“BNP National Enquires Officer and Worcestershire Organiser, Martin Roberts has assisted the Royal British Legion for the last three years in helping with their annual poppy appeal. This year he was absolutely horrified to find alongside the traditional remembrance crosses, a Muslim crescent – apparently because ‘demand’ warranted it. In all the years helping, Martin has never knowingly sold a poppy to a Muslim person, so was disgusted at this item and removed it from the box of poppies.”
Author Archives: Bob Pitt
Debating the veil in the Morning Star
Over at the Shiraz Socialist blog Jim Denham of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, a pseudo-left sect whose Islamophobia is usually matched only by its Stalinophobia, applauds a letter in yesterday’s Morning Star from one Betty Tebbs on the issue of the veil.
Denham hasn’t actually read the letter Tebbs is replying to, but this staunch defender of Enlightenment values finds that unnecessary. Tebbs is, after all, a white former trade union activist, so according to Denham she’s entitled to adopt an attitude of cultural arrogance towards a minority ethno-religious community. As far as the original letter is concerned, Denham observes: “I think we can all guess roughly what it said (and that it came from patronising, middle-class scum)”.
For the benefit of readers who might actually like to examine the evidence before they reach a political conclusion, we reproduce the exchange from the Morning Star letters column.
BBC gives free publicity to Nazi
Not content with launching a witch-hunt against Hizb ut-Tahrir on Newsnight, the BBC has further disgraced itself by giving BNP leader Nick Griffin a platform on this week’s Moral Maze on Radio 4 (listen here). The subject was “race, religion and free speech” and Griffin was allowed full rein to spill out his anti-Muslim bigotry.
Needless to say, the fascists are celebrating – “what a show it was”. They add: “What makes interesting listening is the evidence of other guests from disparate sources who largely agreed that ‘hate speech’ laws are unnecessary and that existing legislation prohibiting incitement to violence and murder should be used.”
BNP news article, 16 November 2006
The BNP must have been particularly pleased by the contribution of panelist Claire Fox, who called for the abolition of the law against incitement to racial hatred and went on to denounce the government for “using the BNP as a pretext for another political clamp-down on free speech – that’s more worrying than anything Nick Griffin could throw at us”.
Mind you, there is a moment of light relief when Griffin, in all seriousness, informs his audience that racism is a term “invented by Leon Trotsky”!
Deal with the causes that jeopardise our security, says Michael Meacher
“Of course the government must give absolute priority to protecting the security of the nations against terrorist or any other threats. But endlessly ratcheting up the controls over every aspect of our national life, in the process undermining the very civil liberties and freedoms that the whole policy is supposed to be protecting, will never deliver real security unless we address the underlying motives. If we are tough on security, equally we need to be tough on the causes that generate our insecurity. And there is no doubt that the rage that drives terrorist activity is prompted by the horrendous daily carnage in Iraq, the refusal to condemn the indiscriminate bombing of Lebanon and the widespread perception among Muslims of a grossly imbalanced policy favouring Israel to the neglect of the Palestinians. Dealing with these causes that jeopardise our security will be difficult, but there is no other way.”
Michael Meacher at the Guardian‘s Comment is Free, 16 November 2006
‘The man leading the Christian fightback’ – fascists applaud Sentamu
“How ironic that the man who is coming to the rescue of the Anglican community should be a recent immigrant from Africa. In contrast to his domestic but effete and supine colleagues in the Anglican hierarchy the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, appears to have the backbone to robustly defend the Church and has today accused the BBC of bias against Christianity and says the broadcaster fears a terrorist backlash if it is critical of Islam. He may not think much of the BNP but we back his robust manner of championing traditional Christian values.”
Vatican enters Muslim veil debate
A senior Vatican cardinal has expressed concern over the use of some Muslim veils by Islamic immigrants in Europe. This is the first time that the Vatican has joined in the Europe-wide debate on how women who insist on wearing the veil affect the integration of Muslims.
Cardinal Renato Martino said immigrants must respect the traditions, culture and religion of the nations they go to. They ought to abide by local laws banning the wearing of certain types of Muslim veils, he added. “It seems elementary to me and it is quite right that the authorities demand it,” said Cardinal Martino, who heads the Vatican department dealing with migration issues.
Rage as Nick Griffin walks free
Anti-fascist campaigners reacted with outrage on Friday of last week as Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party (BNP), and his sidekick Mark Collett were cleared of charges of incitement to racial hatred.
Griffin and Collett had been prosecuted over speeches at a BNP meeting in Keighley, West Yorkshire, that was secretly filmed by the BBC.
Griffin claimed that gangs of Asian men were drugging and raping white girls as part of an Islamic plot to take over Britain. He spoke of “Muslim thugs and perverts”, “young paki street thugs” and Britain being “mongrelised out of existence”. Collett made similar allegations about “gangs of Asian males”.
In court Griffin argued that his comments were intended as criticism of Islam, rather than being directed at Asians in general. “This isn’t a racial thing. It’s not an Asian thing. It’s a cultural and religious thing,” he said.
His defence team argued that Griffin’s views on Islam, expressed in 2004, had since become more acceptable. They cited recent comments by Jack Straw and other senior politicians to argue that such views were now legitimate public debate. These kind of arguments regularly appear in both the right wing press and its “liberal” counterpart. They have directly fuelled the atmosphere of anti-Muslim racism around this case.
Jon Cruddas, Labour MP for Dagenham, east London, was quite right to say that the government’s “tough” stance on race and Muslims had played into the hands of the BNP. He said, “We have to be honest in saying that the debate over the veil, talking tough on immigration and race or the language used in the ‘war on terror’ does not reassure people but actually makes the situation worse.”
Weyman Bennett, joint national secretary of Unite Against Fascism, said it was “tragic that a fascist organisation can hide behind free speech”. But the verdict highlighted the need to build a united grassroots movement against the BNP that could challenge the fascists politically, he added. “We need to be campaigning against the fascists in our workplaces and communities. The vast majority of people are opposed to the BNP – and we need to mobilise that force against them.”
‘Islamic fanatic has top job at Home Office’
Islamic fanatic has top job at Home Office
By Gabriel Milland
Daily Express, 15 November 2006
A RADICAL Muslim leader holds a highly sensitive job at the Home Office, it has emerged. In a major security blunder, a leader of Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir is working for the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND). The IND is charged with ensuring foreign suspects with terror links are kept out of Britain.
Moderate Muslim leaders in south London told BBC2’s Newsnight last night key Hizb ut-Tahrir leader Awid Jawaid worked at the IND’s processing office in Croydon, south London. Mosque elder Shoib Minhas said: “He gave me his card and it showed he worked at the Home Office.” Mr Jawaid admitted to the programme that he was a member of Hizb ut-Tahir.
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: “This is a shocking revelation given Tony Blair’s insistence that Hizb ut-Tahrir should be proscribed, and after illegal immigrants were discovered working in the Home Office. It is even more extraordinary following John Reid’s assertion that his system for screening employees who work in the Home Office deserved an accolade for its efficiency.”
The revelation came hours before Labour efforts to put itself at the forefront of the fight against terrorism were expected to dominate today’s Queen’s Speech to Parliament.
Iran in alliance with Al-Qaeda, Torygraph claims
“Iran is trying to form an unholy alliance with al-Qa’eda by grooming a new generation of leaders to take over from Osama bin Laden, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.”
Barking nonsense from the Telegraph, 15 November 2006
Hizb ut-Tahrir responds to Newsnight allegations
“Yesterday (Tuesday 14th November), the BBC Newsnight and File on 4 programmes aired false and counterfactual allegations against Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain. Amongst the sensationalist allegations was that members of Hizb ut-Tahrir have been involved in ‘street gang criminality’. We believe the allegations are not only baseless but emanate from a politically motivated group, interested in defaming our public image.
“In response to the allegations we have prepared robust counter-arguments to the main claims made. Please note: Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain was not given any of these allegations in advance and so was not aware of the specific claims until the broadcast of Newsnight.”
Hizb ut-Tahrir press release, 15 November 2006.
For details see Hizb ut-Tahrir website.
Interviewed (or rather, harangued) by Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight, Dr Abdul Wahid of Hizb ut-Tahrir described the accusations against his organisation in the BBC documentary as “off the radar”. “On another planet” would perhaps be more accurate. The fact that Newsnight should rely on the likes of Glen Jenvey and Vigil as a source of information says it all really.
Good luck to HuT in their legal action against the BBC.
Update: See “BBC Newsnight and File on 4 misled public in their allegations about Hizb ut-Tahrir”, Islamophobia Watch, 1 August 2007