Category Archives: State Oppression

Hind Ahmas faces prison sentence for refusing to remove veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hind Ahmas and Kenza DriderA 32-year-old woman, Hind Ahmas, has been sentenced to 15 days of “citizenship service” after she was caught wearing a full-face veil in public and refused to remove it.

Hind Ahmas says she will not obey the court’s ruling and refuses to remove her veil. She risks a two-year prison sentence and a €30,000 fine, if she does not perform her citizenship service, which includes classes on French Republican values, Le Figaro reports.

Ahmas heard her sentence on the pavement in front of the courthouse in Paris because she refused to remove her veil to face the judges.

Her lawyer Gilles Devers says Ahmas is going to appeal and said that the French ban on the veil was illegal, AFP reports. The judge however insists her lawyer cannot appeal her decision because it is not a fine.

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Canada: face veils banned for citizenship oaths

Posted on by Bob Pitt

LEBANON MPSThe government is placing a ban on face coverings such as niqabs for people swearing their oath of citizenship, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Monday. The ban takes effect immediately.

As a result, Muslim women will have to remove their niqabs or any other face-covering garments, such as burkas, before they can recite the oath of citizenship to become Canadians. Citizenship judges will be directed to enforce the rules at ceremonies over which they preside.

It’s a “public declaration that you are joining the Canadian family and it must be taken freely and openly,” he said, calling it “frankly, bizarre” that women were allowed to wear face veils while they swear their citizenship oaths.

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Netanyahu backs law to ban loudspeakers at mosques

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday voiced support for a law that would ban mosques from using loudspeaker systems to call people to prayer. The so-called Muezzin Law, proposed by MK Anastassia Michaeli (Yisrael Beiteinu) applies to all houses of worship but the practice is prevalent only in mosques. “There’s no need to be more liberal than Europe,” Netanyahu said in reference to the law during a meeting of his Likud ministers.

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Canada: face veils banned for citizenship oaths

Posted on by Bob Pitt

LEBANON MPSThe government is placing a ban on face coverings such as niqabs for people swearing their oath of citizenship, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Monday. The ban takes effect immediately.

As a result, Muslim women will have to remove their niqabs or any other face-covering garments, such as burkas, before they can recite the oath of citizenship to become Canadians. Citizenship judges will be directed to enforce the rules at ceremonies over which they preside.

It’s a “public declaration that you are joining the Canadian family and it must be taken freely and openly,” he said, calling it “frankly, bizarre” that women were allowed to wear face veils while they swear their citizenship oaths.

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FBI illegally using community outreach to gather intelligence, ACLU alleges

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The FBI is using its extensive community outreach to Muslims and other groups to secretly gather intelligence in violation of federal law, the American Civil Liberties Union alleged Thursday.

Citing internal bureau documents, the ACLU said agents in California are attending meetings at mosques and other events and illegally recording information about the attendees’ political and religious affiliations.

Washington Post, 1 December 2011

See also ACLU press release, 1 December 2011

And “Big Brother, come clean: The FBI is misusing “community outreach” programs for intelligence gathering”, ACLU Blog of Rights, 1 December 2011

Also “CAIR concerned about FBI’s use of ‘outreach’ to spy on Muslims”, CAIR press release, 1 December 2011

Extradition law debate in Commons next Monday

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ENGAGE draws our attention to the welcome news that the Backbench Business Committee has now reversed its earlier decision and scheduled a full debate with a vote on the current extradition laws, to be held in the main chamber of the House of Commons on Monday 5 December.

The shocking case of Babar Ahmad has received some media attention, and it is thanks to the campaign organised by his supporters that next week’s parliamentary debate is taking place. But Babar Ahmad is not the only London Muslim to have fallen foul of the Extradition Act 2003. A less publicised case, which hopefully will feature in the House of Commons debate, is that of Talha Ahsan, who also faces the prospect of extradition to the United States.

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Police accused of infiltrating Manchester mosques

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Relations between the Muslim community and Greater Manchester Police are being strained after officers infiltrated mosques. Some Islamic groups have told the BBC Asian Network that they are angry about undercover tactics used in recent counter terror operations.

The North West Counter Terrorism Unit carried out an investigation which involved officers posing as Muslims. They attended prayer meetings and services at a dozen unnamed mosques in Manchester after they befriended four Muslim men for more than a year. Three of the men, Munir Farooqi, 54, Israr Malik, 24, and Matthew Newton, 29, were convicted of terrorism charges in September. Another man was acquitted.

Yasmin Dar, a member of the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) Mosques and Community Forum, said: “It’s alarming, you’ve got one community that is being targeted. I’ve not heard of any cases of undercover officers going into churches or synagogues, so why a particular faith? Relations with the police have hit rock bottom. It’s created a lot of mistrust with the police.”

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Muslims pray, rally in protest at NYPD spying

Posted on by Bob Pitt

NY protest against police spying

Hundreds of Muslims gathered in lower Manhattan on Friday to pray and march in protest against a decade of New York Police Department spying on Muslim communities.

The traditional Friday call to prayer echoed off the cold stone of government buildings as people, bundled in winter clothes, knelt in prayer on a blue tarp.

“We’re peaceful people,” said Dalia Nazzal, 18, a freshman at theCity University of New York, where police used undercover officers and informants to infiltrate Muslim student groups. “We don’t deserve to be under surveillance.”

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