‘Yes Africa is a terror hotbed…but fanatics are here too’

Trevor Kavanagh takes the opportunity to use the Algerian gas plant attack and the conflict in Mali in order to paint the British Muslim community as a terrorist threat:

Britain is a melting pot of nationalities and faiths, home to hundreds of thousands of Malians, Iraqis, Syrians, Somalis, Kenyans, Nigerians, Yemenis and Pakistanis.

Not all are grateful. Indeed, many are becoming outspokenly defiant. Some have colonised suburbs in major cities. One London borough is so staunchly Muslim it has become known as the Islamic Republic of Tower Hamlets.

Last week, hooded gangs of self-appointed religious police [in reality, probably just two individuals – ed.] roamed Muslim-populated suburbs ordering women to cover up and confiscating liquor. Police are investigating YouTube clips which show the men branding mini-skirted white girls as “naked animals”.

MI5 claims thousands of young British-born Muslims have been radicalised – some of them trained in bomb-making and terror tactics in the badlands of Pakistan. That number has certainly grown in recent years.

The security forces have done a remarkable job in keeping a lid on this threat at home. It is now more than seven years since the 7/7 London bombings and the terrorists have been silent. But Mali and Algeria should remind us of Gerry Adams’ chilling warning about the IRA: “They haven’t gone away.”

Now, as David Cameron warned yesterday, we face a global threat which could take “years, even decades” to resolve. He might have added, “if ever”.

The Sun, 21 January 2013

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Scottish Defence League mobilises handful of supporters for Pollokshields protest

Pollokshields policeA protest by a handful of far-right demonstrators marking the first anniversary of the murder of a man by Asian youths threatened to bring chaos to a residential area of Glasgow.

Mounted police, helicopters and scores of officers yesterday were deployed on to the streets of the city’s Pollokshields, home to Scotland’s largest Asian community, despite a maximum of 10 members of the Scottish Defence League (SDL) turning up.

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Muslim, Jewish groups join Rebuild Joplin effort in demonstration of unity

Joplin mosque blaze
Joplin mosque burns to the ground after suspected arson attack last August

Among those assisting the Rebuild Joplin effort starting Monday will be Muslim and Jewish volunteers.

The volunteers will be from ICNA Relief, part of the Islamic Circle of North America; the Jewish Disaster Relief Corps; and Bridges, a Muslim-Jewish interfaith dialogue composed of New York University students. Shahid Farooqi, outreach director for ICNA Relief USA, said the groups are joining forces in a show of unity.

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Muslims, Christians to gather at Texas church

Hoping to nurture good will between two major faiths, Christians and Muslims will mingle Sunday at a Texas barbecue at a Keller church.

The Rev. Bob Roberts, pastor of the 3,000-member NorthWood Church, said the gathering is intended to create friendships and recruit Muslims and Christians who will work together on a series of community projects.

“We’ve got a big Muslim issue in America,” Roberts said. “There are 2 billion Christians in the world and 1.5 billion Muslims. If we don’t learn how to get along, we are going to have a very sick world.”

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Hooded ‘Muslim Patrol’ vigilantes remove alcohol from drinkers and tell women to cover up as they stalk London suburb

That’s the headline to a report in the Daily Mail. Ever eager to alert its readers to the encroaching Muslim menace, the paper claims that “a gang claiming to be Islamic vigilantes have been confronting members of the public and demanding they give up alcohol and women cover their flesh in their ‘Muslim area'”. This is accompanied by a video, originally posted by its creators on YouTube, in which a self-styled “Muslim patrol” harasses passers-by over their un-Islamic behaviour. According to the Mail, the events took place in Waltham Forest.

The report is taken from a piece on The Commentator website, titled “‘Muslim Patrol’ vigilantes attempt to control London streets”, which states that the video is “likely to have come from East London, where ‘Shariah zones’ were set up last year”. It provides a link to a 2011 report in the Mail headlined “‘No porn or prostitution’: Islamic extremists set up Sharia law controlled zones in British cities”, which was illustrated with photographs of one of Anjem Choudary’s idiot supporters putting up stickers in Waltham Forest announcing that the borough was a “Shariah controlled zone”. The Commentator adds that the individuals featured in the “Muslim patrol” video “are thought to be a part of an extremist network in East London”, the implication being that they are members of Choudary’s group.

In reality, it is clear that the video was shot in Tower Hamlets, near to the East London Mosque (which has issued a statement condemning the actions of the “Muslim patrol” and calling on anyone with information on the individuals involved to contact the police). There have in any case never been any sharia zones “set up” in Waltham Forest or anywhere else in East London. One dickhead putting stickers on lampposts doesn’t bring a “Shariah controlled zone” into existence.

Nor is there a “gang” harassing the citizens of Tower Hamlets over their alcohol drinking or way of dressing. As Richard Bartholomew has pointed out, the “patrol” appears to consist of just two individuals, one of whom is holding the mobile phone with which the video is taken. There is moreover no evidence that they are connected to Choudary’s minuscule band of nutters or indeed that they are part of any “extremist network” at all. Their behaviour was no doubt upsetting for the people they targeted, and hopefully they will be identified and charged with harassment, but if a couple of prats pulling a single Candid Camera type stunt constitutes a serious attempt by Islamist extremists to “control London streets” then words have lost all meaning.

This irresponsible reporting has of course had the predictable result of inflaming the far right, as it plays directly to their paranoid racist fantasies about the Islamification of Britain and the imposition of sharia law on non-Muslims. The English Defence posted a link to the Mail report on their Facebook page, provoking the usual outpouring of anti-Muslim hatred, threats of violence and calls for civil war. Not to be outdone, the EDL breakaway group Combined Ex Forces has announced that “members of CxF and other Patriots/Nationalists will be descending on London in the very near future to reclaim our streets”.

Thurnby Lodge Scout hut dispute: Muslim charity can’t afford rental terms

As-SalaamA charity involved in a dispute over a Scout hut says it cannot afford the rental terms it is being offered for an alternative building.

Demonstrations have been taking place in Thurnby Lodge, Leicester, for several months against plans by As-Salaam to turn the hut into a community centre.

Earlier this month, city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby agreed protesters from the Forgotten Estates Committee would be given the lease on the hut for two years, rent-free.

The Muslim charity was offered another city council-owned building, the Raven Centre, next to Thurnby Lodge Community Centre, where the charity has met for prayers for the past three years. As-Saalam members said they had been offered two rental agreements, neither of which they could afford.

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The constitutionality of the Belgian burqa ban

Jelle Flo and Jogchum Vrielink examine last month’s ruling by Belgium’s Constitutional Court that the 2011 ban on the face veil does not violate human rights. the conclude:

“Fundamental rights ultimately exist to protect minorities, unpopular minorities in particular, against the tyranny of the majority. A boundary is crossed when rights of individuals are simply sacrificed to majority sentiments; a boundary which should be protected by institutions such as the Court. In other matters, the Constitutional Court has not hesitated to fulfil this role. In the case of the burqa ban, however, these boundaries seem to have evaporated, making for the constitutional equivalent of a Schengen area.”

Open Democracy, 14 January 2013

Via ENGAGE

Muslim sex ring accused of grooming ‘troubled’ underage girls

This was the headline to the London Evening Standard‘s report of the Oxford “grooming” case today.

In the online version it has since been changed to “Sex gang accused of grooming ‘troubled’ underage girls”, and the opening sentence now refers to “Asian” rather than “Muslim” men.

This hasn’t prevented 700,000 printed copies of the paper being distributed to Londoners with a headline that attributes the alleged crime to the assumed religious beliefs of the accused.

Update:  See also “Anti-Muslim bias in sex grooming stories resurface”, ENGAGE, 16 January 2013

Update 2:  Read ENGAGE’s letter to the Press Complaints Commission here.

And the winner is … Islamophobia

“America’s Middle East policy has been enthusiastically endorsed. Not at the UN or Arab League, however, but by the powerbrokers of Hollywood. At the Golden Globes, there were gongs for a heroically bearded CIA spook saving hostages and American face in Iran (the film Argo); a heroically struggling agent tracking down Bin Laden (Zero Dark Thirty) and heroically flawed CIA operatives protecting America from mindless, perpetual terror (TV series Homeland).”

Rachel Shabi in the Guardian, 15 January 2013