An amazing story out of the UK. (h/t: Jai)

British Muslims Save Jewish Synagogue

(OnIslam)

BRADFORD – Extending their hands to their Jewish neighbors to save their worship place, Muslims in the northern British city of Bradford are rallying efforts to raise funds for preserving the last remaining synagogue in the city.

“In Bradford we are working hard to bring people of different faiths together, and to support one another as good neighbors,” Zulfi Karim, secretary of Bradford Council for Mosques, told Telegraph & Argus.

The umbrella group said it would raise funds for local authorities to help renovate the Bradford Reform Synagogue, the last remaining Jewish worship place in the city.

“We are delighted by the way people have rallied to save the Bradford Synagogue, which is not only a work of art in itself, but represents so much in the way of Bradford’s heritage, faith and culture,” said Karim.

Built in 1880, the Jewish synagogue stands as an example of Moorish Victorian Architecture.

The synagogue is still used for Shabbat and major festivals although the community is small and has been in decline for years.

The Muslim help has won praise from Jewish leaders in Bradford.

“The contribution of immigrants to this region has been outstanding, and the current wave has followed in that tradition of mutual help, communal involvement and harmony,” said Rudi Leavor, chair of the Bradford Synagogue.

“We are all working together to save the synagogue with the help of the local authority.”

Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority of nearly 2.5 million.

The majority of the multi-ethnic minority has Indian, Bengali and Pakistani backgrounds.

Also see:

-Muslim group helps save ancient English synagogue

The Liverpool View: Islamophobia in contemporary Britain

Dr Leon Moosavi is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Liverpool

“In January 2011, Baroness Warsi claimed that Islamophobia had ‘passed the dinner-table test’, meaning that prejudice against Muslims was commonplace in British society. This unique intolerance of Muslims can involve stereotyping, discrimination and even harassment of the significant number of Muslims that now live in Britain.

Even though two years have passed since a high-profile politician like Warsi highlighted the problem, it appears little has changed, which is why in January 2013, she again made public comments explaining that Muslims are still marginalised in British society.

‘Myth of tolerance’

Academics and researchers who specialise in the lives of minority communities in Britain are well aware that even though we often glorify ourselves for supposedly purging prejudice against minorities from our society, this actually equates to a ‘myth of tolerance’. It is a myth because so much research confirms that various types of prejudice are still endemic in British society.

As one of the most common forms of prejudices, since 9/11, Muslims have increasingly become seen as ‘outsiders within’, who are imagined as not belonging in Britain because of their assumed alien values.

There has been a slow recognition of Islamophobia in some circles beyond academia.

For example, in November 2012, the Leveson Inquiry which examined news media conduct from many angles concluded that Muslims, along with asylum seekers, immigrants and travellers, are commonly derided in the mainstream press.

More recently, a couple of weeks ago, Keith Vaz MP tabled an Early Day Motion in Parliament suggesting that Islamophobia be recorded by police forces across Britain so that it can be better understood.

This would be a significant step forward it understanding the way Islamophobia operates in British society.

Early Day Motion

Yet, there is still much to be done to raise awareness of the seriousness of Islamophobia, as many seem not to be convinced that it is as serious an issue as similar prejudices like anti-semitism and racism. Perhaps that is why, up until now, only 24 out of 650 MPs have signed the EDM for Islamophobia to recorded by police forces. To put that neglect into perspective, 90 MPs have signed an EDM against turtle farming and 73 MPs have signed an EDM calling for elephant protection.

The Islamophobia petition has only managed to receive as many MP signatures as a petition against dog attacks on postmen!

The point here is not that turtles, elephants and postmen don’t matter, but that it appears as though there is reluctance from the most influential figures in society to acknowledge that the 3 million Muslims living in Britain are at risk of discrimination. This attitude of denial is rather disturbing, especially since it resides with the well-educated and well-briefed elite.

Those of us who observe and record Islamophobia in the news media, in entertainment media, in political rhetoric and other spheres don’t only face an uphill struggle to raise awareness of this issue because of ignorance though. There are also protagonists who actively seek to dismiss Islamophobia as a concept because they claim it is one that prevents free speech and criticism of Islam as a religion.

It is important here to distinguish between legitimate criticism of a religious ideology and generalisations and attacks against those who have a Muslim identity. Just like it is possible to disagree with Jewish theology without being anti-semitic, it is possible to disagree with Islamic theology without being Islamophobic.

Oppression and injustice

Like anti-semitism, Islamophobia is not used to dismiss disagreement over belief, but rather, is used to highlight those instances when a person essentialises all Jews or all Muslims as having certain characteristics, or conveying all Jews or all Muslims as a threat that needs to be dealt with using discriminatory policy.

It may be uncomfortable to accept, but throughout history, many people, tribes and nations have been guilty of racist and xenophobic attitudes and behaviour, including Brits.

Read the rest…

Islamophobes are celebrating, their strategy of intimidation worked–this time.

Family quits Bingham after anti-Muslim attacks

by Catrin Nye (BBC)

A Muslim family say they have been forced to move from their home after offensive graffiti and a cross wrapped in ham were left outside their house. Murad Alam, 39, said his wife and two sons, aged eight and 10, had moved out of their home in Bingham, Nottinghamshire, to a “safe” place.

Mr Alam said he had found his son plotting escape routes on his computer after the “horrific” attacks last year. “My wife and children also had names called at them in the street,” he said. “The first incident was when the big, wooden cross, wrapped in ham, fell into the house after a knock at the door,” said Mr Alam.

He said they had names such as “Paki” and “tramp” shouted at them in the street. “The kids have been abused a number of times; the eldest had smoke blown in his face by an elderly local gentleman.” Offensive graffiti was also painted on the path outside the family home.

“It really annoys me that they should use a cross and try and turn this into a religious argument,” said Mr Alam. “My family were terrified from the very first incident; my wife had never experienced racism, neither had my kids.

“In fact I had to explain to my children what racism even was, because they’re so young they didn’t understand the concept that someone could dislike you because of your skin colour or religion.”

The family has now moved to West Bridgford where they say they feel safe.

Mr Alam said Bingham was generally a nice area with a good reputation and it was a shame it had been tarred by their experiences.

“The week before we moved there, Bingham was named the eighth best place to live in the UK – but that’s if you’re white – there are not many Asian or black faces there. It is a nice, generally middle-class village and I’m sure most of the people there are great, it’s just these choice few.”

Incompatible with “Britishness.”

by Mooneye

For Euro-Western supremacists and their Islamophobic allies negative attitudes toward Islam and Muslims are in no way related to xenophobia against immigrants or age old hostilities to Islam and Muslims.

It’s all the Mooslims fault, don’t ya know, “the Mooslims they’re here!!”

In the face of globalization, economic crises and anxiety over immigration, many in Western Europe are returning to redefining their identities in opposition to the “East,” i.e. to Islam and Muslims.

France

In France, practicing Islam apparently means that one is not French. According to a recent survey, 74% of the French believe “Islam is incompatible with French society.” Obviously, the question is: what does being French mean? Clearly, to be French you have to be White with a name like “Jacques” and not a “Mohammed” from amongst those who immigrated from France’s former colonies in the past 50-60 years.

PARIS – A new survey has found that French are growing concerned with immigrants, politicians, globalization and media, with 74 percent believe Islam is not compatible with French society, The Inquisitr reported.

“The French, or at least the vast majority of them, seem to be afraid of everything,” French historian Michel Wincock told Le Monde this week.

The survey, carried out by polling institute Ipsos and the Jean-Jaures Foundation, reflected a growing distrust of Islam and belief there are too many foreigners in France.

It found that only 29 percent of French people believe the “vast majority of immigrants who have settled in France are well-integrated”.

Forty-six percent of respondents believe that unemployment levels can only be cut by reducing immigration.

The poll, which included 1,000 people, showed that 62 percent of respondents say they no longer feel at home in France.

There was also worrying news for President François Hollande, with 87 percent of respondents agreeing with the notion that “France needs a true leader to restore order”.

The survey also revealed that the media is not held in high regard in France, with 73 percent of the belief it is not independent and a similar figure (72 percent) of the view that journalists are “not doing their job”.

France is home to a Muslim minority of six millions, Europe’s largest.

In October, a poll by Ifop’s opinion department found that almost half of French see Muslims as a threat to their national identity.

The poll also found that most French see Islam is playing too influential role in their society.

In 2004, France banned Muslims from wearing hijab, an obligatory code of dress, in public places. Several European countries followed the French example.

France has also outlawed the wearing of face-veil in public.

French Muslims have also complained of restrictions on building mosques to perform their daily prayers.

Britain

In the UK the question of “Britishness” is also an issue. What makes someone British? According to data presented by Baroness Warsi, it seems for some the unenlightened opinions haven’t changed much from the days when Anglican clergymen described Islam as the “most nauseaous of all abominations, Mohammedanism.” (In an 1877 letter from Stuart Poole to Henry Liddon)

Fewer than one in four people now believe that following Islam is compatible with a British way of life, Britain’s most senior Muslim minister will warn today.

Highlighting unpublished research showing that a majority of the country now believes that Islam is a threat to Western civilisation Baroness Sayeeda Warsi will say that “underlying, unfounded mistrust” of Muslims is in itself fuelling extremism.

And she will cite new figures from the Association of Chief Police Officers showing that between 50 to 60 per cent of all religious hate crimes reported to police in Britain are now perpetrated against Muslims.

“My fear is that seeing one community as the ‘other’ is a slippery slope that will enable extremists to advance their twisted interests unchecked,” she will say.

“I don’t have to remind anyone what happens when an unfounded suspicion of one people can escalate into unspeakable horror.”

…

She will cite new research by academics that shows that just 23 per cent of a representative sample questioned said that Islam was not a threat to Western civilisation.

Just 24 per cent thought Muslims were compatible with the British way of life – with nearly half of people disagreeing that Muslims were compatible.

This compares with research among Muslims that showed 83 per were proud to be British, compared to 79 per cent of Britons overall.

Germany

German attitudes towards Islam and Muslims don’t fare much better, 66% of Western Germans and 74% of Eastern Germans have “negative attitudes towards Muslims.”

[A] new study has revealed that Islamophobia has become culturally acceptable in the country and that the society is shifting its attention from xenophobia to religious bias against Muslims, The Local newspaper reported.

“It’s no longer ‘the Turks’ but ‘the Muslims’,” Wilhelm Heitmeyer, head of the institute for research of interdisciplinary conflict and violence at Bielefeld University, told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, The Local reported.

A research by the Bielefeld University found that Islamophobia has become culturally acceptable in Germany.

Heitmeyer said that the general hostility against foreigners had given way to a growing rejection of Islam in Germany.

This bigotry, moving from the confines of ethnicity towards religious bias against Muslims, does not exist only in the far-right, he said.

Heitmeyer noted that anti-Muslim sentiments were also present in more left-leaning and centrist circles, appearing throughout the country from the highest echelons of society to the lowest.

The findings of are not new.

An earlier study from Munster University in 2010 found that 66 percent of western Germans and 74 percent of eastern Germans had a negative attitude towards Muslims.

A more recent study from the Allensbach Institute suggested that this had not changed over the past two years.

Asking German people about Islam, only 22 percent said they agreed with Germany’s former president Christian Wulff’s statement that Islam, like Christianity, was part of Germany.

Germany has between 3.8 and 4.3 million Muslims, making up some 5 percent of the total 82 million population, according to government-commissioned studies.

…

Aiman Mazyek, Head of the Central Council for Muslims in Germany, said police and intelligence officials still refuse to rank violent attacks against Muslims independently, grouping them with the broad category of xenophobia.

“By doing this, hostility against Islam is being blurred out,” said Mazyek, calling on the government to publish a yearly report about racism.

Germany has been recently gripped by a fierce debate on immigration and integration.

In 2009, central banker Thilo Sarrazin sparked a debate on integration after accusing Muslim immigrants of undermining the society which is becoming less intelligent because of them.

Chancellor Merkel weighed in, saying that multiculturalism has failed in Germany.

But the remarks have drawn angry reactions, with German president Wulff stressing that Islam is part and parcel of German society.

German politicians have also called for recognizing Islam as an official religion in the Christian-majority country.

But Germany’s new President Joachim Gauck sparked a storm of criticism last year by contradicting his predecessor’s view that Islam is part of Germany.

Of course, if the Islamophobes are to be believed these opinions have nothing to do with Islamophobia, xenophobia, fears with regards to the economy, globalization and identity politics. In their view French, British and German Muslims are to be blamed for such attitudes.

It is a time for real soul-searching in Western Europe, enough of the blame game and scapegoating. The duties of informed citizenship don’t lie only with Muslim citizens but also with non-Muslims, primarily those who make judgements of their Muslim neighbors and fellow citizens without having ever bothered to meet, talk, break bread with or learn about the Muslims in their midst.

A British soldier guards Iraqi prisoners in the city of Basra in April 2003. Photograph: Reuters

We know the US was guilty of systemic torture in Iraq and elsewhere, though no real inquiries or repercussions have resulted because of our use of torture. Of course, we aren’t alone Britain stands accused of systemic torture as well. Horrible stuff like sexual abuse, beatings, threats of rape and execution, violence against wives and children and a good deal of anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamophobia.

Is Britain guilty of systemic torture in Iraq?

(The Guardian)

In the Lebanese capital of Beirut, far from the theatre of war in Iraq and his office in Birmingham, one of Britain’s leading civil rights lawyers has gathered some of the most damning allegations ever levelled against this country’s armed forces – certainly since the worst days of Northern Ireland’s Troubles.

As Britain’s invasion of Iraq approaches its 10th anniversary in March, Phil Shiner – who founded the Public Interest Lawyers group – and members of his team have held face-to-face meetings with survivors of alleged abuse and torture by British soldiers and intelligence officers and with relatives of those unlawfully killed during and after the war that defined the premiership of Tony Blair.

The statements – 180 of them, with 871 to follow – go before a judicial review hearing at the high court in London next week in a claim seeking to demonstrate that Britain broke international laws of war by pursuing a policy of systematic torture.

The testimony is shocking, such as from “Khalid”, a detained Iraqi civilian: “[A British soldier] then grabbed my penis and dragged me around the floor while holding it. He also made me squat up and down whilst naked and inserted his finger into my anus. I would have preferred to have been killed than subjected to this.”

A prisoner called Halim claims he was told: “Fuck you and fuck Islam!” by a soldier who then “opened the belt of my trousers and said ‘now jiggy jiggy’. The soldier put his boot in my chest and pulled my trousers down … The soldier put his foot on my chest … lifted me in the air and turned me on to my front … He started rubbing his penis on my back while the other soldiers watched. I felt him ejaculate on my back … I was so upset but he spat in my face. He kicked me and started slapping me.”

A man called “Asif” claims that when soldiers came to arrest his elderly father, he said: “So you are the British people?” He testifies that the soldiers paralysed the old man with the blow of a rifle butt and stamped on Asif’s young son’s head when the boy tried to help his grandfather. “What I know of the British people is the opposite of what you are doing,” said Asif.

And so it goes on, witness after witness, in papers and videos before the court on 29 January, calling for a public inquiry into what is presented as an orgy of sadism, outlawed interrogation methods and unlawful killings by soldiers and intelligence officers against Iraqi civilians and prisoners of war between 2003 and 2008. Iraqi soldiers who surrendered – supposedly protected by the Geneva Conventions – allege that they were forced to sit for hours in harsh sun, kicked, beaten and photographed going to the toilet.

Civilians say they were subjected to hooding, beating, threats of rape and execution, forced nakedness and maintaining stress positions, violence against wives and children, ritual humiliation. And they claim that others, like Baha Mousa, were beaten to death. They say walls of noise were used to drive the prisoners mad and cover the sounds of abuse and pain.

The British government will argue in court that this apparent litany of abuse by troops it sent to “liberate” the Iraqis does not warrant a public inquiry, since it was not “systemic”.

But the high court will be asked to rule that this position is untenable given the weight and range of the allegations. Shiner and lawyers for the families of those killed and survivors of the abuse say the inquiry is a fundamental requirement of articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, on the right to life and prohibition of torture.

According to Shiner and his supporters, the decision of the high court will signal whether, 10 years after the invasion, Britain is prepared to reckon with its own legacy in Iraq.

“This is the crucial moment of decision,” says Professor Andrew Williams, author of a book on the most infamous single case to date, the torture to death in custody of an innocent hotel receptionist, Baha Mousa. “This is our last chance to get to the truth and find out what went on. It’s the last chance to see who is responsible.”

The legal issue at stake is whether the other abuses were isolated incidents of which commanders were unaware, as the government insists, or systemic and authorised as policy. With these cases comes the contention that the violations were systemic and thereby illegal – with responsibility reaching senior command level – which would put the state in breach of international law and necessitate an independent public inquiry. The victims’ claim before the court says: “No Iraqi appeared to be exempt from ill-treatment from arrest onwards.”

The MoD says the Baha Mousa inquiry, which investigated the killing of Mr Mousa and torture of several other civilians, dealt with any general problems of detention and interrogation. That inquiry reported last year and condemned the use of hooding and stress positions, supposedly outlawed by the UK government in the 1970s.

The MoD also points to its own Iraq Historic Allegations Team, established in 2010, which it says is a sufficient response to the allegations. The team was made up of Royal Military Police officers appointed to internally investigate unlawful killing and torture. But the appeal court ruled in November 2011 that the RMP had been “substantially compromised”, its members having been involved in the system of detention itself.

Williams’s book, A Very British Killing: the Death of Baha Mousa, details the killing and flawed investigation and prosecutions which followed, and exposes what he calls “a culture of callous indifference that infected a whole battalion and permeated far up the command chain, both military and governmental. What happened to Baha Mousa, and how the army and the government responded to his death, is emblematic of a whole system in operation.”

Read the rest…

Tommy Robinson of the English Defense League (EDL)

Documenting the craziness. (h/t:CriticalDragon)

Pamela Geller Defends British Fascist Imprisoned for Entering the US Illegally

by Charles Johnson

I hadn’t looked at Pamela Geller’s site in a while, but I just did, and wow. She’s always been a swivel-eyed loon, but the hate is just off the charts now. Non-stop rage and bigotry. Really ugly stuff.

One of her latest crazed posts defends the leader of the fascist English Defense League, calling him a “political prisoner:” POLITICAL IMPRISONMENT IN THE UK: EDL LEADER TOMMY ROBINSON JAILED FOR 10 MONTHS!!!

It is stunning that the UK has degenerated to such depths. Freedom is no longer a reality, but a defeated idea undone by cowardice and capitulation of Islamic thuggery and violence.

Tommy Robinson, my colleague and board member of SION, is a political prisoner in the UK, imprisoned for standing up for freedom and equality of rights under the law. I stand with Robinson.

Tommy Robinson has been rotting in a UK jail under gruesome conditions awaiting trial for months.

Actually, Robinson isn’t his real name, and his prison sentence has nothing to do with standing up for anyone’s freedom. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (his real name, or possibly another alias) pleaded guilty to using someone else’s passport to illegally enter the United States, in order to speak at one of Geller’s anti-Muslim rallies. And he resorted to this ruse because he was previously barred from the US due to his violent criminal record.

I wonder what Pamela would have to say about a Muslim who entered the US with someone else’s passport?

ALSO SEE:
Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion: Geller and Spencer OK With Passport Fraud

Nottinghamshire Muslim family suffers further harassment

Offensive graffiti attacking Allah and Islam has been painted outside a Muslim family’s home weeks after a cross wrapped in ham was left by their door.

The 31-year-old mother and two sons, eight and 10, say they have suffered five or six racist incidents since they moved to Bingham, Notts, in October.

The graffiti was painted on their path on Saturday morning.

A 13-year-old Bingham boy was arrested in connection with the ham-covered cross on Friday and bailed.

The family, who do not want to be identified, moved to the Nottinghamshire market town after the mother separated from her husband.

The husband said he had now had to move in with his family to protect them.

“They are in fear of their lives,” he said. “My kids are scared and crying. Two days after the first incident I saw the eldest on the laptop looking at a map, looking for escape routes in case anything goes wrong.”

“Clearly they are targeting my wife. I’ve got to assume it’s because of the way she dresses in traditional Asian clothes, with a traditional headdress.”

BBC News, 9 December 2012

Neighbor leaves house-warming gift? (h/t: Sarah AB)

Burning crucifix wrapped in ham left outside the home of Muslim family in suspected race-hate attack

(Hope Not Hate)

A Muslim family who had just moved into their new home were disgusted when ‘racist’ neighbours left a burning crucifix on their doorstep – wrapped in ham.

Police are investigating after the sick housewarming gift was planted outside the property of the shocked family in Nottingham on Tuesday evening.

The homeowner – who does not wish to be named – had been watching television with his 31-year-old wife and two son’s – aged eight and 10 – when there was a knock at his door at around 6.40pm.

But when the 39-year-old answered he was horrified to be confronted by a flaming cross propped up on his doorstep.

It was only on closer inspection that he noticed that the crucifix had been wrapped in ham – which Muslim’s are forbidden to eat.

The family are now scared for their lives after they were targeted by the racist yobs just three weeks after moving in to their new house.

The dad, a bank worker, said: “There was a knock on the door and I went to open it.

“Nobody was there, but the cross was propped up against the door.

“It was alight, and it fell into the house when I opened the door. I noticed sliced ham was tied to it.

“I’m disgusted and shocked. My wife is in bits – she’s very angry and in fear of her life. I don’t want to leave my wife and kids here.”

Neighbours today expressed their shock at the incident.

Sarah Winter, 32, said: “It’s awful. I see the lady walking her kids to school and, as a mum myself, I really feel for her. What a terrible thing to have happened.

“I’ve lived here all my life and I’ve never heard of anything like this before.”

Flora Smith, 71 added: “I’m shocked to hear that has happened. I wouldn’t say people in this area are racist at all.

“Putting something like that outside someone’s house is very upsetting and I’m very shocked about it.”

Nottinghamshire Police said they were investigating the incident, and appealed for anyone who may have seen someone running away from the scene to call 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

An anti-US protest in Pakistan. The poll found 78% of Pakistanis did not trust America to act responsibly. Photograph: Rajput Yasir/Demotix/Corbis

Many Western pundits insist Muslims have an irrational  hatred toward America and the West, and lay the blame for this phenomenon squarely on their supposedly strange and violent religion, Islam. If that assessment is correct, what explains growing distrust and criticism, even among traditional US allies?

According to recent poll results published in the Guardian:

Negative Arab and Pakistani perceptions of America as overweening and untrustworthy clearly pose a daunting foreign policy challenge for the Obama administration. The fact that 78% of Pakistanis questioned by YouGov said they did not trust America to act responsibly underlines Washington’s serious lack of soft power in the region as it attempts to extricate itself from Afghanistan.

Attitudes towards the US in the Arab world were nearly as negative. Those respondents in the Middle East and north Africa who said they trusted America were outnumbered by more than two to one by those who said they did not, and 39% said they did not trust America at all…

More Germans questioned in the YouGov survey voiced misgivings than trust in the US. Perhaps surprisingly, in view of past wariness, French opinion was somewhat warmer: just over half of the French poll respondents trusted America, against 40% who did not…

…When asked to select a word they associated with America, a striking 40% of the British respondents chose “bullying“, a greater proportion than in any other country or region covered by the survey. Only 12% thought the US was defined by its respect for human rights. Half of British respondents said they trusted America, and 41% said they did not.

Maybe it’s time to ditch the self-serving narratives and consider the obvious: Reckless, bullying US foreign policies are the primary catalyst fueling hostility and distrust in much of the world, resulting in widespread instability, volatility, and increased violence.

Peter Hart analyzes events in Afghanistan that vividly illustrate this point.

After NATO Strike Kills 8 Afghan Women, Pundits Still Wonder: Why Do They Hate Us?

by Peter Hart, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)

The protests and violence in Egypt, Libya and Yemen have caused a notable uptick in media discussions about, as Newsweek‘s cover puts it, “Muslim Rage.”

Noorullah Shirzada: Killed by Coalition forces/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A Washington Post headline illustrates which lives are more valuable.

Part of the corporate media’s job is to make sure real political grievances are mostly kept out of the discussion. It’s a lot easier to talk about angry mobs and their peculiar religion than it is to acknowledge that maybe some of the anger has little to do with religion at all.

Take the news out of Afghanistan yesterday: A NATO airstrike killed eight women in the eastern province of Laghman who were out collecting firewood. This has happened before. And attacks that kill a lot of Afghans–whether accidental or not–tend to be covered the same way–quietly, and with a focus not on the killing but on the ramifications.

So yesterday if you logged into CommonDreams, you may have seen this headline:

NATO Airstrike in Afghanistan Kills 8 Women

Now look for the same news in the New York Times today (9/17/12). It’s there–but the headline is this:

Karzai Denounces Coalition Over Airstrikes

The Times gave a clear sense of what was important: “Mr. Karzai’s condemnation was likely to rankle some Western officials…” the paper’s Matthew Rosenberg explained, who went on to explain that

the confrontational tone of the statement was a sharp reminder of the acrimony that has often characterized relations between Mr. Karzai and his American benefactors.

In the Washington Post, the NATO airstrikes made the front page–sort of. Readers saw this headline at the website:

4 troops killed in southern Afghanistan insider attack

As you might have already guessed, the killings of Afghan women are a secondary news event:

Four U.S. troops were killed Sunday at a remote checkpoint in southern Afghanistan when a member of the Afghan security forces opened fire on them, military officials said. The attack brought to 51 the number of international troops shot dead by their Afghan partners this year. The insider attack came on the same day that NATO warplanes killed nine women gathering firewood in the mountains outside their village in an eastern province, according to local officials.

One has to wonder whether, absent the deaths of U.S. troops, the airstrike would have made the news at all.

Peter Hart is the activism director at FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting). He writes for FAIR’s magazine Extra, and is also a co-host and producer of FAIR’s syndicated radio show CounterSpin. He is the author of The Oh Really? Factor: Unspinning Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly”(Seven Stories Press, 2003).

The White supremacist neo-Nazis are at it again.:

National Front plan Skegness demonstration against halal abattoir

A nationalist political organisation opposing multiculturalism and immigration has planned a demonstration against proposals for a halal abattoir in Skegness.

The National Front has invited its members to walk through the town distributing flyers and displaying banners opposing the Muslim practice of slaughter on Saturday, September 15.

Deputy chairman Kevin Bryan said: “We are against halal and kosher slaughterhouses full stop – it’s alien to this country and we don’t want to see it here. Islam is an alien religion to our shores and we don’t think we should have them in this country.”

The group insists it is not racist, claiming to oppose immigrants of all races, “to return this county to its genetic make-up of the 1940s.”

Skegness Standard, 31 August 2012