Author Archives: Bob Pitt

Dead writer’s words fan flames of Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dead writer’s words fan flames of Islamophobia

By Alfio Bernabei

Searchlight, February 2007

A RACIST CALL to blow up a mosque made by Italy’s best selling writer Oriana Fallaci seems to be achieving some of its intended effect, with a little help from rightwing parties.

In that famed part of Tuscany nicknamed Chiantishire, Islamophobia, fanned by Fallaci’s incendiary remarks, reached a peak in December with a second demonstration against the building of a mosque in Colle Val d’Elsa, a town of 14,000 inhabitants near Siena.

While the majority of the protesters recited the Lord’s Prayer, neo-fascists acted as Fallaci’s foot soldiers. The building site came under attack, not for the first time. Metal barriers were torn down and metal poles, which were part of the foundations, uprooted. Among the attackers police identified Forza Nuova militants who had vowed to launch a crusade “to protect our traditions”.

In a separate incident a few days earlier, the severed head of a pig was thrown at the entrance to the building site. Around 1,000 Muslims live in the area, working in farming.

Such protests are nothing new – they have occurred in Genova, Lodi and Padova, among other places, over the past few years. Rightwing political parties, such as the xenophobic Northern League, the neo-fascist National Alliance and Forza Italia, can count on hundreds of their members to take to the streets when demonstrations are called against the erection of mosques. The nazi-fascists always rush to the scene, eager to be seen at the forefront of such protests. Forza Nuova has issued leaflets linking all mosques and Muslims with terrorism, saying: “There is no such thing as a moderate Islam, no mosques to be allowed in our land”.

The current incidents at Colle Val d’Elsa have acquired special significance because of the ghost of a celebrity hovering in the background and questions about the role that certain media can play in fanning the flames of racism, whether through editorial misjudgement or, as some have suggested, by design, wanting to espouse the doctrine of a clash of civilisations.

Fallaci, who died last September, had a house in the area. Interviewed in June 2006 by The New Yorker she said that rather than see a mosque intruding in her beloved environment, she would obtain explosives and blow up the building. “I will go to my friends in Carrara, you know, where there is the marble. They are all anarchists. With them, I take the explosives. I make you juuump [sic] in the air. I blow it up! I do not want to see this mosque – it’s very near my house in Tuscany. I do not want to see a 24-metre minaret in the landscape of Giotto … So I BLOW IT UP!”

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A green light to shoot the innocent

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A green light to shootThe families caught up in the Forest Gate terror raids attacked an Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) report as a “whitewash” on Tuesday after it said that officers would not be disciplined.

The police watchdog criticised Scotland Yard’s handling of the raids in east London last June and urged the Met to apologise publicly for its “very aggressive” tactics. But the IPCC claimed that the police had been justified in carrying out the raids and that officers would not be disciplined.

The families, in a statement issued through their lawyers, said that they had been the victims of a “crime of the utmost seriousness” and had been denied justice because of the failure to investigate that crime.

Mohammed Abdul Kahar, one of two brothers arrested in the raids, attacked the report as a “whitewash.” Mr Kahar, who was shot during the raids, said that the report gave a “green light” to police to conduct anti-terror operations the way that they wanted.

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The abuse of research

Posted on by Bob Pitt

As political parties set out their stalls of new ideas in preparation for a general election, the increasing influence of privately funded research on political discussion will demand closer scrutiny. Private thinktanks are increasingly shaping national debates in the media, something made possible through the private funds required for high-profile launches, websites and email campaigns.

A striking example of this symbiotic relationship is Policy Exchange’s report Living Apart Together, on Muslim social attitudes, which is officially launched today. It was released to the press two weeks ago to provide research cover for David Cameron’s speech attacking multiculturalism and prominent Muslim organisations. The report included claims that a significant minority of Muslims were “living apart” from British society, claims that were widely reported in the media and appeared to legitimise Conservative party rhetoric.

Yet few reports made clear that Policy Exchange has an explicit political agenda. Michael Gove, the Conservative MP and author of the book Celsius 7/7 – How the West’s Policy of Appeasement Has Provoked Fundamentalist Terror and What Has to Be Done Now, is a founding chairman of Policy Exchange. And he has made it clear that thinktanks are crucial for the next general election campaign, stating that “a precursor to electoral victory is victory in the battle of ideas and the battle for the agenda”.

The politicisation of research can lead to serious distortions in debates on policy issues. Debates about multiculturalism, security and British Muslims are bound to have a central place in the next election.

Marie Smyth and Jeroen Gunning report in the Guardian, 13 February 2007

YouTube censors Islam critic?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

WebProNews is outraged that YouTube has prevented an atheist from using its platform to attack Islam:

At YouTube, you can say pretty much whatever You want, as long as it’s not about Islam. If that’s not true, YouTube user Nick Gisburne begs to differ after his account – his entire account – was deleted for its “inappropriate content.” What exactly did he say? Well, nothing really. He let the Koran speak for itself.

Gisburne is a self-described atheist with, at least from the one video, a deep questioning of Muslim claims about the Koran. To express his doubts about Islam being a religion of peace, Gisburne created a 10-minute video, entitled “Islamic Teachings” that was nothing but violent quotations taken from the Koran instructing followers to kill nonbelievers and speed their way to Hell where Allah will torture them forever.

It would seem quoting the holy book in a sort of testament against itself was over the line for someone working at Google-owned YouTube. Not only was the video deleted without any type of warning to the uploader, but the uploader’s account was also deleted with only the explanation (or accusation) of submitting inappropriate content, a category usually reserved for nudity or video violence.

Jihad Watch shares the indignation of WebProNews, which is hardly surprising, given that Robert Spencer employs exactly the same method as Nick Gisburne – using selective quotations from the Qur’an to depict Islam, and by extension its followers, as promoting hatred and violence.

‘Swim centre bars two-year-old girl because she isn’t Muslim’

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Thus the headline to yet another scaremongering article in today’s Daily Mail. Read it, and you find that the actual story is that some bloke took his kid to the local swimming pool not having been informed that it had been booked for a women-only session. Big deal. Judging by reports in the Mail and other right-wing papers, there’s barely a single swimming pool in the UK that hasn’t been taken over by Muslims.

Muslims can learn from this new Jewish group, says Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

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Yasmin Alibhai-BrownYasmin Alibhai-Brown – one of the initiators of the much-hyped but evidently stillborn New Generation Network – argues that the recently-launched Independent Jewish Voices is a model for organisation within Muslim communities:

“In key ways, this breakout faction is no different from the many Muslim challengers emerging to halt the influence of the monolithic, regressive, self-serving, presumptuous, overweening Muslim Council of Britain, funded for years by the Government without any regard for the hundreds of thousands of British Muslims who have never accepted this informal jurisdiction over our lives and thoughts….

“Rebellious British Muslims have felt the same suffocation experienced by IJV as unelected community and religious leaders found subtle, sometimes rough, ways to discredit opposing views. Religion and race were used – if you voice any disagreements with the ‘official’ line, or point out oppression within, you are charged with betraying the faith and faithful, bringing on the BNP and encouraging Islamophobia. And thus are we blackballed, decent Muslims who are concerned about the crisis we find ourselves in globally.”

Independent, 12 February 2007

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Islam is ‘backward, tribal and from a medieval period’

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Robert Kilroy-Silk set himself on a collision course with sections of the Muslim community today when he claimed that most religious doctrine practised in the UK’s mosques was “backward, tribal and from a medieval period”. The controversial MEP and former talk-show host made the remarks in an interview with the BBC in which he called for legislation to allow Muslim women into UK mosques.

Press Association, 13 February 2007

Online discussion here.

Bruce Bawer and Islamophobia

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While Europe Slept“So what are Mr. Bawer’s views? He calls himself a ‘liberal’ cultural critic but his views are anything but liberal, and he is much in vogue with the ultraconservative National Review types as well as the ethno-nationalist ‘intellectuals’ in Europe where he lives….

“Bawer has his own solution to the ‘immigrant question’. He tells us his views are unfairly attacked by people who call him names ‘instead of trying to respond to irrefutable facts and arguments’. If Mr. Bawer’s arguments are indeed ‘irrefutable’ what would be the point of trying to respond to them? People who believe their opinions and arguments are ‘irrefutable’ are manifesting that very same fundamentalist mentality they claim to be opposing.

“Here is Bawer’s solution. ‘European officials’, he writes, ‘have a clear route out of this nightmare. They have armies. They have police. They have prisons. They’re in a position to deport planeloads of people everyday. They could start rescuing Europe tomorrow.’ Clearly, when you are calling out the army and advocating deportation of planeloads of people daily, there is more to it than a crackdown on violent militant Islamists. This looks like a call to a general assault on Muslim immigrants in general.

“This may also explain his sympathetic defense of the Sweden Democrats in an opinion piece he wrote for the December 8, 2006 New York Sun. This article, ‘While Sweden Slept‘ is an incontinent attack on Swedish Social Democracy. The Sweden Democrats he champions in this article are a small radical right-wing party of ethno-nationalists. It grew out of the racist ‘Keep Sweden Swedish’ movement of the 1980s. Their basic ideology is the ein Volk, ein Reich variety. One of their own leaders resigned saying the party was infested with neo-Nazis, racists and holocaust deniers. The party is opposed to immigration and if it ever got into power would no doubt take Bawer’s views on how to ‘rescue Europe’ (or at least Sweden) seriously.”

Thomas Riggins in Political Affairs, 13 February 2007

The hypocrisy of Richard Littlejohn

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Livingstone damns Daily Mail as foolish and irresponsible

Morning Star, 12 February 2007

London Mayor Ken Livingstone attacked the Daily Mail newspaper on Sunday after a columnist appeared to endorse letter bombing offices connected with the congestion charge.

Populist ranter Richard Littlejohn wrote in Friday’s edition of the newspaper: “Be honest, until you heard that a woman had been injured, how many of you suppressed a cheer at the news that someone had sent a letter bomb to the company which runs London’s congestion charge?

“Even after we learnt that two men were treated for blast injuries, I’ll bet that there were still plenty of motorists who thought: ‘Serves the bastards right’.”

Police are probing seven mail bomb attacks on businesses since January 18 – three of which took place last week.

Although Mr Littlejohn insisted that protests that harm others can never be justified, Mr Livingstone branded the Daily Mail “foolish and irresponsible” for printing the column.

“He has sought to legitimise the idea that it was normal to cheer the bombing of the offices of a company managing the congestion charge. His whole column is dangerous and stupid,” said the mayor. “The Daily Mail give Richard Littlejohn a big cheque for writing his column, but they shouldn’t give him a blank one.”

Green London Assembly member Jenny Jones added: “If a Muslim publication had printed similar inflammatory remarks about an international issue, there would be a huge outcry. Littlejohn’s hypocrisy is stunning.”

‘Can one woman beat Islam’s hate mongers?’ asks Sun

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PD*1006852Another plug for Gina Khan, Britain’s answer to Ayaan Hirsi Ali – this one by Trevor Kavanagh in the Sun. Kavanagh writes:

“Gina Khan, 30, risked her safety by attacking the extreme interpretation of Islam spreading like wildfire through the Pakistani community in Britain. She believes Muslim women and children are paying dearly for a closed, male-dominated society which wants harsh Sharia law to replace the law of the land. Gina Khan is one of many British-born victims of what she describes as a ‘cult’ flourishing under the noses of the government. And she fears it may be too late to stop vulnerable young Muslim men being turned into suicidal killers by a voodoo version of Islam.

“In emails to me over the past year, she has spoken privately about the abuse of women sanctioned by religious leaders – polygamy, beatings, forced marriages and, in extreme cases, honour killings…. Gina is appalled by the reaction of fellow Muslims to the arrest of nine terror suspects near her home in West End, Birmingham…. She wants faith schools abolished, along with the veil. And she wants to stop mosques and madrassas being built on ‘every street corner’ as channels for blood-curdling extremism.

“Gina is scathing about the veiled woman pictured raising a V-sign after the police terror raid. ‘This woman shames moderate liberal Muslim women by sticking two fingers up like louts do in public’, she says. ‘The veil should be banned because people like her prove all is not necessarily pious or dignified under that Seventh Century garment.’

“Most Muslim women are reluctant to anger their menfolk by speaking out. Instead they endure medieval repression that would be utterly unacceptable to non-Muslims – banned from leaving home unless accompanied by a male relative, barred from higher education and forced to accept their husbands’ second wives. They watch dumbly as daughters are removed from school and whisked away for weddings to strangers. Some silently endure their fate. Others join the wild eyed conspiracy frenzy peddled by superstitious men and cunning propagandists….

“Can women turn the tide against deluded men who seem to inhabit an Arabian Nights fantasy? … Gina Khan is one woman with no resources. She needs help from other sensible Muslim women. They can email her at gina-khan@hotmail.co.uk.”

Sun, 12 February 2007

Somehow I can’t imagine there’s going to be a rush by “sensible Muslim women” to finance a campaign by someone who is at best unbalanced and at worst intent on furthering her own career by reinforcing the worst stereotypes about the Muslim community. On the other hand, Gina Khan may well receive some support from the racist Right, for whom she is providing a valuable service.