UK: Muslim airline pilot ’sacked because of religion’

Via Asian Image:

A Muslim airline pilot who was sacked after links were discovered to two suspected terrorists told an employment tribunal today that an “air of suspicion” had been created around him because of his race and religion.

The British man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was suspended by the major airline after he was arrested by the Metropolitan Police in October 2007 who were investigating two suspects.

(source)

UK: Why British Muslim women struggle to find a marriage partner

Via the Guardian:

First, there has always been a tradition for British men originating from the Indian subcontinent to marry women from their country of origin. Families encourage their sons to do so for a host of reasons, including the cultural expectation that girls from “back home” will stay with and look after their in-laws.

The second trend is for Muslim men to marry “women of the book” (Christian or Jewish women), which is permissible in Islam. Men are more likely to work and socialise with British Christian women than their female Muslim counterparts, which leads to a higher chance of such marriages occurring.

(source)

UK: Imams must reach out to youth, says cleric

Via ENInews:

Imams at British mosques have let down a generation of young Muslims by failing to reach young people who sometimes end up in prison, Ibrahim Mogra, chair of the mosque and community affairs committee of the Muslim Council of Britain, said.

Following the publication of a report showing that the number of Muslims in British prisons has rocketed over the last 20 years, Mogra told ENInews in an interview on 11 January that most Muslim clergy and mosques have finally realized that in houses of worship they are preaching only to the converted.

“They are now taking their message out to the youth,” he said, “and this is excellent. The cocktail of issues facing young people today — broken homes, difficulties with arranged marriages, drugs, the absence of male role models — requires a unified effort. I am convinced that more and more imams and mosques will rise up and join that effort.”

(source)

UK: ‘Muslims are not betraying Islam in embracing liberal democracy’

Via the Guardian (by Turkish journalist Mustafa Akyol):

It is far better to propose Islam than impose it, for if there is no liberty there can be no genuine religiosity

Last week, during a book tour in London, I spoke to a large group of British Muslims on Islam and liberty. A few of the questions that I received from the audience indicated why discussion on this topic is much needed. “If the state gives the people the freedom to do what they want, then they will follow their temptations,” said one Pakistani gentleman. “That’s why the Saudi religious police, which you oppose, is a very good system.”

In return, I asked him why he relies on state policing, and not individual responsibility, to uphold the morals of Islam. “Isn’t is better to propose Islam rather than impose it,” I added, “since state dictates can lead not to sincere piety but hypocrisy?”

(…)

In my new book on Islam and liberty, I draw upon such oft-forgotten historical and theological sources to argue that Muslims need not need to betray their faith in order to embrace liberal democracy. By accepting other people’s “freedom to sin”, and “freedom from Islam”, I even argue, they will be laying the right ground in which their own faith can flourish. For, as I said to that Pakistani gentleman in London, if there is no liberty, there is no genuine religiosity as well.

(source)

UK: Study of representation of Muslims in the press

Via ENGAGE (h/t The LibertyPhile):

Academics at Lancaster University have completed an ESRC financed research project on ‘The representation of Muslims in the British press 1998-2009′. The researchers analysed over 200,000 media articles written on Islam and Muslim over the eleven year period.

The research is the most extensive study done to date and is in the same vein as earlier studies such as the Cardiff University report of 2008, ‘Images of Islam in the UK: The Representation of British Muslims in the National Print News Media 2000-2008’ and a further ESRC/AHRC funded research project on ‘Media portrayals of religion and the secular sacred’ led by Professor Kim Knott and Dr Elizabeth Poole (2010).

The study, conducted by Dr Paul Baker, Professor Tony McEnery and Dr Costas Gabrielatos, reiterates key findings from other studies reinforcing claims of media bias towards fringe groups at the expense of mainstream Muslims, and on word association with Islam and Muslims engendering negative connotations with the religion and its adherents.

(source)

Scotland: Several people involved in Stockholm bombing, say Scottish investigators

The Swedish Security Service still think he was alone.

Via the Local:

Taimour Abdulwahab called a mobile telephone in Iraq the same day that he blew himself up in Stockholm, and received 60,000 kronor ($8,800) from backers in Scotland, according to British prosecutors.

The UK authorities are investigating 31-year-old Nasserdine Menni, who is suspected of financing the attack and was arrested in Scotland in March.

During the investigation it has emerged that Abdulwahab rang a mobile telephone in Iraq the same day he blew himself up. He also received a call from a mobile telephone in Iraq and then called Menni repeatedly.

(source)

Brussels: North Africans ambushed tourists, says Scot tourist

Via VRT:

Yesterday, flandersnews.be reported that there were a total of four violent incidents on the Brussels metro on Saturday evening. One of the incidents quoted was a fight involving a group of British tourists and North African youths.

Having read yesterday’s article, Mr Calum Sellars of Glasgow, Scotland has given us his account of Saturday evening’s incident on the platform of the Clemenceau metro station in Anderlecht.

(…)

“Firstly, the majority of our group were actually females (there were only 7-8 males in the group). Secondly, four of these females were seriously assaulted. One was hit with a glass bottle, the other with a brick and another was punched in the face. The fourth girl was rushed to hospital because a piece of glass had cut her eye and it was thought at one point that she would have to have surgery.”

Mr Sellars goes on to write that there were far more than ten North Africans involved and that he believes that the attack was planned.

“It was completely unprovoked and CCTV images will certainly confirm this. While our group tried to defend ourselves we were constantly bombarded with bricks and glass bottles.”

(source)

Birmingham: Seven arrested in counter-terror raids

Via AFP:

West Midlands Police said on Monday they had arrested six men and a woman in Birmingham as part of a major pre-planned counter-terrorism operation targeting Islamic extremists.

The men, aged between 25 and 32, were detained by unarmed officers on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism in Britain, the police said in a statement.

(…)

Police said the suspects, who were all British passport holders, were being held for questioning in the Birmingham area.

(source)

Edinburgh Festival: Imran Yusuf, Muslim who has faith in this country

Via the Telegraph:

Spending an hour in the company of Imran Yusuf – whether on stage or in person – can achieve the near-impossible in these dark days of riots, double-dip recessions, terrorism and global unrest: it can make you feel happy, positive, and ready to face the future.

Yusuf is one of the best things to have happened to British comedy in ages. Fast-talking and funny, this skinny London geezer bathes whoever he’s addressing in a feelgood aura without any recourse to simple-minded escapism. He may leaven his stand-up with cheesy chat-up lines, confessions about his disastrous love-life and the odd dinosaur impression, but he doesn’t stray far from the main topic at hand – being Muslim in Britain today, and why, for all the pessimism, he thinks we’re going to be OK.

(source)

UK: Lawsuit says language immigration law discriminates against Asians, Arabs

Via the Independent:

A new law compelling immigrants to be able to speak English to join their spouses living in the UK is “blatantly racially discriminatory”, a court has heard.

(…)

Manjit Gill QC, representing Rashida Chapti, 54, a British citizen, and her husband Vali Chapti, 57, who wants to join her in the UK, told the High Court sitting in Birmingham that the law deliberately aims to keep out Arabs and those of Asian origin.

(source)