THE first museum in the UK to be dedicated to Sikh history has opened in Derby.
Hundreds of people gathered yesterday for the official opening of the National Sikh Heritage Centre and Holocaust Museum in Pear Tree.
The £25,000-plus project is the first in the world to showcase Sikh history from the perspective of British Sikhs.
It also looks at the Sikh holocaust, in which more than a million people lost their lives because of their faith.
The idea for a national museum came from the Sikh Community Youth Service in the 1980s.

It considered venues from all over the country but chose a former factory in Derby, owned by the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara temple, because of the enthusiasm which had been shown by the city's Sikh community.
Gurmel Singh, one of the volunteers who helped to set up the museum, said he expected people from all over the world to visit the centre.
He said: "The people in Derby expressed such an appetite for this centre. All the funds have been donated by the community and they have put in a lot of time and effort to make it happen.
"We want Sikh young people to get a sense of their connection with Britain as Sikhs and the British have been interacting since the 1700s.
"I think this will become a major tourist destination for people all over the world."
The museum, which is opposite the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara temple, off Prince's Street, features a collection of cannons, hand-held weapons and coins from the Sikh empire in 18th-century India and also memorabilia from the time of the British Raj.
There are soon to be interactive displays and a full educational section with a specialist library of more than 300 books.
There is also a collection of material addressing the history of Sikh persecution.
During the 18th century, Sikhs were outlawed by the Indian government and endured barbaric persecution for about 50 years.
In the wake of Indira Gandhi's assassination in India by two of her Sikh guards in 1984, thousands of Sikhs were slaughtered.
Mr Singh said: "The world is quite rightly aware of the Jewish holocaust but also the Sikhs have had an experience and it's almost an untold story."
The opening was attended by the Mayor of Derby, Councillor Barbara Jackson, and the MP for Derby South, Margaret Beckett.
Mrs Beckett, who released 300 balloons at the event and was wearing Sikh dress, said: "I think this is a tremendous thing that we now have in Derby. It's very important for the young people of the Sikh community to know about their origins and for others to learn about it.
"There's a tremendous tradition of working together

http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Country-s-Sikh-museum-opened-Derby/article-495424-detail/article.html

If Barack Obama were British, racism would keep him from becoming prime minister, said the head of Britain's Equalities and Human Rights Commission.

That racism is not among the British electorate, but among the leaders of the political "machine," said Trevor Phillips, adding he believes the public would embrace a black leader.

"I would be very surprised if even somebody as brilliant as him (Obama) would have been able to break through the institutional stranglehold on power within the Labor Party," Phillips told The Daily Telegraph in a story published Saturday.

Despite Obama's success in U.S. politics, Phillips said he believes the United States remains more divided on racial issues than the United Kingdom.

"Here it's more about class. It is about culture, a different way of life and speaking," Phillips said, noting the U.K.'s Muslim community suffers greater discrimination.

"If you asked British voters whether you could have a Muslim prime minister their mouths would drop open, but not with a black one," Phillips said. [Link]

British Muslims are guilty of a "victim mentality" and should take greater responsibility for their lives, a Muslim Labour MP has argued.

Sadiq Khan also said more British Muslims must tackle sexism, learn English and condemn forced marriages.

The representative for Tooting, south London, made his comments in a report for the Fabian Society think tank.

Muslim youth organisation the Ramadhan Foundation said Mr Khan was out of touch with grassroots Muslims. [Link]

He is here to treat people but now an Indian doctor whose nose was fractured in a racist attack in Lancashire says he wants to leave the UK.

The 32-year-old who does not wish to be named was subjected to racist abuse from a gang of teenagers as he tried to make his way to a late on-call shift.

Having lived in England for four years, two of which he spent in Southampton the doctor said he now wanted to leave the country for good. Over thirty percent of doctors working in UK hospitals are from abroad.
advertisement

"My perception of England is totally different now. This is not the England I was told about. And I would advise any doctor thinking of coming and working here to think twice.

"Although I have received no abuse on the hospital grounds, every other day since I moved to the area I have got the odd comment about the way I look but nothing like this.

"I'm trying to move, not only out of this area but out of the country. My wife says she does not feel safe here and wants to get out as soon as possible.

"She feels there is no guarantee that this won't happen again.

"I have friends across the world in America, Canada and the Middle-East. None of them have had this happen to them."

The incident happened as the doctor was heading to a shift at the hospital at 9.50pm when he was approached by a gang of about seven men, close to a Day and Night shop in the old Blackburn Infirmary area.

"It began with comments like Where is your mosque?' and We are paying for your taxes to be here'. Soon it deteriorated with more racial abuse like You black bastard'. I am Sikh and people's ignorance here is beyond belief.

"I thought this was nonsense as I am a highly skilled professional and it was not difficult for them to see I was a doctor - I had a stethoscope and a hospital badge on my jacket.

"Little do these people know that my wife and I pay over £10,000 in taxes and national insurance to live and work here.

"Soon one of them said We will kill your family if you don't move out. We know where you live.' And then he headbutted me."

Police confirmed they are investigating the incident and are still keen to speak to anyone with information about the attack.

They can contact Crimestoppers anonymously 0800 555 111.

Police are particularly keen to speak with a woman in a red car who stopped and spoke with the victim and may have seen what happened. [Link]

The opening of more Islamic faith schools should be stopped amid fears they will fuel social segregation, according to teachers.

Government plans to create more state-funded Muslim schools will divide communities along racial and religious lines, it is claimed.

They risk creating a situation similar to that in Northern Ireland where some educated teenagers fail to meet students of the opposite faith until they go to university, according to Voice, the teaching union.

In a speech to the union's annual conference next week, one teacher will claim Labour's policy to expand Muslim schools is "about trying to defend minorities".

Last year, Ed Balls, the schools secretary, pledged to remove "unnecessary barriers" to religious groups bidding to open their own schools.

He said additional money would be made available to allow the hundreds of private religious schools to convert to the state sector. The move raised the prospect of more schools for faiths including Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus, which have few schools of their own, despite representing significant minority groups.

Speaking at the conference, Wesley Paxton, a further education lecturer from Hull, will say: "More faith schools in 2008 is probably going to mean more Islamic schools." [Link]

The family of a Sikh girl excluded from school for wearing a religious bangle have asked the prime minister to intervene in the matter.

Sarika Singh, 14, and her family delivered a petition to No 10 Downing Street signed by Sikh organisations.

The teenager has been excluded from Aberdare Girls' School since November 2007 for wearing a Kara bangle.

A High Court case in London next week, challenging the school's decision, is expected to take three days.

The petition was signed by 150 Gurdwaras, Sikh meeting places, and other Sikh organisations as well as more than 70 non-Sikh bodies, including civil liberty and anti-racist groups and trade unions.

Speaking in London, Sarika's mother, Sinita Singh, said her daughter's education had been badly affected by the exclusion. [Link]

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday narrowly won a vote for tougher terrorism laws, emerging with his grip on power shaky but intact after a tough political battle over balancing national security and civil liberties....

Blair's ex-chief legal adviser Lord Goldsmith and Britain's current chief prosecutor Ken Macdonald are among key officials who insist new police powers are unnecessary.

Goldsmith said the proposals could strain relations with Britain's Muslim communities and choke off a vital flow of intelligence to police.

Some critics see the issue as part of an ongoing fight to balance civil liberties and national security , following skirmishes on the use of police profiling, DNA and plans to introduce identity cards to the U.K. for the first time since World War II. [Link]

A Sikh teenager excluded from lessons for wearing a religious bangle has been given a temporary place at another school.

Sarika Singh, 14, has not attended Aberdare Girls' School in South Wales since being told she could not wear the bracelet, known as a Kara.

Her case is to be heard at the High Court in London later this year, but no date has been set for a hearing.

Sarika has now enrolled at Mountain Ash Comprehensive School, which is allowing her to wear the bracelet, and will stay there until the legal process is complete.

Jagtar Singh, of the Sikh Federation UK, said: "Sarika's mother understands the preliminary hearing is unlikely to be held until April or May.

"It's too long a wait for Sarika, so she has started at another school."

Human rights group Liberty, which is supporting Sarika's High Court battle, claims the school has breached race relations and human rights laws by not allowing Sarika to wear the Kara.

Sarika, the only Sikh at her school, was excluded from Aberdare Girls' School in November, after being taught in isolation for two months.

The school bans girls from wearing jewellery [sic] other than wristwatches and plain ear studs. [Link]

A teenage girl has been charged in connection with an alleged racial assault on a Sikh man on a bus in Edinburgh.

A 15-year-old was arrested following the incident on a number 26 LRT bus travelling to Corstorphine at about 2230 GMT on Saturday, 2 February.

The 22-year-old victim, who wears a turban, had boarded the bus at Haymarket with a friend.

Police said a report had been submitted to the procurator fiscal.[Link]

A Sikh man was verbally abused by two racist thugs and had his turban torn off while up to 40 onlookers stood by and did nothing.
The attack on Rattandeep Singh Ahluwalia in Oxford city centre comes a day after 19-year-old student Tom Grant was stabbed to death on a train after going to somone's aid.
Mr Ahluwalia was waiting at a bus stop outside HSBC bank in Queen Street at midnight on Sunday when a man started swearing and shouting racist insults at him.
The stranger grabbed hold of the 26-year-old's turban a traditional head-dress worn as a sign of devotion to God and threw it on the pavement.
As Mr Ahluwalia struggled to defend himself, another man waved his fists in his face and also shouted racist abuse.
The former student, who was heading home to Whitson Place, Cowley, after a day of praying in London, was shocked none of the people around him tried to help.
He said: "I was really scared. No-one showed any sympathy. There were at least 30 to 40 people and no-one did anything.
"He could have stabbed me."
He was not seriously injured but has been left traumatised and shaken by the attack.
He added: "A turban is part of a Sikh's religion, our costume. What that man did was the biggest sign of disrespect and the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me in my life."
'I always thought this was the best city I have ever been to in my life'
Rattandeep Singh Ahluwalia
Mr Ahluwalia, who moved to the city to study for a Masters at Oxford Brookes University, has also criticised the police for not understanding the significance of what happened to him.
He said when the officers arrived, he was standing against the wall petrified to be seen in public with his hair exposed, but was forced to run over the road to meet them.
Mr Ahluwalia said: "I always thought this was the best city I have ever been to in my life. Now I will not go out late at night on my own."
This is the first time Mr Ahluwalia has been physically attacked.
Oxford police spokesman Kate Smith said officers attended the racially-aggravated common assault on Sunday at 12.12am but no arrests hade been made.
She added: "We take all racist incidents extremely seriously and a thorough investigation is under way."
The attack has been condemned by members of the Sikh community, including Gurdip Singh Saini, vice-chairman of the Asian Cultural Centre in East Oxford. He said: "It is very shocking. These sorts of incidents are increasing day by day in the UK and it is getting worse. It is all the more wrong that no-one came to his rescue."
Anyone with information should call Pc Chris Miles via 08458 505505 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
http://www.oxfordmail.net/mostpopular.var.776820.mostviewed.sikh_attacked.php
also posted on http://ethnicconfusionbritain.blogware.com/blog

TEENAGE girl led a racist attack by a group of youths against a Sikh man on a bus in Edinburgh.
The 22-year-old man was verbally abused on the Number 26 Lothian bus to Corstorphine at around 10.30pm on Saturday.The man, who was wearing a turban, boarded the bus at Haymarket with a friend. Shortly after, a group of teenagers got on near the Murrayfield Ice Rink and racially abused the victim, partly due to his traditional clothing.The female main suspect got off the bus at the top of Drum Brae Drive, near to the Fox Covert housing estate.She is described as white, 16 to 20, 5ft 8ins, slim, with blonde hair, which was tied up in a ponytail. She was wearing a white jacket and grey jeans.A police spokesman said: "The victim was left extremely upset as a result of this incident, which shows a lack of respect for the victim's faith. "We want anyone who witnessed the incident, or who knows the identity of any of the youths involved, to get in touch."

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/edinburgh/Girl-leads-teen-gang39s-race.3748056.jp

also reported on http://ethnicconfusionbritain.blogware.com/blog

A 14-year-old Sikh girl cannot wear a religious wrist bangle to school pending a full legal battle over her cultural and religious rights, the High Court ruled today.
Sarika Watkins-Singh was excluded after she refused to remove the Kara bangle and is now due to fight in the courts to establish a permanent right to continue wearing it in class.
Backed by her mother, Sanita, 38, she says it is an important symbol of her culture and Sikh faith.
She wants to return to Aberdare Girls School in south Wales and continue her education pending the hearing.
The school governors say the bangle cannot be worn because of its "no jewellery" policy.
Today her lawyers came to London's High Court, suggesting that she should be allowed to wear it on her right wrist under a long-sleeved jumper until there was a final ruling in her application for judicial review, which could take several months.
Helen Mountfield, appearing for Sarika, argued that she was unfairly being made to choose between her education and her faith.
But Mr Justice Harrison accepted the argument of the school governors that, to allow Sarika to be made an exception to school uniform policy even for a short period would cause disruption among the 600 girls at the school.
Jonathan Auburn, for the school, said there would be the risk of pupils "turning up at the school displaying jewellery saying that it was allowed".
The judge ruled: "Whilst I accept there will be detriment to the claimant if she is not able to wear the Kara in the interim, it does not seem to me that is anything like as significant as the detriment to the school if she were allowed to wear it."
The Punjabi Welsh girl from Cwmbach, near Aberdare, said the small, plain steel bangle was "a constant reminder to do good".
Ms Mountfield had told the judge that Sarika was allowed to wear it for about two years before a PE teacher asked her to take it off in April last year.
"She is 14, now approaching the age at which she is required to choose her GCSE subjects.
"She cares about her education and is a child with aspirations to have a professional career.
"She will suffer harm if she cannot attend school in a way that is consistent with her culture and religion, and is forced to choose between something which is central to her ethnic and religious identity and her education."
Ms Mountfield added that Sarika could not hide the Kara in a bag, which the school was suggesting as a compromise.
The point of the Kara was that it was a symbol of a faith with a history of martyrdom that required its adherents to visibly stand up for what they believed, she told the judge.
Recently the school head, Jane Rosser, said that wearing the Kara was against regulations because it was a piece of jewellery.
Sarika's family contend it was not jewellery as it was worn for religious reasons and not for decoration.
The only two forms of jewellery that girls are allowed to wear in school are a wrist watch and one pair of plain metal stud earrings.
In the forthcoming High Court hearing, Sarika's lawyers will argue that the school's stance violates race relations laws, the 2006 Equality Act and the 1998 Human Rights Act.
Her mother says she has the support of several local politicians and the Sikh Federation UK.
The teenager would remove the bangle for gym classes, or wood and metalwork, for safety reasons.
The mother said recently: "We feel very strongly that Sarika has a right to manifest her religion. She is not asking for anything big and flashy, she is not making a big fuss, she just wants a reminder of her religion."
Her daughter's interest in the Sikh faith intensified after the family visited India, including the Golden Temple in Amritsar, two years ago.
"I don't believe in putting pressure on children to follow a certain religion, but Sarika decided for herself that she wanted to be a practising Sikh," Mrs Singh, a mother-of-two, added.
Sarika said: "I am a Sikh and it is very important for me to wear the Kara because it is a symbol of my faith and a constant reminder that I should only do good work, and never do anything bad, with my hands.
"It is a comfort to me and a confidence booster when I am doing my exams. The reason I am fighting for my right to wear the Kara is because I want to stand up for the right of all the other Sikh pupils across the country to wear their Karas in school."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=512500&in_page_id=1770&ito=newsnow
also reported on http://ethnicconfusionbritain.blogware.com/blog ,www.ethnicconfusionbritain.co.uk

An investigation has been launched after a Sikh man was racially abused by a gang on a bus in Edinburgh.

The incident took place on a number 26 LRT bus travelling to Corstorphine, at about 2230 GMT on Saturday.

The 22-year-old victim, who wears a turban, boarded the bus at Haymarket with a friend.

Shortly after, a group of youths, who are all in their teens, racially abused the victim, partly due to his traditional clothing.

They then got off the bus at various stops along Corstorphine Road and Drum Brae South.

The main abuser, who is female, got off the bus at the top of the hill of Drum Brae Drive near to the Fox Covert housing estate.

She is white, 16 to 20 years old, 5ft 8ins, of slim build, with blonde hair tied up in a ponytail. She was wearing a white jacket and grey jeans.

A police spokesman said: "The victim was left extremely upset as a result of this incident, which shows a lack of respect for the victim's faith.

"There is no place in society for religious or racial intolerance.

"We want anyone who witnessed the incident, or who knows the identity of any of the youths involved, to get in touch." [Link]

ANN Clwyd MP has called on the governors of Aberdare Girls School to back down in a row about a Sikh girl wearing a bangle.

Sarika Singh, 14, has been excluded for wearing a kara, a silver bracelet, in line with her faith. The schools say it contravenes their strict no jewellery policy. She is due to challenge the decision in the High Court.

Mrs Clwyd, MP for the Cynon Valley, is urging governors to pull out of potentially expensive legal action, claiming they are unlikely to win.

She said: “There are legal precedents establishing a Sikh pupil’s right to wear those items that are essential to their religion. Boys, for example, have been allowed to continue to wear turbans.” [Link]

A 55-year-old Sikh was beaten with a metal pole in a racially motivated attack by four masked men on Christmas Day, police have revealed.

One of the men hit the victim on the head and knocked off his turban as he was walking through the Braunstone estate in Leicester.

The man was then struck with a metal pole and the others kicked him while he lay on the ground.

Officers have only recently been able to speak to the victim.

'Very distressed'

Investigating officer Pc Louise Rooke said: "The victim spent a week in hospital with a head injury and bruising to his body.

"This was a vicious attack and the victim is understandably very distressed by the incident. He told us that he had always lived peacefully on the estate but is frightened by what these men did to him."

All four wore balaclavas.

The first man was described as white, about 6ft 1in (1.85m) tall and slim. He was wearing a dark coat and trousers.

The victim described the second man as white, about 4ft 2in (1.27m) tall, chubby and muscular. He was wearing a short brown jacket with big buttons.

The others were a dark-skinned man, about 5ft 5in (1.65m) tall, wearing a knee-length black coat; and a white man, about the same height, who was wearing a black coat which came to just above the knee.

Police want to hear from anyone who saw the men or who can identify them. [Link]

The mother of a 14-year-old Sikh girl is planning a legal challenge after her daughter was excluded from her school for wearing a religious wrist bangle.
Sarika Singh was sent home by the school after she refused to remove her silver Kara bangle as she felt it was “a constant reminder to do good.” Aberdare Girls School in south Wales said it had a clear code of conduct and it had temporarily excluded a pupil for refusing to accept a ruling from the governors.Jane Rosser, the head teacher, said that wearing the Kara was against regulations because it was a piece of jewellery.
The only two forms of jewellery that girls were allowed to wear in school were a wrist watch and one pair of plain metal stud earrings.
However the Sikh girl's supporters claimed the school's decision infringed her human rights.
The girl's mother Sanita Singh, 38, said she was taking legal advice and was considering seeking a judicial review.
She had the support of several local politicians and the Sikh Federation UK, she added.
She said the teenager would remove the bangle for gym classes, or wood and metalwork, for safety reasons.
She added: “It is not jewellery. It is part of our faith and symbol of our belief.”
She added: “We feel very strongly that Sarika has a right to manifest her religion. She is not asking for anything big and flashy, she is not making a big fuss, she just wants a reminder of her religion.”
Her daughter's interest in the Sikh faith intensified after the family visited India, including the Golden Temple in Amritsar, two years ago.
"I don't believe in putting pressure on children to follow a certain religion, but Sarika decided for herself that she wanted to be a practising Sikh,” Mrs Singh, a mother-of-two, added.
Sarika, of Cwmbach, near Aberdare, said: “I am a Sikh and it is very important for me to wear the Kara because it is a symbol of my faith and a constant reminder that I should only do good work, and never do anything bad, with my hands.
“It is a comfort to me and a confidence booster when I am doing my exams. The reason I am fighting for my right to wear the Kara is because I want to stand up for the right of all the other Sikh pupils across the country to wear their Karas in school.The governors rejected the girl's request to wear the bangle after examining the uniform policy and human rights legislation in detail.
The family has been backed by the Valleys Race Equality Council, whose director is the former Welsh Secretary Ron Davies.
He said: “We have arranged for her to see a solicitor and an application will be made to the High Court for a judicial review of the school's decision.
“We believe the school is acting in contravention both of the 1976 Race Relations Act and of human rights legislation.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/07/nbangle107.xml

full article also on http://ethnicconfusionbritain.blogware.com/blog

A 14-year-old girl has been excluded from a school in south Wales for wearing a Sikh bangle, or Kara

Sarika Singh refused to take off the religious symbol because it is "a constant reminder to do good".

Aberdare Girls School said it has temporarily excluded a pupil for refusing to accept a governors' ruling.

Sarika's mother Sinita said she would challenge the decision. The uniform policy does not allow pupils to wear any kind of religious symbols.

Mrs Singh said she has the support of several local politicians and the Sikh Federation and is taking legal advice.

She said the teenager would remove the bangle for gym classes, or wood and metalwork, for safety reasons.

Mrs Singh said: "It's not jewellery, it's part of our faith and symbol of our belief."

She said they had a meeting with the school and argued the case with the board of governors, but they refused to allow her to wear it. [Link]

Cherie Blair has questioned whether the full-face veil restricted Muslim women from being "people in their own right".

The wife of the former Prime Minister said full veils, such as the niqab or burqa, could prevent a woman from expressing her personality.

Mrs Blair told Radio Four's Today programme: "I think we can get very hung up about women's clothes. The question is whether we honour people's religious beliefs or not. I am happy to honour people's religious beliefs, provided they are freely undertaken.

"Women covering their heads, women dressing modestly, I have no problem with at all. I think, however, that if you get to a stage where a woman is not able to express her personality because you can't see her face, then you do start to have to ask whether this is something that is actually acknowledging the woman's right to be a person in her own right." [Link]

No symbol of cultural difference is more emotive in modern Britain than the headscarf. To many non-Muslims it represents the refusal to integrate, resistance to UK foreign policy and the oppression of women. But to wearers, the hijab has as many meanings as an onion has layers. It can even serve as a symbol of self-determination. So it is appropriate that Muslim women, hijab-wearers among them, are emerging tentatively into public life after years of invisibility within the UK's highest-profile minority.

Superficially not a lot has changed since September 11 2001 in the predominantly Muslim district on the east side of Birmingham, Britain's second largest city. The wares of the mini-markets – exotic fruit and vegetables, pots and pans and racks of clothes – still spill out on to the pavements along with the bhangra music. The men dress as they always did, in suits, sportswear or long shirts. The real difference is the proliferation among the women of hijabs, and beyond that niqabs (veils) and burqas (the all-enveloping black garment with mesh over the eyes).

Welcome to "Birminghamabad", as the locally raised comedian and writer Shazia Mirza calls it. Muslims constitute one-fifth of the city's population and their origins in rural Pakistan mean their attitudes can be conservative, even extremist. Men who allegedly plotted to murder a British soldier were arrested here. Moazzam Begg, another local, was held at Camp X-Ray in Guantánamo Bay. The city boasted a President Saddam Hussein Mosque, until a name change became expedient.

Yet east Birmingham's most recognisable Muslim figure is not a fire-breathing imam but a slight, university-educated woman who is politically radical but religiously moderate. Salma Yaqoob, 36, is a councillor for Sparkhill and a member of the leftwing anti-war Respect party, led by the controversial MP George Galloway. She wears a hijab but takes issue with the idea of Muslim women as "timid wallflowers who need rescuing". For her, the garment "is a feminist statement, showing I do not have to conform to fashion or make myself appealing to men".

Although bitterly critical of UK participation in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Ms Yaqoob says, "Britain is a great place to be a Muslim. Difference is accepted and you can have a complex identity. I'm much more pessimistic about [continental] Europe because intolerance is so strong there." Many of her battles have been within the Muslin community. The conservatives among them have accused her of "shamelessness" for speaking in public. But the mood is changing, she says, and some mosques now offer her a platform.

Naz Koser, a singer and arts entrepreneur, is another Muslim woman in search of venues. The main stage at the Glastonbury rock festival, one of big events of the British music calendar, would do nicely. Her pop group, the Divine Aubergines, presents the novel spectacle of women in headscarves singing in public. The name is multi-layered: "divine" because the lyrics are religious and "aubergines" because, according to Ms Kozer, eggplants "came from the east and were treated with suspicion at first". Also, women in burqas are some­times nicknamed "aubergines", being dark and rounded.

Ms Kozer does not wear a burqa or a hijab. Instead, she has facial piercings and a poetic line from the Koran tattooed on her forearm. "Doing public shows is really important," she says. "They give people a better understanding of Muslim women." Performances can be doubly controversial because some Muslims disapprove of music itself , as well as of women performing it. Ms Kozer says the fiercest criticism comes from observant women, such as the niqab-wearer who disrupted a show.

"Would the Prophet, peace be upon Him, have behaved in that way?" asks Ms Kozer, 31, "No. He would not have judged me in five minutes. He would have listened."

The struggle for British Muslim women is to forge an identity that is not imposed on them either by religious zealots or a British cultural mainstream some see as consumerist and immoral. Ms Kozer says: "My feelings vary day to day. A lot of young Muslim women really rock. But when you meet a 36-year-old who has to ask for permission to visit the shops, you feel pessimistic."

Baroness Uddin, a Labour politician, equal rights campaigner and sporadic hijab wearer, talks of the "triple discrimination" faced by Muslim Asian women in the UK. The barriers range from traditions of obedience to men in the home through to prejudice in the jobs market and public life.

Yet she says Britain is "heaven" compared with France, where the hijab has been banned from some institutions, or Islamic countries where sexism is rampant. Monica Ali's best­selling novel Brick Lane ends with a Muslim woman putting on skates and stumping cheerfully on to a public ice rink crowded with other Britons. Her real-life counterparts feel they are making progress towards acceptance too. It is just slow and wobbly going to begin with. [Link]

The city's police chief and politician have said hate crime in Bath will not be tolerated.

Bath MP Don Foster and the city's most senior police officer, Chief Superintendent Olivia Pinkney, spoke out after two men urinated on Muslim worshippers' shoes and clothes as they prayed in a Bath mosque.

The incident took place when the offenders sneaked into the lobby of the Bath Islamic Centre in Pierrepont Street during evening prayers and urinated on clothing and shoes left in the entrance.

They were caught on CCTV leaving the building moments after the incident.

Mr Foster said: "I was horrified to hear about what happened at the mosque.

"I am confident that the vast majority of local people will share my outrage at this behaviour.

"I would urge anyone with any information to contact the police as soon as possible.

"It is vital that the community works together to say to the minority of mindless criminals who carry out this kind of act that hate crime will not be tolerated in this city."

Mr Foster said he had written to the to Imam Rashid Amazi, a leader at the Bath Islamic Centre, to express his concern.

Chief Supt Pinkney urged anyone recognising the culprits to come forward.

"This was a disgusting, mindless crime that caused huge upset to the worshippers and their families," she said.

"The investigation is very much ongoing, which is why we have taken the step to ask the public for help in identifying the two men caught on CCTV.

"Someone must recognise them and we would urge people to come forward with information - this can be done anonymously." [Link]