at_deportie

Dina Al Jnidi, the wife of Mahmoud Abu Rideh (pictured), a suspect detained on secret evidence and kept under a control order, writes a harrowing piece in The Independent today on the injustices of detention without charge, secret evidence, the control order regime and the trauma inflicted on an innocent family.

‘It is still fresh in my mind the day the police came to arrest my husband – it was the 19 December 2001. They broke down the door and forced their way into our home while I was still in my night dress. They were pointing their guns in my face and in the children's faces. There were about 30 armed officers. They forced my husband to the floor and handcuffed him, pressing down on his back and neck with their knees as he screamed in pain. They yelled: "Shut up you f***ing terrorist!" I implored the police to stop because my husband suffers from back pain. All this was in view of my children who were terrified; they were crying, shaking, many had wet themselves.

‘After two days we were allowed to return home. The local newspaper had taken pictures of our house. The headlines read something like: "Terrorist raid". After this article I had my face veil forcibly removed three times. We also had rubbish thrown at our front door.

‘Eventually I swapped my home because our neighbours had resorted to spitting at me. Prior to the arrest of my husband and the raid on our home, we had never had any trouble with our neighbours. The police have caused this problem which led to our victimisation.'

Human Rights Watch comments on President Sarkozy’s remarks on the burqa saying that ‘a legal ban in Europe on the wearing of the burqa in public life would be just as much a violation of the rights of those women who wish to wear it as is the forcing of the veil on those women who do not wish to wear it in, for example, Iran or Saudi Arabia.’

‘Muslim women should have the right to move around dressed as they choose, to make decisions about their lives and religion, whether we understand or support those choices or not.

Amnesty International has released a report today on Israel’s conduct in war during the savage bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip in December 2008 - January 2009. Amnesty argues in the report, ‘Operation ‘CAST LEAD’: 22 Days of Death and Destruction’, that the Israeli Army broke the laws on warfare and accuses Israel of committing war crimes.

AI investigators, who spent a month in Gaza and southern Israel surveying the devastation and interviewing eye witnesses, found that hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed by the Israeli Army using high-precision weapons while others were shot at close range.

The BBC One Show poses the question ‘Should schools allow teachers to wear full-face veils?’ It follows on from comments made by David Cameron and reported in the Daily Express yesterday.

The paper misleadingly titled the story 'Cameron backs ban on burkhas', a throwback to its front page last week, 'Ban the burkha in Britain'. Although the first paragraph explains that the Leader of the Opposition was actually backing 'schools that ban Muslim garments such as the burkha and the niqab from the classroom' and that he 'stopped short of calling for an outright ban on full-face veils in public'.

The Socialist Worker carries a story on recent court cases involving hate crimes targetting non White Britons and shows just how far right wing extremists are prepared to go to advance their rabidly racist agenda.

‘Four recent court cases in different parts of Britain shed some light on what methods those who advocate an all-white Britain would use to achieve their ends.

‘Self-proclaimed “proud racist” Neil MacGregor of Melbourne, Derbyshire, last week had his sentence deferred for the seventh time.

‘MacGregor had previously pleaded guilty to threatening to blow up Glasgow central mosque. He had said he would “execute a Muslim a day” until all Scottish mosques were closed down.

The Guardian reports today on the challenge the BNP is presenting to extant race hate legislation with the Crown Prosecution Service unable to prosecute the party for leaflets (pictured) that are overtly racist but which fall short of the requirements of the law on incitement to racial hatred.

Peter Herbert, chairman of the Society of Black Lawyers, told the Guardian that, "Under the law, it has been extremely difficult to mount a prosecution against extremism and hate speech ... But with the rise of the BNP, and the subsequent rise in racist attacks and the fear the party's leaflets can provoke, it is essential we are given the tools to deal effectively with this threat."

Setting a new low for publications lacking in academic rigour, Civitas produces another questionable report by Denis MacEoin entitled: 'Sharia Law or 'One Law For All'?

The report is covered extensively in today’s press (Daily Mail, Daily Express, Telegraph), both in news items and leader columns (Daily Express, Mail), with the Mail splashing it across the front page. And the Daily Express follows its front page last week, ‘Ban the burqa in Britain’, with this poll question in today’s paper: