The leader of the British National party, Nick Griffin, said yesterday that he stood by a secretly filmed speech in which he denounced Islam as a “vicious, wicked faith”. He told Leeds crown court that the religion was “a dragon … the terrible mortal enemy of all our fundamental values and something which, unchecked, will bring misery and disaster to this country”.
Author Archives: Bob Pitt
Geoff Martin on Respect and Islamophobia
“By the time you read this, Respect will be finished as a political organisation – not just because of the Galloway nonsense but for far better reasons which are bound up with their hopeless attempt to tie religious fundamentalism in with progressive left policies…. Ask them why they don’t challenge the rank homophobia of leading figures in the Muslim Association of Britain and ask them why they share platforms with the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood. Ask them any of these questions and the convenient accusation of Islamaphobia will be slung back at you.”
Geoff Martin in Labour Left Briefing, February 2006
‘Dutch MP defies Muslim pressure’
The BBC boosts Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the right-wing Dutch MP acclaimed by Robert Spencer as “one of the most heroic women in the world today”.
See BBC News, 24 January 2006 and Dhimmi Watch, 24 January 2006
Also the Guardian, 24 January 2006
Muslim undesirables need not apply
Baden-Württemberg is described in the guidebooks as having more universities than any other German state as well as a “rich cultural and religious diversity.” I am afraid the cultural diversity bit won’t go down well these days – at least not among German liberals and Muslims, who are outraged over a questionnaire that the state proposes to put before those seeking German citizenship. In Germany the states have say in these matters.
Not every applicant has to fill out the questionnaire. If you are Portuguese applying for German citizenship, chances are you wouldn’t have to bother with it. But since January, if the authorities have some reason to think that you might not make a good citizen, then you might find yourself being grilled. For the instructions say that if the naturalization authority doubts that the applicant has really understood the content of his or her declaration, or doubts that the answers reflect “inner convictions,” then the authorities will “conduct a conversation with the applicant.”
Defenders say Baden-Württemberg is being careful to screen out undesirables, and that only people the authorities have reason to be suspicious of would be questioned. But critics are sure the questionnaire is specifically aimed at Muslims. “This questionnaire is a very dangerous thing and has to be stopped,” one of the best-known politicians of Turkish origin in Germany, Cem Ozdemir, told me. Ozdemir, a member of the European Parliament, says the danger comes from the discretionary powers it gives junior officials. Baden-Württemberg’s government would never say it wanted to make it harder for Muslims to become citizens. But the tone of the questionnaire would lead underlings to assume that was the intention, according to Ozdemir.
“When you read these questions you see the mind of the bureaucracy and German society, not what Muslims may think,” said Barbara John, who was for 20 years involved with migration and integration affairs here in the state of Berlin.
Christian Hoffmann, a convert to Islam who is chairman of the Muslim Academy in Germany, says: “The spirit of these questions is so Islamophobic and ethnically biased. It is an assault against underprivileged people.” Educated people would smell out the trap, he said.
One question asks applicants to comment on the following statements: “Humanity has never experienced such a dark phase as under democracy. In order to free himself from democracy, man has to understand first that democracy cannot offer anything good to him.” Monarchists might agree, but that’s not the group the questions were designed to catch.
‘The pope’s unexploded bombshell’
Diana West takes up Pope Benedict’s reported statement that Islam is unreformable: “… the question shouldn’t be: ‘Why Can’t Islam Be More Like the West?’ It should be: ‘How can the West prevent itself from becoming more like Islam?’ One obvious answer is an immigration policy aimed at preventing the kind of Islamic demographic shifts we already see transforming Europe.”
Muslim memorial to the Holocaust
In a letter in today’s Independent, Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain replies to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s article in yesterday’s paper:
“Yasmin Alibhai-Brown casually misrepresents the position of the Muslim Council of Britain, accusing us of declining to ‘mourn victims of one of the deadliest mass exterminations in human history’ (23 January). The MCB fully accepts and recognises the monstrous horror and cruelty that underpinned the Nazi holocaust.
“The reason the MCB has called for a more inclusive ‘Genocide Memorial Day’ is because across the globe – not just among Muslims – there is a widespread view that we in the west practise double standards and devalue the lives of non-westerners. In the MCB’s view, the subtext of the Holocaust Memorial Day would thus be better served and help make the cry ‘Never Again’ real for all people who suffer, even now.
“In the last decade we have seen genocide take place in both Rwanda (one million killed in 1994 in the space of a few weeks) and Chechnya (10 per cent of its population has been killed since the Russians launched their invasion of the tiny republic.) We need to do more than just reflect on the past. We must be able to recognise when similar abuses occur in our own time.”
Nazis denounce Islam Expo
“The Mayor of London looks set to win the supreme accolade of being Britain’s ‘number one’ Islamophile after announcing his plans to host an exhibition of ‘modern Islam’ in the capital on the anniversary of the July 7th bombings which killed 52 innocent passengers and the four suicide bombers themselves….
“Islam is an aggressive proselytizing religion and this exhibition has to be seen in that light. It is another attempt to win over followers to the religion of submission and Livingstone and his fellow travellers in the Labour Party must be viewed as quislings, responsible for aiding and abetting followers of this mediaeval, desert religion who seek to turn Britain from being Dar-al-Kufr to Dar-al-Islam.”
BNP news article, 23 January 2006
Strange, I thought Nazis were in favour of quislings.
Exhibition will combat myths about Islam
Europe’s biggest exhibition of modern-day Islam will take place in London a year after the 7 July bombings in an effort to depict the religion in a positive light.
The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, is set to launch the event which hopes to “combat the myths, misconceptions and misunderstandings of Islam”. IslamExpo will consist of a series of exhibitions on Islam’s cultural heritage, lectures, debates, films, stand-up comedy and workshops at Alexandra Palace. Organisers plan to invite survivors of the Tube attacks to attend with a special commemoration on the day.
It is hoped that the event will help to improve relations between Britain’s 1.8 million Muslims and the wider community.
For details of Islam Expo, see here.
For the thoughtful comments of Jihad Watch supporters, see here.
More misrepresentation of Manji
Another puff piece for Irshad Manji, who is apparently a leader of “reform-minded Muslims”.
This despite the fact that Manji is almost universally loathed by Muslims, including the most “reform-minded” of her co-religionists. On the other hand, Manji is greatly admired by the likes of Melanie Phillips and Daniel Pipes.
And while the Murdoch press is happy to promote Manji, it has no hesitation in also publishing articles entitled “How my neighbourhood was lost to the multiculture“.
Islamophobia in the Scotsman
Osama Saeed exposes Islamophobia in the Scottish press.