Category Archives: State Oppression

Berkeley conference adopts resolution condemning Islamophobia in France

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Berkeley Islamophobia conference 2013

Resolution of the 4th Annual International Conference on Islamophobia at UC-Berkeley in Support of French Muslims and Opposing Islamophobic Discourses in France

Whereas; for the last ten years, Islamophobia has increased in an alarming way all over the world.

Whereas; every year, the Annual International Conference on Islamophobia at UC-Berkeley confirms the global perverse and continuing problem of Islamophobia.

Whereas; France is one of the countries in the world where racism against Muslims has increased the most. In the name of secularism, women’s rights, the defense of Republican values, and the struggle against terrorism, Islamophobic discourses affect all spheres of the French society (politics, media, intellectual debates, economics, etc).

Whereas; the French state itself – the judicial, legislative and executive powers – from the higher to the bottom levels of the French public administration has become a promoter of Islamophobia. The March 2004 law against the veil is at the heart of public legitimization of discriminatory practices against Muslims.

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‘Anti-Shariah law’ passes Florida House

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Legislation designed to prevent any foreign legal principles from being used in state courts passed the Florida House Thursday.

HB 351, sponsored by Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha, has been widely dubbed the anti-Shariah law. Supporters argued the bill is a preventive measure to ensure foreign law does not infiltrate the state’s family law courts. Opponents called it a solution in search of a problem and said there has never been a case where someone’s constitutional rights were diminished by foreign law.

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Bill banning Shariah law in Florida family cases passes Senate panel

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Florida lawmakers are poised to pass a controversial law banning courts from using foreign law, after a split Senate committee signed off on the measure.

The bill (SB 58) would ban courts or other administrative authorities form using religious or foreign law in deciding matters related to family law, including divorce and child custody. The House approved a similar measure last year but it died on the Senate floor.

The Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee approved the bill by a 5-4 vote, with one Republican voting against it and one Democrat voting in favor, surprising opponents of the bill, who expected it to fail.

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French ‘Socialist’ government targets hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Because of her choice to wear a headscarf, Samia Kaddour, a Muslim, has all but abandoned trying to land a government job in France. Soon, some private sector jobs could be off limits, too.

French President Francois Hollande says he wants a new law that could extend restrictions on the wearing of prominent religious symbols in state jobs into the private sector. His new tack comes after a top French court ruled in March that a day care operator that gets some state funding unfairly fired a woman in a headscarf, sparking a political backlash.

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‘Abu Qatada? Odd name. Has a long beard too? Boot him out!’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Inayat Bunglawala welcomes this week’s ruling by the Appeals Court rejecting home secretary Theresa May’s latest attempt to deport Abu Qatada. He writes:

“Abu Qatada has now spent around ten years in prison without having been charged with any crime in the UK, let alone having been convicted of one. Can you imagine a middle class white person being treated the same way in the UK?”