A psychologist who has played a key role in opposing the introduction of relationship and sex education lessons in schools is being investigated by her profession’s governing body over her fitness to practise.
Dr Kate Godfrey-Faussett, who has extensive experience working with young children and families, is a leading figure in Stop RSE, a campaign against relationship and sex education (RSE) lessons in schools.
Continue reading...Muslim groups have demanded the withdrawal of a hard-hitting short film made to help tackle Islamophobic hate crimes, protesting that it promotes violence and fear.
The Martyrs, a four-minute film shot on location in west London in the wake of the Christchurch shootings, graphically dramatises three real-life Islamophobic crimes: a stabbing, an acid attack and the kicking in the stomach of a pregnant woman, leading to the death of her unborn twins. It was made by Rizwan Wadan, a camera technician who has worked on high-profile dramas such as The Favourite, Star Wars and Luther. He enlisted the help of leading cinematographers, camera operators, producers, stunt artists and film companies.
Continue reading...Former party chair says senior Tories are concerned about minister’s views on Muslims
The Conservative peer Sayeeda Warsi has said she is fearful of the idea of Michael Gove becoming prime minister, saying she and other senior members of the Tory party are concerned about his views on British Muslims.
The former Tory chairman, who is Muslim, said any party that elected Gove as a leader “has got major problems” in the light of his views.
Continue reading...A fortnight after the murders of 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, the pain is still agonising. The urgency of confronting the violent threat posed by far-right extremists across the world has been brought home in the most horrifying way. Facebook’s announcement this week that it will ban white separatist and nationalist content comes too late for the victims of this attack and others, including that on a Pittsburgh synagogue last year. Governments including Austria’s are investigating links between international far-right groups and the Christchurch killer.
Last week’s announcement by the UK government of additional funding for security at places of worship was a significant gesture. But it falls far short of what the Muslim Council of Britain and former Conservative party chair Baroness Warsi had called for. Reports of a soaring number of anti-Muslim hate crimes, including the stabbing of a teenager in Surrey by a white man screaming abuse, provide disturbing confirmation that fear and anger about Islamophobia – defined by MPs as a prejudice rooted in racism and targeting “expressions of Muslimness” – are grounded in facts.
Continue reading...The Canadian province of Quebec will ban public sector employees from wearing religious symbols during work hours, in legislation introduced on Thursday, a controversial move that critics say targets Muslim women who wear hijabs or other head coverings.
The proposed law sets the province’s right-leaning Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government on a collision course with the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, who promotes religious freedom, in a federal election year with Quebec a vital battleground.
Related: 'It’s part of who I am': proposed Quebec law could push hijab-wearers out of jobs
Related: Montreal to take down 80-year-old crucifix from city chambers
Continue reading...US secretary of state renewed demands to end ‘abhorrent’ practice after meeting detention survivor
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has renewed demands for an end to China’s practice of detaining Uighur Muslims in huge camps in Xinjiang, a day after calling the practice “abhorrent”.
Pompeo spoke on Wednesday while meeting a survivor and relatives of the regime, under which at least a million Uighurs are believed to be held.
Related: Chinese surveillance company tracking 2.5m Xinjiang residents
Continue reading...Whitcoulls reportedly removed the book from sale ‘in light of some extremely disturbing material being circulated’
Controversial academic Jordan Peterson has publicised the reinstatement of his self-help book 12 Rules for Life at New Zealand book chain Whitcoulls, after it was removed from sale following the Christchurch attacks.
Last week, images of an email from Whitcoulls were posted on social media in which a spokeswoman for the bookseller told a customer that it had taken the decision to remove Peterson’s book from sale “in light of some extremely disturbing material being circulated prior, during and after the Christchurch attacks”.
Continue reading...Parents have been protesting over relationship education, saying it is incompatible with their religious values. Where does the row leave gay Muslims?
For the past month, a primary school in Birmingham has been the site of a battle over education, religious values and LGBTQ rights. Parkfield community school had begun using the No Outsiders programme, which runs alongside relationship and sex education classes, which led to hundreds of parents withdrawing their children from classes.
The school says the lessons are age-appropriate and teach tolerance for different races, genders and sexual orientations. But critics complained that the programme “promotes” gay and transgender lifestyles to children. Sir Michael Wilshaw, the former chief of Ofsted, has now said that the school should reinstate the lessons.
Continue reading...Bismillahirahmanirrahim.
In the name of the Most Compassionate and Most Benevolent.
Patience, like love, takes form in many beautiful ways.
Beautiful in the way Allah subhanaa wa taala [swt] has commanded of us while we face our different adversities in this life. “Therefore, endure with a beautiful patience.” – Surah Al-Maarij (70:5)
It is also beautiful because whilst there is no definite or limited form, Allah SWT has promised that the reward for practising patience is immense, definite but not limited.
There is the patience at the first strike of calamity.
There is the patience while waiting.
There is the patience in self-restraint.
There is the patience while controlling extreme emotions of anger and sadness.
No matter the forms of patience that we have to learn to adopt at different time and situations in our lives, it will require us to have an unwavering trust in the fate and predestination set by Allah and His wisdom, hope in Allah’s endless mercy and love; and ultimately, fear of Allah.
These trust, hope and fear will alter and improve our behaviour before, during and after the moments in which patience has to take form. As the saying goes, patience is not only the ability to wait but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.
We should always have good opinions of Allah [swt] and his plans, and that He only wants the good and beautiful for you. May Allah [swt] give us strength to endure with beautiful patience, reward us immensely for this patience and grant us a beautiful ending. Amin.
Till the next time Insya’Allah.
Dua for patience:
رَبَّنَا أَفْرِغْ عَلَيْنَا صَبْرًا وَتَوَفَّنَا مُسْلِمِينَ – 7:126
Rabbana afrigh ‘alayna sabran wa tawaffana muslimeen. -Surah Al-Araf (7:126)
Our Lord! Pour out on us patience and constancy, and take our souls unto thee as Muslims (who bow to thy will)!
This article is written by Creative Lemon. If you like their work, check out their other cool and amazing designs and contents here.
The post What is Sabr (Patience)? appeared first on Quotes Of Islam.
An impressive collection looks at Muslim women’s lives in modern Britain
No other item of religious clothing has ignited passions and prejudice among politicians and media commentators as much as the burqa, worn by a minority of Muslim women. In 2006, then leader of the House of Commons Jack Straw wrote of his “concerns” after a meeting with a veiled Muslim woman in his Blackburn constituency – he later apologised. Tony Blair, who was then prime minister, said the wearing of veils was a “mark of separation”. More than a decade later, Boris Johnson wrote that women who wear veils “look like letterboxes”.
The paranoia over Islamic clothing has become a political opportunity to codify laws against European Muslims. Legislation prohibiting or limiting face veiling now exists in Belgium, Bulgaria, Austria, France and Germany. Last year, politicians in Denmark cited local values when they passed a law banning the wearing of face veils in public. The law, punishable by a fine, affects only an estimated 200 Muslim women.
Related: Divorce, Islam and me: 'I will for ever be the woman who left two husbands'
Continue reading...Treatment of Uighur minority has been heavily criticised in the west but Wang Yang says ‘high pressure’ must be maintained
Xinjiang needs to “perfect” stability maintenance measures and crack down on religious extremism, the ruling Communist party’s fourth-ranked leader has said on a tour of the region where China is running a controversial deradicalisation programme.
Critics say China is operating internment camps for Uighurs and other Muslim peoples who live in Xinjiang, though the government calls them vocational training centres and says it has a genuine need to prevent extremist thinking and violence.
Related: 'If you enter a camp, you never come out': inside China's war on Islam
Related: Xinjiang detention camps may be phased out, governor suggests
Continue reading...Kirk Hargreaves reveals lucky break behind a picture of the New Zealand prime minister that symbolised the nation’s grief
In the wake of the Christchurch massacre, stunned residents were looking for images of hope.
They found it in a photograph of prime minister Jacinda Ardern, clad in a black headscarf and overlaid with flowers reflected on the glass outside.
Related: 'The nation is behind us': New Zealand shares pain of Christchurch Muslims
Continue reading...Exclusive: messages seen by the Guardian refer to Muslims as ‘cavemen’ and should be ‘rounded up’
Five new self-professed Conservative members have been revealed to have posted Islamophobic or racist comment on Facebook, prompting fresh concerns about anti-Muslim sentiment in the Conservative party.
Messages seen by the Guardian refer to Muslims as “cavemen”, call for them to be “rounded up and returned to point of origin” and claim “most” of the religion’s followers are sex offenders.
Continue reading...One week after massacre, deputy mayor describes a ‘city in shock’ but feels legacy will be one of greater understanding
It began to drizzle as Hati Mohemmed Daoud Nabi was laid to rest in the freshly dug earth of Memorial park cemetery in Christchurch.
The 71-year-old was the fifth to be buried on Thursday. Six days earlier, he was the first to die when he held open the door of Masjid Al Noor on Deans Avenue in Christchurch and greeted a stranger with: “Hello, brother.”
Related: 'Remain resolute': Christchurch students' haka tribute has roots in earthquake
Related: New Zealand asks: how was the threat from the far right missed?
Related: Thousands attend vigil in Dunedin for victims of Christchurch attack
Continue reading...Two groups escorted through cordon by police as elsewhere life begins to return to normal
Muslim community leaders have been escorted back to one of two mosques targeted in the New Zealand terror attack.
Two groups were taken through the cordon to Masjid Al Noor on Saturday morning, accompanied by a delegation of dignitaries.
Related: Erdoğan praises New Zealand PM after row over mosque attacks
Related: Christchurch attacks: New Zealand brings in sweeping gun-law changes
Continue reading...Baroness Warsi has repeatedly accused the Conservative party of institutional Islamophobia and called for an independent inquiry (Tory party suspends 14 members over allegedly Islamophobic remarks, 6 March).
Her concerns echo the evidence of a recent report by the anti-racist advocacy group Hope Not Hate. Surely the time is long overdue for the leadership to listen to her rather than insisting, as all political parties tend to do, that the main problem with racist abuse and discrimination always lies elsewhere.
Continue reading...Exclusive: rise in number of incidents related to NZ attacks alarms community groups
The number of anti-Muslim hate crimes reported across Britain increased by 593% in the week after a white supremacist terrorist killed worshippers at two New Zealand mosques, an independent monitoring group has said.
The charity Tell Mama said almost all of the increase was caused by hate incidents linked to the New Zealand attacks last Friday, and there were more recorded in the last seven days than the week following the 2017 Islamist terrorist attack on Manchester.
Continue reading...For better or worse, it’s in our nature to avoid difficult conversations. And no wonder: a tough conversation poorly held can hurt more than it heals.
But avoidance only takes you so far. From my time as a youth worker I know that difficult conversations don’t become easier the longer you put them off. That’s why I know it’s time for Conservatives to have a proper conversation about Islamophobia. There is simply too much hate floating around online these days and too much of it is appearing (intentionally or not) under our banner. We must root it out, now.
Related: The Tories are tough on Islamophobia? What a joke | Jonathan Freedland
Related: Tory London mayoral pick under fire for remarks about Muslims and Hindus
Continue reading...Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.
So opens a Jackanory-style film uploaded to social media this week by one Birmingham mother, featuring her reading aloud from a picture book called Mommy, Mama and Me. It’s a cosy, toddler-friendly bedtime story about two mothers doing what mothers do the world over: pouring juice, tucking children up in bed, playing hide and seek. Your children’s primary school or your local library might well have a copy. Although they might have plumped instead for And Tango Makes Three, the tale of two daddy penguins adopting a chick.
Related: Lives are ruined by shame and stigma. LGBT lessons in schools are vital | Hannah Jane Parkinson
Continue reading...People across New Zealand observed the Muslim call to prayer on Friday as the nation marked a week since the Christchurch mosque massacres. As thousands gathered in Hagley Park opposite the city's Al Noor mosque, prime minister Jacinda Ardern tells the crowd: 'We are one.' Thousands more listened on the radio or watched on television. The prayer was followed by two minutes of silence
Continue reading...Prime minister instead says Coalition has worked with One Nation leader on ‘a lot of important issues’
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has dodged the question of whether Pauline Hanson is racist, saying the right thing to do after Christchurch is to “reach out to the Muslim community and give them a big hug”.
Morrison said he did not believe people should apply a broad brush to the One Nation leader and pick on one issue, as she had something to contribute on other issues, such as family court reform – on which she has been criticised for promoting the views of men’s rights activists.
Related: Channel Seven says Pauline Hanson still welcome after Koch Christchurch accusation
Related: ‘It’s OK to be white’ is not a joke, it’s careless politicians helping the far right | Jason Wilson
Continue reading...Counter-terrorism officers investigating after series of attacks overnight
Counter-terrorism police are investigating after windows were smashed at five mosques in Birmingham.
West Midlands police were first called at 2.32am to a mosque on Birchfield Road, Perry Barr, where a man was reported to be breaking windows with a sledgehammer. Officers who arrived there found that the attack had happened some time earlier.
Continue reading...Prime minister admits shadow cabinet discussed issue in 2010 but insists that he was seeking to avoid worsening divisions
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has admitted a discussion took place in shadow cabinet in 2010 about community fears about Muslims, but said his contribution was intended to “lower the fears about Islam and not elevate them”.
In a wide-ranging interview with Waleed Aly on the Channel Ten program The Project, Morrison refused to answer repeated questions about whether he would insist that One Nation be put last on how-to-vote cards, while declaring his track record was to bring communities together.
Related: Scott Morrison suffers historic defeat as Labor and crossbench pass medevac bill
Continue reading...All-party parliamentary group definition says Islamophobia is ‘rooted in racism’
The Labour party has formally adopted a definition of Islamophobia, arguing that it is vital to tackling the rise of far-right racism.
A party spokesperson said its national executive committee had adopted the working definition produced by the all-party parliamentary group on British Muslims “to help tackle Islamophobia, build a common understanding of its causes and consequences, and express solidarity with Muslim communities”.
Related: ‘Systemic Islamophobia’ fuels terror attacks, say Muslim leaders
Related: Muslims demand full legal protection from Islamophobia
Continue reading...The 38-year-old prime minister has been tested like no other New Zealand leader before by the worst terrorism attack in the nation’s modern history
In the hours after a gunman killed 50 people at two mosques in central Christchurch, prime minister Jacinda Ardern called a press conference that set the tone for a grief-stricken country. It has become a seminal moment of her leadership story.
The 38-year-old prime minister has been tested like few New Zealand leaders before, leading the country as it deals with the worst terrorism attack in the nation’s modern history.
Related: New Zealand shooting: Ardern says she will never speak suspect's name
Related: The Christchurch massacre and the rise of far-right extremism
Continue reading...Hours after 50 worshippers were killed at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was already promising to tighten up the country’s gun laws. It’s a stark contrast to Donald Trump’s reaction to mass shootings, a written-by-numbers offer of “thoughts and prayers”, then a twiddle of his thumbs until the next atrocity. New Zealand’s response seems to have more in common with Scotland where the massacre at Dunblane primary school in 1996 led to a ban on all handguns.
There are some pronounced differences between the two countries. New Zealand’s gun laws are lax; the UK’s gun laws had already been tightened and semi-automatic centrefire rifles banned in the wake of the Hungerford massacre in 1987. But what Scotland and New Zealand share is little previous experience of spree shootings, a visceral shock at the scale of their country’s loss and a determination to prevent it happening again.
Related: New Zealand attack: victims of the mosque massacre
Related: Naming the Christchurch suspect is a choice. The media must make it carefully | Gaby Hinsliff
Continue reading...The both sides argument has rung hollow for years, but at this moment it is disgusting
On Monday morning, Sunrise host David Koch took Pauline Hanson on.
“Pauline, this terrorist manifesto almost reads like One Nation immigration and Muslim policy. Do you in any way feel complicit in this atrocity?”
Related: Welcome to the latest edition of It's Never Ever White People's Fault | First Dog on the Moon
Gay Alcorn is the Melbourne editor of Guardian Australia
Continue reading...Rashna Farrukh says the Christchurch massacre shows media coverage has ‘real life consequences’
A young Muslim woman says she quit her junior liaison job at Sky News after the Christchurch massacre because she felt the commentators were increasing polarisation and fear.
“Some nights I felt physically sick, others I even shed tears in my car on the way home,” Rashna Farrukh wrote for ABC online after resigning from Sky after three years. “I continued to compromise my values. Not only my values as a member of a religious group who was continuously being blamed and alienated by the rhetoric on these shows, but also as an aspiring journalist.
Just the usual factual errors from #theirABC as they use a young person with no demand for journalistic standards such as the citation of examples, quotes and facts. Just the right feelings and the desired ideological stance. Shame. #theirABC already forced to correct. https://t.co/UDllNBnIZ0
Hate clicks is not responsible reach, ABC. This was the ratio of reactions immediately after the national broadcaster finished Facebook live streaming Fr*ser Ann*ng's presser yesterday, giving him an uncritical platform to spew his hatred pic.twitter.com/pK9MHobxMO
.@craigmcmurtrie: "The press conference was taken and to be honest, that was simply because the memo didn't reach a particular producer and so it was live streamed"
@Raf_Epstein: "So it was a mistake to broadcast live on Facebook?"@craigmcmurtrie: "Yes"#auspol #FraserAnning
When someone makes an inappropriate joke, or when a senator makes incendiary remarks, speak up
When I walked into work on Monday I told myself I was going to be strong. Then an Indigenous colleague pulled me aside and hugged me and I crumbled in her arms. She told me that the Indigenous community was so sorry for what has happened to our community, and we talked and cried. I, like many other Muslims, have felt the pain of the Christchurch mosque massacre so viscerally.
I was so shaken that I did not step out at all over the weekend.
Related: Until Christchurch I thought it was worth debating with Islamophobes. Not any more | Nesrine Malik
If this is not the Australia that we know, then we have to prove it.
Sara Mansour is a lawyer, poet and the co-founder and director of the Bankstown Poetry Slam
Continue reading...Reynolds says passage of medevac bill made her ‘almost physically ill’ because she ‘lived through terrorism and … the Bali bombings’
Liberal senator Linda Reynolds has told ABC’s Q&A program that the passage of last month’s medevac bill for critically sick refugees made her “almost physically ill” because she “lived through terrorism and … the Bali bombings”.
Reynolds had been asked, in light of the Christchurch terror attack, whether Australia’s politicians and media had built a fear of migrants and “others” over the past decade.
Related: Channel Seven says Pauline Hanson still welcome after Koch Christchurch accusation
Continue reading...We are horrified by the cold-blooded massacre of 50 peaceful Muslim worshippers, including women and children, in Christchurch, New Zealand, last Friday. The brutal and merciless killing of innocent and defenceless worshippers devastates us. Our thoughts and prayers are with the scores of injured who remain hospitalised. Our deepest, heartfelt condolences go out to the families who have lost their loved ones. We pray that the agony of the bereaved may find some comfort and solace in knowing those slain will be granted paradise, God willing.
In recent times, we have seen levels of racist and anti-religious sentiments on the rise globally. We witnessed the horrific terror attacks at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, and Muslim worshippers mowed down in Finsbury Park, London. In each of these cases, the perpetrators self-identified as holding far-right nationalist views and expressed hatred for racial and religious minorities. Views such as these have found a natural home in far-right populist narratives. If such abhorrent views go unchecked in the media, and indeed within mainstream political discourse and institutions, minority communities of all descriptions will continue to face increasing threats of persecution around the world.
Continue reading...Less than two days after the horror of the massacre of 50 Muslims in two mosques in New Zealand, I was asked in an interview on the BBC news channel whether or not I think Muslim communities in the UK do enough to condemn Islamist extremism.
“There’s a straightforward problem here, isn’t there – one of the reasons that some of this language has become common is bluntly because of the Islamist violence and the Islamist extremism that has happened – one of the criticisms we hear in this country has been that there isn’t enough criticism of those people by the mainstream Islamic community – what do you say to that?”
Blaming the victim here. Extraordinary.#NewZealandTerroristAttack pic.twitter.com/cWINb7oIoG
Related: New Zealand attack: victims of the mosque massacre
Related: Police declare stabbing in Surrey a terrorism incident
Continue reading...Christchurch attack prompts call for government support equal to that pledged for Jewish communities
Muslim leaders have called on the government to provide funding for mosque security in the wake of the New Zealand shootings.
Harun Khan, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, will be writing to the prime minister raising the “palpable sense of fear” felt by Muslim communities after the attack in Christchurch which claimed 50 lives, and warning of the risk of copycat attacks in the UK.
Continue reading...Channel Seven says it will continue to feature One Nation leader on the show because ‘we canvass both sides’
Channel Seven’s Sunrise program will continue to give Pauline Hanson a platform each week despite host David Koch’s fiery exchange with the One Nation leader about her vilification of Muslims.
“We never shy away from debates,” the executive producer, Michael Pell, told Guardian Australia. “We canvass both sides and the viewer is left to make up his or her own mind.”
“This terrorist manifesto almost reads like One Nation immigration and muslim policy. Do you feel complicit with this atrocity?”@Kochie_Online to @PaulineHansonOZ after the Christchurch terror attack. pic.twitter.com/VFIRQQezyn
Related: Scott Morrison attacks 'mindless tribalism' after Christchurch massacre
Fucking spare me. This show has given Pauline Hanson a platform for years. Don't turn around now and pretend to be shocked at her views https://t.co/lnWmsD4Pgf
Monday’s front page of The Daily Telegraph pic.twitter.com/ZbOlxdfQg9
Related: Facebook removed 1.5m videos of New Zealand terror attack in first 24 hours
EG 1 Bolt’s Aug Sky editrl “The Price of Muslim Immigration”
“We imported such extremism.. what must be done to shut the door?”
“Even if you screen the parents, you cannot screen their children.”
If a parent is Muslim-authorities can’t be sure the kid is not a terrorist?
2/12
Home affairs minister accuses both of trying to extract a political advantage from the mosque shootings
Peter Dutton has accused the Greens of being “just as bad” as extreme nationalist senator Fraser Anning, claiming both are seeking to extract political advantage from the Christchurch terror attack.
On Monday the home affairs minister equated the Greens holding him accountable for stoking anti-Islamic sentiment with Anning’s comments blaming the attack on Muslim immigration.
Related: Greens demand hate speech by MPs be stamped out after Christchurch massacre
We won’t be silenced @PeterDutton_MP Your hateful rhetoric has consequences and we will hold you and all the voices of hate to account. https://t.co/YxyXicLAnR
Related: 'Full force of the law' should apply to Fraser Anning after egging incident, Morrison says
Continue reading...Jonathan Freedland (We must confront the right’s hate preachers, 16 March) is right to castigate Viktor Orbán, Matteo Salvini and Donald Trump for their anti-Islamic rhetoric. But we must not omit the part played by British politicians in deliberately adopting language that promotes hatred of religious and racial groups. Boris Johnson’s “letterboxes”, David Cameron’s “swarm” of migrants, Theresa May’s “Go home” posters, Sajid Javid’s “asylum shoppers” all help to inspire the warped narrative of exclusion that the Christchurch murderer made explicit in his manifesto.
John Hambley
Snape, Suffolk
• Jonathan Freedland does not go far enough in arguing that political leaders such as Orbán and Trump have contributed to Islamaphobia. When has any political leader in this country, Europe or the US ever made an embracing and inclusive statement of nationhood like Jacinda Ardern’s when she said of all those killed in Christchurch – many of them probably immigrants and refugees – that, “They are us.”
Rod Edmond
Deal, Kent
An “A-list” comedian, well-known singers, scholars, pensioners and civil servants – the list of prisoners grows. As many as 1.5 million Uighurs and other Muslims are or have been held in camps in China’s Xinjiang region without charge or trial, a leading researcher believes. Virtually no Uighur family is untouched, he says.
China has moved from denying the camps to describing them as vocational training centres, comparable to boarding schools. In the run-up to last week’s meeting of the UN human rights council in Geneva, it invited diplomats from selected countries on tours and choreographed visits for a few journalists, who were greeted with people singing If You’re Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands. According to Beijing, these are students receiving free accommodation, skills training, and lessons in Chinese language and law.
Continue reading...Before attending church on Sunday, Donald Trump defended a Fox News host who was taken off air after she questioned whether a Muslim congresswoman’s religious beliefs were compatible with the US constitution.
Related: Pete Buttigieg to Fox News: 'Ideological spectrum has never been less relevant'
Fox must stay strong and fight back with vigour. Stop working soooo hard on being politically correct
Related: 'I know what intolerance looks like': Ilhan Omar takes her turn in the spotlight
Continue reading...Richard Di Natale warns Fraser Anning ‘is not a lone voice in our parliament’ and calls for code of conduct
The Greens have cited the rightwing terrorist attack in Christchurch to renew calls for a parliamentary code of conduct to stamp out hate speech, a push also backed by Australia’s peak Muslim body.
Richard Di Natale has written to Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten warning that the extreme rightwing nationalist senator Fraser Anning – who blamed the attack on Muslim immigration – “is not a lone voice in our parliament” and more needs to be done to prevent “hateful rhetoric”.
Related: 'Full force of the law' should apply to Fraser Anning after egging incident, Morrison says
Related: Fraser Anning will soon leave our parliament – but his xenophobic message will not | Amy Remeikis
Continue reading...“Solidarity and anger. Those were my immediate emotions.” So I wrote three years ago after Islamist gunmen wreaked carnage on the streets of Paris. And they were my immediate emotions – indeed of most people, I assume – on hearing of the horror in Christchurch, New Zealand.
“Beyond solidarity and anger,” I added, “we need also analysis.” That’s even truer after Christchurch. The issues raised by the barbarous terror are many and urgent – the rise of the far right and how to combat it; how mainstream commentators talk of Muslims and immigration and whiteness; the boundaries of free speech; the regulation of social media. And so on. I will no doubt have my say on these issues in the coming days.
The rawness of anger inevitably clouds judgment. The grammar of social media inexorably leads to polarised confrontation
Continue reading...After so many attacks over so many years, we have become inured to terrorist atrocities. This in itself is a tragedy. Yet even after so much previous bloodshed in the name of hate-filled ideologies, the murder of 49 men, women and children at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Friday has spread shock and disgust around the globe.
There is something particularly appalling about targeting people for their faith, as they engage in the act of worship.
Continue reading...All victims removed from mosques but no time frame in place for identification of bodies
The death toll from the mosque terror attacks in Christchurch has risen to 50, New Zealand police commissioner confirmed on Sunday morning.
Speaking to reporters in Wellington, Mike Bush said by Saturday night all victims had been removed from the scenes of the massacres at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques.
Related: Christchurch: how quiet city became target for terror
Continue reading...Messages of support and solidarity delivered in New Zealand, Australia, Britain, America and Canada
Mosques in New Zealand and around the world have been inundated with floral tributes and messages of support after a massacre in Christchurch that killed 49 Muslims.
The strongest response from the public was in New Zealand, which is reeling in the wake of the worst peacetime mass killing in the nation’s history.
Just dropped off some flowers at Kilbirnie Mosque. There is so, so much love here right now - the flowers, hugs and messages of support keep coming in droves. Aroha nui, New Zealand. pic.twitter.com/YWrcRw75lH
Floral tributes at the gate of the Al Masjid al Jamie mosque in Ponsonby, Auckland have been arriving since yesterday.
One man laying flowers this morning, Richard, says it was a way of saying 'we are thinking of you and we are one'. pic.twitter.com/hWP2QHqafn
New Zealanders around the country have shown up at mosques en masse to show their support. Impossible at some places to get a park apparently.
Joined others in leaving flowers and messages of support at the local mosque in Canberra, Australia. #NZTerrorAttack #christchurchmosqueshootings #masjidalnoor pic.twitter.com/HlSPkp14JP
Makeshift memorials are also popping up at mosques here in Australia.
Here people have laid flowers outside the Lutwyche Mosque ♥
: Donna Field pic.twitter.com/wcciQ4X6gm
Bouquets of flowers, some accompanied with touching messages, adorn the fence of Lakemba Mosque in Sydney. pic.twitter.com/OdQYIR5y0g
An open offer to any Muslim man, woman or child. If you are fearful about walking through the gates of your mosque, let me know and I’ll happily walk with you. Because your ability to practice your faith is as important as it is for me to practice mine.
More flowers and candles left outside Idris Mosque in Seattle in response to mass shooting at New Zealand mosque. Tomorrow Idris is holding a previously scheduled “Cup of Tea Get to know your Muslim Neighbor” event at 4:00. pic.twitter.com/cZKPBe3lef
It was heartening to see the support for Vancouver’s Muslim community today walking by Al-Masjid Al-Jamia Mosque. The flowers have been piling up today in response to #NZTerrorAttack Vancouverites stand with our Muslim friends, family, co-workers and neighbours ❤️ pic.twitter.com/z283DAA6db
Flowers and an overflow crowd at Vancouver's oldest mosque @GlobalBC pic.twitter.com/1Lxe4v9PDS
As we opened the #Cambridge Central Mosque doors today, a young man from #NewZealand came by to express how upset he was by the horrific attack in #Christchurch. He broke down in tears, gave us flowers and a beautiful note of support. We will always stand in solidarity. ♥ pic.twitter.com/eHg7jnjWJU
This lady walked into a Mosque in #Rotherham to give flowers to Muslims after the terrorist attack in New Zealand. One love and one humanity #newzealandterroristattack pic.twitter.com/f7cxj2kpth
Outside a mosque in Manchester today... pic.twitter.com/m3CeaBTgEg
Continue reading...The motivations and actions of far-right terrorists are not dissimilar to those of others
The terrorist attack in New Zealand has focused attention once more on the acute threat posed by rightwing extremists.
Waves of terrorism follow a pattern: a long, unnoticed buildup followed by a massive and spectacular strike that often inflicts significant damage and casualties but focuses minds and eventually resources.
Continue reading...Christchurch suspect’s manifesto included name of man who was jailed for life after 2017 attack on the north London mosque
There was a feeling of shock, concern but also defiance among Muslims as they gathered for Friday prayers at one of Britain’s largest mosques, hours after a terrorist attack on worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand left 49 dead.
In June 2017 Darren Osborne drove into a crowd of worshippers standing on a pavement near Finsbury Park mosque, killing Makram Ali and injuring nine others in the terrorist attack.
Related: The Islamophobia that led to the Christchurch shooting must be confronted | HA Hellyer
Continue reading...The idea that the speech sounds “f” and “v” are related to eating soft food (Scientists’ jaw-dropping finding: how soft food helped us voice F-words, 15 March) becomes tricky to maintain when you consider the origins of those sounds in various languages. For example, the modern Greek “f” and “v” come from an earlier aspirated “p” and non-aspirated “b”, whereas the late Latin and modern Italian “v” comes from a classical Latin “w”-like sound, both coexisting with “b”. I don’t think you can put that down to a sudden liking for porridge among Mediterranean peoples.
Michael Bulley
Chalon-sur-Saône, France
• In view of the mass killing at a mosque in New Zealand by a rightwing gunman, maybe the chairman of the Conservative party should consider taking action over the Tory party member, photographed with Boris Johnson in 2015, who recently wrote that he was “going through a few magazines the other day down at the local mosque … then the rifle jammed” (Tory chairman accused of being selective on Islamophobia, 12 March)?
Christopher Clayton
Waverton, Cheshire
Warning of ‘unabated Islamophobia’ comes as UK police step up patrols after New Zealand terror attack
Muslim leaders in the UK have called on the government to redouble its efforts to ensure the country’s mosques are protected in the wake of the shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, as they said worshippers attending Friday prayers would be doing so in the face of “unabated Islamophobia”.
The warning came as British police stepped up patrols in Muslim areas and around places of worship in direct response to the terrorist attack, in which at least 49 people were killed and 48 injured.
Related: The Islamophobia that led to the Christchurch shooting must be confronted | HA Hellyer
Continue reading...Britain has gone through the looking glass and the artist’s new show follows it into the abyss. He talks about the upsurge of racism, fighting for Shamima Begum – and his clash with France’s president
At 7.30 on the morning after Britain voted to leave the European Union, Anish Kapoor left his London flat for an appointment with his analyst. On the street, he heard two men talking. “Bet he doesn’t even speak English,” said one. “I turned around and they were talking about me. I was so furious.”
Sir Anish Mikhail Kapoor, CBE, RA, the 65-year-old, Turner prize-winning, Mumbai-born British-Indian artist, who has lived in London since the early 1970s and (though this is hardly the point) speaks better English than most of his countrymen, had woken up in a new land. “Since then permission has been given for difference, rather than being celebrated, to be undermined.”
I asked the French president to speak out against the destruction of culture. He said you must do it. Pathetic shit
Anish Kapoor’s exhibition opens at Pitzhanger Manor, London, on 16 March.
Continue reading...Top Uighur official says there will be fewer and fewer students at centres thought to house a million people
Top officials in Xinjiang have hinted that the system of internment centres used to hold a million Muslim minorities may one day be phased out.
Researchers say huge numbers of people, mostly Uighurs, are being held in detention and re-education camps in the far western territory as part of a huge security crackdown in the name of counter terrorism efforts.
Related: 'If you enter a camp, you never come out': inside China's war on Islam
Related: Chinese surveillance company tracking 2.5m Xinjiang residents
Continue reading...Remarks made when Carlson was a guest on a shock jock radio show, which he was a regular guest on from 2006 to 2011
Fox News host Tucker Carlson is under fire for the second time in as many days for remarks he made years ago as a guest on a shock jock radio program – this time for a barrage of racist language about the people of Iraq.
“I just have zero sympathy for them or their culture. A culture where people just don’t use toilet paper or forks,” he said of the nation in a 2006 appearance on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show, in audio rediscovered by the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters. “They can just shut the fuck up and obey, is my view.”
Related: Tucker Carlson refuses to apologize after sexist remarks resurface
It’s never going to be a civilized country because the people aren’t civilized
Continue reading...Remarks made when Carlson was a guest on a shock jock radio show, which he was a regular guest on from 2006 to 2011
Fox News host Tucker Carlson is under fire for the second time in as many days for remarks he made years ago as a guest on a shock jock radio program – this time for a barrage of racist language about the people of Iraq.
“I just have zero sympathy for them or their culture. A culture where people just don’t use toilet paper or forks,” he said of the nation in a 2006 appearance on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show, in audio rediscovered by the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters. “They can just shut the fuck up and obey, is my view.”
Related: Tucker Carlson refuses to apologize after sexist remarks resurface
It’s never going to be a civilized country because the people aren’t civilized
Continue reading...In January I took the heart-wrenching decision to resign as chair of South Shields Conservative Association. It was a difficult moment. My parents came to Britain from India in the 50s. My father worked as a coalminer for 40 years. I was born here and we were a typical “working-class family”. My father has been a Labour supporter all his life like so many first-generation immigrants, so it was a surprise to both my parents when I joined the Conservative party.
But they were so proud when I was elected chairman of my local association. I have always been so grateful for the opportunities made available to me here, and I often reflect on how my life might have turned out had my father not embarked his arduous journey to these shores.
Related: Tory chairman accused of repeatedly ignoring racism complaints
Related: The Tories’ Islamophobia will not be stopped from within | Fiyaz Mughal
Continue reading...Police say pair offended Islamic society with proposal in Arak shopping mall
A young Iranian couple have been arrested after a marriage proposal in public that was captured on a video clip that went viral on social media. The police say the pair offended Islamic mores on public decency but were later released on bail.
The video, which spread on social media on Friday, shows the young man standing in a heart-shaped ring of flower petals next to colourful balloons in a shopping mall in the central Iranian city of Arak.
Man publicly proposes to woman at shopping mall in Arak, central #Iran
Both arrested for "marriage proposal in contradiction to islamic rituals... based on decadent Western culture," then released on bail pic.twitter.com/eKdlNX9Bte
Related: Woman arrested in Iran over Instagram video of her dancing
Continue reading...Expectation that there could be hundreds of Syria returnees in court has not been realised
An expected surge in prosecutions of jihadist fighters returning home from Syria has failed to materialise and may never happen, according to the director of public prosecutions.
Max Hill QC, who was formerly the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said the expectation that there could be hundreds of cases going through UK courts after the collapse of the Islamic State “caliphate” had not been realised.
Related: Shamima Begum will not be allowed here, says Bangladesh
Continue reading...Tourism industry wakes up to the rapidly growing earning potential of the Islamic economy
It’s a magnet for sun-deprived tourists from northern Europe, drawn to its long sandy beaches, pretty coves and ancient sites. Along Turkey’s Turquoise Coast, holidaymakers down exotic cocktails and ice-cold beers between dips in the sparkling Mediterranean and snoozing on the sun-lounger.
But an increasing number of hotels in and around Antalya are turning away from the traditional resort fare of booze and bare flesh in order to attract a new and growing clientele: Muslim tourists.
Continue reading...When parents force a school to cancel lessons on diversity the social contract has broken down
A flatbed truck is parked, festooned with a large sign reading “Stop! No Outsiders”. A man with a megaphone is whipping up a crowd, who cheer him and chant, “Shame, shame, shame.” A Tommy Robinson event spewing hatred about Muslims? No. It’s Muslim parents protesting about a school teaching about gay relationships.
No Outsiders is the name of a package of lessons at Parkfield community school in Birmingham on social diversity, including LGBT issues. Some parents at the largely Muslim school have taken exception, arguing that gay relationships are forbidden in Islam, and that the school should not teach values at odds with their religious beliefs.
Related: Birmingham school stops LGBT lessons after parents protest
Continue reading...The politics of the Muslim woman remains wrapped up in “debate”. The oppressed-terrorist-bride complex is rampant within our societal infrastructures – and it’s still deeply ingrained in the consciousness of the supposedly reasonable “man on the Clapham omnibus”. Are we now, though, seeing any visible difference in the representation of Muslim women within mainstream media and politics? I’m inclined to think not.
Her identity is still up for discussion by others: if she is perceived to be oppressed, then the secular, white British media must highlight the oppressive nature of her religion and save her from it; if she is on the terrorist-bride-Shamima-Begum side of the scale, she must be reminded that she is not an actual citizen of this country and resides here at the mercy of public and political opinion.
Any visual indicator of ‘Muslimness’ is now argued to have no place in contemporary society
Related: Long before Shamima Begum, Muslim women were already targets | Shelina Janmohamed
Continue reading...Quranic Quotes - Quotes And Verses From The Holy Quran
Say, “None in the heavens and earth knows the unseen except Allah, and they do not perceive when they will be resurrected.”
The post #295 The Quran 27:65 (Surah an-Naml) appeared first on Quranic Quotes.
The news that 14 Conservative members were suspended this week, alongside the reinstatement of Peter Lamb, a Conservative council candidate in Harlow (who then resigned on Tuesday), demonstrates that the party has a significant amount of work to do to counter anti-Muslim hate. Lamb had previously tweeted: “Islam [is] like alcoholism. The first step to recovery is to admit that you have a problem.” Yet he was reintroduced into the party to be a council candidate.
Sadly, as the founder and former director of the hate-crime reporting project Tell Mama, I know that views such as these have been picked up and circulated among groups that vehemently dislike Muslims. There has been a steady drip of cases of anti-Muslim bigotry in statements made by party members and councillors. Serving Conservative councillors such as Hashim Bhatti have talked about a deeper problem within the party, and the chair of the Conservative Muslim Forum, Mohammed Amin, said that the party has failed to take action against anti-Muslim bigotry.
Related: The Tories’ response to raging Islamophobia? Turn a blind eye | Miqdaad Versi
Continue reading...Brandon Lewis failed to investigate claim councillor was called an orangutan, party members say
The Conservative party chairman, Brandon Lewis, has been accused of ignoring repeated pleas by Tory members to investigate alleged racist and Islamophobic incidents, including a claim that a white senior party official referred to an Asian councillor as an orangutan.
Lewis, a key ally of Theresa May, wrote to party officers earlier this month to reassure them that he would “continue to take a zero-tolerance approach to any form of discrimination, intimidating behaviour or abuse”.
Related: Crisis? What crisis? Senior Tories shrug off Islamophobia warning
Continue reading...7 March 1989 Chairman of the Islamic Society for Religious tolerance in the UK asks Salman Rushdie to withdraw his book
Dismissing ‘fellow-writers, who are supporting you to the last drop of their ink,’ one of the earliest Muslim campaigners against The Satanic Verses asked Mr Salman Rushdie last night to ‘end the suffering’ and withdraw the book.
Related: 1989: The Satanic Verses
Related: Looking back at Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses
Continue reading...Amir Sadjady told to ‘suck it up’ and stop complaining after alleging discrimination
A Muslim Conservative who was told to stop complaining that he had been discriminated against after he failed to become a councillor says his experiences led him to conclude the party was “prejudiced against Islam”.
Amir Sadjady, a small business owner, said he was the victim of “passive aggressive discrimination” when he was not selected last year for a winnable seat in two west London boroughs, and wanted to speak out in the hope the party would reform.
Related: Crisis? What crisis? Senior Tories shrug off Islamophobia warning
Continue reading...Conservatives largely silent as Baroness Warsi says party is institutionally anti-Muslim
Conservative MPs did not seem overly concerned as Baroness Warsi sounded the alarm that their party was institutionally riven with Islamophobia.
“I don’t really believe we have that big a problem,” said one former minister, who seemed surprised to be asked about the issue.
Related: Forgive and forget Zac Goldsmith’s racist campaign? No chance | Owen Jones
Continue reading...When my father, the son of a rabbi, went in the 1930s to Oxford University from Edinburgh, he encountered antisemitism for the first time. It was sometimes overt; more often implicit (The unanswered question: why do antisemites think Labour is the party for them?, 4 March). From the time he arrived in Scotland a century ago, my grandfather worked hard and successfully to break down barriers and establish a role in the wider Scottish community. He believed – as did my father and as do I – that a dual identity as Scot and Jew was not only possible but beneficial, for individuals and for society generally.
It is heartbreaking to see the re-emergence of hostility to Jewish identity. It has no doubt been latent for decades, but that leading public figures, through silence and ineptitude if not active encouragement, should now be endorsing the vilification of Jewish life and individuals is appalling. That this endorsement is emanating from a political party that my parents, I and my children have supported all our lives is distressing beyond measure. That it is clearly linked to wider hostility to all forms of difference makes it all the more disturbing and dangerous.
Continue reading...Conservatives are doubtless congratulating themselves for acting swiftly and decisively, following the suspension of 14 party members for allegedly making Islamophobic comments online – including calls to “get rid of all mosques” and to “turf all Muslims out of public office”. Tories will similarly point to yesterday’s resignation from the party of a local council candidate in Harlow as evidence that they are getting a grip. Peter Lamb – who in 2015 tweeted: “Islam [is] like alcoholism. The first step to recovery is admit you have a problem” – was suspended over that, and yet as picked once again to contest the local elections in May. Now he is gone.
The Conservative top brass will hope that voters will see these moves as proof that the Tories have zero tolerance for racism in their ranks, drawing an implied contrast with Labour and its ongoing travails over antisemitism. And yet, the departure of these low-level activists serves only to draw attention to the Islamophobia exhibited by much more senior Tory figures, anti-Muslim prejudice that has gone entirely unpunished.
Related: Tories suspend 14 members over alleged Islamophobia
Related: Sayeeda Warsi calls for inquiry into Islamophobia within Tory party
Continue reading...Young women and girls deserve better than what mainstream religion offers them
Cardinal Pell’s recent child sexual abuse conviction has been the catalyst for criticisms of women’s lack of authority in the Catholic church. But why has it taken a crime of this magnitude for criticism of the church patriarchy to gain traction?
Perhaps it’s partly timing – with the rise of online activism and in the wake of the #metoo movement, many feminist causes are gaining mainstream support.
Related: Lucía, 11, was raped. Then Argentina’s church conspired to deny her an abortion | Claudia Piñeiro
Teaching girls that they are equal and deserve full participation in public life is inherently at odds with many religions
Related: God is a Woman: Ariana Grande taps into a long herstory of a female lord
Continue reading...Party responds to collection of abusive comments found on social media
The Conservative party has suspended 14 members for allegedly making Islamophobic comments after a string of abusive posts were uncovered on social media.
The party was responding to a collection of racist and abusive remarks, discovered online by the @matesjacob Twitter account, made by people who had said or indicated they were members of the party.
Continue reading...Parkfield community school in Birmingham has found itself in the headlines once again after protests against its No Outsiders lessons. The protests by the school’s largely Muslim parent body garnered a lot of coverage and raised a fundamental question: how can inclusive education reach every child when many households of faith remain deeply opposed?
No Outsiders is a teaching package designed for primary school children. The lessons cover gender, sexual orientation and the idea that discrimination is wrong. Andrew Moffat, the author of the package and assistant headteacher of Parkfield, had been trialling the resource at the school when the controversy erupted.
Related: Birmingham school stops LGBT lessons after parents protest
Continue reading...