“It is now becoming a daily event to report yet another skirmish in the clash of civilisations, another casualty in the war between (on one side) Islamic intolerance, their collaborators in the liberal-leftist ruling ‘elite’ who want to promote multiculturalism or post-multicultural integration and the forces of tradition, democracy, nationhood and sovereignty on the other.”
Fascists offer their take on the BA crucifix row.
“The backlash against the veil grew yesterday as it was banned from hospitals. Muslim medical students were barred from wearing it when they talk to hospital patients. The move was ordered to ‘help to aid good communications’ between Muslim medical students, their colleagues and patients. Details of the purge of faceless medics surfaced as the nationwide storm about Islamic veils continued….
“The bar on a full-face veil was ordered at Birmingham University school of medicine. Chiefs decided that Islamic women can cover their faces in lectures and around campus but not in the ‘clinical environments’ of hospital buildings and GPs’ surgeries. Its women Muslim students must show their faces if they are talking to patients in hospital or surgery or if they are in meetings with other medical staff…. Only in the sterile surroundings of an operating theatre can they cover their faces – with regulation surgical masks.”
“New Labour ministers are scrambling over one another to become number one hate figure amongst the Muslim community, leaving BNP spokesmen trailing, by a series of statements which show that some of our rulers are capable of speaking the truth and acknowledging commonsense after all.
“For years the BNP has been warning of the threat of militant Islam to the British way of life and the rapid pace of Islamification following concession after concession from public bodies, government agencies and private businesses, these concessions being made all in the name of ‘tolerance’ and ‘understanding’ in a multicultural society. For those warnings BNP spokesmen and women were condemned as ‘racist’, ‘Islamophobic’, ‘bigoted’, ‘intolerant’ and any epithet media pundits chose to use in order to end the debate about the presence of Islam in this country.
“The Crown Prosecution Service went one further and in a stitch up involving the BBC and West Yorkshire Police BNP leader Nick Griffin was arrested in December 2004 and charged with several counts of using language which might be likely to incite racial hatred. His ‘crime’; at two private BNP meetings in West Yorkshire he called Islam ‘a vicious wicked faith’…. Mr. Griffin’s warning now seems a distant echo compared to the repeated calls in recent days from government ministers for Muslims to start adapting to our British way of life.”
“London Mayor Ken Livingstone put his finger on a huge problem when he noted that, although there are a mere couple of hundred ‘potentially violent’ Muslims in London, they are getting far more than their fair share of headlines and other groups, with extreme right-wing views, are being virtually ignored in the national press.
“The mayor is certainly correct in his assessment of the emphasis in the press, but that is not the whole story by a long way. It is true that the BBC and most of the national daily papers have descended into the pit of sensationalism and are now verging on racism in their overemphasis on any story involving Muslims, veils and anything that can be used to justify this government’s extremist and rabid crusade against what it sees as the unacceptable face of Islam, whether veiled or not.
“However, this is not a one-way traffic. The hysteria that the press is apparently attempting to stir up is being fuelled and fed by Labour politicians who should know a damn sight better.”
Editorial in Morning Star, 16 October 2006
“Jack Straw has taken a bit of a pounding lately after calling on Muslim women to scrap the veil on the grounds that it is a ‘visible sign of separation and difference’. I think that this criticism is unfair. It’s not as though he whipped up anti-Muslim hysteria or anyone got hurt.”
“Harry Perkins” sarcastically demolishes Straw.
Government minister Phil Woolas’s call to sack a Muslim teacher for wearing the veil has made race relations worse by adding to the current demonisation of Muslims, according to anti-racist organisation The 1990 Trust.The minister’s tactless and opportunistic intervention merely whips up Islamophobia and contributes to a climate of racism against an increasingly marginalised community.
The 1990 Trust are today calling for a code of conduct on dealing with “Muslim issues” to halt the overly-simplistic approach which is contributing to the demonisation of all Muslims. Politicians have a responsibility not to worsen race relations for political gain, and every party must have a duty crack down on Islamophobia within their ranks.
BLINK press release, 16 October 2006
See also Osama Saeed’s comments at Rolled Up Trousers, 15 October 2006
Britain’s foreign policy is marginalising Muslims, a new survey by The 1990 Trust has found. This new survey (sample: 1,213) reinforces that there is almost no support for terrorism amongst the Muslim community. Just 1% of those surveyed supported the 7/7 London bombings.
Many mainstream polls have shown higher rates of support for extremism. The difference is explained by the way questions are phrased. The 1990 Trust believe their new survey reflects the real views of Muslims, and that other polls have attempted to generate headlines claiming more support for terrorism than is actually the case.
BLINK press release, 16 October 2006
For the survey itself (pdf) click here.
The government will today unveil plans for a map of Britain’s Islamic extremist “hotspots” – so they can be targeted and broken up.
Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly will reveal the campaign at a Whitehall summit with police and town hall chiefs. She will order them to identify the universities, schools and mosques where young Muslims are brainwashed – and then take the battle to the fanatics by aggressively countering their hate-filled propaganda.
But the hotspot map risks further infuriating Muslim groups who already claim they are being persecuted by a new anti-Islamic mood within the government. Many are angry after a series of ministers criticised veils worn by Muslim women and warned of the dangers of Islamic schools.
Ms Kelly, below, will tell 20 council bosses and senior police officers that Britain must confront Islamic extremists such as preacher Omar Bakri head-on. She will warn:
“The new extremism we are facing is the single biggest security issue facing local communities. The world has changed since September 11 and 7/7. The government has to change and respond to that and we appeal to local authorities to do the same. We need to work closer together in partnership with the police and local communities to face down this threat.”
Ms Kelly will stress that identifying the hotspots is merely the first step to neutralising the radicals. A source close to Ms Kelly said they wanted town hall bosses and the police to study key questions today, adding:
“Do they understand which sections of their communities might be vulnerable to extremism? Have they mapped likely hotspots? Are they alert to the threat of extremism in universities, colleges and schools? Is there a vacuum of information that can be exploited by extremists?”
A Muslim teaching assistant suspended for refusing to remove her veil in class should be sacked, a local government minister has said.
Phil Woolas told the Sunday Mirror that Aishah Azmi, 23, had “put herself in a position where she can’t do her job”. Mr Woolas, whose brief covers race relations, stopped short of repeating the demand on the BBC’s Politics Show. But he said if the head teacher at the school in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, chose to sack Ms Azmi “so be it”.
Ms Azmi, who is originally from Cardiff, said pupils at Headfield Church of England Junior School had never complained about her wearing a veil. She said she would remove the garment, but not in front of male colleagues.
Ms Azmi’s lawyer called for Mr Woolas to withdraw his comments, which he warned might influence the classroom assistant’s employment tribunal.
“Mrs Azmi is very well able to carry out her role as a teaching assistant providing support to pupils who speak English as a second language,” said Nick Whittingham, of Kirklees Law Centre. “She is able to do this effectively while wearing the veil. She has demonstrated in a number of interviews that she can communicate effectively while wearing the veil.”
Mr Whittingham described Mr Woolas’s comments to the Sunday Mirror as “ill-advised” and called for him to withdraw his demands.
Update: See “Minister calls for veil-wearing teaching assistant to be sacked”, Independent, 16 October 2006
“It’s open season on Islam – Muslims are the new Jews…. Especially since July 7, it has become acceptable to say the most ignorant, degrading things about Islam…. I am particularly irked by ancient old ‘feminists’ wheeling out themselves and their 30-years-out-of-date opinions to reiterate the old chestnut that Islam, by its nature, oppresses women (unlike the Bible, eh,?) and that the veil compounds the blanket oppression….
“Oppressed women are everywhere: there’s probably one living in your street. She may be a Muslim wearing a veil, or a white woman whose husband beats her. She may be covered from head to toe, dressed like a librarian, or fond of micro-skirts. She may be your mother or your sister. She may be you – regardless of how you dress, what you believe or where you come from. And that is the point. Unhappy, abused people come in all colours, shapes and sizes. It is absurd to suddenly appoint ourselves moral arbiters, and decree, very loudly, that a piece of fabric is an indicator of an unhappy, down-trodden life….
“I am particularly offended by Straw’s comments because the women Straw described are by and large first-generation immigrants – ie, poor working-class women trying to get on with their lives…. Straw and his acolytes – the self-appointed sisterhood among them – are picking on the women who are most voiceless and least able to defend themselves. They should be ashamed.”
India Knight in the Sunday Times, 15 October 2006