LONDON (AFP) – A controversial Islamic group sparked a row in Britain Saturday after announcing plans for a march to commemorate civilians killed in the Afghanistan war through a town known for honouring dead soldiers.

Islam4UK says it wants to march through Wootton Bassett, which regularly sees hundreds gather in its streets as the bodies of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan parade through in hearses.

The town, which is close to the Royal Air Force base where soldiers' bodies are repatriated, has become a powerful symbol of Britain's war effort.

Islam4UK calls itself a platform for Al-Muhajiroun, a radical group now disbanded which used to be headed by Omar Bakri, an Islamist preacher barred from Britain for his views.

The march is expected to be held in the coming weeks and will feature symbolic coffins to honour Muslims killed in the conflict.

Islam4UK said on its website that the march would be "held not in memory of the occupying and merciless British military, but rather the real war dead who have been shunned by the Western media and general public".

It added: "It is quite extraordinary... that those military serviceman who have directly or indirectly contributed to their death are paraded as war heroes and moreover honoured for what is ultimately genocide."

A total of 108 British soldiers died in Afghanistan in 2009 compared to 2,038 civilians in the first ten months of the year, according to the United Nations mission in Afghanistan.

The news prompted anger from local politicians, who condemned Islam4UK leader Anjem Choudary.

"We are a Christian country and a traditional old English market town who honour very much our queen and country. We obey the law and pay respects to our servicemen who protect our freedom," said Chris Wannell, a Wootton Bassett town councillor and former mayor.

"If this man has any decency about him, he will not hold a march through Wootton Bassett."

The local police, who have to approve plans for the march, said there was "significant community concern" about it, adding they could apply for a banning order.

AFP, 2 January 2010

On Christmas day, a family doctor in Utrecht refused to allow a woman into his surgery because she was wearing a niqab, or burqa.

The 23-year-old woman had brought her baby to see the doctor. The three-month-old child had diarrhoea and had not drunk for several hours, a situation which is potentially dangerous in young baby. However, the doctor refused to see the woman because she was wearing Islamic dress, with her face covered.

The Equal Treatment Commission confirmed it has received a complaint from the woman, following a report in the newspaper AD. A spokesperson said the commission would definitely be dealing with the complaint, as a GP provides a service and should not refuse to see a woman on the ground of her religious expression. According to the commission this is the first time such a case has been reported.

The woman has also lodged a complaint with the GP's practice and the medical disciplinary tribunal.

RNW, 29 December 2009

The Rt Rev John Goddard, the Bishop of Burnley, suggested it would be more sensitive for the Islamic charity behind the project to consider a location in another part of the country.

His greatest fear is that the presence of the all girls’ school – which hopes to take 1,500 teenage boarders from around the world – might inflame Right-wing extremists and therefore “skew” the progress being made in integrating local communities.

The bishop also pointed out that both the Church of England hierarchy, and that of the Roman Catholic Church, deliberately held back from establishing their own new faith schools in the aftermath of the 2001 riots.

Bishop Goddard’s comments follow a warning by Gordon Prentice, Labour MP for Pendle, that the school, described as a Muslim 'Eton' for girls, would both damage existing schools and colleges in the area and stoke community tensions.

“The last thing we need is single-sex, single faith schools for girls,” he said. “It pulls against community cohesion.

“It makes me weep to think so much time, energy and effort has gone into the community to get people to mix together. [This] goes against all public policy.”

The Mohiuddin Trust, based in Birmingham, insists that its college would actually strengthen ethnic and cultural relationships within the community.

It was formerly known as the Al Ehya Trust, says on its website that it seeks to promote cohesion by “strengthening inter-community relationships”.

It was founded by Hazrat Pir Alauddin Siddiqui, an Islamic scholar based in Pakistan.

Amjad Bashir, the trust’s general secretary, said of the Burnley scheme: “This will be an international community college that will provide for the needs of Islamic women. It is not just some mad place where they are going to be brainwashed by nonsense.”

Bishop Goddard told The Daily Telegraph: “I’ve certainly got concerns, and I regret the idea of it because it distracts us from the most important task of integrating.

“Until other projects develop, the local schools are our best hope of delivering understanding and tolerance.”

He added: “I wonder whether it is the most sensitive placing of a school. I would worry about its impact on the local community and whether it would skew the positive things that are happening here.”

Since the Burnley riots local schools have been given a £250 million makeover, with a number of closures and amalgamations. Local councils have used the changes as a means of improving relationships between ethnic groupings.

Bishop Goddard recalled how in the aftermath of the riots the Church of England held back from pushing for a faith school. Similarly, the Bishop of Salford, the Rt Rev Terence Brain, decided not to seek the foundation of a Catholic Sixth Form College.

“We know our schools have a long way to go educationally, and we also know we have a long way to go culturally. But I think at the moment in Burnley we are in a process where we are developing our relationships with young people and we should do nothing to distract from that.

“I believe it would be a sadness if anyone now began moving towards a pattern of withdrawing children of one particular faith.”

The bishop said he would defend the right of any faith to establish a boarding school, but added: “There would need to be a strong commitment from the college, and I wonder how exactly they plan to integrate with the local community.

“It is incumbent upon them to say how that would happen because we do have those who wish to disrupt the increasing level of tolerance and integration. We have to balance the right to open a new school against the need for it be carefully integrated and properly monitored by Ofsted.”

Dr Mohammed Iqbal, a Mohiuddin trustee, said: 'At this moment it's difficult to offer a detailed response about the courses to be offered as we are still in the preliminary planning stages.

“We do, however, expect to offer a variety of skills and courses. A-levels are being considered but may not be available as soon as the college starts.

“Our objective is to offer young women the opportunity to empower themselves with better qualifications with the aim of improving chances of securing better employment.”

Telegraph UK, 22 December 2009

Their aim? To drive out Islamic extremism. Their weapon? The thugs of Britain's most violent football gangs

On Platform One at Bolton station a mob of around 100 men punch the air in unison. The chant goes up: 'Muslim bombers, off our streets, Muslim bombers off our streets...'
Their voices echo loudly and more men suddenly appear; startled passengers move aside. The group march forward waving St George Cross flags and holding up placards. The throng of men around me applaud. A train heading for Glasgow draws up on the opposite platform and the men turn as one, bursting into song: 'Engelaand, Engelaand, Engelaand.'
Some of the men hide behind balaclavas, others wear black hoodies. A few speak on mobile phones, their hands pressed against their ears to block out the cacophony.
'It's already kicking off in Manchester. This could be tasty,' shouts one. These are some of the most violent football hooligans in Britain and today they have joined together in an unprecedented show of strength. Standing shoulder to shoulder are notorious gangs - or 'firms' as they are known - such as Cardiff City's Soul Crew, Bolton Wanderers' Cuckoo Boys and Luton Town's Men In Gear.
The gathering is remarkable, as on a match day these men would be fighting each other. But it is politics that has drawn them together. They are headed for Manchester to support a march by the burgeoning English Defence League.
The police are here in force, too. 'Take that mask off,' barks a sergeant to one young man. He does so immediately but protests: 'Why are they allowed to wear burkas in public but we're not allowed to cover our faces?'
'Just do what you're told,' the policeman snaps back.
'It's always the same these days. One rule for them and another for us. I'm sick of this country,' a man standing next to me says in a West Country accent.
He draws on a cigarette then flicks it to the ground in disgust. He starts to complain again but when the tannoy announces the arrival of the train to Manchester Piccadilly he raises his hands above his head and starts another favourite.
'Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves... Britons never, never, never...' His companions join in. As the train comes to a halt the crowd surges forward.
The carriages are almost full so the men pack themselves into the aisles followed by policemen speaking into radios. A group of lads drinking beer at a table eye the new contingent warily.
One man wearing a baseball cap clocks their fear and reassures them.
'It's all right lads, nothing to worry about. We're protesting against radical Islam. Come and join us.'
Further up the carriage another bursts into song.
'We had joy, we had fun, we had Muslims on the run,' he starts up. Nobody joins in and a couple of his mates tell him to 'shut up' as they point to a woman dressed in a black hijab sitting at a table.
A man standing close to her is masked and holds a placard. It has a picture of a Muslim woman crying with red blood streaming down her face. 'Sharia law oppresses women!' the slogan reads.
The rise of the English Defence League has been rapid. Since its formation at the start of the summer the group has organised nearly 20 major protests in Britain's cities, including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Luton, Nottingham, Glasgow and Swansea.
Its leaders are professional and articulate and they claim that the EDL is a peaceful, non-racist organisation. But having spent time with them, there is evidence that this movement has a more disturbing side. There is talk of the need for a 'street army', and there are links with football hooligans and evidence that violent neo-Nazi groups including Combat 18, Blood and Honour and the British Freedom Fighters have been attending demos.
Violence has erupted at most of the EDL's demonstrations. In total, nearly 200 people have been arrested and an array of weapons has been seized, including knuckledusters, a hammer, a chisel and a bottle of bleach.
As the EDL gains support across the UK, Muslims have already been targeted in unprovoked attacks. In the worst incident, a mob of 30 white and black youths is said to have surrounded Asian students near City University in central London and attacked them with metal poles, bricks and sticks while shouting racist abuse. Three people - two students and a passer-by who tried to intervene - were stabbed.
Following the Manchester protest, when 48 people were arrested during street violence, the Bolton Interfaith Council Executive issued a stark warning that race relations were under threat and Communities Secretary John Denham compared the EDL to Oswald Mosley's Union of British Fascists, who ran amok in the Thirties. In response to these fears, the National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit, a countrywide police team set up to combat domestic extremism, has been investigating the EDL.
'The concern to me is how groups like this, either willingly or unwillingly, allow themselves to be exploited by very extreme right-wing groups like the National Front and the British Freedom Fighters,' Metropolitan Police chief Sir Paul Stephenson has said.

I had met the English Defence League for the first time in Luton three weeks before the Manchester demonstration. After several calls, key members agreed to talk on the condition that I did not identify them. We met at a derelict building close to Luton town centre. Eleven men turned up. All wore balaclavas, as they often do to hide their identities, and most had black EDL hoodies with 'Luton Division' written on the back. They'd made placards bearing slogans such as 'Ban the Burka'.
The group's self-proclaimed leader, who goes by the pseudonym Tommy Robinson, did most of the talking. A father of two, Robinson explained the background to the rise of the movement.
'For more than a decade now there's been tension in Luton between Muslim youths and whites. We all get on fine - black, white, Indian, Chinese... Everyone does, in fact, apart from these Muslim youths who've become extremely radicalised since the first Gulf War. This is because preachers of hate live in Luton and have been recruiting for radical Islamist groups for years. Our Government does nothing about them so we decided that we'd start protesting.'
Robinson could barely conceal his anger as he explained that the spark for him had been the sight of radical Muslims protesting when soldiers paraded through the town on their regiment's return from Afghanistan in May.
Following the incident Robinson set up a group called United People of Luton and, after linking up with a Birmingham-based organisation called British Citizens Against Muslim Extremists and another called Casuals United (largely made up of former football hooligans), they realised there was potential for a national movement.
'We have nothing against Muslims, only those who preach hatred. They are traitors who should be hanged and we'll keep taking to the streets until the Government kicks them out.'
More than 100 divisions have been set up across Britain and a careful co-ordination means the EDL is becoming efficient and a potential catch-all for every far-right organisation in Britain.
Robinson admits that he has attended BNP meetings in the past. Another prominent member and administrator of Luton EDL's Facebook group is Davy Cooling, a BNP member. Sean Walsh, an activist for the EDL in Luton, is a member of the BNP's Bedfordshire Facebook group.
Even within the EDL there are concerns over links to extremists. A former member called Paul Ray recently claimed that the group had been hijacked by BNP activists, including a man from Weston-super-Mare, Chris Renton, who helped set up the EDL website. Ironically, Ray himself has extremist contacts, including a German former neo-Nazi who is friends with Northern Ireland Loyalist Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair.
Casuals United was the brainchild of Jeff Marsh, a convicted football hooligan from Cardiff City's Soul Crew, one of the most feared gangs in Britain. Marsh operates behind the scenes, orchestrating activities with both Casuals United and the Welsh Defence League, a sister group of the EDL.
The public face of Casuals United is another Welshman called Mickey Smith. An avowed football hooligan, he is banned from Cardiff City's football ground. Together, Marsh and Smith organise the 50 or so gangs actively recruiting members across the UK.
The EDL insists it is separate from Casuals United, but dig a little and it becomes clear they operate hand-in-hand. Joel Titus is a cocky but politically naive 18-year-old Arsenal fan of mixed race. He tells me that the EDL youth division he runs has over 300 members across the UK.
'We want to hit every town and city in Britain,' he says.
Titus became involved with the movement through Casuals United. And according to anti-fascism magazine Searchlight, his role is to recruit football hooligans.
He sticks to the 'peaceful movement' mantra but a text I later receive from him ahead of an EDL demo in London reveals his involvement with the hooligans. It reads: 'Right lads, the "unofficial" meet for the 31st (London) is going to be 12 o'clock at The Hole In The Wall pub just outside Waterloo Station. I will be there just before that. Remember lads were (sic) going as Casuals Utd and if you could obtain a poppy to wear it would make us look good even if we are kicking off. lol. Cheers lads. Joel "Arsenal" Titus.'

Alarmingly, the EDL is becoming more sophisticated and those orchestrating its activities at the top are far more astute than its foot soldiers. I meet two of the EDL's key figures in a Covent Garden pub - a respectable looking man called Alan Lake, and a man who goes by the moniker 'Kinana'.
Lake is a 45-year-old computer expert from Highgate, north London who runs a far-right website called Four Freedoms. This summer he contacted the EDL and offered to both fund and advise the movement.
'Our leaders in this country no longer represent us,' he says.
Lake's aim is to unite the 'thinkers' and those prepared to take to the streets. He describes this marriage as 'the perfect storm coming together'. Lake says that street violence is not desirable but sometimes inevitable.
'There are issues when you are dealing with football thugs but what can we do?'
He criticises fascist organisations, however, and says he will only support the EDL so long as it doesn't associate with the BNP. When I ask about extremists hijacking the movement, he says: 'There are different groups infiltrating and trying to cause rifts by one means or another, or trying to waylay the organisation to different agendas. The intention is to exclude those groups and individuals.'
These men are outwardly intelligent and their political nous combined with the brawn of the casuals makes them a quasi-political force.
Britain's neo-Nazis realise this. For Kevin Watmough, leader of the neo-Nazi British People's Party and a former member of the National Front, the rise of the EDL is reminiscent of the Seventies.
'The protests remind me of the National Front marches, but I wouldn't march with the EDL because they have blacks as supporters,' he told me.
But other neo-Nazis have joined EDL demos. These include members of Combat 18 and the British Freedom Fighters, who later posted videos of themselves on the internet.
Watmough lives in Bradford and can recall the 2001 riots, which came about as a result of tensions between whites and Muslims. Bradford, along with Oldham, another tinderbox northern city that witnessed riots in 2001, is a stated target for the EDL and Casuals United in 2010. Tension is likely here and in other towns where the EDL is also promoting spontaneous flash demos and the occupation of building sites for new mosques.
Professor Matthew Goodwin, an expert on far-right organisations who has advised the Home Office, says that the police are right to monitor the EDL and to take them seriously.
'(The EDL) is now well-organised and not just a minor irritant. It has become a rallying point for a number of different groups and to have them marching through sensitive areas is a major concern.'
Communities Minister John Denham has also condemned the rise of the EDL: 'If you look at the types of demonstrations they have organised, the language used and the targets chosen, it looks clear that it's a tactic designed to provoke, to get a response. It's designed to create violence. And we must all make sure this doesn't happen.'

Two out of three Protestant pastors believe Islam is a "dangerous" religion, according to a new survey from a Southern Baptist-affiliated research group.

The survey of more than 1,000 Protestant clergy by LifeWay Research, released last week found that 45% strongly agree with the statement "I believe Islam is a dangerous religion" and another 21% agree somewhat with it.

Evangelical pastors were more likely to agree with the statement than mainline Protestant pastors — 77 to 47%. Likewise, pastors with a bachelor's degree or less education are more likely to strongly agree than those with a master's degree — 64% to 37%.

"It's important to note our survey asked whether pastors viewed Islam as 'dangerous,' but that does not necessarily mean 'violent,'" said Lifeway president Ed Stetzer in a statement about the survey results.

'"Dangerous' can be defined in a variety of ways, including from the perspective of spiritual influence. Regardless of the definition, the numbers tell us that Protestant pastors are concerned."

The results of the telephone survey were based on a random sample of 1,002 senior pastors taken in October 2008 and had an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

On Dec. 10, evangelist Franklin Graham told CNN that while he loves the Muslim people in countries he's visited with his Samaritan's Purse ministry, "I don't agree with the teachings of Islam and I find it to be a very violent religion."

Graham's comments prompted the Council on American-Islamic Relations to request a meeting with the evangelist. As of Friday (Dec. 18), he had not responded, said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.

USA Today, 21 December 2009

A small group of demonstrators led by Americans Against Hate Chairman Joe Kaufman last Friday accused Broward County and the Town of Davie of supporting an organization with ties to Islamic terrorists.

A street sign in Davie sparked the anger of the demonstrators who protested in front of the Broward County Governmental Center in Fort Lauderdale on a rainy Friday afternoon.

The sign, at the southwest corner of College Avenue and Nova Drive, credits the Miami office of the Council on American Islamic Relations ( CAIR-FL) for its participation in a Broward County program to clear litter from an "adopted" street.

Kaufman said when he complained about the sign, a spokesman for the Town of Davie told him it would not be removed because CAIR had a Constitutional right to free speech.

"Freedom of speech is a poor excuse," Kaufman said to the demonstrators. "This is not about free speech. It's about terrorism."

The United States Department of Justice has linked Washington, DC-based CAIR to Hamas, which the U.S. government considers a terrorist organization. CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator during the federal trial in Dallas of the Holy Land Foundation, the largest Islamic charity in the United States.

"We're here to question Broward County's long-time affiliation with CAIR," Jeff Rubinoff, a Davie resident, said. Rubinoff accused the county of "complicity in supporting a terrorist organization."

He mentioned a CAIR fundraiser at the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center, the Broward County School Board naming CAIR-Florida representative Jawhar "Joe" Badran to a diversity committee and CAIR's Broward County bus ads that he said denigrated Jews and Christians.

"Broward County is once again finding themselves on the wrong side," Rubinoff said. "So far their ears remain closed and they turn their backs to us."

Calls to Broward County Mayor Ken Keechl and Davie Mayor Judy Paul on Friday, before the Jewish Journal went to press, were not returned.

"Too many people have been quiet about their concerns over Muslim extremism," said Rabbi Andrew Jacobs of Ramat Shalom synagogue in Plantation. Stopping it must begin locally, in Broward County, he said. It's time for people to raise their voices about the threat posed by CAIR, Jacobs added.

Muhammad Malik, executive director of CAIR-Florida's Miami office, said the organization wanted to bring out people to pick up litter from the street, like any other group.

Malik said he met with Davie officials and with administrators in the county's Adopt-A-Street program. Neither had a problem with CAIR's sign, he said.

Kaufman and Americans Against Hate "emotionalize" by having a rally on Hanukkah, Malik said. He said he didn't think the Town of Davie would be influenced by the demonstration.

Malik accused Israel of terrorism in the war with Hamas in Gaza. "There were some bad things happening on both sides," he said. "If we really were with Hamas, then I wouldn't be describing acts by Hamas."

Sun Sentinel, 22 December 2009

People in Britain are open to the idea of banning minarets, according to a three-country poll by Angus Reid Public Opinion. 37 per cent of respondents in Britain would vote in favour of a ban, while 25 per cent would vote against it.

In the United States, 21 per cent of respondents would vote to ban minarets, while 19 per cent disagree. In Canada, 35 per cent of respondents would vote against a ban, while 27 per cent would endorse one.
Within the frame of Switzerland’s direct-democracy system, a group of citizens or leaders of the eight cantons together can call a referendum to challenge a law approved by the federal legislature. The vote is decided with a simple majority.

Last year, the ultra-nationalist Swiss People’s Party (SVP) gathered more than 113,000 signatures to force a nationwide referendum on banning the construction of minarets in Swiss mosques. The minaret—a tower from which the call to prayer is sounded—is a distinctive architectural feature of Islamic mosques. At this time, only the mosques in Geneva, Wangen near Olten, Winterthur and Zurich have minarets.
Last month, 57.5 per cent of Swiss voters cast a ballot in favour of banning the construction of minarets in Swiss mosques.

Taner Hatipoglu, president of the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Zurich, expressed dismay at the outcome of the referendum, saying, "The initiators have achieved something everyone wanted to prevent, and that is to influence and change the relations to Muslims and their social integration in a negative way."

Polling Data
Suppose a similar referendum took place in [COUNTRY]. Would you vote in favour or against banning minarets in [COUNTRY]?

	CAN	USA	BRI
In favour	27%	21%	37%
Against	35%	19%	25%
Would not vote	16%	29%	18%
Not sure	22%	32%	21%

Source: Angus Reid Strategies
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,000 Canadian adults, 1,004 American adults, and 2,002 British adults, conducted from Dec. 9 to Dec. 12, 2009. Margins of error range from 2.2 per cent to 3.1 per cent.

 Angus Reid Global Monitor, 22 December 2009

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Most people in Germany express a certain degree of anxiety over the growth of the Islamic religion and culture in the country, according to a poll by Infratest-Dimap released by ARD. 33 per cent of respondents are very concerned about this matter, and 29 per cent express moderate concern.
Germany is home to Europe’s second-largest Muslim community after France.

Last month, voters in Switzerland participated in a referendum which banned the construction of minarets in Swiss mosques. The minaret—a tower from which the call to prayer is sounded—is a distinctive architectural feature of Islamic mosques.

On Dec. 13, Thilo Sarrazin, a former Berlin finance senator and current member of the German Central Bank committee, said Muslim headscarves should be banned in Germany.

Earlier this year, Sarrazin was criticized after he declared: "A large number of Arabs and Turks in this city, whose number has grown through bad policies, have no productive function other than as fruit and vegetable vendors."

Polling Data
 
Are you concerned about the growth of Islam in Germany?

Yes, very concerned	33%
Yes, moderately concerned	29%
No, not concerned	22%

Source: Infratest-Dimap / ARD
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,000 German adults, conducted in December 2009. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.

Angus Reid Global Monitor, 19 December 2009

A recent referendum in Switzerland placed a ban on minaret construction in the country. Now, a Muslim man living in Switzerland has filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights.

Algerian-born Hafid Ouardidi lodged the complaint with the human rights court in Strausbourg, saying the referendum violates the right to religious freedom. Ouardidi is a former spokesman at the Geneva Mosque.

The referendum passed in Switzerland after 57.5 percent of the country's citizens approved the measure in a November 29 vote. The Swiss national government urged its citizens to vote against the measure, which was supported by a campaign from the right-wing Swiss People's Party. The party opposed the "Islamisation of Switzerland."

One of Ouardidi's lawyers, Pierre de Preux, said that the Swiss government and all members of the European Council had been informed of the complaint.

"We will have both the plaintiff Hafid Ouardiri and the defendant, [the Swiss government], saying the same thing," de Preux told Reuters news agency. "The court is still free to decide whatever it wants, but it sure is going to help the request."

The European Court of Human Rights must still decide if it will accept Ouardidi's complaint.

mz/AP/Reuters, 16 December 2009

PARIS — France's immigration minister said Wednesday that he wants the wearing of Muslim veils that cover the face and body to be grounds for denying citizenship and long-term residence.

Eric Besson said he planned to take "concrete measures" regarding such veils, which are worn by a small minority of women in France but have become the object of a parliamentary inquiry into whether a ban should be imposed.

Besson spoke during a hearing before the panel of lawmakers as their nearly six-month inquiry draws to a close.

Besson said he believed a formal ban on veils that cover the face and body seemed to him "unavoidable," with a ban in public services as a minimum step.

Whether such veils are banned or not, he said he intends to personally move forward to ensure that women wearing such veils and seeking French nationality or residence cards are denied.

"I want the wearing of the full veil to be systematically considered as proof of insufficient integration into French society, creating an obstacle to gaining (French) nationality," he said.

He said he would advise prefects, the highest state representative in the various French regions, that the wearing of such veils is a motive for not delivering 10-year residence cards.

Besson said he was prepared to put the measures before parliament to make them law. In November, Besson ordered a nationwide debate on the French identity, to conclude by the end of January with possible measures.

Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy is the force behind both the national identity campaign and the targeting of full-body veils, which he has said are not "welcome." Critics claim he is playing to traditional far-right fears of immigration, particularly by Muslims.

There is concern that some immigrants and citizens, including members of its Muslim population — at some 5 million the largest in western Europe — are failing to fully integrate and even defying the nation's secular values. A law was passed in 2004 banning Muslim headscarves from classrooms.

AP, 16 December 2009

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's party, the UMP, says it will push for a law banning the burqa, the full-face Islamic veil, according to its parliamentary leader Jean-François Copé.

"The issue is not how many women wear the burqa," Copé wrote in an article in the right-wing newspaper Le Figaro. "There are principles at stake: extremists are putting the republic to the test by promoting a practice that they know is contrary to the basic principles of our country.”

He said the legislation will be enacted after consultation with Muslim communities "so that this measure is understood for what it is: a law of liberation and not a ban".

Three ministers were to testify before a parliamentary panel debating the ban on Wednesday.

Home to Europe's largest Muslim minority, France set up the panel of 32 lawmakers six months ago. It will report next month after hearing the views of Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux, Immigration Minister Eric Besson and Education Minister Xavier Darcos.

Despite an intelligence service report that fewer than 400 women in France wear the full veil, an Interior Ministry study has put the figure at a few thousand.

This proposed ban comes as pressure mounts on Sarkozy to scrap his debate on national identity. The government last month invited citizens from across the country to discuss what it means to be French on the internet and at town halls across the country.

On Monday when Families Minister Nadine Morano told a meeting in the provinces that she wanted young Muslims to "love France, find a job, stop wearing their caps back to front – and to stop speaking verlan” - a popular form of slang in which words are inverted.

The remark has caused a storm of protest, while Pierre Merle, author of Argot, Verlan et Tchatches told the Direct Matin free paper that the slang is used by all young people, not just those of immigrant origin.

"Enough!" said former Socialist leader Francois Hollande. "This debate was badly defined, poorly chosen from the start, and now it is going to the dogs."

Cracks also emerged within Sarkozy's camp, with Higher Education Minister Valérie Pécresse saying there was a need to "shift the focus toward concrete proposals" to prevent the debate from further spinning out of control.

Morano on Wednesday defended her remarks, claiming those who criticised her "did not want to open their eyes to the integration problems that our young people in the suburbs are having".

Her critics are "Champagne socialists who have never set foot in those areas", she claimed

The debate is scheduled to end with a national conference on 4 February.

Paris - Comments by a French junior minister about young Muslims in France have provoked a firestorm of criticism and put the spotlight on a controversial debate on national identity that threatens to spin out of control.

In one of the many local debates scheduled to be held as part of the nationwide discussion on what it means to be French, the junior minister for families, Nadine Morano, suggested Tuesday to a young Muslim that he should change his behaviour.

'We are not putting young Muslims on trial,' she said in a small city in eastern France, in comments that were widely reported. 'What I want of a young Muslim is that he loves France when he lives here, finds work and does not speak in slang. And that he doesn't wear his cap back to front.'

Morano, who is a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy's inner circle, later tried to qualify her statement and complained that it was taken out of context, but the reaction was immediate and violent.

'This brings back the ethnic vision of the nation, the one that took place at (the pro-Nazi puppet government of) Vichy,' opposition Socialist law-maker Arnaud Montebourg said.

The president of the human rights NGO Movement Against Racism (MRAP), Mouloud Aounit, told the online edition of the daily 20 Minutes that Morano's words 'are especially dangerous and extremely violent ... I think today there is a terrible increase in Islamophobic statements.'

Criticism also came from conservatives who are growing increasingly afraid that the debate on national identity is turning into a clash of cultures between mainstream France and the large French Muslim community, which numbers about 5 million.

'That was one word too many,' said Francois Baroin, former minister and now parliamentarian for Sarkozy's UMP party. 'I don't understand and I can't see what the aim of this debate is.'

Conservative former prime minister Dominique de Villepin charged, 'This debate makes no sense. (It is) a false debate which should never have been started in the current circumstances. During a period of crisis there are other things to do than to be divided on an issue as important as this one.'

Opposition politicians as well as a large majority of the French believe that the real aim of the debate is to draw votes from the far-right National Front at next March's regional elections, which the conservatives currently seem poised to lose.

That may be one reason Morano has not been the only conservative politician to use the debate as a stage for making nationalistic comments.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon has several times tried to redirect the discussion, reminding his party colleagues that this was not a debate about Islam, and noting that 'fundamentalism (should be) fought, but absolutely not the Muslims.'

In fact, this debate on national identity has turned into a forum on immigration in general, and more specifically on the presence and behaviour of France's Muslims.

The question that now appears to be at the heart of the event is if Muslims are willing to be integrated and if their religion is at all compatible with French values.

A recent survey found that only a small majority of French adults, 54 per cent, believe that Islam is compatible with life in French society.

The discussion will not be helped by another debate, scheduled to begin Wednesday in the lower house of the Parliament, the National Assembly, where law-makers are to discuss a law on banning the burqa, the garment some Muslim women wear to conceal their faces and bodies.

The government wants to introduce a bill that would make it illegal to wear the burqa in state buildings and public service areas. However, the daily Le Figaro reported Wednesday that UMP law-makers are pushing for a law to ban the burqa everywhere except at home.

In 2008, the Council of State, France's highest administrative court, ruled that wearing the burqa 'represented a radical religious practise (that is) incompatible with the essential values of the French community, notably the equality of the sexes.'

Only a few thousand women in France currently wear the burqa, but if a law banning it is passed, it is certain to keep alive a debate that is widening divisions in France, rather than healing them.

Monsters & Critics, 16 December 2009

A man who tore a Muslim woman's veil from her face as he passed her in the street has been ordered by a court to pay her £1,000 in compensation.

Stephen Ard, 29, of Gypsy Lane, Leicester, also received a jail term of 16 weeks, suspended for a year, and 150 hours of community service.

Leicester Magistrates' Court heard victim Rehana Sidat felt "invaded and scared to walk down the street alone".

Ard pleaded guilty to religiously aggravated assault.

A Swiss shoe-shop owner has built a mock minaret on the top of his warehouse in defiance of a ban on the Muslim architecture.

Guillaume Morand extended a chimney, gave it the form of a minaret and sprayed it in gold paint to protest against a constitutional amendment approved in a nationwide referendum last month.

“It was scandalous that the Swiss voted for the ban,” said Mr Morand, 46, who owns the Pomp It Up chain of shoe stores.

“Now we [the Swiss] have the support of all the far-right parties across Europe. This is shameful.”

Amid a rising tide of Islamophobia in Europe, a former finance senator in Germany has been strongly criticized for his racist, anti-Islam comments.

On Sunday, Thilo Sarrazin, former Berlin finance senator and currently a member of the German Central Bank committee called for a headscarf ban in German schools.

His comments come only four months after the official let loose against "Arabs" and "Turks" living in Germany in an interview with the culture magazine Lettre International.

"A large number of Arabs and Turks in this city, whose number has grown through bad policies, have no productive function other than as fruit and vegetable vendors," he had said.

CASTRES, France – Police say assailants have scrawled a Nazi slogan and hung pig feet on a mosque in southern France.

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux has denounced the "vile and racist desecration" of the mosque in the town of Castres.

Police say the swastika in black paint and slogans including Hitler salute "Sieg Heil" in German, "France to the French" in French, and "White Power" in English were scrawled on the mosque.

BERN, Switzerland – Around 700 Swiss Muslims peacefully protested against their country's minaret ban on Saturday, with speakers denouncing what they called a hate campaign against Islam.

The protest in the capital, Bern, was not supported by the country's main Muslim organizations.

It came two weeks after Swiss voters decided to ban the construction of minarets, drawing wide criticism from Muslim and other European nations.

David Cameron's allegation that a school was linked to Islamic extremism has been dismissed by authorities.

Investigations by Haringey Council found no evidence of "inappropriate influence" at the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation school, in Tottenham, north London.

The probe was launched several weeks before Mr Cameron attacked the Prime Minister during Question Time, claiming the ISF was an "extremist Islamist foundation" and was a front for radical Muslim group, Hizb ut Tahrir.

Muslim civil rights group calls for meeting to clear up 'misconceptions'

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today requested a meeting with Christian evangelist Franklin Graham to discuss his latest remarks attacking Islam.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it has received a number of complaints from concerned Muslims who watched an interview last night on CNN during which Graham stated in part: "...we have many Muslims that live in this country. But true Islam cannot be practiced in this country. You can't beat your wife. You cannot murder your children if you think they've committed adultery or something like that, which they do practice in these other countries... I don't agree with the teachings of Islam and I find it to be a very violent religion."

 LEADING members of Harrow's Jewish community have joined together to condemn anti-Muslim campaigners who are planning a protest in the borough this weekend.

Rabbis Aaron Goldstein, Hillel Athias-Robles, Kathleen Middleton, Frank Dabba Smith, and Michael Hilton have signed a letter offering unequivocal support for the borough's Muslim community.

They wrote: “As leaders of the Jewish community in Harrow, we are writing to express our support for our Muslim friends and neighbours, especially those at Harrow Central Mosque, who are under attack from those whose only purpose is to spread hatred and fear.