Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith, outlines his opposition to the “Ground Zero mosque”.
Category Archives: Secular
Dawkins compares the veil to a bin-liner, says he feels ‘visceral revulsion’ when he sees women wearing it
The outspoken atheist Professor Richard Dawkins has re-ignited the furore over the burka, describing it as a “full bin-liner thing”. The 69-year-old author and scientist told of his “visceral revulsion” when he sees women wearing the controversial Islamic clothing.
Professor Dawkins made the comments in an interview with Radio Times discussing his forthcoming documentary about the dangers of faith schools. Last night he stood by his remarks and told the Daily Mail: “I do feel visceral revulsion at the burka because for me it is a symbol of the oppression of women.”
Seyyed Ferjani, of the Muslim Association of Britain, said of Professor Dawkins’ comments: “I think it is ignorant and Islamaphobic. This kind of thing has been on the rise for some time. Britain is a diverse and free society. It is a woman’s choice if she wishes to wear a burka, a niqab or not. Why does it matter to this man what a woman is wearing? We should be encouraging respect and understanding for each other.”
It is not the first time Professor Dawkins, who is the author of books including The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion, has attracted criticism for his views on Islam. In 2008, he said: “It’s almost impossible to say anything against Islam in this country, because you are accused of being racist or Islamophobic.”
Unfortunately, accusations of racism and Islamophobia haven’t had the slightest restraining effect on Dawkins. His website recently featured a vile video rant against the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” in New York by UKIP-supporting “comedian” Pat Condell, of whom Dawkins (along with many BNP members) is a great admirer. Rejecting complaints about the video by visitors to his site, Dawkins wrote: “I think it is well arguable that Islam is the greatest man-made force for evil in the world today. Pat Condell is one of the few with the courage to say so.”
Immigration minister opposes ban on veil – Toby Young not happy
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph immigration minister Damian Green is quoted as saying:
“I stand personally on the feeling that telling people what they can and can’t wear, if they’re just walking down the street, is a rather un-British thing to do. We’re a tolerant and mutually respectful society.
“There are times, clearly, when you’ve got to be able to identify yourself, and people have got to be able to see your face, but I think it’s very unlikely and it would be undesirable for the British Parliament to try and pass a law dictating what people wore.
“I think very few women in France actually wear the burka. They [the French parliament] are doing it for demonstration effects.”
Elsewhere in the Telegraph, under the headline “By refusing to ban the burka, Damian Green is supporting the humiliation of millions of British women”, Toby Young informs his readers that “the burka is both a symbol and a source of the oppression of Muslim women”.
According to Young: “Few people can be in any doubt that Islam is a deeply misogynistic religion.” As for wearing the veil, according to Young “for most Muslim women it is not a free choice but something they’re forced to do by their fathers or brothers or husbands – and the consequences of disobeying can be a beating or worse”.
To which we can only respond: Few people can be in any doubt that Toby Young is a deeply ignorant bigot.
French parliament votes to ban veil
France’s lower house of parliament has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would ban wearing the Islamic full veil in public. There were 335 votes for the bill and only one against in the 557-seat National Assembly. It must now be ratified by the Senate in September to become law.
Many of the opposition Socialists, who originally wanted the ban limited only to public buildings, abstained from voting after coming under pressure from feminist supporters of the bill.
After the vote, Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said it was a victory for democracy and for French values. “Values of freedom against all the oppressions which try to humiliate individuals; values of equality between men and women, against those who push for inequality and injustice.”
“Democracy thrives when it is open-faced,” Ms Alliot-Marie told the National Assembly when she presented the bill last week.
The Council of State, France’s highest administrative body, warned in March that the law could be found unconstitutional. If the bill passes the Senate in September, it will be sent immediately to France’s Constitutional Council watchdog for a ruling. Another challenge is possible at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, where decisions are binding.
See also “France vote to ban full-face veils condemned by Amnesty”,Amnesty press release, 13 July 2010
French parliament set to vote on veil ban Tuesday
As France’s parliament debates whether to ban burqa-like Muslim veils, one lawmaker compares them to muzzles, or “walking coffins.” Another proclaims that women who wear them must be liberated, even against their will.
Amid little resistance, France’s lower house of parliament will likely approve a ban on face-covering veils Tuesday, and the Senate will probably follow suit in September.
Polls show voters overwhelmingly support a ban. In parliament, criticism was mostly timid, and relatively few dissenters spoke out about civil liberties or fears of fanning anti-Islam sentiment in a country where there are an estimated 5 million Muslims, and where mainstream society has struggled to integrate generations of immigrants.
One obstacle, however, may still stand in the way of a ban: the courts. Law scholars say the ban could be shot down by France’s constitutional watchdog or the European Court of Human Rights. That could dampen efforts under way in other European countries toward banning the veils.
Legislator Berengere Poletti, of Sarkozy’s conservative party, argued that women in such garb “wear a sign of alienation on their faces” and “must be liberated,” even if they say the apparel is their own choice.
Communist Andre Gerin, who also supports a ban, said that “talking about liberty to defend the wearing of the full veil is totally cynical – for me, the full veil is a walking coffin, a muzzle.”
Socialist Jean Glavany, one of the few lawmakers to offer stinging criticism of a ban, said dwelling on questions of French identity and whether burqas are welcome in France “is nothing more than the fear of those who are different, who come from abroad, who aren’t like us, who don’t share our values.” He was also one of several lawmakers to question the bill’s “judicial fragility.”
Associated Press, 12 July 2010
See also “French National Assembly debates burqa ban”, WSWS, 12 July 2010 and “French entrepreneur offers to pay veil fines”,Reuters, 12 July 2010
French parliament to debate veil ban today
France moves closer to banning the full-face veil today when its parliament begins debating a law that would outlaw the wearing of the burqa or the niqab anywhere in public. It is a measure that seems popular with the public. Polls suggest 70% back a ban.
The numbers that wear the full-face veil in France are tiny. Perhaps 2,000 and then the tourists from the Gulf, who like to shop in the luxury stores on the Champs Elysees.
The French government says this is not an argument about religion but about values. By adopting this legislation the French are insisting that those who live in France abide by their values. As the writers of the legislation say, hiding your face in public is “an offence to the nation’s values”. It violates the republican ideals of secularism and gender equality.
The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, said it was “a sign of debasement”. The Immigration Minister, Eric Besson, described the burqa as a “walking coffin”. The French Prime Minister, Francois Fillon, said Muslims who wear face coverings are “hijacking Islam” and provoking a “dark and sectarian image”.
Gavin Hewitt’s Europe, 6 July 2010
See also “French opposition to boycott vote on burqa ban”, AFP, 6 July 2010
The Muslims who support the ban on Zakir Naik
Inayat Bunglawala has the details.
A similar situation obtains in Canada, where the ban on Dr Naik was not only supported but actively promoted by Tarek Fatah and his so-called Muslim Canadian Congress. The National Post reports Fatah as boasting that he “sent a mass email to federal MPs last week, warning them of Dr. Naik’s views”. “We are very happy that government agencies, having been made aware of his statements, have taken this decision,” Fatah is quoted as saying. “We certainly don’t want hate-mongers to come here.”
Sectarian idiots attempt to undermine anti-fascist unity in Tower Hamlets
“As we confront the fascist thugs of EDL we in the Bengali and the Muslim community are being asked to stand side by side with Islamic Forum in Europe (IFE). This we refuse to do.”
As Tower Hamlets gears up for a united protest against the English Defence League, a motley collection of malicious, sectarian idiots has chosen this moment to mount a public attack on the IFE and the East London Mosque, bracketing them along with the EDL as fascists.
Note that many of the signatories to this ill-written diatribe aren’t even part of the Bengali and Muslim community anyway. They include the drunken thug Terry Fitzpatrick, currently on bail facing a charge of racially aggravated harassment following a complaint to the police by Simon Woolley of Operation Black Vote. Then there is Gita Sahgal, who broke with Amnesty over its links with Cageprisoners, and has headed a right-wing campaign against her former employers while promoting crackpot conspiracy theories to justify her participation in the witch-hunt.
And where would a statement like this be without the support of the contemptible Jim Fitzpatrick MP? This is the man who insulted the couple who invited him to their (gender-segregated) wedding at the London Muslim Centre by denouncing them to the press and whose most recent contribution to community harmony has been to condemn the organisers of Sunday’s protest for “stirring up fear and anger”.
True, this disgraceful statement has been signed by some members of the Bengali community in East London – indeed, it was organised on behalf of the laughably misnamed Unity Platform Against Racism and Fascism from the Bangladesh Welfare Association off Brick Lane.
One such signatory is Ansar Ahmed Ullah, who worked with Andrew Gilligan on “Britain’s Islamic Republic“, the Channel 4 documentary that provoked the EDL’s threat to demonstrate in the East End in the first place. And, after the programme was condemned in a letter to the Guardian by a wide range of progressive figures, Ullah collected signatures for a letter defending Gilligan’s witch-hunt. Last year he collaborated with Observer journalist Nick Cohen in another attack on the East London Mosque, complaining bitterly about the government’s willingness to consult its leading figures. “They never want to talk to people like me,” he whinged. Well, perhaps that’s because the East London Mosque is attended by some 10,000 people a week and represents serious forces within the community – whereas Ullah represents, shall we say, rather less.
Other signatories are associated with the Awami League, currently the governing party in Bangladesh. As the statement makes clear, their primary interest is in settling scores over disputes within Bangladeshi politics, going back to the liberation war nearly four decades ago, without any concern for the impact their actions have on politics in East London today.
This is not only unprincipled but monumentally stupid. By breaking the united front against the far Right, these self-proclaimed “secular” forces within the Bangladeshi community are playing with fire. The Brick Lane Mosque, with which the Bangladesh Welfare Association is connected, has itself been witch-hunted by Islamophobes over its recently-built “minaret”. What will they do if the EDL turns its attention to them? Blinded by their hatred of Jamaat-e-Islami, they fail to see – or do not care – that their sectarian actions will stoke the fires of Islamophobia and that, whatever short-term advantages they may gain over their rivals in the IFE, in the long term all sections of the Bengali Muslim community will pay the price.
The IFE’s response to the Unity Platform Against Racism and Fascism statement can be read here.
Update: Over at The Spittoon, the Unity Platform statement is hailed as “An amazing show of grassroots unity in Tower Hamlets against the forces of fascism that seek to dominate it – be it the EDL, UAF or the IFE.” So, according to Faizal Gazi and his mates, not only IFE but also UAF are among the “forces of fascism”! Attempting to discredit the proponents of this sort of irrational nonsense would be entirely superfluous. They accomplish that task themselves without any help from us.
The idiots who are unhappy with a positive Muslim campaign
Over at Pickled Politics, Sunny Hundal defends the Inspired by Muhammed campaign against attacks by Edmund Standing and Douglas Murray.
Richard Dawkins reproduces Pat Condell’s ‘Ground Zero mosque’ rant
Here. In response to a request that the video be removed, Dawkins writes:
“I believe Pat Condell deserves a hearing. He may sound extreme, but that could just reflect the extremes he is fighting against. I don’t know the corresponding figures for America, but polls in Britain suggest that an alarmingly high percentage of young British Muslims support the terrorists of 9/11 and 7/7, and some 40% of Muslims want Sharia Law introduced into Britain. Disquietingly high percentages supported the death sentence against Salman Rushdie and the threats of violence against the Danish cartoonists. Even ‘moderate’ Muslim leaders support the principle that apostasy deserves the death penalty, even if they are too nice to carry out the sentence themselves. I think it is well arguable that Islam is the greatest man-made force for evil in the world today. Pat Condell is one of the few with the courage to say so.”