Farid Hafez

Mohammed Sinan Siyech

By Islamophobia Reports

By Islamophobia Reprts

One converted to Islam, the other went to far-right rallies: a modern tale of two brothers

They were party animals from the Midlands. Now a TV series explores the lives of Abdul and Lee

In their youth, brothers Shaun and Lee did what they describe as the usual things: "getting wrecked" – drink, drugs, clubbing, gambling. "The party was always at our house, put it that way. And I was the host," said Shaun.

But Shaun has since become Abdul, a convert to Islam whose life is governed by his devotion to Allah and the strict demands of his faith. Meanwhile, Lee travelled around the country to anti-Muslim rallies organised by the English Defence League. The brothers have taken starkly different directions. But Abdul told the Observer: "I know Lee loves me and I love him."

The brothers' story is told in a three-part Channel 4 series, Extremely British Muslims. Based on a year of filming in and around Birmingham Central Mosque, one of the biggest in the UK, it aims "to show what ordinary Muslims' lives are like beyond the negative headlines", said series producer Fozia Khan.

Bella and Nayera are seen navigating Muslim marriage protocols in their search for love; Waz and Nav struggle against the stereotypes of young Muslim men in the media; Zaidan feels caught between his passion for the Birmingham grime scene and his desire to have "true purpose"; and Sidrah wants people to understand there is a person behind her niqab.
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By Dr Chris Allen

Five Considerations When Refuting The Critics Of Islamophobia

Following on from the oral evidence I gave to the Home Affairs Committee at a session on the impacts of hate crime, I was asked to pull together a short briefing paper on how we might move towards establishing a working definition of Islamophobia (the final draft can be found here).

As with any discriminatory phenomenon, the process of definition can be complex and contentious and Islamophobia is no different in this respect. However unlike other discriminatory phenomena such as racism, Islamophobia has a far shorter history. It should be remembered that in its current manifestation, the term Islamophobia only entered the public and political lexicon two decades ago. Consequently, thinking and understanding about the phenomenon remains less developed than it does for other similar phenomena.

Nonetheless, numerous definitions of Islamophobia currently exist ranging from the academic and scholarly, through the community and advocacy sectors, to the policy and political. Few have acquired widespread acceptance however and so the search for 'the one' has become something of a search for El Dorado. But as with El Dorado, so too is it a myth to believe that conceiving and establishing a working definition of Islamophobia will simplify the phenomenon's complexity or overcome its contestation.
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By Islamophobia Reports

NEGATIVE MEDIA COVERAGE OF MUSLIMS LED TO TRUMP'S RISE

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan ― There is a golden rule of compassion: do unto others what you would have others do unto you. Yet, in today's world, we have seen racial and religious hatred directed towards women and minorities mainstreamed. Violent hatred in the West has reached an all time climax, with some of President-elect Trump's supporters promoting the KKK and even Hitler with graffiti on school and campus walls and acts of harassment and intimidation towards minorities across the U.S.. Recently, Chinese girls on university campuses have tweeted about how they have been abused and told to get out of America. Muslim women have had their hijabs pulled off violently and even set on fire. African Americans who have lived in America for generations have been abused and violently told to "get the f***k out of this country, b**ch!" Mosques, synagogues and churches have sadly become sites of racial and religious abuse. The rise of President Trump in the U.S. (and for those who did not vote for him do not give up hope for he may be as good a president as he is a successful businessman?), the success of Brexit in the U.K., the increased popularity of Golden Dawn in Greece and the potential presidency of Marine Le Pen in France did not come out of the blue – the scene has been prepared for them, consciously or unconsciously over the last few decades.

I have been watching with deep concern over the last three decades a systematic attack on a certain minority community ― Muslims and their faith identity, Islam. When I was living in the U.K. as a scholar more than two decades ago, I recall the systematic negative reporting on Islam in general and Pakistan in particular. Like so many other friends of mine (non-Muslims and Muslims), this problematic coverage bothered me because first, it was not always factually correct and second, it was vitriolic. I wrote to Channel 4 in response to a negative documentary they released but nothing came of this feedback.
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By Garibaldi of Loonwatch

The "War On Terror" In The Coming Presidency Of Hillary Clinton

A flashback to a scene from the early years of America's "War on Terror" and how the US put the Muslim American community under a national microscope, pressuring it to police it's own communities. Back then some Muslim institutions reacted to the pressure by creating campaigns to prevent radicalization and terrorism. Today the US government is doing the same through programs such as Countering Violent Extremism (CVE).

The main talking point of a 2004 news conference by US Attorney General John Ashcroft was to tell the American public the not-so-earth-shattering news that "Alqaeda intends to attack the United States in the coming months." Ashcroft shared photographs of seven people being sought in connection with terrorism investigations. CNN described another portion of Ashcroft's address which focused on possible threats in these strange terms,

He also warned that terrorists may not have a typical look and that 'the face of al Qaeda may be changing.' Our intelligence confirms al Qaeda is seeking recruits who can portray themselves as Europeans,' he said." (emphasis mine)
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FBI Tried To Lure Orlando Shooter Into Terror Plot In 2013

A police officer in Florida has revealed that Omar Mateen was targeted by an FBI informant in a failed attempt to push him to commit a terror attack.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation tried to ''lure'' Orlando shooter Omar Mateen into committing a terror plot in 2013 through the planting of an informant in his life, revelations that raise serious questions about the FBI's indirect role in shaping the recent Orlando terror attack through its entrapment policies.

In an exclusive interview published June 15, Sheriff Ken Mascara of Florida's St. Lucie County told the Vero Beach Press Journal that the FBI dispatched an informant to ''lure Omar into some kind of act'' but he ''did not bite.''

The plan, Mascara said, came after Mateen had threatened a courthouse deputy by saying he could order al-Qaida operatives to kill his family.
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By Jennifer Williams

Dear politicians: Muslim Americans aren't just tools in the war on terror

Islamophobia is becoming a big enough problem in the US that presidential candidates are now getting asked about it. That's a positive development, and fortunately many of them are responding by arguing firmly that this is a problem that must be challenged. Unfortunately, though, many are giving a politically safe answer that carries some very negative connotations, and in some ways is as much a part of the problem as it is the solution.

Sen. Marco Rubio was the latest to do this. In Saturday's Republican debate, he was asked whether he would visit a mosque, as President Obama did last week. In his response, which I've reproduced in part below, he repeated the all-too-common argument that American Muslims should be treated with respect so that they will help US law enforcement in combating terrorism (my emphasis added):

First of all, let's recognize this. If you go to a national cemetery in this country, you will see Stars of Davids and crosses, but you see crescent moons. There are brave men and women who happen to be Muslim Americans who are serving this country in uniform and who have died in the service of this country. And we recognize that and we honor that.
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Islamophobia Kills

The deadliest mass shooting in American history happened because of Islamophobia.

Islamophobia killed 49 people in Orlando. It didn't kill 49 Muslims. Instead it allowed Omar Mateen, a Muslim terrorist, to kill 49 people in the name of his Islamic ideology and the Islamic State.

Omar, like so many other Muslim killers, could have been stopped. He talked about killing people when he worked at G4S Security, a Federal contractor that provided services to the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. But, according to one of the co-workers he stalked, a former police officer, his employers refused to do anything about it because he was a Muslim.

The FBI conducted an investigation of Omar Mateen. They put him on a watch list and sent informants. They interviewed him and concluded that his claims of Al Qaeda ties and terrorist threats were reactions to ''being marginalized because of his Muslim faith.'' Omar told the agents that he said those things because ''his co-workers were discriminating against him and teasing him because he was Muslim.''
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Sam Husseini 

Noor Zahi Salman: Everything You're Hearing About Me Is a Lie Updated

[Addendum: My source has now been in direct communication with Noor Zahi Salman. She says that she has read this article. She states in a text which I have seen that instead of blaming her, since she had nothing to do with the shooting, shouldn't the people who sold the guns take some blame? She writes all she wanted ''was a home, family, and peace for the media to say these lies isn't right.''

[A friend, who is with her, adds: ''It is not an easy time for her ... and having a child ask a mother 'where is daddy' can't be easy and for New York Post to show her son's face is not right.'' Text added June 16 at approx 12:15 ET a.m.]

Original Article [June 15, 2016] :

Virtually everything in the media about Noor Zahi Salman, Omar Mateen's wife, is from anonymous government sources. They lie in situations like this.

Such anonymous sourcing helped facilitate the lies used to invade Iraq and countless other horrific policies. They're doubly dangerous during a panic, consider that after government anthrax killed people in 2001, Andrew Sullivan talked about using nuclear weapons.
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Malik Jalal 

I'm on the Kill List. This is what it feels like to be hunted by drones

Friends decline my invitations and I have taken to sleeping outside under the trees, to avoid becoming a magnet of death for my family

I am in the strange position of knowing that I am on the 'Kill List'. I know this because I have been told, and I know because I have been targeted for death over and over again. Four times missiles have been fired at me. I am extraordinarily fortunate to be alive.

I don't want to end up a ''Bugsplat'' the ugly word that is used for what remains of a human being after being blown up by a Hellfire missile fired from a Predator drone. More importantly, I don't want my family to become victims, or even to live with the droning engines overhead, knowing that at any moment they could be vaporized.
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Head Of Germany's Protestant Church Wants Islam Taught In State Schools

Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm called for ''tolerance'' and ''religious freedom'' in a recent interview.

The head of the Protestant Church in Germany has called for Islam to be taught in state schools across the country as a way to make young Muslims impervious to the ''temptation of fundamentalists.''

Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm told the Heilbronner Stimme newspaper that teaching Islam in schools nationwide would give Muslim pupils a chance to take a critical approach to their own religion.

Seven of Germany's 16 federal states offer some form of Islamic religion classes in their schools, similar to the Catholic and Protestant religion classes they have traditionally had. Germany has about four million Muslims, about five percent of the total population.
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By Caitlin Steinke

Ending the Terror Campaign Against Muslims

Most of us recall the anti-Muslim violence that skyrocketed in the wake of 9/11. Brown men and women perceived to be Muslim were murdered, attacked, spat on and threatened. Mosques were vandalized with bullets, rocks and Molotov cocktails. Many Muslims cancelled their plans to visit or study in the United States out of concerns for their safety, while those already within our borders feared the worst for themselves and their children.

Despite the pleas of the Bush administration to not blame all Muslims for the violent acts of a few, such language was rendered meaningless by the actions of the U.S. government. In response to 9/11, the U.S. government subjected Muslims in the United States to persistent harassment and intimidation and implemented formal policies to abduct Muslims from all corners of the globe, torture Muslims at CIA black sites, hold Muslims in secret prisons, and deny Muslim detainees even the most basic due process. There were calls for the U.S. military to "nuke" Islamic countries, and for Americans to defeat Islam before it could defeat the United States.
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By Gabriel Arana

5 Ways Journalists Can Avoid Islamophobia In Their Coverage

It is the duty of journalists to inform and educate. But when it comes to Islam and the Muslim community -- in the U.S. and across the world -- news outlets have far too often served to spread misinformation and perpetuate prejudice. Whether it's networks running segments asking if Islam is a violent religion or anchors demanding Muslim guests account for the acts of religious extremists, Islamophobia crops up in coverage whenever terrorism or the Middle East are in the news.

Some of the bad coverage is the result of willful prejudice and ignorance; it's hard to imagine any amount of information getting the Sean Hannitys and Bill O'Reillys of the world to stop spreading hate.
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By Curt Goering

Islamophobia: When Freedom From Fear Is a Fantasy

Rights and freedoms are the focus of this year's Human Rights Day, according to the UN. Those rights and freedoms -- freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear -- are the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which applies to all human beings. But this year in particular, that last one, "freedom from fear," gets stuck in my throat. Because we're not all free from fear these days. Not by a long shot. Not while ISIS perpetrates indiscriminate attacks. Not while Bashar al-Assad wages terror on his own people. Not while Iraqis in the religious minorities are targeted for kidnappings and extortion. And not while young Eritreans must either flee their country or face a lifetime of military conscription. And people cannot be free from fear when political leaders in the United States -- a country that prides itself upon being a beacon of hope and freedom -- threaten to close their doors to refugees fleeing unspeakable cruelty and atrocity. Not while longtime refugees in the United States are targeted, shunned and attacked.

We at CVT have worked for 30 years to help survivors of torture secure basic human rights - to be free from torture and to have access to rehabilitative care. Refugees flee their homes because of persecution and war, but they come to the United States because of a deeply-held belief in the promise that is America: the promise of freedom, safe harbor and opportunity. Upon arrival in the United States, refugees speak of the exhilaration they feel in breathing air of optimism and hope. But given the current climate of heinous backlash against refugees in this country, the ground feels like it's shifting beneath our feet. How on earth did we get here?
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EsinIslam Reports - Islamophobia

Chris Herbert, Amputee Soldier, Nails Why Blaming All Muslims For ISIS Is Ridiculous In Facebook Post

A soldier who lost his leg has summed up perfectly why blaming the world's Muslim population for the terrorist actions of the Islamic State group is deeply flawed.

Chris Herbert posted the message on Facebook on Tuesday because he was "frustrated by some people expecting racism" from him, because he "got blown up".

In the post, which has been shared more than 25,000 times, he details all the incredible things that Muslim people have done to help him, as well as unpleasant experiences he has had with 'White Brits'.

He concludes: "Although, a lot of people helped in my recovery! I don't hate white brits either! hahaha)
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By Caroline Russell

When It Comes to Arson Attacks on a Mosque, We Are All Muslims

I was shocked to hear the news of Friday night's attempted arson attack at Finsbury Park Mosque, which is on the boundary of my ward and is used by many of my constituents. I have taken part in some of the open days they have run for schools and the rest of the community, so I feel I know the place reasonably well. Thank goodness for the rain that mean the fire went out and did not take hold.

I am even more shocked by some of the comments I found on Twitter. I probably shouldn't be surprised that there are people lurking in the darker corners of social media who think it's acceptable to publicly wish for every mosque in the country to be burned down, "preferably when full to the rafters". But in this case those worshippers are my friends, neighbours and constituents, and hate-filled attitudes like that sicken me to the stomach.
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By Lewis Dean