Category Archives: State Oppression

French government rejects US criticism of veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Paris on Tuesday brushed off a US State Department report that criticised France for banning Muslim women from wearing full veils.

“Our conception of secularism is a common heritage of all French people, which implies rules that encourage social harmony in the public space and in public schools,” said a foreign ministry spokesman.

In its 2011 International Religious Freedom Report, the State Department complains about a “rising number of European countries, including Belgium and France, whose laws restricting dress adversely affected Muslims and others”.

The French spokesman noted that France and its neighbours were seeking to define “more structured European Union policies to defend freedom of religion in the world”.

Expatica, 1 August 2012

See also “US report criticises French Islamic veil ban”, France 24, 1 August 2012

A human rights perspective on headscarf and veil bans

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Marianne Møllmann of Amnesty International welcomes FIFA’s recent decision to lift its ban on women footballers wearing headscarves and also the news that several gulf countries are for the first time sending female athletes (wearing headscarves) to the Olympics. She notes, however, that more and more European countries are imposing restrictions on the wearing of headscarves or face-veils in public.

RH Reality Check, 23 July 2012

The French minister for women has let down Muslim voters

Posted on by Bob Pitt

After the election of a Socialist government, and the appointment of a Muslim of North African heritage – Najat Vallaud-Belkacem – as minister for women’s rights, France’s Muslim community might have hoped for a reversal of Nicolas Sarkozy’s policy of pandering to Islamophobia, and in particular an overturn of the notorious “burqa ban”. So far they have been disappointed, writes Nabila Ramdani.

Comment is Free, 16 July 2012

Police ‘made up’ evidence against Muslim student

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rizwaan SabirA Muslim university student was held for seven days without charge as a suspected terrorist after police “made up” evidence against him.

Documents from the professional standards unit of West Midlands police reveal that officers fabricated key elements of the case against former University of Nottingham student, Rizwaan Sabir.

Guardian, 14 July 2012

Police clamp down on counter demos in Bristol – Muslim community leaders meet with EDL ‘to create a pathway for future dialogue’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The police have today used their powers under the Public Order Act to prevent a counter demonstration to the presence of the right-wing and anti-Islamic EDL from going ahead in Bristol City Centre tomorrow (Saturday). Organisers of the rally, which had significant trade union backing, have been issued with legal notices enforcing restrictions on the counter demonstration, and have been told that they face potential prosecution if the rally goes ahead as planned. A statement from ‘We are Bristol’ reads,

Today’s Bristol Evening Post includes information from police statements about a change of venue for tomorrow’s (July 14th) counter demonstration against the EDL, moving the timing and location of the counter demonstration to Castle Park.

We Are Bristol wish to make clear that the police have imposed conditions on our demonstration backed by legal orders. This has placed the organisers of the counter demonstration under extreme duress, no agreement was reached with the police, and legal advice has been sought to defend our right to protest.

Continue reading →

New study of Islamic headscarf controversy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Headscarf ControversyThe most controversial article of clothing of the early 21st century may be the headscarf.

In her new book, The Headscarf Controversy: Secularism and Freedom of Religion, UCSB professor Hilal Elver tackles the issue currently affecting Muslim women – and courtrooms – around the world.

Elver, a global and international studies scholar, explains the legal and historical background of wearing headscarves in public places, specifically in Turkey but also in Germany, France, and the United States.

Elver believes that due to the recent “war on terror” in the Middle East, many Western countries have banned public use of the headscarf, supposedly in the name of women’s rights. But rather than helping women, she argues, the ban has had the disastrous effect of excluding pious Muslim women from society.

Continue reading →

Martha Nussbaum on the new religious intolerance

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Her latest book, The New Religious Intolerance, is a vigorous defence of the religious freedom of minorities in the face of post-9/11 Islamophobia. And by minorities she mostly means Muslims. ‘We see unreasoning fear driving a certain amount of public policy, perhaps more in Europe than in the US,’ she explains. And Europe has historical form on all this. ‘The laws that made it illegal to speak Latin in a church but left it legal to speak Latin in universities were covert forms of persecution – and not very covert at all. And you get that all over Europe. You get that in the Swiss minaret case, where a building that expresses the wish of a religious minority is suddenly illegal; you get it in Germany in those cases where nuns can teach in full habit but a teacher can’t wear a headscarf’.”

Giles Fraser talks to Martha Nussbaum.

Guardian, 30 June 2012

Bee stings killed as many in UK as terrorists, says watchdog

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bee stings kill as many people in Britain as terrorist attacks do, according to a report by a Government watchdog who claims the risk from extremists has fallen “markedly” in recent years.

David Anderson said that no one has even been injured by an Islamist in this country for more than two years, while the number of convictions has dropped to a “handful”.

As a result he suggested that ministers could relax some anti-terror laws without endangering public safety, such as by allowing terror suspects to apply for bail or making it harder to ban certain groups.

Continue reading →

Kelvin MacKenzie advocates UK veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ENGAGE has the details. In a short piece for the Daily Mail MacKenzie hailed the French veil ban as a “great success”. He described the report that three veiled women were turned back at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport and refused entry into France as “excellent news”. He urged David Cameron to include a proposal for a veil ban in the UK in the 2015 Tory Party manifesto.