According to Brendan O’Neill they are. In a piece on his Telegraph blog headed “A glimpse into the class hatred at the heart of the anti-EDL clique”, the Spiked editor expresses his indignation at a widely publicised YouTube clip in which “anti-EDL campaigners describe a female supporter of the EDL as ‘the most tattooed, horrible scrote of a woman’ they have ever seen and then laugh as they talk about how she was ‘kicked up the arse’ by a left-wing protester”. For O’Neill, the video “confirms what draws many young middle-class liberals towards anti-English Defence League campaigning: it provides them with a semi-legit cover for expressing their fear and loathing of the white working classes”.
Monthly Archives: September 2011
Study reveals the many faces of terrorism
The New America Foundation has carried out a study which reveals that “Islamist terrorism has been no more deadly in the United States than other forms of domestic terrorism since September 11”.
56% of Canadians think divide between West and Muslim world is ‘irreconcilable’, poll finds
A majority of Canadians believes conflict between Western nations and the Muslim world is “irreconcilable,” according to a new national survey that revealed a strong strain of pessimism in the country leading up to Sunday’s 10th anniversary commemorations of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.
The survey of 1,500 Canadians, conducted over three days last week for the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies, showed 56% of respondents see Western and Muslim societies locked in an unending ideological struggle, while about 33% – just one-third of the population – held out hope that the conflict will eventually be overcome.
ACS executive director Jack Jedwab said the finding has “serious ramifications” for Canadian policies aimed at bridging divides between cultures, which are based on the premise that citizens believe significant progress in mending such religious and cultural conflicts is achievable.
The dark view expressed in the survey “contradicts a fundamental idea in multicultural democracies like ours, that conflicts between societies can be resolved through dialogue and negotiation,” said Jedwab. “This is also a key element in multiculturalism, where Canada is often seen elsewhere in the world as a model in conflict resolution.”
He adds: “If a majority of Canadians feel it is irreconcilable, what does this imply for the various projects and programs in place that aim to bridge gaps?”
EDL clash with locals in Edgware Road
EDL members have descended onto one of London’s most famous streets and have had clashes with locals, this evening. Around 50-100 EDL members are currently on Edgware Road, a part of London dominated by the Arab community.
Chairs and windows have been smashed and police are trying to separate the two groups. The Edgware Road area is completely gridlocked with traffic tailing back all the way to White City and the Westfield shopping centre in Shepherds Bush
A London Air Ambulance has arrived in nearby Hyde Park, which is at the top of Edgware Road at the Marble Arch crossing. Some people have said that someone has been seriously injured although this is unconfirmed.
Earlier, EDL members clashed with the group Muslims Against the Crusades outside the 9/11 memorial near the US Embassy. 4 arrests were made.
Update: See also the Evening Standard which reports an eyewitness as saying that the clash took place at the Tyburn pub: “There was a group of EDL guys drinking outside the pub when a large group of Muslims walked past. The EDL started hurling racist abuse at the Muslims who took offence. They got angry and were yelling back. Then the EDL guys picked up pub furniture and started throwing glasses and chairs and tables at the group in the street.”
Another West Bank mosque targeted by Israeli settlers
Vandals sprayed graffiti on the walls of a mosque and a university in the West Bank town of Birzeit near Ramallah on Friday in attacks by suspected Israeli settlers.
Palestinian security officials told AFP that “Death to the Arabs” and slogans insulting the Prophet Mohammed were painted in Hebrew and that they suspected settlers were to blame.
It was the third mosque to be daubed with graffiti Hebrew since Monday, when Israeli troops demolished three homes in the settlement outpost of Migron.
Hardline settlers have adopted what they call a “price tag” policy under which they attack Palestinians and their property in response to Israeli government measures against settlements.
See also “US condemns ‘dangerous’ West Bank mosque attacks”, AFP, 10 September 2011
Canadian Muslim organisation condemns prime minister’s Islam comments
The Islamic Supreme Council of Canada is urging Muslims to speak out against Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s recent remarks about their religion.
Harper told CBC this week that “Islamicism” poses the most pressing threat to Canada’s security, and that the country’s intelligence service is mostly preoccupied with Islamic extremism. Harper’s spokesman later clarified to CBC News that the prime minister was “referencing Islamic terrorism – the Islamists” in his remarks.
The council is urging Harper to apologize for the comments, saying the actions of fanatics do not represent Islamic beliefs. The council says Harper’s words will damage efforts to bridge cultural gaps and fight extremist activities in Canada.
It wants imams in its affiliated mosques to condemn the comments in today’s prayer gatherings. The council is also urging Canadians to contact the Prime Minister’s Office to demand an apology for “insulting the faith of 1.6 billion Muslims.”
“How can Mr. Harper associate Islam with radicalism and fanaticism?” the group asked in a statement. “We are working hard to bring people of all faiths together to fight extremism and radicalism but Mr. Harper’s comments about Islam have damaged those efforts.”
Resisting Islamophobia in Rutherford County
Over at the Huffington Post Janell Ross profiles Anthony Mijares, a Roman Catholic pensioner who has waged an admirable one-man campaign to persuade businesses and shops to boycott the Rutherford Reader, a rabidly Islamophobic free weekly newspaper that has played a prominent role in the right-wing propaganda war against the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro.
Ross quotes Peter Doughtie – the editor, publisher and owner of the Reader – as writing in last week’s issue:
“Muslims are not in America to assimilate. They are here to change our system…. Our preachers should go beyond telling us more than ‘we must love our enemies.’ That is simply passing the buck. They should be getting every Christian ready and armed with the Word of God and an understanding of the Quran and Hadith, to defeat those who are out to destroy Christianity, and our American way of life.”
The current edition of the Reader features a front page photomontage of the 9/11 attacks with the headline “We Will Never Forget”. Inside the paper a guest column by Pastor Darrel Whaley of the Kingdom Ministries Worship Center begins: “How can we forget 9/11 when the actions of Muslims, led by the teachings of Islam, continue to remind us. The United States alone has been under attack the past ten years on forty different occasions.” (Pastor Whaley’s further thoughts on Islam, Muslims and the Murfreesboro Islamic Center can be found here. For example: “There’s over twenty thousand Muslims in Middle Tennessee. But as the percentages of Muslims gets greater, a greater saturation, the possibility of them getting radical is going to increase. Because that’s the purpose of it – they want to take over America and the whole world.”)
Another columnist – one Tom Murrah of Toolsmartz, a blog that combines the promotion of evangelical Christianity with fascinating posts on the technicalities of woodworking machinery – writes: “In my opinion, those who attacked us on 9-11 were not ‘Islamic Radicals’ as everyone wants to paint them. They were true-blue followers of Islam. ‘Fundamentalists’? Yes you could call them that. They are following the message of the Quran, faithfully.” As for the claim that the Muslims involved in the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro are peaceful, “perhaps they are simply following the Quran and lying to us”.
The paper also includes two articles by Bill Warner of the Center for the Study of Political Islam, publishers of the handy 50-page guide Sharia Law for Non-Muslims (“If you want to lobby against Islam with any legislator, councilman, school board member, or politician, then Sharia Law for Non-Muslims is the perfect tool”). And another comment piece raises the scary prospect of a Muslim contesting the 2012 US presidential election (“President Abdul Hassan? It Could Happen!”)
In response to Anthony Mijares’s campaign the Rutherford Reader has run a series of full-page ads attacking him, and even published his home address – in circumstances where opponents of the Murfreesboro anti-mosque campaign have received death threats. But Mijares has refused to be intimidated. If there were an award for resisting Islamophobia in the US, then Anthony Mijares would surely be on the list of nominees.
Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood – they’re all part of the same Islamist movement, claims Blair
Tony Blair, interviewed by John Humphrys on this morning’s Radio 4 Today programme, explains that the “war on terror” is not just against al-Qaeda but against all forms of “radical Islamism”.
He poses the rhetorical question about 9/11: “was this a group of isolated people, terrorists, with an ideology, who committed a terrible atrocity or was this group at the furthest end of a spectrum of what I would call radical Islamism, and therefore this is something far bigger, far greater than even we assessed after September 11?”
Blair opts firmly for the latter: “It’s not just about a movement prepared to use terror. The ideology, the narrative that gives rise to this is far deeper and far broader. When I’m in the Middle East now and you see for example the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, or Hamas, you look at the role that Iran is playing in the region, I think it’s a big mistake to say this was just about Bin Laden and a group of terrorists.”
Perhaps Harry’s Place should contact Blair and offer him a guest post.
Edinburgh protests: anti-fascists outnumber Scottish Defence League
Hundreds of police have staged a show of force in central Edinburgh at a rally by the Scottish Defence League. Almost 200 supporters of the far right group were heavily outnumbered by officers drawn from forces across the central belt. They were penned in after the city council refused them permission to march.
A counter demonstration of about 400 Unite Against Fascism protesters was allowed to hold a procession. They marched along Princes Street before attending a rally.
Hearts and minds: London’s street battle with al‑Qaeda
Dominic Casciani interviews Bob Lambert, former head of Scotland Yard’s Muslim Contact Unit and author of the forthcoming book Countering Al Qaeda in London.
See also the interview with Bob Lambert on Radio 4’s Today.
And Peter Oborne’s review in the Daily Telegraph, 10 September 2011