Mad Mel explains the BNP’s success

Melanie Phillips Jihad in Britain“Anyone who objects to multi-culturalism is called a bigot; anyone who wants to curb immigration is called a racist; anyone who objects to the Islamisation of Britain is called an Islamophobe; anyone who wants to leave the EU and regain the power of national self-government is called a xenophobe; anyone, in short, who wants to retain Britain’s national identity rooted in the shared particulars of religion, law, history, traditions and culture and its powers as a self-governing nation finds themselves ostracised as a pariah….

“Working-class areas are particularly vulnerable to the BNP because they bear the full brunt of these policies. They are areas of very high immigration where the transformation of the ethnic, religious and cultural landscape has made indigenous inhabitants feel strangers in their own country…. The willed loss of control of this country’s borders, the blind eye to Islamisation, the refusal to allow the people to vote against the Lisbon treaty and the surrender of self-government to the EU – these are the things that have brought the BNP electoral success.”

Melanie Phillips’s blog, 8 June 2009

Not that Mel is exactly an expert on the BNP, of course. According to her, “they will not allow black people or Jews to be members”, which rather overlooks the fact that the BNP actually have a councillor of Jewish origin – one Patricia Richardson, who has sat on Epping Forest District Council for the last five years.

And as we’ve pointed out in the past, Phillips omits to mention one important factor in the rise of the BNP – the legitimisation of their racist politics by bigoted right-wing commentators like herself whose anti-Muslim tirades are often barely distinguishable from the sort of thing you might read in a BNP propaganda leaflet.

‘Fears of Muslim anger over religious book’

Does God Hate WomenAn academic book about religious attitudes to women is to be published this week despite concerns it could cause a backlash among Muslims because it criticises the prophet Muhammad for taking a nine-year-old girl as his third wife.

The book, entitled Does God Hate Women?, suggests that Muhammad’s marriage to a child called Aisha is “not entirely compatible with the idea that he had the best interests of women at heart”.

It also says that Cherie Blair, wife of the former prime minister, was “incorrect” when she defended Islam in a lecture by claiming “it is not laid down in the Koran that women can be beaten by their husbands and their evidence should be devalued as it is in some Islamic courts”.

This weekend, the publisher, Continuum, said it had received “outside opinion” on the book’s cultural and religious content following suggestions that it might cause offence. “We sought some advice and paused for thought before deciding to go ahead with publication,” said Oliver Gadsby, the firm’s chief executive. The book will be released on Thursday.

Sunday Times, 31 May 2009


Sounds to me like a cynical attempt by the authors, Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom – who are associated with the notoriously Islamophobic website Butterflies and Wheels – to boost sales of their book, which has already been turned down by Verso.

The report concludes with a quote from a Muslim critic: “No one will swallow talk about child brides. It would lead to a huge backlash, as we saw with The Jewel of Medina.” And who is the individual the Sunday Times has chosen to approach as a representative voice of British Muslims? Wouldn’t you know it, it’s Anjem Choudary, leader of the minuscule gang of provocateurs who previously traded under the name of Al-Muhajiroun.

Which only goes to show that, when it comes to depicting the UK Muslim community, the “serious” press often shows the same irresponsibility and contempt for accuracy as the worst of the tabloids.

Update:  See also Benson’s opinion piece in the Observer and Yusuf Smith’s response (“The article left me wondering how a respectable liberal Sunday broadsheet can print such a shoddy article containing such obvious generalisations and faulty logic”) at Indigo Jo Blogs.

‘Tories commit to Islamification of Britain’

Well, so the brain-dead bigots of the BNP claim.

The basis of this accusation is the recent launch of the Conservative Muslim Forum North West, which aims to “give Muslims in the party a platform to have their voices heard, to engage with Muslims and encourage them to participate in political life at all levels, from grassroots to Parliament”. This initiative also “hopes to encourage more Muslims to join the party with a big drive to encourage more women and young people to become politically active”.

Could there be a more graphic illustration of the Tories’ sell-out to the Muslim hordes?

Mind you, I can’t help recalling that when the government launched its Young Muslim Advisory Group last October the Tories’ shadow minister for community cohesion, Sayeeda Warsi, denounced it as “another example of the Government engaging with the British Muslim communities on the basis purely of their faith”. She continued: “When will the Government learn that the Muslim community is not a homogenous block…? Actions such as this are a continuation of the Government’s policy of state multiculturalism, which creates a more divided Britain.”

I suppose, though, that when the Tories themselves are trying to rally support among Muslims in the run-up to a general election, “engaging with the British Muslim communities on the basis purely of their faith” seems like quite a good idea after all.

Patriotic, respectful and homophobic: a portrait of British Muslims’ state of mind

Well, that how the headline currently reads to a quite balanced report of the Gallup poll findings in today’s Independent. However, as you can see from the URL, the original headline was “Patriotic, paranoid and homophobic”. Quite where they got that from, I don’t know. Perhaps the sub-editor was so used to producing headlines for articles portraying the Muslim community in a negative light that they had difficulty adjusting.

And over at the Daily Mail, their report is headed “Just one in 10 British Muslims feel integrated into society, study claims“.

The Muslim cleric who blames British mosques for the 7/7 bombings and says multiculturalism is a disaster

Yes, it’s Taj Hargey – just the sort of “Muslim cleric” who finds favour with the Daily Mail, which devotes a major puff-piece to him. Regarding representative Muslim organisations, Hargey assures his interviewer: “These people are religious fascists. The view that Islam is incompatible with British society is something that the Muslim Council of Britain and their hangers-on have promulgated.”

No doubt Hazel Blears will approve of this too. Surely it can only be a matter of time before Hargey finds himself the recipient of the sort of government largesse presently enjoyed by the Quilliam Foundation.

Speaking of whom, the latest witch-hunting “media alert” from Ed Husain and Maajid Nawaz is directed against the Islam Channel, which the Quilliam Foundation accuses of promoting extremism. Among the “extremists” Quilliam objects to this popular TV station giving a platform to is Inayat Bunglawala! Perhaps the next Quilliam press release will be headed “Comment is Free and the promotion of extremism”.

It really is a disgrace that this unpleasant sect, headed by a couple of embittered and and malicious ex-HTers, is supplied with large sums of taxpayers’ money – £1 million according to one estimate – to pursue its vindictive, divisive campaign against mainstream Muslim organisations and individuals.

Update:  See also “Quilliam stooges target the Islam Channel” at Engage, 30 April 2009

‘Islamified Labour Party becomes anti-Jewish’, claim fascists

“The Islamification of Britain which is the direct result of mass Third World immigration has now started to directly affect the Labour Party as well, after a Jewish would-be councillor was told by a senior party official that she was ‘too Jewish and too white’ to stand in a Birmingham ward dominated by Afro-Caribbean and Muslim residents.

“Ms Elaina Cohen was told by Labour’s former Lord Mayor councillor Mahmood Hussain that he could not support her application for an inner-city ward because ‘my Muslim members don’t want you because you are Jewish’….

“The development is the inevitable result of the Islamification of Britain, and the resultant importation of Middle East conflicts to these shores. As increasing numbers of Muslims settle and take over Britain, anti-Jewish events will steadily increase.

“This has been the case in all European countries where Islamic immigration has been high. France in particular has seen dramatically increased anti-Jewish attacks which have all been Islamist in origin.”

BNP news article, 28 April 2009


The article is lifted without acknowledgement from the Daily Mail. The BNP of course omits to quote Mahmood Hussain’s statement: “I would not make those sort of comments. The allegations are not true.”

Given its long history of antisemitism, the spectacle of the BNP presenting itself as a friend of the Jewish community may appear bizarre, but its attempt to win Jewish support on an anti-Muslim programme is part of a general development on the European far right. However, while parties like Vlaams Belang in Belgium have met with some success in applying this tactic, the BNP’s efforts have so far attracted almost no support at all within the Jewish community.

While the BNP remains under the leadership of Nick Griffin, a convicted Holocaust denier and author of the Jewish conspiracy booklet Who Are the Mind-Benders?, this is unlikely to change any time soon.

Update:  Over at Harry’s Place the story is reported under the headline “Jews are unwanted here”, and just in case you missed the parallel they’re drawing between Mahmood Hussain and the Nazis, a German sign from the ’30s is reproduced: Juden sind hier unerwünscht. And this despite Hussain’s denial of the accusation against him and before the Labour Party has investigated the matter. Still, he’s a Muslim isn’t he, so why bother with all that innocent-until-proven-guilty nonsense?

Further update:  See also “Selective outrage over bigotry” by Sunny Hundal at Pickled Politics, 1 May 2009

Quilliam, New Labour and the witch-hunt of Osama Saeed

Osama and AlexCraig Murray responds to the disgraceful attempt by Ed Husain and his mates to smear Osama Saeed:

“The party political nature of the Quilliam Foundation is shown in their astonishing and completely unbalanced attack on Osama Saeed, a prominent SNP candidate and a friend of mine. They try to portray him as an Islamic extremist. If Osama is an Islamic extremist, then I am a Blairite.

“For New Labour to have even the faintest hope of a respectable performance at the general election, they must protect their Scottish base against the SNP. This pathetic attempt to smear the SNP as connected to Islamic extremism is a blatant abuse of taxpayers’ money….

“The real scandal here is not Osama Saeed, who is a good man dedicated to freedom and to bringing Scotland’s Muslim community into its mainstream politics. The real story is the blatant misuse of taxpayer funds by New Labour.”

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Tory MP calls for end to Sharia councils

General ElectionMark Pritchard, Tory MP for The Wrekin, blogs at ConservativeHome.

And yes, it’s the usual stuff about the supposed threat from a “parallel legal system” which undermines women’s rights and social cohesion.

Needless to say, as is invariably the case with this sort of attack on Sharia councils, Pritchard makes no mention of the Beth Din courts that operate on exactly the same basis in the Jewish community.

The Centre for Social Cohesion recently published a study of the Beth Din (pdf here). In answer to the question “Is the Beth Din a recognised legal court – does it offer a parallel legal system?”, the CSC report stated:

“No, in neither arbitration cases nor religious judgements, is the Beth Din recognised as a legal court nor does it offer a parallel legal system; Beth Din rulings or advice can only be reflected in UK law if both parties freely agree and the decision is approved by the civil courts.”

As is the case with Sharia councils too. Indeed, we look forward to a report from the CSC which presents a similarly balanced analysis of faith-based arbitration in the Muslim community.

And if Pritchard is worried about women’s rights (not a traditional Tory concern, it must be said) he might take this up with the Sephardi Beth Din which in July 2008 divorced a Jewish woman without her consent, on the grounds that she “dressed provocatively in public, worse than a common harlot” and “danced in nightclubs late into the night”.

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Quilliam Foundation witch-hunts Osama Saeed

Osama and AlexThat latest “Quilliam alert” from Ed Husain and his mates is headlined “Scottish National Party to endorse Islamist candidate“.

It is a disgraceful attack on Osama Saeed, of the Scottish Islamic Foundation, who has been selected as the SNP’s parliamentary candidate for Glasgow Central. Even by Quilliam Foundation standards this really is the pits.

It is increasingly clear that Quilliam are pursuing an hysterical witch-hunting agenda against mainstream Muslim political figures that is almost indistinguishable from the sort of vile propaganda you get from Harry’s Place or the Centre for Social Cohesion.

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Maajid Nawaz and Qaradawi

We should have posted on this earlier, but last week’s Any Questions on Radio 4 featured an exchange over Yusuf al-Qaradawi, when Maajid Nawaz of the Quilliam Foundation was invited by the chair, Jonathan Dimbleby, to have a go at Ken Livingstone over the welcome he gave to Qaradawi back in 2004.

“That man justifies suicide bombing”, Nawaz asserted. “… He justifies killing women and children in market places in Israel. And that is absolutely unacceptable. There is no justification for targeting women and children.”

Which only goes to show that in this, as in much else, the Quilliam Foundation merely echoes the lies of anti-Muslim propagandists. As indeed do the “left” Islamophobes at Shiraz Socialist, who have hailed Nawaz’s “impressive performance“.

For an answer to the charge that Qaradawi supports the targeting of Israeli civilians by suicide bombers, see here.