Showing posts with label
Collective Against Islamophobia in France.
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Showing posts with label
Collective Against Islamophobia in France.
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Councillor facing probe over message criticising Muslims
A Leicestershire county councillor is being investigated after distributing a leaflet which criticised Muslims.
Earlier this year, Graham Partner – who quit the BNP to sit as an independent – sent out a New Year message to voters in his Coalville division.
It featured part of an article from a national newspaper which said victimhood "comes easily" to followers of Islam.
The article added: "Every terrorist atrocity, every blood- soaked massacre is justified by reference to imagined grievances. But the greatest persecutors of other faiths are Muslim, themselves.
"The response from the Western church leaders is deafening silence, afraid to accept that their ideological paradise of multi-cultural, multi-faith, left-wing society is nothing more than a fantasy."
Two county councillors and two parish councillors lodged a complaint, and the county council's standards board is now investigating.
Conservative Peter Lewis, said: "The leaflet certainly cocked a snook at the county's equality and human rights policies, and as it was issued in his role as a county councillor, it reflected badly, in my view, on the council.
"It certainly seemed to me designed not to build bridges or foster tolerance but to stir up and fire division and hatred around the same period as the EDL march (which took place in Leicester in February).
Mr Partner has resigned from the BNP but has clearly retained its combative posture."
Coun Partner said the complaints were politically motivated, and insisted the leaflet was well-received by people living in his ward. He also said the message was not penned by him, but copied from and attributed to Daily Express columnist Leo McKinstry.
He said: "Most of the people who received one of the leaflets said they agreed with what was printed. The only complaints the council has received are from politicians who want to get me into trouble. I didn't write the article, it was an extract from a piece printed in a national newspaper."
The findings of the investigation will be presented to the council's cross-party standards panel of councillors soon.
If Coun Partner is found to have broken the code of conduct, he could face censure ranging from a written warning to suspension.
Controversial: An extract from the leaflet
The narrative of victimhood comes easily to followers of Islam. They constantly bemoan the prejudice they have to endure and the oppression they suffer in the bigoted western world, where Islamophobia is supposedly rampant.
Every terrorist atrocity, every blood-soaked massacre is justified by reference to imagined grievances. But by far the greatest persecutors of other faiths are Muslim hard-liners themselves.
The great Caribbean writer VS Naipaul once described Islam as “sanctified rage”. The proof of those words has been graphically illustrated by a growing catalogue of barbarities committed by Islamic militants against Christians.
Suleman Nagdi, spokesman for the Leicestershire Federation of Muslim Organisations, says in response: “As a holder of public office, one must uphold the highest standards of conduct which aregeared towards unitingand not dividing them.
“The Muslim community was the target of the leaflets which simplified very complex issues. Extremism exists in society and must be rooted out.
“Christians and Muslims have superb relations which councillors and others should take time to learn about rather than picking dubious examples to suit political purposes.”
This is the Face to Faith column from today's Guardian (published online on the Comment is Free: Belief website). It is written by Donald Reeves, founder of the Soul of Europe and author of The Memoirs of a Very Dangerous Man.
Europe needs a grassroots movement to tackle the threat of Islamophobia
We must expose the racist ideology drawn from nazism, in which Muslims have become the new Jews of Europe
Following the events of 22 July in Norway - when Anders Behring Brevik, driven by hatred of Islam, killed 77 people - there have been ample expressions of outrage, analysis and commentary, but little indication as to what must be done to prevent Islamophobia spreading.
Before 22 July, the Soul of Europe, together with the Soest Forum of Religions and Cultures (a German Muslim archive institute), had begun planning how to interrupt, undermine and dismantle Islamophobia. Beginning in France, Germany, UK and Scandinavia, we are establishing a coalition across Europe of institutions and organisations which are already engaged with Muslim communities. Our aim is to deepen, broaden and strengthen the foundations of those bridges between Muslim and non-Muslims, particularly among the younger generations – above all in practical ways.
One way is to develop patterns of solidarity. For instance: when a religious building is vandalised, whether a mosque or a church or a synagogue, communities will come together to condemn these actions. For condemnation to be effective, more than words are needed. Much depends on the slow, patient building of relationships.
Another way is for local communities to speak up on behalf of others, not least when Muslim communities complain of intimidation and harassment by police. These interventions emerge from relationships that have been established over time. Local politicians and religious leaders – vicars, imams and rabbis – will have to watch their backs. These actions will be seen as divisive among their own constituencies and congregations.
As Marwan Muhammad, director of the Collective Against Islamophobia in France, told the Soul of Europe: "We are scapegoats and are blamed for all of Europe's problems." Muslim communities need to be invited in from the cold. There should be no "them" and "us". We are all "us". Umar Mirza set up the Dutch website We're Here to Stay as "an attempt to create an alternative space … a way of providing a stage upon which the voices of young Muslims can be heard". Dutch Muslims are not going anywhere. The Netherlands is their country, their home.
From among the many different European Muslim communities there are those who are saying: "Enough. We have had enough of discrimination, of being crudely stereotyped, of being scapegoats – of being victims." These men and women are not "extremists". In a debate on Britishness set up by the London-based Young Muslim Voices, a definition was agreed: a cosmopolitan country where people are respectful of different faiths and backgrounds.
Expressions of outrage are no longer enough. There needs to be a grassroots movement across Europe to stand up to those who peddle bogus religious justifications, resurrecting memories of the Crusades; to expose the racist ideology drawn from nazism, in which Muslims have now become the new Jews of Europe; and to tackle the myth of "Islamification" and those who claim to be defending western civilisation, Christian and secular, from conquest by Muslim immigration and the spread of sharia law.
Interreligious dialogue is just one of the links between different religions and religious communities. At a conference I recently attended, a speaker described interreligious dialogue as taking place on the top floor of a high-rise building while on the ground floor a fire was raging out of control. So it is time for those of us who cherish dialogue of every sort to join those who are trying to put the fire out.
What do Leicester's Muslim women think of the face veil, or niqab?
Black for Monday. Black for Tuesday. Black for Wednesday. And so it goes on. A clothes rail filled with almost identical, same colour, shapeless, top-to-toe outfits, writes Adam Wakelin.
You might not think it would take Noorjahan Khonat long to pluck one from a hanger, but it nearly always does.
The daily whims and tiny agonies of what to wear don't stop at the wardrobe door of a devout Muslim.
Noorjahan has her favourites, the ones that make her feel good.
Only someone who didn't understand would think they all looked the same. That's part of the problem.
It can still give her a jolt, just how much fury those baggy black clothes and head scarves can provoke.
"I've had boys come up to me in town and try to tear them off," she says "They call me ninja and laugh, like it's funny.
"I try to talk to the younger ones, but some of the bigger boys can make you really frightened."
Noorjahan wears a face veil, a niqab.
For some, that makes the 42-year-old from Highfields the ultimate faceless victim.
Not just to those boys, but to the French government and a growing clamour of critics over here who would like to follow France's lead by banning the burka and the niqab from public places.
It is a curious coalition; an unlikely alliance of well-meaning liberals and none-too-clever closet racists.
As of last week, in the words of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, the veil was "not welcome" in a country which values sexual equality.
If he gets his way, niqab and burka wearers will be refused access to things such as schools, hospitals and buses.
The liberal justification for this is that the veil is more than just an item of clothing.
It is a symbol of male repression; a backward garment that has no place in modern society, something from the dark ages that reduces women to the status of a formless, faceless non-person.
That might be true for some, but not of Noorjahan, she insists.
She says she wears the veil because she wants to wear the veil, not because someone has forced her to. Funny, thoughtful, and tirelessly talkative, she doesn't give the impression of a downtrodden little woman.
"I wear it because it gives me independence," says Noorjahan.
"No-one can judge me on my looks or my figure.
"I feel more free. I don't get stared at with dirty eyes. If people like me, they like me for who I am inside, as a person. That, to me, is liberating.
"And besides, I like the colour black!" she giggles. "So that's a bonus.
"Sometimes people make fun of you or pull at your clothes. That doesn't make you feel good, but I try to make them understand."
Noorjahan adopted the veil after she got married and had started having children. It has been 18 years now.
Her husband didn't force her into it, she says. It was her decision, something she feels has brought her closer to God.
"It's hard to explain in English", says Noorjahan, fumbling for the right words, "but it makes me feel like a better person. I don't swear or give bad advice or think bad thoughts. It's like sitting on a prince's throne. You have to behave properly.
"Nothing feels more comfortable than wearing my clothes and my veil.
"If I don't wear the veil, I feel naked. It doesn't feel good at all. I feel frightened. I don't feel as though God is protecting me."
It is a strange thing for something so apparently anti-fashion, but the anonymous black silhouette of the burka and niqab has become a status symbol.
A sports star pulls on a pair of expensively-endorsed Nikes, a Tory politician dons an electric blue suit, and the Muslim woman who has to be seen as holier than thou draws a veil over her face.
So says Parvin Ali, a Muslim chaplain, member of the Prime Minister's National Muslim Women's Advisory Group, and board member for business support and enterprise for the East Midlands Development Agency.
The veil has become dangerous and divisive, believes Parvin.
"People see those who wear the niqab as the ultimate practitioners of their faith," she says.
"Creeping elitism is coming in. There is a differentiation. People who don't wear the veil are seen as not such good Muslims, or as strong in their faith. It is almost like there is a hierarchy, and that is very damaging."
Parvin, who lives in Leicester, does not wear a veil or a head scarf. She prays five times a day and she faithfully follows the scriptures of the Qur'an.
Nowhere in that holy book, stresses Parvin, does it state that Muslim women must cover their heads. Many of the most eminent Islamic scholars now decry the veil, she claims.
Preserving one's "modesty", something that is mentioned, should be left up to the individual, based on their personal convictions and faith.
"The veil should be a matter of personal choice," she says. "I have concerns that it's not, particularly in Leicester. Young people are being pushed down a certain road without being given the full information. They feel compelled to wear it by their family, sections of their community or their mosque.
"A lot of women feel isolated, not just from non-Muslim communities but Muslims as well. It is polarising communities."
The rise and rise of the veil is making Leicester more like Dewsbury and Blackburn, she argues, northern towns which have fractured along religious and racial lines.
"I had someone ring me up from Birmingham," says Parvin. "She told me her husband wanted her to move to Leicester because more people were wearing the niqab here.
"What an awful reason to move to Leicester," she sighs. "I said, 'Please don't move to Leicester wearing the niqab. We've got quite enough already'!"
Parvin is not in favour of the state trying to ban burkas or niqabs, but she does believe there is a time and a place for them – doctors, nurses, teachers and others in the public sector should not be allowed to do their jobs behind a veil.
"Nurses should not be allowed to wear a veil," she says. "It is wrong to bend over to that extent to accommodate a minority of individuals.
"A lot of patients don't feel that comfortable interacting with people they can't see.
"If people feel that strongly about wearing a veil they should be in another profession, or do it in a private capacity.
"People may have lots of piercings. That's fine on a personal level. You don't condemn them, but there's a host of reasons why they shouldn't be allowed in a hospital. That's the way I feel about the niqab."
