Category Archives: State Oppression

Siddique released after terror conviction quashed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man branded a “wannabe suicide bomber” by prosecutors will not face a retrial on terrorism charges.

Mohammed Atif Siddique, 24, a student from Alva, Clackmannanshire, was found guilty under terrorism laws in 2007. But Appeal Court judges in Edinburgh said on 29 January he had suffered a “miscarriage of justice” on one of the charges and quashed the conviction.

The Crown Office has said it does not wish to seek a fresh prosecution. Siddique has now been released.

His family wept and hugged each other outside the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh, after Lord Osborne said judges would quash the main conviction.

In a statement read out by his solicitor Aamer Anwar on the court steps, Siddique said: “I have always maintained my innocence, but they took my liberty, destroyed my family’s reputation and labelled me a terrorist. But I never had any bombs or plans to hurt anyone. In court it was said I was a wannabe suicide bomber, but I have always said I was simply looking for answers on the internet.”

The shopkeeper’s son was jailed for eight years in October 2007 after a four-week trial in Glasgow. He was found guilty of two charges under the Terrorism Act 2000, one under the Terrorism Act 2006 and a breach of the peace.

The most serious charge related to the possession of articles that gave rise to “reasonable suspicion” they were connected to terrorism. His conviction on that allegation resulted in a six-year prison term.

But at his appeal hearing in January Lord Osborne criticised the way the trial judge explained the main Terrorist Act charge to the jury. The judge, sitting with Lords Reed and Clarke in Edinburgh, said the “material misdirection” amounted to “a miscarriage of justice”.

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Quebec: veiled Muslim woman excluded from government French class

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Naema Ahmed was writing a French exam in a Muslim face covering Tuesday morning when she was called out of class and presented with an ultimatum: the veil or school.

She chose her religious veil and went home. It was the Egyptian immigrant’s second attempt to enroll in a government-subsidized French class and her second effective expulsion by Quebec authorities – part of a hardening line over religious headwear in the province.

Quebec says it is preparing new rules on religious displays for those seeking to use public services in the province. But yesterday the government made it clear there were no doubts about its intentions.

“There is no ambiguity on this question: If you want to [attend]our classes, if you want to integrate in Quebec society, here our values are that we want to see your face,” Immigration Minister Yolande James said.

Quebec has staked out an increasingly tough position on religious displays, at a time when the province faces a growing presence of Muslims and other religious minorities. Premier Jean Charest’s Liberal government has come under pressure from the opposition Parti Québécois to adopt measures to protect Quebec secularism and the equality of men and women.

Ms. James promised the government would bring in tougher though unspecified measures: “We are working on appropriate action that we will take in the coming time.”

Ms. Ahmed’s case has already reignited the explosive debate over the accommodation of religious minorities in Quebec. The 29-year-old had chosen to leave a government French class rather than expose her face at a Montreal college last fall; she said she turned to government-sponsored classes at a community centre in her neighbourhood because she was determined to learn French.

She said no one complained about her veil since she started attending classes in the new school in late January. But on Friday, after her story had gained widespread media attention in Quebec, a teacher at the school spotted her and alerted provincial officials, who dispatched a civil servant to the school. He was accompanied by an Arabic interpreter.

Ms. Ahmed said that when she saw the Quebec official, she started to cry. “It wasn’t fair for them to ask me to leave the exam,” she said in a phone interview. “I feel like the government is following me everywhere.”

While there is no law banning the wearing of religious headwear in Quebec, officials say they were acting yesterday on the basis of “pedagogical principles.” A student’s mouth should be visible so the teacher can work on pronunciation, one official said.

Ms. Ahmed was told that she could follow French classes online. But the mother of three said she’s feeling depressed and doesn’t know if she’ll pursue her lessons. “I’ll just stay in my house. This will solve the problem.”

On Monday, Christine St-Pierre, the Quebec minister responsible for the status of women, called the niqab and burka “ambulatory prisons” that violate a woman’s right to equality.

“There are people in Quebec, in Canada, and other countries around the world, who have gone to Afghanistan and spilled their blood so that these things won’t be tolerated,” Ms. St-Pierre said. “Here, we cannot tolerate this sort of thing.”

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Poll shows support for ‘burka’ ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

More than half of voters in four other major European states back a push by France’s Nicolas Sarkozy to ban women from wearing the burka, according to an opinion poll for the Financial Times.

As Mr Sarkozy presses ahead with plans to ban the wearing of the burka in public places, the FT’s latest Harris poll shows the move is not just strongly supported in France, but wins enthusiastic backing in the UK, Italy, Spain and Germany.

The poll shows some 70 per cent of respondents in France said they supported plans to forbid the wearing of the garment which covers the female body from head to toe. There was similar sentiment in Spain and Italy, where 65 per cent and 63 per cent respectively favoured a ban.

The strength of feeling in the UK and Germany may seem particularly surprising. Britain has a strong liberal tradition that respects an individual’s right to full expression of religious views. But here, some 57 per cent of people still favoured a ban. In Germany, which is also reluctant to clamp down on minority rights, some 50 per cent favoured a ban.

“This poll shows that the number of people in France opposed to the burka is going up and that is the product of debate on burka and national identity,” said Professor Patrick Weil, an expert on national identity at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. “But the figure is clearly going up in other countries in Europe like the UK as well, and that reflects the growing concern that there is about this issue in some parts of Europe.”

In the US, concerns about the issue are far less strong than in Europe. Just 33 per cent of Americans surveyed by Harris supported a ban, a far lower figure than the 44 per cent who said they supported it.

In Europe, while opposition to the burka was strong, few respondents said they were prepared to support the ban as part of a wider drive towards secularism in their country. Asked if they would support the burka ban if it were accompanied by a clampdown on wearing all religious icons such as the Christian crucifix and the Jewish cappel, only 22 per cent of French people said they supported such a move. In Britain, just 9 per cent of people said they would back such a move.

Financial Times, 1 March 2010

Fascist allowed to address school pupils and call for ban on hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

bnp-islam-posterA senior official in the British National Party was invited to address a classroom on whether the hijab should be banned, The Times has learnt.

Simon Darby, the BNP’s deputy leader, was phoned by 14-year-old students in Rochdale, Lancashire. The pupils, supervised by a teacher, asked him questions over the phone about the French ban on the hijab. The BNP’s policy is to ban Islamic dress in schools.

Andy Rymer, the head of Matthew Moss High School, told The Times that the students were doing a project on news reporting and had suggested contacting the BNP. He said: “We ask kids to be critically curious. This was something they were interested in and wanted to check out. They did so in a supported way with an intelligent teacher.”

Some Asian parents at the school, in the Castleton area of the town, spoke of their concern at allowing the BNP a voice in the classroom. Jamil Khan, whose daughter wears a headscarf to school, said: “I do not feel comfortable with the presence of the BNP in the classroom. They are extremists, full stop. They can only paint the picture one way.”

On his blog, Mr Darby said: “It was reassuring to think that even in 2010 politically correct Britain there are still teachers who insist on the old adage that if you don’t have access to all the information, you will never come up with the right answer.”

Times, 1 March 2010

Wilders says headscarf ban will be price of coalition agreement

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Wilders not wantedA ban on headscarves for city council workers and in all institutions and clubs which get local authority money will be the most important point in the PVV’s negotiations to join governing coalitions in Almere and the Hague, says party leader Geert Wilders.

Speaking to RTL news, Wilders said the ban would be central to talks to form new local authority executives in the only two cities where the party is contesting the March 3 local elections. The ban will apply to “all council offices and all other institutions and clubs which get even one cent of council money,” he said.

The PVV is tipped to emerge as the biggest party in Almere and second biggest in the Hague.

Wilders brought up the ban again in a speech to supporters in Almere, where he entered the room to the Rocky theme tune Eye of the Tiger.

The ban will not apply to other religious items such as Christian crosses and Jewish skull caps because these are symbols of our own Dutch culture, Wilders said in his speech, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd.

Dutch News, 26 February 2010

Veil is ‘not a religious expression’ claims Dati

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rachida Dati in BlackburnThe former French justice minister, Rachida Dati, has condemned the wearing of the burka, saying that it “does not correspond” to European values.

Ms Dati, the first person of North African descent to serve in the French cabinet, is in the UK to visit the Justice Secretary Jack Straw’s Blackburn constituency.

In a rare interview, she told Today programme reporter Zubeida Malik that “it’s important to remind what helps citizens live together and have a common destiny and living together and having a common destiny means having principles and values in common.

“And it’s true that the burka does not correspond neither to our values nor to our principles whether French or British and not even European. So it is important to say no to this expression that is not a religious expression.”

Ms Dati rejected suggestions that banning the burka and other face veils would make them more popular. “We have to remember that often women who wear the burka are either doing it out of ignorance or others are motivated by an activism linked to the creation of a new identity,” she said.

“And to those for whom it represents the expression of an identity, it is important to say that in our countries there can’t be any confrontation of identities. There is one single identity based upon common values and principles shared by our countries.”

BBC News, 19 February 2010

See also “French politician defends veil ban call on trip to Blackburn”, Lancashire Telegraph, 19 February 2010

Migrants must renounce veil if they want to live in France, says minister

Posted on by Bob Pitt

02/13/2007. Le couple Christian Estrosi, ministre delegue de l'amenagement du territoire et Nadine Morano, depute UMP de Meurthe et Moselle en visite a Nancy.Immigrants should sign a “no burka” contract before being allowed to live in France, the country’s families minister has said.

It would be added to an “integration agreement” that all newcomers already have to commit to, which also bans forced marriages and polygamy.

Nadine Morano said: “Equality between men and women is a fundamental principle of French society. “This applies to polygamy, forced marriages, female mutilation and the full-face veil.”

Her proposal came at a government conference yesterday following a three-month debate on national identity. Last month a government committee said women who wear the garment should be barred from using public transport and outlawed from public buildings like schools and hospitals.

Ms Morano has the backing of many prominent MPs in her call to have immigrants who wear burkas banned from staying in France.

French interior minister Brice Hortefeux said in December that both women who wear veils and their husbands should be “systematically refused” French residents’ permits. And President Nicolas Sarkozy has branded face veils “a sign of debasement” and said they were not welcome in France.

Daily Mail, 9 February 2010

France unveils national identity plans

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Newcomers to France will be made to sign a declaration of values as part of a new campaign to define national identity, France’s Prime Minister says. Francois Fillon announced the initiative after three months of public debates around the country.

Other measures include the flying of the French flag and the singing of the national anthem – La Marseilleise – at schools, to promote patriotism. Critics say the debate simply provoked anti-Muslim sentiment and racism.

Polls showed many French people found the discussions were not constructive and President Nicolas Sarkozy, originally a keen supporter of the initiative, quickly began to distance himself from the debate. The promised grand presentation of the findings was downgraded to a low-key event.

BBC News, 9 February 2010