Author Archives: Bob Pitt

Islamophobes mislead US senator

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) recently rescinded an award to Basim Elkarra, the executive director of the Sacramento Valley chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). This disturbing news was met with a flurry of rhetorical high-fives by anti-Muslim extremists in the blogosphere. After Boxer’s decision to rescind the award was made public, Elkarra received an e-mailed death threat. That threat is being investigated by the FBI.”

Parvez Ahmed in The American Muslim, 6 January 2007

No foreign finance for Italian mosques

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Giuliano AmatoROME: Italy’s interior minister said the threat of terrorism remains a reality in Italy, and vowed to take a close look at who is financing Italy’s many mosques and who is teaching at Islamic schools.

Giuliano Amato proposed following France’s example of creating a foundation to manage money destined for religious groups, in remarks published Friday in Italy’s leading dailies and confirmed by his office.

“The spread of mosques in Italy that are built with money from foreign states is unacceptable,” Amato told Italian reporters. “There’s something about that that I don’t like. I want to know who is financing what in my country.”

Last year, France created a new foundation to handle financing for France’s Muslim community, for building and renovating mosques and other projects. The foundation has representatives on the board and allows France’s government to play a role in the issue, without breaking its 1905 rule that forbids the government from financing religions.

“The idea is to at least have foundations so we can have some transparency,” said Amato’s spokesman, Fabrizio Forquet. In Italy “mosques are set up by whomever and are financed by such foreign countries as Saudi Arabia,” Forquet added. “So what are these mosques? Are they a religious site or centers for propaganda?”

Hamza Roberto Piccardo, secretary of the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy, an umbrella group for Italy’s Muslims that has a reputation for radicalism, dismissed the idea.

“Free church in a free country, that’s all I’m going to say,” Piccardo said. “The constitution says religious communities set themselves up according to their own statutes, and a secular state only needs to worry that everything is done legally.”

Associated Press, 5 January 2007

See also “Italy to monitor mosque funding”, BBC News, 5 January 2007

The ‘demonization’ of Muslims and the battle for oil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Throughout history, vilification of the enemy has been applied time and again. The Crusades consisted in demonizing the Turks as infidels and heretics, with a view to justifying military action. Demonization serves geopolitical and economic objectives. Likewise, the campaign against ‘Islamic terrorism’ … supports the conquest of oil wealth. The term ‘Islamo-fascism’, serves to degrade the policies, institutions, values and social fabric of Muslim countries, while also upholding the tenets of ‘Western democracy’ and the ‘free market’ as the only alternative for these countries….

“Demonization is applied to an enemy, which possesses three quarters of the world’s oil reserves. ‘Axis of evil’, ‘rogue States’, ‘failed nations’, ‘Islamic terrorists’: demonization and vilification are the ideological pillars of America’s ‘war on terror’. They serve as a casus belli for waging the battle for oil….

“Vilification of the enemy is part and parcel of Eurasia energy geopolitics. It is a direct function of the geographic distribution of the World’s oil and gas reserves. If the oil were in countries occupied predominantly by Buddhists or Hindus, one would expect that US foreign policy would be directed against Buddhists and Hindus, who would also be the object of vilification.”

Michel Chossudovsky in Global Research, 4 January 2007

Spanish bishops fear rebirth of Islamic kingdom

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Spain’s bishops are alarmed by ambitious plans to recreate the city of Cordoba – once the heart of the ancient Islamic kingdom of al-Andalus – as a pilgrimage site for Muslims throughout Europe.

Plans include the construction of a half-size replica of Cordoba’s eighth century great mosque, according to the head of Cordoba’s Muslim Association. Funds for the project are being sought from the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, and Muslim organisations in Morocco and Egypt.Other big mosques are reportedly planned for Medina Azahara near Cordoba, Seville and Granada.

The bishops of those cities are alarmed at the construction of ostentatious mosques, fearing that the church’s waning influence may be further eclipsed by resurgent Islam financed from abroad.

Independent, 5 January 2007

Parish at war over ‘anti-Islam’ booklet written by local doctor

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The community of the most northerly parish on the Shetland mainland has been left bitterly divided over the suspension of a local doctor who distributed a controversial religious pamphlet to his patients which critics claim is highly offensive to Muslims.

Dr Mick Russon, who has been an associate GP at the Hillswick health centre since 2004, was suspended by the Shetland Health Board after he sent out a 46-page booklet, entitled Proclamation, to more than 200 people in the parish of Northmavine. The health authority took the disciplinary action after receiving a complaint from a member of the public. His case has now been referred to the General Medical Council.

The pamphlet makes no direct reference to the Islamic faith, but critics claim that Dr Russon’s repeated references to a “Babylonian Moon God” and Satan are a thinly veiled attack on Allah and that he is asserting that Islam is Satanic.

Dr Russon states in the pamphlet: “Satan is the Babylonian Moon God; a cult that has become probably the most oppressive of women throughout time. There are probably more people worshipping the Moon God at this moment in time than at any previous time in the history of mankind; it is probable that most who follow him do so out of fear and not reverence.

“As each successive world empire has reached its height, it is largely the conflict between politics and finance that brings it down. We have seen this only too well in recent days, when the buildings that represented the centre of global trade were destroyed by those who carry the symbols of the Babylonian Moon God. I of course refer to the events now universally referred to as 9/11.”

The Scotsman, 5 January 2007

FBI: we saw shock Guantánamo abuse

Posted on by Bob Pitt

guantanamo-bayFBI agents have blown the whistle on sickening abuse of prisoners at the notorious Guantánamo Bay camp in Cuba.

A dossier compiled by agency bosses on guards’ conduct has been released in full for the first time. It tells how prisoners suspected of being al-Qaeda sympathisers and held without charge were subjected to horrifying physical and psychological torture.

Some guards allegedly dressed as priests to “baptise” Muslim prisoners. A detainee was subjected to a degrading lap dance by a topless female guard and others had their prayers interrupted by guards splashing fluid on their faces and telling them it was menstrual blood.

An inmate was badly beaten after revealing he had recently had abdominal surgery. And several were placed in unheated, darkened cells and interrogated for 24 hours non-stop. One FBI witness reported being told that then US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld had approved this technique.

Glasgow Daily Record, 4 January 2007

The Pentagon plans no action as a result of a newly released FBI report on detainee abuse at the Guantánamo Bay military prison, a spokesman said Wednesday, asserting there is nothing new in the report.

Associated Press, 3 January 2007

‘Clash of Civilisations – what’s that about then?’ asks Vanessa Feltz

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Today’s Vanessa Feltz show on Radio London (listen here) featured a discussion of the forthcoming Clash of Civilisations conference in London. Perhaps not the ideal subject for that particular presenter, given that she expresses total ignorance of what the “Clash of Civilisations” is about. Oliver Kamm is featured on the programme. For his take on the issue see here and here.

Kamm places an attack on Yusuf al-Qaradawi at the centre of his critique of the Clash of Civilisations event. Not only is it difficult to see the relevance of this – Qaradawi isn’t speaking at the conference – but Kamm gets his facts wrong. Qaradawi doesn’t support suicide bombings directed against Israeli civilians and he didn’t visit London “three weeks after the 7/7 bombings” but a year earlier, in July 2004.

Pork soup for homeless is not racist ploy, says French judge

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bloc IdentitairePork soup is back on the menu for homeless people in Paris after a judge ruled it could not be deemed racist.

Organisers of soup kitchens linked to extreme rightwing groups overturned a ban imposed by the city authorities over fears that its handouts discriminated against Jews and Muslims. Police had shut down food distributions by the organisation SDF (Solidarité des Français) – the same initials as given to the homeless group Sans Domicile Fixe – because of alleged xenophobia and fears of protests.

Groups across the country associated with a rightwing organisation called Bloc Identitaire have been handing out “soupe au cochon” since 2004. Last winter Fabienne Keller, the mayor of Strasbourg, justified banning the soup kitchens saying: “Schemes with racial subtexts must be denounced.” The groups insist that they are only serving traditional Gallic fare to “our own”. Pork soup is a staple of the French pastoral heartland from which, nationalists say, all true French spring.

Guardian, 3 January 2007