Steven Stalinisky – director of that well-known source of objective information, the Middle East Media Research Institute – offers his opinion on the fatwa against terrorism promoted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Surprise, surprise, Stalinsky finds himself in agreement with another equally reliable source, Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project.
Author Archives: Bob Pitt
Defend multiculturalism – Keith Vaz
In an interview in the current edition of the Parliamentary Monitor magazine, Keith Vaz expresses fears that “communities and not individuals” are being blamed for the attacks of July 7 and 21. Revealing that he has received scores of racially motivated “hate mail”, Vaz says that the drive for multiculturalism should continue despite growing fears about Muslim extremism.
“There is no better place to celebrate multiculturalism than Britain in 2005,” says the Labour MP.”Multiculturalism is different cultures and different religions within one society. And I would defend it right to the end. It has been a great benefit to our country – to our great cities. It has given Britain the face it has.”
Asian men targeted in stop and search
The use of counter-terrorism stop and search powers has increased sevenfold since the July 7 attacks on Britain, with Asian people bearing the brunt of the increase. People of Asian appearance were five times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people, according to the latest figures compiled by British Transport police. None of the stops have resulted in a terrorism charge, the force said.
Azad Ali, chairman of the Muslim Safety Forum, said: “This does not look like intelligence-led stop and search. This is disproportionate on an unacceptable scale.” He said police should record whether those stopped were Muslim or not.
By their friends ye shall know them
The website of the Worker Communist Party of Iran seems to be down at the moment. However, a report by WPI central committee member Homa Arjomand of a meeting in Toronto on 12 August can be consulted at Butterflies and Wheels. Sharing the platform with Homa Arjomand were Irshad Manji and right-wing Dutch MP, Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Comrade Arjomand reports that the meeting featured a showing of the film “Submission”. But for some reason she omits to mention the name of the film’s director – the late Dutch racist Theo van Gogh. Obviously just an oversight.
Islam, the MCB, moderation and extremes
“The overwhelming balance of correspondence we have received has been towards defence of the MCB and anger at the tone and content of our story.” Rafael Behr reports on the response to the Observer‘s witch-hunt of the Muslim Council of Britain.
‘Extremist sect’ exposed
As part of his stitch-up of the Muslim Council of Britain in Sunday’s Observer, Martin Bright made much of the fact that among the MCB’s 400 affiliates is the Birmingham-based Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith, described by Bright as “an extremist sect”. If you look up this organisation’s website you’ll find that it prominently features a statement on the London bombings. You’d have to say, if this is the best Bright can come up with as an example of the MCB’s “extremist” connections, the MCB has little to worry about.
UK terror fight adds to Arab fears
The planned deportations and a raft of other proposed measures to curb militant Islamist activity in the wake of the July bombs in London, are bashing a fresh dent in Britain’s reputation in the wider Arab world. Dia Rashwan, an expert in Islamism at the Cairo-based Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, argues they could be counter-productive by playing to the perception that in the war on terror, the rights of all Muslims are under attack.
Many exiled radicals in London have been under close surveillance, he argues, and there is no proven legal case yet that they have contributed to radicalising British-born Muslims who carried out the bombings. Yassir al-Sirri, a London-based Egyptian condemned to death in absentia in Egypt, goes further, suggesting the government’s measures, if adopted, would hand a victory to extremists. He was among a small group of Islamist exiles in London who urged the British government yesterday not to betray Muslims “by deporting them to countries from which they fled”.
Anti-terror legislation condemned
Muslim groups have condemned proposed anti-terrorism legislation saying it could lead to the “demonisation” of legitimate Islamic values and beliefs. An Islamic Human Rights Commission statement has 38 signatories, including the Muslim Association of Britain.
See BBC News, 16 August 2005 and Guardian, 16 August 2005
See also IHRC press release, 16 August 2005 and Islam Online, 16 August 2005
Robert Spencer is appalled: “What about wanting to establish the caliphate in the West, replacing Britain’s political system with Islamic law? Is that legitimate political expression?”
Well, I can’t see why not. Mind you, given that Muslims here number around 1.6 million out of a total population of almost 60 million, the establishment of the caliphate in the UK would appear to be a rather distant prospect.
Latest from Lenin’s Tomb
A couple of relevant posts over at Lenin’s Tomb during the past couple of days. In “Clowns for jihad” (15 August) Meaders expresses scepticism that the absurd Omar Bakri ever represented a serious terrorist threat (“I could be wrong, but one of the things you would not do, if you really fancied restaging 9/11 in London, would be to organise a widely publicised conference in celebration of this fact”). And in “They shall not parse” (16 August) China Miéville takes up Outrage’s false report that Yusuf al-Qaradawi called for the Crown Prince of Qatar to be stoned to death. But remember, folks, you read it here first.
William Shawcross and Islamofascism
“Is it because of western racism that al-Qaida has included the United Nations among its principal targets?” William Shawcross demands to know, in a letter in the Guardian. “Is it because of western racism that in August 2003 an al-Qaida suicide bomber murdered more than 20 people in the UN headquarters in Baghdad, including the secretary general’s special representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello? … Al-Qaida exulted in the murder of this ‘heretic’ sent to Iraq by Kofi Annan, ‘the criminal and slave of America’. Al-Qaida is inspired by Islamofascism, which cannot be appeased. No one is helped by pretending otherwise.”
Rather, no one is helped by pretending that the atrocities carried out by the likes of Al-Qaida do not have a basis in a quite rational hatred of the West’s own atrocities. Bin Laden repeatedly condemned the deaths of innocent Iraqis resulting from UN sanctions imposed at the behest of the USA. As for western racism, would the killing of hundreds of thousands of children have been regarded as a price worth paying – to quote Madeleine Albright’s notorious remark – if those children had been white Americans or Europeans?