Author Archives: Bob Pitt

Nazir Ali tells Muslims ‘you’re in denial’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nazir AliMuslims were accused of being “in denial” by the senior Christian bishop accused of inflaming anti-Islamic feeling by declaring extremists have made parts of Britain “no go areas” for non-Muslims.

Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir Ali, defended himself against a barrage of criticism at an inter-faith meeting at Ilford Islamic Centre on Friday. Organised by the East London Three Faiths Forum, about 200 people packed into the Albert Road, Ilford, centre.

One Muslim man said after the “no go” comments hit the news his family was targeted. He said: “Surely you must have known there would be this tremendous backlash, our windows broken, our sisters and wives spat at?”

Assistant imam of the South Woodford Muslim Community Centre and Mosque, Abdulrahman Tejan Bangura, fumed: “How many times do the wider community need to be educated about the fact that extremism is un-Islamic? Anyone that’s practising extremism is not a Muslim.”

Dr Nazir Ali said: “The fact of the matter is that extremists who call themselves Islamic extremists, whether they should attach themselves to that name or not is not for me to judge, have made it so difficult for Christian workers in particular places even to live. Christian clergy have been prevented from distributing literature in people’s homes, Christian workers have been attacked or intimidated. I think the Muslim community and wider community both, need to attend to this situation and address it, rather than being in denial.”

Ilford Recorder, 24 April 2008

Revered New Jersey imam, facing deportation, has interfaith support

Posted on by Bob Pitt

PATERSON, N.J. — For a dozen years, Mohammad Qatanani has supported the members of the Islamic Center of Passaic County by speaking at funerals, hashing out ethical dilemmas and sometimes opening his home to domestic-violence victims at a moment’s notice.

But now Dr. Qatanani, 44, the imam of the mosque here, requires the support of the members: he has been barred by federal immigration authorities from renewing his driver’s license, and must call on friends to ferry him to hospitals for visits with the sick among his flock. There are fund-raisers for him at the mosque. And after Friday prayers, the hugs the men give him seem to last extra long.

The imam, who is Palestinian, and most of his family face deportation because of his detention in Israel decades ago and questions about whether he lied about it on his application for permanent residency, which he made in 1999 and which was recently denied.

Immigrant advocate groups said that other imams, in Pittsburgh, Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles and Dearborn, Mich., are also facing possible deportation, which Kareem W. Shora, executive director of the Washington-based American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, called a major concern. “We don’t know if it’s policy-driven or not,” he said. “Is there a pattern? Is it very prevalent? Yes.”

Aref Assaf, president of the American Arab Forum, an advocacy group based in Denville, N.J., said of Imam Qatanani: “If you want to deport him, what sort of person do you want to keep in this country?”

Rabbi David Senter of Congregation Beth Shalom in Pompton Lakes called the imam “the most moderate individual you could imagine.” Rabbi Senter, who has publicly praised Imam Qatanani’s work on behalf of interfaith understanding, said he deserves due process. “My fear is, because of Sept. 11 and the wide brush we’ve been willing to paint Muslims with, he will not get that.”

New York Times, 24 April 2008

BNP replies to the BoD

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Loyal British Jews are our natural allies in the fight against the Islamic fundamentalists who want to destroy the Western civilisation so many of whose core values we hold in common. That is just one reason why many Jews will be voting for the BNP. Let’s remember also, however, that this is only one reason. Jews will be voting British National Party for other reasons too: because they are concerned about crime, because they are worried about the economic decline of our country, because they are concerned about the disintegration of community spirit and decent values. In other words for the same reasons as so many other British voters, including many Sikhs and Christian West Indians. As Martin Wingfield commented in our paper Freedom recently:  ‘today there are an increasing number of Jews campaigning for the BNP and feeling very comfortable with their political choice.’

“When the Chief Rabbi a few years ago wrote a book entitled ‘Will Our Grandchildren Be Jewish?’ he articulated precisely the same concern that we have for the future of our people in the same overcrowded multi-cult nightmare that threatens traditional Jewish and British identities alike.  Just because a Jew wants to preserve and celebrate his ancestral culture and identity doesn’t make him a ‘hater’ of Gentiles, and nor does our wanting to preserve and celebrate our ancestral culture and identity make us ‘haters’ of Jews, or any other ethnic group for that matter.”

The fascist British National Party continues its campaign to win support in the Jewish community on an anti-Muslim programme.

BNP website, 23 April 2008

See earlier comments by Henry Grunwald of the Board of Deputies here.

Of course, the idea that significant numbers of British Jews will be voting for a party whose leader Nick Griffin was convicted only a decade ago of inciting racial hatred, in an article that dismissed the Holocaust as the “Holohoax”, is laughable. What the BNP hopes to do is to attract a few disoriented right-wing individuals from the Jewish community, just as it has attracted the odd individual Sikh sympathiser, and publicise their support in an attempt to cover up its Nazi origins and continue the pretence that it is a mainstream political party.

Welsh anti-fascists challenge ‘extraordinary’ BNP claims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Welsh anti-fascist campaigners challenged a Carmarthenshire BNP candidate to justify the “extraordinary” claims in his election propaganda or resign on Wednesday.

Far-right fantasist Carmarthenshire County Council Penygroes ward British National Party candidate Kevin Edwards claimed in his election leaflets that soldiers at Birmingham hospitals had had to remove their uniforms to avoid offending Muslim staff and visitors. The leaflet also stated that homosexuality was being taught to schoolchildren as young as four.

Anti-fascist campaign Searchlight Cymru secretary Darron Dupre said: “We were a bit bemused by such claims, but were happy to give Mr Edwards the benefit of the doubt, so we checked. We can find no evidence of his claims anywhere. We know of an unsubstantiated newspaper report on Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, but that was disproved some time ago. We also asked the NUT about the subjects taught to four-year-olds. They were most bemused about Mr Edwards’s claims.”

Mr Edwards’s leaflet argued that British people should get priority in housing over asylum-seekers, even though – as Mr Dupre pointed out – asylum-seekers are not entitled to council housing. “He further states that asylum-seekers get free cars and TVs,” said Mr Dupre.

“Everyone at Searchlight Cymru is intrigued to learn exactly where this is happening. As Mr Edwards obviously knows something that no-one else knows, then we ask that he backs up claims with some facts. If he cannot substantiate such inflammatory claims, then we would expect him to do the honourable thing and resign his candidacy.”

Morning Star, 24 April 2008

To lionise former extremists feeds anti-Muslim prejudice

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ziauddin Sardar“When one sinner repents, says the biblical adage, there is much joy in heaven. So the angels, along with the government, must be rejoicing at the launch of the Quilliam Foundation. The thinktank has been established by not one but two repentant sinners: Ed Husain and Maajid Nawaz, ex-members of the extremist Islamic cult Hizb ut-Tahrir.

“On earth, however, I would suggest a greater degree of caution. In the here and now, it’s not the repentant sinners we should celebrate but ‘the 99 righteous persons who need no repentance’, those unmentioned Muslims who refused to be seduced by the dark side….

“The embrace of former extremists is a slap in the face for Muslims who have worked tirelessly to build a British Muslim identity and foster inclusion by constructive community activity. It’s another attempt at the marginalisation of the overwhelming majority who never had a moment’s doubt that Islam gives no sanction for such murderous and misguided perversion of belief.

“… we don’t need neocon ex-extremists to tell us what extremism is about. They are part of the problem, not the solution. But we do need a viable politics that tackles the root cause of extremism.”

Ziauddin Sardar in the Guardian, 24 April 2008

See also Yusuf Smith’s post on Ed Husain at Indigo Jo Blogs, 23 April 2008

Boris thinks Muslim voters are fools

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Muslim Public Affairs Committee draws our attention to a leaflet supporting Boris Johnson’s mayoral candidacy that was distributed outside Palmers Green Mosque last Friday. In an attempt to counter the Muslims 4 Ken campaign, the leaflet assures the Muslim community: “You have been lied to. In recent weeks, Ken Livingstone’s cronies have been visiting mosques in London to circulate offensive material about Boris Johnson. They have been misleading you with leaflets suggesting that Boris Johnson is anti-Islam ….”

For Johnson’s real views on on Islam, see here, here and here.

Boris Islam leaflet

Arabist Hans Jansen causes irritation among his peers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islam_Voor_VarkensIn his recent book Islam for pigs, monkeys, donkeys and other animals, Dutch Arabist Hans Jansen has put a cat in among the scientific pigeons. However, it looks like the media are taking him more seriously than his fellow Islam experts are.

Fellow Arabist Professor Martin van Bruinessen from the Institute for Studies in Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) in Leiden expresses the growing irritation with Hans Jansen among his colleagues.

He remembers when in the 1990s, Dr Jansen wrote facetious pieces about Islam. But since the Netherlands became obsessed by fear of Islam after 9/11, the professor from Utrecht has grown into a real phenomenon in the media, in which he presents himself as the only Dutch expert who dares to talk about the inconvenient truth of Islam without political correctness getting in the way.

Dr Jansen’s work is an important source of inspiration for anti-Islamic MP Geert Wilders. In the days after his film Fitna was put on the web, Dr Jansen appeared in several television programmes to explain its content.

In Islam for pigs, he sets out his vision by answering 250 questions about Islam. In the book, Islam is portrayed as a dangerous and violent religion. The Qur’an preaches peace, Dr Jansen admits, but only once everyone has submitted to the religion. Up to that time, evil and unbelievers have to be conquered, using violence if necessary.

The number of Dutch Muslims that reject al-Qaeda’s brand of terrorism could be “lower than we think”, according to the professor. Most Muslims do not see Bin Laden as a madman, but rather as a “super-activist, who is taking the ultimate steps according to Islamic rules in the fight against infidels.”

The title of the book refers to the terms used by the Qur’an for unbelievers and Jews, explains the author in the introduction. Professor Van Bruinessen says: “If you take the time to look at the passages in question – for example on the bibleandkoran.net site, you will see that this is just not true. The Qur’an tells about a people in the past that disobeyed God and was turned into pigs and monkeys as a punishment.”

Professor van Bruinessen thinks this is typical of Mr Jansen’s style. “Since Mr Jansen received the title of professor, but in particular since the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, he has set all scientific scruples aside. He has become an anti-Islam polemist who has no reservations about completely misrepresenting the issues on purpose.”

Radio Netherlands, 24 April 2008