Category Archives: Analysis & comment

‘It’s not just the Swiss – all Europe is ready to revolt’ claims Liddle

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rod Liddle“In the last ten years the people of Europe have begun to revolt against what, at one extreme, they see as the ‘Islamification’ of their countries, or else they hold the more moderate position of being disquieted by the high number of Muslim immigrants they have been forced to receive, most of whom are antithetical to the indigenous way of life and have cultural values that do not accord with the resident majority….

“Across Europe, opposition to Muslim immigration runs at a steady 60 to 65 per cent; the people of the Continent didn’t want the immigration in the first place, are not happy with the way in which the incomers have failed to integrate and do not want any more, regardless of … how often they, the general public, might be written off as Islamophobic. In his recent study of Islamic immigration into Europe (Reflections on the Revolution in Europe), Christopher Caldwell wrote: ‘If Europe is getting more immigrants than its voters want, then it is a good indication that its democracy is malfunctioning.’ Precisely.”

Rod Liddle in the Spectator, 5 December 2009

Via ENGAGE

Update:  But let’s be fair to Liddle – he’s not only hostile to Muslims. Just to show that he’s an equal opportunities bigot, in his latest post at the Spectator he assures his readers that: “The overwhelming majority of street crime, knife crime, gun crime, robbery and crimes of sexual violence in London is carried out by young men from the African-Caribbean community.” How long, you wonder, before Liddle draws the obvious political conclusion and joins the BNP.

Michael Burleigh and Taj Hargey on the Swiss referendum

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In the Daily Mail Michael Burleigh opines: “The Swiss have been forced to recognise that many of their people are worried about Islam’s unquestioned, undemocratic encroachments into Western society. And unless our own Government now takes note and instigates a rational but robust debate on the subject, we can expect far more trouble ahead.”

Over at the Times the inimitable Taj Hargey assures us that the ban “does not infringe the religious liberty of Swiss Muslims. Minarets remain emblematic of mosques in the Muslim heartlands but there is no theological reason why houses of worship in the West have to incorporate such towers”.

Indeed, according to Hargey, if there is a rise in bigotry against Muslims across Europe they themselves are primarily to blame: “Only when Muslim immigrants and converts in Europe reject the twisted ideology of a fundamentalist male clergy will the chief causes of anti-Muslim prejudice in Europe recede.”

‘Just say no to Sharia law’ urges Tatchell

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tatchell No Islamic StatePeter Tatchell is given space at Comment is Free to promote the “Universal Children’s Day and International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women” demonstration on Saturday – which, despite its grandiose title, is just another stupid stunt by One Law for All, a front organisation for Mariam Namazie and the Worker Communist Party of Iran.

Tatchell writes plaintively that “the turn out in Hyde Park will probably be quite small” – which, based on previous experience, is a realistic prediction. The explanation is that anyone with a shred of political judgement baulks at stirring up Islamophobia in co-operation with a bunch of sectarian cranks like the WPI. For Tatchell, however, the problem is that leftists and liberals “get squeamish when it comes to challenging human rights abuses committed in the name of Islam”.

The WPI appeals to its supporters to “Show your opposition to Sharia law and all religious-based tribunals in Britain, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and elsewhere” (emphasis added), and Tatchell himself claims that he and other supporters of Saturday’s demonstration “reject all religious laws and courts, including those inspired by Judaist and Christian fundamentalism”. Why, then, do Tatchell and the WPI concentrate exclusively on attacking Islamic religious tribunals? We never hear a peep from them about the Beth Din courts that operate within the Orthodox Jewish community, even though their rules on divorce are considerably more discriminatory against women than those of Sharia tribunals.

The reason of course is that Tatchell is less interested in women’s rights than in generating some publicity for himself by stoking the fires of anti-Muslim bigotry.

BNP signs its first non-white member… but he’s only joined because he hates Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rajinder Singh BNP TVAn elderly Sikh who describes Islam as a “beast” and once provided a character reference for Nick Griffin during his racial hatred trial is set to become the British National Party’s first non-white member.

Rajinder Singh has been sympathetic towards Britain’s far-right party for much of the past decade even though he currently remains barred from becoming a member because of the colour of his skin.

But last weekend the BNP’s leadership took their first steps towards dropping its membership ban on non-whites after the Human Rights Commission threatened the party with legal action. The move will be put to a vote of members soon.

Martin Wingfield, the BNP’s communications and campaigns officer, has already put forward the case for Mr Singh’s membership, telling members on its website: “I say adapt and survive and give the brave and loyal Rajinder Singh the honour of becoming the first ethnic minority member of the BNP.”

A BNP spokesman said last night: “He is perhaps the kind of immigrant you want if you are going to have them.” Mr Singh, a former teacher from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, says he would be “honoured” to become a card-carrying member of the BNP.

Mr Singh and another Sikh from Slough who goes by the pseudonym Ammo Singh have previously co-operated with the BNP and have been used by the party’s leadership to try to woo Asian supporters, particularly Hindus and Sikhs living in areas where tensions with Muslims run high. The party has had little success, however, with all mainstream Sikh and Hindu groups widely condemning the BNP.

But Rajinder Singh and Ammo Singh – who keeps his identity secret but is thought to be an accountant in his late thirties – have answered Mr Griffin’s call, thanks to the BNP’s staunchly anti-Islamic rhetoric since September 11.

Mainstream Sikh groups said they were appalled. Dr Indarjit Singh, director of the Network of Sikh Organisations, said: “Sikhism stresses equality for all human beings. Therefore Sikhs who are true to their faith, will having nothing whatsoever to do with any party that favours any one section of the community.”

Independent, 20 November 2009

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More scaremongering from Quilliam?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Quilliam FoundationSome of Britain’s most dangerous Al-Qaeda leaders are promoting jihad from inside high-security prisons by smuggling out propaganda for the internet and finding recruits. In an authoritative report, Quilliam, a think tank funded by the Home Office, claims “mismanagement” by the Prison Service is helping Al-Qaeda gain recruits and risks “strengthening jihadist movements”.

Sunday Times, 15 November 2005

Although the study is not yet available online, the reliability of Quilliam’s allegations may perhaps be judged by the shock-horror revelation in their press release that “Faraj Hassan Al-Saad, a Libyan detainee then fighting extradition to Italy on terrorism charges, used prison call boxes to appear live on the Islam Channel” which is “run by Mohammed Ali Harrath, a convicted Tunisian terrorist who is the subject of an Interpol ‘Red Notice’.”

Quilliam recommends “establishing specialised a de-radicalisation centre [sic] to house imprisoned extremists, in order to tackle prison radicalisation”. Now, who do you suppose might be looking to get the contract to run that de-radicalisation programme?

Still, it’s good to know that Quilliam are spending taxpayers’ money on something other than hiring libel lawyers to threaten their critics.

Mad Mel’s moderate Muslim test

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Writing in the Jewish Chronicle, Melanie Phillips tells us that “it is very important to separate moderate Muslims from Islamists”. But this poses the question: “how can you tell a genuine moderate from the dissimulators?”

And yes, you guessed it, the answer is that “the issue that defines true Muslim moderation is the absence of any hostility towards Israel”.

So, by that criterion, Mad Mel’s list of moderate Muslims would include Irshad Manji and … well, nobody else comes to mind, really.

According to Phillips, even Ed Husain is an extremist. When he opposed Israel’s assault on Gaza she accused him of adopting “the very narrative and rhetoric that are driving Muslims to mass murder”!

Inayat is ‘fake moderate Muslim’, claims Edmund Standing

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Edmund StandingYou might have thought that Inayat Bunglawala’s Muslims4UK campaign against yesterday’s (cancelled) al-Muhajiroun demonstration in central London would have gained almost unanimous support outside the ranks of Anjem Choudary’s tiny gang of idiots.

But no. Mad Melanie Phillips has been joined by Edmund (“the BNP don’t really hate Muslims“) Standing in condemning Inayat’s initiative as a cunning manoeuvre to cover up his extremist views and misrepresent himself as a moderate.

Standing writes: “Bunglawala’s ‘anti-extremist’ drive managed to drum up support largely from extremists: Bob Pitt, an extreme left-winger, and MPAC, an organisation which refuses to condemn Jihadists and whose spokesman actively promotes them. Moderate? Pull the other one!”

In fairness to MPACUK and myself, I think Standing should amend his post to include a denuciation of that well-known pro-Islamist extremist Ed Husain too.

Witch-hunt of Azad Ali resumes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A civil servant who has condemned ministers for helping to fuel the “slaughter” of Arabs in the Middle East is advising Britain’s most senior prosecutor on Islamic extremism.

Azad Ali, a Treasury official who has used his internet blog to praise the spiritual leader of Al-Qaeda, sits on a Whitehall counterterrorism panel that provides advice to Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions (DPP).

Ali was investigated earlier this year over his controversial views on the Iraq war and was forced to deny that he sympathised with the killing of British troops. He got into trouble with his Treasury bosses after using his blog to deny that last November’s Mumbai attacks, which claimed 173 lives, were an act of terrorism.

Sunday Times, 1 November 2009

This is no more than a rerun of the witch-hunt of Azad Ali that took place earlier this year, and features the same blatant misrepresentations of Azad’s views. The Sunday Times also fails to make it clear that, although this lying campaign led to Azad’s suspension from his civil service job, an inquiry cleared and reinstated him.

Andrew Boff – apologist for Islamism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Andrew BoffWell, according to Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens he is. At ConservativeHome, under the headline “Hate preachers should not be defended”, Meleagrou-Hitchens returns to the attack on City Hall’s supposed links with “Islamist extremism”. This time the object of his ire is Conservative Assembly Member Andrew Boff, who has defended Boris Johnson against Meleagrou-Hitchens’ earlier accusations.

It is not accidental that Meleagrou-Hitchens’ articles have been posted on ConservativeHome’s local government page, which is edited by Harry Phibbs. A one-time leading member of the notorious Federation of Conservative Students, Phibbs is one of those Tory right-wingers who expected Boris to implement a more thorough break with Ken Livingstone’s legacy after his election as mayor. Writing at ConservativeHome in July this year, Phibbs complained indignantly that “the Conservative administration in City Hall have been shamefully allowing Ken Livingstone’s ideology of quotas, interest groups, thought crime and racial separatism to remain largely intact”. For Phibbs, links with the Islam Channel and the East London Mosque show that Boris is extending this “Livingstone lite” approach to London’s Muslim communities.

But Boris has his eye on re-election in 2012 and is prepared to take a more pragmatic view than Phibbs. In the 2008 mayoral contest the publicising of Boris’s offensive journalistic remarks about Islam led to a significant mobilisation against him among Muslims in the capital, where they make up 8% of the population. This could well have cost Boris the election. So maintaining and publicising Eid in the Square is one of Boris’s ways of mending fences with Muslim Londoners, and if it means working with the Islam Channel and giving its CEO Mohamed Ali a platform then Boris is prepared to go along with that.

In the case of the East London Mosque a more specific issue is involved, namely that the Tories think they have a chance of victory in Bethnal Green & Bow or Poplar & Limehouse in next year’s general election, after Jim Fitzpatrick’s comments about a gender-segregated Muslim wedding severely damaged Labour’s prospects in the East End. So, from a party-political perspective, establishing a warm relationship between the Tories at City Hall and the East London Mosque makes good sense.

As we’ve pointed out previously, by extending their anti-Islamist witch-hunting to the likes of Jack Straw, Boris Johnson and now Andrew Boff, Meleagrou-Hitchens and the Centre for Social Cohesion have made a serious tactical blunder which risks undermining their whole operation. And that is certainly something we welcome here at Islamophobia Watch.

Inayat is mirror image of BNP says Mad Mel

Posted on by Bob Pitt

We recently reported on Inayat Bunglawala’s launch of Muslims4Uk and its planned counter-demonstration against al-Muhajiroun this Saturday. Mad Melanie Phillips is not impressed, though. According to Mel, Inayat is carrying out a cunning manoeuvre (on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood, apparently) designed to misrepresent himself as supporting “a multi-faith, multicultural democracy where people are free to practise their faith or not to if they so choose”. Mel is having none of it: “Bunglawala is surely the mirror image of Nick Griffin in hisattempt to reposition the BNP as a non-racist party – and about as plausible.”