Danish parties ready to deny citizenship to those who refuse to shake hands

Over the weekend it emerged that a Muslim couple in Switzerland were denied citizenship after refusing to shake hands of people of the opposite gender during an interview pertaining to their citizenship process.

Now two Danish parties, Dansk Folkeparti (DF) and Konservative (K), want to make it mandatory in Denmark for people to shake hands with mayors of their respective municipalities during citizenship ceremonies.

“A handshake must simply be a demand. If you want to be a Danish citizen, you need to be prepared to greet politely and decently with other people. And in Denmark that means shaking hands. That’s just how it is,” Martin Henriksen, the DF spokesperson for immigration issues, told Ekstra Bladet tabloid. [The Copenhagen Post] Read more

Government accused of ‘extreme negligence’ over deal to sell non-stunned slaughtered lambs to Saudi Arabia

Ministers have been accused of opening the door to lower animal welfare standards post-Brexit after it emerged the UK has agreed to sell meat to Saudi Arabia from lambs that were not stunned before being slaughtered. Senior MPs and animal welfare groups have attacked the deal, understood to be worth around £25m over the next five years.

They believe the move signals the Government’s intent to lower welfare standards once the UK leaves the European Union as it frantically seeks to sign trade deals with other countries around the world.

According to Vet Record magazine, British lamb to be exported to Saudi Arabia is being certified by the Halal Monitoring Committee, which prohibits any stunning of animals before they are slaughtered. [inews.co.uk] Read more

Government accused of inaction as number of British girls forced into marriages abroad has soared by a third since 2015

.... “The training that school staff receive to help them spot these issues is really poor, meaning that a lot of people who work in schools have no idea how to even recognise that it is happening.

“Rather than there being any attempt to understand a different culture or why this happening to young girls it often becomes this very uncomfortable anti-Muslim conversation. Ultimately the really crap training that school staff get around this issue only puts these kids even more at risk because nobody knows what to look out for.”

This echoes research by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) from last year which found less than half of teachers said they had been given training to recognise the signs of forced marriage. [The Independent] Read more

'We are real': Saudi feminists launch online radio

Operating out of a small room in an unknown country, a new internet radio station broadcasts a programme aimed at campaigning for greater women's rights in Saudi Arabia.

With melancholy music playing in the background, the presenter of Nsawya FM (Feminism FM) addresses the issue of domestic violence in the Gulf kingdom.

The presenter's voice shakes with emotion as she discusses the fate of Sara, a woman she says was killed by a male relative.

She was a 33-year-old university graduate with a job who lived with her parents - and who wanted to marry a man with a different nationality, that of Yemen.

"Sara's dream was ended with five bullets shot by her 22-year-old brother, even though she had been officially engaged with the consent of her parents," Ashtar, a 27 year old who uses a pseudonym inspired by the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war, later told BBC Arabic by phone. [BBC] Read more

Couple denied Swiss citizenship over handshake refusal

A couple who refused to shake hands or answer questions with members of the opposite sex on a naturalisation board in Lausanne have been denied Swiss citizenship.

In a statement issued on Fridayexternal link, the Lausanne city authorities confirmed a recent local newspaper report that it had denied a couple Swiss citizenship for refusing to shake hands with members of the opposite sex on the board during a naturalisation interview in spring.

But there had been other reasons that justified their rejection, the statement went on.

“During the hearing, this couple displayed a general discriminatory behaviour which was demonstrated by their refusal to answer questions posed by people of the opposite sex,” it said.

“Such an attitude does not respect a fundamental principle of our Constitution and a pillar of our society, namely equality between men and women. The Municipality noted that this couple did not meet the legal requirements and thus rejected their request.” [swissinfo.ch] Read more

Manchester mosque sermon 'called for armed jihad', say scholars

A sermon at the mosque where the Manchester bomber worshipped called for the support of armed jihadist fighters, according to two Muslim scholars.

An imam at Didsbury Mosque in December 2016 was recorded praying for "victory" for "our brothers and sisters right now in Aleppo and Syria and Iraq".

Scholars Usama Hasan and Shaykh Rehan said it referred to "military jihad".

The imam, Mustafa Graf, says his sermon did not call for armed jihad and he has never preached radical Islam.

The recording the BBC obtained is of Friday prayers at the mosque six months before Salman Abedi detonated a suicide bomb following an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in May 2017.

Abedi and his family regularly attended the mosque and his father sometimes led the call to prayer. [BBC] Read more

Boris Johnson and the burqa both causing concern - Readers respond to Guardian articles by Matthew d’Ancona, Emine Saner and Polly Toynbee

The Muslim women featured in Emine Saner’s article .... miss the point as to why most of us find the niqab so objectionable. This has little to do with religion or racism. It is because the niqab covers the face and effectively renders a woman unidentifiable. It is incomprehensible to many of us that the human face, the means by which we communicate and relate to each other, should be deemed unfit to be seen in public.

.... comparing a tiny minority of Muslim women in the UK to letterboxes is not racist. Surely it is not necessary to state again that Islam is not a race. It is a shifting set of dogmas, prescriptions, beliefs and practices to which anyone from any ethnic origin is invited to subscribe. There are “white” Muslim converts who choose to wear the niqab. To confuse religion and race is to make the humanist’s task more difficult when confronting religions head on, or, as Albert Camus famously put it: “To name things incorrectly is to add to the misfortunes of the world.” [The Guardian] Read more

Boris Johnson and the burqa both causing concern

The Muslim women featured in Emine Saner’s article (‘Boris Johnson wants to get the populist vote – at our expense’, G2, 15 August) miss the point as to why most of us find the niqab so objectionable. This has little to do with religion or racism. It is because the niqab covers the face and effectively renders a woman unidentifiable.

It is incomprehensible to many of us that the human face, the means by which we communicate and relate to each other, should be deemed unfit to be seen in public. Even more offensive, especially in these egalitarian times, is the idea that it is the female face alone that is required to be covered.

.... If Polly Toynbee were to walk the streets of Birmingham, she would see that the practice is far from the preserve of a tiny group. Mr Johnson might be a sharp political operator, but on this occasion his vivid choice of metaphor might start to undermine the apparent taboo surrounding the issue. [The Guardian] Read more

Manchester mosque sermon 'called for armed jihad', say scholars

A sermon at the mosque where the Manchester bomber worshipped called for the support of armed jihadist fighters, according to two Muslim scholars.

An imam at Didsbury Mosque in December 2016 was recorded praying for "victory" for "our brothers and sisters right now in Aleppo and Syria and Iraq".

Scholars Usama Hasan and Shaykh Rehan said it referred to "military jihad".

The imam, Mustafa Graf, says his sermon did not call for armed jihad and he has never preached radical Islam.

The recording the BBC obtained is of Friday prayers at the mosque six months before Salman Abedi detonated a suicide bomb following an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in May 2017.

Abedi and his family regularly attended the mosque and his father sometimes led the call to prayer.

The family's whereabouts on the day of the sermon are unknown but the BBC has been told that Abedi bought a ticket for the concert 10 days later. [BBC] Read more

We are not to fit in

"But what we need to understand is that the battle between us and the West is an ideological battle. It's an ideological battle. Everything we represent goes in total contradiction to what the West represents, because all of Islam is in opposition to secularism. They know this, and it is time that we did too. [...]

"My dear brothers and sisters, this idea of fitting in – we need to eliminate this from our vocabulary. Again, we are to stand out. We are a unique nation with a unique set of solutions. We are not to fit in.

How dare the truth and the falsehood hold hands? How dare we think that fitting in is the sole purpose of this message? A Muslim may not choose which aspect of Islam to adhere to or to abandon. We have no choice in the matter. [Mick Hartley] Read more

Fatwa-hit scholar calls for more tolerant Islam in the UK

But instead of shrinking from the limelight, Scottish scholar Paigham Mustafa has pledged to step up his efforts to question Islamic teaching by setting up a new think tank to reverse “Muslim social self-exclusion” and ensure greater integration for the community in the UK..

Mr Mustafa as targeted by Muslims in Glasgow and had to seek police protection after he spoke out about the more restrictive practices of Islam being propagated by Mosques.

In response, he says that 15 imams issued the fatwa - or ruling - calling for other Muslims to take action against him.

He has since been threatened with beheading by extremists after he claimed fasting between dawn and sunset during the month of Ramadan is not a requirement in the Quran, and has sought the protection of the police.

.... “Muslim social self-exclusion has become a largely voluntary phenomenon within the UK. This tendency towards Muslim segregation must be reversed to reduce social tensions, youth disaffection, juvenile criminality, economic deprivation, political disillusion and community alienation,” said Mr Mustafa. [Evening Times]

Read more

Senator Fraser Anning gives controversial maiden speech calling for Muslim immigration ban

In a provocative first speech to Parliament, Queensland senator Fraser Anning has called for a return to a "European Christian" immigration system and a ban on Muslims migrating to Australia.

The Katter's Australian Party senator's praise for the White Australia policy has been swiftly condemned as "vile" and "bile" by his parliamentary opponents.

"We as a nation are entitled to insist that those who are allowed to come here predominantly reflect the historic European-Christian composition of Australian society," he told the Upper House.

"Those who come here need to assimilate and integrate."

He said migrants should embrace the English language and Australian values, saying cultural diversity undermined social cohesion.

"Ethnocultural diversity ... has been allowed to rise to dangerous levels in many suburbs," he said.

"In direct response, self-segregation, including white flight from poorer inner-urban areas, has become the norm." [ABC] Read more

Woman wins handshake discrimination case in Sweden

A Muslim woman whose job interview was cut short when it became known that she would not shake hands with male colleagues for religious reasons, was indirectly discriminated against, the Swedish Labour Court has ruled.

The 24-year-old woman had been called to a job interview in Uppsala with a company providing interpretation services via telephone or video, as The Local reported last year. But when she declined to shake hands with one of the interviewers, a male manager, he terminated the meeting.

Sweden's Discrimination Ombudsman took the case to the Labour Court last year, arguing that the woman, who would not have had to meet customers in her role, had been discriminated against.

The company admitted that it considered germophobia and autism legitimate reasons for not shaking hands, but argued that its policy called for employees to treat all colleagues equally no matter their sex. [The Local] Read more

Whittington Hospital apologises for mistakenly selling non-halal chicken in canteen

THE Whittington and its private contractor Sodexo offered “sincere apologies” to Muslim patients and visitors for wrongly selling non-halal chicken in its canteen.

The Whittington said it was now “reviewing our relationship” with its contractor Sodexo. The firm was brought in on a five year contract in 2014 when all catering services were privatised by the NHS trust.

Hospital staff were informed today after the New Journal contacted the NHS trust for comment on Tuesday night. [Camden New Journal] Read more

Fraser Anning: Australia MPs condemn 'final solution' speech

An Australian senator has been widely condemned for a speech that invoked the term "final solution" in a call for immigration restrictions based on race.

Fraser Anning, from the conservative Katter's Australian Party, called for migration bans on Muslims and others in his maiden Senate speech on Tuesday.

Political opponents denounced his speech as "disgraceful". Mr Anning said he did not need to apologise.

"Final solution" was a term infamously used by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

In his speech, Mr Anning said "the final solution to the immigration problem is a popular vote".

On Wednesday, lawmakers across the political divide moved to pass parliamentary motions censuring Mr Anning for his "racist hate speech", noting in particular his use of the phrase "final solution", and his "false, misleading and hurtful statements" about Muslim Australians and other immigrant groups. [BBC] Read more

NSS backs call for review of role of sharia ‘courts’ in divorce

The National Secular Society has backed calls for the government to withdraw divorce guidance which encourages women from minority religious backgrounds to turn to religious 'courts'.

NSS chief executive Stephen Evans has joined campaigners in signing an open letter to the Ministry of Justice which has been published on the website of Southall Black Sisters (SBS). SBS campaigns for the rights of women in minority communities.

The letter calls for "an urgent review into sharia and civil marriage and divorce laws and to guarantee access to justice for all".

.... "The state should treat marriage and divorce as civil processes, governed by what is best for the individuals involved and society as a whole. But the government's guidance leaves women at the mercy of religious authorities who do not share these priorities, endangering their rights.

"The best way to ensure marriage and divorce are handled fairly is to recognise the supremacy of civil law over the religious and secularise the marriage laws."

The signatories call on the government to withdraw this guidance. [National Secular Society] Read more

Tribunal dismisses homophobic Muslim teacher’s discrimination claim

An employment tribunal has dismissed a Muslim deputy head teacher's claim of religious discrimination, while claiming homophobic views he expressed had "nothing to do with" his religious beliefs.

.... In one message Faraz shared a BBC article entitled 'Gay Pakistan; where sex is available and relationships are difficult'. Alongside the message he wrote that "the problem of homosexuality is rife in Pakistan", adding "sign of the end of times" and "may Allah further expose this and give us the strength to deal and eradicate it".

In another message he shared a Guardian article on the resources available to teachers on gay marriage. He wrote: "These animals are going out full force. As teachers we must be aware and counter their satanic ways of influencing young people."

When the messages were revealed the trust decided they had breached part two of the teachers' standards issued by the Department for Education. This includes the requirement for teachers, "within and outside school", to show "tolerance of and respect for the rights of others". [National Secular Society] Read more

French MPs ‘sickened’ by Gap Kids advert showing girl wearing hijab

An American advert showing a Muslim girl wearing a headscarf has prompted an outcry in France and been deemed an affront to the nation’s secularist principles.

The back-to-school campaign by Gap Kids was shot in a New York primary school but published by Gap in French on social media. The girl is dressed in denim and a headscarf as she plays with classmates of various ethnicities.

The image has prompted criticism because of France’s attachment to la laïcité, the 113-year-old reform that separates religion from public life. Hijab-style headcoverings have been banned from state schools, along with other “ostentatious” religious insignia, since 2004. [The Times (£)] Read more

Tunisian president proposes inheritance equality for women, with exceptions

Tunisia’s president on Monday proposed giving women equal inheritance rights despite protests from thousands of people objecting to any challenge to Islamic law.

The North African Muslim country, which toppled autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, grants women more rights than other countries in the region, and since last year has allowed Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men.

But in a show how divided society remains, thousands demonstrated on Saturday in front of parliament against any changes to inheritance rules.

The current system is based on Islamic law which typically allows men to inherit double what a woman would receive.

“I propose equality inheritance to become law,” President Beji Caid Essebsi said in a speech.

But in the face of the opposition from conservatives, he left the door open for some exceptions, saying families who wished to continue the allocation based on Islamic law would be able to do so. [Arab News] Read more

Trojan horse teacher called gays ‘animals’

A deputy head teacher who said that gay people should be eradicated has lost his latest attempt to get his job back.

Razwan Faraz’s claim for unfair dismissal has been thrown out by an employment judge. Mr Faraz had alleged that he was the victim of religious discrimination when he was sacked for making homophobic comments.

Mr Faraz, 38, worked at the multi-faith Nansen Primary School, which became embroiled in the Trojan horse scandal when an alleged plot by a group of conservative Muslims to take over several Birmingham schools and impose an Islamist ethos was laid out in an anonymous letter

Nansen Primary was placed in special measures alongside four other schools in 2014. It has since been removed from special measures by Ofsted but Mr Faraz lost his job in 2015 over comments he made in a Whatsapp group called “Park View Brotherhood” in which he also described gay people as “animals”.

.... During the disciplinary hearing Mr Faraz said that his views had changed and that the outburst had been an expression of his faith. A tribunal panel found that his comments “were a significant factor in causing the school to be brought into disrepute”.

He also lost on appeal and a judgment published last month said that his comments were “demonstrably homophobic” and described him as “evasive” and “not a credible witness”. [The Times (£)] Read more

Boris Johnson must face full inquiry, Muslim leaders tell May

Britain’s largest Islamic organisation is writing to Theresa May to demand Boris Johnson be subject to a full disciplinary inquiry, saying no one should be allowed to victimise minorities with impunity.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said Islamophobic incidents had spiked since Johnson’s controversial article was published a week ago and therefore the Conservative party process needed to go beyond its initial stage.

“We are hopeful that the party will not allow any whitewashing of this specific inquiry currently in process. No one should be allowed to victimise minorities with impunity,” the letter prepared by the MCB will say.

In a statement the MCB said: “It is of deep concern that some Conservative members of parliament appear to be pressuring the chair of the party to dismiss the complaints made. [The Guardian] Read more

Johnson has created a moment more divisive than ‘rivers of blood’

There was a time when Conservatives used to split over this or that aspect of an EU treaty; or the practice of monetarism; or the composition of the House of Lords; or the consequences of welfare policy. Now they argue over whether it is acceptable to sneer at Muslim women in religious dress. O tempora, o mores, as Jacob Rees-Mogg might say.

There is depressing bathos in the fact that two cheap gags in Boris Johnson’s Daily Telegraph column about the burqa have caused such a rift. But they have.

The former foreign secretary refuses to apologise for writing that a Muslim woman wearing the veil resembles “a bank robber” and that it is “absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes”. He is now under investigation by his own party, which has received dozens of complaints. [Guardian Cif] Read more

Boris Johnson niqab row: the veil enslaves, and it isn’t racist to say so

The first veiled woman I came across was a teacher at a mosque in Oldham, Greater Manchester, where I grew up. Most of us Muslim girls, then aged 9 or 10, found it very odd. Whenever the male imam came into our section she would rush to either cover her face or turn her back so he couldn’t see her. We didn’t get it.

So I was surprised at the furore last week when Boris Johnson wrote that Muslim women who wear the face veil “look like letter boxes” and compared them to bank robbers. Quite rightly, he doesn’t think we should ban the niqab in all public places, as Denmark has done, but described them as “absolutely ridiculous”.

There are many Muslims — including many of my relatives — who hate the niqab and what it stands for, and will use much worse language than “letter box” about them: words like “ninja” and “bin bags” come to mind. [The Times (£)] Read more

Burka poll shows Britons BACK Boris Johnson as MP warns row threatens Tory World War 3

The former foreign secretary caused huge controversy when he wrote that women wearing the Muslim garment looked like “letter boxes” or “bank robbers”.

But most people believe the leading Tory leadership contender, who flew back into England after a short break in Italy yesterday, should not be disciplined by the party over the article.

And 60 per cent of people say free speech is under threat, the ComRes poll shows.

The results come as calls mount for the Conservatives to drop any disciplinary proceedings against Mr Johnson.

.... The poll found 53 per cent of people do not think Mr Johnson should be disciplined for his comments about women wearing the burka.

It also found that 60 per cent of people believe protection of our rights to free speech have been weakened.

Last night the Conservatives defended their inquiry, saying they had a “responsibility” to investigate following complaints over the article in which Mr Johnson called the burka “ridiculous”. [Daily Express] Read more

Taj Hargey interview: ‘The burka is a fifth column... we will wake in the Islamic Republic of Britain’

Taj Hargey, the Oxford imam and scholar who robustly defended Boris Johnson in the row over burkas this week, has a habit of asking vivid questions and then answering them himself with a punchiness that makes the former foreign secretary seem timid and colourless.

“Do you think that these Wahhabis, Saudis and other extremists are going to be content with the burka and niqab?” he asks. “No! [The burka] is a fifth column, it’s a Trojan horse. They are going to bring other forms of Sharia down the pike. This is not the end of the story.

“White, liberal, Guardian-type readers think that they should allow this multiculturalism, where everything is equal, to flourish. They are in for a rude shock. One day they will wake up, if nothing happens [to stop it], to an Islamic republic of Britain. Now, before that happens I’m out of here. If tomorrow an Islamic Republic of Britain is announced, I leave tonight.” [The Times (£)] Read more