Category Archives: State Oppression

Scholars slam France over Qaradawi ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Qaradawi and Mayor 2France has come under fierce criticism from an international body of Muslim scholars over denying prominent scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi entry into the southern European country to attend a major Islamic conference.

“We are surprised, and we admonish France for refusing to grant Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi a visa,” Sheikh Ali al-Qaradaghi, the secretary general of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS), told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Tuesday, March 27. “He is a moderate scholar who contributed to combating extremism in Islamic thoughts.”

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UOIF defends Qaradawi, opposes Sarkozy’s ban, accuses government of capitulation to Front National

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UOIF logoThe Union of French Islamic Organisations is surprised at the current controversy provoked by a statement by the National Front spreading inaccurate information about Sheikh Qaradawi when he has visited France and Europe on several occasions.

The UOIF regrets that the climate of suspicion toward the Muslim community is the source of a controversy over information that has been available for months.

Sheikh Qaradawi is a man of peace and tolerance who has worked for openness and moderation and whose positions are always in favour of justice and peoples’ freedom. He was received by Pope Jean-Paul II and for several years has carried out work on interfaith dialogue with Jewish and Christian communities around the world.

He exercises a positive influence in the Muslim world and is continually attacked by extremist movements because of his modern positions in favour of democracy, women’s rights and dialogue between civilisations.

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French government will bar entry to Qaradawi, says Sarkozy aide

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Qaradawi at Tahrir Square rally
Qaradawi addresses mass rally in Tahrir Square in February last year

The French government will deny entry to an influential Egyptian preacher if he accepts an invitation from an Islamic organisation to visit France next month, a close aide to President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Sunday.

Sarkozy, who is running for re-election, has announced a crackdown on people who follow extremist Islamic messages on radical websites in the wake of a spate of killings by an al Qaeda-inspired gunman.

His aide, Henri Guaino said the government would take measures to block the entry of Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi if he seeks to take up the invitation from the Union of French Islamic Organisations (UOIF), a Muslim umbrella group.

“The French government does not want any extremist preachers entering its territory,” Guaino, a special advisor and speech writer to Sarkozy, told French Radio J.

Reuters, 25 March 2012

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Mob gathers at court as Yorkshire teenager charged with Facebook smear of Afghan soldiers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Protest against Azhar Ahmed

A Yorkshire teenager today denied posting a grossly offensive message on Facebook about the deaths of six British soldiers in Afghanistan.

Azhar Ahmed, 19, appeared at Dewsbury Magistrates’ Court charged under the Communications Act 2003 with sending a message that was grossly offensive on March 8.

A racially-aggravated public order charge was withdrawn at today’s hearing and Ahmed denied the new charge that was put to him.

Ahmed, of Fir Avenue, Ravensthorpe, West Yorkshire, was bailed and will stand trial at Huddersfield Magistrates’ Court on July 3. He has been bailed to an address not given to court.

There was a large police presence outside court as around 50 far-right protesters staged a noisy demonstration when the defendant arrived and left.

Yorkshire Post, 20 March 2012

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The real ‘two-tier system’ in operation

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Azhar Ahmed protest

This demonstration outside Dewsbury Magistrates’ Court tomorrow has been organised by the Yorkshire Division of the English Defence League in protest against Azhar Ahmed, the young man charged with a “racially aggravated public order offence” over a Facebook comment which, while arguably “threatening, abusive or insulting”, involved no actual racial element at all. (The EDL held a small demonstration against Ahmed in Dewsbury on Saturday which resulted in two of their members being arrested for causing criminal damage.)

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Prevent faces growing university opposition

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The government’s counter-terrorism strategy is facing opposition on university campuses over concerns it is discriminatory and encourages spying. Student groups and lecturers have moved to distance themselves from Prevent, a Home Office initiative that aims to combat violent extremism, after being asked to report Muslim students deemed vulnerable to radicalisation.

The National Union of Students (NUS) is expected to table a motion at its conference next month condemning as “totally unacceptable” approaches by Prevent officers asking for details of student Islamic society members.

The motion, a draft of which has been seen by the Guardian, will call on delegates from across Britain to “stand in solidarity with those negatively affected by Prevent”. It adds: “The language, concepts and unspecific terms of definition used in the Prevent strategy are unhelpfully generalist and in some cases problematic, and could well be open to discriminatory interpretations.”

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NYPD monitored groups based on religion, documents show

Posted on by Bob Pitt

NYPD secret report2The New York Police Department collected information on businesses owned by second- and third-generation Americans specifically because they were Muslims, according to newly obtained secret documents.

They show in the clearest terms yet that police were monitoring people based on religion, despite claims from Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the contrary.

The NYPD has faced intense criticism from Muslims, lawmakers – and even the FBI – for widespread spying operations that put entire neighborhoods under surveillance. Police put the names of innocent people in secret files and monitored the mosques, student groups and businesses that make up the Muslim landscape of the northeastern U.S.

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