“It is evident to me that the men have been denied the basic right to liberty for many years. Their extradition to the US is a travesty of justice.” Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari draws the lessons from the shameful decision to extradite British citizens Babar Ahmad and Talha Ahsan.
Category Archives: State Oppression
MCB condemns extradition of Babar Ahmad and Talha Ahsan
Justice denied: The UK’s sovereignty and dignity sold as Babar Ahmed and Talha Ahsan are not allowed a British trial
Babar Ahmad and Talha Ahsan today lost their appeal for a stay on their extradition to the United States. For upholders of human rights and civil liberties, Friday 5th October 2012 will be a black letter day. It is the day when the pleas of two British citizens to be tried in a British court came to naught. It is the day when the Metropolitan Police emerged scott free from having to explain why the information collected from Babar Ahmad’s home was provided to the US prosecutor but not to our own Crown Prosecution Service. This was the day when the Government’s media strategy of linking the cases of Abu Hamza with those of Babar Ahmad and Talha Ahsan yielded its malevolent fruits. It will take a very long time for trust to be restored.
Swiss parliamentarians reject veil ban
Swiss parliamentarians narrowly voted on Friday against a ban on wearing the Muslim burqa and other face coverings in public places, including public transport. The lower house of the Swiss parliament rejected the motion pushed by the canton of Aargau in a vote of 93 to 87.
French minister threatens zero tolerance for ‘Salafist behaviour’
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls warned Islamists on Thursday that preaching hatred in France would not be tolerated, telling hardliners as he inaugurated a mosque that they would be expelled if they challenged the Republic’s principles.
Valls’ message underscored the tough line that President Francois Hollande’s government has taken towards Islamists who were furious over the publication of cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammad in a French magazine last week.
While Socialist officials criticised Charlie Hebdo magazine over the cartoons, calling them a provocation, they banned protests against the images, denying requests by Muslim groups to hold marches in the name of free speech.
Paris: police arrest four Muslim women
Four Muslim women sightseeing in Paris were arrested by police forces on Saturday for wearing headscarves.
The scene, which was filmed by journalists from Le Parisien, a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, took place at the Trocadéro, a square that stands across the river from the Eiffel Tower. The four women, including one wearing a headscarf, were checked for IDs before being escorted out of the square by dozens of police officers.
Marine Le Pen and secular fundamentalism
Fiachra Gibbons reponds to Marine Le Pen’s proposal to ban the kippah along with the hijab.
Marine Le Pen calls for ban on Muslim and Jewish headwear
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen called Friday for a ban on wearing Muslim veils and Jewish skullcaps in public, adding to religious tensions sparked by cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
In an interview with the Le Monde newspaper, Le Pen called for religious headwear to be banned “in stores, on public transport and on the streets”.
Asked if the ban should apply to the Jewish skullcap, known as the kippah or yarmulke, as well as Muslim headwear, she said: “It is obvious that if the veil is banned, the kippah is banned in public as well.”
France bans protests over Prophet Mohammad cartoons
France banned protests on Friday against cartoons published by a satirical weekly denigrating Islam’s Prophet Mohammad as part of a security clamp-down while prayers took place across the Muslim world.
French Muslim teenager jailed
A French Muslim teenager who was arrested for wearing a full Islamic veil has been sent to prison for two months after being convicted of biting a policewoman.
Louise-Marie Suisse, 18, was stopped by two police officers near a mosque in the centre of Marseille in late July. She was wearing a full-face veil, in breach of a ban introduced last year, and refused to cooperate with the police when asked to produce identity papers, her trial was told.
Two police officers to appear in court over false charges against anti-EDL protestor
Two police officers are accused of perverting the course of justice over an incident which happened during the English Defence League demonstration in Bolton town centre. The charges relate to an incident involving one of the Unite Against Fascism counter-protesters, Alan Clough, from Radcliffe, who was allegedly attacked by police.
Now police officers Robert Cantrell and Alan Glover have been summonsed to appear at York Magistrates’ Court on September 11. They have both been summonsed to face charges of perverting the course of justice.