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 opening scene in Combinations, a film designed to challenge viewers’ assumptions about Muslims. Photograph: Media Cultured

(h/t: CriticalDragon)

Film challenges extremism by and against British Muslims

Haroon Siddique (Guardian)

The call to prayer sounds and a serious-looking man with a bushy beard stares intently at the camera. At first appearance it is a familiar image of an angry Muslim but as the man breaks into laughter and begins to talk about his pride in being British, the viewer’s presumptions are challenged.

The clip is a trailer for Combinations, a short film being produced byMedia Cultured, a fledgling organisation using film and social media to challenge extremism by and against Muslims. In an age when the Taliban and Somali group al-Shabaab use Twitter, and the anti-Islamic film The Innocence of Muslims on YouTube was disseminated by extremists on both sides to further their own ends, Media Cultured is an attempt to use the same tools to promote harmony rather than discord.

The community interest company in Teesside is the brainchild of director Amjid Khazir, who has been working with local mosques and national faith groups to help the Muslim community understand internet safety and online propaganda. “We are trying to achieve a level of integration and tolerance between communities in an area [social media] that’s being ignored by the government,” said Khazir. “If you ever wanted to define big society, this is it.”

Combinations, made in conjunction with Thousand Yard Films, features Imran Naeem, who runs a boxing gym, is a community volunteer andcarried the Olympic torch through Darlington last summer. The title refers to the flurries of punches thrown by boxers as well as Naeem’s dual British-Muslim heritage. The trailer has already been shown in one “hard knock” Middlesbrough school, as Khazir describes it, where he says the children’s initial perceptions were challenged. He is in discussions to put the film on alongside workshops in other schools, as well as university Islamic societies, mosques and prisons, initially locally and then nationally.

When showing the trailer, which is being developed into a short film, Khazir pauses it at different stages, asking people to write down their thoughts before pressing play and highlighting any mistaken conclusions they may have jumped to.

“As a positive role model for young Muslims he [Naeem] is a fantastically credible, practising [Muslim], guy who’s part of the community and who also challenges the xenophobic views and discriminatory views of racists who paint us all as one bloc of evil Mullahs,” says Khazir. “He’s the antithesis of that. We can achieve the same ends with one piece of work. We can reduce extremism, providing positive role models for Muslims and to non-Muslims we can show the opposite of what the stereotypes portray in the media.”

Khazir previously worked in PR and internet search engine optimisation when he noticed how videos of jihadis in Iraq and Afghanistan received large numbers of hits. He said: “Young people especially are often recruited and indoctrinated using videos posted on different social media channels – this can be by simply following a Twitter link.”

It was the death of his uncle that persuaded him to focus on his community work full-time. Mohammed Zabir, a taxi driver, died of a heart attack in 2011, a month after being attacked by a drunken passenger. Khazir said: “He was like a father to me. He lived next door to me, I grew up with him … I gave up the job I was doing and thought: ‘I am going to make this work.’”

Khazir set Media Cultured up with a bursary from Teesside University‘s DigitalCity project, which also provides him with an office and mentoring.

With the longer version of Combinations almost complete, Media Cultured is already planning its next film, Head for Cover, a history of the hijab. “It’s not a piece of clothing that’s divisive, or causing separation or segregation,” says Khazir. “It’s actually just a personal freedom, a simple item of clothing which has biblical traditions right from the Jewish matriarchs to Mary.”

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

An important article from the Independent’s Owen Jones on the need for all communities to join forces to fight Islamophobia:

Owen Jones: Islamophobia – for Muslims, read Jews. And be shocked

by Owen Jones (The Independent)

To be a prominent Muslim means suffering a daily diet of bigotry and even outright hatred. This week, Mehdi Hasan – who, other than my colleague Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, is Britain’s only prominent Muslim journalist – wrote of how, every day, he is attacked as a “jihadist” and a “terrorist”. He has been described as a “dangerous Muslim shithead”, a “moderate cockroach”, and worse. The message from his critics is clear: Muslims have no legitimate place in public life.

The EDL’s coming to town, to spread “racial tensions and incite violence.”

EDL get ready to descend on Rochdale

Rochdale shop owners are preparing ahead of tomorrow’s English Defence League march. The far-right movement will descend on the town at 1.30pm to demonstrate against what they see as an expansion of Muslim extremism.

Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk urged the town to continue as usual. He said: “Tomorrow’s ‘protest’ is nothing more than an attempt to stir up racial tensions and incite violence. The police are fully prepared to deal with this and the protest will be outside of the town centre, which will be open for business as usual. I would urge everyone to continue to support local shops and businesses.”

Local group Rochdale Unity, who will be holding a counter protest at the same time, accused EDL of exploiting the recent case of sexual exploitation of young women in Heywood, which saw nine Asian men handed prison sentences.

EDL splinter group Casuals United have issued a “fatwa” against any media who attend tomorrow’s event without having been invited by EDL leaders, saying they will be treated as “hostile”.

Mancunian Matters, 8 June 2012

Hate for Muslims doesn’t exist? Spencer would probably blame it on Muslims.

Severed pig’s head dumped at Cambridge mosque

A severed pig’s head has been left outside a mosque in Cambridge – triggering alarm among the city’s Muslims. Families found the head on the steps of the place of worship on Monday night on their way to prayers. An emergency meeting was due to be held last night after the incident at the Shah Jalal Bangladeshi Community House in Darwin Drive.

A worshipper at the mosque, who did not wish to be named, told the News: “It is a terrible insult. There are about 40 families who go to the centre and everyone is highly emotional at the moment. It was left there between 8.15pm and 9pm. Some families found it as they went for prayer at about 9pm. It was a very ugly sight. This was a nasty and appalling thing to do. We thought we had good relations with the community around here.”

Some Muslims believe the pig’s head attack could have been triggered after an application to increase the number of worshippers at the mosque prompted objections from some residents.

Three year old girl, traumatized from watching her grandfather's brutal murder

We usually like to keep our tone of voice on this site cheeky and lighthearted, mostly because the zany antics of the Islamophobic loonies are, quite frankly, amusing. But there is nothing funny about the very real consequences that occur due to the environment of xenophobia that they seek to engender.

On September 8th, it was reported that a “Devout Muslim dies after savage beating by ‘race-hate’ gang.” A sixty-seven year old Muslim man was mercilessly beaten to death by a motley group of racists. Worse yet, the gang did it in front of the man’s three year old granddaughter, who remains traumatized from the incident:

Ekram Haque, 67, lost his fight for life a week after he was battered to the ground in front of his three-year-old granddaughter, Marian….Mr Haque – described by friends as a ‘gentle giant’ – had suffered horrific head injuries.

His granddaughter has been left ‘very shaken and disturbed’, said her father, Mr Haque’s son Arfan. Graphic images of the attack were caught on CCTV.

This is not an isolated incident, but rather one in a “series of other attacks” aimed at Moozlim-looking elderly people, or “Pakis” as they are “lovingly” referred to by bigots in the UK:

Police are linking the assault on the retired care worker to a series of other attacks on elderly Asian people near the mosque.

Three of the earlier victims were also pensioners. As local community tensions grew, police stepped up patrols near the Idara E Jaaferiya mosque where Mr Haque was attacked last Monday.

Police say they are treating the attack on Mr Haque as racially motivated.

What is perhaps most disturbing is the age of the assailants, ranging from twelve to fifteen:

* Two youths aged 14 and 15 have appeared before Wimbledon Youth Court accused of committing grievous bodily harm with intent on Mr Haque.
* They and another boy, aged 12, are also accused of conspiracy to commit GBH and two counts of assault on victims in their 40s and 70s. Another 14-year-old has been charged over the attacks, but has yet to appear in court.

It is only natural to assume that such hatred can only be learnt from elders. All of this takes place not in a vacuum but rather in an atmosphere of hatred and fear-mongering.

On a positive note, Mr. Arfan–son of the deceased–advised Muslims of the area to react in a calm manner, asking them only to increase their prayers to God:

Arfan, 35, a consumer law adviser, described the incident as ‘mindless violence’ but urged people in the Muslim community to remain calm.

He said: ‘I would urge people in our community to remember that Islam is a peaceful religion and does not condone revenge attacks. If you want to do anything, just pray.

Both Islamophobes and Islamic extremists–two peas in the same pod–like to tally up all the insults and injuries upon their own community in order to ‘compete’ in who is being abused more by the other, in an effort to demonize the other.

This dichotomous view of the world is unhealthy and only fuels more of the same. It’s time to abandon this medieval view of the world–this senseless ‘us vs them’ mentality–and let the peace lovers from both sides work towards a harmonious existence free from such communal strife. Perhaps even this phraseology of ‘peace lovers from both sides‘ is to be abandoned, since we are not two sides any more but now part of the same community, and as one community–of all different faiths (or no faith at all)–we need to extinguish to irrelevancy the voices of the hatemongers whose destructive rhetoric culminates in such dastardly acts like the one we so painfully report herein.