Islamophobia Watch [Archive]

mosfeld

13th September 2010, 00:49

This thread is for keeping watch on Islamophobia worldwide, or anything related, such as combatting Islamophobia, discussions, etc.

Sweden Democrats politician wants to ban practice of Islam

A local politician from the far-right Sweden Democrats argued during an election debate on Thursday that Muslims shouldn't be allowed to practice their faith in Strömsund in northwestern Sweden.

“I don’t think someone should be allowed to be a practicing Muslim in Strömsund,” Sweden Democrat Mikael Säbom said on Thursday during a live election debate broadcast on Sveriges Radio Jämtland.

Since 2006, the town of just over 4,000 residents has taken in scores of Muslims from Uzbekistan in the wake of a 2005 crackdown by Uzbek government troops in Andijan in which hundreds of protesters were killed, although the exact number of casualties remains in dispute.

At the time of the incident, known as the Andijan massacre, the Uzbek government claimed the demonstrations were organized by the Islamic radicals.

Strömsund has seen a rise in hate crimes, from racist graffiti to the burning down of a mosque in the city two years ago.

Säbom, who stands at the top of the Sweden Democrats’ list of candidates for election to the local council, later refused to elaborate on his comments when approached by the newspaper.

A spokesperson from the Sweden Democrats headquarters in Stockholm claimed that Säbon’s comments had been “misinterpreted”, but added that the party stands behind the politician’s argument.

One of Strömsund’s estimated 150 practicing Muslims who wished to remain anonymous told Aftonbladet he’s “very worried” about the Sweden Democrats gaining seats in the Riksdag.

The party’s number two candidate in Strömsund, Peter Dahlsted, nevertheless remained upbeat about the Sweden Democrats' prospects, claiming that the influx of Muslims from Uzbekistan was a major driver for growth in the party’s support locally.

“Many come up to us and dare to say what they think,” he told Aftonbladet.

“It mostly has to do with the Uzbeks; that they’re disruptive in one way or another.”

http://www.thelocal.se/28928/20100911/

Germany: New anti-Islam 'Freedom' party

René Stadtkewitz, a Berlin parliament member, founded a new party, Die Freiheit (Freedom). The party is anti-Islam and calls for more freedom and democracy.

Stadtkewitz, who's been thinking of establishing a new party for a while, was kicked out of the CDU party last Tuesday for inviting Geert Wilders to speak in Berlin. He previously voiced opposition to building a mosque in Berlin.

The name of his new party is reminiscent of Geert Wilders' party (Party of Freedom), but Stadtkewitz says there is no collaboration between the two. Wilders is in New York and doesn't know of his new party, says Stadtkewitz

Stadtkewitz says that Islam is the cause for failed integration. "Islam is not just a religion, it's also a political system. Islam is intolerant towards those who think differently." As an example he mentioned a young Turkish woman who's been fleeing her family for the past four years since she doesn't want to be forcibly married. "it's Germany's fault, which didn't teach her family German values."

Die Freiheit wants to keep out right-wing extremists. New members must sign a statement saying they don't have any links to extremist groups. "We are a civic, liberal party," says Stadtkewitz. He doesn't want anything to do with the Belgian Vlaams Belang and Austrian FPÖ either. "These parties incite religions against each other, and we don't want that."

Regarding the Wilders' PVV, Stadtkewitz says there are some thing they agree on, and others where they're closer to the German FDP or CDU parties.

http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2010/09/germany-new-anti-islam-freedom-party.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IslamInEurope+%28Islam+in+Eur ope%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

"We are a civic, liberal party" How ironic that being civil today is the equivalent of being outright racist and xenophobic.

One of the 'courageous English patriots' who went to New York to support Pamela Geller

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/storage/EDL%20at%209-11%20protest.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=128425 1847519

Here's a pic (via TPM) of a member of the EDL contingent who unlike Tommy Robinson made it though Immigration at JFK to attend Pamela Geller's anti-Park51 protest in New York. It looks to me very much like EDL co-leader Kevin Carroll, who is regarded as a bit of a hero in the EDL having been convicted of a public order offence following a clash with Islam4UK demonstrators in Luton.

Carroll also featured in a recent BBC TV documentary on the EDL. His protestations that he was neither a fascist nor a racist were rather undermined when he was confronted with evidence that he had signed the nomination papers for a British National Party candidate in the Luton council elections two years ago.

Indeed, Three Counties Unity reported that Carroll "has been an enthusiastic BNP supporter, living on the same estate as Luton BNP organiser Peter Fehr. He is well-known to local anti-fascists and was only dissuaded from standing as a candidate in the 2007 Luton Council elections by a last-minute plea from his partner, Mary Stevenson."

Pamela Geller, of course, has long been a fervent admirer of the EDL, hailing them as "courageous English patriots" who have been smeared by the media. "Libel and slander like 'racist', 'fascist', 'bigot', etc. color every news report of every counter-jihad action", Geller has written. "The quisling media is the propaganda arm of jihad. It's despicable. There is nothing racist, fascist, or bigoted about the EDL."

An enthusiastic proponent of conspiracy theories, Geller argues that if there are fascists within the ranks of the EDL it is only because they have "infiltrated" the organisation in an attempt to discredit it – "because the neo-Nazis have generally aligned with the Islamic jihad that the EDL resists". Will Geller now perhaps denounce Carroll as a fascist supporter of Islamism who has joined the counter-jihad movement in order to destroy it?

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/12/one-of-the-courageous-english-patriots-who-went-to-new-york.html

Rival demonstrations in New York over Park51
http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/storage/New%20York%20demonstrators.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHE VERSION=1284248678292

ompeting demonstrations have been held in New York on the anniversary of 9/11 over plans for an Islamic cultural centre close to Ground Zero. Hundreds of people attended both demonstrations which became heated but passed off without violent incident.

New York authorities blocked off the street passing the site of the proposed Islamic cultural centre, a short walk away from Ground Zero. Mounted police and dog units patrolled the streets, keeping the protests separated in two pens a distance away from the site of the former World Trade Center.

The competing protests attracted people from many different groups, from anti-war activists to Hell's Angels, former US Marines to Buddhists.

Mr Wilders, a right-wing politician from the Netherlands who believes that Islam is comparable with Fascism, told the crowd that the planned cultural centre should not be allowed to go ahead. "We must never give a free hand to those who want to subjugate us, draw this line so that New York will never become New Mecca," he said.

The rally was also addressed by the former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton and other Republican commentators. But others said campaigners against the mosque were part of a hate campaign against Muslims.

"I'm really fearful of all of the hate that's going on in our country," Elizabeth Meehan, 51, told the Associated Press. "People in one brand of Christianity are coming out against other faiths, and I find that so sad, Muslims are fellow Americans; they should have the right to worship in America just like anyone else."

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/storage/New%20York%20demonstrators2.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACH EVERSION=1284248897849

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/11/rival-demonstrations-in-new-york-over-park51.html

Thousands of people protest near Ground Zero in opposition to racist Tea Party rally

http://www2.answercoalition.org/images/content/pagebuilder/64445.jpg

Thousands of people rallied today in lower Manhattan in defense of the Muslim, Arab American and South Asian communities that have been increasingly demonized in recent months.

The demonstration dwarfed the smaller right-wing, racist mobilization that was organized in opposition to the planned construction of an Islamic Community Center several blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.

Today’s demonstration was organized by a broad coalition of progressive, anti-war, Muslim, Arab American, South Asian and social justice organizations from the Black, Latino and Asian communities. The ANSWER Coalition organized its members and supporters to join this important mobilization against racism and Islamophobia. Speakers at the demonstration included Ramsey Clark, Cynthia McKinney, representatives of the International Action Center, December 12th Movement and others.

It is critical for the anti-war movement and all people of conscience to stand together in defense of the Muslim community, and in opposition to racism and war.

The ANSWER Coalition is organizing people from all over the East Coast and Midwest to participate in the Stand Up-Fight Back contingent at the Oct. 2 mobilization in Washington, D.C. Click here to sign-up to join the contingent. The Oct. 2 mobilization will draw together hundreds of thousands of working people who will demand jobs, peace and justice.

http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=14457

Widerstand

13th September 2010, 01:43

Very good idea. Some old news:

Belgium bans veils - http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/04/2010429195027981564.html

Switzerland bans minarets - http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/11/2009112915164769444.html

18% of Germans would vote for anti-Islam populist Thilo Sarrazin - http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/pers-s11.shtml

Dutch PVV gets 15 seats in parliament - http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/06/201069182921890709.html

L.J.Solidarity

13th September 2010, 01:56

The "German Defence League", a tiny group of islamophobes attempting to clone the EDL, invited their supporters for a day of "knife fighting training" via facebook. Publicly. Some of the fools who enlisted for it are members of the far-right "Pro NRW" party, other possible or confirmed guests are Austrian FPÖ members, SVPers from Switzerland and even an EDL idiot from Wolverhampton. You can see the full list on fb: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=142680409097816&ref=ts (http://www.facebook.com/#%21/event.php?eid=142680409097816&ref=ts)

Rusty Shackleford

13th September 2010, 02:26

modern western islamophobes are as bad as modern western pentacostals, baptists, or evangelicals(and im talking about the more reactionary of these groups).

sure, islam is a religion, but modern islamophoba is a thin veil for "i dont like brown people who are also not latino"

sure there are reactionary elements in islam, but there are in all religions, and even some proponents of atheism are shit. kind of like that oil tycoon in "There Will Be Blood." the guy was a clear non-theist and promoted raw deception inherent to capitalism.

L.J.Solidarity

13th September 2010, 02:38

Also, most islamophobes mix their cultural racism with more traditional racist statements. This is easy to see in the German-speaking countries, with the FPÖ currently defending the purity of "Wiener Blut" (Viennese Blood) in the Vienna state elections, the SVP being known for the occasional anti-semitic statement by low and mid-level leaders and for campaigning against Germans studying at Swiss universities and Germany's current Nr. 1 islamophobe Sarrazin openly arguing that Turkish and Kurdish immigrants were genetically inferior to Germans due to being inbred.

Tatarin

13th September 2010, 03:55

Die Freiheit, eh? Wasn't that an anarchist newspaper of the late 1800s/early 1900s?

Oh yes, it was;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Freiheit

Lodestar

13th September 2010, 06:18

I'm against religious discrimination to an extent. There are fundamentally reactionary, repressive, anti-intellectual, pre-scientific belief systems which are totally opposed to progressive developments, never mind revolutionary socialism, social justice, or Marxism-Leninism.

While I realize that rightist politicians use the ISLAM V. THE WEST issue as a means of whipping up cultural tensions and upheaval and dividing the masses, we should also recognize that despite the right-wing populists opposition to Islam, we are also, opposed to a religious belief system which is rooted in superstition and spirituality, because it is a form of false consciousness and critically incompatible with revolutionary politics. Religious freedom is admirable in principle, but the reactionary nature of religious belief ( unwavering, obstinate clergy insisting on pre-scientific dogmas that claim divine sanction) seems to make embracing the religion of Islam directly contradictory to our principles.

TL;DR Islamophobia and cultural/racial bigotry are wrong, but Islam as a religion is opposed to rational thought (and thus any basis for actualizing revolutionary change) in any meaningful sense, just like Christianity, Judaism, Mormonism...and every other unscientific/prescientific belief system...

Black Sheep

13th September 2010, 09:27

mosfeld

13th September 2010, 19:17

mosfeld

13th September 2010, 19:59

Extremists Hold Weekend Of Anti-Islam Hate; Mainstream Americans Push Back With Rallies And Interfaith Events

For months, extremist pastor Terry Jones’s Dove World Outreach Center planned to hold “International Burn a Qur’an Day,” where Jones’s congregation would publicly burn copies of the Islamic holy text. While Jones back down in the face of public rebuke from officials like Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his hate campaign spawned a number of copycat extremists across the country who enacted their own plans to burn the Islamic holy book, held anti-Muslim rallies, and vandalized Muslim places of worship:

– A burned Qur’an, its “pages covered in feces,” was found outside a mosque in East Lansing, Michigan. The FBI is currently investigating the incident. [9/11/10]

– “Stop Islamization of America” held a 1,500 person-strong rally against the Park 51 Islamic community center in New York City, with the headline speaker being Dutch MP Geert Wilders, who has called Islam “the ideology of a retarded culture.” [9/11/10]

– In Springfield, Tennessee, two pastors burned copies of the Qur’an, “answering what they say was a message from God.” The burning “took place in front of just a handful of people, most of them from the media.” [9/12/10]

– A burned and shot Qur’an was left outside the Annoor Mosque in Knoxville, Tennessee. [9/12/10]

Read the rest here (http://thinkprogress.org/2010/09/13/extremists-islam-mainstream-americans/).

Texas Skateboarder Stops Christian Extremist From Burning the Koran

As news that Rev. Terry Jones of the Dove Outreach Center planned to publicly burn a Qur’an — an operation which appears to have been called off, for now — raced around the world, many in the Muslim world reacted with angry protests, feeling that Jones’ actions were indicative of an America that was indifferent to the sensitivities of the Islamic faith.

Yet on Saturday, the day that Jones had dubbed “International Burn a Qur’an Day,” one American stepped forward to fight back against the rising tide of Islamophobia among the far-right.

In Amarillo, Texas, David Grisham, director of Repent Amarillo, “which aims to deter promiscuity, homosexuality and non-Christian worship practices through confrontation and prayer,” planned to burn the Islamic holy text at a public gathering. But before he could set the book ablaze, a 23 year-old skateboarder named Jacob Isom swooped in and grabbed it:

A planned Quran burning Saturday in Amarillo was thwarted by a 23-year-old carrying a skateboard and wearing a T-shirt with “I’m in Repent Amarillo No Joke” scrawled by hand on the back.

Jacob Isom, 23, grabbed David Grisham’s Quran when he became distracted while arguing with several residents at Sam Houston Park about the merits of burning the Islamic holy book. “You’re just trying to start Holy Wars,” Isom said of Grisham after he gave the book to a religious leader from the Islamic Center of Amarillo.

Local news station News Channel 10 covered the event and interviewed Isom. Isom told News Channel 10 that “he heard something about burning the Qur’an. Then I snuck up behind [Grisham] and told him, ‘Dude, you have no Qur’an,’ and took off.” Watch it:

As Amarillo Citizens Against Repent Amarillo’s Facebook page shows, Isom made sure the book made it into the safe hands of a smiling local Muslim leader.

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/09/13/texas-skateboarder-stops-christian-extremist-from-burning-the-koran/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=alternet

mosfeld

13th September 2010, 20:08

Gunning for Islam
The Islamophobes: fringe wackos, or rising mass movement?

Three people are dead because US "pastor" Terry Jones, in collaboration with the American media, staged (or threatened to stage) an anti-Muslim Koran-burning exhibition, which predictably stoked anti-American protests in Afghanistan: also predictably, US troops fired on demonstrators. The result: yet more "collateral damage."

In more 9/11 anniversary news: a rally sponsored by the David Horowitz-affiliated "Jihad Watch," in alliance with Pamela "Shrieking Harpy" Geller’s "Stop the Islamization of America" grouplet and the British neo-fascist "English Defense League," attracted a few thousand wackos to a site a few blocks from Ground Zero, where uber-wacko Geert Wilders (Dutch neo-fascist and leading Islamophobe) made the case for banning Islam in the name of … "Dutch tolerance":

"America, New York and Shariah are incompatible in New York. New York stands for openness and tolerance. Suppose there was a place and it only allowed people of one persuasion within its walls. It would not be New York. It would be Mecca."

Maybe Wilders has been smoking too much of that strong Dutch weed, but to argue that we’re too tolerant to tolerate the intolerant seems a bit odd. Then again, Dutch neo-fascism no doubt suffers in translation.

Wilders, Geller, and "Jihad Watch" anti-Islam guru Robert Spencer want to import Europe’s Muslim-hating racist fringe to America: their thesis is that Islam is not a religion, but a political conspiracy to impose Sharia law on non-Muslims. They raise the specter of an Islamic States of America, with American women draped in the chador and mandatory mosque attendance – a scenario that doesn’t even qualify as credible science fiction.

And if you think it doesn’t get any kookier than that, then you didn’t listen to John Bolton’s speech to the anti-mosque rally, delivered via videotape, wherein he attacked the effort by "politicians" to "impose tolerance and understanding on us, whether we like it or not." He also indirectly attacked his own former boss, George W. Bush, when he lashed out against Imam Feisal Rauf’s role as a State Department emissary of good will to Muslim nations. It was Bush’s State Department who first sponsored him in that role. Shortly before delivering his remarks, Bolton confirmed he is considering a presidential run: can he ride the wave of hate all the way to the White House?

Another aspiring anti-Muslim Know-Nothing demagogue who spoke at the rally is one Ilario Pantano, whose credentials as a murderous hater are surely impeccable. We last heard about Pantano when Army prosecutors accused him of murdering two Iraqis in some very cold blood, as Mother Jones relates:

"The central facts of the incident that made Ilario Pantano famous are not in dispute. On April 15, 2004, Pantano, a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps, led a small group of Marines to search a suspected insurgent hideout in Mahmudiyah, Iraq, outside of Fallujah. As the patrol neared the house, two men tried to leave in a car. The Marines stopped, searched, and handcuffed the men. A Marine scoured the vehicle, but didn’t find anything incriminating. After other Marines found weapons in the house, Pantano had the men uncuffed and ordered them to search the car themselves. At some point during that search, Pantano felt threatened by the two men. He shot them both—pausing to load a second magazine into his M-16 before emptying that clip too. Then he placed a cardboard sign reading ‘No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy’—the motto of his Marine battalion—on top of the car. He wanted ‘to send a message to these Iraqis and others,’ he said later.

"For a time in 2005, it looked like Pantano might be court-martialed for killing the two Iraqis. One of his subordinates claimed the shooting was unjustified. But the prosecution’s case collapsed in an early hearing, and Pantano was never even tried. The judge in charge of the hearing recommended non-judicial punishment—but Pantano’s commander didn’t agree, and he was never disciplined."

This is the kind of person at the head of the "anti-Islamization" movement – an escaped war criminal.

Pantano is now running for Congress in North Carolina — as a Republican, naturally.

Joe Conason made an important point about this hate movement, and that is its intensely partisan nature. Go here to listen to hate-monger Geller, aka Pamela Oshry, at a pro-Israel rally earlier this year. She ends her ultra-Likudist diatribe – "There is no Israeli occupation: the Arabs are occupying Israel!" – by urging her audience to "Dump Chuck!" Chuck Schumer, that is, the Democratic US Senator from New York who "dared" oppose John Bolton’s nomination for UN ambassador: after all, "reasons" Geller, Bolton is "the best friend Israel ever had!" What else do we need to know?

If you think this gathering of pro-Israel fanatics, British football hooligans, and a Dutch neo-fascist is just a fringe phenomenon, ask yourself how many Americans believe Obama is a "secret Muslim"? The answer is depressing: and Republicans like Newt Gingrich are already using the anti-Muslim hysteria to target the President and his party in a display of shameless opportunism that is a new low, even for the GOP.

Part of this is due to internal Republican party politics: with the economics-driven "tea party" faction rapidly overturning the GOP Establishment, the neoconservative remnants are trying to stage a comeback by diverting the movement’s energy to anti-Muslim scapegoating — anything other than holding Republicans as well as Democrats accountable for spending us into penury.

The impetus for this comes, as I detailed in last Friday’s column, from the pro-Israel lobby, which is moving into high gear with its bomb Iran campaign, with Bolton calling on both the US and Israel to launch an immediate military strike. Millions of dollars are being poured into this effort, with Spencer’s "Jihad Watch" and various and sundry other pro-Israel groups on the receiving end of the moolah. Like many right-wing movements, the anti-Islam activists have founded a new industry, marketing books, videos, and t-shirts, and throwing up "celebrities," e.g. the exhibitionistic bikini-wearing Geller, whose nude body painted gold adorns her blog’s masthead. Follow the money!

As nutty and improbable as the idea of an "Islamic States of America" might be, there is real potential for a mass anti-Muslim movement in this country. All we need is another terrorist attack, not even one on the scale of 9/11, and the smoldering fires of unfocused anger that burn just beneath the surface of polite society will burst through to the surface. Ask any Japanese-American.

Languishing for the lack of a proper enemy in the post-cold war world, the neoconservative right was saved from extinction by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The specter of militant Islam is, for them, the perfect villain, one who represents a threat not just to the US but also to Israel, a country which is to them as the old Soviet Union was to American Communists: a model and a fatherland. Their strategy is to replicate in the US the anti-Muslim xenophobia that swept Likud into power in Israel, and which has catapulted Avigdor Lieberman, head of an anti-Muslim ultra-nationalist party, into the Foreign Ministry. Bolton is our Lieberman, and hopes to take the same route to power.

"I don’t think anybody has a problem with Muslims in America," opines Reason.com editor Nick Gillespie on PBS. Is that why the anti-mosque campaign has gone national, and with some success? Is that why "mainstream" Republican politicians like Newt Gingrich and Speaker John Boehner are weighing in against the Park51 community center? Is it because there’s never been a mass political movement in America targeting a vulnerable religious minority?

I’d like to believe these people won’t get far: after all, how many Americans feel threatened by the possible imposition of Sharia law? On the other hand, it takes very little to drive people over the edge, especially in these troubled times.

The only way to defeat these bastards is to counter-attack immediately, and mercilessly: don’t let them get away with it for one moment. The very idea of forbidding the building of a mosque, or any religious edifice, is anti-American to the core, and must be fought tooth and nail. What could be a clearer confirmation of the libertarian contention that a foreign policy of global intervention necessarily means the rollback of our civil liberties here at home? For libertarians, there is no question but that Muslims must be defended against the gathering lynch mob.

How to do this is another question, but that’s a subject for a future column. Suffice to say here that the defense of the Muslim minority in the US is the acid test for all those who claim to believe in "freedom" and "liberty."

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/09/12/gunning-for-islam/

Crimson Commissar

13th September 2010, 20:16

It's our duty as communists to combat Islamophobia. Islamophobia is a bigoted, racist ideology of western imperialism which divides the working class along religious lines, justifies imperialist wars and dehumanizes over one billion people. We're defending muslims against oppression and bigotry but that doesn't mean we're supportive of Islam as a religion or whatever.
But, you are defending Islam. You're looking at a situation that is clearly based on the race of the majority of muslims, and then going "We have to protect muslims from islamophobia!". You shouldn't generalise everyone who critiscises Islam as being a bigot. Yes, MANY of the people who oppose Islam in the west are right-wing idiots and racists, but their reasons for opposing it are VERY different to those of militant atheists, and MUCH more different to those of militant communist atheists.

mosfeld

13th September 2010, 20:22

Is this the sort of 'patriot' that Geller mobilises? SIOA protestor shouts kill all the Muslims

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoCAbieZj1w

Burned Qur'an found at Michigan mosque

A national Islamic group has called for an FBI investigation after a burned Quran, pages allegedly covered in feces, was found Saturday at an East Lansing mosque frequented by the Michigan State University community.

"To have the Quran burned at a mosque is equivalent to having a cross burned at a black church," said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, referring to an intimidation tactic frequently used during the civil rights movement by those opposed. He has asked the FBI to consider the burning a hate crime.

The incident at the Islamic Center of East Lansing is one of at least three reported around 9/11, and comes on the heels of the Rev. Terry Jones' plan to burn Qurans on the anniversary, which he later abandoned.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/12/burned-quran-found-at-michigan-mosque.html

Ministers burn Qur'an in Tennessee backyard

A Florida pastor's threat to burn Islam's holy book on the anniversary of 9/11 set off a nationwide furor and incited Muslim anger as far away as Afghanistan, but the incendiary plan ended quietly in the backyard of a home in Springfield.

After a week that included warnings that burning the Quran would endanger American troops overseas, a personal phone call from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and an appeal from President Barack Obama to listen to "those better angels," the Rev. Terry Jones of Gainesville, Fla., relented and canceled his plans.

But the Rev. Bob Old vowed to stick with his plan to burn the Quran. On Saturday, despite the national tempest and opposition from conservative Christian leaders including Middle Tennessee pastors, Old carried out his plan. But for all the controversy and hype, his Quran burning took place in front of just a handful of people, most of them from the media.

Old and the Rev. Danny Allen stood together in Old's backyard, answering what they say was a message from God. The pair soaked two copies of the Quran and one other Islamic text with lighter fluid, ignited them and watched the books disintegrate into ashes. "This is a book of hate, not a book of love," Old said, holding the Quran, before setting it afire. "It's a false book, it's a false prophet (Muhammad) and it's false Scripture."

Three protesters stood across the street from Old's home, holding signs that read "My husband fights terrorism and your actions perpetuate it" and "Proud of my country but ashamed of my neighbors."

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/12/ministers-burn-quran-in-tennessee-backyard.html

mosfeld

13th September 2010, 20:31

But, you are defending Islam. You're looking at a situation that is clearly based on the race of the majority of muslims, and then going "We have to protect muslims from islamophobia!". You shouldn't generalise everyone who critiscises Islam as being a bigot. Yes, MANY of the people who oppose Islam in the west are right-wing idiots and racists, but their reasons for opposing it are VERY different to those of militant atheists, and MUCH more different to those of militant communist atheists.

Do you expect over one billion muslims do give up their faith and become hardcore anti-theists? What exactly is your grand tactic in organizing muslim workers for revolution?

Religions WILL be wiped out WITH TIME, as we progress towards a communist world. We have absolutely no reason to combat religion, especially today when we don't even live in a revolutionary society, and we especially have no reason to "militantly combat" (or whatever..) the religion of some of the most brutalized people on earth, what we should be doing is organizing them.

Tavarisch_Mike

13th September 2010, 20:32

Good initiative, its importante to point out that the great wave of islamophobia thats sweaping over us today, has very little (if anything) to do with subjective critisism of the religion Islam, but more of a way to divide people (especially the working class) and to justify imperialistic wars.

ed miliband

13th September 2010, 20:58

Does anybody have any theories as to why there has been an upsurge in anti-Muslim activity recently? This sort of thing was very common for some time after 9/11 but seemed to die down recently, only to become even more common than before.

Omnia Sunt Communia

13th September 2010, 21:05

we are also, opposed to a religious belief system which is rooted in superstition and spirituality, because it is a form of false consciousness and critically incompatible with revolutionary politics.

Muslims have made an invaluable contribution to revolutionary politics. You are not the gatekeeper of correct "consciousness".

How would you feel if the US right was in the streets burning the works of Shakespeare? Would you celebrate a defeat over "superstitious" and "spiritual" materials? What about the PLA's attacks on Buddhist and Taoist temples, or their public destruction of classical music records? Were these victories as well?

"Militant atheism" is cancerous right-wing chauvinism.

Returning to Anarchist Studies Volume 5 #1, alongside an article on 'The Revolutionary Underclass Of Bakunin and Marcuse', there is an equally bizarre piece credited to Derek Gatherer and entitled 'Feyerabend, Dawkins And The Politics Of Cultural Diversity'. In this, Gatherer mobilises the New Right ideas of geneticist Richard Dawkins in a manner that parallels the contemporary version of fascist modernism being peddled by rags like Radical Shift, where coded forms of discourse are utilised to propagate a 'cultural' racism based on 'ecological' 'arguments' about biological 'diversity'. Gatherer writes: 'A memetic diversity project is a pressing necessity, both because the European meme pool is in crisis as we struggle to find the answers to the questions that technological development has thrown up, and because it may soon be too late to save many indigenous meme pools. These meme pools may appear 'primitive', 'superstitious' or 'tribal', but their alternative, and highly unEuropean way of viewing the world, makes them a precious resource. Just as our own European past has been a source of continued renewal in the sciences, so non-European memes may contain the germs of ideas that could save our culture from extinction...'

Observe how Dawkins, Hitchens, Bill Maher, Harris, etc. have stood with the right's attacks on the Islamic working class.

Crimson Commissar

13th September 2010, 21:20

Widerstand

13th September 2010, 21:24

Crimson Commissar

13th September 2010, 21:28

I would like the argument explained by which combating Islamophobists is the same as defending Islam and promoting it's religious views. By the same logic, combating anti-semitic Neonazis is the same as preaching Judaism?
The difference is, those who oppose anti-semitism will often never bring up the actual religion of judaism. Where as anti-islamophobes constantly defend Islam and it's beliefs.

Widerstand

13th September 2010, 21:31

The difference is, those who oppose anti-semitism will often never bring up the actual religion of judaism. Where as anti-islamophobes constantly defend Islam and it's beliefs.

Can you point me to a post in this thread that defends Islam's beliefs? There have been several pointing out the futility of trying to exclude Muslims or other religious people from a revolutionary working class movement, but I can't recall reading one defending the actual beliefs of Islam.

Rusty Shackleford

13th September 2010, 21:32

Do you expect over one billion muslims do give up their faith and become hardcore anti-theists? What exactly is your grand tactic in organizing muslim workers for revolution?

Religions WILL be wiped out WITH TIME, as we progress towards a communist world. We have absolutely no reason to combat religion, especially today when we don't even live in a revolutionary society, and we especially have no reason to "militantly combat" (or whatever..) the religion of some of the most brutalized people on earth, what we should be doing is organizing them.
this this and this.

there are plenty of religious communists but what comes first is communism.

to me, and the view of the PSL(and im sure other ML parties) is that religion is something that is private and personal.
a workers state must be secular. not explicitly anti-theist though. whole sale state destruction of churches is a damn good way to help a counter-revolutionary movement grow.

personally, yes, i have criticisms of religions and theism, and yes, i am an anti-theist. but, i dont not work with people because someone believes in a god. hell, some people are even inspired by religious teachings to fight for communism. the same applies to fighting communism as well.

a worker is a worker and if they are religious, so be it. so long as they are respectful then i can work with them. also, if a worker is class conscious then why the fuck would i say no to someone for believing in a god(of course a comradely 1 on 1 discussion about it or comradely chatter about religion and all that arent off the table, not to convert but just to talk)

Tavarisch_Mike

13th September 2010, 22:00

The difference is, those who oppose anti-semitism will often never bring up the actual religion of judaism. Where as anti-islamophobes constantly defend Islam and it's beliefs.

Not really, we try to expose that the current wave of islamophobia is just racism, since the real purpose of it is to generelize the group muslims with ethnicity, especially people frome the middle east and north africa, and to label all this people into extremists saying things like if you call yourself for a muslim your supporting all things thats been done in its name.

Omnia Sunt Communia

13th September 2010, 22:22

Militant atheism is not aligned with any particular political ideology.

Dawkins has links (http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/8/31/pamela-geller-joins-nss-and-richard-dawkins-in-promoting-pat.html) to the anti-Islamic right.
Harris uses broiler-plate western liberal democratic imperialist talking-points to attack Islam in The End of Faith. (Edit: And is also on the anti-Park51 bandwagon (http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2010/08/18/ground-zero-mosque/))
Maher lionizes martyred fascist politician Van Gogh in Religulous.
Hitchens is a notorious ex-Marxist reactionary.

the vast majority of religions promote ideas which are hundreds of years old and which have no place in the modern world. Islam is no exception to this."The modern world" is defined by the sick values of the bourgeoisie. The "modernizing" campaigns of Marxist-Leninist regimes were nothing more than blatant attempts to commit further acts of capitalist development, censor ecologist art and science, and exterminate those religious elements socially dissident enough to refuse submission to proletarian work ethic.

mosfeld

13th September 2010, 22:25

UK religious leaders condemn Koran burning

After 9/11, and after 7/7, the Ahmadiyya community based in Morden in Surrey invited the news media to film a cross-community condemnation of intolerance and hatred. In light of the furore caused by Pastor Terry Jones in Florida, who had announced to burn Korans on 11 September, the Ahmadiyya community once more invited people of different faiths to a common service condemning extremism. Local religious leaders and councillors “made a stand for reason and tolerance”
.
Jewish, Catholic, C of E, Bahaai and other Christian denominations all took part in an event for the cameras, as well as an American Embassy official. They made statements condemning Terry Jones’ threats to burn the Koran. Some quoted the Bible, others referred to Nazi book burnings. The Reverend Andrew Wakefield — well known as a contributor to “Thought for the Day” – acknowledged that in the face of the Florida panic, perhaps faith leaders needed to make more effort to convey through the news media the extent of interfaith community cohesion. At least 8,000 people attended Friday service, discussing how to fight hatred with prayer.

http://www.euro-islam.info/2010/09/13/uk-religious-leaders-condemn-koran-burning/

Prize for cartoonist Westergaard: Muslims disappointed of Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has awarded the Media Prize M100 to the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. In 2005, Westergaard had drawn a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed, showing him with a bomb in his turban, which had subsequently caused major upheavals in Europe and the Islamic world. He has received death threats and has been under police protection ever since.

http://www.euro-islam.info/2010/09/13/prize-for-cartoonist-westergaard-muslims-disappointed-of-merkel/
In her speech, Merkel recognised Westergaard’s courage and demanded the consequences of the cartoon publication to be taken as a reminder. Europe should be a place where freedom of speech is possible; “the secret of freedom is courage”, the Chancellor said.

Meanwhile, the Central Council of Muslims condemned the award. Chairman Aiman Mazyek said that such an honour is highly problematic at a time that is already charged and heated. Also the Green Party criticised the move.

Rusty Shackleford

13th September 2010, 23:46

"The modern world" is defined by the sick values of the bourgeoisie. The "modernizing" campaigns of Marxist-Leninist regimes were nothing more than blatant attempts to commit further acts of capitalist development, censor ecologist art and science, and exterminate those religious elements socially dissident enough to refuse submission to proletarian work ethic.
you are right in that the modern world is defined by the bourgeoisie, but thats because they also have a monopoly on social thought.

Revolutions under the banner of Marxism-Leninism have predominantly taken place in lands were capitalism had not even fully developed, or taken place in lands where feudalism still was hardly challened.

i find it completely necessary to bring along some of the developments of capitalism like, for example, industry.

these period of rapid, planned, economic development required much thought, and without these periods, most socialist, or formerly socialist lands would remain far behind the capitalist west.

no, im not apologizing for capitalism, but capitalism was a necessary development in human social and economic organization. you cant just go from feudalism and say "lets go straight to communism." thats unscientific and you would be crushed by the capitalists without that economic development.

even when programs like the NEP were in place in the SU, the workers were still favored, and even with the Dengist reforms(which are like the NEP on steroids and something im wary of defending) chinese society and even the government dont necessarily view the new capitalists very kindly. a comrade of mine told me of how the common view was that if you are rich, you must have gotten rich by stealing(capitalism).

as for censoring dissidents. would you let pro-capitalist anti-socialist/communists to have any form of power in a time when stability is most critical? is not socialist development something that is meant to get away form these people even needing to exist? to hell with counter-revolutionaries.

Omnia Sunt Communia

14th September 2010, 02:31

as for censoring dissidents. would you let pro-capitalist anti-socialist/communists to have any form of power in a time when stability is most critical?

The dissidents I'm referring to were hardly "pro-capitalist"; Taoists, Siberian shamans, etc.

Rusty Shackleford

14th September 2010, 02:42

The dissidents I'm referring to were hardly "pro-capitalist"; Taoists, Siberian shamans, etc.
they must have been very reactionary then.

Shamanism pre-dates theism so yeah.

Lodestar

15th September 2010, 03:32

Do you expect over one billion muslims do give up their faith and become hardcore anti-theists? What exactly is your grand tactic in organizing muslim workers for revolution?

Religions WILL be wiped out WITH TIME, as we progress towards a communist world. We have absolutely no reason to combat religion, especially today when we don't even live in a revolutionary society, and we especially have no reason to "militantly combat" (or whatever..) the religion of some of the most brutalized people on earth, what we should be doing is organizing them.

False Consciousness among the masses is, in itself, a stumbling block, at the very least, to revolution. Religious doctrines foster reactionary belief systems and justify reactionary social relations and propagate injustices under the banner of heaven, or nirvana, or inner peace. Revolutionary momentum requires one to have an understanding of this world, this material universe...we must be materialists.. What use is someone who is obsessed with an afterlife, or spiritual redemption, or the coming Rapture such that they have no interest in improving the REAL world or insuring it has a future that isn't totally nightmarish?

Iskalla

15th September 2010, 08:12

To what point would a revolutionary left wing movement defend Islam? Come a theoretical revolution I can hardly imagine religious groups peacefully coexisting with the state. Maybe I've been totally misled but Islamic culture, along with Christian and other mainstream organised religious cultures exist almost as worlds within worlds, bound to their own rules and righteousness. Why would any Muslim hold revolution above their own archaic religious beliefs? What Muslim would want to support any revolutionary left wing cause? Is the basis of anti-Islamophobia simply 'It's not that we're defending Islam, we just happen to have a common enemy in the far right since 9/11'?

Devrim

15th September 2010, 09:33

To what point would a revolutionary left wing movement defend Islam?

I don't think that socialists should defend Islam at all. However, that is different from rejecting the racism against Muslims.

What Muslim would want to support any revolutionary left wing cause?

I think that there is this image of Muslims as 'fanatical Koran waving lunatics'. It doesn't really fit in with reality. Most Muslims I know, and most of the people I know are Muslims, are just normal everyday people who have some vague belief in God, pretty much like people in England who put CofE down on registration forms when they go to hospital.

Certainly many workers who are Muslims are involved in the class struggle just as I presume amongst the 26,000 council workers just issued with redundancy notices by Birmingham city council (which I notice is where you are from) there will be many workers who are Christians, as well as in Birmingham I would imagine a fair few who are Muslims. Whether workers fight against capitalist attacks upon them is not governed by their religion, but by their material condition within society.

As for whether they would 'support any revolutionary left wing cause', I have sold papers to people who are Muslims. Surely buying a communist newspaper is part of supporting revolutionary organisations.

Devrim

mosfeld

15th September 2010, 17:57

WHERE WAS THE 70%?
Despite Massive Funding and Publicity for the Tea Party Crowd, the Strongest Rally Took Place Against Racism

http://www.iacenter.org/img/NYCMosque155843--300x450.jpg

The picture above, taken from up high, shows the Unity & Solidarity Rally march stretching back three blocks, disappearing into the horizon.

By any estimate, the people who came out against racism and bigotry far outnumbered the Tea Party crowd.

Forced into action by a vicious anti-Muslim rally meant to stop construction of a downtown Islamic Center, on September 11 thousands of people took to the streets of New York to say no to racism.

What organizers of the anti-racist march found most striking was how their experience invalidated the poll reporting 70% in favor of moving the Islamic Center.

The group organizing the anti-Center rally had considerable resources to organize with – enough money to buy bus ads from the MTA and feature a huge jumbotron screen at the rally. The Tea Party itself is bankrolled by the oil-billionaire Koch brothers.

In addition, the racists’ rally received free daily nonstop media coverage, as every politician from the New York governor to electoral candidates weighed in, most unable to stand up against the anti-Muslim campaign.

The New York Times and other media regularly published the names of speakers who would attend the anti-mosque rally -- right-wing, big-name media personalities who were chosen specifically to draw attention to the demonstration.

By contrast, press conferences by the Unity & Soldarity Rally held to publicize its September 11 rally were attended by dozens of media; but coverage of those same press conferences were pushed out of the airwaves as the corporate-owned media focused on the circus in Gainesville.

The issue became an outrageous drama in the days leading up to September 11. The racists got all the free publicity they could want. Every time the bigoted Florida pastor uttered a word, the media covered it. Billionaire Donald Trump inserted himself into the fray. Every online news site featured a poll on the issue. Talk about a recruitment bonanza!

With promotion like this, the 70% of citizens who supposedly wanted the center moved should have been doubly and triply galvanized to get into the streets and protest.
But this phenomenon never materialized – at least not like the right wing claimed it would.

The point is not that the anti-Muslim and Tea Party movements aren’t dangerous. The cab driver whose neck was slashed and all the other hate crimes nationwide showed that.

The point is that the movement against racism was more easily organized into the streets – with no budget, less time to organize and far less media coverage.

And the progressive rally gained support not only against an anti-Muslim drumbeat. It grew against a related media campaign insisting that any protest held on September 11 would be disrespectful.

All of this shows potential for building the kind of movement that the scapegoating campaign was trying to deflect, especially if we act now and capitalize on the momentum.

“We brought out the real New York City — a city of workers and peoples of color from all around the world,” Larry Holmes of the Bail Out the People Movement said on Saturday. “This mobilization started because we were forced to defend our Muslim sisters and brothers. It will continue because we have to open up the struggle against war, against racism, and for jobs, education and health care. There is much more to fight for and now we all know who we can count on.”

http://www.iacenter.org/actions/muslimsolidarity-70percent091210/

LebenIstKrieg

15th September 2010, 18:12

even if they do wipe Islam out of Europe what will they do to replace it? probably anti- worker legislation and terror but they will never stamp out class hatred.

mosfeld

15th September 2010, 20:36

Paper to Readers: Sorry for Portraying Muslims as Human

First, it was offensive and insensitive to build an Islamic center two blocks away from Ground Zero. Now it's offensive and insensitive to publish photos of American Muslims peacefully praying, on or around 9/11.

The Portland Press Herald has apologized to its readers (http://www.pressherald.com/note-of-apology.html) for publishing images of Muslims celebrating the end of Ramadan, which this year coincided with the 9/11 anniversary. Among the outrageous statements that the accompanying article made: that Portland-era Muslims met to mark the end of the month-long holy fast, that they made a traditional call for charity, and that children played soccer.

Noting that thousands of local Muslims marked a holy day peacefully near the anniversary of a day when a few Muslims committed a mass murder (whose victims included other Muslims) was apparently beyond the pale. The paper's editor and publisher wrote: "We erred by at least not offering balance to the story and its prominent position on the front page."

Here's where we are in America, 2010: There is now one group of Americans whose peaceful religious observance cannot be noted by decent people, unless it is "balanced" by the mention of a vile crime committed in 2001 by people, with a perverted idea of the same religion, from the other side of the world.

This is a depressing statement about the state of dialogue in America. Nine years after 9/11, there is now a widespread belief that, for one religious group of law-abiding Americans, the boundaries of acceptable behavior are narrower than for everyone else. Yes, you have the right to worship. But it would be decent of you to do it somewhere else. Or on another day. Or in such a way that the rest of us don't have to know about it. So now we have a newspaper kowtowing to a national freakout, apologizing for the most innocuous kind of soft feature, because acknowledging that there are decent Muslims in America is offensive. (From the comments on the article: "I don't want to here [sic] how caring the Muslim religion is on 9/11." But hey: it's only for a few days a year!)

But it's equally depressing for the state of journalism. This is an extreme instance, but a too-common, craven attitude: if anything you do offends a lot of readers—whatever their reasons, regardless of the merit of the coverage—it is a mistake. If enough people make a loud enough stink—well, it was your job to make sure that never happened. For any reason. This business is in bad enough shape. Just fix it. Make it go away. Apologize.

If there's one silver lining, it's that the apology drew its own storm of complaints. From one: "These people and their faith had nothing whatsoever to do with the horrific attack of nine years ago. Our state needs to be more tolerant, not less. Your apology implies that it is in some way OK to connect everyday Muslims and the attackers. I abhor such thinking."
Well said. The paper owed no one an apology. But it does now.

http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2010/09/14/paper-to-readers-sorry-for-portraying-muslims-as-human/

So farewell then, Stephen Gash

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/storage/Stephen%20Gash.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1284 571057378

Anders Gravers of Stop Islamisation of Europe brings us the news that Stephen Gash, SIOE's organiser in England, will be retiring from that post.

I think it's unlikely that anyone will notice. While Gash would no doubt like to look back on the successes registered by SIOE England during his period of leadership, his actual record in the struggle against the Muslim hordes has amounted to a series of embarrassing flops.

Gash first came to prominence in what is now called the counter-jihad movement in October 2007 when he organised an SIOE "Stop Kuffarphobia" protest in central London. Gash told the police he was expecting a thousand demonstrators, but in the event only thirty turned up. Unwilling to stop the traffic for such small numbers the police wouldn't let them march along the road and insisted that they use the pavement instead.

Gash then announced an SIOE protest against Harrow Central Mosque in August 2009. On the day, faced with hundreds of anti-racist counter-protestors, the police refused to allow SIOE to hold its demonstration outside the mosque and Gash himself was arrested when he resisted instructions to turn back. A couple of dozen football hooligans from the English Defence League who came to support Gash were chased away by local youth and reduced to cowering behind police lines. All in all, a complete disaster for SIOE.

Not a man to be deterred by failure, Gash announced a further SIOE protest in Harrow in December 2009, which he confidently predicted would draw a crowd of 2,000. In the outcome, only about fifteen people responded to Gash's call.

Perhaps disappointment and humiliation have finally proved too much for Gash. While SIOE England has got nowhere, the EDL have at least been able to mobilise hundreds of brain-dead Islamophobes behind their own anti-Muslim provocations. A would-be general of the counter-jihad movement, Gash's ambition was fatally undermined by an unfortunate lack of troops. You'd need a heart of stone not to laugh.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/15/so-farewell-then-stephen-gash.html

Soccer hooligans at Ground Zero

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/storage/EDL%20in%20New%20York2.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERS ION=1284560006528

Over at his New York Times blog (http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/english-soccer-hooligans-at-ground-zero/?partner=rss&emc=rss), Robert Mackey has posted an analysis of the English Defence League, who sent a delegation to New York last weekend to support the anti-Park51 rally. Hopefully this will be taken up more widely by the US media because, on the "by their friends ye shall know them" principle, it does shed some revealing light on the political character of Geller and Spencer's campaign.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/15/soccer-hooligans-at-ground-zero.html

Media coverage of SIOA anti-Park51 rally 'worse than Pravda'

Well, so mad Pamela Geller believes (http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/09/media-coverage-of-fdisioa-rally-of-remembrance-worse-than-pravda-the-big-lie.html). Geller's basic gripe is that the media failed to buy her ludicrous claim that 40,000 people attended the hate-fest she and Robert Spencer organised in New York last Saturday – a claim that most of us would take as evidence that the most paranoid 9/11 truther has a better grip on reality than Geller does.

As proof of the "tens of thousands" who supported the Stop Islamization of America protest Geller posts the following photo, which to any neutral observer would appear to confirm media reports that the event drew a couple of thousand participants.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/storage/SIOA%209-11%20demonstration.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION= 1284561759893

Geller is particularly indignant that the media gave coverage to what she calls "the anti-America, commie, leftist counter protest", which she insists was a fraction of the size of her own mass rally. Evidently Pravda-style misreporting is fine when it's Geller who's doing it. In the interests of accuracy, therefore, here is a photo of the pro-Park51 demonstration.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/storage/New%20York%20pro-Park51%20demonstrators.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERS ION=1284561579170

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/15/media-coverage-of-sioa-anti-park51-rally-worse-than-pravda.html

Burnt copy of Quran found outside Muslim community center

Chicago police are investigating the discovery of a burnt copy of the Quran found outside the Muslim Community Center on the Northwest Side to determine if the book was damaged in a hate crime.

Some youths found the burnt book on a sidewalk outside the community center at 4380 N. Elston Ave. in the Old Irving Park neighborhood about 1 p.m. Sunday, a day after the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to police and the center's officials.

The teenagers were on their way to the center for a prayer session, said Mohammed Kaiseruddin, who is on the community center's board of directors. He said the youths quietly brought it into the building and turned it in.

"We feel like we've been victimized, that's for sure," Kaiseruddin said. "When we handle the Quran ourselves ... we treat it with the utmost respect. We never put a copy of the Quran down on the floor."

Kaiseruddin, who has been affiliated with the community center for more than 30 years, said he believes the burnt copy did not belong to the center. He said he doesn't recall an instance when someone has desecrated one of the center's copies of the book.

Kaiseruddin believes the burning of the holy book may have stemmed from the widely publicized announcement made by an evangelist pastor from Gainesville, Fla., that he would burn copies of the Quran to mark Saturday's anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The pastor, Rev. Terry Jones, of the Dove World Outreach Center, later canceled those plans.

Police said no one was in custody for the incident.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-burnt-quran-0915-20100914,0,1630281.story

Royal Mail refused Muslim staff time off for Eid, CWU condemns 'clear case of discrimination'

Postal workers who were refused time off to celebrate a religious holiday are considering legal action against Royal Mail.

Muslim staff at the regional distribution centre in Stourton, Leeds, say they are usually allowed to take the day off to mark Eid-ul-Fitr – the end of the holy month of Ramadan. But around 50 workers who wanted leave to mark the festival last Friday were told they could not have the day off this year "for operational reasons". Many, however, refused to turn up and are now facing disciplinary hearings over "unauthorised absences".

One staff member told the YEP: "In previous years shifts have been organised so there was cover for those who wanted to celebrate Eid. For some reason this year the management either forgot to do this or deliberately did not do it. It is the most important time of the year for many of us and it is very important we are with our families. I was not prepared to work."

Union bosses are now holding talks with senior managers to secure agreements that, in future, cover will be provided for Muslims who want time off to mark religious holidays. And they have warned they are prepared to take the company to an employment tribunal, alleging discrimination.

Andy Lee, secretary of the Communications Workers Union Leeds No1 Amalgamated branch, said: "We know they cannot always release everybody, but they have always tried to release as many as possible. This year they simply said 'unfortunately, we can't do it' and so they cancelled leave for all. They knew it was coming as it does every year and they should have planned for it.

"Our members are very upset – my phone did not stop ringing. Many members decided they would not go in to work and as a result they are facing hearings over unauthorised absences. We're already fighting those. We're actively pursuing this. There is another Eid coming up at the end of November and we want to avoid a similar confrontation.

"If we have to then we are prepared to take it to a tribunal because we believe it is a clear case of discrimination."

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/14/royal-mail-refused-muslim-staff-time-off-for-eid-cwu-condemn.html

US Appeals Court orders new hearing in hijab case

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said on Monday that a majority of its 27 judges voted to set aside the court's earlier ruling in the case.

A federal appeals court has ordered a new hearing for a Muslim woman who was made to remove her religiously mandated headscarf by Orange County deputies in a courthouse holding cell.

A three-judge panel of the court decided in May that deputies had not violated Souhair Khatib's rights when they ordered her to remove the head scarf for security reasons.

The incident occurred after a judge revoked Khatib's probation for a conviction on a misdemeanor charge.

At issue is whether a courthouse holding cell qualifies as a pretrial detention facility under a federal law that protects inmates' religious practices.

The case is scheduled for rehearing in December.

French Senate backs veil ban

France's Senate has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would ban wearing the Islamic full veil in public. The proposed measure was already backed by the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, in July. The ban will come into force in six months' time if it is not overturned by constitutional judges.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/14/french-senate-backs-veil-ban.html

Hate graffiti shows growth of Islamophobia in US

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/storage/Anti_Islam%20graffiti.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSI ON=1284480449796

"Islamophobia is growing in the United States. Hate graffiti is now discoloring my own building here in New York City – calling for the Holy Quran to be burned. The publicity-hungry Terry Jones in Gainesville could be discounted if he did not have his finger on the pulse of America. But the protests near the World Trade Center confirm that he is not alone....

"Why should this hate graffiti be littering our hallway? How could someone – maybe someone I pass every day – have so much hatred in their heart? I have numerous Muslim neighbors, both from around the world and born here. How does this 'Burn the Quran' make their children feel? How does 'Islam is Evil' impact my own son – to witness such ugliness so close to home? ...

"I believe firmly that the honor of those many, many who died on 9/11 – including our Muslim brothers and sisters – will be diminished if the country they died in cannot protect the concept of religious pluralism that our great nation was founded on."

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/14/hate-graffiti-shows-growth-of-islamophobia-in-us.html

Woolas accused of appealing to anti-Muslim bigotry in attempt to win 'white Sun vote'

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/storage/Phil%20Woolas%20leaflet.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVER SION=1284484970634

Ex-minister Phil Woolas was yesterday accused of whipping up racial hatred in his fight to stay an MP. A special court was told his Labour team tried to make "white folk angry". Mr Woolas saved his Oldham East and Saddleworth seat in May by 103 votes after two recounts.

In the first case of its kind for 99 years, defeated Lib Dem candidate Elwyn Watkins alleges the vote was swayed by leaflets containing false claims. Labour tried to stir "the white Sun vote" by suggesting Muslims aimed to "take Phil out", High Court judges sitting in the constituency heard.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/14/woolas-accused-of-appealing-to-anti-muslim-bigotry-in-attemp.html

New Republic editor defends his claim that 'Muslim life is cheap'

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/storage/Martin%20Peretz.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=128 4417152159

Under fire from prominent journalists, the top editor of the influential magazine New Republic on Monday apologized for suggesting that Muslim Americans be denied First Amendment rights, but stood by his broad claim that members of the Islamic faith don't much value human life.

"[My] other sentence is: 'Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, especially for Muslims.' This is a statement of fact, not value. In his column, [the New York Times' Nick] Kristof made this seem like a statement of bigotry," wrote Marty Peretz, TNR's editor-in-chief, in a blog post titled: "An Apology."

"The idea that in remarking upon the cheapening of Muslim lives I was calling for the cheapening of Muslim lives, as some have suggested, is preposterous," Peretz defended. "There is no hatred in my heart; there is deep anxiety about the dangers of Islamism."

In his Times column Saturday, Kristof excoriated Peretz's September 4 blog post, elevating the controversy over the TNR editor's initial remarks. "Is it possible to imagine the same kind of casual slur tossed off about blacks or Jews?" Kristof wrote. "How do America's nearly seven million American Muslims feel when their faith is denounced as barbaric?"

"[A]t some point," Kristof added on his Times blog, "criticisms morph into racist stereotypes and slurs, and the suggestion that Muslims don’t value human life and maybe don't deserve First Amendment protections is just that, a slur. It should be offensive to all of us."

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/13/new-republic-editor-defends-his-claim-that-muslim-life-is-ch.html

Another EDL 'flash mob' – in Nuneato

Police officers swooped to quell a racist confrontation which flared up shortly after soldiers had paraded through Nuneaton yesterday afternoon.

Members of the English Defence League attended the ceremony, which granted the Borough Council’s Freedom of Entry to the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. As the march came to an end, the 60-strong EDL entourage headed towards the Edward Street area of the town, which is the heart of the local Muslim community.

"We were expecting some people connected with the EDL to be at the parade and after it had finished they congregated at The Crew bar in Queen's Road," said Chief Inspector Chris Lewis. "They positioned themselves outside and raised tensions with the Muslim community, which caused a few minor skirmishes but nothing of any consequence. We moved in to keep people at a distance and to calm things down. The EDL members were then escorted away from the scene and back to Nuneaton train station."

The Warwickshire force commander, who was in charge of policing the parade, added: "We are constantly scanning for intelligence and knew that the EDL were planning to be in attendance for this occasion. Many of them had travelled from other parts of the country but they also had some local supporters."

Around 200 people gathered around the Edward Street-Queen's Road junction during a four-hour stand-off, as police officers, including dog handlers, kept the situation under control. All roads leading to the area were blocked for traffic and police reinforcements were also called in from the West Midlands.

Yaseen Ahmedabadi, assistant secretary of the Nuneaton Muslim Society, said: "The local community staged a peaceful protest against the unexpected and unwarranted presence of visitors from the English Defence League, who have no place in our society. We are very pleased with the way the police handled the situation."

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/13/another-edl-flash-mob-in-nuneaton.html

mosfeld

15th September 2010, 20:53

Islam and the Media in the age of Islamophobiapalooza

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Islam and Muslim related issues have taken central stage as leading news stories in America with a frequency of coverage that might make other faiths green with envy. Does all this (un)wanted attention serve to bolster the perception of Muslims (as the saying goes, “any publicity is good publicity”) or does it present a scenario of helplessness in which ones faith is gawked and bawked at willy nilly by political opportunists and an overwhelmingly complicit uncritical media? Or both?

The answer to the first question is that it is not always true that “any publicity is good publicity,” if you believe that then there is a New York City Cab driver with whom I would like you to speak. The attention that has been levied on Islam and Muslims has taken stories that were really “tempests-in-a-tea-pot” and made them into hurricanes that only highlight the helplessness American Muslims face when it comes to their relationship with the media and society.

Take the example of the NYC Mosque and Cultural Center. This story was whipped up into a frenzy by a pair of bigoted anti-Muslim bloggers, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, two individuals who should be summarily dismissed as loons that have zero influence in the mainstream media or amongst any of our politicians.

Yet, we are reaping the fruits of their persistent and belligerent disinformation campaign about a “mosque at Ground Zero,” smears against an Imam who has been sponsored by the State Department as a diplomat, and a Muslim community that is being indicted as collectively guilty for the crimes perpetuated by a fringe extremist organization. Muslims are told to be sensitive to the those who are insensitive, to quietly take the bigotry and move elsewhere. For some, the heavily accented Dutch neo-fascist politician Geert Wilders’ cry of “no mosque here” resonates and is far more familiar than appeals to the Constitution and the rights of their neighbors.

More egregiously however has been the silencing of Muslim voices in the face of the perpetuation of stereotypes resulting in the witting and unwitting explosion of prejudice directed at Muslims. Muslims are only brought on TV to respond to crises, sometimes these crises are wholly manufactured by an uncritical media. A case study on this is needed but let us take the example of the threat against the South Park creators by Revolution Muslim and the International Burn the Koran Day by Pastor Terry Jones and his Dove Outreach Church.

The controversy that swelled around South Park was initiated by Revolution Muslim, a fringe group even amongst extremists, composed of about 4 morons with below zero credibility in the Muslim community. In fact, they were kicked out of the mosque they attended and were relegated to being scraggly street side loons with a bull horn. Most people with common sense who passed them by on the street viewed these people for who they were, a bunch of nuts.

However, for whatever reason the media took it upon itself to give them a voice. These nobodies became the spokesmen for Muslims, and in an even worse move Comedy Central lent credence to the threat by canceling the South Park episodes that included the Prophet Muhammad. No one asked Muslims for their opinion, Comedy Central didn’t bother to consult Muslims, instead they chose the path of self-censorship (or what some cynically term a PR stunt) at the expense of Muslims. The result was a perception that Islam not only can’t take criticism, not only do they react violently to such criticism but they can’t even handle their Prophet being depicted by people who don’t hold the same opinion as they do about pictorial representations of holy figures.

This perception metastasized into a phenomenon that pitted false paradigms against one another, leading to the willful deafness of one group so consumed by its perceptions that it ultimately resulted in the wrongheaded and thoroughly Islamophobic “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day.”

What did the media do to correct the ignorance it helped to perpetuate? Nothing. The damage was done, the story that was headline news for a while faded into the abyss of old news but the residue of perception remained.

Fast forward to the past few weeks and the debate over whack job Pastor Terry Jones’ call for an International Burn the Koran Day on 9/11. He based his action on Acts 19:19 in which the early Christians burned the books of witches. He believed he was doing the Godly, righteous thing since Islam was “of the Devil” and leading people to the doom of Hellfire.

But notice the difference in the coverage of the Revolutionary Muslim crackpots and this Terry Jones character. Even though both are fringe groups/individuals with unbelievably small followings, only one group, Revolutionary Muslim, was allowed to define a whole religion.

The distinction was made consistently and repeatedly from the top echelon of our government all the way down to our media that Terry Jones and his followers were a minority who don’t speak for Christianity or America, but the same point was given scant time or attention when it came to the South Park Controversy.

This double standard has to end because it is intellectually and morally dishonest and only perpetuates a perception of Muslims as backward primitives defined and represented by their least common denominator, a myth that can, as we have seen in the past, have dire consequences.

http://www.loonwatch.com/2010/09/islam-and-the-media-in-the-age-of-islamophobiapalooza/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+loonwatch+%28loonwatch.com%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Vladimir Innit Lenin

15th September 2010, 20:54

Shit thread - the day we defend one group of religious bigots simply because they are the enemy of our enemy is the day we lose all credibility as an intellectually coherent movement.

mosfeld

15th September 2010, 21:24

Shit thread - the day we defend one group of religious bigots simply because they are the enemy of our enemy is the day we lose all credibility as an intellectually coherent movement. Muslims are a group of religious bigots?

mosfeld

15th September 2010, 21:25

Al-Awda Members Comment on Anti-Racism Demonstration

Below is a comment by an Al-Awda member on the very successful protest against anti-Islamic bigotry. For more details on the protest, see http://www.iacenter.org/actions/muslimsolidarity-1-091210/ . Please share your feedback by writing us at [email protected]!

"It was a great day, it was a day to remember, it turned out wonderfully. There were more than 3,000 people. We were there to show them what we can do, and we did show them. Everyone saw what happened, we were all there, black, white, brown, from every religion, every political viewpoint. We were all there for two things: to support the mosque and to fight against racism. We did well and I would like to thank everyone for coming out and working so hard. If we continue like this there will be no racism in New York City.

"We had very powerful speakers and a wonderful crowd. I only saw one negative incident, when the racists tried to hurt innocent people. Some cops weren't with us, but hopefully in the future they will understand that we fight for peace, not like the racists who only fight just to fight.

"Thank you very much everyone. Al-Awda NY is going to be here for a long time, until the racists go away and Palestine is free!"

-Ilter Ayturk, Member, Al-Awda NY

mosfeld

15th September 2010, 21:47

Support for extremist groups low among European Muslims, mainstream Islamist organisations encourage political engagement and combat terrorism, Pew report finds

Support for radical Islamist groups is low among European Muslims and some leading groups with overseas roots are now cooperating with local governments and encouraging Muslims to vote, according to a new report.

European groups linked to wider Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-i-Islami now focus more on conditions for Muslims in Europe than their original ideologies from Egypt and Pakistan, according to the report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

The report also cited tensions between "jihadists" and peaceful Islamists in Europe, saying some groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood were working with police to counter militants.

"By most accounts, support for radical extremist groups is relatively low among Muslims in Europe," it said. "Nevertheless, such groups have been central to the public discussion of Islam in Europe, especially in recent years."

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/15/support-for-extremist-groups-low-among-european-muslims-main.html

Leaders of 14 unions back November demo against racism and Islamophobia

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The general secretaries of the GMB general union and the UCU lecturers' union have both signed up to support the national demo against racism, fascism and Islamophobia on Saturday 6 November.

Backing from Paul Kenny and Sally Hunt means that the leaders of 14 trade unions, representing millions of workers, have now signed up to support the demo called by UAF and backed by the TUC, the Muslim Council of Britain and Love Music Hate Racism.

Labour leadership rivals Ed Balls and Diane Abbott are also among those who have signed the statement backing the march and carnival, which will take place in central London.

Statement supporting the 6 November demo

We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned by the rise in fascism, Islamophobia, antisemitism and racism. The English Defence League has organised events across the country, stirring up hatred, Islamophobia and racism – running riot in some cases and provoking violent attacks on Muslim, black and Asian communities and on Mosques and Mandirs (Hindu temples).

Alongside this the British National Party has received unprecedented electoral support for a fascist organisation in Britain.

Despite losing many council seats in the elections this year, the BNP's share of the vote overall continued to rise and it has two elected members of the European Parliament.

This is in the context of a wave of Islamaphobia and racism in Europe and the USA, including threats to burn copies of the Qur'an, attacks on Mosques and Islamic cultural centres, bans on Muslim women’s full-face veils and the construction of minarets. In France, the Roma people have been singled out and subjected to mass expulsions.

Now, more than ever, we must unite to turn back this tide of hatred.

We stand against the rise of racism, fascism, Islamophobia and antisemitism and support the demonstration on Saturday 6 November.

Signed:

Derek Simpson joint general secretary, Unite the union, Tony Woodley joint general secretary, Unite the union, Keith Sonnet deputy general secretary Unison, Paul Kenny general secretary GMB Ed Balls MP, Diane Abbott MP, Billy Hayes general secretary, CWU, Tony Kearns deputy general secretary, CWU, Chris Keates general secretary, NASUWT, Christine Blowe general secretary NUT, Kevin Courtney deputy general secretary, NUT, Sally Hunt general secretary UCU, Mark Serwotka general secretary PCS, Hugh Lanning deputy general secretary PCS, Matt Wrack general secretary FBU, Bob Crow general secretary, RMT, Jeremy Dear general secretary NUJ, Pete Murray president NUJ, Gerry Conlon Guildford Four, Paddy Hill Birmingham Six, Runnymede Trust, Napo, POA, Musicians Union

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/15/leaders-of-14-unions-back-november-demo-against-racism-and-i.html

4 Leaf Clover

15th September 2010, 22:23

how the hell did world go back to 13 century :(

mosfeld

18th September 2010, 01:30

Ohio: Muslim storeowner victim of hate crime

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Police were searching for the person or people who broke inside a north side market late Saturday night. Cash from the register and a laptop computer were stolen, and several display cases were vandalized, 10TV's Glenn McEntyre reported. Also, "9/11" was spray-painted on countertops and windows.

The owner of Jaffa Market, located in the 5200 block of Godown Road, said that he received a call from his alarm company on Saturday at about 11:15 p.m., notifying him of the break-in. "When I did come inside, I (saw) the glass everywhere," said the storeowner, who requested anonymity.

The storeowner, who is Muslim, said it was clear he was targeted because of his religion.

A man who said he is a close family friend of the storeowner said that recent controversies about a mosque proposed near ground zero in New York and a Florida pastor who threatened to burn the Quran increased tensions.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/15/ohio-muslim-storeowner-victim-of-hate-crime.html

mosfeld

18th September 2010, 01:39

Top Conservatives Support anti-Muslim Inquisition

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Michele Bachmann Endorses Call for Anti-Muslim Inquisition
by Daniel Luban

I wrote earlier for IPS about the new Center for Security Policy report “Shariah: The Threat to America,” authored by a team billing itself as “Team B II” (in reference to the 1970s Team B notorious for its alarmist and now-discredited estimates of Soviet military capabilities). The group that produced the report featured a number of the right’s nuttier Islamophobes, including Frank Gaffney, Andy McCarthy, and David Yerushalmi. Given that this sort of thinking is making inroads among congressional Republicans — the report was endorsed by Reps. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), Trent Franks (R-AZ), and Michele Bachmann (R-MN) — it’s worth taking a closer look at some of the report’s prescriptions to see just how extreme it is.

The central problem with the report is that the authors identify “sharia” with the most literalistic and brutal versions of sharia, and therefore fail to understand what the term might actually mean to the bulk of Muslims worldwide. (When Matt Duss asked Gaffney at Wednesday’s press conference to name any Muslims scholars or theologians who had been consulted in the writing of the report, Gaffney was unable to produce any names.) As a result their prescriptions would amount in practice to a criminalization of virtually any form of Islam.

Here are some of their policy recommendations (p. 143 of the report):
“…extend bands currently in effect that bar members of hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan from holding positions of trust in federal, state, or local governments or the armed forces of the United States to those who espouse or support shariah.”

“Practices that promote shariah – notably, shariah-compliant finance and the establishment or promotion in public spaces or with public funds of facilities and activities that give preferential treatment to shariah’s adherents – are incompatible with the Constitution and the freedoms it enshrines and must be proscribed.”

“Sedition is prohibited by law in the United States. To the extent that imams and mosques are being used to advocate shariah in America, they are promoting seditious activity and should be warned that they will not be immune from prosecution.”

“Immigrations of those who adhere to shariah must be precluded, as was previously done with adherents to the seditious ideology of communism.”
I am not a scholar of Islam, but any competent one will tell you that sharia is a far broader term than the “Team B” authors seem to think it is – it basically refers to Islamic religious precepts in general, to the point of being virtually synonymous with Islamic religious practice. As a result any practicing Muslim, no matter how moderate or extreme, will consider himself or herself to be “sharia-compliant” according to their own understanding of what sharia requires. This does not, of course, mean that they will endorse the brutal hudud penalties that have become the most notorious symbols of sharia to non-Muslims, that they will seek to impose these precepts on others, or that they will seek to make them the law of the land. But to demand that a practicing Muslim to renounce sharia is tantamount to demanding that they renounce Islam itself.

This is precisely what the report’s recommendations demand, whether or not it’s what the authors intend. Any Muslim who “espouses” or “adheres to” sharia – that is, any practicing Muslim – will thereby be banned from government or military service, prohibited from immigrating to the country, and even opened to prosecution for sedition. The only Muslims immune from this witch-hunt are those “who are willing publicly to denounce shariah” – a surefire recipe for the creation of conversos and crypto-Muslims, but hardly one consistent with the First Amendment.

We might be charitable to the “Team B” authors and argue that they’re simply ignorant: not understanding what sharia actually means, they have identified it with its most extreme manifestations, and therefore wrongly believe that by asking Muslims to renounce sharia they are simply asking them to renounce radical Islam. A less charitable explanation would be that they know exactly what they’re doing, and are seeking to outlaw Islam itself.

http://www.loonwatch.com/2010/09/top-conservatives-support-anti-muslim-inquisition

Spencer and Geller still Yapping about their “Historic” Rally

Robert Spencer and his goonish friend Pamela Geller, leaders of the hate group SIOA and FDI are claiming that the size of their rally on September 11th, which they billed as the biggest thing ever was huge.

The fact is that it was really not that big, let alone historic. It was definitely not in the 40,000 or more range as Geller and Spencer claim. In fact according to the AP it wasn’t larger than a thousand.

Charles Johnson sums it up well:

Anti-Mosque Rally Attendance: Less Than 1,000 (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/37165_Anti-Mosque_Rally_Attendance-_Less_Than_1000)

According to the Associated Press, attendance at Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer’s international hate rally was less than 1,000: The Associated Press: Dueling demonstrations begin after 9/11 memorial.

After the ceremony, around 1,000 activists rallied about five blocks from the site of the 2001 attacks to support the proposed Islamic community center. A smaller group of opponents rallied nearby, chanting, “USA, USA.”

UPDATE at 9/11/10 6:27:36 pm:

Hilarious! Geller is claiming 40,000. Who could ever have predicted that?

UPDATE at 9/11/10 6:41:30 pm:

Pamela Geller’s closing words to the seething throng:

As the crowds dissipated, Geller warned them against talking to members of the media: “Do not give them any ammunition. You know who you are. You know that you’re righteous. Do not give them an opportunity to deride this fine and honorable effort. Remember what I’m saying. They’re looking to catch you. Don’t give it to them.”

“Listen to Mommy,” she said.

Of course Spencer and company claim that it is a big old conspiracy against those who want to expose Islam, and that the numbers are under reported. Fact is that it isn’t under reported, it is just the their hate rally was “historically” underwhelming.

http://spencerwatch.com/2010/09/17/spencer-and-geller-still-yapping-about-their-historic-rally/

mosfeld

18th September 2010, 02:00

Spencer and the Qur’an: Book Burning bad but Book Banning Good

Robert Spencer has a Geert Wilders problem. He is an unabashed supporter of Wilders, citing him as the champion of Western civilization, the only one willing to stand up for our freedoms in the face of the Muslim menace and an individual we should all be supporting.

support Wilders. And so should anyone who holds dear the Western values that are threatened by Islamic supremacists — notably, as I said above, the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, the equality of rights of all people before the law.

But apparently not Freedom of Religion.

Recently Spencer has commented on the Burn a Koran day festivities saying,

"[I]I oppose the Qur’an-burning. I don’t like the burning of books…However, these people are free to do what they want to do."

Isn’t Spencer so merciful? Thank you for opposing the burning of books, what a courageous stand for a defender of the West!

But wait Spencer, you oppose burning books but your buddy Geert Wilders has called for the Quran to be banned in the Netherlands.

"The Koran must be banned"

Pretty unequivocal statement right there. No ifs, ands or buts just plain banning. So when are you going to take a courageous stand and defend Freedom of Speech and Religion by calling your buddy Wilders out for his Nazi like fascistic statement to ban the Quran?

http://spencerwatch.com/2010/09/08/spencer-and-the-quran-book-burning-bad-but-book-banning-good/

Robert Spencer Just Can’t Handle the Truth

“Pre-eminent scholar” Robert Spencer is just like Tom Cruise in the movie “A Few Good Men.” He simply just “can’t handle the truth!”

In a recent post, Spencer attempts to debunk a Washington Post article about common myths about mosques in America written by Edward E. Curtis IV. It is an excellent piece, but apparently that was too much for Spencer, and he inserts a whole host of mistruths to counter the realities of the WaPo article.

For instance, in his response to the Myth #1: “Mosques are not new to this country,” Spencer writes:

See, folks? Curtis is here semaphoring that Muslims are a victim class, that they always have been, and that opposition to them is racially-based. As for Job Ben Solomon, I suspect that Curtis’s source here is a Muslim one, designed to reinforce a sense that Muslims are victims rather than tell actual history.

Robert Spencer just “can’t handle the truth.” Islam and Muslims have been present in the New World before our great Republic was a gleam in the Founders’ eyes, and Spencer, it seems, just can’t fathom this. So, he claims that the story about Job Ben Solomon was from a “Muslim source.” Umm…sorry, Robert, he was an actual, real person:

African Muslim slave. Ayuba Suleiman Diallo (later known to Europeans as Job Ben Solomon) was born to a powerful family of Muslim clerics of the Fulbe tribe in the northern region of present-day Senegal. While he was in Africa, Job received formal educational training in both secular and religious fields. He assisted his father in trade and became quite wealthy by the age of twenty-nine, owning three houses, a plantation with eighteen servants, and more than seventy head of cattle. In February 1730, however, Job’s father sent him on a slave-trading mission that would ironically lead to his own capture and enslavement in North America.

My source? The Oxford African American Studies Center. Not satisfied? Here is another source: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. Still not enough? Here is yet another source: The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. All non-Muslim sources. Or, are they all conspiring in a Leftist “dhimmi” conspiracy? Oh…wait…I remember: they are all secret Muslim sources practicing “taqiyya.”

In response to Myth #2: “Mosques try to spread sharia law in the United States,” Spencer penned this:

Anyway, what do mosques in America teach? As long ago as January 1999, the Naqshbandi Sufi leader Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani declared in a State Department Open Forum that Islamic supremacists controlled most mosques in America: “The most dangerous thing that is going on now in these mosques,” he said, “that has been sent upon these mosques around the United States – like churches they were established by different organizations and that is ok – but the problem with our communities is the extremist ideology. Because they are very active they took over the mosques; and we can say that they took over more than 80% of the mosques that have been established in the US. And there are more than 3000 mosques in the US. So it means that the methodology or ideology of extremism has been spread to 80% of the Muslim population, but not all of them agree with it.”

When I read that, my bull**** detector went full-tilt. I have seen and heard this “fact” be trumpeted around, that “80% of the mosques are Saudi funded,” without any actual hard evidence…except the word of a few “experts” and and some random Sufi Sheikh.

Later on, he states again that “it is estimated that as many as 80% of mosques in America are Saudi funded.” Estimated by who? And are you sure this is exactly 80%? No, because in the article Spencer says: “as many as…” So, it could be 10%, or 76%, or 3%. And to back up this 80% figure, he quotes a 700 Club article that repeats this same “fact.” And we know how much the 700 Club loves Islam!

This claim that 80% of American mosques are Saudi funded is a lie, plain and simple. Spencer has done this before, claiming that “as many as 75 percent of the imprisoned women in Pakistan are, in fact, behind bars for the crime of being a victim of rape.” Again, no evidence whatsoever to back up such an outrageous claim.

Hardly a scholarly study, but, hey, this is Robert Spencer we are talking about: if one Muslim somewhere does or says something that backs up his fantastical claims, he posits this is “definitive proof,” claiming that everyone else is lying to you.

In response to Myth #5: “Mosques lead to homegrown terrorism,” Spencer writes this:

All right, so some mosques promote “radical extremism,” and some don’t, and since some don’t, mosques should not be “feared as incubators of terrorist indoctrination,” despite the fact that “alienated young Muslims” might “turn away from the peaceful path advocated by their elders in America’s mosques” in their rage over “Islamophobia.”

Funny how no amount of rage would ever lead me to blow myself up in a crowded restaurant. But that’s just me.

You know what, Mr. Spencer, the vast majority of Muslims would never blow themselves up in a crowded restaurant either, no matter how much rage they may have as well. Of course, he will never say that. Yet, lest we forget, Robert Spencer did promote a genocidal video on his website, produced by a group responsible for ethnic violence against Muslims. He has also supported the call for the annihilation of Pakistan. And he also called for a new Crusade.

Yet, let us show Mr. Spencer what real scholarship looks like. A study was conduced Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University and the University of North Carolina, supported by a grant from the Department of Justice, that found:

Contrary to Spencer’s contention, there has been increased Anti-Muslim Bias. Since 9/11, relatively low numbers of American Muslims have been radicalized, and that it is a limited, though serious, problem. Various practices of Muslim-American communities actually prevent radicalization, such as:

Public and private denunciations of terrorism and violence
Self-policing
Community building
Political engagement
Identity politics
In fact, the study suggested that mosques were a deterrent against, not promoter of, radicalization among American Muslims.

So, as is clear, when presented with facts that dispute his anti-Islamic fantasies, Robert Spencer resorts to obfuscation. Like I said, he just “can’t handle the truth.”

http://spencerwatch.com/2010/09/05/robert-spencer-just-cant-handle-the-truth/

Prominent Rabbi Calls For the Elimination of Palestinians – Where is Robert Spencer?

Ha’aretz reporter Anshel Pfeffer reported on the remarks of prominent Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who said in his weekly radio address:

“May our enemies and haters come to an end. May Abu Mazen [Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas] and all those wicked men be lost from the earth. May God smite them with the plague of pestilence, including all those Palestinians.

Wow. He prayed to God for pestilence to afflict “all those Palestinians.” Pfeffer continued:

No better, no worse than previous utterances by the venerable rabbi, 90 in two weeks and still going strong. He has said similar things over the years about Arabs and other non-Jews, singling out for particular attention not only their leaders, but also some Israeli Jewish ones, including the present prime minister.

Yet, this time was different, because Israeli and Palestininan leaders are currently engaged in peace talks with the goal of reaching a final settlement within one year. Thus, his remarks were widely condemned, as Pfeffer explains:

This week, though, the weekly sermon drew wider attention, thanks to its timing, on the eve of the Israeli-Palestinian summit in Washington. So not only did the local Israeli media record his latest pearls of wisdom, with a couple of left-wing politicians issuing the standard condemnations, but the Palestinian leadership also responded angrily, the U.S. State Department denounced the “deeply offensive inflammatory statements,” and even such august bodies as the Anti-Defamation League and the Zionist Federation of Great Britain joined the chorus.

Yet, you know who’s silence has been deafening? Robert Spencer’s, of course!

There has been no such condemnation of the Rabbi’s comments against Palestinians. No condemnation of what appears to be the calling for genocide against an entire people by a very prominent Rabbi. No condemnation of quite inflammatory statements from a religious leader against another people.

Yet, what if he were Muslim? What if a Muslim cleric had recently said something similar about Jews? Spencer would have been all over it. He would have posted it on his blog and spread the contention that this is the true face of Islam, and not just a twisting of its tenes. Spencer would have been screaming, “Islamic Anti-Semitism!”

This is not to deny that such anti-Semitism does exist in the Muslim world, and some Muslim clerics have spewed forth horribly hateful things aginst Jews, Christians, and even other Muslims. Yet, rational people can see that these clerics and fanatics are an aberration, a mutation, and not the norm. Except, it seems, for Robert Spencer.

http://spencerwatch.com/2010/09/02/prominent-rabbi-calls-for-the-elimination-of-palestinians-where-is-robert-spencer/

Iskalla

18th September 2010, 11:53

The controversy that swelled around South Park was initiated by Revolution Muslim, a fringe group even amongst extremists, composed of about 4 morons with below zero credibility in the Muslim community. In fact, they were kicked out of the mosque they attended and were relegated to being scraggly street side loons with a bull horn. Most people with common sense who passed them by on the street viewed these people for who they were, a bunch of nuts.

See, this is the kind of stuff that REALLY frustrates me. What makes their interpretation of Islam any less valid than that of some moderate Muslim who only loosely follows the religion? As soon as a Muslim does something bad it's not the Koran, it's not the teachings, it's not reality, it's not related to actual Islam, they're just crazy. It might be a totally out there, bigoted, insane suggestion, but the actions of groups like Revolution Islam might just be slightly inspired by what they've read in the Koran and what they've been taught by religious leaders.

mosfeld

18th September 2010, 13:08

Jewish groups denounce ‘Museum of Tolerance’ builder Simon Wiesenthal Center for support of Islamophobia
by Alex Kane

http://mondoweiss.net/images/2010/09/protest1.jpg

A coalition of four Jewish groups, backed by a wide array of peace and justice organizations, held a demonstration Sept. 16 outside the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance in New York, denouncing the organization’s opposition to the Islamic community center in lower Manhattan.

Organized by Jews Say No!, American Jews for a Just Peace, Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, about 100 demonstrators walked in front of the museum on East 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan, chanting “Islamophobia isn’t pretty, it has no place in New York City” and “Islamophobia is a shame, New Yorkers say not in our name.”

“If you’re going to put tolerance in your name, you got to put it in your game, and the Museum of Tolerance has not done that,” Jon Moscow, an activist with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, told members of the press. “Statements that its leaders have been making have been feeding this frenzy of Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism.”

As the Cordoba House controversy, manufactured and fueled by far-right blogs and the right-wing press, heated up, Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, appeared on Fox News in early August and criticized the proposed Muslim community center.

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
“Having a 15-story mosque within 1600 feet of the site is at the very least insensitive,” Hier said.

The Park 51 Muslim community center, of which the Cordoba House interfaith center will be a part, has sparked an acrimonious national debate over Islam and religious freedom, setting the stage for an upsurge in anti-Muslim sentiment across the United States.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center describes itself as an “international Jewish human rights organization” that promotes “human rights and dignity.”

The Wiesenthal Center’s executive director, Rabbi Meyer May, told Crain’s New York that “religious freedom does not mean being insensitive … or an idiot.”

“The museum says its aim is ‘to challenge people of all backgrounds to confront their most closely held assumptions and assume responsibility for change.’ That’s a beautiful vision. But it’s one that is wholly inconsistent with the actions of the museum’s leadership,” said Hannah Schwarzschild of American Jews for a Just Peace.

Demonstrators also harshly criticized the center’s decision to build a Jerusalem branch of the Museum of Tolerance on top of a centuries-old Muslim cemetery, known as the Mamilla cemetery. They said that the center’s project, which has resulted in the “disinterment of hundreds of graves,” according to the Center for Constitutional Rights, is another example of the center disregarding the rights of Muslims.

“I’m just going to take a minute to tell you a new definition of a Yiddish word called ‘chutzpah.’ … It refers to brazen nerve,” said Richard Levy, a lawyer working with the Center for Constitutional Rights on a petition filed with several international bodies to halt the construction of the museum in Jerusalem. “This cemetery, which stands in West Jerusalem for a thousand years, is now subject to the bulldozer of this organization. So that’s the meaning of the word chutzpah: to say you stand for tolerance, and perform that kind of an act, is the most despicable kind of hypocrisy.”

Also speaking at the demonstration was Debbie Almontaser, herself the victim of a anti-Muslim, anti-Arab smear campaign reminiscent of the controversy over the Park 51 project that ultimately forced her to resign as the founding principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, a dual-language Arabic public school in Brooklyn.

“Why are the museum and Simon Wiesenthal leaders not taking a principled stand against the hatred of Islam and Muslims?” Almontaser asked. “I say to them: Be just. Speak to your mission.”

http://mondoweiss.net/2010/09/jewish-groups-denounce-‘museum-of-tolerance’-builder-simon-wiesenthal-center-for-support-of-islamophobia.html

mosfeld

18th September 2010, 13:17

Anti-burqa bill tabled in Italian parliament

2010-09-18 11:50:00
Last Updated: 2010-09-18 12:09:30

http://sifyimg.edgesuite.net/static.sify.com/content/media/image/kcecceehbaf.jpg

Rome: Italy's anti-immigrant North League party has introduced a bill in the lower house of parliament seeking ban on burqa, the full body veil worn by Muslim women.

According to the legislation, wearing burqa will be punishable by a year in prison, fines of 150 to 300 euros for the wearer and 30,000 euros for anyone forcing a woman to don the face-covering Islamic garment.

Anyone coercing a minor or a disabled woman into wearing a burqa will be eligible for a 60,000-euro fine.

If a woman is wearing the burqa of her own volition, the 150-300 euro fine can be reduced, if she agrees to do community service aimed at better integrating Muslim immigrants.

'This bill represents a step forward because we are not just facing a problem of public order, but - we believe - an offence to women's dignity', said Carolina Lussana, Northern League member of parliament, handing over the copy of the bill to reporters.

'It is also a violation of the principle of equality between men and women enshrined in our constitution,' she said.

The bill is likely to draw criticism from many Muslim immigrants, but 73 percent of Italians believe the burqa should not be allowed to be worn in public places, according to a recent poll by Panel Data.

The right-leaning Northern League's bill came just days after France's upper house of parliament, the Senate, voted by 246 to one to ban the burqa.

Under the new French law, women will be fined or jailed for covering their faces in public.

http://sify.com/news/anti-burqa-bill-tabled-in-italian-parliament-news-international-kjslOdacjid.html

mosfeld

18th September 2010, 17:18

Niqaab ban – a racist attack on muslim women
SEPTEMBER 1, 2010 BY SAMIA AZIZ

The French government has declared the niqaab – a full-faced veil – illegal to wear in public. Women who break the law will now face a fine of 150 Euros. Samia Aziz reports on how this law has nothing to do with protecting women – in fact quite the opposite.

http://www.socialistrevolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/hijab.jpg

The right-wing French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has used the language of the great 18th century French revolution, which gave birth to the ideas of equality, fraternity and freedom to excuse the ban on the grounds of defending French “secularism”.

But the French revolution created a space whereby people could unquestionably express their own cultural identities. To impose fines on women that choose to dress a certain way is a big step backwards.
Sarkozy said that full face coverings were a “sign of subservience” – so now he, and the French parliament, have set about “liberating” women by financially penalising them. And it must stop.

The niqaab is only worn by a small minority of women in France – and whilst the idea of covering up the full-face is not a progressive one, in reality, the niqaab ban only removes the personal choice that women make to wear, or not to wear religious clothing.

Jean Glavany, a Socialist MP, summed up the situation arguing that it is “nothing more than the fear of those who are different, who come from abroad, who aren’t like us, who don’t share our values.”
This was the real reason for the French niqaab ban – but now the right-wing British tabloids are campaigning to get it banned in the UK too. If they try then they should expect a fight!

http://www.socialistrevolution.org/1150/niqaab-ban-–%C2%A0a-racist-attack-on-muslim-women/

mosfeld

18th September 2010, 18:15

Islamophobia: The Bigotry of Our Age
Saturday, September 11, 2010

Recently, several shocking instances of Islamophobic bigotry have made news in the US. Plans to construct and expand mosques have been met with hostility, threats and violence. In Temecula, California, residents voiced their opposition to a mosque in their community by harassing Muslim worshippers with dogs. In Jacksonville, Florida, someone detonated a pipe bomb at an Islamic Center while 60 people were praying inside. In Gainesville, Florida, a church announced plans to commemorate the anniversary of September 11th with a public burning of the Qur'an. Political opposition to the construction of an Islamic Community Center nearby the World Trade Center site was ostensibly premised on the expectation that all Muslims should feel responsible for the attack on the Twin Towers. From there it was a short step to the outlandish accusations by members of Congress and news commentators that Muslims are conspiring to impose Shari'a law over the United States.

Islamophobia is fear of Islam and the persecution and oppression of Muslims as well as people associated with Islam in the Western imagination. Primarily, Islamophobia helps justify and sustain a US war agenda and economy and facilitates the demonizing of resistance to this agenda. As such, the attacks on the Twin Towers, despite being blowback from decades of US overt and covert interventions in South and West Asia, became the excuse for ever more aggressive military operations and occupations abroad. Accordingly, only those predominantly Muslim nations that challenge US-Israel (and allied) interests are targeted by this "War on Terror": Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and, of course, Palestine/Palestinians. In stark contrast, forces that align with the US-allied agenda, such as the repressive and ultra conservative regime in Saudi Arabia, are dubbed "moderate".

The shared interest in military dominance for control of land and resources in the region has nourished the long-standing "special relationship" between the US and Israel. For over six decades, Israel has painted Palestinians as terrorists on the basis of the danger that their very existence and survival poses for the legitimacy of a politically exclusive Jewish state in Palestine. The Islamophobic "War on Terror" of more recent decades positions Israel's national interests as serving the interests of the "free world." Israel's apologists have framed Israel as an oasis of Western civilization in a violent and primitive Middle East, both feeding and building upon Islamophobic tendencies throughout the world. The Palestinian people are offered as the sacrificial lamb to maintain and facilitate precarious relationships between the US, Israel and regimes in the region. For example, Egypt and Jordan benefit from this alliance and from the repression of resistance to Westernization by Muslim forces in their own countries.

Particularly following September 11th, Islamophobia became a key factor in garnering consent for the sweeping curtailment of civil rights in the US, opening the door to a new wave of virulent anti-immigrant legislation. This is exemplified by Arizona's apartheid laws, which are quickly spreading across the US. Globally, Islamophobia is so pervasive because it serves multiple interests. In Europe, the "international threat of Islam" continues the legacy of discrimination against immigrant communities, primarily from former imperial dominions: Pakistanis and Bangladeshi in the UK, Algerians in France, Turks in Germany, and many more. In India, a powerful anti-Islamic and pro-Zionist political party repeatedly organized pogroms against Muslim communities in which thousands of Muslims have been killed. In Pakistan, Islamophobia became the basis for alliance between the US and the Musharref regime. Israel continues its ethnic cleansing across historic Palestine and has perfected subordination and legal discrimination against Palestinians.

As the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) enters its third year of work, we identify the struggle against Islamophobia as a priority. Being committed to the liberation of Palestine, we note how Islamophobia provides cultural and ideological currency to Western support for Israel. As part of movements against war and military occupation, we condemn the role that Israel plays in the US-allied military agenda and economy. As allies in the struggle against racism in our countries and communities, we assert that the adoption of Zionism by Western governments and political elites carries a high price in terms of the well-being and safety of all people.

Zionism is bound up with Islamophobia, which, in addition to targeting Muslims and other Arab and Middle Eastern people, including Arab Jews, spreads bigotry and produces an environment of racist and ethnic discrimination. Zionism's impact on our societies is to feed and strengthen already pervasive conservative, right wing and fundamentalist political and social trends toward discrimination based on cultural, racial and ethnic difference, social exclusion, and violence that lead to poverty, restriction of movement, loss of employment, incarceration, separation, deportation and death.

As a network of Jews committed to respect for Jewish histories, we are struck by the deep similarities between the role played by Islamophobia today and the role played by anti-Semitism in a similar consolidation of a Western identity a hundred years ago. In countries where one would be arrested for slandering Jews, it is now permitted to express hatred against Muslims and Arabs and cast them as everlasting foreigners. We are deeply troubled, not only by the failure of Jewish organizations to respond in a remotely adequate way to this moral challenge, but by the utter complicity and participation of so many of them in the bigotry of our age.

Jewish groups in the US have been indulging in Islamophobic and anti-Arab rhetoric and activities in their defense of Israel for decades. Most recently, The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, both posing as leading Jewish civil rights organizations in the US, opposed the construction of an Islamic community center in New York City. As a Jewish group opposed to Zionism, our views are often unwelcome in "mainstream" Jewish groups like the ADL or the Wiesenthal Center. We are often told by Jews who identify with Israel that we support Palestinian liberation because we are indifferent to own histories. We beg to differ.

What reading of Jewish history allows a Jew to not hear echoes of Kristallnacht in a church's plans for a public burning of Muslim holy books? What reading of Jewish history allows a Jew to listen to members of Congress accusing Muslims of scheming to overthrow the Constitution and impose Shari'a law on the US and not hear the echoes of Nazis accusing Jews of global domination? In the scapegoating of Muslims to support a US-allied agenda of global dominance, what reading of Jewish history does not hear the scapegoating of Jews to support a fascist agenda of global dominance? As Muslims are threatened, taunted and harassed during worship, what reading of Jewish history does not hear the rumble of an approaching pogrom?
Refusing to acknowledge the persecution of an ethnic and religious minority-and participating in it-erases 2000 years of European Jewish history in exchange for the privileges of whiteness. It betrays the obligation to "remember that you were slaves." A selective interpretation of history for the purposes of alignment with dominant power has deep roots in Jewish history itself, but not all roots should be nourished. Instead, we choose to cultivate deep legacies of Jewish participation in our own liberation and in collective liberation struggles.

We take the opportunity of this year's Jewish Day of Atonement to reconcile the lessons of our own histories by resolving to take a collective stance against all forms of racial and religious prejudice and hate.

http://www.ijsn.net/583/

mosfeld

19th September 2010, 13:45

Residents voice support for Murfreesboro mosque

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/storage/Murfreesboro%20mosque%20supporters.jpg?__SQUARESPA CE_CACHEVERSION=1284896172906

Supporters of a new mosque in Murfreesboro asked Rutherford County commissioners on Thursday not to bow to pressure to rescind approval of the project and accused opponents of making the community look bad.

"The embarassment, shame and humiliation I feel as a lifelong resident cannot be expressed in words strong enough," said John Green, who described himself as a fifth generation resident.

He and several others sought to dispel the idea that those who support the mosque are outside agitators. Several speakers held up their drivers licenses while introducing themselves.

"Here's proof that I'm not from out of town," said Jase Short. He attributed mosque opposition to a desire "to influence elections on behalf of an agenda of hate."

The one person speaking against the mosque, Donald Westcott, of Smyrna, held up a book called "Sharia Law for Non-Muslims" that he said he had passed out to the commissioners. He said he believes Muslims want to take over the country and impose Islamic law.

"This democratic council would have to be disbanded because you would have to submit to an imam or mullah," he said.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/18/residents-voice-support-for-murfreesboro-mosque.html

EDL supporter charged over racist threats to Muslims

A man was held in custody yesterday afternoon on a charge of racially aggravated public order. The court appearance followed an incident at the new Wrexham Muslim Association mosque.

Father-of-four David Jared Evans, 36, was arrested over alleged racist comments and threats made to two people who were leaving the mosque at the former Miners' Institute in Grosvenor Road, Wrexham, on Monday evening.

Evans, of High Street, Rhos, is charged with using threatening, abusive and insulting language and behaviour towards Abdulla Anwar which were racially aggravated.

Robert Blakemore, prosecuting, outlined the allegations at Flintshire Magistrates' Court and said the case should be dealt with in the crown court. Magistrates agreed and Evans said in any event he wished to elect crown court trial.

The court heard that social networking sites were advertising a demonstration on Saturday against the use of the former Miners' Institute as a mosque.

Mr Blakemore said after reading texts on Evans' mobile phone between himself and the English Defence League he would apply for a remand in custody.

The Mold-based magistrates remanded Evans in custody for a week pending committal proceedings to the crown court.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/17/edl-supporter-charged-over-racist-threats-to-muslims.html

Newt Gingrich stokes sharia hysteria

The second morning of speeches at the Values Voter Summit here in DC was dominated by a man who is swiftly becoming the nation's spokesperson for Islamophobia – former House speaker Newt Gingrich.

Fresh off the release of his Islam-focused film "America At Risk," Gingrich told the crowd at VVS that it's time to take federal action to prevent Shariah Law from infiltrating courtrooms in the US.

"We should have a federal law that says sharia law cannot be recognized by any court in the United States," Gingrich said to a standing ovation from the audience. The law will let judges know, Gingrich said, that "no judge will remain in office that tried to use sharia law."

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/18/newt-gingrich-stokes-sharia-hysteria.html

Sweden Democrat deputy leader warns of Islamic revolution ... in Sweden

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/storage/Bjrn%20Sder.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1284850 858624

An Islamic revolution akin to the one that swept through Iran in 1979 could easily take place in Sweden, claims the second highest ranking member of the far-right Sweden Democrats. "It can happen really fast," said Sweden Democrat party secretary Björn Söder to the TT news agency.

Söder is number two behind party leader Jimmie Åkesson on the Sweden Democrat party list. As party secretary, his role is to stake out the party's line on key issues.

The Iranian revolution came up as Söder was explaining statements made by Sweden Democrat international secretary Kent Ekeroth, who could also find himself with a seat in the Riksdag following Sunday's vote. Ekeroth said previously that "Sweden and western countries are at risk of going out with a whimper" because of the influence of Islam, drawing a connection to 1400 years of Muslim aggression.

"I think that he brings up a very timely problem and as I see it, Islamification is a question of destiny for the entire western wold," Söder told TT. According to Söder, all Muslims are "bearers of an ideology". "It's a political ideology disguised as religion. And I think that it's a very appropriate subject to address, otherwise we'll be facing the same problem that Iran did in 1979. It can happen really fast."

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/18/sweden-democrat-deputy-leader-warns-of-islamic-revolution-in.html

mosfeld

19th September 2010, 14:44

Sweden Democrats: Sweden could face Iranian-like Islamic revolution

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oqXpnURgYXo/TJXn1JjpoQI/AAAAAAAABbQ/gDX0PDxn6DI/s320/1.2141305TS1284889179613_slot100slotWide75ArticleF ull.jpg

An Islamic revolution akin to the one that swept through Iran in 1979 could easily take place in Sweden, claims the second highest ranking member of the far-right Sweden Democrats.

“It can happen really fast,” said Sweden Democrat party secretary Björn Söder to the TT news agency.
Söder is number two behind party leader Jimmie Åkesson on the Sweden Democrat party list. As party secretary, his role is to stake out the party’s line on key issues.

The Iranian revolution came up as Söder was explaining statements made by Sweden Democrat international secretary Kent Ekeroth, who could also find himself with a seat in the Riksdag following Sunday’s vote.

Ekeroth said previously that “Sweden and western countries are at risk of going out with a whimper” because of the influence of Islam, drawing a connection to 1400 years of Muslim aggression.

Nor did Ekeroth see any real distinction between ordinary Muslims and militant Islamists.

“I think that he brings up a very timely problem and as I see it, Islamification is a question of destiny for the entire western wold,” Söder told TT.

According to Söder, all Muslims are “bearers of an ideology”.

“It’s a political ideology disguised as religion. And I think that it’s a very appropriate subject to address, otherwise we’ll be facing the same problem that Iran did in 1979. It can happen really fast.”

http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2010/09/sweden-democrats-sweden-could-face.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IslamInEurope+%28Islam+in+Eur ope%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

mosfeld

19th September 2010, 14:49

If it's not sharia hysteria it's halal hysteria: Mail on Sunday denounces ritual slaughter

"A Mail on Sunday investigation – which will alarm anyone concerned about animal cruelty – has revealed that schools, hospitals, pubs and famous sporting venues such as Ascot and Twickenham are controversially serving up meat slaughtered in accordance with strict Islamic law to unwitting members of the public....

"Animal welfare campaigners have long called for a ban on the traditional Islamic way of preparing meat – which involves killing animals by drawing a knife across their throats, without stunning them first – saying it is cruel and causes unnecessary pain....

"The extent of halal meat consumption, even in areas of Britain with a very small Muslim population, was revealed as the Pope, on his first visit to Britain, expressed fears that the country was not doing enough to preserve traditional Christian values and customs."

Yes it's another piece of "Islamification of Britain" scaremongering in the Mail on Sunday, who adopt the pretence that they're motivated not by hostility towards Muslims but by concern for animal rights, just as they frame their campaign against "sharia courts" in terms of a defence of women's rights.

The fact that non-Muslims have for decades eaten halal meat in "Indian" restaurants (many of which are of course run by Muslims of Bangladeshi origin) without it ever becoming an issue for them is completely ignored.

And anyone who believes that opposition to ritual slaughter in the name of animal rights is necessarily progressive should check out the biography of Arnold Leese, to whom the present-day BNP can trace its organisational and ideological roots.

As for the Mail's sensitivity towards unnecessary suffering on the part of poor dumb animals, if the paper ever registered support for a ban on foxes being torn apart by packs of hounds it certainly passed us by.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/19/if-its-not-sharia-hysteria-its-halal-hysteria-mail-on-sunday.html

Amphictyonis

20th September 2010, 06:47

Islam, Christianity, Scientology, Mormons, Catholics....blah megh? Fuck god and all the silly people who are dumb enough to dedicate their meaningless lives to that drivel. Groupthink in fairy dust.

Existential nihilistic communism? Sounds good.

This post is not spiritually correct.

GPDP

20th September 2010, 08:02

I have to wonder: do the people who come to this thread and denounce Islam in the midst of a wave of (no doubt racist) attacks on Muslims, Arabs, and others of Middle Eastern descent know the implications of doing so?

I'm not saying Islam, the religion, or any religion for that matter, is worthy of support. What I'm saying is, look around and think about what an attack on Muslims from an anti-theist perspective entails while the right-wing is engaged in an all-out assault on them.

To look at the current plight and incoming wave of oppression Muslims are experiencing, and give them the middle finger because "well, fuck Islam" is more than a little irresponsible in my opinion.

Amphictyonis

20th September 2010, 08:11

I'm not saying Islam, the religion, or any religion for that matter, is worthy of support.

And I'm not saying they, as human beings being targeted by the US military industrial complex, don't deserve to be defended in the US and abroad. I side with the oppressed, as is the case with Palestine- this doesn't mean I favor Islam over Judaism. Both are backwards and archaic.

Any religious fundamentalist is no friend of mine. I'm admittedly hostile towards all religion but am smart enough to separate my disdain for religion for my desire to see oppression stopped, but as a woman I have issues with Islam. I'm not going to hide it.

GPDP

20th September 2010, 08:21

And I'm not saying they, as human beings being targeted by the US military industrial complex, don't deserve to be defended in the US and abroad. I side with the oppressed, as is the case with Palestine- this doesn't mean I favor Islam over Judaism. Both are backwards and archaic.

Any religious fundamentalist is no friend of mine. I'm admittedly hostile towards all religion but am smart enough to separate my disdain for religion for my desire to see oppression stopped, but as a woman I have issues with Islam. I'm not going to hide it.

And that's all good and fair. I'm not a particularly militant opponent of religion (though I am an atheist), but I can sympathize with people who are, and I understand why you would have issues with Islam.

Still, doesn't it seem a little... imprudent to make such comments disparaging Islam on a thread outlining the various attacks on Muslims by the right-wing, going so far as to disparage the "silly people who are dumb enough to dedicate their meaningless lives to that drivel," the very people who are now under attack?

Though it may not be your intention, in this particular context (namely, this thread), such comments make you seem as if you are on the side of the right-wing, or if not on their side, that you could care less because they are superstitious fools anyway.

Amphictyonis

20th September 2010, 08:29

And that's all good and fair. I'm not a particularly militant opponent of religion (though I am an atheist), but I can sympathize with people who are, and I understand why you would have issues with Islam.

Still, doesn't it seem a little... imprudent to make such comments disparaging Islam on a thread outlining the various attacks on Muslims by the right-wing, going so far as to disparage the "silly people who are dumb enough to dedicate their meaningless lives to that drivel," the very people who are now under attack?

Though it may not be your intention, in this particular context (namely, this thread), such comments make you seem as if you are on the side of the right-wing, or if not on their side, that you could care less because they are superstitious fools anyway.

If I were famous and on national TV I wouldn't have spoken to my disdain for religion and would have kept my contempt focused on the oppression of the middle east under the iron boot of US hegemony.

Fascists always need an enemy to unite their base and Islam is the new enemy of the right wing since communism has been declared "dead" (you wouldn't know it watching Glen Beck).

I understand how the world works, I'm just not going to play the politically correct game. I've had friends beaten half to death by their fathers and uncles for no more than having sex.

GPDP

20th September 2010, 08:39

I understand how the world works, I'm just not going to play the politically correct game. I've had friends beaten half to death by their fathers and uncles for no more than having sex.

That's horrible. My condolences.

Anyway, I've little more to say on the subject. I just think the comments should've been made on another thread, perhaps in Religion. Islam is definitely worthy of criticism, as long as criticism is embarked upon with a perspective as to what its adherents currently face.

Lodestar

21st September 2010, 21:31

Muslims have made an invaluable contribution to revolutionary politics. You are not the gatekeeper of correct "consciousness".

How would you feel if the US right was in the streets burning the works of Shakespeare? Would you celebrate a defeat over "superstitious" and "spiritual" materials? What about the PLA's attacks on Buddhist and Taoist temples, or their public destruction of classical music records? Were these victories as well?

"Militant atheism" is cancerous right-wing chauvinism.

Observe how Dawkins, Hitchens, Bill Maher, Harris, etc. have stood with the right's attacks on the Islamic working class.

Please tell me how the homophobic, anachronistic, classist, sexist, xenophobic belief system behind Islam offers anything to modern socialists and progressives?

Islam is reactionary. It prescribes its own vision of society, retaining all the exploitative social relations therein, and ordaining it as divinely sanctioned by Allah.

Are there liberal Muslims? Sure! Are there leftist Muslims? Sure! Are there even Muslims who consider themselves Marxists? Yes.

And those people are largely confused; like Christian socialists. They have the right idea, their heart is in the right place...Simply put, the religious doctrine behind their ideas, rather than scientific rationalism and historical materialism, still sanctions reaction. Have you read the Qu'ran or Hadiths? There is hardly anything in Islam that is of use to us as anti-imperialists and progressives. Simple enough.

If you can direct me to some examples of Muslims struggling against racism, capitalism, Quttbism, antisemitism, sexism, homophobia, classism...maybe I'd be inclined to agree with you.

Amphictyonis

21st September 2010, 21:38

Please tell me how the homophobic, anachronistic, classist, sexist, xenophobic belief system behind Islam offers anything to modern socialists and progressives?

Islam is reactionary. It prescribes its own vision of society, retaining all the exploitative social relations therein, and ordaining it as divinely sanctioned by Allah.

Are there liberal Muslims? Sure! Are there leftist Muslims? Sure! Are there even Muslims who consider themselves Marxists? Yes.

And those people are largely confused; like Christian socialists. They have the right idea, their heart is in the right place...Simply put, the religious doctrine behind their ideas, rather than scientific rationalism and historical materialism, still sanctions reaction. Have you read the Qu'ran or Hadiths? There is hardly anything in Islam that is of use to us as anti-imperialists and progressives. Simple enough.

If you can direct me to some examples of Muslims struggling against racism, capitalism, Quttbism, antisemitism, sexism, homophobia, classism...maybe I'd be inclined to agree with you.

I would have liked to see the Democratic Republic Of Afghanistan win the day in the 1980's. It would've been interesting to see where they would've taken the nation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_Afghanistan

"Once in power, the PDPA implemented a socialist agenda. It moved to promote state atheism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_atheism).[5] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_Afghanistan#cite_note-4) Men were obliged to cut beards, women were banned from wearing the burqa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burqa), and mosques (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque) were placed off limits. It carried out an ambitious land reform (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_reform), waiving farmers' debts countrywide and abolishing usury (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usury) - intended to release the poorer farmers from debt peonage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_peonage).[6] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_Afghanistan#cite_note-Ishiyama-5)"

Devrim

21st September 2010, 21:52

If you can direct me to some examples of Muslims struggling against racism, capitalism, Quttbism, antisemitism, sexism, homophobia, classism...maybe I'd be inclined to agree with you.

http://tr.internationalism.org/content/7064840489222481260179732jpghttp://tr.internationalism.org/files/images/706484048922248_1260179732.jpg

A picture of Muslim workers struggling against capitalism.

Devrim

Kano

21st September 2010, 23:48

[QUOTE]It's our duty as communists to combat Islamophobia.

No, surely its our duty to promote communism? Why does the left think it is its job to fix everything in the world? Its not our job to be saving the world. We just come across as whingers. Stop protesting EVERYTHING! Go home and concentrate on creating a plan for a socialist system that the people can understand and identify with.

mosfeld

22nd September 2010, 23:18

No, surely its our duty to promote communism? Why does the left think it is its job to fix everything in the world? Its not our job to be saving the world. We just come across as whingers. Stop protesting EVERYTHING! Go home and concentrate on creating a plan for a socialist system that the people can understand and identify with.

Fighting against Islamophobia and struggling for socialism is not contradictory as you seem to be insisting. The two go hand in hand. Combatting Islamophobia is a part of the communist struggle, to bridge the gap of working class division based on racial and religious lines, to end imperialist oppression of islamic countries, to end the demonization of muslims and to support self-determination of muslims, amongst other goals.

mosfeld

22nd September 2010, 23:20

Islam is reactionary. It prescribes its own vision of society, retaining all the exploitative social relations therein, and ordaining it as divinely sanctioned by Allah.

Where in this thread are people defending this? How is this related to opposing the demonization of muslims?

Amphictyonis

22nd September 2010, 23:33

HEADLINES

Obama bombs hundreds of thousands of Muslims, expands drone attacks into Yemen and continues extraordinary rendition to nations that torture- but it's OK because he's doing it out of love?

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/pers-j17.shtml

At least the right wing idiots have the courtesy to stab them in the chest in lieu of the back?

Lodestar

26th September 2010, 20:57

http://tr.internationalism.org/content/7064840489222481260179732jpghttp://tr.internationalism.org/files/images/706484048922248_1260179732.jpg

A picture of Muslim workers struggling against capitalism.

Devrim

Is there more background behind this image? Who are these people? Is their belief in Islam what motivates them to struggle against capitalism?

I am aware of "Islamic socialist" movements like the PMOI in Iran... I am aware that Muslims can be socialist...however, you cannot separate Islamic theology from its classist, sexist, chauvinist pretenses and premises...

Islam is inherently imperialistic and hostile to foreign cultures, not unlike its Christian cousin. There are Christians who are opposed to the excesses of capitalism too-- this hardly means that they aren't still reactionaries as far as their belief system leads.

A belief system that eschews materialism and the scientific method in favor of infallible divine revelation and strict adherence to anachronistic, regressive dogmas in and of itself is without revolutionary potential, and even worse, actively works against the very consciousness that revolutionary leftists seek to imbue among the people.

I stand in solidarity with Muslims against the racially motivated, dishonest, populist, xenophobic attacks made upon their culture. That being said, I will not embrace apologists for them, and I don't think their belief system is more deserving of respect than their rapture-believing counterparts in the US who shit the bed every time there's a hint of social progress or change.

Islam is inherently anti-egalitarian and anti-humanist, like Christianity. Again, I have to ask what it is Islam offers the left?

Devrim

26th September 2010, 21:04

Is there more background behind this image? Who are these people?

They are workers from the tobacco factories in Turkey involved in an industrial struggle. With it being Turkey obviously the vast majority of them are Muslims.

Is their belief in Islam what motivates them to struggle against capitalism?

I would very much doubt it, but then you didn't ask for people 'motivated to struggle against capitalism by their belief in Islam'.

You asked for "some examples of Muslims struggling against racism, capitalism, Quttbism, antisemitism, sexism, homophobia, classism".

I gave you one.

Devrim

Lodestar

26th September 2010, 21:05

Where in this thread are people defending this? How is this related to opposing the demonization of muslims?

Are we talking about the demonization of people from Islamic backgrounds, or demonization of Islam itself?

To fault Islam for all the issues plaguing world politics is simplistic, deceptive, and outright inaccurate. the wave of anti-Islamic hysteria in the West now plays into the hands of fascists and populists and nationalists. I don't dispute this.

I fail to see how the belief system of Islam itself is something that ought to be embraced or protected. They ought to be regarded as bearing the same lunatic notions that Rapture-believing evangelicals or Arab-slaughtering West Bank settling Zionists have. Nonsense is nonsense; why should one version of barbarism and reaction have our sympathy?

We should be trying to show the idiots on the right just how similar the doctrines of their sacred faiths (protestantism, catholicism, judaism, etc.) are essentially constructed from the same absurd, misanthropic, and cynical views on man that have kept us from moving towards a state of equality and establishing norms based on social practicality and the common good for centuries as Islam...

I'm not apologizing for Islamophobia. I'm just saying I refuse to have any positive feelings toward Islam, just as I refuse to join in on the irrational bigot-train of race-baiting towards people of Islamic backgrounds.

If suddenly the radical right in Europe decided to turn on the Catholic Church, would that justify us as leftists and socialists rushing to the defense of the Papal curia? I would hope not...

Vladimir Innit Lenin

27th September 2010, 11:45

Muslims are a group of religious bigots?

Surely anybody advising the spread of organised religion is bigoted?

Clearly, i'm not calling individual believers bigots, but organised Islam is just as bigoted and wrong as any other organised religion.

Vladimir Innit Lenin

27th September 2010, 11:46

Where in this thread are people defending this? How is this related to opposing the demonization of muslims?

Why don't you defend Jews, Christians, Buddhists and Sikhs too?

I don't see any 'Against anti-semitism' campaigns around atm.:rolleyes:

Tavarisch_Mike

27th September 2010, 16:32

Rafiq

27th September 2010, 20:15

I don't see any 'Against anti-semitism' campaigns around atm.:rolleyes:

Maybe that's because Islamophobia is more of an Issue then Anti-Semitism at the moment.

Perhaps in the early and mid 19 hundreds, their were plenty Muslims protesting against Anti-Semitism.

Will go right now, and protest against Anti-Eskimo Racism? That makes you an Anti-Eskimo!

Vladimir Innit Lenin

28th September 2010, 08:33

If some people cant see how far the demonisation and hatred towards those workers who happens to call themselves muslims, are going and cant see the similaritys betwen the antisemitism in the 30s, you need to read a bit more in the history book and get a better analysis.

The problem in the 30s was that there were millions of jews living within catching distance, so to speak, of a state which was controlled by a movement which (almost openly) wanted to annihilate the jews as a race.

There does not seem to be that problem today.

Whilst I of course support anti-racism and deplore racism in all its forms, including anti-Islam sentiment, for me there is no immediate issue relating solely to what is termed 'islamophobia.' What is at stake, in the western world, is the general wealth situation of the working class, is our right not to be harassed by the openly bourgeois state (in the UK, ID cards, CCTV machines on almost every corner and the soon-to-be introduced surveillance drones for protests, marches etc.). If we were to address these issues, the situation for Muslims would also undoubtedly improve.

Whilst Muslims, in certain quarters, are wrongly being held as scapegoats for certain terrorist actions committed in the name of Islam, one could say that they are not a widely hated or propagandised against group of people, once you get past the headlines on the Daily Mail and the opining of a few racists from the EDL and BNP.

Jayshin_JTTH

28th September 2010, 10:33

The problem in the 30s was that there were millions of jews living within catching distance, so to speak, of a state which was controlled by a movement which (almost openly) wanted to annihilate the jews as a race.

There does not seem to be that problem today.

Whilst I of course support anti-racism and deplore racism in all its forms, including anti-Islam sentiment, for me there is no immediate issue relating solely to what is termed 'islamophobia.' What is at stake, in the western world, is the general wealth situation of the working class, is our right not to be harassed by the openly bourgeois state (in the UK, ID cards, CCTV machines on almost every corner and the soon-to-be introduced surveillance drones for protests, marches etc.). If we were to address these issues, the situation for Muslims would also undoubtedly improve.

Whilst Muslims, in certain quarters, are wrongly being held as scapegoats for certain terrorist actions committed in the name of Islam, one could say that they are not a widely hated or propagandised against group of people, once you get past the headlines on the Daily Mail and the opining of a few racists from the EDL and BNP.
If you hadn't realized, Islamophobia is being used repressively in Europe as a shield against opposition to the new economic system (post-financial crisis), 'Islamization' is the rallying cry used by the bourgeois to hide austerity measures directly attacking the living standards of the working class, cutting social services, sacking doctors etc. And yes, even in the UK, 'immigration reform' is being insidiously used by the State as a cover for cutting services to the public. Things like the effective banning of new mosques being built in Switzerland, banning of burquas and deportations of Roma in France, the rise of fascist groups like the Dutch Freedom Party and Swedish Democrats, AT THE SAME TIME as austerity measures and the new economic system rolls out across Europe. It's no coincidence.

Also, it's important to remember too that in the neo-colonial world, whether it be Al-Shabab fighting Ethiopian-Christian-Western imperialism and occupation in Somalia, Boko Harem fighting Western oil-imperialism in Nigeria, the Taliban fighting NATO-American imperialism in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Islamism is fighting imperialism all over the world. Of course they ain't communists, but it's important to support all uprisings in the neo-colonial world against the conditions of disease, suffering, starvation and misery enforced upon the vast masses of humanity by the forces of capital.

Tavarisch_Mike

28th September 2010, 12:06

Jayshin_JTTH

28th September 2010, 12:38

The rethoric and propaganda is the same as in the 30s, fascists are today talking about a islamic world domination, wich is just bullshit and they are putting labels on normal people who just happens to call themselves muslims, saying that if you call yourselfe a muslim you also are for terrorism and abusing women. This helps to divede the working class even more, now the problems that commes up with poverty in the areas with many lumpen proletarians, will be explained by 'culture', saying shit like; "well arabs and somalians have a more violent culture as you can see."
Rejecting all materialistic explinations.
While it's certainly more amplified on the internet, I agree that there is a growing chauvinist mindset growing in the West in particular to the neo-colonial world in general, but specifically to Muslims. I think the role of the Left in this must be giving a materialist look at things, the daily barbarities, people living in squalid conditions, are simply the result of the awful conditions brought about by the sucking out of all the wealth in these countries, they have nothing to do with culture or religion.

Indeed, when you consider the thousands of people who die every day from banal things like not having access to sanitized drinking water, are they going to say those conditions are the result of Islam?

Yet a common perception in the West seems to be 'well, that's just how they are'.

Vladimir Innit Lenin

28th September 2010, 13:36

Vladimir Innit Lenin

28th September 2010, 13:37

While it's certainly more amplified on the internet, I agree that there is a growing chauvinist mindset growing in the West in particular to the neo-colonial world in general, but specifically to Muslims. I think the role of the Left in this must be giving a materialist look at things, the daily barbarities, people living in squalid conditions, are simply the result of the awful conditions brought about by the sucking out of all the wealth in these countries, they have nothing to do with culture or religion.

Indeed, when you consider the thousands of people who die every day from banal things like not having access to sanitized drinking water, are they going to say those conditions are the result of Islam?

Yet a common perception in the West seems to be 'well, that's just how they are'.

I pick this post out to prove my first point in my previous post.

No sane person can defend what goes on in places like Iran, Saudi Arabia etc.

Jayshin_JTTH

28th September 2010, 14:33

The problem with protesting against racism under a banner of Islamophobia is two-fold, though:

Firstly, it can lead to certain comrades making the defence of oppressed Muslims hegemony, in terms of priorities. Thus, it distracts from the class war that, given the current economic circumstances, should be intensifying not dying down, and it also leads certain comrades to swing so far to the defence of Islam, that they end up taking quasi-Islamic positions on political issues - in terms of the Middle East, for example. Anti-racism, we must all support. But becoming proto-Muslims above our duty as Socialists, who by definition are atheist or at least secular, is a desertion of our political faith for a religious one.
I don't think it's a distraction, when you see the 'War on Terror' continued to be used, and the continued focus by US imperialism on islamists in various parts of the world, plus the extreme effort the US bourgeois have put into trying to neutralize Islam emerging in the neo-colonial world against imperialism (the bourgeois put into power a black president with an Arabic-sounding middle-name, which shows how seriously they treat the issue).

Secondly, by using the banner of 'Islamophobia' as a pretext for fighting racism, we also affect - negatively - our ability to stand up for anti-racism in general (some comrades simply reject all Israeli Jews as Zionists and some, further, all non-Socialist Jews to be Zionists, which is wrong and somewhat profane an assumption).
I'm rather skeptical honestly, as to how many actual 'socialists' are in Israel, and then divide that by how many support the existence of the US-colony of 'Israel', and how many are actively against the Zionist regime. I would say 2%, with a margin of error of 2%. Supporting Israel's 'right to exist' is like saying that British India or the Dutch Congo had a 'right to exist', they don't because they are just imperialist monstrosities.

I'm not saying don't defend Muslims against oppression, but do so under a platform that is class war first, anti-racism first.
Are you saying that the oppression of the Muslim neo-colonial world by capital (and the attempts of the ruling classes to slander legitimate national-liberation groups with an Islamic character as 'terrorist'), has no class character?

We take the world as it is, not as we wish it was.

We do nothing for advancing Socialism by pushing forward groups such as the Muslim Defence League or actively supporting extremists like Hamas.
Why not support them? They are getting off their butts and doing something about it. I don't see how anyone could slander Hamas after their heroic struggle which managed to take on the Israeli army, which is armed with the most technologically advanced weapons in the world, with nothing but garage-made rockets and rifles, and still managed to preserve the independence of Gaza.

Tavarisch_Mike

28th September 2010, 14:34

"No war but the class war" is a good slogan, its highly connected with "United we stand, divided we fall", in todays western Europe we cant intensify the class war since we proletarians are to divided. I wrote earlier in the thread that todays wave of islamophobia has nothing to do with objective criticism of the religion Islam, it is just another form of racism thats targetting on people frome the middle east, central asia and north africa, labelling them and to justify imperialism, ooh and ofcourse (once again) to divid the working class.

Vladimir Innit Lenin

28th September 2010, 15:00

I don't think it's a distraction, when you see the 'War on Terror' continued to be used, and the continued focus by US imperialism on islamists in various parts of the world, plus the extreme effort the US bourgeois have put into trying to neutralize Islam emerging in the neo-colonial world against imperialism (the bourgeois put into power a black president with an Arabic-sounding middle-name, which shows how seriously they treat the issue).

I'm rather skeptical honestly, as to how many actual 'socialists' are in Israel, and then divide that by how many support the existence of the US-colony of 'Israel', and how many are actively against the Zionist regime. I would say 2%, with a margin of error of 2%. Supporting Israel's 'right to exist' is like saying that British India or the Dutch Congo had a 'right to exist', they don't because they are just imperialist monstrosities.

Are you saying that the oppression of the Muslim neo-colonial world by capital (and the attempts of the ruling classes to slander legitimate national-liberation groups with an Islamic character as 'terrorist'), has no class character?

We take the world as it is, not as we wish it was.

Why not support them? They are getting off their butts and doing something about it. I don't see how anyone could slander Hamas after their heroic struggle which managed to take on the Israeli army, which is armed with the most technologically advanced weapons in the world, with nothing but garage-made rockets and rifles, and still managed to preserve the independence of Gaza.

1. You act like people didn't go out and vote for Barack Obama in the US election. As much as US democracy is a sham in many ways, it is wrong to say he is some sort of puppet that has been installed from above on the US people without so much as a vote. And even so, I don't think his election in any way effects the 'War on Terror' - he is still killing Muslims in Afghanistan, after all. He is still interning Muslims in Guantanemo Bay, let us not forget.

2. You don't really have a point. Not every non-Socialist is an 'enemy'; not every non-Socialist Israeli Jew is a Zionist or an enemy. You are wrong to think so.

3. I am saying that, in a time when 30,000 children, of varying colour and creed, die each day from poverty-related issues, when over 1 billion people, again of varying colour, creed and religious persuasion, live in absolute poverty and when, above all, the Capitalist system is the closest to disaster that it's been since the 1930s, that yes, in terms of class warfare, Islamophobia is not top of the agenda. Not that it is not important to fight against racism, but not at the expense of what must be our main priority: using this current worldwide depression to both fight for working peoples' wages and jobs now, and for a Socialist transformation of society in the future.

4. I agree with you that it is close to miraculous that Hamas are holding their own with a far more advanced, better equipped and better funded occupying force. I do not agree that they are in any way heroic. They are religious fundamentalists. What do we gain by supporting religious fundamentalism?

Again, the last point in particular shows, comrade, that you have lost sight of the class war. That you believe we should be giving unconditional support to Hamas shows that you've lost sight of the fact that workers do not gain from the hegemony of power to an extremist religious group. We should oppose Zionist imperialism, but this doesn't mean we should support the equally barbaric and undesirable alternative.

Jayshin_JTTH

28th September 2010, 15:43

1. You act like people didn't go out and vote for Barack Obama in the US election. As much as US democracy is a sham in many ways, it is wrong to say he is some sort of puppet that has been installed from above on the US people without so much as a vote. And even so, I don't think his election in any way effects the 'War on Terror' - he is still killing Muslims in Afghanistan, after all. He is still interning Muslims in Guantanemo Bay, let us not forget.
Are you saying he wasn't put up because many in the (imperialist) Democratic Party thought it might be harder for Muslims to unite against US wars like in Afghanistan if they had a brown face and Arabic-middle name in front of the tanks?

2. You don't really have a point. Not every non-Socialist is an 'enemy'; not every non-Socialist Israeli Jew is a Zionist or an enemy. You are wrong to think so.I didn't comment on Jews, or indeed on any Israeli, including Arabs in Israel. I was just saying that I don't think it can be legitimately argued that Israel should exist, when the only thing keeping it in existence is capital from abroad and brutality towards the people that the Jews stole the land and property from in order to create the state.

3. I am saying that, in a time when 30,000 children, of varying colour and creed, die each day from poverty-related issues, when over 1 billion people, again of varying colour, creed and religious persuasion, live in absolute poverty and when, above all, the Capitalist system is the closest to disaster that it's been since the 1930s, that yes, in terms of class warfare, Islamophobia is not top of the agenda. Not that it is not important to fight against racism, but not at the expense of what must be our main priority: using this current worldwide depression to both fight for working peoples' wages and jobs now, and for a Socialist transformation of society in the future.Did I ever deny this? I'm simply stating, that when you are talking about the neo-colonial world, you can't simply leave out these issues. And you can't ignore what is really happening in the world either. Lenin didn't discount WWI because it wasn't a 'class war', no WWI wasn't a class war, it was poor, miserable working class people being forced to kill and slaughter each other for the benefit of some moneybags.

Now the 'War on Terror' is obviously different than WWI, but it's still a real conflict, soldiers from America, indeed some 2,000 or so from my own country are in Afghanistan fighting a predatory war against that country.

I'm simply saying it's not something to be ignored. It requires a communist position. It would be utter hypocrisy for us to say we oppose internal imperialism, yet remain silent while soldiers from our own countries are occupying others. It would be like saying that we only care when the bourgeois behaves imperiously to us, but do it to other nations and we don't care.

I'll be clear on this: pointing to anti-imperialist struggles in other countries is only one struggle, which like others is ultimately subordinated to the class struggle, but seeing how this is a thread on Islamophobia...

4. I agree with you that it is close to miraculous that Hamas are holding their own with a far more advanced, better equipped and better funded occupying force. I do not agree that they are in any way heroic. They are religious fundamentalists. What do we gain by supporting religious fundamentalism?No, I'm not religious myself, I don't support 'religious fundamentalism', but I think applying that label would be inaccurate. From what I've seen, Hamas are against the corruption of the official authorities, and all about fighting for the ordinary Palestinians against imperialism. I think Western media plays up Hamas and others on the religion to try and de-legitimize their struggle. I support anyone who fights against imperialism, I accept the religious character of a society which I was not born into.

Again, the last point in particular shows, comrade, that you have lost sight of the class war. That you believe we should be giving unconditional support to Hamas shows that you've lost sight of the fact that workers do not gain from the hegemony of power to an extremist religious group. We should oppose Zionist imperialism, but this doesn't mean we should support the equally barbaric and undesirable alternative.That's rather silly to say I think. It's not like 'I support your struggle against Zionist imperialism, but I'd just like to put down a list of things I dislike about your group' is a good stance. It's about giving things a materialist analysis. I mean, in Latin American there is the 'Liberation theology' if you know of it, Fidel Castro once said something along the lines of 'all the priests have become communists, and the communists priests', I mean the class struggle if it affects all of society has to affect religion too.

I don't go round taking shots at Chavez for being a Catholic.

Criticizing the religiosity of Hamas seems to me, seems to me ridiculous. Maybe if the situation was different.

mosfeld

18th October 2010, 11:21

Worongary, Australia: another anti-mosque campaign

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/storage/Worongary%20mosque%20protest?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVE RSION=1287360024332

More than 200 objections have been lodged against a mosque proposed for Worongary. The extended period for submissions has now closed and the fate of the proposed Islamic building lies in the hands of town planners and councillors.

The proposal has ignited passions in the community, with two protests on site attracting hundreds of people and prejudicial graffiti sprayed in the area.

A petition against the mosque collected more than 1600 signatures, while more than 200 objections were received by the Gold Coast City Council during the submission period, which was voluntarily extended for two weeks by the applicant – the Islamic Multicultural Association of the Gold Coast.

If approved the mosque would cater for a maximum of 40 people at a time.

Objections lodged ranged from traffic concerns, many taking pains to say it was not on religious grounds, to a mosque in a "Christian" community inviting conflict and even increasing the "carbon output" in the green area.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/10/17/worongary-australia-another-anti-mosque-campaign.html

Merkel echoes Seehofer, says multiculturalism has failed

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/storage/Merkel?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1287291628205

In a speech to supporters, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday that multiculturalism in Germany has not met with success. She stressed that immigrants must learn to speak German and integrate into German society. Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have "utterly failed," according to Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"This approach has failed, utterly failed," said Merkel, head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), in a speech to the party's young people's association in Potsdam on Saturday. She added that not enough was done in the past to support the movement. "The failures of the last 30 or 40 years cannot be resolved so quickly," she said.

The comments followed a similar speech from Christian Social Union (CSU) chief Horst Seehofer, sister party to the CDU, who on Friday evening declared his party's stance against multiculturalism. "Multiculturalism is dead," he said, to great applause.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/10/16/merkel-echoes-seehofer-says-multiculturalism-has-failed.html

Racists are 'trying to form a transnational challenge to Islam'

Tentative links are developing between supporters of the reactionary Tea Party movement in the US and right-wing fringe groups in Britain opposed to what they call the "Islamification" of Europe.

The movements are not yet formally aligned, but the racist English Defence League (EDL), which insists that Islamic fundamentalism will soon engulf Britain, is busy building bridges with US figures who take a similar anti-Islamic position.

One such is candidate for the California state legislature Rabbi Nachum Shifren, who plans to visit England next week in a trip partly sponsored by the EDL. The trip was organised by EDL activist Roberta Moore, who has formed a "Jewish division" of the group. She said that the rabbi would speak at an October 24 rally in London.

"He plans to speak about the dangers of Islamification both in this country and in America," she said. "We have the same objectives as the groups in the US, and we want to exchange information and work with them."

Nottingham University Professor Matthew Goodwin, an expert on extremist groups in Britain, warned:

"We're seeing groups across Europe trying to form a transnational challenge to Islam. Going to the US is particularly interesting because the far-right in Britain has never gone that way before. It has always gone toward Europe. If it does forge strong links to the Tea Party, it would be important because the Tea Party has significant resources."

Rabbi Shifren, who has given anti-Islamic talks at Tea Party events, boasted in an interview that he planned to warn Britons their country is being lost as "fundamentalist Islam" gains strength. "I see England going down and I want to cry out and do everything I can to prevent that, to work with the EDL," he said.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/10/16/racists-are-trying-to-form-a-transnational-challenge-to-isla.html

French MP says failure to ban veil in UK has 'opened the door to terrorism'

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/storage/Jacques%20Myard.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=128 7195027272

The architect of France's burka ban has accused Britain of "losing the battle against Islamic extremism" by failing to introduce one of its own.

Jacques Myard, a senior member of President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP party, said relaxed UK policies had "opened the door to terrorism". He added: "Allowing women to exclude themselves from society by wearing the full Islamic veil makes radicals extremely comfortable, and Britain should realise this."

Mr Myard made his outspoken comments to British journalists in Qatar, where he was defending his country's recent banning of the veil at the Qatar Foundation Doha Debates, which are broadcast by the BBC this weekend.

His words will inflame tensions between London and Paris on the fifth anniversary of the 7/7 London bombings, which the French have regularly blamed on lax policing. Referring to the 2005 atrocity in which 52 died and 107 were injured Mr Myard added: "Britain has suffered a number of high-profile failures in its fight against extremism in recent years. These could have been prevented if all signs of extremism were curbed, as they are in France."

Asked if Britain should introduce its own burka ban, Mr Myard replied: "Of course – it is fundamental to ensuring that extremism is kept in check."

Despite his strong defence of the burka ban in Qatar, Mr Myard lost the Doha Debate entitled 'This House believes France is right to ban the face veil'. He was defeated by a team of London journalists, made up of Mehdi Hassan and Nabila Ramdani, as 78 per cent of voters rejected the motion.

Some 350 million people across 200 countries are expected to watch the debate when it is broadcast by channels including BBC World on Saturday and Sunday.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/10/16/french-mp-says-failure-to-ban-veil-in-uk-has-opened-the-door.html

Wilders insists that Dutch government must crack down on 'non-western' immigration

The new cabinet will have a problem if it does not reduce the number of non-western immigrants to the Netherlands, PVV leader Geert Wilders told tv current affairs show Nieuwsuur on Thursday evening. "If it does not manage to bring about a very substantial reduction in the number of non-western immigrants, the PVV has a problem and the cabinet has a problem," Wilders said.

Earlier, PVV European MP Barry Madlener told Nos tv the aim of anti-immigration measures outlined in the new government agreement is to combat the "islamisation" of the Netherlands. Madlener was Geert Wilders' right hand during the recent negotiations. Measures to reduce family reunions are aimed at reducing the number of Muslims coming to the country, Madlener said. "That is our intention," he told the tv programme.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/10/15/wilders-insists-that-dutch-government-must-crack-down-on-non.html

Bacon strips spelling out 'PIG' left outside South Carolina Islamic Centre

Slices of bacon were laid down on a brink walkway to the Florence Islamic Center in Florence, S.C. on Sunday in a manner that spelled out "PIG CHOPS." The incident – evidently aimed the center because of the Islamic dietary restrictions against pork – is just the latest in a string of anti-Muslim episodes around the country.

In fact this isn't the first time even this particular mosque has been hit – earlier this year vandals broke windows in the facility, according to local news station ABC 15.

A conflicting Associated Press report said the bacon slices were arranged to spell out "PIG CHUMP." The bacon slices were placed on the sidewalk between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sunday, Florence Police Major Carlos Raines told the AP. "There's absolutely nothing that identifies it as a mosque," Raines told the AP. "It's an insult, and I'm sure that's what it was intended for."

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/10/15/bacon-strips-spelling-out-pig-left-outside-south-carolina-is.html

mosfeld

19th October 2010, 21:30

Wilders responsible for rise in anti-Muslim hatred say witnesses

Muslim witnesses said Monday that a Dutch lawmaker's anti-Islamic comments had led to attacks and intimidation, and they pleaded with judges to convict him and give him a symbolic fine of one euro.

"Arson. Attempted arson. Vandalism. Disturbances. Incivility to people attending mosques. Obscenities. Intimidating behavior – they have all become everyday occurrences" as a result of Wilders' public remarks, said Mohammed Enait, speaking for an alliance of Dutch mosques that had asked to testify as victims in the case.

Enait said Dutch Muslims have suffered tangible damage as a result of Wilders' repeated negative remarks about Islam. He said there are countless incidences of "children being cursed at while they walk. Stories from women ... who are spit upon, mocked because they wear headscarves." Enait, who is from Rotterdam, said the mosque he attended as a child had been burned down.

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance found that there has been a "dramatic increase in 'Islamophobia' in the Netherlands" since 2000.

Several prominent Muslim organizations have asked the new government, which took office last week, to examine the problem, citing an incident earlier this year where a dead sheep was left on a site where a mosque is being built in the city of Roosendaal. Last month, a mosque in Groningen was burned in an arson attack, and as recently as last weekend, a bullet was fired at a mosque in the city of Dordrecht.

The conservative minority government relies on the support of Wilders' Freedom Party to pass bills in parliament. It has not reacted to the request from the Muslim groups.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/10/18/wilders-responsible-for-rise-in-anti-muslim-hatred-say-witne.html

Barry Lyndon

19th October 2010, 21:57

No, I'm not religious myself, I don't support 'religious fundamentalism', but I think applying that label would be inaccurate. From what I've seen, Hamas are against the corruption of the official authorities, and all about fighting for the ordinary Palestinians against imperialism. I think Western media plays up Hamas and others on the religion to try and de-legitimize their struggle. I support anyone who fights against imperialism, I accept the religious character of a society which I was not born into.

That's rather silly to say I think. It's not like 'I support your struggle against Zionist imperialism, but I'd just like to put down a list of things I dislike about your group' is a good stance. It's about giving things a materialist analysis. I mean, in Latin American there is the 'Liberation theology' if you know of it, Fidel Castro once said something along the lines of 'all the priests have become communists, and the communists priests', I mean the class struggle if it affects all of society has to affect religion too.

I don't go round taking shots at Chavez for being a Catholic.

Criticizing the religiosity of Hamas seems to me, seems to me ridiculous. Maybe if the situation was different.

Except Palestinians have traditionally been one of the least religious communities in the Arab world. The rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Palestine has been only a recent development in Palestine(roughly the last 20 years). Party that is a reaction of the failure of secular Arab nationalism. It is also the long-term effect of the PLO purging itself of Marxist members in the 1970's, largely because the leftists were calling for the overthrow of Arab dictatorships, which they saw as much as an obstacle to Palestinian liberation as Zionism. Saying that an organizaton like Hamas is a inherent reflection of the Palestinian "culture" only exposes your ignorance.

The third largest Palestinian political organization, besides Fatah and Hamas is the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist-Leninist group that supports a secular state, women's rights and opposes both Zionism and Islamism(although they have limited co-operation with Hamas against Israeli occupation). I astonishes me how so many leftists ignore them and brush them aside while rushing to cheerlead right-wing religious fundamentalists.

Chavez is an avowed socialist and an ally of revolutionary Cuba. Hamas doesn't even pretend to be socialist or even progressive, its a flat out reactionary group. That you would make such a comparison astonishes me.

Barry Lyndon

19th October 2010, 22:04

That said, it is rather irritating to me that every time someone brings up anti-Muslim bigotry, like mosfeld is, its obligatory that someone will start spamming the thread about leftists being apologists for Islamic extremism.
Only a bigot would instantly associate fighting Islamophobia with supporting Islamic fundamentalism. Does denouncing anti-Semitism make you an apologist for Zionism?

gorillafuck

19th October 2010, 22:09

mosfeld

20th October 2010, 17:10

EDL thug released early from prison

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A "dangerous" man who left his victim with a permanent brain injury has been released from jail early and is taking part in English Defence League protests.

Bernard Holmes, 25, formerly of Coleridge Street, Blackburn, was jailed for two years and four months, in February for causing grievous bodily harm to Shaun Baxendale. Mr Baxendale was left with "catastrophic" injuries and a change in personality in the unprovoked May 2009 attack. He had to have a piece of his skull removed.

However, because Holmes spent more than seven months in custody before his trial, he is now out on licence after technically serving half his term.

Under the nickname "Mr B", he has been central to the Blackburn EDL's recent demonstrations outside the KFC in Haslingden Road, Blackburn, dressed as a yellow chicken. Pictures on his Facebook site also show him and fellow members of the right-wing group, who call themselves the "Knuckledraggers", at last weekend's heavily-policed rally in Leicester.

When Holmes was jailed, Maggie Garth, 44, Mr Baxendale's sister criticised the sentence and spoke out in favour of the Lancashire Telegraph's Consequences campaign, which aims to steer people away from drunken, spontaneous town centre violence.

She reacted to his release and activities with the EDL by saying: "The chicken suit is very apt for him. He's a coward. I was physically sick when I heard he was out of prison. I don't think the sentences handed out for these types of offences frighten the offenders. Shaun is still forgetting things and going through terrible mood swings. Yet Holmes can go out and protest over the very things that make us a free country."

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/10/20/edl-thug-released-early-from-prison.html

mosfeld

20th October 2010, 17:11

Muslim girl banned from school bus after reacting to teasing about her headscarf

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A six-year-old Muslim girl has been banned from a Darwin school bus after she pulled a boy's pants down after he repeatedly teased her about her hijab.

Iran Ghavami was given a five day ban from Buslink after she sought revenge on the seven-year-old boy, who had been allegedly bullying her and telling her to take off the headscarf, the NT News reported.

The teasing made her "sad and angry at the same time", motivating the Year One girl to take revenge.

The ban means Iran will be unable to get to her primary school, 30km away from their home in the NT town of Marrakai.

Her mother Lorraine Gerassimopoulos said the ban was a bit harsh for a six-year-old. "We would have preferred a warning so we could have sat down and talked about this incident but they are stopping her from going to school," she said.

Buslink defended the five-day ban, saying it complied with the Territory's Code of Conduct for School bus travel. The company did not say if the boy had also faced a ban.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/10/20/muslim-girl-banned-from-school-bus-after-reacting-to-teasing.html

Ivan Jansa

20th October 2010, 22:03

Hi, I don't know if it was mentioned before but in Sweden there's a lot of islamophobia. I was beaten up several times by skinheads and my brother had to be hospitalised because of some attack made by the members of the Swedish Democrats. My father was also refused service in a shopping centre and my mother lost her job because she was an immigrant.
And then there are the biker gangs like the Hell's Angels which occasionally go through our neighbourhood and shout "Fuck Islam" or "All pigs must die" and one time they ran over an old woman (I think she was Swedish) because she was visiting her friend in our part.

mosfeld

22nd October 2010, 14:52

Defaced pages from Qur'an sent to Muslim activist

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/storage/Mohammed%20Salim.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=12 87737171373

An Islamic activist has been sent pages of the Koran with graffiti scrawled on them.

Mohammed Salim, of Letchworth Avenue, Rochdale, received three pages of the Muslim holy book graffitied with the words "crap", "paper" and "toilet". The abusive mail was posted anonymously from Canada, addressed to "Allah Hoo Hoo Salim" and arrived at Mr Salim’s family home on Monday.

The father of 11 said: "I am absolutely furious. Unfortunately, this just seems to be the world we live in now. People have no respect for anything any more. Obviously, whoever has sent this simply wants to upset me and it is extremely disrespectful to defile the Holy Koran in this way. It is just sickening."

Mr Salim is well-known in Rochdale for his religious work and views. He has previously stood as the Islam Zinda parliamentary candidate for Rochdale, a party with an explicit religious policy. Mr Salim has also publicly criticised the war in Iraq, while he staged a three-week hunger strike outside Rochdale Town Hall in protest against Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses.

He added: "I am very active in the Islamic community, but I didn't know anyone had heard of me in Canada, so I suppose in a very strange way it is flattering. I have been sent abuse many times before and sometimes I do worry that people will take it a step too far and that my family could be in danger."

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/10/22/defaced-pages-from-quran-sent-to-muslim-activist.html

mosfeld

24th October 2010, 19:09

Islam 'advocates beheadings, forced conversions and paedophilia', Murfreesboro Islamic Center opponent tells court

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Day five of a hearing into whether to stop construction of an approved Islamic Center of Murfreesboro mosque continued with the opponents' attorney trying to paint the project as a doorway to Islamic domination and tyrannical Shariah law in the United States. Attorney Joe Brandon Jr. called several witnesses on Thursday who tried to connect the Islamic Center to terrorism and plots to overthrow democracy.

Murfreesboro resident Jeanetta Alford was characteristic of Brandon's approach in explaining her opposition to the mosque. She said she believes that the teaching of Islam violates the United States Constitution because it advocates beheadings, forced conversions and pedophilia. When asked if she would like to be rid of mosques in America, she responded, "That would be wonderful, probably."

Rutherford County's attorneys countered that there's zero proof that the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro has broken any law. "Has the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro beheaded anyone?" asked County Attorney James Cope. "No, they have not," Alford replied. Later, she said that the center wasn't fully practicing Shariah law "because they can't do it yet."

The Tennessean, 22 October 2010

See also the Daily New Journal, which reports another witness, one Lisa Moore, as saying that "the religion part of Islam is only about 30 percent and 'the rest of it is about killing non-believers'."

WSMV Nashville reports the following exchange between Brandon and Randy Groce, an investigator with the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department:

"Is Islam a religion?" Brandon said.

"In my opinion, yes," said Groce. "They have a belief in a deity, an afterlife."

"You say an afterlife. Is this the same afterlife that, like, when you yell, 'Allah akbar,' and blow up several people, and you get several virgins – is that the afterlife you're talking about?" said Brandon.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/10/22/islam-advocates-beheadings-forced-conversions-and-paedophili.html

mosfeld

24th October 2010, 19:14

Seattle woman charged with hate crime against two Muslim women

Two Seattle Muslim women said they were simply trying to fill up at a gas station in Tukwila on Saturday when another woman started yelling slurs, kicked one woman and slammed a car door on her leg, and then pushed the other.

"I'm terrified, I'm crying," said Imaan, one of the two Muslim women, recounting the incident during a news conference Thursday. "Never in my life have I experienced this kind of hatred and physical assault." Imaan, 23, and her aunt, Maryan, 34, both American citizens of Somali descent, asked to be identified by their first names only, for fear of reprisal.

They said they were trying to get gas shortly before 6 p.m. at an ARCO AM/PM gas station and minimart on Tukwila International Boulevard. The pump didn't appear to be working. A woman who was watching started calling them "suicide bomber," asking if they were going to bomb this country, and telling them to "go back to your country," Imaan said.

King County prosecutors identified the woman as 37-year-old Jennifer Leigh Jennings, also known as Jennifer Leigh Adams, of Burien, and on Thursday charged her with two felony counts of malicious harassment under the state's hate-crime law.

Imaan said she went inside to talk to the clerk about the gas pump, and when she came back out, she saw Jennings slam a car door on her aunt's leg, pull off her aunt's headscarf and kick her. Imaan told Jennings to leave them alone and Jennings pushed her so hard that she fell, she said. Imaan said she was frantic, yelling for help from about a dozen or so bystanders who didn't do anything, she said.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/10/22/seattle-woman-charged-with-hate-crime-against-two-muslim-wom.html

Amphictyonis

24th October 2010, 22:39

The west needs it's enemies. As the Neoconservatives and Democrats in the US have proclaimed, the new threat to "world peace" is Islam now that "communism" has been "defeated" (in their opinion). Having that said I think religious fundamentalism of all stripes is bunkum. Pure bunkum.

mosfeld

1st November 2010, 18:54

Danish party urges Arab TV ban

http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images/2010/11/1/2010111143737307884_20.jpg

Pia Kjærsgaard, leader of the far-right Danish People's Party, is calling for a ban on satellite antennas in residential areas with large immigrant populations in Denmark.

She has since pushed for the national broadcasting authority to prevent Al Jazeera and other Arab satellite channels from broadcasting in Denmark.

Kjærsgaard accuses them of "broadcasting indoctrination from the Middle Eastern world", and "inoculating the viewers in Denmark to hate Denmark and the West".

The controversial proposal has so far been met with criticism from the Danish People's Party's coalition partners, the liberal and conservative parties.

Although both main parties disagree with the proposed ban, they fundamentally agree with the People's Party's claims - as a spokesman for the conservatives put it - that Arab channels "espouse anti-Jewish and anti-Western propaganda".

But banning Arab channels will give the impression that Denmark is suppressing Arab points of view, the spokesman said.

The current government has relied on Kjærsgaard and the People's Party for its majority since 2001, when the coalition came to power following campaign laced with anti-immigration rhetoric.

The ruling party's Kristian Jensen says Denmark should defend freedom of speech, but cautions that there is an opportunity to make a case to the country's broadcasting authority if the channels break the law.

Conflicting opinions

Kjærsgaard says that the broadcasting authority can move to ban a channel it sees as promoting hatred.

Meanwhile, opposition parties are outraged, describing the People's Party's proposal as a "desperate" attempt to maintain its grip on the debate on Muslims and immigrants in Denmark.

The main opposition party, the Social Democrats, thinks that it is "un-Danish" to forbid people from deciding which TV channels they can access.

"We live in Denmark, not in North Korea or China," the party has said.

Al Jazeera broadcast a documentary in 2009 entitled Confrontation in Copenhagen, which dealt with the racialised debate on crime in Denmark as well as the new anti-immigrant laws, sparking a huge debate in the country.

Calls to strip me, the producer of the piece, of my citizenship were heard on the fringes.

In the lead-up to the film's screening, headlines such "A Palestinian-Dane produces a dark film that portrays Denmark as a racist country" filled the screens and front pages of many Danish media outlets.

The main two television broadcasters, TV2 and Danish Broadcast Co-operation, as well as all major national news papers, treated the film as second "cartoon crises in making", referring to the controversy stirred when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005.

In the hours before the documentary's screening, there was a heightened state of alert across Danish embassies in the Arab and Muslim world. As Al Jazeera went on air with the film, Denmark's main TV channel picked up the telecast live.

Nasser Khader and Fathi al-Abded, two Danish politicians and representatives of the communities, concluded that the film would harm Danish national interests, especially if the "imams" made use of it.

Sober evaluation

The verdict of independent media experts and the Danish ministry of foreign affairs was considerably less alarmist. They judged the film "innocent", "critical", "fair and balanced".

The next day the Danish press reported that no embassy representatives across the Arab and Muslim world had reported any attacks or threats against Danish embassies. The story died down.

Nonetheless, the initial panic was reflective of how the Danish People's Party, major media outlets and the government have been dealing with any critique of Denmark's treatment of its Muslim minorities.

However, unlike during the cartoon crisis, the shoe was on the other foot this time around. It was Denmark that was under the spotlight. It was Denmark that was reacting, not so-called outsiders, as we saw during the cartoon crisis.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/11/2010111134217747559.html

mosfeld

1st November 2010, 18:59

German far right emerges from shadows as anti-Muslim campaign gathers force

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In today's Observer Kate Connolly reports on prospects for the far right in Germany following the merger between Austria's FPÖ and the anti-mosque campaign turned political party Pro Cologne.

She points out that it is the anti-Muslim mood whipped up by more mainstream political figures that provides the conditions for Pro Cologne to win support, and quotes Alexander Häusler of Düsseldorf's University of Applied Sciences as saying:

"The anti-immigration utterings of Sarrazin, backed up by the comments by Merkel and Seehofer, are like a gift to the far right. They have had a door opened to them that has previously been closed, because it is now socially acceptable to say things that before nobody dared to voice."

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/10/31/german-far-right-emerges-from-shadows-as-anti-muslim-campaig.html

gorillafuck

1st November 2010, 23:27

This is a good thread, thanks for this.

mosfeld

3rd November 2010, 10:18

Minister accuses Muslims of hostility towards Germans (so Muslims aren't Germans?)

German Family Minister Kristina Schroeder on Tuesday criticized Muslim youths for displaying hostility towards Germans.

"Such abuse is unfortunately commonplace amongst youths in certain areas – in the school yard, but also in the underground," Schroeder told daily tabloid Bild. "We are dealing with fundamentally hostile attitudes towards other groups – particularly against Germans and Christians," the minister continued, adding, "We need to act as decisively against this as against xenophobia."

Her comments come amid a fierce debate currently taking place in Germany about the integration of the country's 4 million Muslims, the majority of whom are of Turkish origin.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/11/2/minister-accuses-muslims-of-hostility-towards-germans-so-mus.html

mosfeld

3rd November 2010, 10:19

Wilders' party warns of Islamic 'right to lie'

The Party for Freedom (PVV) has added a new word to Dutch vocabulary: takiyya. It says it is an Islamic rule that allows Muslims to lie to non-Muslims.

In his recently-published book, PVV MP Martin Bosma describes takiyya as "lying to strengthen Islam." It amounts to Muslims being able to present themselves as liberal and modern, while secretly working on the introduction of the Sharia.

In a debate last week, GroenLinks leader Femke Halsema accused PVV leader Geert Wilders of making all Muslims suspect with the reference to takiyya. Wilders advised her to seek information from Islam experts.

If Halsema were to go to Maurits Berger for advice, she would not be convinced of Wilders' views. The professor of Islam in the present-day West reacted angrily to the PVV message in De Volkskrant newspaper yesterday.

"How dare Wilders throw around Islamic terms about which he does not have a clue? Takiyya is a concept from the Middle Ages. It infuriates me that such a dogma from the past should be stuck onto the Muslims of today. It is as if you claimed that Christians think women who stay afloat are witches."

"Only among extreme groups does this secrecy still do the rounds," according to Berger. He considers it a "complete scandal" that Wilders and Bosma have introduced it. "This is manifest incitement to hatred."

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/11/2/wilders-party-warns-of-islamic-right-to-lie.html

mosfeld

3rd November 2010, 10:21

Preston: police say EDL is a peaceful non-racist organisation and UAF is the cause of violence

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A meeting with Preston councillors last week shows the extraordinary measures that police are prepared to use to block protests against the racist English Defence League (EDL). Preston independent socialist councillor Michael Lavalette told Socialist Worker about a police briefing of Preston council. The police asked to meet councillors about an EDL march planned for Saturday 27 November.

"I was shocked at what they came out with in that meeting," Michael said. "They said that the EDL’s website states that it is a non-racist, peaceful organisation and that they would have to take that at face value. They said that the EDL has a right to protest and the police have to stay neutral. But then they launched a disgraceful attack against Unite Against Fascism (UAF).

"They told us that it is counter protests organised by UAF that cause trouble. They said that UAF is a front for the extremist Socialist Workers Party. The tenor was clear – UAF is as much of a problem, if not more so, than the EDL. I was furious and pointed out that UAF includes several national trade unions, MPs and labour movement activists."

In the meeting with the police Michael said most EDL protests end in violence. "I pointed out that every protest has involved attacks on the police. In Stoke they ran riot and attacked cars and shops. I think the police wanted to use the meeting with councillors to clamp down on any counter protest and to abuse UAF.

"The EDL is being allowed to assemble outside the main church on the high street which is a five minute walk from Preston's main mosque. If EDL supporters are allowed to march the 300 metres through the town to the Flag Market, they will be within minutes of Preston's Asian community."

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/11/2/preston-police-say-edl-is-a-peaceful-non-racist-organisation.html

mosfeld

5th November 2010, 11:13

German Muslim leader calls for stand against Islamophobia

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A prominent German Muslim leader expressed serious concern over the growing anti-Islam hysteria in his country, fuelled by right-wing populist politicians and the media.

Meeting with the Berlin-based foreign press Wednesday evening, the chairman of the Central Council of Muslims, Aiman Mazyek said, "I am concerned about the situation which we are facing." He pointed out the animosity towards Muslims was "the fastest growing form of racism" in Germany. Mazyek said Islam bashing had become "socially acceptable," even in German intellectual circles.

He added it was "frightening" to note that most Germans would support restricting the religious freedom of Muslims, according to a recent survey released by the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation, affiliated to the opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Mazyek warned that this hysterical anti-Islam debate would "ultimately damage Germany." He criticized the nation's media for not seriously questions some of the baseless assertions made about Islam. The official emphasized that it was "the duty of German society as a whole to confront this form of racism."

The activist lamented the fact that German Muslims were facing "daily discrimination and hostility." He referred to examples of an ongoing wave of anti-Muslim violence, including the recent brutal murder of an Iraqi Muslim by two neo-Nazis in the eastern city of Leipzig and the series of "almost monthly attacks against mosques" throughout the country. Mazyek said he had also received death threats and hate mail from right-wing populists.

He urged the government to address the challenge of Islamophobia before its gets out of control.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/11/4/german-muslim-leader-calls-for-stand-against-islamophobia.html

William Howe

6th November 2010, 01:09

Armchairgeneralforums.com is particularly going on massive Islamophobia rampages right now. Members are calling out for Islamic genocide, and removing it due to it being a 'vile culture' and replacing it with Western Christianity.

It's sad that this sort of bigotry and intolerance comes from what it so-called 'the land of the free'. :crying:

Property Is Robbery

6th November 2010, 21:46

Down here in Southern California there's a town called Temecula that is most famous for the large Hammer Skin (skinhead white supremacist) group. They've taken a lot of despicable actions along with right wing tea party nuts against the local mosque and Muslim people. They went down to the mosque with a bunch of dogs (seen by Muslims as being as dirty as pigs) and held up a bunch of racist "towel head" and "sand nigger" signs.

mosfeld

14th November 2010, 20:04

Leo McKinstry warns against 'the rapid Islamification of our public culture'

The fabric of our civilisation is now at risk from militant Islam which aims to destroy our way of life. Yet instead of showing resolve in the face of this challenge, the political establishment vacillates between collusion and denial.

We are told that the Muslim zealots are a only tiny minority while we are also given constant assurances that there is no cause for concern in the rapid Islamification of our public culture....

But this is the hallmark of Britain's relationship with Islam, where fear is dressed up as tolerance. Our political leaders constantly prattle about equality, yet they allow Sharia courts to flourish in our midst, with all its nasty oppression of women.

They pretend that the burqa is a welcome form of Muslim self-expression, though they would not dream of allowing British youths to go around public spaces permanently wearing black balaclavas. They do nothing to combat Muslim extremism on university campuses or in so-called faith schools and allow laws on human rights to be cynically exploited by those who only have contempt for humanity.

In this climate of denial, a number of myths are sedulously promoted to quell justified public anxieties about Islam. One is the emphasis on the majority of Muslim moderates who have nothing to do with extremism. But in recent years, this majority has been distinguished only by its silence....

We are dealing with a dangerous, aggressive ideology, not some minor fringe problem. "Islam will dominate the world" read one of the placards at last week's [demonstration]. Unless we wake up, this will become a terrifying reality.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/11/8/leo-mckinstry-warns-against-the-rapid-islamification-of-our.html

Tomhet

14th November 2010, 20:11

The most shameful examples I have ever seen were in the airports!
I saw an arab woman and her children get searched and humiliated in front of everyone, amongst other incidences..
Truly appauling and disturbing..

learningaboutheleft123

14th November 2010, 20:11

Is this the sort of 'patriot' that Geller mobilises? SIOA protestor shouts kill all the Muslims

VoCAbieZj1w

Burned Qur'an found at Michigan mosque

A national Islamic group has called for an FBI investigation after a burned Quran, pages allegedly covered in feces, was found Saturday at an East Lansing mosque frequented by the Michigan State University community.

"To have the Quran burned at a mosque is equivalent to having a cross burned at a black church," said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, referring to an intimidation tactic frequently used during the civil rights movement by those opposed. He has asked the FBI to consider the burning a hate crime.

The incident at the Islamic Center of East Lansing is one of at least three reported around 9/11, and comes on the heels of the Rev. Terry Jones' plan to burn Qurans on the anniversary, which he later abandoned.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/12/burned-quran-found-at-michigan-mosque.html

Ministers burn Qur'an in Tennessee backyard

A Florida pastor's threat to burn Islam's holy book on the anniversary of 9/11 set off a nationwide furor and incited Muslim anger as far away as Afghanistan, but the incendiary plan ended quietly in the backyard of a home in Springfield.

After a week that included warnings that burning the Quran would endanger American troops overseas, a personal phone call from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and an appeal from President Barack Obama to listen to "those better angels," the Rev. Terry Jones of Gainesville, Fla., relented and canceled his plans.

But the Rev. Bob Old vowed to stick with his plan to burn the Quran. On Saturday, despite the national tempest and opposition from conservative Christian leaders including Middle Tennessee pastors, Old carried out his plan. But for all the controversy and hype, his Quran burning took place in front of just a handful of people, most of them from the media.

Old and the Rev. Danny Allen stood together in Old's backyard, answering what they say was a message from God. The pair soaked two copies of the Quran and one other Islamic text with lighter fluid, ignited them and watched the books disintegrate into ashes. "This is a book of hate, not a book of love," Old said, holding the Quran, before setting it afire. "It's a false book, it's a false prophet (Muhammad) and it's false Scripture."

Three protesters stood across the street from Old's home, holding signs that read "My husband fights terrorism and your actions perpetuate it" and "Proud of my country but ashamed of my neighbors."

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/12/ministers-burn-quran-in-tennessee-backyard.html

Im sorry, but the guy in the video is an example to the defintion of ignorant. Without immigrants such as the muslims, who would be doing the 'less good' jobs that none of the native people want to do. However, no disrespect to Americans because not every american is like him, but we must remember Americans are alot more wary of foreigners than other countries. But him 'kill all the muslims' WTF dude !!!

learningaboutheleft123

14th November 2010, 20:13

mosfeld

16th November 2010, 20:28

Mob in Athens abuses Muslims as they celebrate Eid

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/storage/Muslims%20pray%20in%20Athens.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CAC HEVERSION=1289925439263

Dozens of far-right activists and local residents threw eggs and taunted hundreds of Muslim immigrants as they gathered to pray in a central square for Eid al-Adha surrounded by a protective cordon of riot police.

Greece, which has become the main immigrant gateway to the European Union, has a growing Muslim community and tensions between locals and incomers have run high in some Athens areas such as Attiki square, the scene of Tuesday's incident.

Athens' Muslim community is without an official mosque and prayers are usually held at cultural centers or community halls or private apartments around the city. The Muslim community in Greece is estimated at about 1 million, in a country where most people are Greek Orthodox Christians.

While the Muslims prayed, some locals shouted obscenities from their balconies and waved Greek flags. Leaflets that depicted pigs – an animal Muslims consider unclean – were scattered across the square.

"There is a (unofficial) mosque near here but we're afraid to go there," said a 30-year old migrant from Bangladesh, who gave his name as Shamasul. "Sometimes Greeks in the neighborhood threaten to kill us."

Margarita Vassilatou, 56, who has lived in the square for more than 35 years said she wanted to leave as a result of the immigrants: "This is not a life ... We are afraid of them. Many of them are criminals, they carry knifes and deal drugs."

In another, more central square in front of Athens university, about 2,000 Muslim men and women prayed peacefully in front of the neo-classical university and ancient Greek statues.

In the past, moves to build a mosque in the capital have been met with opposition from local residents and some priests of the Greek orthodox church.

However, the current archbishop supports the construction of a mosque and the socialist government has set aside a site close to the city center, although building has not yet begun.

The only mosques in Greece are in the northeastern region of Xanthi near the Turkish border, home to a large Muslim minority.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/11/16/mob-in-athens-abuses-muslims-as-they-celebrate-eid.html

mosfeld

16th November 2010, 20:29

Arizona: Islamophobes mistake church for mosque

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In an era saturated with absurd moments of anti-Muslim fear- mongering, mosques have become a touchstone for Islamophobia. Even unbuilt mosques have set off a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment in Tennessee, Texas, California, and most notably, New York.

Not to be outdone, the people of Pheonix, AZ were quick to call foul over the appearance of a dome-like structure along an interstate. But in the clamor over the impending Muslim takeover, these Arizonans missed one small detail – the building is not a Mosque, it's a church:

A new dome-like structure near 19th Avenue along Interstate 10 in Phoenix is the Light of the World church, a nondenominational Christian church hoping to modernize traditional worship services, a church spokesman said

Since the distinctive dome shape went up, church leaders said they have received phone calls from concerned neighbors who've mistaken the building for an Islamic mosque.

On Wednesday, church officials hung a sign reminding people they're a Christian congregation. "We're trying to let people know that we're Christian and our churches are modern," said Uzieo Martinez.

"It is unfortunate that people are so intolerant to differences that they aren't willing to see that the place of worship is not a mosque," said Tayyibah Amatullah of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Arizona chapter. But with so many high-profile figures selling unfounded, anti-Muslim fear to the public, is it any wonder that all many Americans can see in Islam is a phantom menace?

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/11/16/arizona-islamophobes-mistake-church-for-mosque.html

mosfeld

16th November 2010, 20:31

Jews against EDL launch unity voice

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The first joint initiative to combat Jewish support for the English Defence League within the community has been launched.

The "Not in our name – Jews against the EDL" campaign is backed by more than a dozen organisations, including the Board of Deputies, Community Security Trust, the Israeli Embassy, and Jews for Justice for Palestinians. More than 500 people have already pledged their support.

The initiative of the Union of Jewish Students, the campaign is a response to the creation of a "Jewish division" by the extreme right-wing anti-Islamic-fundamentalist group earlier this year, and the EDL's pro-Israel protest outside the Israeli Embassy last month, which was supported by American rabbi Nachum Shifren.

The "Not in our name" group's founding pledge states: "The Jewish community has always been at the forefront of anti-fascism. From Cable Street to defeating the BNP at the ballot box, we have been unafraid to speak out against those who seek to spread fear and hatred in our communities.

"Now our community faces a new threat. The EDL claims to be our allies in the fight against extremism. In reality, they are violent racists with BNP members and Nazi sympathisers among their ranks. It is time for the Jewish community to come together as one to expose the EDL as the racist thugs they are."

UJS campaigns director Carly McKenzie said: "We felt this was a prime opportunity to bring the whole community together with one loud voice."

Edie Friedman, director of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality, which is backing the initiative, said: "It's terribly important for different sections of the community, as well as individuals, to stand up and say categorically, 'not in our name'. It's unbelievable that such an organisation can appropriate Jewish support."

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: "At the HET we educate about the dangers of racism and discrimination and it is vital that we stand up against groups such as the EDL who preach hatred and division in our communities."

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/11/12/jews-against-edl-launch-unity-voice.html

mosfeld

18th November 2010, 15:18

EDL supporter threatened waiter because restaurant served halal meat

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Staff at an Indian restaurant in Bridgwater believe they are being targeted on religious and racist grounds following a spate of attacks.

This week a man was convicted for religiously aggravated criminal damage and provocation of violence at the Spice Club in Eastover. But there have been further reports of an assault on a waiter, racial abuse and criminal damage. Waiter Mehbub Kamali, 19, who claims he was punched on one occasion, told the Mercury: "I have been attacked for no other reason than the colour of my skin."

Last Tuesday, Sedgemoor Magistrates heard how Ashley Wilson, 24, smashed a glass pane at the restaurant and threatened to cut waiters’ faces because they served Halal meat. The court heard he asked Mr Kamali and Sultan Ahmet "Are you Muslim?" When they said yes, he said "I'm going to cut your face" and that it was "because I'm EDL [English Defence League]."

Mr Kamali said: "It's happening again and again and it's terrifying. I wonder what's next?"

Wilson, of Claremont Grove, admitted the attack on September 26 and was ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and to pay £165 compensation and £85 costs. In mitigation, Crispin Hayllar said he had drunk too much and acted out of character.

Police confirmed this week that a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage for an attack on the restaurant on November 3, and have been released on bail.

http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/11/17/edl-supporter-threatened-waiter-because-restaurant-served-ha.html

Rjevan

8th January 2011, 17:17

René Stadtkewitz, a Berlin parliament member, founded a new party, Die Freiheit (Freedom). The party is anti-Islam and calls for more freedom and democracy.

Stadtkewitz says that IslamDie Freiheit wants to keep out right-wing extremists. New members must sign a statement saying they don't have any links to extremist groups. "We are a civic, liberal party," says Stadtkewitz. He doesn't want anything to do with the Belgian Vlaams Belang and Austrian FPÖ either. "These parties incite religions against each other, and we don't want that."
Amazing how fast attitudes can change. This is from one of Spiegel's typical long-winded articles, full of irrelevance, but this is the most interesting part. After reading about him praising Wilders for being "a great democrat and liberal" and making reference to Sarrazin's book as impetus for his new mission, we learn that Stadtkewitz, "the German Geert Wilders", as Spiegel has to call him already, now very much does want cooperation with parties which "incite religions against each other":

Riding the Wave of Islamophobia - The German Geert Wilders, Part 4

The party is still small, but it is growing, particularly in Berlin and the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It welcomed its 1,000th member in December. There are plans to form state organizations in the coming months, and a central party office is in the works. Stadtkewitz would like to see his party headquarters located in downtown Berlin, in its political center, but for now the party meets in Reinickendorf, an outlying district in the city's northwest.

The party's future will be shaped next year, when Berlin holds its parliamentary elections. "That will be the deciding moment. If we don't manage to get into the parliament, the party will be all but dead," says Stadtkewitz. But he also says that he expects to capture "significantly more than five percent of the vote."

He would like to have a strong figure to lead the campaign, a prominent face. But he will probably end up having to assume that role himself. Stadtkewitz wants to hire a coach to show him how to write statements, how to get into the news and how to score points as a guest on talk shows. "I have to become tougher, clearer and more trenchant. I also have to provoke. Just like Wilders."

Geert Wilders, the hero of the European anti-Islam movement, is Stadtkewitz's role model, even though he would never admit it. Nevertheless, he is already benefiting from Wilders' contacts. Stadtkewitz is now part of a European movement. In December, it took him to Israel, together with Heinz-Christian Strache, the chairman of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), Belgian politician Filip Dewinter of the similarly oriented Flemish nationalist Vlaams Belang Party, and Kent Ekeroth of the national and anti-Islamic Sweden Democrats. The group met with Jewish settlers in the West Bank, visited the city of Ashkelon in the Gaza Strip, discussed "strategies against Islamic terror" and visited the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. The delegation's Israeli contact was Ariel Shomer, the head of the cabinet of former President Ezer Weizman.

The 'Jerusalem Declaration'

It wasn't entirely clear what the conservative Israelis expected from Stadtkewitz and the other party leaders, but perhaps they were simply united in their fear of Islam.

During the trip, the delegation issued the "Jerusalem Declaration," a manifesto of sorts. "Now that the totalitarian systems of the 20th century have been overcome," the document reads, "mankind currently sees itself exposed to a new, worldwide totalitarian threat: fundamentalist Islam. We see ourselves as part of the worldwide struggle by the defenders of democracy and human rights against all totalitarian system and their accomplices."

Stadtkewitz is beginning to attract attention, not just in Israel but also in the faraway United States. Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin sent her best wishes to Stadtkewitz and his delegation in Israel, and he could be visiting New York, the center of the world, soon. Nothing is set in stone yet, says Stadtkewitz, but last year Wilders spoke in New York on the ninth anniversary of 9/11, at the invitation of the organization Stop Islamization of America. This year, on the 10th anniversary, the group is thinking about inviting Stadtkewitz.

Full article in English here: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,737676,00.html