Two exchange students attending school in Perham, Minnesota say they were kicked out of a church there when they questioned a nationally known speaker who says "Islam equals terrorism."

The boys were kicked out of the Assembly of God church in Perham during a question answer period following a speech by Walid Shoebat. Shoebat says he is a former terrorist, and claims to be an anti-terrorism expert. He now calls Islam the devil and tours the country speaking to churches and schools – even collecting fees from Homeland Security.

CNN has exposed Shoebat, calling him a fraud. Today, the DC based Council on American-Islamic Relations contacted WDAY and said it is calling for a meeting with Assembly of God church leaders in Perham, in hopes of strengthening interfaith relations and promoting understanding.

The two teenagers are Muslim, and attended the event featuring Walid Shoebat, a Muslim turned Christian.

Fikri, from Indonesia, and Elshan, from Azerbhjan, came to the United States as exchange students. Their home right now is Perham, Minnesota and host Mary Anderson. When the students heard that Walid Shoebat was speaking at a public forum at Assembly of God in Perham, they wanted to go.

Shoebat is known as a former Muslim, now Christian, speaking out against Islam.

Elshan Mirzazade – Perham Exchange Student: "Our message is not to argue with him, but to say to people that what he says is wrong."

The boys heard what they say are mistruths and distortions coming out of Shoebat. So, during question and answer time they questioned Shoebat, and quickly were told to leave.

Fikri Rahmat – Perham Exchange Student: "I would conclude in my mind that he got mad because maybe he was afraid of the truth. One of his companions came to us and said, 'Out, Out,' rudely to us."

Elshan Mirzazade: "They ushered us out and asked us to leave and we said, 'OK, OK.' So when I was leaving, I shouted, 'Good way of promoting peace, bravo, bravo.'"

WDay, 5 March 2013

See also "CAIR-MN seeks meeting with church after Muslim students kicked out", CAIR press release, 5 March 2013

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Last week the Times published a report about a judge's decision to allow a request from an Orthodox Jewish couple that a Beth Din court should be allowed to arbitrate in their divorce proceedings. Although the story concerned Jews rather than Muslims, the paper chose to run the report under the front-page headline "High Court opens way to Sharia divorces".

The Muslim Council of Britain, who took the view that the coverage "was sensationalist and would help fuel Islamopobia", wrote a letter to the Times complaining about the report, which was published in the paper today, albeit in an edited version.

The section of the letter that the Times decided to omit read: "Once again such reporting raises uninformed hackles against our faith, and what British Muslims really want. With a recent YouGov poll highlighting prevailing negative attitudes against British Muslims, there is a responsibility to report such matters fairly."

So the MCB writes a letter to the Times complaining about Islamophobic bias, and the Times publishes it ... minus the section that contains the actual complaint about Islamophobic bias!

Here, via the MCB website, is the full version of the letter:

Dear Sir,

We find it odd that your report of a landmark divorce settlement under Jewish Beth Din Courts should be framed under the narrative of Islamic Sharia courts (High Court opens way to Sharia divorces, 1 February). Once again such reporting raises uninformed hackles against our faith, and what British Muslims really want. With a recent YouGov poll highlighting prevailing negative attitudes against British Muslims, there is a responsibility to report such matters fairly.

Of course, we do welcome any move facilitating choices for those who wish, as Muslims, for their personal relationships to be governed by a Shariah civil code. This legitimate aspiration requires full discussion in an atmosphere of understanding and tolerance. It allows for British Muslims to fulfil their religious obligations under British law. It does not require a change in British law, or a diminution in human rights. We seek parity with other faiths, not special favours.

Yours Sincerely,

Farooq Murad,
Secretary General,
Muslim Council of Britain

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News Hounds reports that Fox News' latest contribution to the incitement of Islamophobia is its promotion of an Islamophobic documentary film called Jihad in America: The Grand Deception.

The film is produced by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, which is headed by Steve Emerson (listed in Fear Inc. as one of the "leading lights of the Islamophobia network"). It claims to expose:

"the covert structure and growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist groups, masquerading under the false moniker of being apolitical religious groups or civil rights groups in the United States, specifically how they are infiltrating or intimidating major societal institutions from Congress to Hollywood, from the mainstream news media to federal law enforcement, from the publishing industry to museums".

The parallels between this sort of anti-Muslim scaremongering and classic antisemitic conspiracy theories scarcely need underlining. Yet that didn't prevent Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly (who had earlier provided a boost to the demented David Horowitz) from giving credence to the claims in Jihad in America, along with a sympathetic interview with Steve Emerson himself (the self-proclaimed expert on terrorism who, you may recall, assured everyone that the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing was probably carried out by "Middle Eastern terrorists").

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"All the standard stereotypes about Islam and Muslims are reinforced, and it is demonstrated ad nauseam that anyone marked as 'Muslim' by race or creed can never be trusted...."

Laila Al-Arian offers a critique of the television series Homeland.

Salon, 15 December 2012

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed the rejection of Islamophobic candidates by voters nationwide.

In Florida, Rep. Allen West (R), who claims Islam is not a religion but is instead a "totalitarian theocratic political ideology" that is a "very vile and very vicious enemy," was defeated by a narrow margin.

Also in Florida, State Representative Adam Hasner (R) was defeated in his bid for Congress. Hasner once co-hosted an event featuring Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders that was also sponsored by Anti-Muslim hate group leader Pamela Geller. In 2009, Hasner attempted to block a "Florida Muslim Capitol Day." In 2007, he sponsored a screening of the anti-Muslim film "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" for state legislators.

A third Florida anti-Muslim candidate, Terry Kemple, lost his bid for the Hillsborough County School Board. Kemple's main issue in the race was seeking to keep Muslim speakers out of local schools.

In Illinois, Rep. Joe Walsh (R) was defeated in his re-election bid. When a town hall meeting attendee told him that he was "looking for some godly men and women in the Senate, in the Congress, who will stand in the face of the danger of Islam," Walsh left the door open for suspicion of every Muslim living in Illinois when he responded saying radical Islam is more of a threat "now that it was right after 9/11" and "It's here. It's in Elk Grove. It's in Addison. It's in Elgin. It's here."

In Minnesota, Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN) lost his seat. Cravaack was a key supporter of Rep. Peter King's (R-NY) series of anti-Muslim hearings.

"These encouraging results clearly show that mainstream Americans reject anti-Muslim bigotry by candidates for public office and will demonstrate that rejection at the polls," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. "This election witnessed an increased political awareness and mobilization effort among American Muslims that dealt a major blow to the Islamophobia machine."

Awad noted that Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann, who recently led a witch hunt against Muslims serving in the government, only retained her House seat by a very narrow margin.

CAIR press release, 7 November 2012

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When last week's cover of normally stern French magazine Le Point appeared online, the consensus on social networks said it was a hoax. Le Point is no tabloid. It is a serious and well respected conservative magazine.

Running the headline: "Brazen Islam...in school cafeterias, hospitals, and swimming pools" the cover featured a niqab-clad woman arguing with a French policewoman. It had to be a joke, but sadly it wasn't.

Le Point's cover was widely condemned on social networks, and parodies of it quickly appeared. "Brazen Judaism and its garlic humus", "Brazen gays and their trimmed eyebrows," "The brazenly disabled and their parking spaces," illustrated how French Muslims probably felt when they passed the newsagent last week.

When Socialist Interior Minister Manuel Valls was asked during a popular TV talk-show whether he found the cover shocking, he brushed it off, saying "It expresses a reality." He went on to say: "What I find shocking, and what I will always find shocking, is a fully-veiled woman."

That was it. The second religion in France gets insulted on the front cover of one of the country's most popular magazines – something that could never have happened with any other religion or community, as pointed out by the numerous parodies – and the Interior Minister, supposedly in charge of security of all French citizens, claims on a widely-watched TV show that it’s fine, and no one contradicts him.

It doesn't matter that at the time of its public ban in 2011, the niqab was estimated to be worn by less than 2,000 out of 65 million French people. It doesn't matter that – as was later revealed – the infamous picture was taken during a protest in September involving no more than ten women. To Manuel Valls, to Le Point, the terror of ten women protesting is "a reality" that deserves to be on the front page of a national magazine.

This might be because stigmatising Islam has become extremely common in France.

Independent, 7 November 2012

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Canberra's Muslim community has described planning approval for the territory's second mosque as a ''victory of goodwill''.

The ACT Planning and Land Authority yesterday approved Canberra Muslim Community Inc's application to build a 500-capacity mosque on The Valley Avenue in Gungahlin.

In their assessment, ACT planners found surrounding roads could cope with traffic generated by the mosque and that the proposed 43 on-site parking spaces were sufficient. Planners also said several objections to the mosque on religious and cultural grounds were found to be "irrelevant" and "unsubstantiated".

Canberra Muslim Community Inc president Borhan Ahmed said the green light for the project was a "victory" following an organised campaign by the Concerned Citizens of Canberra to prevent the development.

"It's a victory over those negative campaigns," he said. "I am so happy we have made it after many years of waiting. We thank all the Canberra community for their support."

Mr Ahmed said work at the site would begin as soon as possible, but was subject to a number of conditions set by the ACT government.

But he was wary the legal action in the ACT Supreme Court by the Concerned Citizens of Canberra also had the potential to stall the development.

Canberra Times, 30 August 2012

See also "Mosque campaign lawyer also fought Islamic school plan", Canberra Times, 28 August 2012

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DWB leader Ole NydahlThe biggest Tibetan Buddhist meditation centre in London will be created following planning approval – despite protests from Muslim and Christian groups.

On Tuesday evening, Lambeth council's planning committee approved the plans for the former Beaufoy Institute, in Black Prince Road, Kennington, to become the Diamond Way Buddhism (DWB) organisation.

However, more than 40 protesters from the Lambeth Muslim Forum and the Lambeth Interfaith Network protested outside Lambeth Town Hall, in Brixton Hill amid claims the organisation is anti-Muslim and anti-Christian.

The meeting room was so packed that the protesters were denied entry and left to protest outside.

Objections to the new use of the Grade II listed building also came from the Lambeth Against Racism and Islamophobia group and Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey.

DWB is a the world's largest lay Buddhist organisation, following the western Karma Kagyu lineage, under the Lama Ole Nydahl.

The controversy has arisen from comments made by Lama Nydahl during interviews and online, on "radical Islam" and scandals in Christian churches.

Toaha Qureshi, a member of the Lambeth Muslim Forum and trustee of the Stockwell Mosque, in Stockwell Green, believed Lama Nydahl's comments amounted to "hate speech".

He said: "We are not against Buddhists because it is a peaceful religion. We are protesting against this particular faction of Diamond Way because we believe their leader preaches hate.

"We were not allowed into the meeting. We don't feel that the council has consulted with community leaders. If they had done that, we would not be here today."

South London Press, 10 July 2012

Via ENGAGE

DWB trustee Steve James is quoted as saying: "While Diamond Way Buddhism is not political, one of our teachers, Lama Ole Nydahl, has made personal statements on world affairs in press interviews. The occasional comments he has made about radical Islam have been grouped together and circulated in order to cause offence."

But Ole Nydahl is the founder and leader of Diamond Way Buddhism – an organisation that functions as a classic cult around Nydahl's personality, if allegations by disillusioned former members are to be believed. So the DWB spokesperson's description of Nydahl as merely "one of our teachers" who has happened to make some "personal statements" on political issues is disingenuous to say the least.

Nor have Nydahl's statements been directed solely against "radical Islam", as the DWB spokesperson claims. In a 2008 interview, asked about his attitude to the Abrahamic faiths, Nydahl replied:

"The Abrahamic religions, the ones that follow our constitution, treat women well, don't blow up people ... Judaism and Christianity are fine. Islam, I warn against. I know the Koran, I know the life story of Mohammad and I think we cannot use that in our society today. People like the Sufis and Bahá'ís are different, right. They are usually being killed as soon as the mainline Muslims come in, they start killing the other guys."

In a 2007 interview with Danish Islamophobe Lars Hedegaard, Nydahl described Islam as "a totalitarian and fascist system" and compared the Prophet Muhammad to Hitler and Stalin. In 2009 Nydahl was quoted by Ned May's Gates of Vienna website as stating: "I see a big attack from Islam, a great, great danger from Islam.... Nobody has ruined as much for us as the Muslims."

A Polish correspondent who attended a lecture by Nydahl in Warsaw a couple of years ago sent us the following account:

"I had heard some comments previously that suggested that Nydahl held Islamophobic views, but I was frankly shocked as to the depth of his anger and hatred against Islam and Muslims, and the way he uses his position to preach much misinformation and factual inaccuracies regarding Islam and Muslims and to incite hatred against Islam amongst his followers."

That report was sent in response to an Islamophobic campaign in which followers of Diamond Way Buddhism co-operated with elements of the far right in opposing the construction of a new mosque in Warsaw.

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Amazon has been accused of making money selling offensive, racist and potentially dangerous ebooks on subjects ranging from bomb-making to drug growing.

The internet giant sells a vast number of ebooks, downloaded by readers from its website, some for as little as £1. It allows anyone to upload an ebook for sale, without safeguards against content that would be refused by traditional publishers.

One ebook, Prophet Muhammad: Monster of History, includes images of a Koran being burned and a woman being hanged. The author, Jake Neuman, says of its content on his own website: "The writings contained in this book are now illegal in most Western countries." But users of amazon.co.uk can access his work at the click of a mouse.

The Muslim Council of Britain has now called for Amazon to "take proper responsibility" for the content of the books on its site. They added: "Freedom of expression should not be unlimited, and publications that cause anti-Muslim hatred, anti-Jewish hatred or homophobic hatred should not be allowed."

Any potential self-publisher can use Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service to upload their ebook for sale, charging as little as 77p to potential readers. Amazon instructs self-publishers to adhere to "content guidelines", stating, for example, that "we don't accept pornography". But critics say the company does not go far enough.

Labour MP Paul Flynn said: "If Amazon is providing the platform for books that wouldn't be published otherwise, it is responsible. This is a cavalier attitude to inflammatory material."

Daily Mail, 25 June 2012

Via ENGAGE

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Slide from a presentation titled 'Sharia and the Constitution'A class taught by the military to officers at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, came under fire when a report on Wired's Danger Room blog last week exposed it for teaching soldiers to engage in a "total war" on Islam and taking a war on Islam "to the civilian population wherever necessary."

The full set of course materials, hundreds of documents and slide shows obtained by ThinkProgress, reveal just how deep Islamophobia ran through the military instruction. The material contained dozens of citations to the work of some of America's best known anti-Muslim bigots.

Not all of the material in the course, however, was anti-Muslim. Materials from reputable sources such as the Brookings Institution and RAND corporation also appeared among the readings, and only some of the presenters to the class used blatantly Islamophobic material. (The public affairs officer of the Joint Forces Staff College didn't respond to repeated inquiries by press time.)

But the "Islamophobia network," discussed in the Center for American Progress's report, "Fear, Inc." played a prominent role in many of the 266 documents acquired by ThinkProgress.

ThinkProgress, 15 May 2012

The Islamophobes named are Robert Spencer, David Yerushalmi and Daniel Pipes, along with Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy. Right-wing anti-Muslim publications like the Washington Times and the National Review are also cited numerous times in the documents.

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London Assembly member Murad Qureshi has written to complain about the election address from the British National Party that appears in the booklet distributed by London Elects to inform voters about the 3 May elections for the London Mayor and Assembly.

The BNP's appeal to voters features a quote from their phoney non-Reverend Robert West which reads: "I'm backing the British National Party because they support our traditional Christian faith. We need strong leadership to protect our national identity from the threat of Islam."

The booklet is sent to every household in Greater London. It is quite disgraceful that London Elects has allowed the BNP to include in it an outrageous slur on one of the major faiths in London, where 8% of the electorate is Muslim.

Does anyone imagine that the BNP would be allowed to include an equivalent attack on the Jewish community in its election address? But bigotry is apparently considered acceptable when it is directed against Muslims. It is a measure of how Islamophobia has entered the mainstream and is now widely regarded as legitimate.

It is too late to withdraw the booklet, but London Elects should issue a public apology to London's Muslim community along with an assurance that this will never happen again.

Update:  The quote from Robert West can also be found on the London Elects website, where the booklet itself is available for download. You can email them at info@londonelects.org.uk or phone 020 7983 4444 to complain.

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