Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Watertown, NY: CAIR calls for FBI investigation into vandalism of Muslim’s vehicle

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Issa Alzouma's car vandalisedThe Council on American-Islamic Relations on Wednesday called for the FBI to aid in the investigation of a vandalism incident involving a black Muslim man’s vehicle in the city on Saturday.

Watertown resident Issa Alzouma’s 2003 Chevrolet Avalanche had its windshield shattered, and the front- and back-seat windows on the driver’s side smashed. A note left on the windshield contained several racist and anti-Islamic slurs. The note also called on him to quit his job as a security guard with Securitas Security Services at the Dulles State Office Building.

“The racial and religious slurs used in this act of violence clearly indicate a need to investigate a bias motive,” said Sadyia Khalique, the director of operations for the organization’s state chapter. “By adding its resources to the investigation of this case, the FBI will send a message that hate-motivated acts of anti-Muslim violence will not be tolerated.”

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Islamic Center celebrates reopening after arson

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic Center of Greater ToledoNearly 15 months after an Indiana man set fire to the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, members of the mosque will celebrate a “Grand Reopening” and express their thanks to the public with tours and a dinner program Dec. 14.

“For our own community, it’s a chance to come together just to say, ‘Good! We’re finished! We’re done!’ And it’s also to thank the community for everything,” said Cherrefe Kadri, president of the mosque. “It’s a joyous celebration.”

The arson attack occurred Sept. 30, 2012, when 52-year-old Randy Linn of St. Joe, Ind., drove to the mosque, poured gasoline on the prayer room carpet and set it ablaze. He told U.S. District Court Judge Jack Zouhary that he was drunk and angry at Muslims after seeing a TV news broadcast about wounded American soldiers.

“That day, Sept. 30th, that wasn’t me,” Linn said at his sentencing. “I mean, it was me that did it, but it’s not me usually. I was drinking a lot.”

The blaze was so intense that it melted a chandelier hanging from the ceiling and set off emergency sprinklers throughout the 60,000-square-foot building. Repairs from the fire, smoke and water damage have reached $1.6 million, Kadri said, all covered by insurance.

Linn pleaded guilty and was sentenced in April to 20 years in federal prison, and was ordered to pay $1.4 million in restitution.

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French veil ban anti-Muslim, lawyer argues

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A lawyer representing a young woman arrested for wearing a full-face veil is trying to get France’s burka ban ruled unconstitutional. The trial of Cassandra Belin, whose arrest was followed by riots in Trappes, near Paris, began in Versailles on Wednesday.

Supporters of the ban, which was approved by the Constitutional Council in 2010 after three years of intense debate, is required for security reasons and to uphold the France’s secular traditions. But Belin’s lawyer, Philippe Bataille, argues that it targeted Muslims and is calling on the council to change its mind.

“The goal of this trial is to talk about this law that was approved too easily,” Bataille told RFI. “With this law, I feel as if the government wanted to defend the Republic with a capital R, against the Islamisation of society. It’s unfair and unacceptable. How does a woman walking on the street completely veiled poses a threat to public order?”

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International forum in Paris to discuss fight against Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Forum international contre l’islamophobieOn Saturday iReMMO (institut de Recherche et d’études Méditerranée Moyen-Orient) is holding an International Forum Against Islamophobia in Paris.

The aim of the forum is to discuss the contours of what some prefer to call “anti-Muslim racism” and how to intensify the fight against a changing racist system, with the participation of grassroots organisations, political or community activists and researchers, both French and international.

Leading Sweden Democrat resigns positions in party after exposure of racist comments

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Marie Stensby Sunni Shia commentA leading Sweden Democrat has been forced to resign following revelations that she had posted xenophobic and insulting messages on various far-right websites.

“For us it’s primarily a question that representatives must never represent extremism regardless of platform,” Sweden Democrat spokesperson Martin Kinnunen said on Tuesday.

Marie Stensby represented the Sweden Democrats in Jämtland in northern Sweden and was voted in as an alternate member of executive board at the recent party conference; until Tuesday’s revelation in the Expressen daily she had furthermore intended to stand for election to Sweden’s Riksdag in 2014.

The local politician previously leapt to national media attention in November 2012 when she called for the establishment of a “reservation for Sweden’s indigenous peoples” in her home county of Jämtland. “In my darkest moments I wonder if you (Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt)… would consider adopting an old American model. For us Swedes who want to carry on being just that, Swedes,” she explained at the time.

Stensby is among some eleven representatives for the Sweden Democrats named by Expressen on Tuesday to be the people behind aliases used to express insulting and xenophobic comments on various websites frequented by Sweden’s far-right. The aliases have been exposed by a group named Researchgruppen which is credited by the newspaper with having established their identities via the forum platform Disqus.

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LSE students’ union adopts resolution condemning ‘Student Rights’ group

Posted on by Bob Pitt

LSE Students' UnionLast week the London School of Economics students’ union debated a motion opposing Islamophobia, which was passed by 347 votes to 118 with 32 undecided. The motion condemned the misnamed Student Rights campaign, stating:

“Student Rights activities fuel Islamophobia, by disproportionately and unfairly targeting Muslim students, contributing to their marginalisation and ostracisation, damaging campus cohesion and feeding into a growing trend of Islamophobic discourse in wider society which should always be challenged, particularly in Islamophobia Awareness Month.”

The motion mandated union officers to issue a statement criticising Student Rights and write to university management expressing concerns about the activities of the group. Officers were also mandated to circulate the Real Student Rights petition.

Sixth OIC Annual Report on Islamophobia released

Posted on by Bob Pitt

OIC Sixth Annual ReportThe OIC Islamophobia Observatory released its Sixth Annual Report covering the period from October 2012 to September 2013 today at the commencement of the 40th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Conakry, Republic of Guinea. The Report dwells extensively on the worrying trend of Islamophobia as a clear and continuing danger to global peace and security and ends with a set of recommendations, outlining a strategy to combat Islamophobia and growing intolerance and prejudice against Muslims through concerted international action, which merits particular attention.

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Patriots plan Lincoln return: ‘We don’t want you here’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An anti-mosque protest which is due to be held in Lincoln in the New Year has been labelled as “destructive” by a local politician.

The East Anglian Patriots group, which demonstrated in the city in June, has announced it will return on Saturday, January 18. The previous rally attracted several hundreds of protestors in City Square.

The group says it is protesting about the building of a mosque on the site of the Old Dairy in Boultham Park Road.

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Quebec premier who wants to ban hijab once held a different view

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Past remarks promoting diversity in Quebec’s schools have come back to annoy Premier Pauline Marois as her government tries to pass legislation forbidding the display of overt religious symbols in the public service. But the premier says there’s no contradiction between what she says now and what she said then.

Opposition Liberals raised a 1998 policy on school integration that was signed by Marois when she was the provincial education minister. In it, she encourages the “visibility” of religious diversity “by school personnel.” She goes on to note in the 40-page document, which was co-signed by then-immigration minister Andre Boisclair, that the province’s “common values” include “openness to diversity in ethnocultural, linguistic and religious matters.”

“The credibility of the discussion over the openness of ethnocultural and religious diversity is supported in good part by the visibility of this diversity among school staff,” the document says. The document also states that “the mere wearing of the hijab cannot be prohibited in Quebec schools” because it does not break any laws or the Canadian or Quebec charters of rights.

Under the values charter proposed by Marois’ government, religious headwear such as hijabs would be banned in schools. The charter, which still has to be passed by the provincial legislature, would ban public sector employees from wearing any obvious religious objects or clothing.

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