Monthly Archives: May 2011

Will Cameron try to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

HizbThe Muslim News and ENGAGE have noted an exchange in the House of Commons yesterday where David Cameron was challenged by Labour’s Alan Johnson over his failure to implement the Conservatives’ manifesto pledge to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir:

Alan Johnson (Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle) (Lab): On the subject of empty opposition, the Prime Minister castigated his predecessor for not proscribing the radical Islamist organisation, Hizb ut-Tahrir, when the previous Prime Minister had been in post for a week. The right hon. Gentleman has now been in post for a year. I would like to give him the opportunity to castigate himself.

The Prime Minister: It is very kind of the right hon. Gentleman to give me that opportunity. We are clear that we must target groups that promote extremism, not just violent extremism. We have proscribed one or two groups. I would like to see action taken against Hizb ut-Tahrir, and that review is under way.

The Muslim News quotes a government spokeswoman as saying that Cameron “has been working hard” to “ban extremist groups, not necessarily violent, like Hizb ut-Tahrir” and that this proposal will be included in the forthcoming review of the Prevent programme.

In earlier exchanges in parliament Cameron fudged the issue of a ban on HT as did Home Office minister Damian Green. The Daily Express reported at the time that “Downing Street insiders” had “admitted that there was a lack of evidence of law-breaking for such a banning”. It would appear that Cameron has now decided that lack of evidence is not an obstacle to illegalising HT.

You can guarantee that there will no equivalent proposal to ban the English Defence League, which unlike HT has a well-established record of political violence. If Cameron set out with the conscious intention of helping extremist groups gain support within Muslim communities he couldn’t come up with a more effective strategy than applying blatant double standards like that.

It will be interesting to see how it impacts on the coalition if Cameron goes ahead and attempts to impose a ban. Given that the Liberal Democrats’ disastrous showing in the recent elections was due to the public perception that they have sold out their principles in government, there will be a lot of pressure on Nick Clegg to uphold the Lib Dems’ traditional defence of civil liberties and oppose such a disgraceful attack on democratic rights.

Al-Qaida not a fringe opinion among Muslims, Shoebat tells South Dakota security conference

Posted on by Bob Pitt

South Dakota emergency personnel who gathered Wednesday in Rapid City for a Homeland Security Conference got a controversial presentation about Muslim theology, culture and terrorism.

Walid Shoebat, who says he was a former terrorist in the Palestine Liberation Organization before converting to Christianity, said that Americans should focus on what he called the “culture of terrorism” among Muslims rather than “only the ones who carry out the explosive act”.

Shoebat said closet supporters of terrorism exist throughout the Muslim community in mosques, community groups and in the U.S. armed forces. “You’ve been infiltrated at all levels,” Shoebat said. “Are all Muslims who interpret for the U.S. military terrorists? Of course not. But that doesn’t mean you play Russian roulette.”

Shoebat’s appearance was paid for by a federal grant from the Department of Homeland Security as part of the second annual South Dakota Homeland Security Conference. He also spoke at the first conference last year in Sioux Falls.

Jim Carpenter, director of homeland security for South Dakota, said Shoebat was invited back this year because last year’s speech was among the most popular among the law enforcement, fire, medical and other personnel at the conference. “The critiques and evaluations that came back highly recommended that he come back again,” Carpenter said. “We acted on those, and that’s why he came back.”

In Wednesday’s presentation, Shoebat cited excerpts from the Quran, which is the Muslim holy book, that justified violence against non-Muslims and particularly Jews. These excerpts, he said, showed that Islam itself was inherently violent. He rejected what he called the “myth” that “the Muslim world is divided in two – moderate Islam and extremist Islam”.

Ex-Sen. Jim Abourezk, who is a Christian of Lebanese ancestry, said Shoebat throws “one blanket over all Muslims, whether good or bad, saying they’re all bad”. Shoebat’s rhetoric, Abourezk said, harms Muslims who “would love to be left alone and to be able to worship in the way they see fit”.

“He’s a scam artist and he’s a liar,” Abourezk said. “He doesn’t have any credibility when he claims he was a PLO terrorist.”

Rapid City Journal, 12 May 2011

Cf. Chris Hedges, “Your taxes fund anti-Muslim hatred”, Truthdig, 9 May 2011

Update:  See Richard Bartholomew’s comments at Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, 13 May 2011

Spiked indignant over ASBO for EDL thug

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SIOE/EDL Protest - 13.12.09
Joel Titus punching a photographer outside Harrow Central Mosque in December 2009

Over at Spiked, website of the ultra-leftists-turned-right-wing-libertarians formerly known as the Revolutionary Communist Party, Patrick Hayes expresses indignation over the imposition of an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) on the EDL’s former youth leader at Uxbridge Magistrates Court last week.

“Over the next three years,” Hayes complains, “19-year-old Joel Titus is forbidden from attending any demonstration that is connected with the English Defence League or being ‘part of a group of 10 or more people whose actions could cause alarm or distress’. His ASBO from Uxbridge Magistrates Court also claims he must not ‘display a sign or placard or use defamatory or insulting language which could cause alarm or distress’…. He is also forbidden from entering mosques, Islamic prayer rooms or a defined area of Whitechapel in London.”

According to Hayes this is a “shocking restriction on someone’s democratic rights”. He demands: “What did Titus do to deserve such a punishment? Absolutely nothing EDL-related.”

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Bruno Gollnisch stripped of parliamentary immunity

Posted on by Bob Pitt

France's far-right National Front political executive director Bruno Gollnisch candidate to succeed Jean Marie Le Pen,attends a news conference in LensThe European Parliament stripped parliamentary immunity from French far-right MEP Bruno Gollnisch on Tuesday, to enable a complaint of “incitement to racial hatred” to be investigated.

French authorities will now interview Mr Gollnisch after asking for the move, following a complaint over an October 2008 press release issued by Rhone-Alpes regional authorities near Lyon, which Mr Gollnisch led, that cited “the invasion of our land and the destruction of our culture and values” by Islam.

The International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism launched the complaint, and the European Parliament decided that, as the case related to Mr Gollnisch’s activities as a regional councillor, “applying parliamentary immunity to such a situation ‘would constitute an undue extension of those rules'”, a statement said. Lawmakers voted 511 in favour, 56 against and 65 abstentions.

First elected to the European Parliament in 1989, Mr Gollnisch had his immunity lifted in 2005 and was given a three-month suspended jail term and a 5,000-euro (S$8,848) fine in 2005, although an appeal court threw that out in 2009.

AFP, 10 May 2011

Muslims in Europe face growing hostility, Council of Europe report finds

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hostility toward Muslims is growing throughout Europe and Islam is perceived as a major threat by many Europeans, according to a new report by a high-level body within the Council of Europe.

The report also suggested ways to prevent discrimination against Muslims, calling on European countries to accept that a person can be a “hyphenated European” – for instance a “Turkish-German” – just like one can be an “African-American”.

Chaired by former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, the Group of Eminent Persons’ report on intolerance and discrimination in Europe drew attention to the “rising intolerance toward immigrants and Muslims throughout Europe”.

“There is a growing hostility to Muslims throughout Europe,” said the report, titled Living Together: Combining Diversity and Freedom in 21st Century Europe.

“Islam is perceived as a major threat to Europe by many Europeans because they feel that the minority is growing and that Islam is incompatible with modern European life,” the report said. “Because increased immigration of Muslims to Europe in recent decades has resulted in more ‘visible’ Muslim communities and coincided with the growth of political Islam, many Europeans have acquired the conviction that Islam per se is radical, militant and incompatible with European values, and that Muslim immigrants and their descendants therefore cannot be integrated into European societies in the way that earlier waves of migrants have been.”

The report described the discrimination against Muslims in Europe as “a serious human-rights problem”, stressing that such prejudices are “combined with racist attitudes” directed against people originating from Turkey, Arab countries and South Asia.

“Muslims with this background are discriminated [against] in the labor market and the education system in a number of European countries. There are reports showing that they tend to be targeted by police in repeated identity controls and intrusive searches,” the report said.

Hürriyet Daily News, 10 May 2011

Download the report here

Police try to maintain order as EDL thugs descend on Hammersmith

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL demonstrate in support of Yaxley Lennon
The massed ranks of the EDL demonstrate in support of ‘Tommy Robinson’

Police are trying to maintain order in and around Hammersmith after thugs from the English Defence League flooded to the area in support of a member who appeared at West London Magistrates Court in Talgarth Road earlier on Wednesday.

A police helicopter is circling, while several police vehicles are lined up in Talgarth Road, as well as near Barons Court. There have been reports of disorder in Margavine Cemetery near Barons Court Tube station and near the court. Police confirmed EDL supporters in their “tens” were in the area.

Hammersmith & Fulham Chronicle, 11 May 2011

The member appearing in court was EDL leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”). According to reports on the EDL’s Facebook page, Lennon was found guilty of a Section 5 public order offence and fined £350 £315.

Update:  See also “Arrests at EDL founder Stephen Lennon’s court case”, BBC News, 11 May 2011

Further update:  Predictably, EDL supporters whipped themselves up into a state of racist hysteria over the report that “Tommy” had been fined more than £300 over his confrontation with Muslims Against Crusades during an EDL counter-protest on Armistice Day last year, whereas MAC supporter Emdadur Choudary received a mere £50 fine for burning a poppy.

Some examples here. You know the sort of thing to expect – “Englishman fined £315 for defending his culture – muslim fined £50 for degrading it”; “if your white and non Muslim you get treat differently that’s discrimination”; “wetha is 350 or 315 its still a fuckin diabolical joke when that mussy goat fucker only got 50 quid fine”; “1 rule for british 1 rule for the fuzzy faced pedophile loving scum”; “British courts r racist to Whites”; “tommy should of painted his face brown this morning wouldnt have spent half as long in a court room never mind a fine like he got”. And so on. Not to mention warm words of congratulation to Lennon for confronting MAC: “well done tommy 4 doing what any true patriot would of done … god i would of cut that cunts head off and his fuckin friends … islam is a big piece of shit fuck mecca and medina … nuke em”.

But it turns out that Lennon was in fact fined just £50, with £250 costs. In other words he received exactly the same fine as Choudary.

EDL trio accused of racist graffiti

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Three members of the English Defence League, including two from County Durham, have appeared in court charged with conspiring to commit racially aggravated criminal damage.

Anthony Smith, 24, of Easington, Peterlee, and Steven Vasey, 31, of High Pittington, along with Charlotte Davies, 19, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, are alleged to have plotted to daub graffiti on a mosque and buildings linked to a family business.

Each spoke only to answer their name during a short hearing before Peterlee Magistrates on Wednesday. Davies, wearing a pale crocheted top, giggled as the charge was read out. None entered a plea to the indictable only offence.

Chairman of the bench Gary Walker committed the case to Durham Crown Court, where the defendants are due to appear before a judge next Wednesday. They were released on unconditional bail.

A Durham Police spokesman said: “The charges relate to spray- painting incidents at the Nasir mosque in Hartlepool, the Albert Guest House in Shotton Colliery and the Milko store in Shotton Colliery, all on November 16 last year. At the time of the alleged offences, all three people claimed membership of the English Defence League.”

Press Association, 11 May 2011

Sheepshead Bay mosque: judge dismisses opponents’ lawsuit

Posted on by Bob Pitt

'He is dead' graffiti

A state judge ruled that the construction of a controversial mosque in Sheepshead Bay can move forward shortly after a lawyer for the developer hinted that opponents of the plan are terrorists – citing inflammatory graffiti cheering the death of Osama bin Laden at the mosque site.

On Tuesday, Judge Mark Partnow dismissed a lawsuit filed by the anti-mosque organization Bay People and neighbors of the as-of-right project on Voorhies Avenue between E. 28th and E. 29th streets, ruling that the mosque wouldn’t adversely effect the neighborhood.

The ruling came shortly after the lawyer for mosque builder Ahmed Allowey accused opponents of the plan of acting like racist terrorists. “This is entirely motivated by racism,” said attorney Lamis Deek. “[The Bay People] has forced my client to expend his resources for no good cause and terrorize people with the vitriolic rallies that they hold.”

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Nazi-linked flag displayed in Wilders party’s parliamentary offices

Posted on by Bob Pitt

PVV flagsAn early version of the Dutch flag which became associated with the Dutch Nazi party in the run up to World War II has been removed from PVV’s parliamentary offices.

Two flags – horizontal orange, white and blue stripes – were spotted hanging in the window of the anti-Islam party’s meeting room and photographed by free newspaper Spits. However, they were removed early on Wednesday, following the newspaper publication. MP Karen Gerbrands denied on national radio that there were any flags at all, Spits said.

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Louisiana mosque vandalised

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In the wake of 9-11 many Muslims suffered persecution. Today, in the days after Osama Bin Laden’s death, Muslims in the Shreveport-Bossier community feel they’ve been disrespected again.

They reported to police that a white male in a blue pick-up truck tampered with the doors at the Mosque. When he left, they discovered he had left pork on the door handles so people would have to touch it to go inside. Muslims do not eat pork, and try to avoid it because they consider it unclean.

Mosque members are not pressing charges, but reported the incident to police so it would be on file. Police say it could be considered a hate crime. “It appears that the individual who did this tried to intimidate the individuals at this location,” said Mark Natale, a spokesman for the Bossier City Police Department.

Local leaders from other religions say they were saddened to hear about the incident.

“It’s kind of chilling. I mean, I know that nobody was physically hurt, but psychologically it’s hurtful,” said Susan Gross, the Executive Director of the North Louisiana Jewish Federation.

“It’s not helpful for anyone. Whether you’re Muslim, Jewish, or Christian, it’s not helpful. It doesn’t build bridges,” said Paul Martin, the Assistant Rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Shreveport.

Members of the Mosque say they just hope nothing like this happens again.

KSLA-TV, 9 May 2011

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