Eli Clifton and Ali Gharib have the details.
Category Archives: Right wing
French cabinet walks out of parliament over Nazi claim
The French prime minister and his cabinet have stormed out of parliament after an opposition MP accused the rightwing interior minister of flirting with Nazi ideology.
The Socialist Serge Letchimy, from Martinique, questioned the interior minister and close Sarkozy ally, Claude Guéant, over his controversial comments this weekend that “not all civilisations are of equal value”, and his assertion that some civilisations, namely France’s, are worth more than others.
Letchimy said Guéant was “day by day leading us back to these European ideologies that gave birth to concentration camps”. After a loud interruption of protests, he added: “Mr Guéant, the Nazi regime, which was so concerned about purity, was that a civilization?”
In a rare move, the entire French government stormed out of the question-time session.
Sue Myrick retires: So long, and thanks for all the Muslim-baiting
Eric Kleefeld reflects on the record of US Republican politician Sue Myrick, who has just announced her retirement from Congress.
Al-Qaeda bid for Brit girl bombers: Extremist websites lure angels of death, MPs warn
Al-Qaeda is trying to recruit WOMEN to carry out suicide bombings in the UK, MPs warn today. It is using extremist websites to radicalise the angels of death, says their chilling report.
The Commons home affairs committee says it has heard evidence the terror group is “specifically launching and targeting women for violent acts”.
It is already a deadly tactic in the Middle East, where growing numbers of Palestinian women are volunteering for suicide missions against Israel. The MPs’ report comes days after four Islamic extremists admitted plotting to bomb the London Stock Exchange.
Dutch Council of State on ‘burqa ban’
The Dutch Council of State says it should be up to women themselves to decide whether or not to wear garments which cover the face. The highest government advisory body argues that ministers shouldn’t use a general ban to rule out the choice of some women to wear the burqa.
Last Monday, the government sent draft legislation for a ‘burqa ban’ to parliament. The proposal would outlaw the wearing in public of face covering articles such as burqas, full-face helmets and balaclavas.
One of the reasons being put forward by ministers to justify a ban is that the burqa and similar articles of clothing run counter to the equality of the sexes. The council, however, thinks this is something to be judged by individual women themselves.
Richard Peppiatt on tabloid misrepresentation of Muslims
A former Daily Star journalist has repeated accusations that a number of British daily newspapers put pressure on journalists to fabricate anti-Muslim stories.
Richard Peppiatt, who worked as a full-time freelance journalist at the Daily Star for two years, claimed that editors forced journalists to fabricate news that suggested Muslims and immigrants were threatening national security.
He said the fabricated stories were mainly related to Muslims, depicting them as a threat to British society. The defamatory stories became more widespread after the bombings in London on June 7, 2005 – often referred to as 7/7 – and the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the United States.
“Especially since 7/7 and, to a degree, since 9/11, Muslims have certainly been painted as the ‘cartoon baddy’. Definitely in the tabloids. Someone always has to be blamed, you can’t just leave it up in the air when something happens; somebody always needs to take the blame. Sadly it’s the Muslims that have been chosen to be portrayed as the ‘baddies’,” he told Today’s Zaman in a phone interview.
Not all civilisations equal, French minister says
French Interior Minister Claude Gueant, who also holds the immigration portfolio, caused political uproar by claiming that not all civilisations are equal, with some more advanced than others.
“Contrary to what the left’s relativist ideology says, for us all civilisations are not of equal value,” Gueant on Saturday told a conference in the French parliament building, but closed to the media.
“Those which defend humanity seem to us to be more advanced than those that do not,” he argued in his speech at a meeting organised by a right-wing students group. “Those which defend liberty, equality and fraternity, seem to us superior to those which accept tyranny, the subservience of women, social and ethnic hatred,” he went on his speech, a copy of which was obtained by AFP. He stressed the need to “protect our civilisation.”
Islamophobia – the latest right-wing conspiracy theory
Extremist political conspiracies such as “birthers” and “truthers” may be a dominant theme of post-9/11 America, but in a new book by Arthur Goldwag, he argues that modern conservative groups may be a product of history repeating itself.
In Goldwag’s book, “The New Hate: A History of Fear and Loathing on the Populist Right,” due out on February 7, the author traced the historical origins of rhetoric and ideologies associated with birtherism, Islamophobia, anti-immigration sentiment and other touchstones of modern conservative factions such as the Tea Party movement.
German Social Democrat politician denounced over Sharia comments
The justice minister in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate has sparked outrage after proposing that Germany could permit Sharia courts, which operate according to Islamic law, to preside over some civil cases in the country.
Jochen Hartloff, a member of the centre-left Social Democrat Party (SPD), told the BZ newspaper that he was open to allowing civil suits to be brought before Sharia arbitration courts if both parties agreed.
Can Geller sink any lower?
Pamela Geller is exploiting the name of a young Muslim woman murdered by her stepfather in order to promote her organisation Stop Islamization of American, falsely claiming that the murder was an Islam-inspired honour killing and without the slightest concern for the distress she is causing to the dead woman’s family. LoonWatch has the details.
Update: See also “Pamela Geller’s ghoulish obsession with ‘honor killings’ takes an ugly turn”, Little Green Footballs, 4 February 2012