Category Archives: State Oppression

Who supports the ban on Islam4UK?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BMSD protest

Well, not the Muslim Council of Britain, who have issued a well-reasoned statement, “Ban groups if they break the law, not on the basis of media hysteria“. But support for the government’s stupid move comes from the Quilliam Foundation, the British Muslim Forum and the Muslim Women’s Network – all of whom are in receipt of state funding.

Backing for the ban also comes from Shaaz Mahboob of British Muslims for Secular Democracy. Remind me, weren’t BMSD the organisation that protested against Islam4UK last October brandishing placards reading “Free speech will dominate the world: All may speak their minds”? All except those who BMSD decides are not entitled to free speech, it would appear. The BMSD demonstrators urged us to “laugh at those who insult freedom”. However, their response to the ridiculous Anjem Choudary isn’t to draw attention to his comic potential but to support a state ban on his group.

Muslim-American subjected to religious profiling at airport

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nadia Hassan is a frequent flier. Imagine her surprise when she arrived at the security checkpoint at Washington’s Dulles International Airport Tuesday and encountered what she calls, “racial, religious profiling.”

The 40-year-old Michigan-born Muslim-American, headed to Los Angeles, says she was singled out for what she calls a “humiliating” full-body search. When she asked why this was happening “the gentleman who was working there specifically told me that the reason I’m being put through this type of search is because I’m wearing a head scarf…. He actually came out and told me that that’s the reason why you are being targeted.”

She’s not alone. On Monday, a Muslim-Canadian woman says she was made to feel like a terrorist because she was wearing a headscarf. She says she was berated and banned from boarding a flight to the United States – all because of her faith.

The Council on American Islamic Relations calls these textbook cases of profiling. “It’s violating the law. It’s unconstitutional and un-American to single people out because of their religion. It’s a knee-jerk measure that’s going to cause panic and fear,” says the council’s national executive director, Nihad Awad.

CNN, 8 January 2010

France moves to outlaw the veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The parliamentary leader of the ruling French party is to put forward a draft law within two weeks to ban the full-body veil from French streets and all other public places.

The announcement by Jean-François Copé, cutting short an anguished six-month debate on the burka and its Arab equivalent, the niqab, will divide both right and left and is likely to anger President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr Copé, in an interview with Le Figaro to be published tomorrow, said that he would bring forward a law which would impose fines of up to €750 (£675) on anyone appearing in public “with their face entirely masked”.

Independent, 8 January 2010

See also the Daily Star which reports, under the headline “Women to be fined for wearing Burkas”, that “Strict new laws are being considered in France to tackle Islamic extremism. And campaigners want the same tough penalties in the UK.” Who exactly are these campaigners, you may ask. Well, the Star has found two.

One is right-wing Christian extremist Stephen Green who tells the Star: “We ought to assert our Christian heritage as strongly as France does its secular heritage. There’s no doubt the burka is culturally divisive. Measures like fines would send out a great signal. If we don’t take action against Islam now we are going to see terrible problems in this country in 30 years’ time.”

Bizarrely, the Star informs its readers that “many leading Muslim groups believe the burka should be outlawed in Britain”. But the only example they offer is Diana Nammi of the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation, not hitherto known as a leading Muslim group, who is quoted as saying: “We support bans anywhere in the world.”

Looks like Damian Thompson’s proposal for an alliance between secularists and right-wing Christians on the basis of a common hatred of Islam is already being implemented.

Muslim woman searched by US airport security because she wore a headscarf

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to clarify whether Islamic head scarves, or hijab, will now automatically trigger additional security measures for Muslim travelers.

CAIR made that request after a Muslim woman traveler taking a flight Tuesday from Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) to Los Angeles (LAX) reported that TSA personnel first requested that she take off her hijab, then put her through a “humiliating” public full-body pat-down search when she refused. After the pat-down, the Muslim traveler’s luggage, coat, shoes, laptop, and cell phone were searched and tested for bomb-making chemicals.

When the traveler, a resident of Maryland, questioned TSA staff about the way she was being treated, she was allegedly told that a new policy went into effect that morning mandating that “anyone wearing a head scarf must go through this type of search.”

CAIR press release, 6 January 2010

See also Dawud Walid, “Religious profiling won’t help anti-terror security”, Detroit News, 6 January 2010

Update:  See also “Muslim woman treated like ‘terrorist’ at U.S. customs”, CTV News, 6 January 2010

And “Another hijab-wearing Muslim traveler reports mistreatment”,CAIR press release, 7 January 2010

Passenger profiling risks damaging counter terrorism efforts

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Good grief. Here‘s a press release from the Quilliam Foundation we can mostly agree with. True, you have to put up with the predictable Quilliam assertion that “governments must engage in a ‘battle of ideas’ to combat the Islamist ideologies which justify terrorism” – which, translated, means the government giving Ed Husain and his mates lots of money to denounce Islamist tendencies who have nothing whatsoever to do with al-Qaeda and who repudiate its methods. However, Quillam does at least take the right line on the actual issue of profiling. Which is more than others do.

New York Assembly member calls for racial profiling

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A local member of the New York Assembly will be reintroducing legislation that would allow law enforcement officials to use ethnic profiling among other techniques to spot potential terrorism suspects.

“There is no question that the government has a compelling interest in protecting the lives and safety of its citizenry from terrorist attacks,” says Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Democrat of Brooklyn. “The history of modern terrorism has taught us that these attacks are repeatedly executed by young Muslim men of Arab or South Asian origin. This is not a time for political correctness.”

MyFox New York, 29 December 2009

See also “In the Wake of the NWA Bomber: Calls to Profile ‘Mooslims'”, LoonWatch, 30 December 2009

French minister wants to deny citizenship to Muslim women wearing veils

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Eric BessonFrance’s immigration minister said Wednesday that he wants the wearing of Muslim veils that cover the face and body to be grounds for denying citizenship and long-term residence.

Eric Besson said he planned to take “concrete measures” regarding such veils, which are worn by a small minority of women in France but have become the object of a parliamentary inquiry into whether a ban should be imposed. Besson spoke during a hearing before the panel of lawmakers as their nearly six-month inquiry draws to a close.

Besson said he believed a formal ban on veils that cover the face and body seemed to him “unavoidable,” with a ban in public services as a minimum step. Whether such veils are banned or not, he said he intends to personally move forward to ensure that women wearing such veils and seeking French nationality or residence cards are denied.

“I want the wearing of the full veil to be systematically considered as proof of insufficient integration into French society, creating an obstacle to gaining (French) nationality,” he said. He said he would advise prefects, the highest state representative in the various French regions, that the wearing of such veils is a motive for not delivering 10-year residence cards.

Besson said he was prepared to put the measures before parliament to make them law. In November, Besson ordered a nationwide debate on the French identity, to conclude by the end of January with possible measures.

Associated Press, 16 December 2009