Author Archives: Bob Pitt

‘Muslims are not cockroaches’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

It may like to call itself proudly the “birthplace of human rights”, but when it comes to dealing with Islamist clerics, France is rarely reluctant to set such scruples aside.

The country waited only days after the London bombings before summarily expelling its first two radical preachers. It has since sent two more packing and plans to deport a total of some two dozen by the end of this month.

Underlining a longstanding difference in approach between London and Paris, an interior ministry official said France had “no problem whatsoever” in deporting anyone accused of inflaming anti-western feeling – even if they had French citizenship and were formally recognised as preachers by the Muslim community.

The planned arrests and expulsions follow repeated statements by the interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, since the July 7 London attacks that France “must and will act against radical preachers capable of influencing the youngest and most weak-minded”.

Fundamental rights such as freedom of speech, that in Britain have, until very recently, protected the controversial clerics, count for precious little in France when the speech concerned is considered an incitement to hatred or violence.

Guardian, 11 August 2005

Students rebuff Blair

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Students at Middlesex University have this week reiterated their decision to allow the Islamic organisation Hizb ut Tahrir to continue its activities on campus, despite moves by the Government to ban the group.

Keith Shilson, president of the Students’ Union, said: “If Tony Blair wants to ban an organisation known to be responsible for acts of violence, he should ban the British National Party, not a non-violent Muslim organisation. The union wishes to uphold a policy that prevents Islamophobia on its campuses, and Hizb ut Tahrir is neither an extremist group, nor a group that supports terrorism. The organisation rejected the July 7 attacks, issuing a statement that said the bombings had no justification and were illegal according to Islamic law.”

This is Hertfordshire, 10 August 2005

Anti-Muslim hate crime on rise in Wales

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim woman has described her fear during a racist attack on her Cardiff home, as a UK-wide study into the effects of hate crime is launched.

The £100,000 Victim Support research project aims to develop new guidelines and support for victims of hate and race crime. It comes as Muslims in Wales face rising levels of violence and intimidation after the London bombings. In July, animal parts and a racist letter were left at a Cardiff mosque. And on Wednesday, a Muslim woman, who did not want to be identified, told BBC Wales how her home had been attacked last week.

She said: “We were sitting in our living room when we heard this man shouting outside our door. He was throwing things, picking up stones from our front garden and throwing them at our door and our window. And then he smashed a section of our double-glazed window. He was shouting [a series of abusive names]. It was quite scary, because we didn’t know what he had. My niece was sleeping in the front room.

“We don’t feel secure at all. When you are in the house you are always fearing whether someone will come in or try and force their way in. They can do anything, they can put things in our letter boxes. And when you go out, you are always paranoid, always looking around and people do give you funny looks anyway, especially since the London bombings.

“You kind of think ‘I shouldn’t wear traditional clothing just in case somebody makes a comment, I’d rather fit in with the crowd and look more westernised’ and I don’t like doing that. I’m British but I’m also Pakistani. I’m Muslim and that’s my culture.”

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Asians hurt in attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Asian teenagers violently assaulted by racist thugs in a mindless reprisal for the London bombings were not even followers of Islam.

The revelation came as Sutton police disclosed the vicious revenge assault on the five innocent Asians who were sitting in Gillian Park in Sutton Common Road on Friday, July 29. The attack left one victim with a broken jaw needing a metal plate and stitches above his eye, and another with six stitches in his lip. Two more victims were treated for cuts, bruises and swellings in hospital.

Detective Inspector Michael Smith, of the Sutton police community safety unit, said: “This was an appalling unprovoked attack, based on ignorance. We are absolutely sure this was a reprisal attack. The attackers in Sutton were accusing their victims of being responsible for the bombings in London. They thought anyone who had dark skin would be Muslim.”

Surrey Online, 9 August 2005

Irshad Manji attacks multiculturalism, calls for less tolerance

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Irshad Manji Trouble With Islam“As Westerners bow down before multiculturalism, we anesthetize ourselves into believing that anything goes. We see our readiness to accommodate as a strength…. Radical Muslims, on the other hand, see our inclusive instincts as a form of corruption that makes us soft and rudderless. They believe the weak deserve to be vanquished. Paradoxically, then, the more we accommodate to placate, the more their contempt for our ‘weakness’ grows. An ultimate paradox may be that in order to defend our diversity, we’ll need to be less tolerant.”

Irshad Manji in the New York Times, 9 August 2005

Characteristic of Manji’s method is her reference to the play “Corpus Christi” by Terrence McNally, in which Jesus was depicted as a gay man. She tells us how in 1999 “Christians protested the show and picketed its European debut in Edinburgh, a reasonable exercise in free expression. But Omar Bakri Muhammad, a Muslim preacher and a judge on the self-appointed Sharia Court of the United Kingdom, went further: he signed a fatwa calling for Mr. McNally to be killed….”

Except that, if Bakri had indeed called for McNally to be killed, he would certainly have been prosecuted. In fact, what Bakri did was issue a fatwa “authorising” McNally’s execution by the Islamic state, while making it clear that individuals had no right to carry out the sentence. In other words, short of the establishment of Bakri’s version of the caliphate, which is not exactly an imminent threat, McNally was in no danger at all.

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Political correctness has crushed criticism of Islam in US, Robert Spencer claims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Over at Front Page Magazine Robert Spencer has a whinge about “the abysmal state of public discourse about Islamic terrorism today. The forces of political correctness as well as prominent American Islamic advocacy groups seem to be doing all they can to make sure that the American people are not exposed to any serious investigation of the genuine root causes of Islamic terrorism – such as I have undertaken in my new book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) [never miss an opportunity to give the book a plug, eh Robert?]. Even speaking the truth about Islam is becoming increasingly difficult in today’s stifling politically correct atmosphere”.

Well, looks like Islamophobia Watch is soon going to be out of a job, then.

‘Dire results of theory of multiculturalism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The theory of multiculturalism and its malevolent companion, political correctness, arrived on these shores from North America and was quickly taken up by the liberal, urban political elite. These theories were foisted on the British people without any consultation and the terrible consequences are only appearing now…. A Muslim festival like Eid is given as much importance as Christmas or Easter. There is something very wrong here.

“Minority groups, especially those from the Indian sub-continent, were encouraged not to integrate or mix, but to keep their own customs as though the UK did not exist…. So in many of our cities we have a society within the wider society with a religion, Islam, which often seems to the outsider to be more of a political movement than a way to being at peace with God and one’s neighbour. This society within a society has been encouraged to revel in its alleged victimhood, and, due to its lack of maturity, has never looked at its own faults but blames outsiders for all its ills…..

“The day that Muslims can accept rational criticism without the predictable cries of ‘Islamophobia’ will be the day when they are finally accepted into British society like the descendants of other immigrant groups over the centuries. Fear of western secular society and its achievements is perhaps due to the nature of Islam itself.”

Letter in the Herald, 9 August 2005

Secret courts for terror cases

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Special anti-terror courts sitting in secret to determine how long suspects should be detained without charge are now under active consideration, it emerged yesterday.

Home Office sources confirmed that ministers are considering making a French-style “security-cleared judge” responsible for assembling a pre-trial case against terrorist suspects, with in-camera access to sensitive intelligence evidence, including currently inadmissible phone-tap evidence.

The plan under consideration, which echoes elements of David Blunkett’s proposal last year for secret anti-terrorist courts, could also involve the use of security-vetted “special advocates” as legal representatives of those detained. But they would not be able to disclose the nature of the evidence under which their clients were held before being charged.

The proposal puts flesh on the point outlined by Tony Blair last Friday, when he said that part of the new anti-terror package would include “a new court procedure which would allow a pretrial process”. He said it would provide a way of meeting requests by the police and security services that detention before charge should be extended from the current 14 days up to three months.

Guardian, 9 August 2005

Judeo-Christian values rule OK

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“Islam is not currently in the battle for men’s minds. Outside (and even inside) the Muslim world, it gains power largely through force. There are non-Muslims who convert to Islam out of sheer conviction, but in general, when Islam gains a foothold or actually attains power in a non-Muslim society, it is either through force or threats of force – e.g., Sudan, Thailand, the Philippines, Nigeria; or through a large immigration of Muslims – e.g., Western Europe. Its contemporary spread is not due to the power of its intellectual appeal, let alone the record of its contemporary social and moral achievements.”

Dennis Prager at TownHall.com, 9 August 2005