European Court of Human Rights upholds French ban on full-face veils

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ECHRThe European Court of Human Rights has upheld a French law banning the wearing of the full-face veil, the niqab.

The Strasbourg-based court was ruling on a case brought by a 24-year-old French woman, who argued that the ban on wearing the veil in public violated her freedom of religion and expression.

The ruling by the European Court’s Grand Chamber was immediately condemned by a leading UK human rights campaigner for “criminalising women’s clothing”. Liberty’s director Shami Chakrabarti also linked it to “the rising racism in Western Europe”.

The woman also argued that the law gives rise to “discrimination based on gender, religion and ethnic origin, to the detriment of women who wear the full-face veil”.

The woman was not named in the complaint which was brought to the court in April 2011. The case potentially has important implications for the UK where the possibility of banning the veil has long been discussed.

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Facebook protest against Kalgoorlie mosque gathers momentum

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stop the mosque in Kalgoorlie Boulder Facebook page

Two Facebook pages waging a campaign against a proposed mosque in Kalgoorlie-Boulder have attracted more than 800 “likes” as the local council prepares to debate the item next month.

A planning application to build a place of public worship at 12 Park Street in the Kalgoorlie suburb of Williamstown was lodged by the Kalgoorlie Islamic Community Centre on June 3.

While the application has not yet gone before councillors, the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder has directly contacted surrounding homes and businesses and encouraged them to submit written feedback before close of business on Monday.

A Facebook page, “Stop the mosque in Kalgoorlie“, was created on June 25 and has attracted 735 members in just five days. It states: “Help us stop the mosque! This page is for practical support to the residents of Kalgoorlie opposing the Mosque. No Islamic debate or trolls tolerated here.”

Many of the posts featured on the page link to anti-Islam article and websites, and the page appears to hold a close association to an eastern states Facebook group, “Stop the mosque in Bendigo”. Far-right opponents of the planned Bendigo mosque recently received a donation of $10,000 to help fund their campaign.

The page has also set up a petition on change.org, calling on the council and local politicians, including Nationals MLA Wendy Duncan and Liberal MLA Graham Jacobs, to block the application. The petition, which has 583 signatures, states that “the council should outright DENY Muslims to build a mosque in Kalgoorlie Boulder to the very end”. The vast majority of signatures come from outside the Kalgoorlie region and even includes signatures from the US.

A second Facebook page, Stop the mosque in Kalgoorlie Boulder, is now also campaigning against the mosque. Created on June 24, the page has 131 “likes” and has shared links with the Patriot Defence League Australia – Eastern Victoria Charter, a group that bills itself as nation-wide “pro Australia” club, committed to protecting Australia from “Islamization”.

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Katie Hopkins’ ignorant Ramadan tweets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Katie Hopkins Ramadan tweet

She’s known for courting controversy but Katie Hopkins appears to have out-done herself with her latest Twitter rant. The 39-year-old former reality TV star opened up on her feelings about Islamic festival Ramadan.

Muslims worldwide will be observing a month of fasting as it is now the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Katie tweeted on Sunday evening: “Ramadan typically brings a spike in violence in Middle East. I get grumpy when I don’t eat – but I don’t blow things up. Religion of peace?”

But she didn’t stop there; the mother-of-three then compared Ramadan, which is widely regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam, to the trendy 5:2 diet. She added: “If we take 5:2 as a basic idea, what is the ratio for Ramadan? 18:6?”

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Second far-right protest against planned Bolton mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bryn Morgan addressing Bolton anti-mosque protestProtestors took to the steps of Bolton Town Hall to rally against plans to build a new mosque in Astley Bridge.

More than 100 campaigners, who insisted they were not representatives of any political party, demonstrated in Victoria Square today.

Plans have been submitted to Bolton Council for a mosque in Blackburn Road with space for more than 1,000 prayer mats by the Taiyabah Islamic Centre.

The protest was organised by Facebook campaign Stop the Astley Bridge Mosque, which has attracted more than 7,100 likes. The group also organised a similar protest at the site of the proposed mosque on Saturday, June 21.

Demonstrators, who chanted “no more mosques”, criticised Bolton Council over a technical fault which has left them unable to submit representation against the plans online.

Michael Birchall, aged 44, from Farnworth said: “They just put mosques up without caring about the local area, and nobody gets a chance to object. Extremist views have been attributed to mosques in the past. I am also concerned about the effect this will have on the community and how it could change.”

David Whittle, aged 46, from Westhoughton, added: “Once there is a mosque there, the Muslims take over that area. It is going to happen in Farnworth next. Anyone can see if this is built parking and traffic is going to be horrendous.”

Tony Burgess, aged 45, from Deane, said the situation in the Middle East played a part in why he was supporting the protest.

The Facebook campaign’s organiser, 38-year-old Bryn Morgan, said a petition against the “ostentatious” plans had already collected several thousand signatures.

Mr Morgan, from Heaton, added: “This is not racist and it is not about making the Muslim community in Bolton feel threatened. This is about showing normal, sensible people do not want their town turned into the sort of place Blackburn has become.

“The plans are for a big, ostentatious building which does not foster community spirit — we would be against it equally if it were a Hindu temple or Catholic church. It is now down to Bolton Council to work out whether they are for or against the democratic process.”

The protest took place on the first day of Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, which sees Muslims engage in fasting during daylight hours.

A passerby, who did not wish to be named, said she had seen Bryn Morgan wearing a British National Party (BNP) rosette at an election count. She added: “People walking past are being frightened into putting their personal details on that petition. The BNP are not wanted here.”

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Vandals attack historic Polish mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Kruszyniany mosque graffiti

An 18th century mosque and gravestones in the adjoining cemetery have been vandalised in the village of Kruszyniany, north east Poland. The incident apparently occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning, just after Polish Tatars began observing Ramadan on Saturday.

The culprit sprayed a vast pig onto the side of the mosque, which is one of Poland’s oldest Muslim houses of worship still used by the country’s Tatar community.

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Reports and comment from Islamophobia Watch 23‑29 June

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Reports and comment from Islamophobia Watch 23-29 June 2014

Another lying anti-Muslim headline in the Mail

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Daily Mail Muslim man murders pregnant prostitute

This is the headline to a report in the Daily Mail. The report begins: “A Muslim who stabbed a pregnant Romanian prostitute to death after warning her not to work near a mosque was jailed for at least 29 years today.”

As you might expect from the Mail, the claim that Farooq Shah, the individual convicted of the murder, targeted sex worker Mariana Popa because she was working near a mosque is a straightforward lie.

The sole basis for this claim is that during the trial, in an attempt to identify a motive for the murder, the prosecuting barrister asked Shah: “What was that conversation with Miss Popa about? Did you ask her to go with you? Did you offer her money? Did she say no because you had a bike and didn’t even have a car? Or were you on this night patrolling the area for prostitutes? Did you want to challenge Miss Popa and ask her to get out of that area, to get away from the mosques?”

But the Mail‘s own report states: “In his account to the jury, Shah said having women sell their bodies near his mosque or home ‘means nothing'”. According to the Ilford Recorder, the investigating officer Detective Inspector Darren Richards said that Shah “has never given any reason” for the murder, adding: “He’s given no reason because there was no reason, other than he’d armed himself with a knife and was prepared to use it that night.”

DI Richards had previously stated: “This was a cold-blooded, senseless murder by a man who went out that night, armed with a knife, intent on using it to commit serious injury to someone. He had already threatened and robbed a vulnerable man with a knife earlier that night, and he was hanging around the Ilford Lane area, looking for another victim. He killed Mariana because she was there, because he thought he could get away with it.”

Shah’s religious beliefs, if indeed he has any, appear to have had no bearing whatsoever on the case.

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Women targeted in rising tide of attacks on Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

More than half of Islamophobic attacks in Britain are committed against women, who are typically targeted because they are wearing clothing associated with Islam, new data reveals.

The figures of anti-Muslim attacks, compiled in the nine months following the murder of soldier Lee Rigby in May 2013, come days after Saudi Arabian student Nahid Almanea was stabbed to death in Essex, with detectives believing that she may have been attacked because she was wearing traditional Islamic clothing.

In a study of calls to the Tell Mama hotline, which records Islamophobic crimes, academics at Teesside University found there were on average two incidents every day over the period.

Victims reported a total of 734 incidents to the hotline between the start of May last year and 28 February 2014, broken down into 599 incidents of online abuse and 135 offline attacks – an increase of almost 20% on the same period the previous year.

One aspect of the figures indicates an apparent lack of trust in police to deal with Islamophobic incidents, with one in six victims choosing not to report the incident to authorities.

The Teesside report, published by the first research unit in Britain dedicated to the study of the far right and its opposition, says more effort is required to foster greater trust between the Muslim community and authorities.

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Radio star dropped for calling Prophet Muhammad a paedophile

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Michael SmithA Sydney radio presenter has been told he will not be filling in a guest slot on 2GB after he called the Prophet Muhammad a paedophile.

The former 2UE presenter Michael Smith made the comments on Thursday during his regular guest spot with 2GB host Ben Fordham.

Smith was discussing the recent controversy about a talk the Festival of Dangerous Ideas had booked, and later cancelled, with a Muslim activist, titled “Honour killings are morally justified”.

He compared the festival’s invitation to Uthman Badar to asking the leader of the Ku Klux Klan to speak and said the founder of Islam was “… a man who promoted the idea that it was OK to marry a six-year-old and consummate the marriage when the little girl was nine”.

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EDL march meets counter demonstration in Middlesbrough

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Middlesbrough EDL protest and counter-demo

An English Defence League (EDL) march planned for Middlesbrough has been met by a counter-demonstration at Ayresome Gardens in the Teesside town.

More than 350 EDL supporters descended on Middlesbrough with a “significant numbers of officers” deployed to prevent any trouble. The EDL supporters encountered approximately 200 counter-demonstrators, dressed in the red colours of Middlesbrough Football Club and the workers’ movement, protesting against the presence of the right-wing movement.

“Every time the fascists come, we’ll stand together. But we don’t anticipate any trouble,” said demonstration organiser Lawrie Coombs. Councillor for the area Len Junier led the march around Middlesbrough in defiance of the EDL. “We are lucky in Middlesbrough, we don’t have problems with racism,” he said. “We don’t want the EDL splitting our community. We want to celebrate the diversity in our area. But we don’t want to get in anyone’s face.”

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