So it would appear.
Category Archives: Right wing
Another scaremongering Express headline falls flat
This was the banner headline in Wednesday’s Daily Express. The paper reported:
Anti-terror police were questioning five men last night amid fears of an Al Qaeda-inspired plot to attack the Sellafield nuclear plant. The suspects, in their 20s and believed to be of Bangladeshi origin, were caught filming at the highly sensitive site in Cumbria – 250 miles from their homes in London.
Armed police arrested the men on bank holiday Monday only hours after Osama Bin Laden was killed by US special forces in Pakistan. The nuclear plant has been placed on high alert following Al Qaeda threats to unleash a “nuclear hellstorm” in revenge for the terror chief’s death.
Last night police seized a small container of “suspicious material” at one of the suspects’ homes.
Predictably, the irresponsible media scaremongering produced this sort of response from EDL supporters, who take their line on Muslims and Islam directly from the tabloid press.
Yesterday BBC News reported that the arrested men had all been freed. ENGAGE asked the question: “what likelihood is there of proportional coverage by the media of the men being released without charge?”
The answer, of course, was none whatsoever. Buried at the bottom of page 7 in today’s issue of the Express we find a single paragraph which reads:
The five students who sparked an Al Qaeda terror alert near the Sellafield nuclear power station were there because of a satnav error. Rather than being terrorists avenging the death of Osama Bin Laden, the Bangladeshis from London were enjoying a picnic on Monday after putting CA20 in the satnav instead of CA12 for a hike on Scafell Pike, Cumbria, England’s highest peak. They were freed without charge.
Wilders brings his message of hate to Canada
Geert Wilders has made his name as one of the world’s most outspoken opponents of Islam. The controversial Dutch parliamentarian does not hate Muslims, he’s famously said, but he does hate Islam. His colourful political career has been driven by a belief that the Koran encourages violence, that moderate Islam is an impossibility, that the Netherlands is in the process of being Islamicized, and that immigrants from Muslim countries must be stopped.
Next week, Mr. Wilders will bring his message to Canada, a country he says faces the same prospects of being Islamicized as his own. On Monday, Mr. Wilders is the marquee speaker at an invitation-only event hosted by the International Free Press Society and the Canada Christian College.
“Geert Wilders has a warning for Canada, and his warning is about a lack of free speech here and the threat of demographic jihad,” said Charles McVety, president of the Canada Christian College. “We’re all for freedom of religion, but when its mission is a hostile takeover, well that’s a different story. Islam is not just a religion, it’s a political and cultural system as well and we know that Christians, Jews and Hindus don’t have the same mandate for a hostile takeover. Here in Canada there is a real, clear and present danger. And we’re not even allowed to say anything about it. That’s what Geert Wilders is going to talk about.”
Members of the Toronto Muslim community say they were unaware of any planned hostile takeover and dismiss Mr. Wilders as racist and ill-informed.
It’s a shame that the event will be restricted to Wilders’ supporters. Otherwise there would have been an opportunity to ask the Dutch racist and his hosts why the right to “free speech” they claim to be defending doesn’t apply to Wilders’ critics back in the Netherlands. (See here, here and here.)
College rejects call to drop anti-Muslim speaker
A Muslim civil-rights organization, along with religious leaders from a dozen area places of worship, has asked Everett Community College to cancel Thursday afternoon’s talk by a writer they portray as holding racist views.
Everett officials say they’re not planning to make any changes to the program, which features Raymond Ibrahim, associate director of the Middle East Forum and contributing writer of a blog called “Jihad Watch.” Ibrahim’s appearance is “consistent with the belief that students be exposed to a variety of views,” said John Olson, Everett vice president for college advancement.
But the Washington chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and several local religious leaders said they fear Ibrahim’s views could incite violence against Muslims.
“Everything Mr. Ibrahim has done in his career seems to have the single-minded focus of portraying Islam and Muslims as evil, deceitful, conspiring to take over the world, and … feeding the perpetual questioning and mistrust of their presence in the West,” reads the letter by Arsalan Bukhari, executive director of the Washington chapter of CAIR. The letter is signed by Bukhari and 58 others.
Debbie Schlussel calls for 1.8 billion Muslims to be killed
Via LoonWatch we have the response of right-wing US blogger Debbie Schlussel to the killing of Osama bin Laden.
Temecula anti-Islam group descends on high school
A Temecula-based anti-Islam group handed out fliers to students at a Murrieta high school. About a dozen members of Concerned Citizens for the First Amendment perched themselves on the sidewalk outside Murrieta Valley High School Tuesday, handing out fliers to students walking by.
A person unaffiliated with the group stood across the street from the high school, holding yellow signs that read, “Islam = Hate,” and, “Say No 2 Islam.”
The letter handed out was the same one the group gave to students outside Chaparral High School in January.
Seventh grade students in the Murrieta Valley Unified School District learn about the history of Islam as part of Social Studies. The letter accuses teachers of lying about Islam.
“Did you know you were subjected to some really serious brainwashing when you were in the seventh grade, and that it is continuing even today?” the flier stated. “That means you have been fed a bunch of lies. Lies can mess up your life forever. Do you like being lied to?”
The group also informed school district officials the day before that they planned to hand out the fliers, said Karen Parris, spokeswoman for the Murrieta Valley Unified School District. The district sent a phone message home to parents, telling them about the outreach.
“Under the first amendment, the group has the right to express their views on Islam and the building of mosques in the United States. Our students have the right to refuse the fliers or to accept the fliers, to engage in conversation, or to continue walking,” the message stated. “School staff and Murrieta police will be on hand to ensure that this is a peaceable exercise, as promised by the Concerned Citizens for the First Amendment.”
School officials also advised the students and gave them the choice of taking an alternative route to leave the school, the message stated.
Many students crumpled up the fliers and threw them on the ground, according to a parent who was present.
Muslim mothers protest against French education minister’s demand that they leave hijab at home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbEn3hF7b_g
Angry Muslim mothers and rights groups in France rally against a controversial proposal that bans Muslim moms from taking part in their children’s extracurricular activities at school.
Protesters chanted slogans against French Education Minister Luc Chatel, who has asked Muslim mothers that want to accompany their children on field trips to leave home their veils, whether they are the version that also covers the face or the simple headscarves.
With chants of “Mothers excluded, children humiliated”, the female demonstrators criticized the French government for what they described as controlling their lives and their children’s education, a Press TV correspondent reported Monday.
In 2004, France banned students from wearing Islamic shawls but the official anti-discrimination body now says the ban applies only to students and not their parents.
There is concern that a vaguely-worded decree would ultimately prevent women that wear the Islamic headdress from even entering the school or lead to humiliations that render them second-class citizens.
The protesters argue that the proposal fuels Islamophobia and flies in the face of women’s rights. “It’s always women they point their finger at. In 2004, it was a young girl who was expelled from school and today it’s their mothers,” said N’della Paye with Feminists for Equality Collective.
The recent development follows efforts by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to pass anti-Muslim laws, including the recent burqa ban, to seek re-election by gaining the support of the National Front, some observers believe.
Most teachers welcome the participation of parents in school activities with open arms. However, many mothers wonder whether the message being conveyed is that Muslims are a bad influence on children.
Dearborn: Terry Jones denounces Islam, provokes protestors
Amid a heavy police presence, Pastor Terry Jones delivered a rambling speech today from the steps of Dearborn City Hall that lashed out at Islam and President Barack Obama, but many of his words were drowned out by the voices of a swarm of protesters.
Jones repeatedly provoked and insulted the counter protesters. At one point, he ignored police requests by ambling down to the front of the police barricades while taunting his opponents. Angered, some of those protesters stormed past police barricades and marched across Michigan Ave as they hurled bottles and shoes at Jones’ supporters in front of them. One woman spit in Jones’ direction.
The young crowd then pushed down a security fence that separated them from Jones’ supporters as they surged forward, their faces tight with anger. For a moment, it appeared a major clash was about to break out. But Arab-American leaders and police pushed back the angry group of youngsters as dozens of police in full riot gear and masks marched out in single file out to separate the two sides. At least two were arrested.
Dearborn Mayor John O’Reilly said afterward that Jones was responsible for creating the disturbance by ignoring city requests not to approach the barricade. “He refused to comply,” O’Reilly said. “He was asked, please don’t come to the barricade. He just ignored us…. His goal was to start trouble… That shows his character.”
O’Reilly said Jones was a trouble maker promoting fear among Americans during a time of economic anxiety. His goal, the mayor said, was to make money for his Florida church, which has hardly any members left. “He’s got an online business of creating fear and hatred,” he said.
Jones started his talk by repeating his claim that parts of America, like Dearborn, are under sharia, or Islamic law. “We will not allow sharia to be instituted” in America, said Jones during his talk. His assistant, Pastor Wayne Sapp – who burned a Quran last month in Florida on Jones’ orders – said during his talk: “It’s time for Christians to take to the streets.”
The crowd grew as they spoke, with more Arab-Americans and Muslims appearing as the rally took place. Some waved shoes, an Arab symbol of disrespect. Others held up Qurans. American, Palestinians, and Lebanese flags were also waved. More than 600 anti-Jones protesters appeared to assemble, despite repeated pleas by Arab-American and Muslim leaders to not show up.
During his talk, demonstrators opposing Jones repeatedly chanted “Go home Terry Jones” and “U-S-A! U-S-A!” They waved a USA flag during Jones speech.
In his talk, Jones repeated what he has been saying for weeks. But it was more pointed, and more insulting, say local Muslims. At one point, Jones said that Islamic doctrine promotes lying. As Jones spoke, Sapp held up a sign that read “Ban Sharia Law in USA”
About 100 supporters of Jones listened to his talk. Some said they were from New York City.
Jones also launched an attack on Obama, questioning the President’s speech in Cairo where said Islam was part of the American story. “Islam has never been part of the American story,” Jones said.
APPG on Homeland Security joins Anthony Glees and the Henry Jackson Society in scaremongering over ‘Muslim extremism’ at universities
Both the Daily Telegraph (“University campuses are ‘hotbeds of Islamic extremism'”) and the Daily Mail (“University campuses ‘a hotbed of Muslim extremism’, claims Parliamentary security group”) have articles covering a new report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Homeland Security.
It claims to have uncovered “damning evidence” of extremism among Muslim students which the government is urged to tackle with “utmost urgency”.
Looking through the report you’d be hard pressed to find any serious evidence, damning or otherwise, of Muslim extremism on university campuses. The only material provided is a transcript of a lengthy diatribe by Anthony Glees, whose record of irresponsible scaremongering on this issue is well established. A 2008 Cambridge University study by June Edmunds found, contrary to Glees’s unsubstantiated assertions and much to his annoyance, that Muslim students were well integrated and posed no threat to anyone.
The fact that the APPG is prepared to issue these bloodcurdling warnings about Muslim extremism at British universities, based solely on Glees’s say-so, is perhaps not unconnected with the fact that the author of the report is one Davis Lewin. The neocon campaign group the Henry Jackson Society helpfully informs us that Lewin “is a Special Adviser to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Homeland Security and Head of Programmes at the Henry Jackson Society, which serves as the Secretariat for the APPG on Homeland Security”.
The BBC has a rather more critical assessment of the APPG’s report, which quotes Nicola Dandridge of Universities UK as stating:
“There is no evidence to suggest that universities are ‘hotbeds of Islamic extremism’. The experts, including police and counter-terrorism experts, state quite firmly that there is not a major problem with radicalisation or extremism in higher education at present. The issue is that the people most likely to be vulnerable to radicalisation or extremism are young people, many of whom will either be students or former students. Over 40% of young people in the UK will enter higher education.”
Postscript: Needless to say, this is all grist to the mill of the English Defence League, who posted a link to the Telegraph article for the enlightenment of their members:
And here are some of the comments by EDL supporters that it provoked:
Choudary calls off royal wedding stunt
Muslims Against the Crusades have, entirely predictably, called off their threatened protest against the royal wedding tomorrow.
This is, of course, the usual method adopted by Anjem Choudary and his sorry little gang of provocateurs.
In October 2009 Choudary said he would organise a “March for Shari’ah” in London and then, having milked this for all the publicity he could – with the Daily Express reporting it under the front-page headline “Now Muslims demand: Give us full sharia law” – he announced that the demonstration would not be going ahead after all.