Category Archives: Secular

‘You’re having a mosque whether you want one or not’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The BBC reports that the government’s Planning Inspectorate has overturned a decision by the local council to reject an application to build a mosque in Dudley.

The proposal had been the subject of a bitter right-wing campaign by the likes of the BNP and UKIP, and the Birmingham Mail quotes Khurshid Ahmed of the Dudley Muslim Association as hailing the Planning Inspectorate’s ruling as a “victory for common sense and democracy and a defeat for prejudice and bigotry”. Indeed, you might have thought that the decision would be welcomed by anyone with remotely progressive politics.

However, Andy Armitage of the Pink Triangle Trust is not happy at all:

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French minister denounces burqa

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Amara and SarkozyA Muslim member of the French government has backed a court’s decision to deny citizenship to a Moroccan woman who wears the burqa. Urban Affairs Minister Fadela Amara said she hoped last month’s ruling would “dissuade certain fanatics from imposing the burqa on their wives”.

“The burqa is a prison, it’s a straightjacket,” she told Le Parisien. “It is not a religious insignia but the insignia of a totalitarian political project that advocates inequality between the sexes and which is totally devoid of democracy.”

Ms Amara, who is also a prominent women’s rights campaigner, said she made no distinction between the veil and the burqa, describing both as symbols of oppression for women.

BBC News, 16 July 2008

See also Reuters, 15 July 2008

As one critic notes about Fadela Amara:

“She says she speaks for women, but she only speaks for women who share her vision of what women should be. Does she speak for the Muslim sister? … The average French Muslim sister just trying to live her day? Like me? I mean nothing to feminists like Fadela Amara or anyone from Ni Putes Ni Soumises simply by dint of my belief that a woman in a headscarf, or a woman in a burqa, deserves the same presumption of free will and sound mind as some braless chick with a visible thong.

“I will never abide by the belief that headscarf=the patriarchy. In fact, men telling me what to wear=patriarchy. I know I have the free will to decide what I will wear in the morning, and I use that free will. I only wish people would ‘assume’ that Muslim sisters in fact are woman enough to have free will when it comes to dressing ourselves. We’re not toddlers….

“And regardless of how I feel about niqabs or burqas, the bottom line is that this sister met the requirements and they said no based on her clothes. You can’t tell me a man would be refused nationality for his clothes. For me, the decision is anti-feminist, unacceptable and sets a bad legal precedent….

“The reasoning behind the judgement alleges that this woman can’t possibly be thinking with her own brain, which is an anti-feminist insult in itself. Fadela calls herself a feminist but what she and the rest of the people involved in this decision are really doing is reinforcing the patriarchy in keeping this mother down. Shame on her. Shame on them.”

Islamophobe backs Boris

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A decision by the new London administration not to continue with a Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Advisory Panel formed by former Mayor Ken Livingstone has been attacked by a leading gay Muslim activist. Pav Akhtar branded the decision “extremely concerning”. On the eve of Pride London on Saturday, where Mayor of London Boris Johnson led the parade, Mr Akhtar issued a statement. “Boris Johnson’s attempts to woo the LGBT community rings hollow given his disbanding of the Mayor’s Lesbian and Gay Advisory group,” he said.

Pink News, 8 July 2008

But Johnson has at least one admirer in the LGBT community, who is evidently happy to ignore the abolition of the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Advisory Panel, not to mention Johnson’s earlier bigoted remarks about homosexuality. On the Pink Triangle blog George Broadhead of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Organisation is quoted as saying, in connection with the Mayor’s Pride London reception at City Hall: “I thought Boris did very well, and was a refreshing change from Ken Livingstone who badly blotted his copy book by warmly welcoming that frightful homophobic Islamic cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi.”

Broadhead was one of the contributors to the notorious “Sick Face of Islam” issue of the now thankfully defunct Gay and Lesbian Humanist magazine, where he wrote: “There are two terms that, increasingly, annoy us: Islamophobia and moderate Muslims. What we’d like to know is, first, what’s wrong with being fearful of Islam (there’s a lot to fear); and, second, what does a moderate Muslim do, other than excuse the real nutters by adhering to this barmy doctrine?”

Update:  Pink News reports that “Outrage! backs Boris over abolition of gay advisory panel“. Peter Tatchell’s sidekick Brett Lock is quoted as saying: “Instead of negatively sniping at the Mayor, LGBT groups should concentrate on presenting Boris with practical and constructive policy ideas for the benefit of LGBT Londoners.”

Letters from today’s press

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In the Independent, responding to Peter Oborne’s excellent article, Kate Francis condemns violence against Muslims but goes on to oppose the “blanket application of the pejorative term ‘Islamophobic’ to anyone who has voiced concerns about the long-term capacity of Islam to coexist successfully in a secular state where the rights of women are protected by law. As a feminist, I have deep concerns about this, as I do about any group (religious or otherwise) that appears to enshrine misogyny in its cultural values…. it’s no wonder that writers are prefacing their comments with ‘I am an Islamophobe’ and ‘Count me in’.”

Another correspondent, one Dominic Kirkham, writes: “The remark of Shahid Malik that British Muslims now felt like ‘aliens in their own country’ (4 July) is problematic…. In seemingly every area of cultural contact, however open and welcoming, Muslims choose to distance themselves from the generality on the basis of ‘their religion’. Unless they themselves are prepared to question the arcane prejudices that lie at the root of ‘their religion’ they will continue to feel like aliens in normal society by their own choice.”

And here’s Shaaz Mahboob, of British Muslims for Secular Democracy, in the Daily Telegraph:

“The assumption by Lord Phillips (report, July 3) that interpretations of Sharia could become an alternative form of conflict resolution for British Muslim communities will merely result in further alienation and segregation. Only hardline groups, such as the Muslim Council of Britain and the Sharia Council, have been demanding the introduction of Sharia as a parallel justice system. In a democratic society, paying heed to, and endorsing the views of, minority but vocal pro-segregation Muslim groups is nonsensical, and could be disastrous for a cohesive society.”

Atheism as a cover for racism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“I don’t much care if people think I’m thick because I believe in God. But what’s really nasty here – and it’s a part of a growing phenomenon – is the way religion is being used as a subtle code for race.

“Belief in God is alive and well in Africa and in the Middle East and declining in western Europe. Writing about the intelligence of religious believers has, for some, become a roundabout way of commenting on the intelligence of those with darker skins whilst seeking to avoid the charge of racism. Religion is being used with a nod and a wink, cover for some rather dodgy and dangerous politics.

“The BNP, for example, has started using religion as a category of racial designation so as to deflect charges of racism. For instance, they seek to defend something called ‘Christian Britain’. But what they really mean is ‘no Muslims’ – and that really means ‘no Asians’. The fact that these categories are not in any way equivalent does not detract from the message the BNP is sending by using them in the way they do….

“The debate between believers and non-believers – a debate that gets terribly hot on this site sometimes – is not made any more civil by the addition of this unpleasant inflection. Which is why believers and unbelievers (even those who think people like me are idiotic enough to have given their life to the great flying spaghetti monster) ought to unite against this way of thinking about our differences. ”

Giles Fraser at Comment is Free, 12 June 2008

Bishop of Rochester ‘doing the BNP’s work’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

nss2The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, this week claimed the influence of Christianity had been practically wiped out in recent decades, destroying Britishness and leading to the breakdown in family life and an increase in drunkenness and violence.

The bishop, a leading conservative who believes the Church of England should be doing more to convert Muslims, then warned that radical Islam is starting to fill the “moral vacuum” left by the decline in Christianity, which could lead to different values taking hold.

But his words have been condemned by some groups who have accused him of spreading fear and intolerance, and of putting across a similar message to the far-right British National Party.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “Dr Nazir-Ali’s remarks are ill-advised, dangerous and manipulative. He is playing a very dangerous game with these repeated scaremongering tactics against Muslims, and risks doing the BNP’s work for them. He risks creating even more hostility towards the Muslim community in this country – and community relations are already very fragile in some places.”

The NSS, which campaigns against what it calls the privileged position of religious groups in society, called on the Archbishop of Canterbury to discipline the bishop for his remarks and prevent him from making “further inflammatory statements”.

Daily Telegraph, 30 May 2008

We couldn’t agree more. However, we can’t avoid noting some double standards here. If the National Secular Society is genuinely concerned about irresponsible attacks on Islam giving assistance to the fascists they could start by dissociating themselves from NSS member Pat Condell, whose Islamophobic rants on YouTube have been applauded by Terry Sanderson. It would appear that the incitement of hostility towards the Muslim community is OK with Sanderson when it’s done by fellow secularists.

See also Inayat Bunglawala at Comment is Free and the excellent leader in today’s Guardian.

For the BNP’s endorsement of Nazir-Ali, see here.

The racism behind integration

Posted on by Bob Pitt

IRR report cover“In most European countries, integration is simply a euphemism for assimilation, the report says. The driving force is the notion of a national culture. In Germany this expresses itself through blood-based citizenship and a Leitkultur(dominant culture) and in France through citizenship by birth and earth and by laïcité (secularism). Norway has the idea of likhet (sameness); the Netherlands has verzuiling (religious/cultural blocs).

“One expects the extreme right to embrace such notions, but the report finds centre-left parties also using these racist sentiments to strategise. They may be liberal about immigration but, when it comes to Muslims, they fall prey to an Islamophobia that is ‘nourished by a mixture of feminism and secularism’.”

Ziauddin Sardar reviews Liz Fekete’s Integration, Islamophobia and civil rights in Europe, a new report published by the Institute of Race Relations.

New Statesman, 22 May 2008

Pat Condell’s fascist friends

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pat CondellIslamophobia Watch has regularly covered the obnoxious anti-Muslim videos produced by Pat Condell.

The National Secularist Society’s favourite “comedian”, Condell has also been embraced by racists on the far right, who have enthusiastically promoted his Islamophobic rants.

Even though it clearly provides many of his admirers, Condell has formally dissociated himself from the fascist British National Party. Or has he? It turns out that many of Condell’s YouTube friends are in fact open supporters of the BNP.

See Why Pat Condell Isn’t Funny, 19 May 2008