Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

New study reveals true extent of anti-Muslim abuse directed at veiled women

Posted on by Bob Pitt

9781137356147.inddA new study has found the true extent to which veiled women bear the brunt of anti-Muslim abuse in the UK. Led by the University of Leicester it offers a unique insight into the experiences of veiled Muslim women as victims of Islamophobia, and the impact of this victimisation upon their families and wider Muslim communities.

Islamophobia, Victimisation and the Veil is a new book by Irene Zempi and Neil Chakraborti from the University of Leicester.

Irene said: “In a post-9/11 climate, veiled Muslim women are vulnerable to Islamophobic attacks in public because they are easily identifiable as Muslims. As with other forms of hate crime, Islamophobic victimisation falls under the police and local authority ‘radar’. The fact that it is such an under-reported phenomenon and under-researched topic means that victims of Islamophobia often suffer in silence.

“Our research reveals how Islamophobic victimisation is experienced as ‘part and parcel’ of wearing the veil, rather than as isolated ‘one-off’ incidents, and how repeat incidents of supposedly ‘low-level’ forms of hostility such as name-calling, persistent staring and other types of intimidatory behaviour place a potentially huge emotional burden on victims.

“The actual and potential threat of Islamophobic abuse and violence has long-lasting effects for veiled Muslim women, making them afraid to leave their house.”

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Ohio Muslim sues Islamophobes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim “multicultural relations officer” for Ohio’s Office of Homeland Security claims in court that Internet bloggers defamed him and cost him his job by posting that he was an “Islamist mole” who sympathized with terrorists.

Omar Alomari sued the City of Columbus, Todd Alan Sheets, Stephen Coughlin, John Guandolo, Patrick Poole and a John Doe known on the Internet as “Rusty Shackleford,” in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas.

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Far Right rally fears grow

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Far Right group linked with racial violence is staging a Wigan demo.

Concerns are rising after the confrontational Britain First party – an even more extreme splinter of the BNP and EDL, confirmed when approached by the Evening Post today that its members will hold a Regional Rally in Wigan this Saturday.

However, despite describing itself as a “legitimate political party,” it refused point blank to say where or at what time. Instead a spokesman stated that supporters would be “re-directed” to the real venue on the day.

Wigan borough has little ethnic diversity. The spokesman said it had been chosen because of its central position in the North West and its strong motorway and rail communications.

Council leader Lord Smith said that Labour “regretted” Britain First had chosen to hold a rally in Wigan, adding: “They and their racist views are not welcome in our town. We will work with the police to ensure that any nuisance they try to cause is minimised.”

Wigan MP Lisa Nandy said that despite desperate efforts by far right groups to “whip up hatred, racism and intolerance,” the area had consistently rejected their “message of hate.”

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Defend Muslims from mosque invasions – No to Britain First

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UAF_logoUnite Against Fascism (UAF) extends it’s solidarity with all those who are subject to threats, intimidation and Islamophobia, from the publicity hungry, fascist sect, Britain First (BF).

The group say they plan to travel around Britain to promote their poison. This follows from when on May 10/11th, BF subjected mosque goers to an ‘invasion’, where Bibles were thrust into Muslims’ hands. This was intimidation, and as ugly as BF’s politics. Many were bewildered by BF members who went on to holler insults and behave menacingly.

UAF has been contacted by several people who had their place of worship threatened by these thugs. All told a similar story of how worshippers were left shaken by this unwarranted attempt to put fear into Muslim people. This is totally unacceptable.

Were such behaviour to happen at churches or synagogues, there would be rightly be a public outcry. So there should be, here. At Glasgow Central Mosque and at Cumbernauld Mosque, to their great credit, it was Muslims who calmed the BF thugs down!

BF are also, as Hitler did, telling big lies about their popularity. They claim to have had over 500,000 Likes on Social Media. The reality is rather different. Using a series of ‘patriotic’ images, not immediately linked to BF, they have amassed fake popularity behind such fake postings. Their membership is barely 100, far away from their claims.

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Lord Macdonald condemns Cameron’s ‘cack-handed’ review of the Muslim Brotherhood

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lord MacdonaldDavid Cameron risks creating more would-be jihadists because of his “cack-handed” review of the Muslim Brotherhood, who were deposed in Egypt last year, a former director of public prosecutions has warned.

Lord Macdonald of River Glaven QC said the investigation in to what was a democratically elected party sent out mixed messages to young Muslims. In an extraordinary outburst, he warned the move was a “double standard” that could play a “full part in the disillusionment and chaos seen in places like Iraq”.

He described the organisation as “democratic victims of violent military overthrow” and accused Mr Cameron of casting them as a threat while building bridges with the generals who deposed them. Writing in the Telegraph, he warned: “And when the objects of such calculation happen to be democrats who are also Muslim, you’d better wear a hard hat when you go preaching parliamentary values in parts of East London or Bradford.”

Mr Cameron ordered a review of the “philosophy and activities” of the Muslim Brotherhood in April, which will include an assessment by MI5 and MI6 on its potential terrorism links. The group legitimately won power in Egypt but was then deposed in a military coup last year. The review, which is due to report by the end of Parliament’s summer recess, is being conducted by Sir John Jenkins, the British ambassador in Riyadh.

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Study: Muslims hate terrorism, too

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In a new study released Tuesday, the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that “concern about Islamic extremism is high among countries with substantial Muslim populations.” This comes at a particularly fraught moment in the Middle East: the jihadist militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has seized whole swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and proclaimed a new caliphate.

The study involved over 14,000 respondents in 14 countries and was conducted between April and May – before ISIS’s dramatic advance through Iraq this past month. But it underscores the growing fear and anger felt by many in Muslim-majority countries when facing a range of militant threats, from that of Boko Haram in Nigeria to ISIS to the Taliban insurgency in Pakistan.

Washington Post, 1 July 2014

European Court of Human Rights upholds French ban on full-face veils

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ECHRThe European Court of Human Rights has upheld a French law banning the wearing of the full-face veil, the niqab.

The Strasbourg-based court was ruling on a case brought by a 24-year-old French woman, who argued that the ban on wearing the veil in public violated her freedom of religion and expression.

The ruling by the European Court’s Grand Chamber was immediately condemned by a leading UK human rights campaigner for “criminalising women’s clothing”. Liberty’s director Shami Chakrabarti also linked it to “the rising racism in Western Europe”.

The woman also argued that the law gives rise to “discrimination based on gender, religion and ethnic origin, to the detriment of women who wear the full-face veil”.

The woman was not named in the complaint which was brought to the court in April 2011. The case potentially has important implications for the UK where the possibility of banning the veil has long been discussed.

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Facebook protest against Kalgoorlie mosque gathers momentum

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stop the mosque in Kalgoorlie Boulder Facebook page

Two Facebook pages waging a campaign against a proposed mosque in Kalgoorlie-Boulder have attracted more than 800 “likes” as the local council prepares to debate the item next month.

A planning application to build a place of public worship at 12 Park Street in the Kalgoorlie suburb of Williamstown was lodged by the Kalgoorlie Islamic Community Centre on June 3.

While the application has not yet gone before councillors, the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder has directly contacted surrounding homes and businesses and encouraged them to submit written feedback before close of business on Monday.

A Facebook page, “Stop the mosque in Kalgoorlie“, was created on June 25 and has attracted 735 members in just five days. It states: “Help us stop the mosque! This page is for practical support to the residents of Kalgoorlie opposing the Mosque. No Islamic debate or trolls tolerated here.”

Many of the posts featured on the page link to anti-Islam article and websites, and the page appears to hold a close association to an eastern states Facebook group, “Stop the mosque in Bendigo”. Far-right opponents of the planned Bendigo mosque recently received a donation of $10,000 to help fund their campaign.

The page has also set up a petition on change.org, calling on the council and local politicians, including Nationals MLA Wendy Duncan and Liberal MLA Graham Jacobs, to block the application. The petition, which has 583 signatures, states that “the council should outright DENY Muslims to build a mosque in Kalgoorlie Boulder to the very end”. The vast majority of signatures come from outside the Kalgoorlie region and even includes signatures from the US.

A second Facebook page, Stop the mosque in Kalgoorlie Boulder, is now also campaigning against the mosque. Created on June 24, the page has 131 “likes” and has shared links with the Patriot Defence League Australia – Eastern Victoria Charter, a group that bills itself as nation-wide “pro Australia” club, committed to protecting Australia from “Islamization”.

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Katie Hopkins’ ignorant Ramadan tweets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Katie Hopkins Ramadan tweet

She’s known for courting controversy but Katie Hopkins appears to have out-done herself with her latest Twitter rant. The 39-year-old former reality TV star opened up on her feelings about Islamic festival Ramadan.

Muslims worldwide will be observing a month of fasting as it is now the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Katie tweeted on Sunday evening: “Ramadan typically brings a spike in violence in Middle East. I get grumpy when I don’t eat – but I don’t blow things up. Religion of peace?”

But she didn’t stop there; the mother-of-three then compared Ramadan, which is widely regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam, to the trendy 5:2 diet. She added: “If we take 5:2 as a basic idea, what is the ratio for Ramadan? 18:6?”

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Another lying anti-Muslim headline in the Mail

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Daily Mail Muslim man murders pregnant prostitute

This is the headline to a report in the Daily Mail. The report begins: “A Muslim who stabbed a pregnant Romanian prostitute to death after warning her not to work near a mosque was jailed for at least 29 years today.”

As you might expect from the Mail, the claim that Farooq Shah, the individual convicted of the murder, targeted sex worker Mariana Popa because she was working near a mosque is a straightforward lie.

The sole basis for this claim is that during the trial, in an attempt to identify a motive for the murder, the prosecuting barrister asked Shah: “What was that conversation with Miss Popa about? Did you ask her to go with you? Did you offer her money? Did she say no because you had a bike and didn’t even have a car? Or were you on this night patrolling the area for prostitutes? Did you want to challenge Miss Popa and ask her to get out of that area, to get away from the mosques?”

But the Mail‘s own report states: “In his account to the jury, Shah said having women sell their bodies near his mosque or home ‘means nothing'”. According to the Ilford Recorder, the investigating officer Detective Inspector Darren Richards said that Shah “has never given any reason” for the murder, adding: “He’s given no reason because there was no reason, other than he’d armed himself with a knife and was prepared to use it that night.”

DI Richards had previously stated: “This was a cold-blooded, senseless murder by a man who went out that night, armed with a knife, intent on using it to commit serious injury to someone. He had already threatened and robbed a vulnerable man with a knife earlier that night, and he was hanging around the Ilford Lane area, looking for another victim. He killed Mariana because she was there, because he thought he could get away with it.”

Shah’s religious beliefs, if indeed he has any, appear to have had no bearing whatsoever on the case.

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