This is how today’s Sun saw fit to report the horrifying murder of Palmira Silva in Edmonton yesterday.
Category Archives: Right wing
Spain opens door to ban on burqas
Spain’s interior minister Jorge Fernández Díaz on Wednesday said the Spanish government would consider including a ban on burqas as part of a packet of planned new security reforms.
Speaking at a press conference, Díaz said that a ban on burqas could be included in the final version of Spain’s draft Citizen Security Law, Spain’s 20 minutos newspaper reported.
The draft bill, yet to be passed in the country’s parliament, already includes provisions banning people from hiding their faces in demonstrations, Díaz noted.
Now could be a “good moment” to look to obtain “a level of consensus” on this issue, the interior minister noted.
Díaz stressed his department had no powers when it came to issues affecting the dignity of women, but could rule against the wearing of burqas and other full face veils on the grounds they made identification of people difficult.
“I don’t want to say a ban is necessary, ” the minister said, but repeated this could be “a good moment” to consider such a prohibition.
French Muslim minister wants respect after slurs
France’s new Muslim education minister called for more respect Wednesday after becoming the target of slurs, while a top Socialist politician said a magazine should be convicted of inciting racial hatred for referring to her religion and ethnic background as a “provocation.”
Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, a 36-year-old rising star in the Socialist Party, said she has been the target of racially-motivated verbal attacks over the last week, including being branded “Ayatollah” by a conservative weekly. “I call for respect,” she told The Associated Press in an email. “And I repeat in particular that racism is not an opinion, but a crime.”
The Morocco-born Vallaud-Belkacem, who doesn’t publicly speak about her religion, is seen as an easy target to attack the unpopular Socialist government led by President Francois Hollande.
She is a young, Muslim woman in a political landscape made up mostly of white, Catholic men. She’s an outspoken defender of gender and racial equality, and supported a divisive law legalizing gay marriage last year. She also intervened in a national debate on the negative impact of halal meat, saying society should stop pointing the finger at Muslims.
One conservative politician referred to Vallaud-Belkacem as a “smiling Vietnamese Communist,” and a fake identity card has appeared on social media falsely claiming she changed her name from Claudine Dupont to a more ethnic-sounding one to get promoted.
A top Socialist Party official threatened legal action against Minute magazine, which in its latest edition calls her religious and ethnic background a “provocation.” The official, Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, said the magazine should be convicted of inciting racial hatred.
CAIR criticizes state lawmaker for anti-Muslim Facebook comments
The leader of the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations on Wednesday called on Republican leaders to repudiate remarks made by Rep. John Bennett on his private Facebook account.
Adam Soltani, CAIR Oklahoma executive director, is also asking the Republican from Sallisaw to apologize for the remarks.
A Monday Facebook post from Bennett reads: “The Quran clearly states that non Muslims should be killed. Arab is the ethnicity, not Muslim or Islam. Be wary of the individuals who claim to be ‘Muslim American.’ Be especially wary if you are Christian.”
Soltani said Bennett has taken the phrase out of context. “This is something revealed in the context of them being at war,” Soltani said. “This is when you meet in battle. It doesn’t say just go out and kill people.”
He said elected leaders should not be seeking to instill fear of Islam or Muslims. “Anti-Muslim bigotry and statements that promote misunderstanding and incite hatred toward a minority group have no place in the Oklahoma Republican Party,” Soltani wrote in a letter to Bennett. “Individuals elected to represent the people of Oklahoma should be held accountable for such extremist, inaccurate and intolerant views.”
Bennett, 40, said he has no intention of apologizing, adding that he was referring to Muslims who hold extreme views.
Faith leader defends Islamic centre plan, says ‘there will never be a mosque in Basildon, because of all the opposition’
An Islamic group is hoping to set up a new centre in a former Basildon call centre office – but insists it would not be a mosque.
Brother Sarfraz Sarwar of Basildon Islamic Centre, has applied for permission to change the use of 17 Buckwins Square, Burnt Mills Industrial Estate, Basildon, from a call centre to a place of worship.
Nigel Cooper, planning agent for the Islamic centre, said: “The building would be used in the week for prayers about five times a day and as many as ten times at night. There would never be more than about 50 people there. At weekends, it would be used for teaching children. I think they have chosen an industrial estate, so it is not near to any homes, so there is less chance of objections.”
The group has used a community centre in Vange Hill Drive for Friday prayers since it was forced out of the former Triangle Community Centre, in Landon High Road, by an arson attack in 2006.
Brother Sarwar, who has also faced attacks on his Pitsea home, said: “It is not a mosque. You know there will never be a mosque in Basildon, because of all the opposition. All this will be is an education centre. It is an Islamic centre for British and cultural studies. The problem is everything to do with Muslims ends up being a propaganda war.”
Muslim academic draws hate fire
As a proud and outspoken Muslim, Anne Aly has also become a target for anti-Islamic hate groups.
The Curtin University lecturer – who chooses not to wear a hijab and denounces Muslim extremists – has been bombarded with hate mail after a recent interview in which she defended Islam as a religion of peace. Her quotes were republished on a right-wing website called Jihad Watch, along with her work email address.
“I was just really speaking out against some of the false assumptions about my religion,” Dr Aly said. “But what they (the hate groups) really want is for me to denounce my religion. By saying that Islam is not about terrorism and Islam is not about beheadings or female genital mutilation, they can’t cope with that because it shatters the basis for their arguments.”
Torfaen councillor defiant as Facebook post branded ‘anti-Muslim’
Complaints have been made after a Torfaen councillor used the term “muzzy” in a post on Facebook – but he denies the comment was an anti-Muslim slur.
Torfaen independent councillor Mike Harris, the chairman of safer communities overview and scrutiny, posted “Once a Muzzy!” on Facebook alongside a Daily Mail article on Hamas reportedly executing 11 Israeli informers. This was quickly picked up by Hope Not Hate campaigners who posted it on their blog and Facebook page.
One person responded that Cllr Harris should step down, while another says that they made a complaint to Torfaen Council. But Cllr Harris has defended his post saying “it is not racist”.
He denies that it was intended as a racist slur but that he was using the word in its proper meaning as set out in the dictionary, “Unable to think clearly; confused”.
While referring to the picture accompanying the article, which shows the executioners carrying guns, he said: “They are executing people so they must be confused and not able to think clearly or muzzy as it says in the dictionary.”
Rotherham, race and ‘white’ paedophilia
Coolness of Hind notes the double standards over ethnicity and religion in the right-wing response to revelations about the sexual abuse of minors.
Former BBC presenter rants about ‘Rotherham p*kis’, denounces ‘horrific Muslim infiltration of Britain’
A former BBC presenter sacked following a racist call to a taxi firm has been criticised for a series of Facebook comments – slamming Rotherham “P*kis”.
Ex glamour model Sam Mason, 45, was removed from her position as a local radio host after asking a cab company to send a ‘non-Asian driver’. She has now taken to Facebook and launched a racist tirade about the sex abuse scandal in Rotherham where the perpetrators were Asian.
In one post, on the public page, she said: “Dirty dirty filthy p*ki Rotherham bastards. Some p*ki woman is blaming the government for not looking after the p*ki community! Wtf is that all about? Jesus Christ. Now, anyone i offended by booking my daughter a taxi can you please fuck off.” (sic)
Mason was sacked from BBC Radio Bristol in 2008 after a recording of her conversation with a taxi operator was handed to The Sun newspaper. She was booking a taxi for her 14-year-old daughter when she said: “A guy with a turban is going to freak her out. She’s not used to Asians.”
When the operator said it would not be possible to carry out her wishes, she said: “You’ve managed it before.” She was then refused a cab and was told: “We would class that as being racist. We can’t just penalise the Asian drivers and just send an English one.”
Mason has now shocked friends and followers were her latest outbursts.
She posts a link to a four-minute video entitled “The Horrific Muslim Infiltration Of Britain – Luton 2012”. She writes: “If in any doubt, watch this. Rotherham is just the tip of the ice berg. How many of these are in Syria fighting for IS? Don’t let the b*****ds back. F**k PC.”
Sun columnist offers thoughts on Rotherham abuse report
This is not the first time that Hopkins has tweeted her ignorant and hate-filled views on Muslims and their faith.
Update: See “Action alert – Disgraced British journalist insults the Prophet (SAW)”, MEND, 28 August 2014