Author Archives: Bob Pitt

Australia – groups say veil ban unlawful, unfairly targets Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Shopkeepers are demanding sunglasses, baseball caps and religious face veils be banned to guard against criminals trying to hide their identities.

The Queensland Retailers Association yesterday declared its members should have the right to ban customers from wearing any clothing that obscured faces. But the proposed ban has outraged civil libertarians, Islamic groups and Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Commission. They say the move would be unlawful and unfairly target Muslims and teenagers.

QRA executive director Scott Driscoll said retailers were increasingly concerned they could not identify robbers and thugs whose faces were hidden by headgear. “This is about ensuring a more safe and secure retail environment for all and being able to readily identify any and all perpetrators of armed holdups or shop theft,” he said.

But critics – including federal Labor MP Graham Perrett, who represents the multicultural electorate of Moreton in Brisbane’s south – attacked Mr Driscoll’s call as unfounded and unnecessary. “Kids in hoodies, Muslim women wearing face veils, they are simply not an issue for the retailers I speak to,” Mr Perrett said.

Queensland police have no record of any robbery committed by a person wearing a Muslim face veil.

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Italian minister blasts Muslim protesters’ prayers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Italy’s defense minister warned the country’s Muslims to stop further “provocations” after thousands held prayers in public squares in Milan during pro-Palestinian demonstrations over the past week.

Ignazio La Russa, from the right-wing National Alliance, said he did not oppose protests or want to deny anyone the right to pray, but called the public prayers a challenge to peace. “I say enough of the provocations of Islamists in Milan,” he told Il Giornale newspaper on Sunday. “In Milan, a legitimate demonstration ended in a deliberately provocative mosque under the open sky.”

Thousands of Muslims knelt with their heads bowed to the ground in prayer before Milan’s central train station in one of several pro-Palestinian protests on Saturday. A week ago, Muslims held prayers in front of Milan’s central cathedral, angering right-wing politicians in the overwhelming Catholic country who called it an affront to Christianity.

“What would have happened if a group of Christians gathered together to pray with a rosary before Mecca? They probably would have been stoned,” said La Russa, who described himself as a practicising Catholic who attends Mass almost every Sunday.

Milan’s deputy mayor issued a similar warning to Muslims, saying four protests in seven days was too much. “Enough with pro-Hamas marches now,” said Riccardo De Corato. “Milan is not a province of Gaza and has no intention of reluctantly instituting this type of ‘Gaza Saturdays.'”

Protests against the Israeli offensive continued in Italy on Sunday, with 3,000 people marching through the center of Naples. Another 1,000 held hands to form a human chain and march through Rome’s historic center to demand an end to violence in Gaza.

Reuters, 11 January 2009

Seattle report: men hit, told to ‘speak English’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Seattle police say they’re looking for a pickup truck driver who became so angry when he heard a man speaking a language other than English that he attacked the man and a friend.

Police described the victims in the Monday afternoon attack as African men. One stepped outside a store on Rainier Avenue South to talk on his cell phone. The man heard a pickup truck driver stopped in traffic yell at him to “speak English.”

According to the police report, the driver grew angrier when the man with the phone tried to say he didn’t speak English very well. Police say the driver got out of his truck, called the victim a Muslim, using a slur, and told him to “go back home.”

Police say the driver grabbed the victim and punched him twice. When the victim’s friend came out of the store, he was punched in the eye.

Associated Press, 14 January 2009

Aussie radio announcer accused of anti-Islamic remarks over hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

4BC RadioA Brisbane radio station may have to explain why it should keep its licence after an announcer was accused of making anti-Islamic comments.

Former Victorian police officer, now 4BC drive-time announcer, Michael Smith called for Muslim women who wear an Islamic hijab in public to be fined for offensive behaviour. He made the remarks on-air and on the 4BC website, saying: “Any reasonable person would find this offensive.” Islamic Council of Queensland president Suliman Sabdia said Mr Smith’s remarks amounted to “a clear case of intolerance”.

Under the Commercial Radio Code of Practice, a licensee must not broadcast a program likely to incite hatred against or vilify any person or group on the basis of age, ethnicity, nationality, race, gender, sexual preference, religion, or disability. Christine Donnelly from the Australian Communications and Media Authority said Mr Smith’s comments could be a breach of the Code of Practice.

4BC general manager David McDonald said Mr Smith’s remarks were not intended to be anti-religion or anti-Muslim.

Courier-Mail, 14 January 2009

Update:  See also “Retailers back shock jock Michael Smith’s call for hijab ban” at News.com.au, which reports:

“A radio announcer’s call for a ban on Islamic hijabs has been backed by the Retailers Association. The body has called for all hijabs, helmets and hoodies to be banned in shops and banks for security purposes…. Retailers association executive directorScott Driscoll said it had been a long accepted practice to require customers to remove helmets and other identity obscuring headwear when entering a shop or bank. ‘Retailers should not have to fear any form of retribution or backlash for requiring the removal of any obscuring headwear, including hijabs, as a condition of entry’, Mr Driscoll said.”

Reining in the preachers of hate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Commentators who rail against Islam risk producing terrorists of their own. The right must speak out against its own extremists, argues James Brandon.

And who might these extremists be? Brandon names Mark Steyn, Melanie Phillips, Rod Liddle and Douglas Murray.

Brandon recounts: “until recently I worked with Murray at his Centre for Social Cohesion, which I joined because, in mid-2007, few other thinktanks were willing to seriously address the problem of Islamism at all. My time there was a constant struggle to ‘de-radicalise’ Murray and to ensure that the centre’s output targeted only Islamists – and not Muslims as a whole. This October, however, I had finally had enough of this constant battle and resigned.”

Comment is Free, 13 January 2008

The migrants who just don’t belong, by the Archbishop of York

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Immigrants to Britain in the past five decades have been treated like hotel guests who “do not belong”, the Archbishop of York said yesterday. Dr John Sentamu said the failure of migrants to integrate had contributed to the collapse of a common British culture and the lack of a national sense of direction. He called for recognition of the Christian heritage which used to bind the nation together.

The Archbishop’s powerful attack on uncontrolled immigration and on the Left-wing interpretation of multiculturalism that encourages migrants to ignore traditional British values, was made in a speech to Gordon Brown’s think tank, the Smith Institute.

Ugandan-born Dr Sentamu, who came to Britain in the 1970s, said it was important to remember that Britain had always provided refuge for economic migrants. He said 250,000 Jewish people had come before the First World War, and had integrated and been accepted. “What happened after the Second World War was a different phenomenon,” Dr Sentamu continued. “For the first time, significant numbers of immigrants from a non Judaeo-Christian background settled in the UK.”

He referred to the view of Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks that until the 1950s immigrants were like guests in a country house, who were expected to assimilate British values and to belong to the existing society. But with the decline of empire and the growth of Commonwealth immigration, the pattern had become more like a hotel.

“Guests are entitled to stay if they can pay their way and receive basic services in return for their payment,” he said. “But they are guests – they do not belong. In the same way, migrants to Britain from the 1960s onwards have made their home with their cultural rights protected under legislation framed under a multicultural perspective. Consequently, any sense of a shared common culture is eroded, risking increasing segregation.”

Daily Mail, 14 January 2008

NHS staff told not to hold meetings where alcohol served in order not to offend Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

So the Daily Telegraph asserts. However, if you read the article, you find that the basis for this claim is that the document Religion or Belief: a Practical Guide for the NHS “warns that staff training or bonding events may alienate followers of some faiths if they take place at weekends or in pubs”. Which is not the same thing, is it? So what we have here is another inaccurate scaremongering headline aimed at promoting the right-wing myth about the threatened “Islamisation” of the West.

You’ll note that the advice about problems arising from events held at weekends is clearly intended to show sensitivity not only towards practising Christians but also towards Jewish NHS employees who wish to observe the Shabbat. But for some reason the Torygraph doesn’t think it appropriate to run the headline “NHS staff told not to hold meetings at weekends in order not to offend Jews”.

Tory blogger condemns Muslim critic of Prince Harry, denies ‘Paki’ is racist

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Harry the NaziControversial Conservative blogger Donal Blaney and Tory MEP Daniel Hannan have criticised the views of Rochdale-based director of Muslim youth organisation, The Ramadhan Foundation, Mohammed Shafiq, after he spoke out on the current Prince Harry revelation.

Donal Blaney has described Mr Shafiq has having “the ego the size of a mosque” and said in his blog: “The notion that calling a mate by such a nickname that he himself did not find offensive is ‘sickening’ is laughable. To call it ‘racism’ demeans a powerful word that is now bandied about by the left so often as to have become virtually meaningless other than as a tool to silence those (usually on the right) with whom one disagrees.”

“Mohammed Shafiq speaks for nobody but himself,” said Mr Blaney. “For The Sunday Times to have called him a ‘muslim leader’ is dangerous and wrong. He is not elected by muslims at all – or anyone else. He is what he is: a left-wing community agitator who, despite his protestations of wanting to unite society, seems more intent on dividing society. His attack on Prince Harry should be seen in this light.”

Meanwhile Daniel Hannan MEP, in his blog for the Telegraph, has backed his Tory colleague. He said: “Unsurprisingly, Mr Shafiq came up with a suitably Spartish attack on the prince. And he may, for all I know, have a point. But the fact remains that no one, Muslim or non-Muslim, has ever elected him to any office. Why is he described as ‘Muslim leader’? Whom does he lead?”

Responding to the Tories’ comments, Mr Shafiq told Rochdale Online:

“I did not call Prince Harry a racist, I said that his comments were racist, and I have never called myself a Muslim leader, those were the words used by the newspaper. I do not speak on behalf of the Muslim or Pakistani community, I speak on behalf of a Foundation. The word ‘Paki’ is an oppressive and derogatory term. I stand by my comments and I do not believe the Conservatives have a good track record when it comes to defending racial issues.”

Rochdale Online, 12 January 2008

Bloggerheads exposes Glen Jenvey

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Glen_JenveyLet’s begin by going back to the Sun non-story that prompted this initial post:

The Sun – Islamic fanatics name Alan Sugar, Mark Ronson and Lord Levy in a hit list of Britain’s leading Jews: British anti-terror expert Glen Jenvey is convinced online forum Ummah is being used to prepare a deadly backlash against UK Jews. His warning came as Europe was hit by anti-Semitic attacks over Israel’s push into the Gaza Strip…. Mr Jenvey, 43, said: “The Ummah website has been used by extremists. Those listed should treat it very seriously. Expect a hate campaign and intimidation by 20 or 30 thugs.”

It would now appear that this entire non-story actually began with Glen Jenvey feeding an unknown quantity of information to the Sun ‘news’ paper. Glen Jenvey bills himself in this bio as a ‘freelance terror investigator’, is described in this article as a ‘freelance intelligence agent’, and is described in his Wikipedia entry (that heregularly edits himself) as a former spy who now “uses the internet to infiltrate terrorist organisations.”

Search for his name in Google News and poke around ‘all years’, and you’ll see his name attached to quite a few terror-alert stories, with highlights including this one, which has a lovely Christmas theme throughout, and this ‘New Year’ warning in the Sun that is very recent indeed.

I would go into more detail (there is lots!) but for now, all you need is this and possibly the knowledge that some of Glen’s past exploits have – according to reports from his supporters – resulted in warnings and “threats of arrest” from the authorities.

Now, the Sun have in this article based their claim of militant Muslims targeting “Britain’s leading Jews” on comments made by ‘abuislam’, specifically in this passage:

“Abuislam” asks: “Have we got a list of top Jews we can target? Can someone post names and addresses?”

Though the Sun suggests otherwise, the only forum contributor pushing for anything other than a polite letter-writing campaign (details here) is posting under the name ‘abuislam’…. and I’m looking at evidence right now that strongly indicates that Glen Jenvey and ‘abislam’ are one and the same person.

In other words, he has created the very ‘militant’ content that the Sun has based their story on.

Further, in his quote he warns those listed to take the threat very seriously and to “expect a hate campaign and intimidation by 20 or 30 thugs”… when he was the one who listed them, and was the only person talking about doing anything other than writing letters!

Bloggerheads, 8 January 2009

See also “Bloggers expose Sun’s anti-Muslim propaganda” by Tom Griffin.

‘Britain’s Muslims should condemn Hamas, not Israel’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Shiraz Maher outlines the choice facing the UK Muslim community over Gaza:

“… this is the straightforward decision that British Muslims will have to make: between Hamas, a terrorist group committed to destroying a sovereign state and its people – and Israel, the region’s only democracy which is responding to that threat. It really is that simple.”

Daily Telegraph, 9 January 2009

Well, Mad Mel may have repudiated Ed Husain because he balks at supporting the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, but she will be pleased to hear that there is at least one professional ex-HTer who is prepared to join her in endorsing Israeli state terrorism.