Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Ken Livingstone throws backing behind Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lutfur Rahman and Ken LivingstoneKen Livingstone today threw his support behind the controversial Mayor of Tower Hamlets after a BBC Panorama investigation into his administration. The former Labour Mayor of London defended Lutfur Rahman’s record since he became the borough’s first directly-elected Mayor after beating a Labour rival in 2010.

Mr Livingstone said his close friend and ally had been “forced out of the Labour Party quite unfairly” just months before the election in 2010 amid allegations of links to the Islamic Forum of Europe, and called for his re-admittance. Mr Rahman denied the alleged links.

Asked if he was a supporter of Mr Rahman, who is standing against Labour Assembly Member John Biggs for the Mayoral nomination, Mr Livingstone – a current Labour Party member – replied: “I am, I think he has done very well.”

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Controversial cleric urges Muslims to be active in society

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bilal Philips press conferenceSpeaking to the Finnish media on Saturday, controversial Muslim cleric Bilal Philips denied extremist ties or preaching violence against homosexuals. Philips, who started a two-day visit to Finland on Saturday, urged Finland’s Muslims to actively participate in society and warned young men against going to Syria to take up arms.

Answering questions from the press, Philips flatly denied that he promotes radical views. He stressed that his aim is to teach the truth of his religion, which is not a call for violence.

“My main message to Muslims, wherever I go is to know what the true teachings of Islam are, because these true teachings do not allow terrorism. They don’t allow those extremist acts like suicide bombing. It doesn’t allow it. So how does it spread? How does it happen to be amongst the people? Because of ignorance where some individuals, extreme individuals, exploit the ignorance of people and promote this. So actually by banning me, by not allowing me in the country, and people like myself, they are actually opening the door to terrorism,” he said. “The religion calls to moderation, to a moderate path to a middle path, to avoid the extremes,” Philips stressed.

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‘The adoption of sharia in Britain sets a worrying precedent’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sunday Telegraph readers respond to last week’s misleading scare story about the Law Society’s advice to solicitors drawing up wills in accordance with the wishes of their Muslim clients. Some examples of their comments:

“Previous immigrants to this country (Huguenots, Jews, West Indians, etc.) have enjoyed the freedom to practise their own religion but have also had to accept our laws.”

“So keen are some people to pander to ‘inclusiveness’ that they are willing to throw overboard Magna Carta and the 800 years it took to enshrine the principle of one law for all.”

“This is this the slow drip of the tap – the erosion of the British way of life by the minority.”

“Muslims are a minority in Britain, and their views should not be allowed to impinge on the majority. This favouritism should be stamped out.”

“It is time we stopped being afraid of upholding our hard-won democratic values for fear of offending newcomers.”

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Anti-fascists demonstrate against EDL in Peterborough

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Peterborough TUC march against EDLCrowds gathered in the centre of Peterborough as over 300 members of the English Defence League (EDL) marched through the city.

The EDL members, waving banners and chanting marched from the Peacock Pub in London Road to outside Peterborough Magistrates’ Court in Bridge Street.

The march followed an earlier counter march by the The Peterborough Trades Union Council (PTUC).

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Inspectors investigating Park View School accused of aggressive behaviour and bias

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Park View School

Inspectors who visited an academy at the centre of allegations about an Islamist takeover are being accused of behaving inappropriately, asking students intrusive, personal questions and showing bias.

Park View School in Birmingham received two snap Ofsted inspections and a separate visit from a team of Department for Education (DfE) inspectors this month, after claims that it was one of four schools in the city “taken over” by radical Muslims.

But the high-achieving secondary, which rejects the allegations, is concerned about the way the inspections were conducted and fears that it is not being given a fair hearing.

Last Saturday, it was reported that Park View would be placed in special measures following an inspection conducted just four days earlier. The apparent advance briefing on a report that has still not been published prompted a furious public reaction from Lee Donaghy, an assistant head at the academy.

Mr Donaghy took to Twitter to complain to Ofsted schools director, Mike Cladingbowl, about the leaking of the verdict before it had been “quality assured” and the way his inspectors behaved when they visited the school.

Now sources at the Birmingham secondary have told TES that they were also alarmed by the behaviour of DfE inspectors who asked “very leading”, “very personal” questions that made students feel “uncomfortable”; and appeared to be selective in the evidence they gathered.

“They were taking pictures of displays on the wall relating to Islam and ignoring displays that related to other religions,” a source claimed. “There were posters about multi-cultural society – they weren’t interested in those, they were just taking the ones that had any Arabic script in them.”

Mr Donaghy told Mr Cladingbowl that a senior Ofsted HMI inspector had opened a meeting with a Muslim member of staff at the school with the question, “Are you homophobic?”.

The assistant head also complained that an HMI inspector had appeared to joke about the number of male Muslim teachers at the school. When discussing where a colleague had gone, the senior inspector had reportedly said that he had “left with a man with a beard”. “Though that’s not much help as there are so many,” the HMI said, he claimed.

According to Mr Donaghy the HMI was supposed be quality assuring the work of the three other Ofsted inspectors at the school. “How can we have faith in the fairness of the inspection after that?” the assistant head asked Mr Cladingbowl.

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Police ready for mosque protest in Sunderland

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sunderland Unites Against Racism counter-protest (1)Police have promised residents that it will be ‘business as usual’ tomorrow despite plans for a demo by far-right protestors.

Extremist groups are planning a demonstration at the site of a new mosque in St Marks Road in Millfield, with around 100 people expected to attend. It is the latest in a series of protests against the new religious centre, and anti-facist groups are again planning a counter-protest.

A spokesman for Sunderland Unites Against Racism said: “We simply cannot allow fascists to divide the people of Sunderland and bring violence and hatred into the area.”

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Allegations of Islamist take over of schools are false and harming children, says governor

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muhammad KhanStories about an alleged Islamist takeover of Birmingham schools are creating an atmosphere of mistrust that will harm children and prevent Muslims from becoming teachers, according to a school governor at the centre of the row.

Muhammad Khan (pictured) said that there was no substance to the widely-reported allegations that extremists have taken control at Saltley School, where he has been a governor for more than a decade. But he describes the current media frenzy and “innuendo” as “scary” and believes it will be already having an impact on students.

“There is a de-humanisation going on,” Dr Khan a tutor at Ruskin College, Oxford said. “Forget us [the governors], and forget the teachers – we are all adults. But as a child if you are constantly getting this on the TV and newspaper that this is the sort of school you are going to, then what is happening to you in terms of how you see your school, how you see your community and how you see yourself? Many of these children are Muslim and British and this is the kind of stuff you are hearing about your religion in the country that’s your home.”

The allegations emerged earlier this month in “leaked” documents, purportedly revealing correspondence between Islamic fundamentalists. They discuss a supposedly successful plan – dubbed ‘Operation Trojan Horse’ – to win control of Birmingham schools, including Saltley. Factual inaccuracies quickly led to widespread doubts about the authenticity of the documents. Some suspect they were produced by provocateurs trying to stir up ill feeling towards Muslims.

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