The establishment chorus will not succeed in its desperate pretence that bombs in London are not linked to Iraq, writes Salma Yaqoob.
Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia
Foreign Office backs Tariq Ramadan
The Guardian reports:
“There has been media pressure to block the entry of the Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan, who has been banned by America. But the Home Office is unlikely to act in his case, as he is a best-selling author who promotes a progressive Islam and has condemned the London attacks. He has been described by the Foreign Office as ‘the leading Muslim leader/speaker in Europe’.”
Islamic extremism: common concern for Muslim and Western publics
Interesting report from the Pew Global Attitudes Project. See here.
BNP by-election defeat
The British National Party, which used images of the bombed London bus on a leaflet, has failed to gain a council seat at a by-election. Labour held the Becontree seat in the east London borough of Barking and Dagenham with a majority of nearly 800.
The BNP used a photograph of the bus with the caption, “maybe it’s time to start listening to the BNP” .
The winning candidate, Alok Agrawal, said after the result: “It was very sad using a national tragedy in order to try and gain votes. They thought people were fools. They thought people would fall into a trap. But the voters have massively rejected them. They have told the BNP ‘We don’t want you in Barking and Dagenham’.”
See also NAAR news article, 15 July 2005
We need to talk less, listen more, to Muslims
We need to talk less, listen more, to Muslims
By Haroon Siddiqui
Toronto Star, 14 July 2005
Germany has been as vociferous as France among the G 8 nations in opposing the American invasion and occupation of Iraq. It has also been increasingly skeptical of Washington’s war on terrorism.
Germany also has a sophisticated understanding of, and good relations with, the Muslim world. In addition, it considers itself the closest European ally of Israel. The German perspective on terrorism, especially on young European jihadists, is, therefore, useful.
“We need a dialogue with the Muslim world but there’s too much distrust,” said a very senior policy official in Berlin in a lengthy and candid interview, given on condition of anonymity, and conducted before last week’s bombings in London.
“There’s distrust because of our double standards,” he said, citing the Arab-Israeli dispute, and because of what he called the Bush administration’s “hegemonic” policy: Occupying Iraq to control the oil and the region, especially Iran, and controlling Afghanistan to have access Central Asian oil and gas reserves.
Worse, the Americans are carrying out the policy “in such a blunt way that they can’t see that they are destroying everything in their path … When the American soldiers see Iraqi women and children in a car, how can they shoot?”
Yet, he said, Washington wonders: “‘Why do they hate us?’ Easy. They hate us because of the policies.”
Lawyer sues US over false arrest
A US lawyer wrongfully arrested over the Madrid train bombings in 2004 is suing the US government. Brandon Mayfield, 38, was held for two weeks when the FBI linked him to fingerprints found in Spain – but later said it was wrong and apologised. Mr Mayfield, a convert to Islam, says he was targeted because he is a Muslim.
Today programme witch-hunts MCB
At this of all times, BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme launches an attack on the Muslim Council of Britain, accusing them of supporting suicide bombing. Needless to say, Dr al-Qaradawi’s name features prominently. Inayat Bunglawala replies on behalf of the MCB.
It is an insult to the dead to deny the link with Iraq
“The first piece of disinformation long peddled by champions of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan is that al-Qaida and its supporters have no demands that could possibly be met or negotiated over; that they are really motivated by a hatred of western freedoms and way of life; and that their Islamist ideology aims at global domination. The reality was neatly summed up this week in a radio exchange between the BBC’s political editor, Andrew Marr, and its security correspondent, Frank Gardner, who was left disabled by an al-Qaida attack in Saudi Arabia last year. Was it the ‘very diversity, that melting pot aspect of London’ that Islamist extremists found so offensive that they wanted to kill innocent civilians in Britain’s capital, Marr wondered. ‘No, it’s not that,’ replied Gardner briskly, who is better acquainted with al-Qaida thinking than most. ‘What they find offensive are the policies of western governments and specifically the presence of western troops in Muslim lands, notably Iraq and Afghanistan’.”
Seumas Milne in the Guardian, 14 July 2005
Muslim leaders condemning terror to deaf?
“Why don’t Muslims denounce terrorism? This has been a persistent drumbeat on talk radio, one that was echoed last year by syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin after CAIR took on a radio host in Boston. The organization, she wrote, ‘won’t condemn Muslim fanatics, but it has declared war on outspoken Americans who will’.”
Mark Woods points out that repeated denunciations of terrorism by US Muslims are systematically ignored by right-wing pundits.
Muslim communities must be treated as allies, not enemies
“Our best chance lies within the Muslim community itself – in its own capacity for reform and renewal. That’s precisely why the Sun‘s front page on Tuesday demonising the Muslim thinker Tariq Ramadan was so inexcusable.
“Here is a man who commands respect across the Muslim world. Here is one of those rare thinkers who can help us plot a way forward for a self-confident Islam securely established in Europe. He is a crucial figure in reaching audiences that non-Muslims cannot, yet the Sun wilfully twisted old quotes to depict him as a supporter of terrorism who should be banned from the UK, a call echoed by the Daily Telegraph yesterday.
“This is irresponsible journalism at its scaremongering worst.”
Madeleine Bunting in the Guardian, 14 July 2005