Bosnian Muslim politician wages veiled fight against prejudice

September 30, 2016 Article

Picture of Indira Sinanovic, first Bosnian woman wearing the niqab to run in local election in Bosnia, is seen on an election poster in Zavidovici, Bosnia and Herzegovina, September 27, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

Politicians across Europe are calling for a ban on the Islamic veil but Bosnian Muslim Indira Sinanovic is defying the trend as well as widespread prejudice in her own country, becoming the first fully-veiled woman here to run for public office.

Sinanovic, 37, wears the niqab – a garment that covers the hair and all the face apart from the eyes – and her aim if elected to the council in her central Bosnian hometown of Zavidovici is to battle prejudice and social exclusion.

Bosnia has no laws against the public wearing of the niqab and the burqa, clothes that have come to be associated with a fundamentalist reading of Islam, but a ban on court officials wearing headscarves has made Sinanovic and other activists wary.

“It’s the basic right of every citizen,” said the outspoken mother of two, speaking ahead of Sunday’s election in the office of IML (Islam My Life) Television in the town of Zenica, where she works as a journalist.

“(If elected) I would try to turn attention to the people who live in poverty, to be their voice in the municipal council and push for projects to improve their social status,” she said.

Bosnia has one of Europe’s largest indigenous Muslim populations, a legacy of its centuries-long history as part of the Ottoman Empire, but prejudice against overt displays of religion is widespread and Sinanovic has borne her share of it.

Sinanovic, who wears a long black robe and hides her eyes behind glasses, says she herself has been called names in the street such as “Ninja” or “Terrorist” or has been told “Go to Afghanistan” and “Go to Syria”.

Islam has traditionally been very liberal in multi-ethnic Bosnia, which for nearly 50 years was part of officially atheist Yugoslavia, but attitudes have shifted since the three-year Bosnian war, when Catholic Croats and Orthodox Christian Serbs fought a war of “ethnic cleansing” that cost 100,000 lives.

Poverty is still widespread 20 years later and Bosnia remains deeply divided between Serbs, Croats and the Muslim Bosniaks.

Arab mujahideen fighters who came to help their Bosniak co-religionists during the war brought more conservative habits with them, as did an influx of Saudi money after the war, much of which financed the building of traditionalist mosques.

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Categories: abuse, Bosniaks, Bosnian politician, Indira Sinanovic, Muslim woman, News, Niqab, prejudice, veil

Bulgaria bans full-face veils in public places

September 30, 2016 Article

Bulgaria’s parliament on Friday banned the wearing of face veils in public in a move which supporters said would boost security in the wake of Islamist militant attacks in Europe.

The “burqa ban” law, pushed by the nationalist Patriotic Front coalition, echoes similar measures in western European countries such as France, Netherlands and Belgium which have various laws banning the wearing of burqas or niqabs.

People who do not follow the ban in Bulgaria face fines of up to 1,500 levs ($860) as well as suspension of social benefits.

The ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms refused to take part in the vote, which followed full-face veils ban in public in several Bulgarian towns. It said the ban it would incite ethic and religious intolerance.

The ruling centre-right party said the ban has nothing to do with religious outfits but only aimed at boosting national security and allowing better video surveillance.

“The law is not directed against religious communities and is not repressive,” ruling GERB’s senior lawmaker Krasimir Velchev said. “We made a very good law for the safety of our children.”

According to the law, clothing hiding the face may not be worn in government offices, schools, cultural institutions and places of public recreation, but exceptions are allowed for health or professional reasons.

A minority of Muslim women in Europe cover their faces, but their veils have become symbols for some Europeans troubled by securty, immigration and Muslim integration.

Muslims make up about 12 percent of Bulgaria’s 7.2 million population and most belong to a centuries-old community, largely ethnic Turks.

Muslim women in the country traditionally do not wear niqabs or burqas, exept for a small group in the Roma community who have recently started, sparking tensions in the city of Pazarzhik.

Many Bulgarians are concerned that the migrant inflows into Europe may pose a threat to their predominantly Orthodox Christian culture and help radicalise part of the country’s long-established Muslim minority.

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Categories: ban, Bulgaria, face veil, Muslim women, News, security, terrorism, Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms

Campaign in Altrincham Regards Proposed Mosque as a ‘Security Hazard’

September 30, 2016 Article

The following leaflet was circulated in Altrincham, Greater Manchester. Headlined with ‘Do we really want this’, it plays up a proposed Muslim community centre, suggesting a ‘massive’ development being built on ‘precious green belt’ land.

Yet, the objections raised may well be legitimate concerns, however, one statement in the leaflet raises eyebrows and should make us all uncomfortable in the way that it frames mosques. The final point in the leaflet states:

“The centre will be open every day through the year, from very early in the morning to late at night. Apart from a security hazard, there is a propensity for both light and noise pollution.”

The use of the term ‘security hazard’ is bizarre and attempts to play on fears about Muslims and mosques and should be challenged. There seems to be a Facebook page entitled ‘Atrincham Today’ and we would urge members of the public to make clear that such language and dog-whistle language is unacceptable. We would also urge local councillors on the relevant planning committee to raise questions with campaigners as to the choice of their words.

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Categories: Atrincham, Atrincham Muslim Association, Atrincham Today, Greater Manchester, mosque, mosques, News, planning application

Campaign in Altrincham Regards Proposed Mosque as a ‘Security Hazard’

September 30, 2016 Article

“The centre will be open every day through the year, from very early in the morning to late at night. Apart from a security hazard, there is a propensity for both light and noise pollution.”

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Categories: Atrincham, Atrincham Muslim Association, Atrincham Today, Greater Manchester, mosque, mosques, News, planning application

Islamist rebel gets 9 years imprisonment for Timbuktu destruction

September 28, 2016 Article

War crimes judges on Tuesday sentenced a former Islamist rebel who admitted wrecking holy shrines during Mali’s 2012 conflict to nine years in prison, in the first such case to focus on destruction of cultural heritage.

Human rights groups and international legal experts hope Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi’s case in the International Criminal Court may serve as a deterrent to a kind of devastation that continues to be a feature of global conflicts yet has gone largely unpunished.

Al-Mahdi expressed remorse for his involvement in the destruction of 10 mausoleums and religious sites in Timbuktu dating from Mali’s 14th-century golden age as a trading hub and centre of Sufi Islam, a branch of the religion seen as idolatrous by some hardline Muslim groups.

The sites, nine of them on the UNESCO World Heritage list, “had an emotional and symbolic meaning for the residents of Timbuktu”, the panel of judges at The Hague said. Several sites were razed to the ground or badly damaged and needed to be completely rebuilt.

By striking at their most meaningful religious sites, al-Mahdi participated in “a war activity aimed at breaking the soul of the people,” said presiding Judge Raul Pangalangan.

Specifically, the judges said, he “exercised joint control over the attacks” by planning, leading and participating in them, supplying pick-axes and in one case a bulldozer.

Such acts have rarely been prosecuted despite being illegal under international law, but have attracted increasing international outrage after the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan in 2001 and, more recently, Islamic State jihadists smashed monuments in the Syrian city of Palmyra.

Those acts have not been investigated by the ICC because Syria is not a member of the court and the destruction in Afghanistan predates the court’s jurisdiction.

Instead, prosecutors at the ICC have largely focused on war crimes in African states, earning the 14-year-old court criticism for not going after more politically challenging hotspots, such as the occupied Palestinian territories.

SWEPT UP IN A WAVE

The ICC has been examining events in Mali since 2012, when Tuareg rebels seized part of the north, imposing a strict interpretation of Islamic law. French and Malian troops pushed them back the following year.

During his brief trial in August al-Mahdi asked for forgiveness and said he had been swept up in an “evil wave” when al Qaeda and the Ansar Dine Islamist groups briefly seized control of the ancient sites.

Prosecutors and the defence had agreed beforehand to accept a sentence of 9 to 11 years for the former religious teacher, who sat quietly in a gray suit, nodding as the verdict was read aloud.

Judges said the sentence took into account al-Mahdi’s “genuine remorse, deep regret and deep pain” and his calls on other Muslims not to make the same mistakes he did.

“Such an admission may have a deterrent effect on others tempted to commit similar acts in Mali and elsewhere,” Pangalangan said.

UNESCO said in a statement the verdict was “a landmark in gaining recognition for the importance of heritage for humanity as a whole and for the communities that have preserved it over the centuries”.

“This case is of phenomenal significance considering the character of armed conflict going on around the world and the amount of cultural property that is being destroyed,” said Carrie Comer, permanent representative to the ICC of Paris-based rights watch dog FIDH.

She said that given al-Mahdi’s remorse and cooperation, the sentence “is quite a strong deterrent message: saying we do take these crimes seriously, they have an impact on victims not only in the immediate vicinity but really on the international community as a whole.”

A warrant for al-Mahdi’s arrest was issued by the ICC on Sept. 18, 2015, and he was handed over by neighbouring Niger eight days later.

Mali’s government welcomed the conviction as a source of “hope for all the victims of the barbaric ideology … of the narco-terrorists in northern Mali”, adding that it “should serve as a … warning to criminals who attack cultural property”.

Residents reached in Timbuktu had mixed views about the verdict.

“Nine years in prison is little. But he deserves the sentence as an example for all who committed these barbaric acts,” said Alhoussaini Saye, a teacher.

Hawa Sisse, a trader in a Timbuktu market, said: “I was expecting him to be imprisoned for life, but (the court) decided otherwise. I hope that his return to Timbuktu in nine years will not be perceived as a sort of victory among the militants.”

Mali expert Bruce Whitehouse said Malians are worried al-Madhi’s case will “wind up being a kind of fig leaf”.

When the ICC’s prosecutor opened its Mali investigation in 2012, “there were different classes of crimes, including murder, torture, execution, pillaging, rape,” said Whitehouse, a professor at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.

“I think Malians find it ironic that the only crime that’s been prosecuted is for this attack against protected objects category,” he said.

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Categories: Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, ICC, International Criminal Court, Islamic Law, Islamist, Malian, News, Sufi, Timbuktu, UNESCO

Leicestershire Police criticise misleading ‘burqa police uniform’ press coverage

September 27, 2016 Article

Leicestershire Police have expressed their ‘disappointment’ at ‘inaccurate’ press coverage of their uniform policy. On September 22, the Sun’s bombastic headline read ‘More burkas on the beat’ in response to claims that Leicestershire Police may allow Muslim officers to wear the burqa.

The Sun’s article incorrectly stated that the force “would have to consider”any such request. Yet, the original statement from Leicestershire Police made no such claim. As their statement made clear:

We have been made aware of discussions in other police forces regarding incorporating burkahs into police uniform. It is not something that Leicestershire Police has been asked to consider by an officer or by a police recruit. If such a request was made, it would be considered in line with the requirements of policing and the need to ensure officers have uniforms that are fit for purpose. [Our emphasis].

The journalist contradicts this claim further into the article by quoting from the above statement. Nor did Leicestershire Police mention the niqab in their statement. But this was still inserted in the Sun’s article.

Days later, Chris Roycroft-Davis opined in the Daily Express that “Sometimes a smile can disarm a violent suspect but not if it’s invisible. When police go undercover they don’t mean under that sort of cover“.

The ‘outrage’ followed news earlier this month that West Midlands Police would consider a similar approach to uniform. But the original question put to both forces was nothing more than hypothetical.

Chief Constable David Thompson, of West Midlands Police, said: “Clearly we don’t have any barriers relating to that (the burka). As it stands we have not had any approaches from potential recruits asking to wear the burka, but if such an approach was made it is something we would have to consider.”

As the with the statement from Leicestershire Police: “It is not something that Leicestershire Police has been asked to consider by an officer or by a police recruit”.

Detective Chief Constable Nick Baker, of Staffordshire Police, made clear that no member of staff has made such a request.

No serving Muslim police officer or potential recruit has requested to wear the burqa while on duty. This bears repeating.

Two MailOnline articles incorrectly stated the burqa is a ‘traditional Islamic dress’. Both articles also used the same stock image.

The first use of the burqa stock image. Published by MailOnline on September 9, 2016.

The second example of the same stock image used by MailOnline on September 22,2016.

Perhaps this reliance on a stock image demonstrates that the burqa is far removed from the daily lives of many Muslims in Britain. This caricature reduces the complexities of religious identity and does little to further religious literacy. Yet, the original MailOnline article about the burqa and West Midlands Police gained 31,000 online shares. It stands to reason that this was not about the uniform policy of West Midands Police. But rather what the burqa is ‘meant’ to represent. As our annual report notes, a woman’s hijab can become a universal symbol of ‘Muslimness’. This would extend to the ideological perceptions attached to the burqa.

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Categories: Burqa, Daily Express, Daily Mail, Leicestershire Police, MailOnline, Media, News, the Sun

Man purporting to be Boko Haram leader taunts Nigerian military in video

September 26, 2016 Article

A man purporting to be Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau speaks in this still frame taken from social media video courtesy of SITE Intel Group, released on August 10, 2016, in an unknown location. MANDATORY CREDIT Social Media courtesy of SITE INTEL GROUP/ via REUTERS

The purported leader of Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau appeared in a video posted on social media on Sunday in which he rejected statements by the country’s military that he had been seriously wounded.

In recent years, the Nigerian military has said it has killed or critically wounded Shekau on multiple occasions, often swiftly followed by video denials by someone who says he is Shekau. Last month Nigeria’s air force said it had killed senior Boko Haram members and that Shekau had been wounded.

While the ensuing videos all show someone sporting Shekau’s distinctive beard, the grainy quality of the footage means it is not always possible to confirm if the person is the same as in the previous videos.

“You broadcast the news and published it in your media outlets that you injured me and killed me and here I am,” said a man purporting to be Shekau in a video addressed to “tyrants of Nigeria in particular and the west of Africa in general”.

“I will not get killed until my time comes,” he added in the 40-minute video posted on YouTube and delivered in Arabic and Hausa, which is spoken widely in northern Nigeria.

A statement issued by army spokesman Sani Usman said the footage showed that the man purporting to be Shekau was “unstable” and came as “another sign that the end is near for him”.

“Boko Haram terrorism as it was known, is gone for good. We are just counting down to the day when all the few remnants will be totally wiped out or brought to justice,” he said.

The statement did not explicitly say whether the army considered the man in the video to be Shekau.

Last month’s announcement by the air force came days after Islamic State, to whom Boko Haram pledged allegiance last year, announced the appointment of a new leader of the West African group in an apparent rejection of Shekau.

That appointment was later dismissed in a 10-minute audio clip on social media by a man purporting to be Shekau, exposing divisions within the jihadist group that has plagued Nigeria and neighbours Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

Boko Haram has killed about 15,000 people and displaced more than 2 million in a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating a state adhering to strict Islamic laws.

It controlled a swathe of land in northeast Nigeria around the size of Belgium at the end of 2014 but was pushed out by Nigerian troops, aided by soldiers from neighbouring countries, early last year.

In a sign the group remains capable of inflicting damage, Usman said four Nigerian soldiers were killed and 16 others were injured on Sunday when they were ambushed by Boko Haram fighters during a patrol in the northeastern state of Borno. He said three militants were killed.

It comes hours after two security sources told Reuters in Chad that suspected militants killed four Chadian troops and wounded six overnight in an attack near the town of Kaiga.

They added that seven of the Islamist militants had been killed in return fire.

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Categories: Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram, News, Nigerian Islamist Group, Nigerian Military, video

Jordanian Writer and Cartoonist Murdered in Broad Daylight by Religious Extremist

September 25, 2016 Article

Jordanian police stand guard in front of a hospital where the body of Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar, who was shot dead, was held in Amman, Jordan, September 25, 2016. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed

Few would have known Nahed Hatter who had written on Islamist violence and narratives for decades. A writer who had left Jordan for the Lebanon for his views, he had returned to his country only to be murdered this morning for a cartoon that he had posted on his Facebook page.

The post initially was made around early August leading to charges being laid against Nahed Hattar based on insulting religious identity. Hattar subsequently deleted the post and was summoned to attend court to explain his actions. The initial post is listed below and mocked the world of IS or Daesh and implies that they make up what suits their worldly needs and that they have made themselves judges over God, who is drawn as the bearded man in the background. The cartoon and the work of Hattar was focussed on challenging Islamist narratives and the writer, who lived in a Muslim majority country, distinguished this line from the vast and overwhelming majority of Muslims who seek to worship and lead their lives in peace.

Nahed Hattar was murdered on the steps of a Jordanian court today. The perpetrator shot Hattar on multiple occassions and graphics highlighted the senseless murder through postings on Facebook.

The killing has shocked Jordan and highlights how sensitive issues are regarding faith and how delineating between Islamist narratives and Muslims has become deadly work.

Charges

The State prosecutor has charged the perpetrator with 3 charges. These include, wilfull premeditated murder, a terrorist act leading to the death of a person and carrying and possessing a firearm without a license. The case has also been referred to the State Security Court.

According to a source close to the investigation, the killer, who worked as an engineer at the Ministry of Education, said during the interrogation ‘he had planned to commit the crime for some time. He did not know or hear of the writer, Hatter, till he re- published his cartoons on his Facebook page.’ The perpetrator then searched through websites and he became aware of the court date where Hatter had been summoned to attend.

The source said the offender confessed to the crime, adding that the killer had bought a gun a week beforehand. This morning he walked on foot to his office towards the Palace of Justice in Abdali – Amman. According to a confession, the killer remained in wait for the writer for almost an hour, and after seeing Hatter with his friends he followed him onto the back stairs where he fired several times hitting Hatter in the neck and arm.

The source also noted that the killer stated that he was,

“convinced that Hatter offended God and should be killed and that anyone who offends God should be killed.”

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Categories: Daesh, Jordan, Nahed Hattar, News, terrorism

Sister of French militants put under formal investigation

September 24, 2016 Article

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve (L) and Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem attend a news conference to announce security plans for schools, in Paris, France, August 24, 2016. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

The sister of French Islamist militants Fabien and Jean-Michel Clain was put under formal investigation for criminal association in relation to a terrorist undertaking and remanded in custody on Saturday, a judicial source said.

Anne-Diana Clain, born in 1975, was arrested Tuesday night at Roissy international airport near Paris along with her partner, who had already been put under investigation for the same reason, and their eldest son.

The family had been expelled from Turkey, which serves as a gateway to Syria for Islamist militants from Western countries.

Fabien Clain appeared on the audio recording of Islamic State’s claim of responsibility for the attacks on Paris in November 2015 that killed 130 people.

The voice of his younger brother Jean-Michel was heard behind him on the recording that was posted by Islamist State.

French authorities suspect the two brothers, who are from the Réunion island in the Indian Ocean, to be in Syria.

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Categories: Anne-Diana Clain, French, Islamist, Jean-Michel Clain, News

Far Right Nationalist Stickers Found in Stockport

September 22, 2016 Article

We have just had the following reported into us regarding A4 posters and stickers that have been circulated in the Stockport area. The material highlights terminology associated with far right nationalist ideology with one stating:

“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”

This is a direct reference to the 14 words which are usually associated with 88 – the numbers being related to the position of the alphabet of H and H. They reference the slogan of ‘Heil Hitler’.

This material was placed outside Asian businesses in the area as a means of intimidating members of diverse communities. The group, calling itself ‘British Movement’ has not come up on our radar before for such activity, though if you come across such material in the future, do not hesitate to contact us so that we an notify the relevant local authority and police force contacts. We will also ensure that such material is taken down since it creates fear and tension within communities.

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Categories: British Movement, Far Right groups, Hate Crimes, News, posters, stickers, Stockport