The theory that Communism and fascism were twins was developed to justify the Cold War. Now the right needs a new enemy – and has discovered “Islamofascism”, writes Anindya Bhattacharyya.
Author Archives: Bob Pitt
Carol Turoff and classic Islamophobia
“Criticizing the problematic elements within the Muslim world is fair game. I personally do it all the time as do many forward-looking Muslim leaders. However, looking at the worst possible case scenarios within the Muslim world in order to insinuate a general point about all Muslims or about Islam itself is as scholastically disingenuous as it is disrespectful to readers. It also constitutes classic Islamophobia.”
Ahmed Rehab replies to Carol Turoff’s ranting article in the Conservative Voice.
Tablet survey of Christian-Muslim relations
A narrow majority of Christians say that the Pope should not have quoted a derogatory remark about the Prophet Muhammad that sparked protests by Muslims around the world. Just over half the people who took part in a Tablet survey felt that Pope Benedict was wrong in his Regensburg lecture to cite the fourteenth-century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II, who said that Muhammad brought “only evil and inhuman things”.
The picture that emerges is one of Christians who are troubled by the effect Pope Benedict’s remarks will have on relations with Muslims at least in the short term. In spite of fears for the Pope’s safety, a big majority feel he should go ahead with his planned visit to Turkey at the end of November.
They also consider that dialogue between the two faiths is important even if only a quarter are themselves involved in such conversations. More than two-thirds believe that Christians and Muslims should pray together. This finding is striking in the light of Pope Benedict’s own disapproval of the practice. He recently let it be known that interfaith prayer brings with it the risk of relativism. “When we come together for prayer for peace, the prayer must unfold according to the distinct paths that pertain to the various religions,” he said earlier this month, on the twentieth anniversary of the interfaith Assisi gathering arranged by John Paul II.
The most common reasons cited for supporting Christian-Muslim dialogue are that “dialogue is essential to promoting peaceful co-existence between different faiths” and the importance of finding “areas of agreement such as social justice and pro-life issues”. Half agree with the statement that “Muslims need to understand Western values”.
Those most critical of the Pope’s remarks and fearful of the repercussions live in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Around 63 per cent of these Christians say the Pope should not have used the controversial quotation.
Well over a quarter fear that it will do lasting damage to relations between Christians and Muslims and almost all say it is important for the two faiths to engage in dialogue. More than a third of these respondents are involved in dialogue primarily at their place of work or socially, or at an educational establishment such as school or university.
There is more support for the Pope from Christians in Britain. A narrow majority of these (52 per cent) think Pope Benedict was right to cite the controversial quotation about Muhammad. They feel Christian-Muslim relations will be damaged in the short term (82 per cent) but will recover. The British Christians are also a little less enthusiastic than the rest about praying with Muslims. Just under 59 per cent support the idea.
Queen sanctions first ever Muslim prayer room at Windsor Castle
The Muslim month of Ramadan is being celebrated in Windsor Castle with the blessing of the Queen, it was revealed. A special prayer room has been set aside in Her Majesty’s favourite residence for the Islamic month of fasting. The room is being used by just one person who works in the gift shops at the castle. Every workday at 1.30pm visitor services assistant Nagina Chaudhry locks herself in the room to roll out her prayer mat and point it towards Mecca. She then dons her hijab – headscarf – and begins the half-hour lunchtime prayer required of all Muslims during Ramadan. Miss Chaudhry said she was thrilled when castle bosses allowed her to use a specially-converted office in the historic Saxon Tower. “It feels amazing to be the first Muslim to read namaz (prayers) at Windsor Castle,” said the 19-year-old.
Evening Standard, 29 September 2006
Surely this is a case for Dhimmi Watch. How are we supposed to defend western civilisation and cultural values against the encroaching Muslim hordes when our head of state engages in such blatant acts of appeasement?
Pig’s head found outside mosque
A pig’s head was found dumped outside a mosque in south Wales hours before the holy festival of Ramadan began, police have said. It was discovered outside the Jamia Mosque in Newport at 2230 BST on Saturday, 23 September. Gwent Police were called to the scene and have begun a hate crime inquiry to identify the culprit in what is being seen as “premeditated” attack.
See also WalesOnline, 30 September 2006
Extremist bullies
“We will not be browbeaten by bullies,” Home Secretary John Reid told Labour conference, vowing to have the “courage and character to stand shoulder to shoulder” with Britain’s Muslim communities to stand up to “extremist bullies.”
Taking his cue from Tony Blair, he posed new Labour as a kindly knight in shining armour prepared to defend Muslims against the evil in their midst.
Like the Prime Minister – but unlike the security services in the US and Britain – he makes no link between the danger of domestic terrorism and the blood-soaked state terrorism launched by Washington and London against Iraq and Afghanistan.
Both Mr Blair and George W Bush claim that incidences of terrorism across the globe break out because “these people hate our way of life.”
This is childish nonsense. Even the most extreme expressions of Islamist terror justify their acts as a response to military attacks on and occupations of Muslim lands, which long predate September 11 2001.
But US Republican and new Labour neoconservatives cannot accept that global insecurity is a direct result of their own propensity for war and subjugation.
That’s why Mr Reid resorts to pompous claptrap that blames Britain’s Muslim communities for the small groups of misguided people who seek to combat state terrorism with individual terrorism.
For him and his boss, everyone who condemns imperialism’s crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine or who identifies the link between those crimes and the bombs in Britain and elsewhere is dabbling in an extremism that provides a milieu within which terrorists can thrive.
How dare they try to blame others for the mess that their policies have created?
New Labour’s belief that it has a right to define Muslims as either “moderate” or “extremist” on the basis of whether they back the government’s criminal policies is a disgrace.
It is also a confirmation that, when it comes to bullying the poor and powerless, government ministers are past masters.
Morning Star editorial, 29 September 2006
Open season for attacking Islam
“There have been regular attacks to demonise Islam for many years, but until recent weeks, it has been expressed either in the form of gutter language by bigots, racists and extremist elements or voiced more discretely and subtly by more presentable sectors of society. Whenever political or religious leaders wanted to revile Islam they often have often used phrases like Islamic terrorists, Islamic extremists, Islamic radicals, etc. They often add such anti-Islamic provisos to say that though Islam does not teach and support terrorism, phrases like terrorists are using a ‘twisted form of Islam’ (Prime Minister, Tony Blair, after July 7 terrorist atrocities) or that terrorists subscribe to ‘a branch of Islam that condones violence’ (The Times, September 30, 2001) or ‘Muslims have to look at why their religion breeds so many violent militant strains’ (The Guardian, October 6, 2001) are deemed acceptable.
“However, in the last few months the discourse has changed and it became an open season to demonise Islam. The watershed was US President George W Bush’s intemperate language last month when he described terrorists as ‘Islamic fascists’ – provocatively evoking, comparisons between Islam and the tyrannical fascist regimes of the past, effectively demonstrating that the war against terror is in reality a war against Islam and Muslims. The new series of attacks on Islam reached new heights with the tactless comments made by Pope Benedict XVI during a visit to Germany earlier this month. Previously it had been inconceivable that the spiritual head of one billion Catholics could make such an outspoken attack on Islam.”
John Reid too soft on Muslims, Nazi claims
“Reid is keen to dismiss the idea of a clash of cultures because it undermines everything he believes; he ignores the evidence and refuses to recognise that it’s happening now. And he attempts to explain it away by arguing that the ‘meaning of Islam has been hijacked by extremists who are using it to sustain a violent and indiscriminate war’. According to Reid the people who bomb, threaten, and kill are not Muslims ‘in the true sense of the word’….
“That the Home Secretary tried to enlist Britain’s Muslim communities to do more to combat the extremists in their midst is an indication of his lack of understanding of the situation. He makes the mistake of believing that everyone aspires to see the world through the liberal looking glass. It is self delusion of the most dangerous kind. Muslims view the world according to the dictates of their own beliefs; their truths and realities are not the truths and realities of Western middle class liberals. All Muslims have as their long term aim the subjugation of the world under an Islamic theocracy – ‘Muslims do not need British values. We believe Islam is superior, we believe Islam will be implemented one day’.
“Reid and the rest of the utterly gutless creatures that constitute the liberal establishment are trying to appease themselves out of a predicament with Islam that is entirely of their own making. They refuse to recognise that to the Muslim mindset appeasement and diplomacy as signs of weakness to be taken advantage of; Reid’s interventions are encouraging the very clash of cultures that they are designed to deny.”
Joe Priestley on the BNP website, 28 September 2006
Mozart’s Idomeneo should not have been cancelled
“I never thought this could be possible, but I agree with Angela Merkel. The Deutsche Oper should not have suspended its staging of Mozart’s Idomeneo because of the scene depicting the severed heads of the Buddha, the Greco-Roman god Neptune, Jesus, and prophet Muhammad (interestingly, Moses’ head was missing from the gruesome procession).
“When the controversial Danish cartoons were published last year, I saw them as a symptom of rising Islamophobia in Europe, particularly as they appeared in a rightwing paper under a rightwing Danish government notorious for its hostility to religious and ethnic minorities. And when a few weeks ago the Pope quoted a Byzantine emperor equating the Muslim faith with evil and inhumanity, I wrote that this was unacceptable coming from the representative of the largest religious institution in the world.
“Things are different this time. What we are dealing with is a creative artistic interpretation of the theme of the eclipse of the sacred…. So long as a creative and artistic work does not stigmatise a specific group, ethnic or religious, or seek to vilify it, it remains perfectly legitimate and within the parameters of free thought and expression. We need to draw a clear line between free thought and expression and the stirring of hatred against other races and religions. Mozart’s Idomeneo should not have provoked this noise and controversy, and should not have been cancelled.”
Soumaya Ghannoushi at the Guardian’s Comment is Free, 28 September 2006
‘Islam is NOT a religion of peace’ – US Republican backs Pope
The Campaign on American-Islamic Relations is encouraging its supporters to respond to a piece by Frank Lasee, a Republican representative on the Wisconsin State Assembly, who wrote:
“The Pope’s comments were right on the mark. Islam is NOT a religion of peace. It doesn’t have a peaceful history of co-existence. And has created empires whose main goal was to convert or destroy all non-believers. Islam IS a religion intent on conquering the world. This global domination is preached and encouraged by Imams in mosques. And it is a central theme in the Koran, the Islamic Bible, and is an important part of their history.”