Posted on 12/08/2004 10:32:54 AM PST by harmodius
Dec. 7, 2004 — It was not what she said, but the way she looked and her manner of dress that had the crowd hooting and jeering as she addressed a conference in Paris last year.
When Salma Yaqoob, a 32-year-old British Muslim activist, took the stand at the November 2003 European Social Forum, she was taken aback by the ruckus.
As chairwoman of the Stop the War Coalition in Birmingham, England, Yaqoob was in Paris to talk about the backlash against British Muslims sparked off by the war on terror during a session titled "Dimensions of Islam." But it was her veil, or hijab, that turned into the subject of an acrimonious dispute.
This was months before France passed a controversial law banning head scarves in public schools, and Yaqoob, a psychotherapist who took up community service shortly after the 9/11 attacks, says she was rattled by the audience hostility.
"I was genuinely shocked how people reacted just because I happened to be wearing a hijab," Yaqoob recalled in a phone interview. "It was actually a very upsetting experience. It was shocking to see people so passionate and, in my view, so ignorant of basic things, basic things like etiquette. [They] felt they had a right to behave that way in the name of what they thought was freedom and liberation."
In the Netherlands — a country famed for its relaxed attitude to everything from pot smoking to prostitution — at least 14 Muslim buildings and schools were attacked in the troubled days following the killing of a Dutch filmmaker by a suspected Islamist extremist. Postings in online chat rooms showed a rising anti-Muslim feeling. "Today is the day I became a racist," read one typical message.
And when a TV contest recently asked viewers to name the "greatest Dutchman ever," they chose Pim Fortuyn — a self-avowed anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant politician who was killed by a white animal rights activist in 2002.
In neighboring Belgium, the country's highest court recently ruled the far-right Vlaams Blok party racist and stripped it of its funding and TV access rights, forcing it to disband. Party leaders say they plan to reconstitute under a new name.
In Denmark, an Islamophobic party came in third in the 2001 elections, foreshadowing Jean-Marie Le Pen's right-wing party's stunningly strong showing in the French elections the next year.
"There is definitely a rise in Islamophobia across Europe," said Liz Fekete, deputy director of the London-based Institute of Race Relations. "Muslims collectively are being blamed for the attacks on the World Trade Center, and there is a general punitive climate toward Muslims. This has manifested itself in a variety of ways. On the ground, there has been a rise in racial violence on Muslim targets across Europe. And the biggest problem is that the scale of the problem has not been acknowledged," Fekete said.
For rest of article: http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=289575&page=1
Wow. Now there is a list I can agree with!
Purge away.
A contributor to The Nation? Well, I'm shocked, I tell you, just shocked.
Isn't interesting how the leftist/socialist elites have taken up the Islamofacist cause? I guess they both have common cause - a hatred of Western Civilization.
Of course, you're totally wrong, but trying to convince un-American liberals like you, who believe in group-guilt and disparage individual responsibility, of that is rather like banging one's head against a wall.
This has an original title....
"Is Islam Endangering 'Europeanness?'"
It will help locate it in the future, if you ask the Mods to correct that
yes they may have a better understanding of islam
but it still does not alter the fact that islam must be eradicated. islam must not exist any longer.
let the real crusades begin.
Those who won't learn from history.....
hi LB
yes we can take anything out of context but the koran is pretty black and white about killing you and me (the unbelievers aka infidel) ergo us or them baby, i prefer them so that my grandkids do not have to wear burkas or make the hadj.
my hadj is daily in my heart, and i prey forgiveness for wanting them dead and not my family.
...a death cult...historically certified, grade AAA.
"There is definitely a rise in Islamophobia across Europe," said Liz Fekete, deputy director of the London-based Institute of Race Relations. "Muslims collectively are being blamed for the attacks on the World Trade Center, and there is a general punitive climate toward Muslims. This has manifested itself in a variety of ways. On the ground, there has been a rise in racial violence on Muslim targets across Europe. And the biggest problem is that the scale of the problem has not been acknowledged," Fekete said.
Of course there is, and it's due to the Muslims' quiet complicity with the terrorists. I haven't heard a word from the Muslim leaders condemning the terrorist attacks in America or elsewhere. Their silence is deafening, and it's a sign of approval. So I'm not surprised people react to them in a negative way. I would too.
Islamophobia sounds more like due diligence to me.
Says you.
George Bush and I have a different take on it.
Indeed you do.
Me I stand with the President.
"All Americans must recognize that the face of terror is not the true faith -- face of Islam. Islam is a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world. It's a faith that has made brothers and sisters of every race. It's a faith based upon love, not hate."
- President Bush,
September 10th, 2002
You're deluded and the Prez is BSing.
You're deluded
That may be.
and the Prez is BSing.
Chapter and verse
Isn't it about time you learned HTML?
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