Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Tory MP says ‘EDL is not welcome’ in Grantham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nick Boles MPThe MP for Grantham has spoken out about the upcoming protests in Grantham which centre around a plan to build an Islamic community centre.

The Journal asked Nick Boles for his views on the double demonstration taking place on Saturday, one put on by the English Defence League (EDL) and the other by the Grantham Solidarity Network in opposition to EDL views.

Mr Boles said: “EDL is not welcome in Grantham and does not represent the views of the vast majority of local people. But the right to peaceful protest is an essential democratic freedom and I have total confidence that Lincolnshire Police will be able to maintain order on Saturday.

“I have no objection in principle to the establishment of an Islamic community centre in Grantham as our Muslim neighbours have the same rights as anyone else, but I have no views on the particular planning application.”

The Grantham Solidarity Network will set up in Avenue Road by Abbey Gardens at 1pm, while the EDL will set off on a march from the Blue Bull pub in Westgate to the green on St Peter’s Hill, where a static protest will take place. Police will be present.

Grantham Journal, 19 February 2014

Littlejohn’s Islamophobic rant provokes response

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yesterday the Daily Mail published a piece by Richard Littlejohn on the Legoland Muslim fun day controversy, headlined “Jolly jihadi boy’s outing to Legoland”. As you might expect, it’s so juvenile and ignorant that it doesn’t merit a detailed reply. Still, its impact hasn’t been entirely negative. It has led to the launch of a new Facebook page, Exposing the Islamaphobic Daily Mail, which you can “like” here.

See also “Littlejohn’s anti-Muslim bigotry exposed”, ENGAGE, 19 February 2014

You can complain to the Press Complaints Commission here.

Virginia county sheriff hosting anti-Muslim training by disgraced conspiracy theorist

Posted on by Bob Pitt

John-Guandolo

The Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia is planning to host a three-day training by John Guandolo, a notorious Muslim-basher and conspiracy theorist who resigned from the FBI before he could be investigated for misconduct, according to promotional materials.

It’s hard to believe that the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office would knowingly associate itself with such a disreputable character, who regularly attacks the U.S. government, claims that the director of the Central Intelligence Agency is a secret Muslim agent for the Saudi government and says that American Muslims “do not have a First Amendment right to do anything.”

Josh Glasstetter of the Southern Poverty Law Center writes at Salon, 17 February 2014

Discrimination Olympics: Meddling with Muslims in Sochi

Posted on by Bob Pitt

During its buildup, NBC’s Bob Costas stated that the Sochi Games will, “take place against a backdrop of questions about policy differences, security, cost overruns and human rights issues, including Russia’s anti-gay propaganda law”.

The firestorm against Sochi’s brazen homophobia leading up and during the Olympics was fierce, capped by President Barack Obama sending a US delegation led by openly gay athletes. The message, from news desks and the Oval Office, was clear – the US opposed the structural homophobia built into the Sochi Olympics.

No similar statements were made of the pervasive Islamophobia encircling the Games. Rather, the media and political rhetoric in the US toward Muslims and Islam are aligned with those of Russia, and linked inextricably to terrorism. American misalignment with Russia’s per se homophobia, and its converging interests with Moscow’s framing of Muslim threat, highlights the ever more relevant observation of Derrick Bell, who held that: “Domestic civil rights policies are only promoted when they advance majoritarian (white) interests abroad.”

The policing of Muslims stateside, and its nexus to the “global war on terrorism”, has – in large part – erased word of Sochi’s brazen Islamophobia from news headlines, and hushed the US government from calling into question the religious freedoms of Muslims in Russia.

Khaled A. Beydoun explains why Putin’s Islamophobic policies pervade the Winter Olympics at Sochi.

Al Jazeera, 17 February 2014

US religious freedom rep funded by Islamophobes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the US’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, repeated its request to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to investigate one of its own members, this time for being funded by the same group that backs a notorious Islamophobe.

Earlier this year, CAIR asked for an investigation of USCIRF Vice Chair Zuhdi Jasser for apparently seeking to deny religious rights to Muslim military personnel. In a letter sent to USCIRF Chairman Dr. Robert P. George, Corey Saylor, director of CAIR’s Department to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia, wrote in part:

“We are writing today to expand upon the concerns regarding Dr. Zuhdi Jasser that were expressed on our letter to you dated January 24, 2014. Additional information has come to light regarding the financial dependence of Dr. Jasser’s American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) on groups known for promoting Islamophobia in the United States.

“Tax filings for the New York-based Abstraction Fund reveal that between 2010 and 2012, Jasser’s organization accepted $45,000 in grants and contributions. In 2012, 82 percent of the Fund’s total $1,982,930 contributions and grants went to groups known for their active role in spreading anti-Islam prejudice.”

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Outrage at hate threat to ‘burn’ planned Cambridge mosque as city shows its support for the £17m project

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cambridge UnitedOutraged anti-fascists have hit back at a threat to “burn” a planned mosque in Cambridge’s Mill Road. Cambridge Unite Against Fascism (CUAF) was reacting to a 1,600-signature petition against the £17.5 million mosque in another attack by the English Defence League (EDL). And a protest group was also criticised for a legal application to block the mosque being built claiming it could be “a front for terrorism”, as the News reported.

The online petition launched by a Cambridge resident and EDL supporter also has anti-Muslim hate comments on it from contributors who claim to be from the city. But many of those posting comments appear to be from America – where the host website is based. One hate comment said: “If they still build it, burn it.” The News has passed details to police.

Now a petition supporting the mosque signed by residents including Cambridge MP Julian Huppert and Richard Howitt MEP, has been relaunched.

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Police investigate hate comments on Legoland Facebook page

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Legoland Windsor

As we have previously reported, the spate of hate-filled comments posted on the Legoland Windsor Facebook page by English Defence League and Casuals United supporters, in response to the park being hired out to a Muslim organisation, led to the page being taken down. It is now back up, and features the following statement from Legoland:

Hi everyone, we’re back!

We are so sorry we had to remove our page for a couple of days. The removal of the page was requested by the Thames Valley Police as an investigation is currently underway to identify those responsible for some of our wall posts, private messages, phone calls and emails.

Anyone posting or thinking of posting offensive and threatening messages on this page or other social media sites should be aware that the Thames Valley Police are monitoring the situation closely and we will not hesitate to take robust and swift action against anyone engaging in this type of activity.

The Social Media and Customer Services team very much look forward to getting back to sharing all our exciting updates before we open on the 14th March!

Update:  See “Legoland is blasted for ‘Muslim day'”, Windsor Express, 14 February 2014

Also Muslim Research and Development Foundation press statement, 14 February 2014

Cambridge News discovers ancient anti-mosque petition

Posted on by Bob Pitt

More than 1,400 people have signed a petition against a planned £17.5 million Cambridge mosque in another attack by the English Defence League (EDL). The latest bid to stop the construction of the mosque in Mill Road comes after a protest group was criticised for a legal application to block it being built in which they claimed it could be “a front for terrorism”.

Now an online petition launched by a Cambridge resident and EDL supporter named ‘Phillip Cufc Jackson’ has gathered 1,498 signatures on US based website causes.com. The ‘Stop construction of mosque on Mill Road, Cambridge’ petition claims it was launched “because us Cambridge people do not want this super mosque built on our doorstep and we have been lied to on the actual amount of opposition to this project”.

Cambridge News, 13 February 2014

It is difficult to see how this qualifies as news. It is quite misleading to state that the anti-mosque petition is the “latest bid to stop the construction of the mosque in Mill Road” and “comes after” Gash and Webra’s legal challenge. The petition was launched by Jackson – a supporter of the EDL and member of the East Anglian Patriots – back in August 2012, with a target of 3,000 signatures. Over the course of 18 months it has attracted just over half that number, and judging by the dates of the accompanying comments had become pretty well moribund, though the report in the Cambridge News will now no doubt give it a bit of a boost.

Update:  See the petition welcoming the mosque which has been signed by Richard Howitt MEP along with local councillors, trade unionists, community groups and others.

Labour councillor claims anti-EDL protest will ‘create a battleground on the streets of Grantham’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Grantham counter-protest

A district councillor has condemned the actions of those organising a counter-protest in Grantham later this month.

The Journal broke the news online yesterday (Monday) that John Morgan, husband of Labour district and county councillor Charmaine Morgan, is organising a demonstration on St Peter’s Hill against a protest by the English Defence League, which opposes the building of an Islamic Community Centre in Mowbeck Way, Grantham.

But Councillor Ian Selby has reacted in horror and believes any counter-protest, planned for Saturday, February 22, would be “playing into the hands of the EDL”, and could see women and children getting seriously hurt if protests turn violent.

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Staffing agency says no job for teenager ‘if she wears a headscarf’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

All-In adAn 18-year-old girl who applied for a job at Roosendaal staffing agency All-In was shocked to be told she could not work there if she wore a headscarf.

The girl, named by free newspaper Spits as Leila, had not worn a headscarf to the interview but had done so during a previous internship. All-In asked her about this and added “we are a Dutch company and are allowed to make demands.”

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