Category Archives: Left Wing

Why Labour should reject Jack Straw’s comments on veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims under siege

Owen Jones, Poplar & Limehouse Constituency Labour Party, surveys the responses to Jack Straw’s comments on the niqab.

Labour Left Briefing, November 2006

“Ministers caught telling the truth!” announced the BNP on their website on 15th October as they hailed “a series of statements which show that some of our rulers are capable of speaking the truth and acknowledging commonsense after all.” No wonder the BNP feels vindicated. Over the past month, the already besieged Muslim community has faced a barrage of denunciations from the British political establishment.

The increasingly thuggish John Reid fired the opening shots in east London on 20th September by haranguing Muslim parents to spy on their own children “before their hatred grows and you risk losing them forever.” This carefully choreographed political stunt was followed by a further tirade at Labour Party Conference in which he pledged that Islamist terrorism would have “no no-go areas”. David Cameron momentarily forgot his cuddly rhetoric and pledged “break up Muslim ghettos.”

However, it was Jack Straw who opened the floodgates of the current deluge of anti-Muslim hysteria. His description of the niqab – a full body veil worn by a tiny minority of Muslim women – as a “sign of separation and difference” was music to the ears of the right wing media. “Ban the veil!” screeched the Daily Express, revealing that 98% supported such a ban in order to “safeguard racial harmony”.

In The Times, Simon Jenkins suggested that if Muslim women were unable to understand why a “westerner” might be offended by the veil, “it is reasonable to ask why they want to live in Britain.” Jon Gaunt in The Sun offered the nuanced argument that “no group has been such a pain in the burka as some of the Muslims in recent years…” Others took the opportunity to declare open season on the Muslim population. “Muslim cabbie bans guide dog” was the almost farcical Evening Standard headline.

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Manchester imam ‘backs execution of gays’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“A row has blown up over a claim a prominent Manchester Muslim has defended the execution of sexually-active gay people as ‘justified’. Arshad Misbahi, a junior Imam at the city’s Central Mosque is alleged to have confirmed that it is an acceptable punishment in Iraq and Iran. His comments are said to have been made to psychotherapist Dr John Casson who is researching the persecution of gays in Islamic states. But they have been condemned as ‘encouraging conflict between the area’s large gay and Muslim communities’.”

Manchester Evening News, 26 October 2006

Predictably, this “story” originates with Outrage! – who dedicate most of their efforts these days to encouraging conflict between the gay and Muslim communities. Outrage! issued a press release a week ago, based on alleged remarks made by Arshad Misbahi in a private conversation initiated by Casson. This was then taken up by Pink News and Gay.com. As Massoud Shadjareh of the Islamic Human Rights Commission told BBC News: “Just one man talking to another becomes an issue, Muslims are being put under a magnifying glass. I think that this is part of demonising Muslims.”

Veiled prejudice

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Veiled prejudice

By Jamil Hussain

Morning Star, 23 October 2006

LET’S face it, Muslim-bashing is newsworthy. Politicians now feel that it’s a sure-fire way of getting noticed

In the last month, MPs have pumped out timely and much-publicised polemics about Muslims, packaged as a “new and honest debate” about multiculturalism.

Jack Straw kicked off the latest furore with his veil comments, the timing and subject of which seemed opportune.

He could have talked of other pressing issues, such as the report by the equal opportunities commission which found that Muslim girls have fewer job opportunities, despite overtaking white boys at GCSE level.

Instead, Straw picked on the minuscule number of Muslim women wearing the veil, attacking an iconic Islamic image to gain maximum exposure.

He has reason to distance himself from Muslim opinion, especially if he wants to become the new deputy Labour leader.

Four weeks after Condoleezza Rice’s visit to his Blackburn constituency, which was overshadowed by protests by Muslims against the US Secretary of State, Straw was dismissed as foreign secretary. Rumours suggest that President Bush put pressure on Tony Blair because of Straw’s perceived reliance on Muslim opinion and votes.

Straw’s comments were also backed by other Cabinet colleagues, including Harriet Harman, another candidate vying for the deputy leadership role.

As a feminist, Harman would, presumably, abhor Muslim men dictating what women should wear, but she saw no irony in backing a non-Muslim man doing the same. Had Straw asked a woman to cover up, would Harman have given him the same support?

She voiced regret that women “whose mothers fought against the veil now see their daughters taking it up as a symbol of commitment to their religion.”

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Three cheers for Peter Oborne

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Peter Oborne“Until only a few months ago, mainstream British politicians were extremely cautious about articulating the fears and resentments felt by many ordinary people on the subject of mass immigration. Those who spoke out publicly (Enoch Powell’s ‘rivers of blood’ speech is the notorious example) were ostracised. Political parties which raised the issue were thrust beyond the outer margins of debate – the fate of the National Front and the BNP. This self-restraint has now vanished. Practically every day for the past two weeks, another minister has insulted the customs, habits or religious beliefs of Britain’s Muslim minority….

“It is now clear that Jack Straw’s comments on women who wear the veil were not, as seemed likely at the time, the result of some random rumination. He surely set out with the intention of putting in motion a national campaign. In other words, Labour has made the extraordinary decision to place the politics of religious identity at the centre of public discourse, in the same sort of way that Jorg Haider’s Freedom Party does in Austria and Pim Fortuyn’s List Party did in the Netherlands….

“There is a whiff of the lynch mob about the wave of attacks over the past fortnight, and it is no surprise to learn that the new national mood sparked by Jack Straw and sanctioned by Tony Blair has indeed led to a number of assaults on British mosques, including one firebombing. There have also been reports of a sharp rise of physical assaults on Muslims. It is nothing short of appalling that the Blair government has been ready to countenance this change in public culture….

“In the wake of last year’s London atrocity, the Prime Minister promised to engage with the mainstream Muslim community. He never really tried to do so – the ‘working parties’ set up in the wake of the July bombings met just two or three times, they were not listened to, and their recommendations were ignored.

“Now Tony Blair has allowed a campaign that is bound to undermine moderate Muslims and encourage extremism, whether from white supremacist parties like the BNP or within Islam itself. It is quite the nastiest and most irresponsible politics I have seen from a mainstream political party in my life, and we will all pay a horrible price for such cynical opportunism.”

Peter Oborne in the Daily Mail, 21 October 2006

Al-Qa’eda is winning the war of ideas, says Reid

Posted on by Bob Pitt

John ReidJohn Reid has issued a dire warning that the Government risks losing the “battle of ideas” with al-Qa’eda. The Home Secretary spoke out at an emergency meeting of ministers and security officials amid an ever-growing threat from home-grown Islamist terror groups.

He called for an urgent but controversial escalation in the propaganda war and said al-Qa’eda’s so-called “single extremist narrative” was proving ever more attractive to young British Muslims. The Government needed to do much more to win the “battle of ideas”, Mr Reid said.

The meeting came as ministers – including Jack Straw, Ruth Kelly and Phil Woolas – started to take a much more aggressive stance against radical Islam.

Sunday Telegraph, 22 October 2006

If Al-Qaeda is indeed “winning the war of ideas” among young British Muslims, it’s odd that the recent 1990 Trust poll of Muslim opinion found that less than 2% of respondents agreed with the 7/7 bombings. In fact, if anything is likely to broaden the terrorists’ minuscule base of support within Muslim communities, it’s the sort of Islamophobic hysteria that has been unleashed and encouraged by the irresponsible statements of Labour politicians in recent weeks.

White pupils less tolerant, survey shows

Posted on by Bob Pitt

White youths are more likely to believe they are superior to those from other races, and their attitudes are more of a barrier to integration than those of Muslims, a study for the government has found. The findings turn on its head the current debate about integration, where a succession of cabinet ministers have told Muslims they must do more to fit in.

The study, by the University of Lancaster, was sent to the Home Office in September, and is believed to be the first of its kind comparing levels of intolerance in different communities.

In recent weeks a succession of cabinet ministers have made remarks about Muslims, including home secretary John Reid, followed by Ruth Kelly, Jack Straw and this week the prime minister. Muslim groups reacted to the study by saying the government had attacked their communities despite their own report telling them they were not the biggest problem.

Government ministers were also rebuked on Thursday by an employment tribunal for commenting in advance on the case of Aishah Azmi, a British Muslim classroom assistant who lost her discrimination case after refusing to remove her veil in a West Yorkshire primary school when male colleagues were present.

The Lancaster University study, commissioned by the Home Office, examined the attitudes of 435 15-year-olds on race, religion and integration. It also gives an insight into the attitudes they are getting from their parents and other influences such as religion. It found that nearly a third of pupils at a predominantly white school believed one race was superior to another, compared with a tenth from a majority Asian Muslim school and fewer than a fifth at a mixed school.

The students surveyed were at a predominantly white school in Burnley, a predominantly Asian Muslim school in Blackburn, and a mixed school in Blackburn. The study concludes: “It might be reasonable … to suggest that it is the Asian-Muslim students in both the mixed and monocultural schools of Burnley and Blackburn who are in fact the most tolerant of all.” At the all-white school half felt it unimportant to respect people regardless of gender or religion, and a quarter felt there was no need to show tolerance to those with different views.

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Ban It! says the Express

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ban ItPressure was mounting last night for veils to be banned in Britain – just as they are in some Muslim countries. And rebels plotting fresh court protests were given a blunt warning by lawmakers: “Carry on, and we will bar you.”

The threat came amid a public outcry over the costs being racked up by teaching assistant Aishah Azmi as her lawyers, funded by taxpayers, continued their fight for her right to wear a veil in class. Daily Express readers responded in massive numbers to a poll on the crisis, with 99 per cent calling for the veil to be banned in schools, increasing pressure on the Government to act.

A ban would see Britain following many of its European neighbours, along with predominantly Muslim countries like Turkey and Tunisia in outlawing traditional Islamic headscarves in public schools and buildings.

Tory MP David Davies urged the Government to examine what other countries had done to discourage or outlaw the wearing of the full veil in public. “We should give it serious consideration too. It’s been banned in many countries, including Muslim. The time may have come for us to consider the same thing,” said the MP for Monmouth. “Tony Blair was right to say that it is a mark of separation. And what worries me is that it’s a way of subjugating women.”

Labour MP Ann Cryer, whose constituency in Keighley, West Yorkshire, has a large Muslim population, said she feared the high-profile Azmi case could spark a welter of copycat legal action by militants. And if that happened, she warned, legislation may be needed to enshrine in law a ban on veils being worn in classrooms and other civic buildings – which could mean on-the-spot fines and the withdrawal of state benefits.

Mrs Cryer said it was “totally unacceptable” to wear a full veil in front of young children and said an outright ban would be needed if people kept “pushing the boundaries” over the issue.

Daily Express, 21 October 2006

Warmongers play race card

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Warmongers Play Race CardBritain is facing a sustained attempt to whip up full-blooded racism. Each day government ministers are clamouring to appear on camera denouncing Muslims and demanding their neighbours and teachers spy on them.

Across the country communities are living in fear. From bitter experience they know that racist speeches by politicians quickly translate into murderous racist violence on the streets. Listen to what befell Hina’naz Ahmed, a student at Wolverhampton University, last week:

“As I was walking past a bus stop I was surrounded by about five youths, one of them a girl. They stood and waited for me then followed me down the street shouting abuse, telling me to take off my veil.

“They then repeatedly said that Straw has made it illegal so I had to take it off. They shouted ‘Jack Straw’ repeatedly. I think Straw has made racists think it’s OK to abuse people like me.”

Socialist Worker, 20 October 2006

Want to wear the veil? Go and live somewhere else, says the Sun

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Editorial in today’s Sun:

TONY Blair yesterday threw his weight behind Jack Straw’s call for Muslim women to drop the veil. The Prime Minister backed the school chiefs who suspended a teacher for refusing to remove her mask in front of pupils. The veil, he said, is a visible statement of separation and is “incompatible” with life in Britain, echoing Mr Straw’s earlier concerns.

Modern Muslim women agree the veil is a primitive throwback to an age when their oppressed sisters were treated little better than slaves. In benighted parts of the world, they still are.

Britain has a hard-won heritage of fairness and equal rights. It is the main reason so many migrants came here in the first place. Those who have taken advantage of such privileges must not be allowed to turn back the clock. It’s time to take a leaf out of Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s book. And tell extremists that if they want to live under Sharia law, they can’t live here.

Labour accused of aiding extremists by its focus on Muslim issues

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ministers were accused of playing into the hands of the far right and of Islamic extremists as a Labour backlash grew against the Government’s continuing focus on Muslim issues. Senior MPs and peers signalled their alarm at the furore triggered 10 days ago by Jack Straw’s call for women to reconsider wearing face veils. They said the Muslim community felt under siege following a succession of recent headlines generated by the Government.

Mr Straw’s comments were followed by another minister calling for the dismissal of a teacher who refused to take off her veil and an attack by Ruth Kelly, the Secretary of State for Communities, on moderate Muslims who “sit on the sidelines” in the fight against terrorism. It has also emerged that the Department for Education wanted lecturers to monitor “Asian-looking” and Muslim students suspected of involvement in terrorism. Several ministers believe the recent controversies show the Government is in tune with widespread concerns in the country.

But Khalid Mahmood, MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, warned: “There’s been a huge hype over a small number of people and the only thing this has led to is Muslim-bashing. The only people this will benefit are the far-right BNP. It will also encourage extremists from the Muslim community who will say: ‘We told you so.”‘

The Labour peer Baroness Uddin pleaded with the Government to work to help women lead the fight against extremism. She said: “We have attacked those who would be our greatest allies in meeting the current challenges of terrorism and radicalisation.” She warned that the row over veils had caused “havoc” in the Muslim community and created “a feeling of vulnerability and demonisation of Muslim women”.

Lord Ahmed, another Labour peer, said members of the Muslim community were considering leaving Britain because of the row. “People are asking: ‘What is our future here, do you think we should be taking our money and going somewhere else because this country has so much Islamophobia?'”

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