicial against the Remembrance Day symbol.

Social media has been abuzz with stories of multiple Apple Central Taxis’ customers being asked to take off poppies – allegations, which although unproven at this stage, have led to company cars being smashed and verbal abuse aimed at staff.

The taxi firm started an investigation last week despite no customers issuing an official complaint, although owner Iftikhar Ul-Haq promised the company is taking the claims seriously. He said: “I am Asian and I have never seen anyone say ‘I don’t want to wear a poppy’. I would sack any guilty driver there and then… I wouldn’t even let them come into the office.”

The Royal British Legion (RBL), which co-ordinates the poppy campaign, said Apple taxis is – and always had been – a supporter of the appeal and urged people to remain calm.

The Mercury has been told of two occasions where customers were allegedly asked to remove a poppy, one on October 26 and another on October 30. One of the customers described the driver’s stance as ‘disgusting’.

Apple taxis’ general manager Steve Tedd stressed it has no anti-poppy policy but said unless someone comes forward officially with a time and date, it cannot discover if the rumours are true or dispel them.

The allegations – which led to Weston’s English Defence League branch calling for a boycott of Apple taxis – have provoked revenge attacks.

Mr Tedd said: “A couple of drivers have had car windows smashed. We also had a soldier on Saturday afternoon walk into our office, having heard the rumours and was angry, and wanted to talk it out with our telephonist. Thankfully after half an hour it ended peacefully.

“The allegations have had a bad effect on my staff and drivers. I have heard four different versions of the same story. If I have anything factual, then I will act, but if I hear nothing officially then I will have to class it as a vicious hoax. We are talking about people’s livelihoods and I’m not going to sack people on say-so.”

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Mehdi Hasan: sanctions for ‘dishonest, demonising press coverage’ of Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Misrepresentative portrayals of Muslims and other minorities will not stop unless newspapers are threatened with sanctions, Mehdi Hasan said yesterday.

The columnist and political director of the Huffington Post UK said the press has proven “singularly unable or unwilling to change the discourse, the tone or the approach” towards Muslims, immigrants and asylum seekers.

Hasan, who was speaking in a personal capacity at a media industry event hosted by Mindshare UK, said: “We’re not going to get change unless there is some sanction, there is some penalty. This is not just about Muslims; it is about all minorities.”

“Therefore you have to ask questions about: does it need to be externally imposed, either by better regulation or via some form of commercial imperative? Though, that requires a separate campaign to get companies to give a damn about this stuff,” Hasan added.

He suggested advertisers would have boycotted newspapers over the publication of certain headlines about Muslims, had they been about other minorities.

In a session titled “The Muslims are coming!”, Hasan presented to a group of media industry figures a slideshow of British newspaper headlines and front pages, which he said ostracised the Muslim community, presenting Muslims as “the other”. Hasan also highlighted the factual inaccuracy of some of the stories and accused newspapers of peddling misinformation.

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Lutfur’s Labour enemies join Tories in attacking Ken

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ken at Lutfur solidarity meetingKen Livingstone was accused by the government yesterday of inciting a lynch mob after he urged protesters to go to public servants’ homes and “make their lives intolerable”.

The Labour party was urged to expel the former London mayor for an incendiary speech in Tower Hamlets.

Mr Livingstone was speaking at a rally for the borough’s independent mayor Lutfur Rahman, whose victory in May’s local elections is being challenged in the High Court amid claims that electors were pressured into voting for him.

Eric Pickles, the communities and local government Secretary, has threatened to send commissioners to run the failing borough in London’s East End.

Mr Livingstone told a public meeting in Mile End on Wednesday: “When these commissioners turn up, find out where they live and then have a peaceful demonstration outside their homes so their neighbours know these are the kind of people who overturn a democratically elected mayor. Make their lives intolerable.”

Kris Hopkins, the local government minister, said: “I am appalled at Ken Livingstone’s comments which run the risk of stirring up a lynch mob mentality in Tower Hamlets. The borough is already riven by the politics of intimidation and division, and stupid remarks like his will only worsen tensions.”

Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse, said after hearing Mr Livingstone’s comments: “That’s deeply disturbing. It’s almost inciting people to the level of intimidation. The Labour front bench welcomed the statement from Eric Pickles and have accepted the need for commissioners to be sent in to Tower Hamlets, so Ken is clearly not speaking for Labour party policy.”

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CAIR video calls out Fox News’ faux ‘condemn Islamic extremism’ challenge to Muslim leaders

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today issued a public video response to Fox News for demanding that an American Muslim leader come on the network to condemn “Islamic Extremism” and then failing to interview a leader who accepted that challenge.

On October 6, Fox News Host Greta Van Susteren issued an on-air challenge, stating:

“So here’s my offer. I will give any Muslim leader of national or international stature the platform right here ‘On the Record’ to condemn Islamic extremism and to make a call to arms of every Muslim leader of every mosque to do the same. Condemn Islamic extremism.”

Despite CAIR’s immediate agreement to have its National Executive Director Nihad Awad appear on her program to repeat the American Muslim community’s consistent condemnation of religious extremism and terrorism, Van Susteren’s producers changed the terms of the challenge and ultimately dropped Awad’s appearance.

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In St. Paul anti-Islam graffiti, FBI investigation sought

Posted on by Bob Pitt

St Paul anti-Islam graffiti

Someone used motor oil to paint an anti-Islam message in St. Paul’s West Seventh neighborhood, leading a civil liberties group Thursday to call on the FBI to investigate it as a hate crime.

The case led to strong condemnation from the neighborhood, including a resident contacting the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Minnesota (CAIR-MN).

The man reported someone had written “(Expletive) Islam” using motor oil near the driveway of a home, and said several Muslim families live in the neighborhood, according to Lori Saroya, CAIR-MN executive director.

St. Paul police received an anonymous call Oct. 28 at 3:26 a.m. about graffiti at Milton and Juno avenues. CAIR-MN contacted the FBI on Thursday.

The federal agency is aware of the incident, has been in consultation with the St. Paul Police Department and will continue to be, said Kyle Loven, a local FBI spokesman. “We’ll examine the situation to see it meets the threshold of a federal hate crime,” Loven said.

It’s not known whether the people who live in the house where the graffiti was scrawled outside in large letters are Muslim, Saroya said, though she noted that the message wasn’t necessarily targeting them. It was written to be facing out to the street and other homes. “That’s sending a message outwards into the neighborhood,” Saroya said. “It’s very concerning.”

A post on a neighborhood Facebook page about the case drew many comments, most saying the graffiti was unwelcome in the neighborhood. Residents tried to contact the people who live at the house where the graffiti had been left outside, and someone dropped off flowers.

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Organisers of counter EDL march insist event will be a ‘celebration of Luton’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

We are Luton

The organisers of a counter EDL march say that they are mobilising to stop the far right group from “rampaging” through the streets of Bury Park.

For the first time since the departure of the group’s former leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon the English Defence League has organised a demonstration in the town, which is set to take place from 2pm on Saturday November 22. At the time of writing a Facebook page for the demo shows more than 380 are due to attend, with a further 1,300 invited.

In retaliation community group We Are Luton have organised a counter march in conjunction with Unite Against Fascism, which will gather in front of Bury Park Community Centre, Dunstable Road, from noon. An advert for the event, which has been named ‘Stop the EDL’, states the intention to form a “strong and united” opposition to prevent the possibility of rioting.

Organiser Dawood Masood, of the Al Hira Educational and Cultural Centre, told the Herald & Post that the march will be peaceful.

He said: “Whenever the EDL come to Luton they are made up of people from outside the town, so we want the people of Luton to stand up and be united no matter which community you come from. This will be a family event, there will be speeches and the shops in Bury Park will remain open.

“We are in contact with the police and it may end up as a static demonstration, we’re not sure yet. On previous occasions the EDL have targeted mosques and committed Islamophobic attacks, we don’t want anything like this to happen again.”

Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism, added that the counter demonstration will be a “celebration of Luton”.

He said: “The alternative is to do nothing, it is much better to stand shoulder to shoulder. These people say they speak for Luton but I do not believe the majority agree with this. Our firm belief is that the EDL are a racist organisation which seeks to divide the people of Luton.”

The EDL has stated that their demo has been organised to “speak out against modern slavery and human trafficking”.

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Livingstone and Galloway rail against ongoing ‘witch hunt’ of Lutfur Rahman

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lutfur with Ken and GeorgeSenior political figures George Galloway MP and former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone last night spoke out in defence of controversial Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman.

Around 1,000 people attended a rally arranged by Organisation for Democracy and Freedom at The Waterlily in Whitechapel.

The event involved a number of speakers from groups including Left Unity who defended the Mayor against what they said was “nothing short of a political attack on a council that has done so well”.

Rahman was criticised earlier this month in a PricewaterhouseCoopers report commissioned by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The report stated he had failed to provide taxpayers with “value for money” after giving grants to Bangladeshi and Somali-led organisations, also finding he had created a “culture of cronyism” that allegedly undermined the democratic process.

Despite the report finding no evidence of illegality, secretary of state Erick Pickles told the House of Commons he would send in commissioners to oversee three aspects of governance in Tower Hamlets Council involving grant-making.

Galloway told ELL: “There is absolutely nothing substantial in the report. It’s a political set-up. The report found that there are weaknesses, just like there are weaknesses in any big administration that employs a large number of people…you only need to look at the British Parliament with MPs fiddling their expenses. But dishonesty and impropriety – absolutely not.”

Addressing the meeting Ken Livingstone said: “Lutfur’s record is outstanding, and it is a record any Labour authority in Britain should be proud of. It’s a lot better than many Labour councils up and down the country.”

“And yes there are problems. PricewaterhouseCoopers identified problems. But they didn’t identify any problems with the world’s banks. I say this to Lutfur: fight on all fronts, get a bloody good lawyer and take Eric Pickles to court.”

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