Monthly Archives: October 2008

Terrorism is based on Qur’an, convert to Catholicism tells pope

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Magdi_AllamThe Muslim-born journalist baptized by Pope Benedict XVI at Easter asked the pope to tell his top aide for relations with Muslims that Islam is not an intrinsically good religion and that Islamic terrorism is not the result of a minority gone astray.

As the Vatican was preparing to host the first meeting of the Catholic-Muslim Forum Nov. 4-6, Magdi Allam, a longtime critic of the Muslim faith of his parents, issued an open letter to Pope Benedict that included criticism of Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

He told the pope that it “is vital for the common good of the Catholic Church, the general interest of Christianity and of Western civilization itself” that the pope make a pronouncement in “a clear and binding way” on the question of whether Islam is a valid religion.

Allam told Pope Benedict he specifically objected to Cardinal Tauran telling a conference in August that Islam itself promotes peace but that “‘some believers’ have ‘betrayed their faith’,” using it as a pretext for violence.

“The objective reality, I tell you with all sincerity and animated by a constructive intent, is exactly the opposite of what Cardinal Tauran imagines,” Allam told the pope. “Islamic extremism and terrorism are the mature fruit” of following “the sayings of the Quran and the thought and action of Mohammed.”

Catholic News Service, 29 October 2008

Damian Thompson, editor of the Catholic Herald, broadly agrees. He demands: “will anyone dare discuss the hate-filled rhetoric ofmainstream Islam when the Vatican hosts its first Catholic-Muslim Forum next week? Or will both sides maintain the doctrine – promulgated by every public institution in Britain – that the jihadist and anti-semitic sentiments encouraged by Arab governments and Muslim community leaders are a distortion of Islam?”

Daily Telegraph, 30 October 2008

Two Muslim women accuse City firm of religious discrimination

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Two Muslim women who worked as brokers in the City of London have accused their former employer of religious discrimination by transferring Jewish clients to non-Muslim colleagues. Lawyers for the co-workers will outline a series of allegations, including racial, sexual and religious discrimination, against broker Tradition Securities & Futures at the opening of the employment tribunal on Wednesday.

The women, Muslims of North African descent in their thirties, joined Tradition – a French company – in Paris six years ago. They moved with the trading desk to London in 2004 and quit two years later after deciding they could no longer work in the environment. Documents allege they suffered “complex and multi-faceted” discrimination while working for Tradition.

Daily Telegraph, 29 October 2008

Obama and ‘the Jihadist vote’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“… the threat Obama poses is being taken very seriously. The right here is all of a tizz, in part because of the writings in the US of figures such as Frank Gaffney – a former senior official under US President Reagan – who says that Obama ‘hopes to win the White House by relying, in part, on the Jihadist vote’ funded by ‘between $30m and $100m from the Mideast, Africa and other places Islamists are active’. Obama has promised change but writing in the Washington Times, Gaffney tells us that his election will in fact lead to ‘global theocratic rule under shariah, and the end of our constitutional, democratic government’. Unless James Bond intervenes. And Doctor Who. And Austin Powers.”

Hugh Muir in the Guardian, 28 October 2008

Muslim school run by ‘theocrats’ claims NSS

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim school has been given state funding to save it from closure. Teachers at Iqra primary in Brixton have been working for free because of a cash crisis. But now it has received £250,000 from Lambeth council and joined the state sector. It has become one of six state-funded Muslim primaries in England. Pupils will follow the national curriculum but have lessons in Quranic studies and be taught in accordance with their beliefs.

Campaigners who oppose faith schools condemned the move. Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “Not only has Lambeth ensured these children will be taught in isolation from the mainstream, and will therefore find it difficult to function in a diverse society in later life, they have delivered them into the hands of theocrats who will drill religion into their heads.”

But Iqra’s supporters stressed it would work closely with the local community. Acting headteacher Firdos Qazi said: “The parents, pupils and the community are pleased Lambeth has accepted them as part of their family of schools. We are looking forward to working with our friends and neighbours to make a school of which they and we can be proud.”

Lambeth cabinet member for children’s services Paul McGlone said: “We’re pleased we can provide a free education at this popular school.”

Evening Standard, 28 October 2008

New Mexico Republican says ‘Muslims are our enemies’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. — County and state GOP officials criticized the head of a New Mexico Republican women’s group for calling Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama a “Muslim socialist” and stating that “Muslims are our enemies.”

Marcia Stirman, the head of the Republican Women of Otero County, will be asked to step down, Sassy Tinling, the chairwoman of the Otero County Republican Party, said Wednesday.

In a letter published Tuesday in the Alamogordo Daily News, Stirman wrote that she believes “Muslims are our enemies.” Stirman told The Associated Press in an interview: “I don’t trust them at all. They’ve sworn across the world that they are our enemies. Why we’re trying to elect one is beside me.”

Tinling told KOAT-TV that Stirman’s opinions do not reflect those of the county GOP or the Republican Women of Otero County. The executive director of the Republican Party of New Mexico, Matthew Kennicott, has said Stirman does not speak for the GOP and that her comments do not reflect its values and beliefs.

Associated Press, 24 October 2008

See also Associated Press, 22 October 2008, and CAIR press release, 23 October 2008

‘Another milestone in our slide towards national suicide’ – more hysteria over Sharia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Leo-McKinstry“The Govern­ment’s craven appeasement of militant Islam is plumbing new depths. Under the guise of promoting tolerance, Ministers are tearing apart the legal fabric that was once part of the bedrock of our civilised society.

“In a shameful move, Jack Straw’s Ministry of Justice has announced that the Muslim sharia code, notorious for its oppression of women, is to be endorsed by the British judicial system for the first time….

“This new act of surrender to the ideology of Islamic separatism runs counter to all the assurances that Labour politicians have given in recent months.

“When the Daily Express reve­aled last year that sharia courts were informally operating in Muslim areas of London and northern England, we were accused of ‘scaremongering’….

“It is inevitable that there will now be a vast expansion of the role of sharia courts within Muslim areas. This creation of a parallel system of justice makes a mockery of the essential principle, stretching back to the signing of Magna Carta in 1215, that everyone is equal before the law….

“This is not the road to tolerance but the very opposite – in place of integration we will see distrust, suspicion and antagonism as Muslim hard­liners ruthlessly expand sharia’s role, creating enclaves of bigotry and oppression….

“The Government has adopted this stance entirely for reasons of cynicism and fear. On the one hand, Labour is desperate to win the votes of the two-million strong Muslim community. It is no coincidence that more than a quarter of the voters in Jack Straw’s Blackburn constituency are Muslim. On the other, like all too many Western governments, Labour is fearful of standing up to the zealots as every Muslim demand is accompanied by the clenched fist of violence or the finger hovering over the bomb control device.

“That is why the creeping Islamification of Britain will continue – not because Muslims have overwhelming numbers but because our leaders are unwilling to defend our values. The adoption of sharia is another milestone in our slide towards national suicide.”

Leo McKinstry in the Daily Express, 27 October 2008

Nick Clegg attacks Policy Exchange for ‘offensive’ and ‘underhand’ briefing

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has attacked thinktank Policy Exchange over its call to boycott the upcoming Global Peace and Unity event in London. The thinktank had circulated a dossier questioning apparent extremist background of several of the events speakers. However Mr Clegg, who is due to speak at the event accused the thinktank’s director of “bizarre and underhand behaviour”, and questioned the validity of the evidence.

Liberal Democrat Voice, 24 October 2008

Read the Policy Exchange dossier here.

Update:  See also The Green Ribbon, 26 October 2008

ENGAGE launches FREE Pocket Guide to Media and Politics

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Engage pocket guideENGAGE will launch its FREE full colour “Pocket Guide to Media & Politics” at the Global Peace and Unity exhibition this weekend. Don’t miss this opportunity to pick up your copy!

After too many years on the sidelines of political and public debate on Islam in Britain, ENGAGE will enable Muslims to find their voices and places in the public sphere; in the media and in politics, by promoting participation through training seminars and indispensable resources that every engaged Muslim can’t do without.

The ENGAGE Pocket Guide is the handiest, most useful resource in the wallet of any Muslim committed to engaging with British society. ENGAGE have produced a 100,000 copies of the laminated, full colour pocket guide for free distribution around the UK.

The guide will be available at the GPU and at the ENGAGE community presentations that will begin in November. See “ENGAGE in the Community” for more details on the presentations.

Visit the ENGAGE stall at the GPU (stall number M03) and pick up your pocket guide this weekend! See www.theglobalunity.com for details and tickets to the event at London’s ExCel Exhibition Centre, Saturday 25 – Sunday 26 October.

Engage, 24 October 2008

Teenage bomb plot accused cleared

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Two teenagers who were accused of discussing a plot to blow up British National Party members have been cleared of terror charges. Waris Ali, 18, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, was found not guilty of three counts of possession of an article for a terrorist purpose. His school friend Dabeer Hussain, 18, was acquitted of one count of the same charge at Leeds Crown Court.

Friends and family of the two men hugged in the public gallery as the jury returned their verdicts after deliberating for two and a half hours.

During the trial, the court heard that the two men had discussed a plan to spy on and blow up members of the BNP. They were both accused of possessing a terrorist manual on their computers, called the Anarchists’ Cookbook, and researching bomb-making techniques from “recipes” on the internet.

Mr Hussain, of Clarkson Street, Dewsbury, said he had been sent a copy of the Anarchists’ Cookbook but had not read it and was not interested in politics. Speaking outside the court after the verdicts, Mr Ali said he was “extremely relieved” that he had been cleared of the charges but was angry about how he had been treated.

“I believe that if I was not from a Muslim background, I would not have been prosecuted,” he said. “I have had to live in fear of being branded a terrorist. I feel it was completely obvious once the police looked up the evidence that I had nothing to do with terrorism at all. Silly teenage chat and things I said at school were taken out of context and presented as if it was evidence that I was an extremist.”

BBC News, 23 October 2008