ModernityBlog

Over at JC is an article warning how people should not be taken in by the bigotry and xenophobia pushed by the Stop the Islamisation of Europe group, and CST are rightly critical:

“The CST has drawn attention to the Islamaphobic comments on SIOE’s website, and compared the group to the English Defence League, and the BNP’s Nick Griffin, who have attempted to gain support from Jews through pro-Israel and anti-Muslim statements.

The blog singled out an central image on the SIOE’s website, which shows a skull with blood dripping from its mouth on the front of a mosque, where the minaret and crescent moon and star symbol is also covered in blood.

On its blog, the CST says: “This image tells us everything we need to know about SIOE and Islamophobia.

“If a Jew cannot understand why the image is racist, or hateful, or bigoted then they should try imagining it as a synagogue: with blood dripping from a Star of David; with blood dripping down the rabbi’s pulpit; and with blood dripping from the mouth of a skull that wears an Israeli army helmet.”

The CST emphasises that while the Jewish community should be concerned about extreme Islamist groups. Jews had a duty to stand up to prejudice and hatred

“The fact that Muslims are the current target simply means that it is Muslims who should be the recipients of anti-racist solidarity.

“Hatred, division, cycles of inter-communal violence, intimidation and polarisation feed the extremists on every side. They encourage social division and leave all minorities vulnerable. Anti-Muslim bigotry is a vital recruiting sergeant for both the far right, and its Islamist extremist counterparts.

“It generates votes for the BNP and, at the furthest ends of this political spectrum, it even provides the fuel for terrorism. British Jews should have no part of it.”

Here’s more to the post concerning those Hamburg “anti-Zionists”, who felt comfortable shouting “Jewish pigs” at those attending a film presentation.

Die Linke were quick to disassociate themselves from the racist “anti-Zionists”, but the evidence of their unfortunate link to this group is shown by a bit of hunting around on their web site. [Perhaps, I'll upload a screen dump later on.]

The Kommunistische Assoziation Hamburg (KAH) is less than shy about events, but seem to put their own spin on it, the German original is here and a Google translation.

Reading it is hard, I suspect that even if my German was top notch that it wouldn’t make a lot of sense, as it comes over as a political rant. Still, they don’t deny that it took place.

Oh, here it is just in case it vanishes, once the penny has dropped:
Read the rest of this entry »

Netbooks and Firefox. Simpler solution: switch off plug-ins.

Phoronix news.

Broken IMacs, Apple loses fans.

Avoid M$ Office, try the newer KOffice.

Air Force and toys, as Super Computers.

Robots for oldies.

Even a GCHQ supplier don’t like the new British government’s approach to the web.

Free labour quits, Wiki losing people.

The Why?

I’m not sure I would agree with the Guardian’s journalist as to the causes of Wikipedia’s previous decline, but deleting articles after someone (or many) have laboured hours and hours over them is one of the surest ways to cheesed people off. How often have you looked up a link within an interesting Wikipedia article only to find that it’s been deleted? It is an ultimately counter productive process, there are better ways to manage referenced articles and keep up the quality of contributions.

Finally, the appalling Alan Johnson, the British Home Secretary has thrown Gary McKinnon to the whims of the US Justice system. What a terrible fate for this “hacker”, at worst he should have been given a slapped wrist, not bunged into an American jail, simply because the managers of the DoD computer systems weren’t doing their job properly, managing security.

The petty and unnecessary ban on minarets is just one measure taken by the right wing Swiss People’s Party in a deliberate attempt to stoke up xenophobia, which many Muslims already face in Switzerland.

Apparently religious freedom is enshrined in the Swiss constitution and the targeting of Muslims is deliberate and provocative.

Readers will probably remember the sheep posters from 2007, and the SVP are continuing down the same path, whipping up resentment against Muslims and alienating them in Switzerland.

This populist form of xenophobia has been common enough over the past 150 years and it leads to a very bitter place.

No one, who believes in religious freedom, should welcome this vote or the longer-term consequences of division and distrust within a society, deliberately provoked by a rightwing political party for their own cheap ends.

Update 1: Anyone interested should read the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance’s report on Switzerland,[PDF download] here’s a small extract:

“117. In its third report ECRI recommended that the authorities take steps to combat prejudice and discrimination against Muslim communities, particularly as regards practical issues connected with the practice of their religion.

118. Muslims, who are estimated to number between 350 000 and 400 000 in Switzerland, encounter manifestations of racism and intolerance, which are described in several parts of this report. The Swiss authorities themselves consider that there was a significant increase in acts of intolerance with regard to members of Switzerland’s Muslim communities between 2002 and 2006.

119. In particular, ECRI is concerned to learn that, in recent years, some political parties, including the UDC, have considerably exploited and encouraged prejudice and racist stereotypes concerning Muslims within the majority population, not only in their rhetoric but also in political campaign posters. As a result some parts of public opinion may equate the entire Muslim population with terrorists and religious extremists. The fear of seeing Switzerland “swamped by Muslims” is also exploited. In some cases, this prejudice apparently leads to discrimination, notably in employment, since Muslims are refused jobs because of the suspicion surrounding them. In particular, women who wear the Islamic headscarf encounter difficulties of access to jobs, housing and goods and services for the public. Muslims are also vulnerable to discrimination in matters of naturalisation.”