Author Archives: Bob Pitt

Muslim rally to condemn cartoons and extremists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Thousands of Muslims are expected to attend a rally in London at the weekend to protest at both the publication of cartoons defiling the image of the Prophet Mohamed and the response of Islamic extremists.

Muslim leaders will use the demonstration to call for calm and urge the media to apologise for the offence they have caused. The rally, expected to be one of the biggest Muslim demonstrations in Britain, is to be sponsored by Muslim newspapers and broadcasters.

Ihtisham Hibatullah, of the Muslim Association of Britain, said: “Last weekend was very damaging for the Muslim community. We are sometimes held hostage by extremists on both sides.”

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “British Muslims have been deeply hurt both by the provocative actions of the newspapers that printed these caricatures, but also by the disgraceful actions of a tiny group of extremists.”

He added that the aim of the rally was to protest against the “rising wave of xenophobia towards Muslims across Europe”.

Independent, 8 February 2006

Islamophobia – racism’s final holdout

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamophobia – racism’s final holdout

By Louise Nousratpour and Roger Bagley

Morning Star, 7 February 2006

Peace campaigners condemned the “racist” mass media and accused ministers of applying “double standards” against the persecuted Muslim community yesterday. The comments followed government pressure on police to carry out mass arrests of Friday’s protestors in London against offensive caricatures of the Muslim prophet Mohammed. At the event, some extremists threatened “another July 7”, while others dressed as suicide bombers.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke seized on the furore to demand that MPs back his repressive anti-terror Bill when it returns to the Commons on February 15. Mr Clarke urged support for a ban on “glorification” or “encouragement” of terrorism, which was thrown out by the Lords. He also hinted that police will shortly make a wave of arrests following the weekend demonstrations.

While rejecting the extremist protest, peace campaigners joined British Muslim leaders in condemning media “double standards” and its “mirage argument” – claiming to champion freedom of speech while attacking a minority group already facing persecution.

The cartoons, caricaturing Mohammed as a terrorist and a killer, were first published by right-wing Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September. The images have since been reprinted in many European countries, such as France and Norway, by other right-wing titles.

The entire episode is taking place at the height of Western aggression in the Middle East, with the ongoing war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan joined by recent threats from the international community to cut funds to the Palestinian government over the recent election of Hamas.

Campaigners branded the action “racial stereotyping”, likening the images to those of Jews by anti-semites and nazis in the early to mid-20th century. Respect national secretary John Rees said that Islamophobia has become “the last acceptable form of racism”. He said: “If this were a cartoon of a hook-nosed Jew counting money, the liberal press would be, rightly, full of angry editorials denouncing the racism of such images.”

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A reply to Sunny

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sunny Hundal at Pickled Politics has asked, in connection with the provocative idiocies of former Al-Muhajiroun supporters on the demonstrations at the Danish embassy in London: “why can’t these inbreds be locked up? That’s what I want to know. I’d like to see Martin Sullivan comment on that.” Sunny goes on to say that “the only people who can really deal with these extremists are Muslims themselves, yet most of the time they’re too busy defending these idiots”.

What planet does Sunny inhabit? The actions of these lunatics have been condemned by everyone from the MCB to MPAC to Hizb ut-Tahrir. Nobody has defended them. My own view, for what it’s worth, is that the police should have intervened and arrested the provocateurs, and prosecuted them under the Public Order Act.

More slander against Qaradawi from Harry’s Place

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Qaradawi2Those great defenders of democracy over at Harry’s Place evidently dismiss the democratic right to protest when it’s Muslims who are exercising that right:

“This Danish cartoon business is rapidly turning into mainland Europe’s version of the Satanic Verses affair. Here’s how a man Ken Livingstone described as a moderate reacted yesterday to the escalating tension: ‘The wave of protest was triggered by Sheikh Yussef al-Qaradawi, head of the International Association of Muslim Scholars, who last night called on Muslims all over the world to observe ‘an international day of anger for God and his prophet’.”

Harry’s Place, 3 February 2006

Predictably, the right-wing press took the same line, referring to Qaradawi as a “leading hard-line Muslim cleric”.

Daily Telegraph, 3 February 2006

This would of course be the same Dr al-Qaradawi who has condemned violent demonstrations and called on Muslims to “express their anger in a prudent manner”.

See Islam Online, 6 February 2006

Danish paper rejected Jesus cartoons

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that have caused a storm of protest throughout the Islamic world, refused to run drawings lampooning Jesus Christ, it has emerged today. The Danish daily turned down the cartoons of Christ three years ago, on the grounds that they could be offensive to readers and were not funny.

In April 2003, Danish illustrator Christoffer Zieler submitted a series of unsolicited cartoons dealing with the resurrection of Christ to Jyllands-Posten. Zieler received an email back from the paper’s Sunday editor, Jens Kaiser, which said: “I don’t think Jyllands-Posten‘s readers will enjoy the drawings. As a matter of fact, I think that they will provoke an outcry. Therefore, I will not use them.”

Guardian, 6 February 2006

‘How can we have respect for Islam?’ Muriel Gray asks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muriel Gray writes: “… what of moderate Islam? British Muslims are represented by the unelected Sir Iqbal Sacranie, a man at the forefront of the book-burning mob who threatened Rushdie’s life, when Sacranie declared: ‘Death, I think, is too easy for him.’ For this part in incitement to murder, Sacranie was awarded not the stiff custodial sentence one might expect, but a knighthood.”

Sunday Herald, 5 February 2006

I particularly liked Gray’s reference to “the Western values so vigorously and courageously fought for over two bloody world wars”. So World War I was fought in defence of “western values”, was it? Although, on reflection, she does have a point here. “Western values” do indeed include a tendency to heap up vast piles of corpses as imperialist powers pursue their interests through military aggression without the slightest concern for the human consequences.

Elsewhere in the same paper, Torcuil Crichton writes: “Yesterday Hizb ut-Tahrir, an extremist organisation that believes in a Muslim Caliphate, demanded that European governments exert pressure on their media outlets to retract the offensive caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad, apologise for the offence caused and guarantee no further repetition of such abuse. The demands reflect those of the gunmen in Gaza who threatened to bomb the EU presence in Palestinian Authority.” Which of course omits to mention the minor difference that Hizb didn’t threaten to bomb anyone.

Sunday Herald, 5 February 2006

Hitchens defends cartoons provocation

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ex-leftist turned warmonger Christopher Hitchens writes: “… there is a strong case for saying that the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, and those who have reprinted its efforts out of solidarity, are affirming the right to criticize not merely Islam but religion in general…. if Muslims do not want their alleged prophet identified with barbaric acts or adolescent fantasies, they should say publicly that random murder for virgins is not in their religion. And here one runs up against a curious reluctance.”

Slate, 4 February 2006

Fascists launch ‘referendum’ on Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP Islam leafletTaking immediate advantage of last week’s acquittal at Leeds Crown Court, the British National Party has launched a new leaflet inciting hatred against Muslims. The fascists announce that they intend to turn the May council elections into a “referendum” on Islam. The editor of the BNP paper, Freedom, is quoted as saying:

“We have had suicide bombers in London and we are seeing riots across the Channel. However the media and our Government try to cloud the issue by blaming British and French society and not the terrorists and rioters. They deliberately avoid pinpointing the driving force behind these attacks, which is a religion that is alien to these shores and in its latest fundamental form threatens our very way of life.

“A large section of British people feel threatened by the rapid growth of the Muslim population in Britain but at present have no way of voicing this concern. Our ‘May 4th is Referendum Day’ campaign will give people that voice. Every vote for the British National Party tells Tony Blair of this groundswell of disquiet.”

BNP news release, 5 February 2006