“Gove’s assault on Muslim schools in Birmingham isn’t about British values: it’s a poisonous campaign of discrimination and intimidation”, Seumas Milne argues.
CAIR hits back at Geller’s hate-ads
A Christian, a Muslim and a Jew turn up together on a Washington, D.C., bus.
It’s no joke. They’re the faces of a new ad campaign by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil liberties group. And the ad is the latest volley between Muslim and anti-Muslim groups that has played out most recently on the sides of buses in the nation’s capital.
First, the American Muslims for Palestine ran ads during peak D.C. tourism season, the Cherry Blossom Festival in April, condemning U.S. aid to Israel. A month later, blogger Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative responded with bus ads featuring photos of Hitler meeting the grand mufti of Jerusalem and a text equating opposition to Israel’s territorial policies with Nazism.
CAIR’s ads, unveiled at a Wednesday (June 11) press conference, highlight “Islam’s commitment to freedom of religion, diversity and peaceful coexistence encouraged by the teachings of the Quran,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. He also announced a crowdfunding effort on Indiegogo to raise the $41,000 it cost to design, publish and circulate the ads on multiple bus routes for a month.
“We do not shy away from debates on issues, but hate speech is a red line and I believe (Geller’s) ads have crossed the line between what is ethical and what is designed to provoke hatred in others,” Awad said at a press conference where he was flanked by Jewish and Christian clergy and activists.
In the CAIR ad text, “we let the Quran speak for itself,” he said. All three people say that the Quran’s verse 2:62 speaks for them when it says: “Verily, those who have attained to faith, as well as those who follow the Jewish faith, and the Christians … all who believe in God and the Last Day and do righteous deeds shall have their reward with their Sustainer; and no fear need they have, and neither shall they grieve.”
The ad also offers a website link where people can request a free copy of the Quran for the cost of shipping ($9.95).
Lutfur Rahman appeals to Labour for unity in Tower Hamlets
Lutfur Rahman, re-elected Mayor of Tower Hamlets last month after voters rejected a disgraceful campaign against him, has written an article for the East London Advertiser presenting his views on the election and plans for the future.
Middlesbrough EDL march: Police warn criminal behaviour will be dealt with ‘robustly’
Police have warned that any anti-social or criminal behaviour linked to a planned English Defence League demonstration will be dealt with “robustly”. It comes as hundreds of demonstrators plan to march through Middlesbrough later this month.
Cleveland Police officers are in talks with a number of groups over plans by members of the EDL from as far afield as London and Scotland to gather in the town on June 28.
About 250 EDL supporters have already confirmed they are attending on Facebook – with organisers saying full details of the demo will be released “at a later date”. It is understood that they may try to march through residential areas, finishing at the war memorial on Linthorpe Road. It comes after a recent demonstration in Newcastle city centre in which Teesside flags could be seen.
Counter demonstrations are also being planned by groups opposed to the EDL.
Olive Tree Primary School: chair of governors responds to Ofsted stitch-up
Last week Ofsted published the report of its recent inspection at the Olive Tree Primary School in Luton. Predictably, following the pattern we have seen in Birmingham, a school that had received a broadly favourable report from inspectors less than two years ago was now found to be “inadequate”.
Ofsted stated that some of the library books at the school contained fundamentalist views that had “no place in British society”. This produced inflammatory headlines such as “‘Tough action’ may be taken at Islamic faith school after inspectors find books which ‘promotes’ stoning, lashing and execution”.
The school has issued a furious rebuttal the Ofsted report, condemning it as “half-baked” and “highly politicised”. The statement added: “The inspection and the subsequent report was not about education, it was about a right extremist, Michael Gove, whipping up racist hysteria and OFSTED dancing to his poisonous tune.”
Farasat Latif, chair of governors at Olive Tree Primary School, has followed this up with a letter to the head of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw.
‘Mega Mosque’ public inquiry for West Ham site starts at ExCel Centre
A public inquiry into Newham Council’s rejection of plans for a mosque in West Ham has opened with supporters and opponents of the so-called “Mega Mosque” making their case.
The Abbey Mills Riverine Centre application for a 29,227sq m mosque in Canning Road was turned down by councillors in 2012 unanimously after local residents protested against plans.
But this prompted counter protests by local Muslims in favour of the new centre, which would cater for 9,000 worshipers in a site more than three times the floorspace of St Paul’s Cathedral.
A public inquiry held by the government’s Planning Inspectorate kicked off on Tuesday 3 at the ExCeL centre, and is expected to last until June 23.
The inquiry is also looking at the temporary permission granted for the site to be used as a smaller mosque for two years, which has now expired.
Representations will be made by the Newham People’s Alliance, a community group which supports the plans, and the MegaMosqueNoThanks campaign, run by ex-Newham councillor and former head of the Christian People’s Alliance, Alan Craig.
Religious leaders slam anti-Muslim bus ads
New ads on Metro buses with a photo of Adolf Hitler and a prominent Muslim leader represent the “bigotry and hate” that divide people and spur hatred, religious groups said Monday morning.
“These ads are trying to say the Quran calls for hatred of Judaism,” said Ira Weiss, who represented the Jewish Islam Dialogue Society, which works to bring together Muslims and Jews. “It is easy to cherry-pick nasty parts of Scripture in any text – they were written thousands of years ago,” Weiss said at a news conference in Rockville. “These words used in the ads are like the devil using Scripture against its religion.”
The ads, created by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, feature a photo of Hitler speaking to Haj Amin al-Husseini, who was grand mufti of Jerusalem at the time. They ask people to stop aiding Muslims in an attempt to “end racism.” The ads, which are on 20 Metro buses, declare that “Islamic Jew-hatred” is “in the Quran,” adding the “two thirds of all US aid goes to Islamic countries.”
The Montgomery County Faith Community Working Group – which represents the county’s Baha’i, Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Sikh, Unitarian Universalist and Zoroastrian communities – organized the news conference and rally, which drew about 100 people to the Rockville Metro station.
Icelanders registering as protest Muslims
“I have received emails from people asking how they can register to the Association. I was a bit surprised but very pleased by these enquiries,” says Salman Tamimi, the leader of the Muslim Association of Iceland, asked whether he had noticed an increase in the number of new registrations in the wake of the Reykjavík mosque debate.
Gunnar Smári Egilsson, the former editor of Fréttablaðið, made headlines over the weekend with his Facebook post saying that one does not need to actually become a Muslim in order to register with the Muslim Association of Iceland. He says he is therefore carefully considering joining the Association as an act of protest.
A fee is given on behalf of every taxpayer in Iceland from the national treasury to his/her registered religious association each year – while the money for those with no registered religion instead goes to the parliamentary budgetary committee. Gunnar Smári is not currently registered to any religious association.
He claims that the Progressive Party’s Vigdís Hauksdóttir is the architect of her party’s xenophobic lurch – and she is also chairman of the budgetary committee. “I doubt Vigdís will notice my ISK 9,000 a year, but I am still thinking of registering with the Muslim Association of Iceland so that its members can use these few thousand krónur to protect themselves from the attacks and lies of the Progressive Party and their supporters,” he writes.
Witch-hunt against Muslims in Birmingham – Get racist Tories out of schools
A Tory clampdown on schools in Birmingham has unleashed a torrent of racist filth.
The government ordered investigations after an anonymous letter alleged a Muslim “plot” to take over schools. Right wing newspapers devoted pages to personal attacks on Muslim teachers and governors.
Reports released this week found no evidence of a plot. But the witch hunt isn’t over.
Doug Morgan, president of the NUT teachers’ union in Birmingham, spoke to Socialist Worker in a personal capacity. “None of this is about how staff have been treated or the curriculum,” he said. “It isn’t about defending girls or gay people in schools. It’s about racism.”
Parent Gadija da Costa told Socialist Worker, “The word extremist is becoming synonymous with Muslim. This is broader than just schools. It’s becoming a human rights issue.”
Czech president refuses to apologise for anti-Islam comments
Czech president Miloš Zeman will not apologize for his recent statement linking the Islamic ideology with violence, his spokesman Jiří Ovčáček told the Czech News Agency today, reacting to critics’ demand that Zeman apologize.
The apology is claimed by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), indignant at the statements Zeman made at the May 27 celebration of the Israeli Independence Day in Prague. Zeman, commenting on a previous attack in the Jewish Museum in Brussels, said the Islamic ideology is behind similarly motivated violent attacks.
“The president definitely does not intend to apologize, because he would consider the quotation of the holy Islamic text a blasphemy,” Ovčáček said.