Monthly Archives: November 2006

Newsnight’s own-goal over Hizb ut-Tahrir

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“On Tuesday, Newsnight broadcast a dreadfully unfair and muddled report by Richard Watson which purported to show that HT were in reality encouraging their members to acts of criminality and tried to associate them with the encouragement of violence. If you haven’t seen it yet, it is worth watching – it is online here – to see the John Ware/Martin Bright school of filmmaking in action: plenty of insinuation and innuendo about wrongdoing on the part of HT; a dearth of any substantive facts. It was followed by Jeremy Paxman’s interview with a representative of HT, Dr Abdul Wahid. Again, this is also worth watching, particularly for the quite understandable look of amazement on the HT rep’s face at the dire quality of the Newsnight report.”

Inayat Bunglawala at the Guardian‘s Comment is Free, 17 November 2006

‘Why Islamic hate on campus needs to be tackled’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Islamist groups first identified Britain’s universities as a fertile recruiting ground more almost two decades ago. They followed the example set by the far-left, which had been hugely successful in the 1980s in attracting young people with impressionable minds to simplistic utopian ideologies….

“Student unions and vice-chancellors have made various attempts to tackle the problem but have always held back from really dealing with it because they fear being accused of Islamophobia. The radical groups have continued to organise and indoctrinate, often under false names, and have found the process increasingly easy in the climate of anger surrounding the Iraq war.

“Jewish students at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London have complained of fears for their personal safety because of the pronouncements of some fellow students. Members of student Islamic societies have been among those arrested and charged in recent counter-terrorist operations. Campus radicalism persists and is spreading. Mere ‘guidance’ from mandarins in the DfES is unlikely to stop it spreading.”

Sean O’Neill in the Times, 17 November 2006

Dutch government to ban veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rita VerdonkThe Dutch government said Friday it plans to draw up legislation “as soon as possible” banning full-length veils known as burqas and other clothing that covers a person’s entire face in public places.

“The Cabinet finds it undesirable that face-covering clothing – including the burqa – is worn in public places for reasons of public order, security and protection of citizens,” Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk said in a statement.

Basing the order on security concerns apparently was intended to respond to warnings that outlawing clothing like the all-enveloping burqa, worn by some Muslim women, could violate the constitutional guarantee against religious discrimination.

The main Dutch Muslim organization CMO has been critical of any possible ban. The idea was “an overreaction to a very marginal problem” because hardly any Dutch women wear burqas anyway, said Ayhan Tonca of the CMO. “It’s just ridiculous.”

In the past, a majority of the Dutch parliament has said it would approve a ban on burqas, but opinion polls ahead of national elections Nov. 22 suggest a shift away from that position, and it is unclear if a majority in the new parliament would still back the government-proposed ban.

Associated Press, 17 November 2006

See also “Dutch government backs burqa ban”, BBC News, 17 November 2006

The ban would of course mainly affect the niqab rather than the rarely-worn burqa. But why should Verdonk (or the BBC) bother about the technicalities of Muslims’ funny foreign clothing?

More hysterical nonsense from Glees

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A security expert has refuted claims there is no evidence of radicalism in universities, arguing 21 are directly linked to the extremism which has led to terrorism. Students “have been recruited to terror” on campuses, said professor Anthony Glees after today’s government guidance on preventing extremism. Professor Glees condemned Universities UK for its “counter-productive” approach after he “presented them with the evidence for this a year ago”. “Now it seems that the government is determined to make sure Universities UK take this problem as seriously as it should be taken,” he told Today.

Politics.co.uk, 17 November 2006

Listen to the Today interview with Glees here.  Even Bill Rammell dismisses Glees as a provocative extremist.

Universities warned over extremists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain faces a serious threat from Muslim extremists trying to recruit university students to terrorism, Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell is warning. Mr Rammell will release new guidance on what lecturers should do to tackle violent groups targeting vulnerable undergraduates and preaching hatred on campus. The guidance contains advice on how to respond if staff suspect groups are circulating extremist literature to students or if they are concerned about radical speakers visiting a university.

Mr Rammell insisted Muslims were not being singled out – but he stressed that the threat from Islamic radicals must be faced head on. He said: “The guidance provides a recognition – that I believe must be faced squarely – that violent extremism in the name of Islam is a real, credible and sustained threat to the UK. And that there is evidence of serious, but not widespread Islamist extremist activity in higher education institutions.”

Press Association, 17 November 2006

See also Islam Online, 16 October 2006

Muslim convert wins tribunal case

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim woman who said she was “humiliated” by her boss’s remarks about her decision to convert to Islam has won an employment tribunal case.

Caroline Elgedawy, 32, from Harrietsham in Kent, worked for Lincoln insurance firm Hanover Park Commercial. She took the firm’s chief executive Andy Halstead to the tribunal after he said her refusal to eat non-halal meat was “pathetic”.

After a four-day hearing, the tribunal agreed she had suffered discrimination. Tribunal chairman Martin Warren said: “Mr Halstead has a propensity to make remarks that some may find offensive.” He said the company had discriminated against Mrs Elgedawy by not fully investigating her complaint in a “timely manner”.

BBC News, 16 November 2006

Newsnight editor attempts to justify anti-Hizb witch-hunt

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Newsnight LogoPeter Barron, editor of Newsnight, defends his programme’s ludicrous hatchet-job on Hizb ut-Tahrir:

“Many viewers have written to complain about Richard Watson’s film on radical Islam, and particularly the accusations made in the course of the film concerning the grouping Hizb ut-Tahrir. Some believed that the film was politically motivated and that we had set out with an agenda to discredit Hizb ut-Tahrir. That was not the case.”

BBC News, 15 November 2006

Hat tip: Shiraz Socialist. (And when that blog finds itself defending Hizb, you know Newsnight has lost the plot.)

Posted in UK

Many comments by Australian politicians about Islam are racist: former PM

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser believes many comments by Australia’s politicians about Islam are racist.

Mr Fraser also said many of the words used to stimulate debate about the need for a set of Australian values were code for saying Muslims did not comply with Australian values. And he questioned whether the next federal election would be fought using a race card. Mr Fraser made the statements during the official launch of the Australians All website aimed at promoting an inclusive, diverse, multicultural, peaceful and prosperous Australia.

More than 40 eminent Australians are involved in Australians All – taken from the opening line of the national anthem – including ACTU president Sharan Burrow, the Reverend Tim Costello, Islamic Council of Victoria’s Waleed Aly, and Muslim Community Reference Group chair Dr Ameer Ali. The members say they were forced to begin the website because of a lack of positive political leadership and diverse discussion about Australian issues.

“I think, and we all felt, that Australia needs a voice for sanity, for reason, for inclusiveness, for acceptance, for respect for diversity, respect for difference, and knowing of course that people who live in this country accept Australian laws and the primacy of Australian democracy and all the things which are necessary for a peaceful and prosperous Australia,” Mr Fraser told reporters in Melbourne.

The Age, 16 November 2006

Climate of fear

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Climate of fear

By Lindsey German

Morning Star, 16 November 2006

The wave of attacks on Muslims and the current attempts to further curtail civil liberties can only be seen as the desperate ploys of a government whose war on terror has been an absolute failure and who are now trying to scapegoat those who have pointed this out from the very beginning.

Government ministers have queued up to attack the Muslim community, starting with Jack Straw on the veil, but rapidly moving on to questions of integration and separatism.

A government which calls on a visible minority to integrate, to stand up and be counted, to denounce extremism, is in fact attacking that minority. The equation of Islam with terrorism and violence is now commonplace in the media and among many politicians.

They condemn all “extremism” and “radicalism.” While we would all condemn terror attacks of the sort perpetrated last July with the London bombings, the definition of extremism and radicalism goes far beyond this. Government ministers are, in effect, saying that anyone who challenges their foreign policy and warmongering is an extremist. Unfortunately for them, that includes the majority of the population, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

But the attacks on Muslims are insidious, leading to a wave of racism unlike anything we have seen since the late 1970s. One of the main beneficiaries of this is the fascist BNP.

Continue reading →

‘Extremist at the Home Office will keep his job’, Mail complains

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“A Home Office official exposed as a leading member of an Islamic extremist group will keep his £40,000 job because Tony Blair has failed to ban the organisation. In the wake of the July 7 bombings last year, the Prime Minister promised to outlaw Hizb ut-Tahrir, who refuses to condemn suicide bombers and has called for the destruction of Israel.

“But nothing has been done. As a result, Abid Javaid’s bosses at the scandal-hit Immigration and Nationality Directorate are powerless to sack the 41-year-old. He will stay on unless it can be proved that he abused his position as a senior executive officer in the IT department….

“Tory spokesman Patrick Mercer blamed a huge failure of political will by the Government for the shambles. He said: ‘This government talks tough, but fails to deliver, and here is a prime example. The result is the Home Office doing nothing about somebody working at the heart of Government who could be an enemy of the state.’ Mr Mercer warned that – as the rules stand – dozens more extremists could be employed in the Home Office and across Whitehall.”

Daily Mail, 16 November 2006

Meanwhile Robert Spencer condemns “Still more dhimmitude from British authorities. Hizb-ut-Tahrir has been banned in many countries, including some majority-Muslim countries. Why not in Britain?”

Dhimmi Watch, 15 November 2006