Author Archives: Bob Pitt

Virginia Tech shootings – it was the Muslims wot done it

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Debbie Schlussel“Here’s what we know about the murderer of at least 32 students and maimer of at least 28 more at Virginia Tech, today: The murderer has been identified by law enforcement and media reports as ‘a young Asian male’. The Virginia Tech campus has a very large Muslim community, many of which are from Pakistan (per terrorism investigator Bill Warner). Pakis are considered ‘Asian’…. Why am I speculating that the ‘Asian’ gunman is a Pakistani Muslim? Because law enforcement and the media strangely won’t tell us more specifically who the gunman is. Why? Even if it does not turn out that the shooter is Muslim, this is a demonstration to Muslim jihadists all over that it is extremely easy to shoot and kill multiple American college students.”

Right-wing US pundit Debbie Schlussel offers her insights into the Virginia Tech campus shootings.

debbieschlussel.com, 16 April 2007

BBC News reports: “Police have named a student who shot dead at least 30 people at a US university as Cho Seung-hui, a 23-year-old from South Korea.”

‘London Muslims overwhelmingly oppose gays’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pink News reports: “An in-depth survey into the attitudes of Muslims living in London has revealed that less than 5% think homosexual acts are ‘acceptable’, compared with over 65% of the general population The Gallup poll, reported in The Times, found that Muslims differed significantly with the rest of the capital’s population in their attitudes to a range of social questions.”

Whereas London’s Orthodox Jewish community or practising Roman Catholics would of course be vocal in their support for gay sex. You sometimes wonder whether Benjamin Cohen’s body has been occupied by the spirit of Pim Fortuyn.

For a more balanced assessment of the Gallup poll, see Michael Binyon in the Times, 17 April 2007

Though over at the Centre for Social Cohesion David Conway suggests that Binyon’s piece is yet another example of how Saudi gold has corrupted both the Times and the Gallup Organization. Melanie Phillips is impressed by Conway’s analysis.

UK ‘bans’ study of Holocaust to avoid offending Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

E-mails are circulating around the world, claiming the UK has banned the teaching of the Holocaust in schools. The false suggestion is the action has been taken by the government to avoid offending some Muslim communities. In fact the government has reaffirmed that in England, teaching children about the Holocaust is compulsory, and it is not banned elsewhere in the UK.

One example is headed “In Memoriam”. It says: “Recently this week, UK removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it ‘offended’ the Moslem population which claims it never occurred.” It adds: “This is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.”

BBC News, 17 April 2007

Posted in UK

Pipes in search of ‘moderate Muslims’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pipes5“When I suggest that radical Muslims are the problem and that moderate Muslims are the solution, the nearly inevitable retort from most people is: ‘What moderate Muslims?’ … My response: Moderate Muslims do exist. But of course, they constitute a very small movement when compared to the Islamist onslaught.”

Daniel Pipes in the New York Sun, 17 April 2007

Given that Pipes categorises the Progressive Muslim Union as “really another Islamist organization – but with a hip tone”, you can see that there are very few Muslims who qualify for the appellation “moderate”, as far as Pipes is concerned. The one “moderate Muslim” Pipes does enthusiastically endorse is Irshad Manji – who, not entirely coincidentally, is a great admirer of the state of Israel.

Muslim girl barred from taekwondo tournament over hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MONTREAL – A Muslim girl barred from competing in a taekwondo tournament because of her hijab was adamant yesterday that she would give up neither her sport nor her head covering. “I won’t take it off for any reason,” said 11-year-old Bissan Mansour. “Even if I can’t go to tournaments, I can continue to practise until I become world champion.”

Bissan and four of her teammates, all Muslims of Lebanese descent from the Ultimate Tae Kwon Do Club in Montreal, were told they could not compete in the Raymond Mourad provincial tournament in Longueuil unless they removed their hijabs, which were deemed a safety risk that violated competition rules.

Ottawa Citizen, 16 April 2007

Islamophobic attitudes slammed at National Union of Journalists conference

Posted on by Bob Pitt

NUJDelegates called on the NUJ executive to step up efforts to stamp out “pernicious and insidious” press Islamophobia on Sunday.

Glasgow delegate Ruth Allan noted that Islamophobia “follows the KKK rulebook, which states that vulnerable ethnic minorities need to be isolated from the mainstream, so that they can more easily be attacked.”

South Yorkshire delegate Phil Turner damned Cabinet Minister Jack Straw’s comments about Muslim women covering their faces, arguing that what Mr Straw said had been designed to whip up racism “in a way not seen since the days of Enoch Powell.”

But Press and PR delegate Gillian Hammond endorsed Mr Straw’s comments, asserting: “The full-face niqab can become a disguise for people with sinister purposes – there are people out there who are up to no good and it needs to be said.”

Executive member Michelle Shawstreet applauded the “brave” Daily Star chapel who, led by Steve Usher, forced management to withdraw the “inflammatory, racist and deeply offensive Daily Fatwah page” in October last year by walking out.

Morning Star, 16 April 2007

Islam cartoon student apologises for offence

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Cambridge University student who sparked a huge row when he published anti- Islamic material has issued a grovelling apology. The 19-year-old second-year Clare College student went into hiding after he printed a cartoon and material satirising religion in college magazine Clareification. Cartoons which had sparked worldwide protests in the Muslim community were reprinted in the edition. The college has promised to take action to prevent a similar incident occurring.

Part of the student’s apology read: “I understand that this edition has caused deep offence and hurt to very many people, both inside and outside Clare, through its derogatory references to individuals and also to various groups, including women, Jews, Christians and Muslims.”

Asim Mumtaz, president of Cambridge’s Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, welcomed the apology, and said he was satisfied with the way the college had dealt with the situation. He said: “Religion teaches us that God is merciful and forgives, and we should forgive others as well, so long as this student realised the impact of their actions and that this was wrong. This student has a full life ahead of him and if he had been thrown out of the university that would have had a huge impact.”

Cambridge Evening News, 16 April 2007

Posted in UK

UK Muslims ‘more loyal than most’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims in the UK are more likely to identify strongly with Britain and have confidence in its institutions than the population as a whole, a poll suggests. The survey says they are also more likely to take a positive view of living side-by-side with people of different races and religions.

The majority of Muslims do not believe the veil is a barrier to integration – unlike most of the wider population.

Gallup interviewed 500 Muslims and 1,200 members of the wider population. The full results of the survey – described as the most comprehensive poll on Muslims and non-Muslims to date – will be published later this week.

Fifty-seven per cent of the Muslims polled said they identified strongly with their country, compared with 48% of the general public. Muslims were also more likely to express confidence in the police (78% to 69%), national government (64% to 36%), the justice system (67% to 55%) and elections (73% to 60%).

Nearly three-quarters of the Muslims said they felt loyal to the UK, and 82% said they respected other religions. But just 45% of the wider population said Muslims living in the UK were loyal to the nation, and only 55% said they were respectful.

The poll found the general public were more likely to prefer living in a neighbourhood made up mostly of people who shared their religious or ethnic background (35%) than Muslims were (25%).

Only 13% of British Muslims said they believed that women removing the veil was necessary for integration, compared with 55% of the wider population.

BBC News, 15 April 2007

Reported in the Sunday Telegraph under the headline “Muslims will not waver over veils”.

Update:  See “European Muslims show no conflict between religious and national identities”, Gallup, 26 April 2007

German media, politicians launch chauvinist campaign over ‘Muslim takeover’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Spiegel Mekka DeutschlandCampaigns alleging that a nation is being ‘swamped’ by foreigners have always been part of the repertoire of right-wing extremist politics. The influx of immigrants, their culture and language is regarded as a threat to one’s ‘own’ people and – depending upon which version is being promulgated – Western or German culture.

In recent times, the danger of being ‘swamped’ has been replaced by that of a ‘Muslim-takeover’, with the difference, however, that such agitation is not limited to right-wing extremist circles. Magazines such as Der Spiegel, Christian Democratic and Social Democratic politicians, and former liberals or leftwing intellectuals have now joined in the chorus.

Der Spiegel appeared on March 26 with the headline, “Mecca Germany. The quiet Muslim takeover.” The front page showed the familiar sight of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, swathed in darkness with the Islamic crescent moon and star above.

Regular Spiegel columnist Franz Josef Wagner commented, “Our symbols of justice wear a headscarf or a burka. What sort of country do we live in that our laws are no longer valid?”

The deputy chairman of the Christian Democratic Union’s (CDU) parliamentary faction Wolfgang Bosbach told the press he had long feared “the fact that we are gradually importing moral values from other cultures into Germany, even making them the basis of the legal system.”

The feminist Alice Schwarzer opined that the German legal system had “for a long time, been systematically infiltrated by Islamist forces” and Edmund Stoiber, the Bavarian state premier and Christian Social Union (CSU) chairman, warned, the “rule of law in Germany” should not “kow-tow to the Koran” or let itself be “undermined.”

What has occasioned this extreme agitation? It revolves around a divorce case being heard by the Family Court in Frankfurt am Main, in which a German woman of Moroccan origin wants to divorce her Moroccan husband.

World Socialist Web Site, 14 April 2007