Author Archives: Bob Pitt

Islamic centre opposed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Plans to open an Islamic cultural centre in a Tyneside town are being opposed over fears it could be targeted by extremists and bring house prices down.

North Tyneside councillors will consider the bid on Tuesday to turn a dance school in Percy Gardens, Whitley Bay, into the centre. Uses would include daily prayer sessions, Qur’anic, Bangla, English-speaking and computer classes.

A total of 56 objections have been sent to planning chiefs, for reasons that include fears that the centre could be a target for extremists, devaluation of surrounding properties, increased traffic, congestion, parking problems, noise and disturbance. At a public meeting attended by around 100 people, concerns were raised over traffic and that the use was not appropriate for a residential area.

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Posted in UK

‘How right wing the left sounds’ – Rod Liddle on multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rod Liddle“Quick, somebody buy a wreath. Last week marked the passing of multiculturalism as official government doctrine. No longer will opponents of this corrosive and divisive creed be silenced simply by the massed Pavlovian ovine accusation: ‘Racist!’ Better still, the very people who foisted multiculturalism upon the country are the ones who have decided that it has now outlived its usefulness — that is, the political left….

“When an ICM poll of Britain’s Muslims in February this year revealed that some 40% (that is, about 800,000 people) wished to see Islamic law introduced in parts of Britain, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality responded by saying that they should therefore pack their bags and clear off. Sir Trevor Phillips’s exact words were these: ‘If you want to have laws decided in another way, you have to live somewhere else.’ …

“Multiculturalism insisted that communities always changed, were in a permanent state of flux and that if you were white and lived in Oldham or Burnley or Tower Hamlets then you had better get used to the idea quickly. This was a doublethink because the same latitude was not extended to the host population; while it was accepted that immigrants would naturally wish to band together and preserve their cultural identity, when the white working-class communities made similar protestations, this was regarded, once again, as evidence of an antediluvian racism. Your fish and chip shop is now a halal butcher? Your daughter’s school now has a majority of Urdu-speaking children? Good! Celebrate the change! Get over it….

“The news that the bombers of July 7 last year and those who allegedly plotted to blow up a whole bunch of aeroplanes were British born apparently came as a shock to the government. Well, it did not come as a shock to those of us who viewed multiculturalism as both dangerous and inherently racist…. In the end, it is not the mad mullahs at whom we should direct our wrath, but the white liberals who enabled them to prosper.”

Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times, 27 August 2006

‘What did we do to deserve your hatred?’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Their head scarves frame faces that are unmistakably Irish and their Dublin accents seem out of place among the strictures of their religious dress. They are unlikely targets of racial abuse, but Patricia Fitzpatrick, 43, and Lesley Carter, 35, have been spat upon, called Pakis, Osama Bin Laden and even ‘Jewish bastards’ on the streets of their native city. As converts to Islam they have joined Ireland’s estimated 26,000-strong Muslim population, which has become the focus of controversy since the discovery of planned terrorist attacks in Britain two weeks ago.”

Sunday Times, 27 August 2006

Australians’ fear of Muslims is ‘common sense’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“No one should be surprised to learn that Australians want a tougher response to global terror for one simple reason – the Islamofascists who started this war show no sign of bringing their attacks on the civilised world to an end….

“Many believe that members of the Islamic community make no attempt to share those values which are identified as Australian. They see Muslim girls wearing clothing that has little do with their religion but a lot to do with political protest. They see weak state governments bowing before Islamic groups and exploiting their voting power.

“Australians are a tolerant people but they are tired of being told that their natural concerns about young Muslims who invoke their religion as they commit gang rape are demonstrations of Islamophobia, racism and paranoia.”

Piers Akerman in the Daily Telegraph (Australia), 28 August 2006

Close ‘extremist’ schools – Kelly

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic schools that promote “isolationism” and extremism should be closed, Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly has said. She said the government had to “stamp out” Muslim schools which were trying to change British society to fit Islamic values. “They should be shut down,” she said. “Different institutions are open to abuse and where we find abuse we have got to stamp it out and prevent that happening.”

BBC News, 27 August 2006

No doubt schools whose objective is to change British society to fit Catholic values will also be threatened with closure. Or, then again, perhaps not.

MPACUK alert: Muslims thrown off plane for acting ‘suspiciously’!

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Muslim Public Affairs Committee has issued a call for complaints to be made in response to the case of Sohail Ashraf and Khurram Zeb, the two innocent Asian students who were marched off a Monarch  jet at gunpoint because other passengers feared they were terrorists:

We request you to make your feelings known to Monarch airline as well as the Department of Transport using the following contact details, calling for an apology by the airline and stating clearly that you object to the victimisation of particularly Muslim passengers because of their appearance and creed.

MOREOVER should the airline decline to make an official apology we will be calling for a complete boycott of all travel with the airline.

Copy all of these organisations in your email!

Monarch Airlines

  • Geoff Atkinson – Monarch Group Lawyer and Company Secretary
  • Tel: 01582 398 043
  • Send your complaints by clicking here.

Copy the message to:

  • Department for Transport Aviation Team – responsible for all aviation policy!
  • David McMillan (Director of Aviation) david.mcmillan@dft.gsi.gov.uk

U.S. wages of Arab, Muslim men fell after 9/11: study

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The earnings of Arab and Muslim men working in the United States dropped about 10 percent in the years following the 9/11 attacks, according to a new study. The drop in wages was most dramatic in areas that reported high rates of hate crimes, according to the study due to be published in the Journal of Human Resources.

The study measured changes in wages of first- and second-generation immigrants, from countries with predominantly Arab or Muslim populations from September 1997 to September 2005. It then compared them to changes in the wages of immigrants with similar skills from other countries.

The average wage was approximately $20 an hour ahead of the attacks in 2001 and dropped by $2 an hour after them, Robert Kaestner, co-author of the study and a University of Illinois at Chicago professor of economics, said on Thursday. That drop persisted through 2004 but showed signs of abating in 2005, he said.

“I was surprised,” Kaestner said. “We see an immediate and significant connection between personal prejudice and economic harm.”

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New Zealand MP tells Muslims to unveil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

bob clarksonNational MP Bob Clarkson’s mouth has landed him in trouble again after he said “Islam religion-type people” who wore burqas could be crooks hiding guns.

The Tauranga MP, who is known to shoot from the lip, said Muslim women should not wear the full-body veils if they wanted to “fit into our country”.

“Even walking down the street, to a certain extent, how do we know there’s not a crook with a gun hiding under a burqa? Who’s under that gown?” he said.

He was tolerant of all religions, but Muslims who wore burqas because of deeply held beliefs should “go back to Islam or Iraq”.

The comments, made days after a major diversity forum in Wellington, brought an angry reaction from Federation of Islamic Associations president Javed Khan.

Khan said: “If he is tolerant of all types of religion, why is he picking on Muslims wearing scarves and burqas? Would he have any problems with nuns wearing the same type of clothes, head covers and long skirts? Would he have problems with the Sikhs wearing turbans? When he says that people should fit into the country, what does that mean? That they should go in their bikinis?”

Stuff, 26 August 2006