Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

EDL to protest in Grantham against Islamic centre plan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Grantham demo adThe English Defence League, an anti-militant Islam group, is planning a demonstration in Grantham against plans for an Islamic centre in the town.

According to the Facebook page of the Lincolnshire branch of the EDL, the group will come to Grantham on February 22 and demonstrate in the town at 1pm. A poster on the website says “Come march with the Lincolnshire division. Oppose the new mosque now!”

The Facebook page also has a picture of the plans for the Islamic centre which, if built, will be located near Alexandra Road. The plans include a prayer hall facing Mecca and says the design “will reinterpret Islamic architecture in the 21st century in modern Britain.”

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Quebec’s politicians present spineless spectacle over ‘charter of values’ debate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Liberal leader Philippe Couillard migrated from saying the Charter was unnecessary and would pass “over my dead body” all the way to stipulating what “must be included in the Charter” in order to “affirm [the] values of the host society.” (For some reason this includes a ban on public sector workers wearing niqabs and burkas because they cover the face, and chadors despite the fact they don’t.) Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault’s “moderate” compromise proposal would still ban teachers from wearing religious symbols. The hard-left Québec Solidaire is the acme of tolerance, drawing the line on such restrictions at judges and police officers — but it only has two MNAs and 8% support in the latest Léger Marketing poll, published Jan. 20. (After QS MNA Amir Khadir was recently photographed in discussion with Muslims wearing hijabs, the pro-labour, pro-sovereignty, pro-charter group SPQ Libre stridently accused him of cuddling up to fundamentalists.)

Chris Selley argues that even if the Parti Québécois gets its way and manages to impose the so-called secularism charter it may well face defiance over the actual implementation of the proposed bans. In the meantime, rival political parties of left and right have demonstrated a spineless failure to take a stand against the PQ on this issue.

National Post, 7 February 2014

MYH study of young British Muslims and dissent

Posted on by Bob Pitt

British By DissentStand up and be counted: Young British Muslims are voicing their dissent, and that’s a good thing

The Muslim Youth Helpline (MYH) has today published a new report, British by Dissent, which explores the meaning of dissent to young British Muslims keeping in mind the underlying question of their integration within the larger British society.

Authored by Sughra Ahmed and Naved Siddiqi, it takes a look at how young British Muslims respond to social, economic, religious and public policy debates through various manifestations of dissent.

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Right-wing blogger ‘exposes’ sinister Muslim immigration plot in Coke’s Super Bowl ad

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Coca Cola Super Bowl adCoca Cola’s one-minute, multilingual Super Bowl ad was apparently a lot of things to many people. To some, it was an insult to the United States and the English language, while to others it was a tribute to American diversity or a highly effective marketing tool.

But to former Hollywood agent Pat Dollard, the ad “exposed” a “stealth” appeal for immigration amnesty by its shadowy Muslim chief executive officer. “Coca Cola has been on a major amnesty push for at least a year in the hopes that it can obtain cheap labor,” Dollard wrote on his self-titled blog. “And because its CEO Muhtar Kent is a Muslim who was raised in places like Iran and Indonesia, perhaps for even more sinister reasons.”

The stage thus set, the documentary filmmaker and Breitbart correspondent argues that the ad was “designed to influence public opinion.” Perhaps recognizing that every paid and unpaid advertisement – whether they air on the most-watched TV program in history or overnight on some obscure local channel – is intended to influence the public, Dollard attempts to tie Coke’s ad into a broader conspiracy.

“Muhtar is engaging in the amnesty war just like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is,” Dollard warns. “And I’d be curious to know just how much of his salary and Coke’s profits go to Muslim ‘charities’ that are really fronts for terrorist organizations, as most Muslim ‘charities’ are.”

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New Jersey woman says bosses ordered her to remove hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Elmwood Park woman claims she faced religious discrimination at her job at a Saddle Brook factory when her bosses ordered her to remove her hijab, or head scarf.

Naima Mnasri, who is Muslim, filed a complaint late in January with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Mnasri said she was ordered to remove her hijab at her second day of work on Jan. 17 while she was awaiting her day’s assignment at Paradigm Packaging, which makes plastic bottles for vitamins and medications.

In the complaint, she alleged that a supervisor and floor manager “singled her out” and told her she had to remove the head scarf to work there, both for safety reasons and because no religious symbols were permitted at the factory. Mnasri contested that the hijab, which covers her head, neck and chest, was part of her religious observance and that she had the right under the law to wear one. She left the job that day over the incident, she said.

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Florida girl attacked after wearing hijab to school

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Zahrah HabibullaA Florida girl said she has been verbally and physically assaulted because she wears a hijab, or head scarf, to school.

Zahrah Habibulla, 14, said she didn’t have problems at school with other children until she started wearing her hijab on Dec. 14. The Polk County teen said she wears the hijab for religious reasons. “I’ve been bullied in school,” she said. “I had verbal assaults, physical assaults.”

Each time the teen was attacked, she told her mother, who then called the principal of Ridge Community High School. Zahrah’s parents told WESH 2 News in an exclusive interview that they want something done before their daughter is hurt. “It breaks my heart. I don’t want to see that,” said Zameena Habibulla. “I’m hoping for a safer school for her. Every day she goes to school I’ve got fear.”

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Bacon and hate graffiti at California mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic Center of Manteca graffitiThe Sacramento Valley chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SV), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on state and federal law enforcement authorities to investigate vandalism of a California mosque as a possible hate crime.

Law enforcement authorities in Manteca, Calif., are investigating strips of raw bacon and hate graffiti found on the grounds of the Islamic Center of Manteca last week as a possible bias-motivated crime. Hate graffiti sprayed on the mosque included “F*** Islam” on the facility’s sign and on the ground near the entrance.

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Highly qualified Muslim immigrants face employment discrimination

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Last week, Quebec business interests sounded an alarm about the negative economic ramifications on the province of the proposed values charter. First the Conseil du patronat and then the head of a cable and media company warned that Bill 60 would discourage immigrants needed for economic growth.

This issue arose the first day of the charter hearings last month, when the leader of a Muslim organization talked about a crisis among families of highly qualified North Africans who are being shut out of jobs in their fields.

Samira Laouni, of Communication pour l’ouverture et le rapprochement interculturel, estimated that current unemployment in the North African community is around 30 per cent – even though overall unemployment in Montreal is roughly 8 per cent. Laouni contends that employment discrimination against Muslims started after 9/11 and deteriorated after the Herouxville incident in 2007, when the town council there passed a code of conduct for minorities targeting Muslims. She commented that since the proposal of the Quebec values charter, the employment situation for Muslims has worsened.

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Sikhs Against Sharia exposed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Over at the Tell Mama website Steven Rose has an interesting article on Sikhs Against Sharia, whose founder (and in all likelihood, sole Sikh member) Sareeta Webra has been co-operating with Stephen Gash of Stop Islamisation of Europe in waging a hysterical campaign against plans to build a new mosque in Cambridge. As Rose points out, Webra has a record of active involvement in the Islamophobic far right going back a number of years. Varinder Singh, from the Turban Campaign, emphasises that “Sareeta Webra’s views are not those of the British Sikh Community and have no mainstream support”.