Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Couple claim lifeguard at Bexhill pool made racist gestures

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An outraged couple claim a lifeguard at a local swimming pool made racist and anti-Islamic comments and gestures against them.

Neaal Blake, 35 and his 26-year-old wife Sophia, of Cornfield Terrace, St Leonards, were with their four children at Bexhill Leisure Pool in the Ravenside Retail Park when the alleged incident happened.

Mrs Blake claims the lifeguard made the racist gestures at her husband, a converted Muslim, when he saw his Arabic tattoo on his back, which is the Fajr, or ‘dawn prayer’, the first of the five daily prayers offered by practising Muslims.

She said: “As my husband got out of the pool to go on the slide with my four-year-old son Isa, one of the lifeguards was looking at Neaal’s tattoo, went to his colleague and started taking the mickey by mimicking the loud war cry used by Islamic terrorists. He then did a gesture with his hands minicking a bomb exploding.

“I was very shocked and had a go at him but he had nothing to say. I asked to see the manager to make a complaint. It was the first day out swimming as a family and we feel we can’t go back there.”

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EDL threats lead to cancellation of anti-racism concert

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Steamboat Tavern cancellation noticeAn anti-racism gig was cancelled after police advised that opponents could disrupt it and there was “potential for violence”.

The Love Music Hate Racism event, featuring over a dozen local acts, was due to take place at the Steamboat Tavern in Ipswich on Sunday but it was called-off at lunchtime. The organisers said the decision gave the “green light” to racists. Police said the decision to cancel the concert was made by the venue.

Lauren Bulaitis, 16, one of the gig organisers, said: “I completely understand why the pub pulled the event, but it’s still such a shame. We were completely let down by the police and racism was given a green light in Ipswich yesterday.”

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Des Plaines, Illinois: Islamic group sues over rejection of mosque plan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Another federal court battle is brewing over a northwest suburb’s refusal this summer to let a 160-member Islamic group open a mosque in a vacant building in an industrial area.

The lawsuit filed Monday against Des Plaines and five of its aldermen is the latest to take on a “knee-jerk reaction to something Islamic or Muslim,” said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Chicago.

His group helped win a $445,000 settlement from DuPage County in a similar case earlier this year. Now, it’s backing the case brought by the American Islamic Center and its attorney, Tony Peraica. “We believe this was done for discriminatory reasons,” Peraica said.

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Woman says she was accosted in mall over her Islamic veil as Liberals threaten election over Quebec charter

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Montreal protest against Charter of Values
Saturday’s demonstration in Montreal against the so-called ‘Charter of Values’

The leader of the Quebec Liberals appears prepared to do everything he can to stop the Parti Quebecois government’s proposed charter of values – including fight an election over the issue. Philippe Couillard says he’s against any law that leads to employment discrimination and that Muslim women who wear a veil will always be welcome in his own party.

The PQ plan will become law “over my dead body,” Couillard said Sunday at a party meeting on women’s issues in Montreal. “The big mistake that the government is making is to make people believe that, in order to defend what is specific about Quebec, we must trample on other people’s rights.”

The PQ wants to forbid public employees from wearing religious headwear, including the veil, as part of a proposed charter announced last Tuesday.

Couillard’s remarks came after a Quebec woman of Algerian origin wearing an Islamic veil said she and her son were accosted at Place Laurier shopping centre in Quebec City two weeks ago by a woman citing the charter who demanded they change their religion and remove the headscarf.

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Twitter backlash over Devon MP’s ‘ban Islamic veils’ comments

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sarah Wollaston niqab tweets

A Conservative MP has sparked a Twitter backlash after she said Islamic veils should be banned in all schools – suggesting they were “deeply offensive”. Dr Sarah Wollaston, MP for Totnes in Devon, said the niqab was “making women invisible” in a string of online comments.

She wrote on Twitter: “The niqab should be banned within schools & colleges; how on earth do they promote equality when they collude with making women invisible?” Moments later, the MP posted another message saying: “A general ban on the niqab simply won’t happen in the UK but that doesn’t mean that it should be endorsed by schools or courts.”

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Post-Woolwich backlash: Boris finally produces some figures

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Back in June, London Assembly member Murad Qureshi submitted the following question to mayor Boris Johnson: “Since the brutal attack on Lee Rigby, has there been an increase in the number of Islamaphobic incidents in London and if so, what form have these attacks taken?” He was told that “officers are drafting a response which will be sent shortly”.

In the absence of any such response, Qureshi was forced to table a further question for this month’s Mayor’s Question Time complaining at the failure to provide an answer and asking whether this indicated that the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime “does not have a grip on the scale of attacks against Muslims in London” since the Woolwich murder.

Boris has finally come up with the answer to Qureshi’s question, which is now available on the Greater London Authority website.

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Lib Dem minister calls for debate on Islamic veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jeremy BrowneThe government should consider banning young Muslim women from wearing the veil in public places, a Liberal Democrat minister has said. The Home Office minister, Jeremy Browne, called for a national debate on whether the state should step in to prevent young women having the veil imposed upon them. His intervention came after a row erupted over the decision by Birmingham Metropolitan college to drop a ban on the wearing of full-face veils amid public protests.

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