Archive for January, 2011
Islamophobia ‘Acceptable’ in UK: Minister
The first Muslim woman to sit in the British government warns Thursday, January 20, that anti-Muslim sentiments have become an acceptable thing in British society, warning that classifying Muslims as “moderate” and “extremists” is fueling prejudice.
Islamophobia has “passed the dinner-table test,” Baroness Sayeeda Warsi will say in a speech to the University of Leicester, according to extracts published by The Daily Telegraph.
Many Britons now accept anti-Muslim sentiments, says Warsi, a minister without portfolio.
Hostility against British Muslims, estimated at nearly two million, have been on the rise since the 7/7 attacks.
A Financial Times opinion poll showed that Britain is the most suspicious nation about Muslims.
A poll of the Evening Standard found that a sizable section of London residents harbor negative opinions about Muslims.
Warsi will blame the media for fueling hostility against the sizable Muslim minority.
A recent government-commissioned study has found that a torrent of negative and imbalance stories in the British media demonize the sizable Muslim minority and their faith by spreading prejudices and portraying them as the enemy within.
An earlier British study had accused the media and film industry of perpetuating Islamophobia and prejudice by projecting Muslims as violent, dangerous and threatening people.
Mohammed Shafiq, of the Muslim group Ramadhan Foundation, agrees that anti-Muslim prejudice is rising in Britain.
It has become normal to “attack our faith and hold us responsible for the ills of the world.”
Moderate Vs Extremist
The Muslim minister will warn that classifying Muslims into moderates and extremists fuels intolerance.
“It’s not a big leap of imagination to predict where the talk of ‘moderate’ Muslims leads,” Baroness Warsi, a British-born of Pakistani origin, will say.
“In the factory, where they’ve just hired a Muslim worker, the boss says to his employees: ‘Not to worry, he’s only fairly Muslim’.
“In the school, the kids say: ‘The family next door are Muslim but they’re not too bad’,” she said.
“And in the road, as a woman walks past wearing a burka, the passers-by think: ‘That woman’s either oppressed or is making a political statement’.”
Warsi’s speech will come hours after the British government banned a visit by a US pastor to the country to deliver an anti-Muslim speech.
Pastor Terry Jones, who stirred a worldwide uproar over his plans to burn copies of the Noble Qur’an, was invited by anti-Muslim group England Is Ours group to give an anti-Muslims speech in February.
The invitation has sparked uproar in the country, amid warnings that the move would harm race relations in the country.
Baroness Warsi will call for not stigmatizing the whole Muslim community for the acts of some individuals.
“Those who commit criminal acts of terrorism in our country need to be dealt with not just by the full force of the law,” she will say.
“They also should face social rejection and alienation across society and their acts must not be used as an opportunity to tar all Muslims.”
Not Just Islamophobia
Ikhwanophobia
Dubbed an ‘anti-Muslim bigot’ Frank Gaffney alleges that the Muslim Brotherhood is running an influence operation in Washington, D.C. by accusing Muslim Republican Suhail Khan – about whom Gaffney has been writing since 2003 – of representing radical Islamists. In his defence Khan insists the whole thing is simply anti-Muslim hysteria coming from a man who has been politically marginalized and is looking for attention and will stop at nothing to incriminate the Islamic Sharia.
Right-wing activist, Gaffney, is also feeding off the fear that there is a growing cross-section of American conservatives that are really secret Muslims bent on destroying Western civilization. Despite the ludicrous nature of the assertions, Gaffney insists on targeting Suhail Khan, former Bush staffer, of infiltrating the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) which is hosted by the oldest lobbying organization in the country – The American Conservative Union (ACU).
According to Gaffney, Khan is linked to radicals and raises money for terrorist groups. Khan says this is nonsense and denies having links with the Muslim Brotherhood or any other Islamic group, adding that the allegations show nothing but bigotry.
Gaffney claims Khan and others are involved in a ‘stealthy effort to bring Sharia’ to the US, adding that this is an operation that is contributing materially to bring defeat to the US. Gaffney has branded the Muslim Brotherhood as a ‘radical’ Muslim group trying to ‘Islamize’ America. Khan, now a senior fellow for Christian-Muslim Understanding at the Institute for Global Engagement, laughs at Gaffney’s allegations.
Feeding on the fear that has been generated since 9/11, Gaffney is taking every opportunity to swing public opinion against Islam and Muslims by associating it with a sinister atmosphere of stealth, secrecy, and mystery; an alien way of life creeping up on the American public.
Khan is head of a conservative Muslim group – Muslims for America which, ironically, promotes Muslim integration into American society. Yet, Gaffney used words like ‘infiltrated’ when he describes Khan’s participation in legitimate American organizations, in an attempt to sully his reputation and maintain a high level of fear when discussing anything concerned with Islam.
Further highlighting his paranoia about all things ‘Islamic’, Gaffney made wild unsubstantiated claims in 2009 that President Barak Obama ‘not only identifies with Muslims but actually may still be one.’