—FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—
 
WASHINGTON D.C. (April 19, 2013) – The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) issued a statement during a joint press conference today with other national Muslim organizations at The National Press Club in the capital.

“The death of innocent lives is heartbreaking and we offer our condolences to the families of the victims of the Boston Marathon Bombings. And, we pray for the speedy and full recovery of the injured. Our thanks go to the law enforcement officers for working around the clock in identifying and going after the terrorists. ICNA stands with the rest of the American Muslim community in condemning such heinous crimes.

We want to make it very clear to our fellow Americans that such acts of terrorism have no place in Islam. These acts are not just against Americans but against all mankind. Islam, our faith, condemns those who murder innocent people and God Almighty declares the killing of even a single innocent person as murdering the entire humanity.

ICNA calls upon the American Muslim community to engage in social justice and service work being offered by ICNA Relief and other Muslim relief organizations.

We also thank the media for not jumping to any conclusions and showing responsibility in reporting of the situation in Boston.

We pray for peace and harmony, and may such moments of trials bring our hearts closer to one another.

The Islamic Circle of North America is a leading American Muslim organization dedicated to the betterment of society through the application of Islamic values. Since 1968, ICNA has worked to build relations between communities by devoting itself to education, outreach, social services and relief efforts.

—END—

Islamic Circle of North America
E-mail:
Office: (718) 658-1199

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Plans for a super mosque close to the Olympic stadium reveal that it could hold almost 10,000 people. Architects' drawings show that the vast mosque will be about the same size as Battersea Power Station. By comparison, Britain's largest cathedral, in Liverpool, can hold 3,000 worshippers.

Newham Council in east London is due to decide whether it will grant planning permission for the structure next month.

Former councillor Alan Craig has launched a campaign to stop the project. He has produced 100,000 leaflets, which were being distributed throughout the borough yesterday. Mr Craig said: "The mega-mosque is proposed and planned by a particularly disturbing Islamic sect called Tablighi Jamaat."

He said that Tablighi Jamaat had been promoting itself as open and socially integrated. However, progressive Muslims who support the campaign against the mosque view its beliefs as "narrow and divisive". He said: "In my view we would be mad, barking mad, if we let the project go ahead."

Sunday Express, 4 November 2012

This has prompted the usual ignorant and bigoted comments from readers:

"Why encourage the destabilization of society by pandering to the needs of Islamic sect's which are funder mentally detrimental to the religious and political stability of the British Isles. An Islamic state is being created from within with the aid of the political correctness brigade and short sighted politicians."

"... we WILL end up with a mosque on the CORNER of each street in the country because they are ALLOWED to do JUST as they wont. In some inner city areas there are several mosques within walking distant of each other, WHY do they need so many. US Christians NEED to start making our objection HEARD. NOW before its too late"

"You can put money on it that this will be a wahhabi mosque with most of the money for building and maintaining it coming from Saudi Arabia. It will be another centre like the Regent's Park mosque (Channel 4 undercover mosques The Return) for preaching hatred against us and all we stand for. I have said and written many time before that the Wahhabi version of Islam should be banned as a dangerous brain washing sect that is a danger to our national security and should be banned from the UK."

Meanwhile, further to the right, the Sunday Express report has provoked equally predictable calls for arson attacks on the mosque and those worshipping in it.

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Yesterday's Daily Mail carried a report which began:

Not everyone at the Paralympics has been bowled over by the presence of Kate Middleton.

The Duchess of Cambridge was embarrassingly snubbed by an Iranian athlete who refused to shake her hand after she presented him with his discus silver medal on Sunday for "cultural reasons".

The royal was warmly received on the podium by Team GB's gold medal winner Aled Davies and Chinese bronze medallist Lezheng Wang – but when it was Mehrdad Karam Zadeh's turn to step up, the 40-year-old failed to offer a hand to the Duchess, clutching them close to his chest.

The snub threatened to overshadow a glittering night for Paralympics GB, which enjoyed its most successful day of the Games so far with seven gold medals.

You only have to read a bit further down the report to find that this is just not true:

A spokesman for St. James's Palace has revealed the Duchess was briefed beforehand and warned not to offer her hand to Zadeh.

"Many male athletes from Islamic countries do not shake hands in public with women they are not related for cultural and religious reasons," the palace representative said.

"The Duchess was informed in advance and was happy to accept his wishes. She considered it an honour to present the medals."

So, in reality, there was no "snub" at all, embarrassing or otherwise. Even the comments section following the report – and people who post their views at MailOnline are not generally known for their progressive sympathies – is full of readers pointing this out.

Without any acknowledgement that they misrepresented the situation, the Mail has now rewritten the report omitting the claim about a snub – though the headline has been beefed up to emphasise the message of Muslim misogyny. It now reads: "Iranian Paralympic athlete refuses to shake Duchess of Cambridge's hand 'for cultural reasons because she's a woman' at medal ceremony."

This isn't the only recent example of the right-wing press publishing nonsense about Iran. See also "The Daily Telegraph and a 'fundamentalist' Iranian MP", Bartholomew's Notes on Religion, 31 August 2012

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When originally chosen as Labour's mayoral candidate, he was the logical choice as a two-term leader of the Council. However, he was the subject of a "dog-whistle" campaign by opponents.

Just as conservatives in the U.S. use coded language to raise the hackles of racist voters against Barack Obama, similar language is used against Rahman, hinting at "links" to the Islamic Forum of Europe. That led to his decision to run, successfully, as an independent, and his victory has done little to increase the love.

Going to a mosque with "links" to other Muslim groups alleged to be "Islamist" provokes reflexes in a surprising range of people, from left-liberals alert to insinuations of anti-semitism to conservatives for whom it is a convenient cover for racism.

Anton Wahlberg profiles Lutfur Rahman, mayor of Tower Hamlets.

IPS, 7 August 2012

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She calls herself the "voice of the people," the anti-system candidate who will ensure social justice for the have-nots and purify a France she says is losing its voice to Europe and threatened by massive immigration and rampant Islamization.

She wants to drastically reduce the number of immigrants – to 10,000 a year – and, a top theme, to crack down for good on what she claims is the growing footprint of Islamic fundamentalists in France. "They are advancing in the neighborhoods. They are putting pressure on the population. They are recruiting young boys" to train for jihad, she said.

Le Pen insisted that fighting so-called Islamization won't breed a mass killer such as Anders Behring Breivik, the anti-Muslim extremist who is now on trial in Norway after confessing to killing 77 people. The fight must not stop "out of fear of a crazy man," she said.

Le Pen cites as proof of the Islamist threat in France the case of Mohamed Merah, a young Frenchman of Algerian origin who last month killed three French paratroopers, a rabbi and three Jewish schoolchildren before he was shot dead by police trying to capture him.

She also refuses to be categorized as extreme right, saying that her party is populist.

The image Marine Le Pen projects is less linked to the extreme-right than that of her father, said Nonna Meyer, an expert on the extreme-right vote at the prestigious university Sciences Po.

"She's younger, she's a woman, she condemns anti-Semitism. She often says things differently than her father," Meyer said. "She says she is tolerant, it is Islam that is intolerant ... She upends the discourse. But the foundation of the program is the same. If you look at the values her party defends, it is a system at once authoritarian and rejecting of others, rejecting the difference."

Associated Press, 18 April 2012

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The right-wing press has latched on to an interview with Prof Malcolm Gillies of London Metropolitan University in which he reportedly said he wants to create alcohol free areas on campus out of "cultural sensitivity".

The Mail went with: "London university considers stopping sale of 'immoral' alcohol on campus because it offends their Muslim students." The Telegraph reported: "A university Vice-Chancellor is planning to ban the sale of alcohol in parts of the campus because some Muslim students believe it is 'evil' and 'immoral'."

See "Sensationalist reporting on London Metropolitan University 'alcohol-free zones' consideration", ENGAGE, 13 April 2012

Also worth noting is the following statement by the London Met branch of the University and College Union:

1. London Met Uni has some 25,000+ students studying in over a dozen buildings – all of which have alcohol-free coffee bars/student areas, across two distinctly separate campus areas in North and East London, with only a single student bar at each campus (the only places that serve alcohol at the university).

2. There have been no complaints or demands from students directly or via the students union for alcohol to be either banned, or partially-banned, on campus.

3. Gillies is currently selling off large sections of the university estate, including 'The Hub' –the student union facility (inc student bar) at the City Campus. The VC's comments need to be seen in that light – i.e., they are simply a convenient cover for reducing student social facilities.

4. The language adopted by the VC in this regard is extremely divisive and is already stoking tensions where none had previously existed between the multiplicity of London Met's student constituencies. The fact that the EDL (English Defence League) and other extreme Right and fascist groups have latched on to this is a major concern.

5. If Gillies were serious about student welfare and wider social and cultural equality and fairness, why has he personally defended the following university management decisions:

i) direct links with the Uzbekistan regime – noted for the torture of its opponents (primarily Muslim incidentally), and forced sterilisation of woman (see this week's BBC report on the issue – www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01fjx63)

ii) cutting of most of the university's student chaplaincy service – including the forced redundancy of the Imam;

iii) the drastic reduction in the opening hours of the Women's Library (down to only 1 day per week), and its eventual closure;

All of this is happening at a time of huge cuts to student courses/modules – including the majority of the 'critical' subjects – such as philosophy and history, and mass redundancies amongst staff – both academic and student service related.

At best, Gillies utterances are a crass example of the disconnect becoming more and more evident at London Met between university management and the staff and students they supposedly represent. At worst, it is a quite cynical attempt to stir-up a divisive atmosphere in order to deflect attention from the far more serious issue of the deliberate destruction of a once proud inner city ethnically mixed and vibrant modern university.

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