Author Archives: Bob Pitt

‘Take your bloody veil off’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim woman says she is scared to venture out after being ordered to take off her veil in a terrifying ordeal. Kauser Bibi was in Oldham Town Centre when she says a man began following her and asking her to take off her veil.

“I had just been to the Halifax bank when this guy started shouting ‘Oi’ at me. I just carried on walking and ignored him at first. Lots of people were there watching and no-one seemed to notice what was going on. He followed me and started shouting at me. I walked towards my car but then things got ugly.

“He kept saying ‘Take your bloody veil off – I want to see your face’. He stood in front of my car and then when I tried to reverse started kicking my car. He was really kicking the car door really hard. He was abusing me and saying all sorts of other things. I was crying and was so upset and panicked. I didn’t know what to do.”

Kauser of Blackburn who was in Oldham visiting her relatives says that passers-by then intervened and tried to pull him away but he wouldn’t listen to them. Police said a 50-year-old man from Oldham was arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated damage to a vehicle and was bailed, pending further inquiries.

Asian Image, 7 November 2007

‘Islamism’ and ‘political Islam’ are not monolithic ideas – Tariq Ramadan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tariq Ramadan 5DOHA – “Islamism” and “political Islam” are not monolithic ideas and they are as diverse as other contemporary trends in the Islamic world, says a prominent Muslim scholar and intellectual from Europe.

“After 9/11 and 7/7, terminologies like radicalism, Islamism and political Islam have been widely used in West. The so called terrorism experts tend to put all ‘Islamists’ in one category,” said Dr Tariq Ramadan, President of the European Muslim Network (EMN) based in Brussels. He was delivering a lecture at the Education City yesterday on the topic “Understanding contemporary Islamic trends”.

The Muslim Brotherhood is not similar to Al Qaeda and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan cannot be equated with Osama bin Laden, said Ramadan. We hear terms like “good Muslims” and “bad Muslims”, “moderates” and “fundamentalists”. Such terminologies remind us of the colonial attitude – “all the good are with us and all the bad are resisting us.”

The Peninsula, 7 November 2007

These fear factory speeches are utterly self-defeating

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Monday’s pre-legislation speech by the head of MI5, Jonathan Evans … was a classic ‘frightener’, reminiscent of Alastair Campbell rolling the pitch for a headline-grabbing initiative. ‘As I speak,’ intoned Evans with full dramatic effect, ‘terrorists are methodically and intentionally targeting young people and children in this country, radicalising, indoctrinating and grooming young, vulnerable people to carry out acts of terrorism.’ Note the sexual connotation of ‘grooming’….

“Scaring the public as an act of policy may win a few headlines but it is stupid. It worked short term in 2003 and may prop up yet another terrorism law in yesterday’s Queen’s speech, a law presumably requested by MI5. But it can only damage British liberty in the long term.

“The Blair government ruined Britain’s reputation for fair treatment among the moderate Muslims on whom stopping a tiny number of fanatics now depends. Abroad it declared wars, bombed Muslim capitals, killed civilians, and initiated a crusade for ‘western values’ among people sceptical of their virtues. At home it extended terrorism laws to make every dark-skinned Briton feel he or she is being made a scapegoat. While Britain remains adequately safe from attack, it has been at a wretched cost.”

Simon Jenkins in the Guardian, 7 November 2007

Muslim group attacks ‘irresponsible MI5’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim youth organisation the Ramadhan Foundation expressed concern on Monday after MI5 director-general Jonathan Evans claimed that there are “at least 2,000” individuals at large who “pose a direct threat to national security and public safety.”

Speaking at the Society of Editors conference in Manchester, Mr Evans said that the threat of “al-Qaida-style” terrorism was “the most immediate and acute peacetime threat in the 98-year history of my service.” Making no mention of British militarism in Iraq and Afghanistan, which many believe is a catalyst for the radicalisation of young Muslims, he asserted that “the root of the problem is ideological” and “is the expression of a hostility towards the UK which existed long before September 11 2001.”

But Ramadhan Foundation spokesman Mohammed Shafiq complained that Mr Evans had “failed to accept that 2,000 people out of 1.6 million is a very small problem.”

He said: “This sort of language is inflammatory and we urge all those involved to speak responsibly. There is a real and present threat to the nation from terrorism. Only together can we defeat it. Terrorism is evil and anyone who is involved must be engaged and convinced of why their path is wrong and bring them back to the mainstream.”

But Mr Shafiq stressed: “We are ready to talk to the police and security services about how we should move forward, but we have to be honest about why this threat has appeared, mainly foreign policy. Only then will we be able to defeat terrorism.”

Morning Star, 6 November 2007

For right-wing press coverage of Evans’ speech see for example “Suicide bombers in our schools”, in the Daily Express, “Al Qaeda grooming British children to carry out terror attacks in UK”, in the Daily Mail, and “MI5: Al-Qa’eda recruiting UK children for terror” in the Daily Telegraph.

PM is ‘playing cheap politics at the expense of Canadian Muslims’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Canadians could be forgiven for thinking veiled Muslim women pose an urgent threat to the integrity of our electoral system after Prime Minister Stephen Harper made one of his first priorities in the fall sitting of Parliament a bill to force voters to show their faces at the polls.

“But there is not one shred of evidence that such a problem existed in the first place. Even Harper’s Conservative government has admited ‘there was no apparent case of fraud’ in three federal by-elections that were held in September in Quebec, when unjustified hysteria over veiled Muslim women first boiled over. Yet that has not stopped Harper from trying to fix this imaginary problem by proposing changes to the country’s election law that would require voters to show their faces before they cast their ballots….

“Harper has tried to dress up the bill as a means to ‘enhance public confidence in the democratic process’. But it has nothing to do with electoral integrity and everything to do with pandering to narrow-minded fears about minorities…. Harper and other federal politicians are shamefully playing cheap politics at the expense of Canadian Muslims.”

Toronto Star, 4 November 2007

Suspend Muslim immigration: Hanson

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pauline Hanson (2)Senate hopeful Pauline Hanson has accused the Federal Government of opening up the immigration floodgates to people “who have no intention of being Australian”.

Ms Hanson, who is running in the federal election under the banner of Pauline’s United Australia Party, was campaigning on similar policies to those that won her international notoriety a decade ago, including calling for a moratorium on Muslim immigration.

Campaigning in NSW, the right-wing firebrand told website www.federalelection.com.au she was worried about the loss of Australian values, particularly as a result of Muslim immigration.

“I’ve seen the destruction of our industry, manufacturing, our farmers, everything that is Aussie and to be proud of … that’s been lost,” she said. “They’ve just opened up the floodgates to allow people here that have no intention of being Australian or being proud Australians. I’ve actually now called for a moratorium on Muslim immigration because I believe it’s not for reasons of religious or any other reason. But I think it is a cultural difference to us as Australians and we must protect our own culture.”

The Australian, 4 November 2007

Via Austrolabe

The threat of the ‘mega-mosque’ – part 687

Posted on by Bob Pitt

You might have thought that we were already suffering from media overkill on the subject, but the New York Times carries yet another article on the proposed so-called mega-mosque in Newham.

We get the usual stuff about Tablighi Jamaat being “a fertile recruiting ground for terrorists” and we’re told yet again that there is some significance in the report that “two of the suicide bombers who attacked the London transit system in July 2005 had attended Tablighi Jamaat gatherings”. Christian People’s Alliance councillor Alan Craig is trundled out once more to tell us that “We don’t want this mosque in East London. It will be disastrous.”

Over at Jihad Watch, Robert Spencer expresses his distaste for the role of the British National Party in whipping up hysteria over the issue (rather unfairly, given that he and the BNP have so much in common) and opines: “If the major parties in Britain were worth anything at all, they would be leading the fight against this mega-mosque, and exposing the Islamic supremacist agenda of the Tablighi Jamaat.”

Maryland town opposes construction of Ahmadiyya mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A local politician is seeking to prevent the Ahmadiyya Community USA from building a mosque and recreation center on 224 acres of farmland at Walkersville, Maryland. Chad Weddle, a lawyer and a town commissioner, has proposed a zoning amendment that would prevent the construction of places of worship on land zoned for agriculture there. “Agriculture shouldn’t have buildings on it,” Weddle said.

Walkersville, 56 miles northwest of Washington, has 5,800 residents – 90 percent white and mostly dairy farmers. Many members of the community are opposing the group’s plans to build. Some residents are “apprehensive of Muslims”, Mayor Ralph Whitmore says. “Tensions are still there. We have a lot of people here who haven’t forgotten 9/11”. Whitmore says people who have loved ones fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan have reservations about Muslims in the community. “We’re not a very diverse community.”

Fox News, 2 November 2007

The ‘bigoted anti-Muslim rhetoric’ of US Republicans

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Juan Cole argues that the aspiring Republican candidates for the US presidency “have taken their cues from Bush and his Administration. They have continued to vastly exaggerate the threat from terror attacks (far more Americans have died for lack of healthcare or from hard drugs) and have demonized Muslims”. He concludes: “The Republicans are playing Russian roulette with America’s future with their bigoted anti-Muslim rhetoric.”

The Nation, 1 November 2007