Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations points out that there are Christian terrorists too.
Monthly Archives: April 2005
Al-Qaida ricin plot? Or not?
After Kamel Bourgass was convicted for his part in an alleged Al-Qaida poison plot, while four other men were acquitted and charges were dropped against a further four, questions were raised as to whether there was in fact any plot at all.
Azad Ali of the Muslim Safety Forum, where top police officers and Muslim leaders discuss terrorism and other issues, said: “The ricin plot was part of government thinking and public justification in bringing in control orders. This will confirm the feeling in the Muslim community that it is being victimised on the basis of intelligence that was not tested in anything like a court, and when it is, it is thrown out.”
Gareth Peirce, the solicitor for three of those found not guilty, called on the government to justify its claims about an Islamist terror plot: “There was never any ricin, there were no poisons made. There seems to be a pathetic, clumsy, amateurish attempt to make some by a man who was conceded, I think by all, to be a difficult, anti-social loner.”
Richard Norton-Taylor points out: “The ricin claims were seized on most strikingly by Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, in his dramatic but now discredited speech on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction programme to the UN security council on February 5 2003, five weeks before the invasion. Insisting ‘every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources’, Mr Powell spoke of a ‘sinister nexus between Iraq and the al-Qaida terrorist network’.”
The Islamic Human Rights Commission noted: “Over 90 arrests were made in the anti-terror sweep that netted the men with 9 charges and only a single conviction. Yet, sensational reporting by the media coupled with almost daily prejudicial statements by the government and security services create an environment of fear which fuels racism and Islamophobia.”
IHRC press release, 13 April 2005
The Telegraph, though, remains convinced there was an Islamist terrorist conspiracy, assisted by lax immigration controls: “An illegal immigrant trained by al-Qa’eda to be one of its top poisoners was jailed for 17 years yesterday for leading a plot to terrorise Britain with ricin and cyanide.”
Europe ‘failing to confront growth in racial violence’
European governments have been accused of complacency and of failing to confront the scale of racist violence after a report by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia said only a handful of nations collected proper information. There was clear evidence “that attacks on Muslim communities increased in the months following 11 September” and some victims were wrongly identified as Muslims.
The Independent, 13 April 2005
See also Islam Online, 14 April 2005
For the EUMC report, see here.
Muslim backlash over war ruffles Blair’s Labour Party in election
Britain’s Muslim vote and the backlash against the war in Iraq threaten to topple some Labour Party lawmakers, including the foreign secretary, in the May 5 national election. Inayat Bunglawala, the MCB’s media secretary, said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, coupled with the controversy swirling around the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, have angered and energized Britain’s 1.8 million Muslims.
See also “Livingstone urges British Muslims to vote Labour”, Islam Online, 14 April 2005
And “First hijab-wearing Muslim MP contesting election in Briton”, Kashnar News, 4 April 2004
Unholy alliance: the ‘peace left’ and the Islamic jihad against America
David Horowitz and John Perazzo claim that the anti-war movement in the US has allied itself with Islamic terrorism. They present “the first in a series of articles and visual maps describing the unholy alliances that have been formed between American leftists and radical Islam, unlikely allies who have joined efforts to oppose America’s defensive War on Terror and its war of liberation in Iraq. These are mainly (but not exclusively) de facto alliances, much as the Hitler-Stalin Pact was an alliance of convenience based on a common interest”.
Front Page Magazine, 13 April 2003
Now what does that remind me of? Well, it’s almost identical to the nonsense we hear about the left in Britain from Nick Cohen, Harry’s Place et al.
How Muslim spies and subversives have penetrated Washington
“Washington hasn’t leveled with us about the full scope and depth of the Islamic threat not only inside America but inside the government, just as it hasn’t leveled with us about the true nature of Islam. We’ve been lulled into a false sense of security, and we’re just inviting another 9/11. So I wrote this book to expose the elaborate fraud that’s been orchestrated by our leaders in the Washington establishment and the leaders in the Muslim establishment, who are playing us all for suckers.”
Paul Sperry promotes his book Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives have Penetrated Washington at Front Page Magazine, 12 April 2005
Robert Spencer is impressed: Jihad Watch, 13 April 2005
The parallels between present-day Islamophobia and the anti-Soviet hysteria of the ’50s are quite striking. Just as McCarthy got so carried away by his witch-hunting that he began denouncing establishment right-wingers as crypto-Communists, the most extreme of today’s anti-Muslim witch-hunters appear to have turned on the Bush administration, condemning it for going soft on Islam. It is at least reassuring to see the Islamophobic right tearing itself apart in this way.
Incitement to religious hatred legislation to be reintroduced
In the Labour Manifesto document to be launched this morning, it will say that the Labour government would reintroduce legislation to outlaw incitement to religious hatred, which was dropped last week from the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill, after opposition from the Conservative and Liberal Democrats, The Muslim News has learnt exclusively.
“This inclusion by the Labour Party is to placate the bitter disappointment of the Muslim community by the Government’s second failure to enact the legislation in the last Parliament, ” said Editor of The Muslim New, Ahmed J Versi.
The Prime Minister had assured the Muslim community in an exclusive interview with Editor of The Muslim New, Ahmed J Versi, last month, that he would not drop the incitement to religious part of the Bill as the Government had done in December 2001, when they dropped incitement section (which was part of the anti-terror legislation) after opposition from the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
However, the Government has put the blame squarely on the Conservatives and Lib Dems. In a letter to mosques yesterday, Home Secretary, Charle Clarke, said, “The reason we cannot pass this legislation is because both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives have blocked the legislation in Parliament. The Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives made it clear that they were not willing to see this measure become law. They bear full responsibility for blocking this part of the Bill.
UN calls for combating anti-Islam campaigns
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted on Tuesday, April 12, a resolution calling for combating defamation campaigns against Islam and Muslims in the West.
The measure, put forward by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), was voted for by 31 countries and 16 against, with five abstentions and one delegation absent, Reuters reported.
“There was a growing trend of defamation of Islam and discrimination faced by Muslims and the people of Arab descent in many parts of the world,” Pakistan’s UN envoy, Masood Khan, said in a speech.
Khan cited a series of attacks against mosques in different parts of the world. “Stereotyping of any religion as propagating violence or its association with terrorism constitutes defamation of religion. It unfortunately breeds a culture of hatred, disharmony and discrimination,” he stressed.
The French Organization against Islamophobia (CCIF) said earlier this year that during the period from October 2003 to August 2004, 26 cases of verbal and physical assaults on Muslims, 28 cases of vandalism and attempted arson targeting mosques, and 11 cases of desecration of Muslim graves have been registered. The CCIF also listed a considerable number of internet sites spreading anti-Muslim propaganda.
Cuba’s delegate Rodolfo Reyes Rodriguez said Islam has been the subject of “very deep campaign of defamation.” “All you have to do is look at the films which have come out of Hollywood the last few years,” he said.
The resolution, however, was rejected by the United States and the European Union as “unbalanced” for what they termed failure to address problems suffered by other religious groups. “This resolution is incomplete inasmuch as it fails to address the situation of all religions,” Leonard Leo, a member of the US delegation, said in a speech.
The Netherlands, speaking for the EU, also said it regretted that the 25-nation bloc EU had been unable to agree on a “more balanced” joint text with the pan-Muslim organization. “Discrimination based on religion or belief is not confined to any one religion nor to any one part of the world,” said Dutch ambassador Ian de Jong.
Secularism test for French citizenship
Immigrants applying for French citizenship will have first to take a “secularism test” before being naturalized.
The exam is recommended by a new Guide for Rights and Duties of French Citizenship, which has been drawn up by the Ministry of Integration. “It outlines the values that shaped up our country,” the Minister of Integration Nelly Olin told Le Monde Tuesday, April 12.
The guide, unveiled by Olin Monday, says applicants should provide clear answers to questions like “can the French reveal religious symbols at workplace?, “Do you consider men and women equal?” and “what are the colors of the French flag?” Mastering the French language is also a citizenship must.
Booklets on the French culture and the three basic values of liberty, equality and freedom are available for applicants before answering the questions. They provide thorough information about the history of secularism in France and controversial issues that made headlines recently.
The new document puts into effect amendments made by former interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy to the law of citizenship and residency issued November 26, 2003. It is the result of efforts made by the integration and interior ministries, and the supreme council for integration.
The guide underlines that religious symbols are banned at public institutions, particularly at schools and hospitals.
The myth of Islamic tolerance
“Islam is a totalitarian ideology that aims to control the religious, social and political life of mankind in all its aspects; the life of its followers without qualification; and the life of those who follow the so-called tolerated religions to a degree that prevents their activities from getting in the way of Islam in any way. And I mean Islam, I do not accept some spurious distinction between Islam and ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ or ‘Islamic terrorism’.”
Alyssa A. Lappen reviews Robert Spencer’s book The Myth of Islamic Tolerance.
Front Page Magazine, 11 April 2005
Robert Spencer (you remember him – he’s the man who welcomes reformist Islam) is dead chuffed.