“BNP leader Nick Griffin has today written to the Muslim Council of Britain, urging them to lend their support to the campaign for the release of the 15 Royal Navy hostages seized by Iran”, the British National Party announces.
BNP news article, 3 April 2007
We know the fascists are not exactly the brightest people around, but you’d have thought that even the knuckledraggers of the BNP might have noticed that the MCB have already done just that. See MCB press release, 1 April 2007
Sunny Hundal takes issue with Inayat Bunglawala’s statement that Hizb ut-Tahrir are “a non-violent party and have every right to spread their ideas peacefully”.
Predictably, Hundal wins the approval of that other expert in self-promotion, Peter Tatchell, who comments:
“The political goals of Hizb ut-Tahrir are the Islamist equivalent of the BNP – only much worse. Why are there no anti-fascist campaigns against Hizb ut-Tahrir, just like there are anti-fascist campaigns against the BNP?”
This illustrates very clearly how Tatchell’s Islamophobia has led him to lose all contact with reality.
The British National Party is a white supremacist organisation which, according to its own constitution, is “wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples” and aims to restore “the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948”.
HT, by contrast, is an organisation based on a small section of the Muslim community – a minority ethno-religious community who are in fact the primary victims of the BNP’s malevolent racism.
On these grounds alone, it should be obvious that equating the BNP and HT is an absurdity, never mind declaring that HT is “much worse” than the Nazi-inspired BNP.
The criticism to be made of HT’s members is that they have drawn mistaken conclusions about how racism and imperialism are to be resisted, which has led them to abstain from mainstream politics in Britain. This is why other Muslims have sought to engage in dialogue with HT.
Sunny Hundal condemns Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain for adopting this approach. Who exactly would gain if the MCB were to accept Hundal’s demands and break all relations with HT?
The fascists complain that “Anglican leaders have taken a major step towards handing over what remains of the faithful into the embrace of Islam by appointing a Muslim member of its educational staff at Blackburn Cathedral”. Yes, it’s yet another example of how our Christian culture is being undermined as “hand wringing ministers kneel before the advancing waves carrying aloft the mighty sword of Islam”.
But it would be a mistake to think the Muslim takeover will necessarily require the use of violence – “not a single sword need ever be carried aloft, not a single shot fired in anger for Britain to become an Islamic state ruled by shar’ia law. The cowardly elite in Westminster, the media and the established Church are doing everything the softly spoken moderate Muslims want them to do, these moderates thus pose a far bigger threat to the survival of the British way of life than a handful of well monitored would-be suicide bombers”.
Voters have been urged by religious leaders to use the ballot box to help tackle racism. Representatives from the Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Jewish communities signed a declaration asking Greater Manchester people to reject all political parties that advocate racism in May’s local elections. The document was signed at Trinity United Church in Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester, which is used as drop-in centre for refugees and asylum seekers.
The statement reads: “We stand for a society of mutual respect and care where the hearts of all are heard and met through good neighbourliness at every level and in every circumstance. In particular, we regret that the British National Party now has 49 seats on local authorities in this country. Those who advocate racist policies cannot do so in the name of any of our faith communities.”
The community leaders were inspired by the similarities of their different faiths when they devised the statement. Dr Muhammad Junejo, Muslim representative for Greater Manchester, said: “We meet fairly regularly to discuss the important issues affecting our communities. One thing our religions all have in common is the commandment to love your neighbour. Racism is strongly at odds with this idea and we need to stand against it.”
“The Red-Islamic Alliance is looking for its biggest single advance so far with London’s anti-English Mayor Ken Livingstone pushing hard for the £100 million mega-mosque which one of Britain and Pakistan’s most hardline Islamic sects wants to build next to the Olympic stadium in East London…. The London Evening Standard is at present running an opinion poll on whether or not the Super Mosque should be built…. Please go to the Standard website and add your own ‘No’ vote. And please forward this email on to everyone in your address book.”
BNP news article, 27 March 2007
And we urge our supporters to do the same and vote ‘yes’. The Evening Standard poll is here.
Veils will be banned in schools to help pupils learn and to keep them safe, Education Secretary Alan Johnson has ruled.
His decision will affect thousands of Muslim girls who wear clothing like the full niqab. He will publish details of his guidance to headteachers in the Commons today. The wearing of full-length robes may also be affected.
A source said: “Veils mean teachers can’t see the face. It’s a problem for security and it’s also a problem for learning because the teacher can’t see whether or not a child is understanding what’s being taught. A full face veil means you can’t see who the person is.”
Ministers will say it is also dangerous under health and safety regulations. A Bunsen burner could easily set light to a face veil in a science lab, Mr Johnson will point out.
School heads will be told to consult parents before going ahead with the ban. They will tell parents they CAN uphold religious traditions provided they do not put security and learning in jeopardy. The rules will also apply to faith schools.
But Mr Johnson is convinced there will be no serious opposition to the move.
In an editorial comment the paper welcomes a ban, asserting that the niqab is “divisive” and “provocative”.
The Guardian reports that this news was “leaked in advance to the Sun by Mr Johnson” – which gives you some indication of the audience he hopes his policy will appeal to, and how he wants to spin it. He’s certainly won the admiration of one BNP blogger, who hails Johnson’s proposals as “Some good news for once!”
See also the BBC poll on whether the veil should be banned in schools.
“Without attracting much attention, representatives of the Belgian political party Vlaams Belang recently visited Washington, D.C. Frank Vanhecke and Filip Dewinter hoped to meet members of Congress; but Congress was in recess. They hoped to engender some understanding of their program to reverse the Islamization of Belgium; but the media were strip-mining the tinsel life and tawdry times of Anna Nicole Smith.
“Maybe they should have known that Tabloid America doesn’t care about the likely transformation of Europe into an Islamic continent, let alone the fate of a French- and Dutch-speaking country of 10 million people.”
Diana West bemoans the failure of the US media to give favourable coverage to the far-right VB, a political party whose origins are to be found among Belgian fascist sympathisers who collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of 1941-44. In the course of that occupation 25,000 Jews (44% of Belgium’s Jewish community) were deported to concentration camps and killed. But, what the heck, the VB now direct their hatred against Muslims rather than Jews, so they’re alright with Diana West.
BOISE, Idaho – Senators passed a symbolic measure highlighting Idaho’s commitment to human rights, just days after an Islamic mosque in Boise was targeted by swastika stickers. It reaffirms the state’s commitment to “freedom from discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex or national origin or disability.” Senator Edgar Malepeai argued the resolution sends a message to racist or bigoted groups that Idaho doesn’t tolerate hateful acts.
In the 1980s and 90s, meetings of the Aryan Nations in Hayden Lake in northern Idaho earned the state a reputation as a haven for racist groups. Malepeai says he’s concerned the incident at the Islamic Center of Boise last week could be a harbinger of renewed neo-Nazi activity. Malepeai says, “We need to respond to this resurgence of hate, and a resolution is a necessary step.”
Last month the notoriously homophobic mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, attended a mayoral summit meeting in London hosted by London’s mayor Ken Livingstone, prompting a protest by Peter Tatchell and the gay rights organisation OutRage! The website Gay.com reported:
“The Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, has denounced same-sex relationships and gay pride events as ‘satanic’, ‘unnatural’, ‘deviations’, ‘blasphemy’ and ‘deadly moral poison’. In February 2006, Grand Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin was quoted as saying about Moscow gay pride marchers, ‘If they come out on to the streets anyway they should be flogged. Any normal person would do that – Muslims and Orthodox Christians alike.’ For these reasons Outrage are co-ordinating a protest at London’s City Hall.”
Although the criticism of Luzhkov was right on the button, the reference to the Grand Mufti appeared, on the face of it, inexplicable. It is a well-established fact that, as Gay.com itself reported at the time, the attack on Moscow Pride in May 2006 was carried out by “skinheads and militant Orthodox Christians”. Yet the idea that the leader of Russia’s Muslims was the main instigator of the violent suppression of Moscow Pride has now apparently entered folklore among a section of the LGBT community in the UK.
The mayor of London had his own view on where this myth originated. In a statement issued by his press office in response to the controversy over Luzhkov’s visit, Livingstone condemned attacks on LGBT rights in Russia and Eastern Europe and the role of politicians in legitimising homophobia. But he continued: “The attempt of Mr Tatchell to focus attention on the role of the grand Mufti in Moscow, in the face of numerous attacks on gay rights in Eastern Europe which overwhelmingly come from right wing Christian and secular currents, is a clear example of an Islamaphobic campaign.”
Tatchell and his supporters responded with predictable indignation. Pink News quoted Tatchell as stating: “A year ago we once criticised the grand Mufti after he urged his followers to violently attack gay people in the streets. But the main focus of our criticism during that campaign was on the homophobia of the Chief Rabbi, the Russian Orthodox Church, neo-Nazis and ultra-nationalists. To suggest that this was an Islamophobic campaign was nonsense, despicable and brings the Mayor’s office into disrepute.”
In a post on the neocon website Harry’s Place (to which he is a regular contributor) Brett Lock of OutRage! denounced Livingstone as “a shameless liar” and “a man without principles or integrity”. Lock insisted that “Tatchell didn’t say Russian Muslims were the leading force attacking gay rights”. He also accused the mayor of hypocrisy, on the grounds that in May 2006 Livingstone himself had condemned “support given by the Russian Orthodox Church, the Grand Mufti, and the Chief Rabbi” to the ban on Moscow Pride.
Somewhat contradictorily, George Broadhead of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) – a group closely associated with OutRage! – weighed in with a further attack on the mayor, accusing him of refusing to criticise Muslim homophobia. “Mr Livingstone is clearly determined to treat Islam with kid gloves no matter how stridently homophobic its adherents are,” Broadhead declared. “The slightest criticism of Islam is immediately branded Islamaphobic.”
What was the actual practice of Tatchell, OutRage! et al during the run-up to Moscow Pride 2006? Is Lock correct in claiming that Tatchell “didn’t say Russian Muslims were the leading force attacking gay rights” in Moscow? Is there any truth to Tatchell’s assertion that they condemned the Grand Mufti only “once”, and that “the main focus of our criticism during that campaign was on the homophobia of the Chief Rabbi, the Russian Orthodox Church, neo-Nazis and ultra-nationalists”? Let us examine the record.
BOISE, Idaho — A few swastika-emblazoned stickers have been left on a mosque and another building in town, prompting a police investigation, officials said.
The stickers were reported Sunday as children arrived at the Islamic Center of Boise for Sunday school, said Furqan Mehmood, the center’s education director. The stickers were left on a door and other surfaces, apparently on Saturday afternoon, officials said.
Somali refugees who went to the mosque to pray that day noticed them but didn’t report them; they were unfamiliar with the swastika symbol and assumed they were benign, Mehmood said.
The stickers promoted Combat 18, a loosely organized neo-Nazi group that likely originated in Britain, officials said.
The incident violates Idaho’s felony malicious harassment law, said police spokeswoman Lynn Hightower. The stickers peeled off easily, leaving no damage.
In February, the stickers were found at a property management business, Hightower said. It is unclear why the business was targeted.
Associated Press, 9 March 2007
See also “CAIR asks FBI to probe Nazi vandalism of Idaho mosque”, CAIR press release, 10 March 2007