Author Archives: Bob Pitt

Norway is ‘undergoing a subtle Islamification’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Progress Party leader Siv Jensen’s statement in a speech on Sunday, that Norway is undergoing a subtle islamification has sparked controversy. Conservative Party deputy leader Per-Kristian Foss likens it to the attacks on Jews in the 30s.

• There are certain points of resemblance to the 30s fear of other minorities, in this case the Jews, Foss says.

• It is of course not true that there is any islamification of the Norwegian society, he says.

In her speech to the right-wing Progress Party (FrP) national board on Sunday, Siv Jensen warned against what would happen if what she called “a subtle islamification” of Norway would continue. She pointed to what had happened to the Swedish city of Malmoe, where according to Jensen Sharia laws had been introduced in sections of the city, and where the police hardly dared to enter.

Norway Post, 23 February 2009

Ontario: former judge wants to bar Muslims from scholarships

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A retired judge wants two Ontario universities to bar Muslim students from being awarded scholarships he has established, though the spokesperson for one institution says her school won’t support a proposal that “flies in the face of everything we stand for.”

Paul Staniszewski said he objects to the “medieval violence” used by the Taliban – such as when Taliban militants recently kidnapped and beheaded Polish engineer Piotr Stanczak – and he wishes to “disqualify” Muslim students from receiving financial aid he has paid for.

“I’m reacting to what’s going on to people who aren’t even soldiers, who are having their heads beheaded and this stuff is shown on the TVs and everything else,” Staniszewski told CTV.ca in a phone interview from his Tecumseh, Ont., home, just outside of Windsor.

“I am doing the same thing these people are doing, except I’m not cutting off heads, I’m cutting off applications for help in their studies,” he added later in the interview.

CTV.ca, 25 February 2009

Civil servants pay £2,000 each (of your cash) to hear Islamic extremist

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ibrahim Moussawi“Government officials will spend thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money to attend a lecture by an Islamic extremist whom Jacqui Smith is under pressure to ban from Britain.

“Yesterday, the Mail revealed how the Home Secretary was facing demands to deny a visa to Ibrahim Moussawi – a spokesman for the Lebanese terrorist organisation Hezbollah – to come to speak at a British university. Now it has emerged that the lectures Moussawi plans to deliver are targeted at Whitehall officials who deal in foreign affairs and extremism. They will each spend up to £1,890 of taxpayers’ cash attending the Political Islam event at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) next month.

“Moussawi – who is among the key speakers at the week-long course – is scheduled to address two sessions on March 25 and is expected to be paid for the talks. Another speaker at the event is the UK-based extremist Dr Kamal Helbawy, a former spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood – a group said to have inspired Al Qaeda [sic].

“Last night, Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, a researcher for the Centre for Social Cohesion, a respected think-tank, said: ‘In their willingness to pay extremists like Dr Helbawy and Dr el-Moussawi, SOAS are helping these men present themselves as mainstream figures. ‘It is particularly worrying that the target audience includes Government officials and the police, who may find themselves paying for advice on tackling terrorism from its very exponents’.”

Daily Mail, 26 February 2009

And Daily Mail home affairs editor James Slack writes: “So here comes the acid test: is Jacqui Smith, as she proclaims, an enemy of extremism in all its forms, or a cowardly hypocrite? In October, the Home Secretary announced ‘tough new measures’ to deny entry to Britain to anybody ‘engaged in fostering, encouraging or spreading extremism and hatred.’ In recent weeks she has put them to use by banning a Dutch MP with hugely controversial views on Islam, and a notorious anti-gay US preacher. But will she be prepared to apply the same new standards to Islamic extremists who preach a hatred of Jews?”

Update:  Entirely predictably, if a trifle belatedly, the “left-wing” blog Harry’s Place – which is increasingly indistinguishable from the Daily Mail – joins in the witch-hunt.

Germany: headscarf bans violate rights

Posted on by Bob Pitt

HRW+headscarf+reportGerman state bans on religious symbols and clothing for teachers and other civil servants discriminate against Muslim women who wear the headscarf, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 67-page report, “Discrimination in the Name of Neutrality: Headscarf Bans for Teachers and Civil Servants in Germany,” is based on extensive research over an eight-month period. It analyzes the human rights implications of the bans and their effect on the lives of Muslim women teachers, including those who have been employed for many years. It says that the bans have caused some women to give up their careers or to leave Germany, where they have lived all their lives.

“These laws in Germany clearly target the headscarf, forcing women who wear it to choose between their jobs and their religious beliefs,” said Haleh Chahrokh, researcher in the Europe and Central Asia division at Human Rights Watch. “They discriminate on the grounds of both gender and religion and violate these women’s human rights.”

HRW news release, 26 February 2009

Download report here.

This counter-terror plan is in ruins

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The British government’s brand new counter-terrorism strategy is already in disarray – and ministers have only themselves to blame. The souped-up plan to fight al-Qaida, confound dirty bombers, halt suicide attacks and confront “extremism” in the country’s Muslim community was unveiled by the prime minister with much fanfare on Tuesday. But even before the 175-page “Contest 2” document had been launched, the credibility of its promise to engage with the Muslim mainstream had been thrown into question by the decision of Hazel Blears, the communities secretary, to cut all links with the Muslim Council of Britain.

Blears had been gunning for the MCB, the country’s main Muslim umbrella body, which has shown increasing independence in recent years, particularly in relation to British foreign policy. The pretext was a statement about Israel’s onslaught on Gaza signed by the MCB’s number two, Daud Abdullah, which Blears interpreted as a call for attacks on British ships if they were sent to intercept arms supplies to Hamas. Ten days ago, in a tone more associated with Raj-era colonial governors than democratic politicians addressing independent community bodies, Blears delivered an ultimatum to the MCB: either it sacked its elected deputy general secretary or all contacts would be severed.

Never mind that Gordon Brown’s idea about policing Palestinian waters has been kicked into the long grass of international talks; or that Abdullah, a Caribbean-born veteran of Grenada’s leftwing New Jewel Movement (later overthrown by Ronald Reagan) made clear he was not calling for such attacks – let alone attacks on Jewish communities, as Blears claims in a letter in today’s Guardian. All links have now been suspended. And if there were any doubt that the attempt to isolate Britain’s most significant Muslim body was linked to the new anti-terror policy, the timing of the ultimatum for the eve of the launch made clear that for Blears they were all of a piece.

Seumas Milne in the Guardian, 26 March 2009

Tories witch-hunt Ibrahim Moussawi (again)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ibrahim MoussawiJacqui Smith was tonight warned against exercising “double standards” as an Islamic extremist prepared to travel to the UK. Ibrahim Moussawi, a known hardliner with links to Hezbollah, has been invited to speak at a London university.

Earlier this month, she banned the far-Right Dutch MP Geert Wilders from coming to Britain to show his film about Islam as it would threaten “community harmony”. But the Conservatives warned that to ban those who threaten community harmony, while letting in those who glorify terrorism or are part of terrorist groups, would send out the “wrong message”. There must be “no double standards on extremists”, warned Tory security spokesman Baroness Neville-Jones.

Moussawi, who has already made at least two trips to the UK, has been invited to speak on political Islam at the School of Oriental and African Studies next month.

Yesterday, in a letter to Miss Smith, Baroness Neville-Jones said: “You will be aware that Mr Moussawi has links to Hezbollah, which is a proscribed terrorist organisation in many countries. Mr Moussawi has also, over the years, made a number of remarks that are extremist, anti-Semitic and inflammatory.

“In October last year you introduced what you described as ‘tough new measures’ to deny entry to extremists. These measures included ‘creating a presumption in favour of exclusion in respect of all those who have engaged in fostering, encouraging or spreading extremism and hatred’. Mr Moussawi has so engaged. In line with your ‘tough new measures’, I trust that if Mr Moussawi applies for entry, you will use your powers to exclude him.”

Daily Mail, 24 February 2009

It appears to have escaped Neville-Jones’ attention that Wilders intended to enter the UK with the explicit aim of inciting hatred against the Muslim community.

Is there any suggestion that Ibrahim Moussawi will be inciting hatred against the Jewish community on his proposed visit to the UK? No. Is Neville-Jones able to demonstrate that he has incited hatred on previous visits to the UK? Again, no. So the charge of double standards is entirely baseless.

The last time the Tories witch-hunted Ibrahim Moussawi was when he visited London to address a World Against War rally in February 2008. Neville-Jones told the Home Office: “it is vital that the Government always makes the security of the UK its top priority. That means stopping those who are likely to foment extremism or promote violence from coming here to speak.”

Here is the speech Ibrahim Moussawi gave at that rally. Perhaps Neville-Jones can direct us to the sections of the speech that promote violence and extremism?

‘Apartheid culture’ existed at Met police station, Muslim officer tells tribunal

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scotland Yard’s claims to have put its racist past behind it suffered a blow yesterday when it was alleged that senior officers allowed a “culture of apartheid” at a police station where white officers threatened black colleagues and refused to ride in the same van.

The allegations will be heard at an employment tribunal tomorrow and will embarrass the force, whose head, Sir Paul Stephenson, yesterday said the Metropolitan police was no longer institutionally racist. He was speaking at a conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the Macpherson report into the bungled Stephen Lawrence murder investigation.

The allegations of discrimination and victimisation to be heard at a tribunal this week – which the Met will deny – centre on Belgravia police station in central London. A Muslim police community support officer (PCSO), Asad Saeed, claims white officers framed him by alleging he had abused and threatened to assault a drunk vagrant in a McDonald’s burger restaurant in central London.

The officer was ordered to be dismissed, but later reinstated on appeal. Both of the internal police discipline hearings heard allegations of racism that Scotland Yard thought belonged to the canteen culture of two decades ago.

Alfred John, chair of the Metropolitan branch of the Black Police Association, said: “It displays all the hallmarks of a very familiar and disturbing picture.”

Saeed’s MP, George Galloway, said: “It is quite clear there was a culture of overt racism in the station which was tolerated, if not encouraged, by senior management. Asad was wrongly dismissed from the police service.”

Guardian, 25 February 2009

Update:  See “Police played ‘spot the black officer in the dark’, tribunal hears”, Guardian, 2 March 2009

Update 2:  See “Police community support officer Asad Saeed loses discrimination case”, Times, 29 October 2009

Express is shocked by case of torture victim – he ‘costs taxpayers money’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Treated Like RoyaltyA former Al Qaeda suspect was flown back to Britain on a luxury jet yesterday – at Government expense. Now taxpayers face a massive bill for his new life on benefits.

Alleged torture victim Binyam Mohamed, 30, stepped off a twin-engined Gulfstream at an RAF base after more than six years as a US prisoner being held in Guantanamo Bay. Accompanied on the flight by two Foreign Office officials, two Metropolitan Police officers and a doctor, Ethiopian Mohamed’s return to his adopted country cost an amazing £120,000.

Tory MP David Davies said: “I don’t think it should be a source of pleasure to anyone that this man has returned to the UK. He is an Ethiopian national who was lucky ever to be in Britain in the first place. If he was flown back to Addis Ababa, I think we would all breathe a sigh of relief.”

Fellow Tory MP Philip Davies said: “It’s absolutely ludicrous. This guy isn’t a British citizen, he just happened to be residing in Britain. I cannot see any advantage to the British taxpayer in him coming here. The likelihood is that he will be on benefits and we will be forking out for him while the country is going bankrupt.

“And is he a danger to public safety? Will the Government be putting him under 24-hour monitoring by the security services with the extra strain that on taxpayers’ money? It is an astonishing decision.”

Susie Squire, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Binyam Mohamed has already cost the British public quite enough without the luxury of private jets. A cheaper way should have been found to bring him back.

“This man is not even a British citizen, and yet is going to continue to be a massive financial burden on law-abiding taxpayers in this country. We’re in a recession and people need money to feed their kids, not foot the bill for chartering planes and round-the-clock surveillance.”
Daily Express, 24 February 2009

Update:  For comment on this and other similar articles, see ENGAGE, 24 February 2009

‘How Britain’s mosques foster extremism’ – by Ed Husain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Sectarian, conservative leadership is driving confused young Muslims into the arms of radicals.” Thus the standfirst to Ed Husain’s scaremongering piece in the Times.

The Quilliam report Mosques Made in Britain, on which the article is based, predictably dismisses the work of the Mosques and Imams Advisory Committee, and in a footnote accuses two of MINAB’s constituent organisations, the MCB and MAB, of failing to condemn suicide bombing. But generally speaking, and admittedly on a first quick reading, the report is otherwise quite measured.

But that wasn’t good enough for Ed Husain. He had to spin the report to fit the Islamophobic agenda of the Murdoch press, feeding into the right-wing myth that the entire Muslim community in the UK represents an extremist threat to wider society. And this is a man who is in receipt of large sums of public money, supposedly to fund his efforts at building social cohesion. He really is an utter disgrace.

Cf. “British mosques promote community cohesion”, MCB press release, 23 February 2009

Download the Charity Commission report here.

Update:  See also “Young Muslims at the mercy of extremists because of out-of-touch Imams” in the Daily Telegraph, 25 February 2009

Ban this preacher of hate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Over at Harry’s Place, under the headline “Qadhi Must NOT Enter the United Kingdom“, David Toube calls on home secretary Jacqui Smith to ban the Houston-born Islamic teacher Sheikh Yasir Qadhi from Britain.

Smith has already banned Dutch far-right racist Geert Wilders who wanted to come here and incite hatred against Muslims, and homophobic US pastor Fred Phelps whose aim was to incite hatred against the gay community. According to Toube, Yasir Qadhi too is visiting the UK to incite hatred and he should be excluded along with Wilders and Phelps, on the basis that they are all “active and proselytising bigots”.

What extremist activities will Yasir Qadhi be engaging in here in the UK, I hear you ask – where will he be delivering his hate-filled message?

Well, for example, on Thursday he will be at the London Muslim Centre where he is the guest speaker at a fundraising dinner for The Citizens Foundation, a charity committed to “delivering quality education to the poorest in urban slums and rural areas of Pakistan”. The Citizens Foundation “believes in gender equality and has a girl students percentage of 50%”, and its education program is “open to all persons and communities, regardless of their race, color, creed, religion or location”.

Scary, huh? Let’s just hope Jacqui Smith takes Toube’s advice and bans this preacher of hate.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Yasir Qadhi has visited our country to spread his extremist ideology. Harry’s Place denounced him last November when he was a featured speaker at the Global Peace and Unity event in London. The speech Yasir Qadhi gave there is available on YouTube. Watch this video and ask yourself: can there be the slightest excuse for the home secretary allowing this man into the country?