Author Archives: Bob Pitt

CAIR on LGF

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights organization often vilified on Johnson’s blog, calls Little Green Footballs “a vicious, anti-Muslim hate site … that has unfortunately become popular.” The irony, Hooper says, is that if the same kind of “hatred” that appears on LGF appeared on Muslim sites, it soon would be used by LGF’s fans to justify their worldview.

Like many politically themed blogs, Little Green Footballs doesn’t always traffic in subtlety and nuance. Dissenting points of view often are dismissed as “idiotarian” or “LLL” (for “loony liberal left”), and Islam is mockingly referred to as “RoP,” meaning “religion of peace.”

Hooper says the Reuters incident is unfortunate in itself, but says such sites as Little Green Footballs use such lapses “as a club against the entire mainstream media. Their line is basically that if one freelance photographer alters a photo, then everything Israel does must be justified. Or if one of the sentences that Dan Rather once uttered wasn’t correct, then the media is corrupt and Dan Rather’s whole career is rotten to the core.”

The FBI, according to Hooper, recently investigated several threats of physical harm against Muslims posted by Little Green Footballs readers.

Washington Post, 9 August 2006

Most Muslims are not separatists or extremists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Channel 4’s Dispatches survey has contributed nothing to the ongoing tense, contorted debate over identity and belonging. It is part of a currently fashionable trend to scrutinise Muslims and place every aspect of their lives under the spotlight, lest they may realize their inherent potential for extremism and violence. While they use every twist of the English language to assert their tolerance of difference, those who have succumbed to this trend can only be called arrogant, authoritarian, prejudiced and islamophobic. Why else would they regard the frequenting of a mosque, or wearing of a headscarf, as the marks of a separatist and would-be extremist?”

Soumaya Ghannoushi responds to the Dispatches documentary “What Muslims Want“.

Comment is Free, 10 August 2006

Police need to tackle ‘institutional Islamophobia’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Police Service risked further alienating young British Muslims unless more was done to tackle “institutional Islamophobia” in its ranks say Islamic groups spokespersons. The comments came after Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, called for an independent judicial inquiry into the radicalisation of young Muslims in the wake of the July 7 London bombings.

Massoud Shadjareh, chair of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said: “It has been clear for a very long time that there is an institutional Islamophobia in the implementation of stop and search. We need to get rid of a culture that exists – unfortunately it exists in our society as a whole, but it is much more damaging when mixed with the powers the police have.”

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, added, “Almost every Muslim family seems to know of someone, somewhere in the UK who has been stopped and searched for no reason other than the way they look or dress.”

Asian Image, 10 August 2006

Meanwhile, in a letter to the Times, a fellow copper takes issue with Tarique Ghaffur: “All police officers who have the task of policing the streets will be unimpressed that a senior officer is supplying ammunition to disaffected individuals, who will moan about police actions. It is hard enough to do your job without being undermined by your own senior management. We should try and keep Muslim communities on board, but we cannot change the profile of the current terrorist threat and adopt different ‘softly softly’ tactics. We would appear as a service unable to do our job because of being scared of offending Muslim communities. The bottom line is that the terrorist threat is from the Muslim world.”

Times, 10 August 2006

‘BNP call to ban Muslims from our skies’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP demonstration“Once again, British people are being inconvenienced by the activities of home grown Muslim terrorists who, it appears, have conspired to plant bombs on passenger planes leaving the UK…. The British National Party Executive’s solution to this problem is to ban immediately, ALL MUSLIMS from flying out of (and in to) Britain until the security situation has been fully resolved.”

BNP news article, 10 August 2006

In a further item on the subject, the fascists write:

“Many Muslim leaders who claim to be community spokesmen have tried to reassure the population at large that there is not a significant terrorist threat in this country from their community. They have gone out of their way to emphasis that recent high-profile raids have wrongly singled out members of their community. In words tantamount to blackmail they have suggested that if this targetting of their communities continues there is a risk of unrest. As such it should be obvious to all that there is an orchestrated and devious attempt to obstruct the job of our security services in a calculated Islamocentric and politically motivated manner.

“The raids today which appear to have been carried out after lengthy and detailed intelligence operations may have thankfully saved several thousand innocent lives and spared thousands more the grief of losing a family member or friend in an horrific orgy of murder and carnage over the Atlantic. The raids once again undermine the stance of the Muslim spokesmen who claim there is no threat from their community.

“Our readership should observe very closely the way in which Labour and the BBC put the security of this country at risk by downplaying the real threat in an attempt to preserve ‘community cohesion’.

“Further let’s demand an apology from these so-called community spokesmen made directly to the non-Muslim majority population for the massive disruption, fear and financial damage that members of their community have inflicted upon us today.”

BNP news article, 10 August 2006

British Jews go to fight jihad for Israel

Posted on by Bob Pitt

osama saeed 2“I’d hate to witness the fallout if a British Muslim was caught fighting for Hizbullah just now. However, the Times carries a report of a British Jew who has gone over to fight for Israel – and the paper actually glorifies it. No questions about killing civilians here, never mind split loyalties.”

Osama Saeed exposes double standards over the Middle East.

Rolled Up Trousers, 9 August 2006

See “British volunteers answer army’s call”, Times, 7 August 2006

I recall the Mayor of London making a similar point just over a year ago. “If a young Jewish boy in this country goes and joins the Israeli army, and ends up killing many Palestinians in operations and can come back, that is wholly legitimate”, he was quoted as saying. “But for a young Muslim boy in this country, who might think: I want to defend my Palestinian brothers and sisters and gets involved, he is branded as a terrorist.”

For this the Mayor was denounced by Jon Benjamin, director general of the Board of Deputies, as “a lackey of the Muslim agenda” in Britain. See YNetNews, 19 July 2005

‘If they hate us so much, why don’t they leave?’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

richard liittlejohnRichard Littlejohn replies to Tarique Ghaffur:

“Mr Ghaffur’s speech coincided with the publication of a new survey which claims almost a quarter of British Muslims believe that the July 7 bombings were justified because of the Government’s support for the war on terror. The most hardline views came from young Muslims under the age of 24 who have grown up in Britain.

“A third of Muslims think Britain has become so morally reprehensible that they would rather live under Sharia law and dream of this country becoming an Islamic state. Plenty of non-Muslims have reached the same conclusion about the state of morals in this country. But they confine themselves to writing angry letters to the Daily Mail or moving to Spain. They don’t believe the answer is to turn Britain into a 7th-century theocracy, where women are second-class citizens and homosexuals are put to death….

“Young Muslims … have been told constantly by their self-appointed leaders and their imams that they are oppressed by widespread ‘Islamophobia’. They are encouraged to put loyalty to their faith above responsibility to their country of birth. They are brainwashed into treating any misfortune which befalls any Muslim anywhere in the world as a personal insult.

“Makeshift mosques in run-down backstreets and demented jihadist websites pump out hatred of the West, which is blamed for all the problems in the Muslim universe. Fanatics are allowed to march through the streets preaching death to the infidel, death to Jews, death to just about anyone. For a peaceful religion, they’re very big on death. This is all coming from within the Muslim community, not from without. Is it any wonder that some of this constant ideological bombardment rubs off? We don’t need a judicial inquiry to tell us any of this.

“The majority of Muslims in Britain make a valuable contribution and want to live a quiet life, just like the rest of us. But, as this survey illustrates, a sizeable minority don’t. They have no desire to adapt to Britain. They want Britain to adapt to them. For a large number of Muslims, their faith is incompatible with Western freedoms and democracy.

“No one is forced to remain here. As discussed in this column recently, hundreds of thousands of British citizens decide to emigrate every year.

“If there are people who hate this country so much they think mass murder of civilians on our streets is justified and they would rather live in a fundamentalist Islamic state, all the judicial reviews in the world are not going to change their minds. If we promise not to profile them at the airport, they should leave – and take their ‘anger and resentment’ with them.”

Daily Mail, 8 August 2006

Pipes on ‘Sudden Jihad Syndrome’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Mr Haq’s actions are a clear instance of ‘Sudden Jihad Syndrome’, whereby normal-appearing Muslims unpredictably become violent. His attack confirms my oft-repeated call for special scrutiny of Muslims. Because the identity of the next homicidal jihadi cannot be anticipated, Muslims generally need to come under heightened observation.”

Daniel Pipes draws the lessons from the July 28 shooting at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.

New York Sun, 8 August 2006

Update:  For Yusuf Smith’s comments, see Indigo Jo Blogs, 10 August 2006

Confronting the monolith: the struggle against Islamophobia and Osamaism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Some have argued that Islamophobia confuses criticism of Islamic practices with fear, hate, or prejudice of Muslims. This begs the question: what makes these particular practices ‘Islamic’ and, more importantly, who gets to decide – and how? …. One can be a legitimate critic of Islam in the same way one can also be a critic of Hinduism, Judaism, Shinto, the Bahá’í Faith, Christianity, Buddhism, or any other organized religion; however, when one conflates the aggressive behavior and beliefs of a group of far right-wing individuals that claim to follow the teachings of their religion with the behavior and beliefs of every other individual that practices that same religion, this person cannot, in good faith, be considered a legitimate critic of Islam…. The trouble with those mired in the conflation-prone school of criticism is that they are unable to differentiate between Osamaism and Islam. While some inadvertently confuse the two, others conflate them purposely. In either case, the monolith is erected and we are confronted with Islamophobia.”

Jehanzeb Hasan at Media Monitors Network, 7 August 2006

Anti-terror laws alienate Muslims, says top policeman

Posted on by Bob Pitt

tarique ghaffurOne of Britain’s top police officers will today warn that anti-terrorism laws are discriminating against Muslims and law enforcement agencies are running a “real risk” of criminalising ethnic minorities.

Tarique Ghaffur, assistant commissioner in the Metropolitan police, will also call for “an independent judicial review” of why some young British Muslims turn to extremism. He warns that more work is needed to stop the “flight, fright or separation” of British Muslim communities after the July 7 2005 bombings in London.

Mr Ghaffur, Britain’s highest-ranking Muslim police officer, will today address a National Black Police Association conference in Manchester and tell how racism has blighted his own career. Since the September 11 2001 attacks on the United States, western countries have toughened counter-terrorism laws. Mr Ghaffur will say:

“Not only has anti-terrorism and security legislation been tightened across many European countries with the effect of indirectly discriminating against Muslims, but other equally unwanted practices have also emerged, including ‘passenger profiling’ as well as increased stop and search and arrest under terrorism legislation.”

In Britain, people of Asian appearance have borne the brunt of increased stopping and searching. Police have said the practice is “intelligence-led”, but Mr Ghaffur appears to cast doubt on this repeated defence: “These practices tend to be based more on physical appearance than being intelligence-led.”

Guardian, 7 August 2006