Category Archives: State Oppression

ECHR refuses to rule against Swiss minaret ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Europe’s rights court on Friday rejected two cases brought by Muslims against Switzerland’s constitutional ban on the construction of new minarets.

The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights said it would not consider the cases because the plaintiffs “cannot claim to be ‘victims’ of a violation” of the European Convention on Human Rights, which the court enforces.

One of the cases was brought by a former spokesman for the mosque of Geneva and the other by a number of Swiss Muslim associations.

Switzerland held a referendum in November 2009 in which citizens voted to ban the construction of new minarets, a move that drew criticism worldwide. The vote inserted a new line in the Swiss constitution stipulating that “the construction of minarets is forbidden”.

The plaintiffs had said the ban violated their religious rights, but judges in Strasbourg said they had not proven the ban “had any concrete effect” on the plaintiffs.

As the plaintiffs could not prove they planned to imminently erect a mosque with a minaret, they could not show they were subject to any discrimination, the judges said. “The simple fact that this could be the case in the near or far future is not, in the eyes of the court, sufficient” to warrant the examination of the cases, the judges said.

The Strasbourg court is due to consider three more cases on the minaret ban.

AFP, 8 July 2011

See also “Strasbourg minaret ruling causes no surprise”, Swissinfo, 6 July 2011

‘Suspect Communities’ – Muslim and Irish experiences

Posted on by Bob Pitt

On the sixth anniversary of the London bombings, Keith Vaz MP, chair of the Home Affairs select committee, hosted the launch of the report “Suspect communities”? Counterterrorism Policy, the Press, and the impact on Irish and Muslim Communities in Britain at the House of Commons yesterday.

The report examines to what extent and in what ways Irish communities and Muslim communities were represented as ‘suspect’ in public discourse in the two eras researched – the period of the Irish ‘Troubles’and post-9/11. It also examined the similarities and differences in the impact of these representations and counter-terrorism measures on Muslim communities and Irish communities in Britain.

ENGAGE, 8 July 2011

Local woman, rights group question hijab removal procedure of Dearborn police

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rachel ChinavareDEARBORN — A local Muslim woman along with a Council on American-Islamic Relations-Michigan spokesman have questioned the protocol of the city’s police department after the woman was forced to remove her headscarf in the presence of male officers during a “facial recognition” procedure.

Rachel Chinavare said she was made to sit in a waiting area in the station without her hijab and then was forced to walk into a room containing five male officers to retrieve it from a locker after her request to have it brought to her in a separate room was refused. Chinavare said she felt embarrassed and was denied her religious need for privacy and modesty in the presence of men.

Dearborn Police Chief Ron Haddad said that officers followed standard procedure during the night regarding the facial identification process. Chinavare was also not allowed to continue wearing her hijab while waiting because it is perceived by the department guidelines as a potential hazard for despondent people who have been arrested and may wish to hang themselves. Haddad said that belts, shoelaces and other items are also removed and put in lockers because of the policy.

But Chinavare said she was cooperative after her initial disbelief over being asked to remove the hijab and could not have been perceived as a threat to harm herself.

Dawud Walid of CAIR-MI said he was surprised to hear about Dearborn’s policies in treating Muslim women wearing a hijab and respecting their religious need for privacy among male officers.

“Headscarves are allowed for Muslim women in state correctional facilities as long as they are not high risk, and taking pictures while having a hijab on is good enough for the Michigan driver’s license and for the federal government to get a passport, so why can’t it be good enough for the city of Dearborn?”

Walid said that he would like to speak with the department about possibly instituting similar protocols to the Canton Police Department, which has begun using a policy that allows Muslim women to wear headscarves during the booking process which includes taking a picture. “That’s a model I would hope Dearborn Police would take up,” he said.

Arab American News, 8 July 2011

Petition and silent protest for release of Shaykh Raed Salah

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SILENT PROTEST FOR SHAYKH RAED SALAH

Monday 4 July 5.30-7pm opposite Downing Street

On Friday 1st July Shaykh Raed Salah was transferred from an Immigration Detention Centre to a formal prison. No good reason for this transfer has been given. The transfer to prison will significantly interfere with the preparation of Shaykh Salah’s appeal against the Deportation Order. The deadline for Shaykh Salah to Appeal is the 6th July 2011. The prison have informed Shaykh Salah’s lawyer that his legal team will not be able to visit him until the 11th July, 5 days after the deadline is due to pass.

The silent protest will symbolise both the British government’s attempt to silence Shaykh Raed Salah, and the government’s prevention of him speaking to his legal team.

Palestinians unite over condemnation of British government’s treatment of Shaykh Raed Salah

The Palestinian National Assembly for Jerusalem has expressed its dismay and condemnation of the British government’s action, joining with members of the Israeli Knesset, Fatah, Salam Fayyad, and the Follow Up Committee. Concern over his continued incarceration unites Palestinians from right across the Palestinian political spectrum.

Called by PSC, Stop the War Coalition, British Muslim Initiative, Palestinian Forum in Britain and Friends of Al-Aqsa

Please sign this petition which we plan to hand in to the Home Secretary for the release of Shaykh Salah.

We the undersigned:

• Call for the immediate release of Shaykh Raed Salah

• Call upon the Home Secretary to drop the deportation charges

• Consider Shaykh Raed Salah a human rights activist

• Call upon Home Secretary to allow him to refute and/or challenge the accusation levelled against him in court

www.ipetitions.com/petition/release-shaykh-raed-salah/

News South Wales: cops given power to remove veils during routine car stops

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim women can be forced to remove their face veils during routine car stops under new powers granted to NSW police.

Premier Barry O’Farrell said cabinet had approved the move on Monday so police could properly identify motorists or any other people suspected of committing a crime.

“I don’t care whether a person is wearing a motor cycle helmet, a burqa, niqab, face veil or anything else, the police should be allowed to require those people to make their identification clear,” he said in a statement.

Last week, NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said police needed stronger powers to identify women who wear full facial veils.

Police have had the power to ask women to remove face veils during the investigation of serious offences but did not have such powers during routine car stops.

AAP, 4 July 2011

Update:  See “Qld cops won’t seek powers to remove veils”, AAP, 5 July 2011

And “WA to follow NSW on head covering law”, AAP, 5 July 2011

Australia: new law to force veiled women to uncover for police?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Women wearing the burqa or other full-face veils will be forced to show their face when stopped by police under proposed changes to the law, Attorney-General Greg Smith said yesterday. Mr Smith said there was a duty on all citizens to identify themselves when asked by police and the law should reflect that. “The law is not that specific at the moment and that is what we are leading towards,” Mr Smith said.

News.com, 2 July 2011

German state interior ministers call for crackdown on Salafis

Posted on by Bob Pitt

German state interior ministers are warning of a rise in radical Salafist Islam that poses a risk of home-grown terrorism, with one politician calling for changes to residency laws so “hate preachers” can be more easily deported.

Hesse Interior Minister Boris Rhein of the conservative Christian Democratic Union told daily Die Welt that Salafism was a “centre and pivot for those who want to participate in so-called holy war”.

“Salafism can in this way lay the path to Islamist terrorism,” he said, adding that the law needed to be changed so that “hate preachers” can be more easily thrown out of the country. “In future, this should be possible when someone spreads material that goes against the liberal democratic basic order or that fosters radicalisation or, as the case may be, terrorism recruitment. We should also change the corresponding laws covering the right to assembly and paragraphs of the sedition law.”

Interior ministers from Germany’s 16 federal states plan to discuss the issue when they hold a regular meeting on Tuesday. TheFinancial Times Deutschland reported Tuesday that theVerfassungsschutz domestic intelligence agencies would be intensifying their monitoring of the Salafist scene. “Salafism is seen both in Germany and on the international level as the dynamic Islamist movement at the moment,” a Verfassungsschutz expert, who was not named, told the FTD.

Rhein said that Salafists wanted “a return to a stone-age Islam and want to turn Germany into a theocracy”. “They demonise anything western. The preach hate, intolerance and exclusion. They call for the stoning of adulterers and death sentences for homosexuals. They reject the equality of men and women. This ideology is at odds with our fundamental values. It is in every way unconstitutional and dangerous.”

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann of the conservative Christian Social Union also warned of the growing danger. “I am warning against underestimating the danger arising from Salafism,” he told the FTD. “Almost all terrorism issues in the past have been somehow or other traced back to a tendency to radicalisation from Salafism. We have to be especially watchful here.”

Herrmann said: “We must not allow home-grown terrorists to breed and gain control under our noses. We have to come down on Salafism and its ideology decisively and with all legal means.”

The Local, 21 June 2011

Statement by the Islamic Sharia Council on Baroness Cox’s bill

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Statement by the Islamic Sharia Council

Lady Cox recently proposed “The Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill” to Parliament. This aims to tackle discrimination by shariah councils and introduces an imprisonable offence if anyone claims that shariah councils have legal jurisdiction in criminal law.

It is indeed a crime that Lady Cox has made no attempt to understand the workings of the shariah councils. She repeats the modern mantra that shariah law “is an inherent discrimination system which is causing real suffering to women”. Perhaps she could then explain why 90% of clients of these councils are women.

It is totally incorrect to suggest that shariah councils consider their judgements to be superior to the English Legal System. At the Islamic Shariah Council, we are concerned only with the religious aspects of divorce, such as the settlement of the dower. This is akin to couples having a religious marriage (Nikah) at the Mosque and then a civil marriage at their local Registry office. The religious marriage and divorce satisfy the religious needs of the community and do not encroach on the work of civil bodies. In many cases Muslim couples do not register their marriages and in the event of divorce, the wife is then left in an incredibly vulnerable position with no recourse to the law. Shariah councils are in the position to dissolve this marriage.

Domestic violence is just as condemned in Islam as it is in the English Legal System. If a woman suffers from such abuse and approaches the Islamic Shariah Council, she is in a strong position to obtain the divorce she seeks. The ISC does not advise abused women to return to their husbands.

In child custody issues, we advise clients to approach family courts to settle them. If both clients sign their agreement to hear the advice of the ISC, we will certainly offer such advice. It is however not a binding judgment. In most cases of divorce, it is the mothers who receive custody of their minor children anyway unless there is very strong evidence against her ability as a mother and primary carer.

We fail to understand why the issue of the testimony of a woman being half of that of a man is even mentioned in this context. Shariah councils deal with marriage and divorce, and so have no jurisdiction in such matters.

Furthermore, it is morally wrong to comment on such issues without knowledge of them. In legal disputes, Islamic courts require two male witnesses as well. A female witness in a financial case is required to have a second woman with her in a supporting role, but the primary witness will be responsible for her own testament.

Lady Cox has regurgitated common myths about the role of women in Islam in an effort to undermine the work of the shariah councils. For this she deserves little praise.

Issued by:
Dr. Suhaib Hasan
Secretary
The Islamic Sharia Council