Author Archives: Bob Pitt

State surveillance of US mosques challenged

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A report that mosques in Los Angeles and San Diego are under federal surveillance has resurrected fears in the Muslim community about government monitoring and led two civil rights groups Wednesday to call for congressional hearings.

The request for public hearings followed a newspaper article last week that cited FBI and Defense Department files pertaining to surveillance of mosques and Muslims in Southern California.

Corey Saylor, Washington spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the article in the San Diego Union-Tribune “has again raised concerns that our community is being watched.” “We’ve heard about this in the past, but this article appears to be the first confirmation that surveillance is taking place,” Saylor said. “Has faith moved from a personal choice to probable cause?”

Council chapters in Anaheim and San Diego joined the American Civil Liberties Union and Islamic Shura Council of Southern California in asking the U.S. House and Senate judiciary committees and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for hearings. In a letter to the committee chairmen and ranking minority members, the groups said hearings are needed to determine the extent of the surveillance and whether people are being monitored because they are Muslim.

Los Angeles Times, 29 May 2008

Fly the flag in opposition to mosque, urges UKIP councillor

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Malcolm DavisA Dudley councillor is calling on the people of the town to “create crowds” outside Dudley Council House as the future of the mosque is discussed inside.

For two days in June (10 and 11) the planning inspectorate from Bristol will be holding a public inquiry as to whether the council were right to refuse the application made by the Dudley Muslim Association last year. The council’s development control committee unanimously rejected the proposals after the project received opposition via petitions with more than 22,000 names.

Cllr Davis also asked residents to show their support by flying a flag on the two days the inquiry is being held. He said: “I think it is important for everyone to fly the flag every day, but it would be nice if we all flew them on those two days to show our loyalty to our town.”

Halesowen News, 28 May 2008

School ban sparks Belgian hijab campaign

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Belgian hijab campaignBRUSSELS — The decision of a Brussels school to deny Muslim girls the right to wear hijab has motivated them to champion a protest campaign, the latest episode of the hijab debate in the European country.

“The hijab ban has no ground and the administration offered no explanation and did not consult with teachers or parents,” reads a petition circulated by Muslim students in the Institut des Ursulines in the Brussels borough of Molenbeek.

The Catholic school, where Muslims comprise some 85 percent of the students, has decided to ban hijab starting the next academic year. The controversial decision promoted Muslim students to launch a protest campaign, including a rally outside the school, which is located in an area with a large Muslim population.

“The decision, a violation of women rights, is unacceptable,” says the petition. “It has caused us much distraction during our exam period and will threaten the educational future of tens of students next year. It was never reported before that the hijab has caused any disruption of the educational process.”

Many students have already announced they will leave the school if forced to take off their hijab.

Islam Online, 28 May 2008

Muslim women say company’s dress code violates faith

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A group of Muslim workers allege they were fired by a New Brighton tortilla factory for refusing to wear uniforms that they say were immodest by Islamic standards. Six Somali women claim they were ordered by a manager to wear pants and shirts to work instead of their traditional Islamic clothing of loose-fitting skirts and scarves, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil liberties group that is representing the women. The women have filed a religious discrimination complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Minneapolis Star Tribune, 27 May 2008

See also CAIR press release, 27 May 2008

Fascists expose ‘Islam’s 1,300 year war on Western Civilisation’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

jihad-book-final-cover-front.p65“Excalibur Books is proud to announce the launch of ‘Jihad: Islam’s 1,300 Year War on Western Civilisation’ by Arthur Kemp. This book, the first of its kind, maps out how, for centuries, violent Muslims have been trying to capture Europe for Islam.

“Sweeping out from its origin in Saudi Arabia, Islam has expanded through violent conquest into North Africa, the Middle and Near East – and very nearly into Europe itself, attacking through Spain, Italy, and the Balkans. Each time, the Islamic hordes were turned back by a united European military effort.

“Today, the Islamic invasion is not being carried out with sieges, scimitars, or cannon, but rather by immigration, birth rates, and demographics. Given current trends, Europe is set to be overrun before the end of this century.

“This book puts the current crisis into historical perspective, showing that instead of being a ‘religion of peace’, violent Islam has, in fact, been waging war on all its self-appointed opponents since its inception.

“Finally, this book dares to say what must be done if Europe is to avoid succumbing to the new invasion. The choice is hard, but is one which will determine whether Western Civilisation lives or dies.”

BNP news article, 27 May 2008

A fitting follow-up to Kemp’s earlier book March of the Titans: A History of the White Race.

For more on Arthur Kemp see here.

Zionists against Islamism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mad Melanie Phillips tells us that there is no principled difference between Al-Qaeda and mainstream Islamists like the Ikhwan, it’s all just a division of labour in the campaign to destroy western civilisation:

“… there are Islamists who oppose al Qaeda and terrorist action in the UK as a tactical mistake but nevertheless subscribe to the same strategic goal – to restore the medieval Caliphate, overturn British and western society and institute the rule of Islam instead. This is because there are two arms to the jihadi pincer: terrorist attack and cultural attack; and the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists use either or both depending on circumstances and upon differing strategic points of view between groups under the same jihadi umbrella.”

And over at Democratiya, we find two members of the Community Security Trust making the same point, assuring us that “Qaradawi condemned the suicide bombings in London on 7/7, but it does not appear that this was based on a principled objection to the methods or goals of the global jihadist movement”.

Which would come as something of a surprise to the Al-Qaeda leadership. As one commentator recently observed in an analysis of a statement by Ayman al-Zawahiri: “Zawahiri’s condemnation of Yusuf al-Qaradawi is particularly protracted and probably demonstrates how threatening he considers the popular Muslim Brotherhood scholar to be.”

‘Radical Islam is filling void left by collapse of Christianity in UK’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The decline of Christian values is destroying Britishness and has created a “moral vacuum” which radical Islam is filling, one of the Church of England’s leading bishops has warned.

Daily Telegraph, 28 May 2008

Yes, you guessed right. It’s another anti-Islam intervention by Michael Nazir-Ali.

See also BBC News, 28 May 2008

It’s worth noting that Standpoint, the magazine that has published Nazir-Ali’s article, is funded by the right-wing think-tank the Social Affairs Unit and edited by Daniel Johnson. Its “core mission” is to “celebrate and defend Western civilization, its achievements and its values”

Bush likens war against Islamic extremism to fight against fascism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

george w. bushCOLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — US President George W. Bush on Wednesday likened America’s efforts to quell Islamic extremism in Iraq and Afghanistan to the US fight against fascism during World War II.

During the Second World War, “our nation faced evil men with territorial ambitions and totalitarian aims, who murdered the innocent to achieve their political objectives,” Bush said at a commencement speech for new graduates of the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Through a combination of military strength and national resolve, and faith in the power of freedom, we defeated these adversaries – and secured the peace for millions across the world,” Bush told the cheering cadets.

“Now, in the 21st century, our nation is once again contending with an ideology that seeks to sow anger and hatred and despair — the ideology of Islamic extremism,” said Bush, who earlier this month asked the US Congress for 70 billion dollars to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan into early next year, when his successor takes over.

Bush has said that the United States faces a “long struggle” on both fronts, but has insisted that “good progress” has been made in bringing democracy and stability to both war-ravaged countries.

“In today’s struggle, we are once again facing evil men who despise freedom, and despise America, and aim to subject millions to their violent rule. And once again, our nation is called to defeat these adversaries – and secure the peace for millions across the world. And once again, our enemies will be no match for the men and women of the United States Air Force,” the US leader said.

AFP, 28 May 2008

France arrests 8 over mosque attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Toulouse mosqueFrench police have arrested eight people, including several soldiers, over an arson attack on a mosque in southwestern France.

The suspects, aged 18 to 30, were taken into custody Wednesday for questioning over the April 20 attack in Colomier near the city of Toulouse, in which arsonists started a fire in the mosque entrance and trashed a next-door prayer room.

The arrests took place near the cities of Toulouse, Castres and Carcassonne, where two soldiers were reportedly detained at their barracks, AFP quoted local newspaper La Depeche du Midi as saying. State prosecutor Michel Valet said it was “too soon to say” if the suspects had links to extreme-right groups.

Press TV, 28 May 2008

‘The Islamisation of Britain’ (part 596)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“If recent reports of trends in religious observance prove to be correct, then in some 30 years the mosque will be able to claim that, religiously speaking, the UK is an Islamic nation, and therefore needs a share in any religious establishment to reflect this. The progress of conservative Islam in the UK has been amazing, and it has come at a time of prolonged decline in church attendance that seems likely to continue.

“This progress has been enthusiastically assisted by this government in particular with its hard-line multi-cultural dogma and willingness to concede to virtually every demand made by Muslims…. At all levels of national life Islam has gained state funding, protection from any criticism, and the insertion of advisors and experts in government departs national and local…. While men-only gentlemen’s clubs are now being dubbed unlawful, we hear of municipal swimming baths encouraging ‘Muslim women only’ sessions and in Dewsbury Hospitals staff waste time by turning beds to face Mecca five times a day – a Monty Pythonesque scenario of lunacy, but astonishingly true. [In fact, completely untrue – ed.]

“… Islam is being institutionalised, incarnated, into national structures amazingly fast, at the same time as demography is showing very high birthrates…. Today the Christian story is fading from public imagination, while Islam grows apace.”

Editorial in the Church of England Newspaper, 26 May 2008

Over at the Spectator, this view is enthusiastically endorsed by Mad Mel: “Britain is being steadily Islamised – and hardly a word is being breathed about it.”