Author Archives: Bob Pitt

Muslim former PC accuses Luton police of institutional racism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Javid IqbalA Muslim police officer claims he was forced out of his job by colleagues who made fun of his beard and called him a “f***ing Paki”.

PC Javid Iqbal, 38, said white officers openly discussed in front of him how they were “better” than their ethnic-minority colleagues. The married father of two also claims officers pulled faces at each other if told they had to go out on patrol with him and forced him to walk home from a job instead of picking him up.

Mr Iqbal says he was sacked after fellow-officers in Luton launched a “smear and witch-hunt campaign” during which they lodged a string of complaints about his performance. He is taking the Bedfordshire force to an employment tribunal claiming he is the victim of racial and religious discrimination and unfair dismissal.

Mr Iqbal, who was born and raised in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, told the Daily Mail: “My beard is an important part of my identity which helps other Muslims relate to me. I am disgusted that I was bullied by other officers because of my beliefs. I became a policeman because I believed in putting something back into society. I have found that institutional racism is still very much around.”

Daily Mail, 9 March 2009

And how does the Mail choose to headline this report of serious allegations of racial harassment in the police force? “Muslim PC sues after workmates ‘laughed at his beard’.”

£90m anti-terrorism project is fanning the flames of extremism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A new generation of Muslims is being radicalised using the very Government funds that are supposed to be fighting the problem, a new report by the Policy Exchange think-tank says.

Daily Telegraph, 9 March 2009

The report can be read (pdf) here.

Update: Melanie Phillips enthusiastically endorses the Policy Exchange report. PVE stands for “Persistently Validating Extremism”, according to Mel, who is herself of course the voice of moderation.

‘No to Sharia’ flop

Posted on by Bob Pitt

No to Sharia rally 2

Photos are now appearing on the internet of the Worker Communist Party of Iran’s “No Sharia” demonstration in Trafalgar Square on Saturday (the one above is courtesy of Yusuf Smith). As some of us predicted, it proved to be even smaller than the laughable “March for Free Expression” back in 2006. Whatever happened to the “mass demonstration” that Ruth Gledhill – no doubt briefed by the WPI – was anticipating?

I ask you, if this poor showing represents the forces that Enlightenment secularism is able to rally to its cause, how long can it be before Western civilisation succumbs to the tidal wave of Islamo-fascism?

Update:  Under the headline “One Law for All Campaign against Sharia Law in Britain’s International Women’s Day was a resounding success” Maryam Namazie of the WPI reports:

“Nearly 600 people joined the One Law for All anti-racist rally against Sharia and religious-based laws in Britain and elsewhere and in defence of citizenship and universal rights in Trafalgar Square and marched towards Red Lion Square in London.”

Nearly 600 people? Looking at the picture above, you can only conclude that 500 of them must have been hiding behind Nelson’s Column.

Now it’s Daud Abdullah who’s being witch-hunted – with the assistance of Ed Husain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

One of the UK’s most influential Islamic leaders, who has helped counter extremism in the country’s mosques, is accused of advocating attacks on the Royal Navy if it tries to stop arms for Hamas being smuggled into Gaza.

Dr Daud Abdullah, deputy director-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, is facing calls for his resignation, after it emerged that he is one of 90 Muslim leaders from around the world who have signed a public declaration in support of Hamas and military action.

Abdullah, who led the MCB’s boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day, was a member of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, the body endorsed by the government that trains imams and was set up to curtail the activities of extremist clerics. In January, he briefed the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, and communities secretary Hazel Blears on the situation in Gaza and its likely impact on social cohesion in the UK.

There were calls last night for the government and the MCB to condemn Abdullah’s actions. “The British government should stop funding organisations such as the MCB and supporting events such as Islam Expo, which hosts scholars from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan who hold extremist views,” said Irfan Al Alawi, international director of the Centre for Islamic Pluralism.

“If the MCB is serious about tackling extremism, it should immediately expel extremists such as Daud Abdullah from its own ranks,” said Ed Husain, co-director of the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism thinktank. “The man is a fanatic.” He added: “As well as potentially endorsing terrorism against British troops, Abdullah shows total disregard for human life.”

Observer, 8 March 2009

Update:  See Islamic Forum of Europe media release, 9 March 2009

Douglas Murray joins the witch-hunt of Ibrahim Moussawi

Posted on by Bob Pitt

douglas_murrayCampaigners from the Centre for Social Cohesion have pledged to seek an arrest warrant for Dr Ibrahim Moussawi, an Islamic extremist, who is due to visit Britain this March.

The think-tank said the Home Office would be “beyond hypocrisy” if it allowed Dr Ibrahim Moussawi into Britain just weeks after barring Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician, because of his alleged anti-Muslim views. Dr Moussawi is a spokesman for the Lebanese-based militant group Hizbollah, the military arm of which is banned in Britain as a terrorist organisation.

Douglas Murray, director of the CSC, has written to Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, warning her that he will instruct lawyers to seek an arrest warrant for Dr Moussawi if he is allowed into the country. The think-tank has already sought advice from barrister Paul Diamond, an expert in religious affairs law, on using war crimes legislation and a legal precedent from 2004 to seek, independently, an arrest warrant from a magistrate.

Mr Murray said: “This is the deepest hypocrisy, in fact, it is worse than hypocrisy on behalf of the British government. The government clearly do not have a grip on this. Britain is still a place where terrorists and terrorist supporters can come to incite and recruit.”

Dr Moussawi is due to address a conference at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, on March 25, on the subject of political Islam.

In its letter to Ms Smith, the Centre for Social Cohesion said: “It is the position of the Home Office that individuals are banned from entry in the United Kingdom if ‘they stir up tension and provoke violence to others’. Dr Moussawi would threaten community harmony and clearly breach this condition. If Dr Moussawi arrives in the UK we will instruct counsel to seek a warrant for his arrest.”

Sunday Telegraph, 8 March 2009

Well, Douglas Murray would know all about threatening community harmony, wouldn’t he? This is the man who in 2006 told the Pim Fortuyn Memorial Conference in the Netherlands:

“It is late in the day, but Europe still has time to turn around the demographic time-bomb which will soon see a number of our largest cities fall to Muslim majorities. It has to. All immigration into Europe from Muslim countries must stop…. Conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board: Europe must look like a less attractive proposition.”

If Ibrahim Moussawi was intending to visit the UK to make a similar speech directed against the Jewish community (“conditions for Jews in Europe must be made harder across the board”) it would be quite right to ban him. But of course he’s not.

Hundreds expected at anti-sharia demo in London

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“One Law for All, the group that campaigns against the adoption of Islamic law or sharia in the UK, is planning a mass demonstration in the centre of London tomorrow, Saturday.”

Ruth Gledhill gives a plug to the latest stupid initiative from the sectarians of the Worker Communist Party of Iran. Well, we shall see how “mass” this demonstration proves to be. Who knows, perhaps Trafalgar Square will be filled with secularists protesting against religious courts.

No, hang on, against Islamic religious courts. The One Law for All website calls for the abolition of “all religious-based tribunals” – but attacks only “Sharia courts”. The Beth Din courts that have operated within the Jewish community for centuries don’t even rate a mention.

What would you say about a campaign against “all religious-based tribunals” that concentrated exclusively on attacking Jewish religious courts? You’d say the organisers of that campaign were antisemites themselves or at least irresponsible idiots whose actions served to encourage antisemitism. Wouldn’t you?

Kevin Quinn found guilty

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Kevin Quinn 3The leader of the British First Party who set up a stall with the Union flag and launched a tirade of offensive racist abuse has been convicted of a religiously aggravated public order offence.

Police were called to the shopping precinct in St Andrews Road, South Oxhey, when leader of the far right party Kevin Quinn, 44, began using offensive language during a “demonstration” about the arrest in Sudan of schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons.

The jury of six men and six women took five-and-a-half hours to find Quinn guilty. Judge Warner adjourned sentence for reports on Friday, April 3.

Watford Observer, 6 March 2009

UK ready for talks with Hezbollah

Posted on by Bob Pitt

HezbollahBritain overturned its policy on a key Middle East issue yesterday by agreeing to talk to Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia movement which fights Israel and is banned as a terrorist organisation by the US.

Bill Rammell, the Foreign Office minister, told MPs the government would authorise “carefully selected” contacts with the political wing of Hezbollah, which is represented in the Lebanese parliament. Other EU countries, including France, already deal with the group.

The move, urged privately by British diplomats for some time, may be partially intended to encourage the US to follow suit as Barack Obama’s administration pursues a fresh approach of engagement with parties shunned by George Bush.

“We have reconsidered our position on no contact with Hezbollah,” the Foreign Office said, “in light of more positive recent political developments in Lebanon, including the formation of the national unity government in which Hezbollah are participating. We are exploring certain contacts at an official level with Hezbollah’s political wing, including MPs.”

Guardian, 5 March 2009

Presumably no ban on Ibrahim Moussawi, then – Pauline Neville-Jones won’t be happy.

Update:  Then again, the Jewish Chronicle claims that Jacqui Smith hasn’t yet made up her mind. Though David Toube ofHarry’s Place thinks it’s a done deal.

‘Vote NO Muslims’ slogan in LA County election

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Southeast Los Angeles County, which has struggled for years with public corruption investigations and bruising politics, is emerging from Tuesday’s municipal elections with a pair of black eyes. In the mostly Latino cities of Bell and Cudahy, candidates have been smeared as terrorists, had their cars vandalized and had bricks thrown through windows, and a former mayor was accused of raping a young girl in Tijuana.

Over the weekend, Bell City Council candidate Ali Saleh was alerted about fliers someone found at a local grocery store. Someone superimposed Saleh’s face on a picture of a man holding a sign that read, “Islam will dominate the world.” The flier also showed pictures of radical Iraqi cleric Muqtada Sadr, the burning towers of the World Trade Center and terrorists wearing black hoods and standing over a kneeling hostage, presumably about to be executed. At the bottom of the flier was a message to voters: “Vote NO Muslims for the City Bell Council 2009.”

The 33-year-old Saleh, who grew up in Bell, said he never expected his candidacy to lead to an attack on the city’s Lebanese American and Muslim community, which numbers about 2,000. Saleh was one of two Lebanese Americans running for council, along with Hussein Chahine. They lost. “Politics can get dirty. But usually they just say something about you,” Saleh said. “But when you come and tell people not to vote for any Muslims, you’re talking about an entire group. I was born in this country. I want to be part of this American democratic system. This is very upsetting.”

Los Angeles Times, 4 March 2009