Extremist ideas are being spread by Islamic study centres linked to British universities and backed by multi-million-pound donations from Saudi Arabia and Muslim organisations, a new report claims.
Sunday Telegraph, 13 April 2008
Yet more scaremongering nonsense from Anthony Glees.
“Osama Saeed, who has openly called for ‘a caliphate’, a pan-Islamic global state, has a serious chance of being elected for Glasgow Central when the failing Brown government finally calls a general election. Salmond doesn’t seem to care about the harm being done to the Muslim community by elevating someone such as Saeed, who last week was appointed to be a member of the Scottish government’s working group to look at the issue of Trident replacement.”
Tom Gallagher renews his campaign against the Scottish National Party and one of its leading Muslim activists.
Update: See also Postman Patel, 15 April 2008
He draws attention to the fact that Gallagher is a research fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington.
Behind a film from Dutch politician Geert Wilders lies a system that has let racism into the mainstream, writes Maina van der Zwan.
A 20-year-old Malmö woman has been awarded damages after she was asked to leave a bus for wearing a veil. The woman has received 25,000 kronor ($4,203) from public bus service operator Arriva after an agreement was reached with the Ombudsman against ethnic discrimination (DO), according to local newspaper Sydsvenskan.
The woman was instructed to leave the bus in the southern Swedish city when she refused to remove the niqab veil that she was wearing as part of her sartorial hijab headdress. The bus driver had asked the woman to remove her niqab so that he could identify her, however the woman was using a bus pass that did not require identification.
“The bus driver has not acted according to Arriva’s values. There is no doubt where the fault lies and this is most regrettable. We are happy to pay out the money to make up for it,” said Jan Wildau at Arriva. As a result of the incident the bus driver, who was employed on an hourly basis, no longer works for Arriva.
A Saudi man has created a riposte to films criticising Islam in a video which portrays Christianity as a religion of violence. The film, entitled Schism, was made by Raed al-Saeed. It splices together Bible verses and Iraq war images – including British soldiers beating civilians. Other images show Christian extremists in America apparently encouraging children to fight a “war” for Jesus.
The film, which was posted on the internet last month, was initially removed by YouTube, the video sharing site. Mr Saeed complained to the site and it has been restored.
Mr Saeed said his film was not intended to outrage or provoke, but rather to illustrate how all religions could be depicted as preaching violence. “It is easy to take parts of any holy book and make it sound like the most inhuman book ever written,” reads the closing image in the six-minute film. Schism is a response to the recently released film Fitna by Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician, in which acts of violence by Islamic extremists are inter-cut with Koran verses.
It had been feared that Fitna would prompt violent global outrage amongst Muslims. So far, however, reaction has been muted. Instead it has spawned a host of parodies as well as more serious responses such as Mr Saeed’s film. “In Schism I have used the same methodology that Wilders has used and that involves taking texts out of context,” he said.
Daily Telegraph, 12 April 2008
See also “Schism — Saudi blogger’s answer to Wilders film”, Arab News, 10 April 2008
Muslims in Oxfordshire have denied they had plans to broadcast a call-to-prayer from their mosque. In January, there were reports of an application to attach a loudspeaker to the Central Mosque in Oxford. The Bishop of Oxford, Rt Revd John Pritchard received a death threat after he lent his support to the idea. But the mosque’s treasurer, Masood Ahmed has now said no planning application to broadcast the call-to-prayer was made.
Mr Ahmed said some members had considered having three two-minute calls a day or calls only on Fridays, and looked into the idea. He said they may have been “slightly misguided.” He told the BBC: “All we did was just inquire what the planning applications involved, and that was all, there wasn’t any formal planning application whatsoever. We have a very good relationship with our neighbours, and if any application was to be put in place, then we would have consulted our neighbours first before we went ahead.”
The far right British National party is trying to shed its antisemitic past as part of a drive to pick up votes among London’s Jewish community. The party, which could get its first seat on the London assembly if voter turnout is low next month, is campaigning in Jewish areas across the capital and attempting to play on what it sees as historical enmity between the Jewish and Muslim communities.
In one leaflet, handed out in north London last weekend, the party’s only Jewish councillor, Pat Richardson, is quoted along with a picture of young Muslims holding a placard reading: “Butcher those who mock Islam.”
“I’m in the BNP because no one else speaks out against the Islamification of our country,” said Richardson. “Being Jewish only adds to my concern about this aggressive creed that also threatens our secular values and Christian tradition.”
The move has sparked a furious reaction among Jewish organisations who say the BNP is still antisemitic and racist.
Boris Johnson today accused the Mayor of “demeaning” his office by suggesting Mr Johnson had smeared Islam after the London bombings. The Tory candidate said he took “deep offence” at Ken Livingstone’s claim he had said the Koran was “inherently” violent.
However, the Mayor insisted Mr Johnson’s remarks – in contrast to his own rousing response to the 7 July attacks – showed his true reaction to the tragedy.
In the first radio hustings on LBC radio between the three main candidates, Mr Johnson insisted he would have issued “exactly the same” kind of remarks after the bombings, which killed 52 people, as Mr Livingstone had if he had been running the city at the time. “What Londoners want in the event of a tragedy of that kind … is someone who will speak for the city and give a voice to our defiance and our unwillingness to submit to that kind of terror and kind of cowardly attack,” he said.
However, the Mayor claimed: “I know what Boris would have said because he wrote it in the Spectator the following week. Very different. I said this is a criminal act by a handful of men. It doesn’t define a faith or an ideology. What you said, Boris, was Islam was the problem… And the Koran is inherently violent. I actually made certain that we were looking at individuals. You smeared an entire faith.”
An audibly furious Mr Johnson responded: “Can I tell you what deep offence I take at that? I think you really traduce what I said. My view is that Islam is a religion of peace and indeed I am very proud to say I have Muslim ancestors. My great-grandfather knew the Koran off by heart, Ken Livingstone, and I really wish you would leave off these kinds of tactics, which demean this race and demean your office.”
Evening Standard, 10 April 2008
For an example of the Spectator‘s coverage of Islam during Boris Johnson’s stint as editor, see our accompanying illustration.
For a selection of Johnson’s statements about Islam, see here.
In a recent decision, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (the “Commission”) decided not to proceed with complaints filed against Maclean’s magazine related to an article “The future belongs to Islam“. The complainants alleged that the content of the magazine and Maclean’s refusal to provide space for a rebuttal violated their human rights.
Denying a service because of human rights grounds such as race or creed can form the basis for a human rights complaint. However, the Ontario Human Rights Code (the “Code“) does not give the Commission the jurisdiction to deal with the content of magazine articles through the complaints process.
Nevertheless, the Commission has a broader mandate to promote and advance respect for human rights in Ontario, forward the dignity and worth of every Ontarian and take steps to alleviate tension and conflict in the community, including by speaking out on events that are inconsistent with the spirit of the Code.
While freedom of expression must be recognized as a cornerstone of a functioning democracy, the Commission has serious concerns about the content of a number of articles concerning Muslims that have been published by Maclean’s magazine and other media outlets. This type of media coverage has been identified as contributing to Islamophobia and promoting societal intolerance towards Muslim, Arab and South Asian Canadians.
The Commission recognizes and understands the serious harm that such writings cause, both to the targeted communities and society as a whole. And, while we all recognize and promote the inherent value of freedom of expression, it should also be possible to challenge any institution that contributes to the dissemination of destructive, xenophobic opinions.
The Muslim Council of Britain today joined forces with Operation Black Vote and a diverse coalition of groups from Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Sikh faiths to unite against the threat from far Right political groups.
This unprecedented coalition launched a 100-foot billboard poster across the Capital that warns of the critical danger from the far Right at the upcoming elections.
The poster is designed in a Banksy style design, with a hard hitting image. The MCB is encouraging Muslims to readily join fellow Londoners to go out and vote on local matters and stop the far right. If you don’t vote, you don’t count.We must all stand united against these peddlers of hate. The far right will aim to gain legitimacy by winning a seat on the London Assembly and use the funding paid to Assembly Members by your council tax to promote its Islamophobic hatred. Participating in local elections is our civic duty and is in the best traditions of Islam.
The threat is also real outside London, with local elections taking place in certain cities and counties in England and Wales (www.aboutmyvote.org.uk for further information).
*ACT NOW*!
– The MCB has launched a campaign to raise awareness amongst its affiliates. Mosques are advised to encourage their congregations to vote on 1 May
– Affiliates are advised to launch effective local campaigns by seeking coalitions with other groups and other faiths
– Muslim student groups are raising awareness amongst young people in student unions
– Muslim and ethnic media are hosting debates and discussions on democratic participation and airing the MCB ad to encourage voter registration (to see the video, visit www.mcb.org.uk/vote2008)
– MCB is working with a diverse range of bodies who are commited to
democratic participation, wish to raise the very real social concerns affecting Londoners, and those active in preventing the far-right in gaining a foothold in public life
*ACT NOW!*
For further information, visit www.mcb.org.uk/vote2008
MORE INFO:
To find out more about Operation Black Vote’s campaign, visit: http://www.obv.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=995&Itemid=1
Download Unite Against Facism Leaflet:
http://www.mcb.org.uk/vote2008/index_files/stopfarright.pdf
The London Citizen’s Agenda:
http://www.londoncitizens.org.uk/files/LONDON%20CITIZENS%20AGENDA%20FOR%20LONDON.pdf