Category Archives: Right wing

‘Imams in the House of Lords’ – Sunday Telegraph report provokes outpouring of anti-Muslim hatred

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Sunday Telegraph reports: “David Cameron is considering plans to create a ‘multi-faith’ House of Lords where Muslim imams could sit alongside Anglican and Catholic bishops.”

And you can predict the response of Torygraph readers. Some examples:

“If his little Jihad against Gadaffi succeeds and Libya becomes an Islamic state there will be no doubting cammoron is a closet muslim.”

“That’s a good idea, clear the sack-cloth for ritualistic beheading of infidels.”

“I WILL NOT accept Islam!”

“Muslims in the House of Lords. May as well scrap the constitution, the revolution settlement of 1688, and 2000 years of Christian heritage in these British Isles. Oh…my mistake..that has already been done.”

“Islam is already being forced on the British pubic – unknown to them most food is now halal meaning it has been ritually prayed over and in the case of meats ritually killed as well and we are deliberately not told about it or given a choice to buy or not to buy – no labels.”

“I gather that to make matters worse there is a tax paid on all halal killed meat that goes to…………..goodness knows where, it is an islamic tax, and could end up supporting terrorism, even buying weapons to use against our troops. It really is time for our useless government to wake up and smell the coffee!”

“Yes, the Muslims charge a fee for certifying that the meat is truly halal; and then use the money to finance the jihad. It is essentially a modern-day form of jizya, a tax paid by conquered infidels to their Muslim rulers.”

“Islam is incompatible with British values and considered by many of us not be a religion at all but a violent cult movement with a clear agenda to take over any country they are living in.”

Continue reading →

Terry Jones jailed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A controversial Florida pastor was jailed on Friday after a Michigan court determined that his planned demonstration outside a mosque was likely to provoke violence and he refused to pay a $1 bond.

Terry Jones, 59, was sent to the county jail in Detroit after he declined to meet the terms of a ruling by District Judge Mark Somers in an apparent protest.

Somers had ordered Jones and a supporter, Wayne Sapp, to each pay $1 under the terms of an order that would have also barred them from the Islamic Center of America mosque and nearby public property for three years.

A six-person jury heard over five hours of testimony and argument before concluding that the planned protest by Jones was “likely to breech the peace.”

Jones, who represented himself and wore a faded leather jacket and jeans, sat stone-faced and said little after the jury read out its verdict. When Somers asked if he was prepared to meet the terms of the $1 bond, Jones said, “No.”

“I strongly voice my disagreement with the ruling,” said Sapp, 42, when asked by Somers if he had any comment on the ruling. “The peace bond is to prohibit free speech.” Sapp was also ordered to jail.

Jones had asked for a permit to protest outside the Islamic Center of America on Good Friday, a time when both the mosque and four nearby churches were expected to be crowded with worshipers.

Dearborn police had denied Jones’s request and asked him to protest instead in a “free speech zone” in front of one of the city buildings. But Jones, who represented himself in court on Friday, argued that violated his free speech rights.

Reuters, 22 April 2011

Terry Jones says he will defy judge’s order and protest at Islamic Center of America next week

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A defiant Terry Jones says he plans to protest next week at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn despite a judge’s order that he stay from the mosque for three years. The Quran-burning pastor from Florida said his rights were violated Friday by a judge due to the influence of Islamic law.

“We plan to protest next week in front of the Islamic Center,” Pastor Terry Jones said today. “The arrests, the whole proceedings, were a definite violation of our Constitutional rights. As a matter of fact, we were arrested and had not even committed a crime. It is a complete violation of our First Amendment right of freedom of speech. It was clearly influenced by the mosque.”

Jones had wanted to protest Friday against jihad and sharia outside the Islamic Center on Friday, but was thwarted by authorities. The center is the largest mosque in metro Detroit, a region with a sizable Muslim population.

On Friday, Judge Mark Somers ordered that Jones and Pastor Wayne Sapp be remanded to jail after a jury determined they would be likely to breach the peace. In his decision Judge Somers set a $1 cash bond for Jones and Sapp, and also said Jones and Sapp could not go to the mosque or adjacent property for three years. The only exception would be if the leadership of the mosque, such as its board, decided it would be ok for him to visit, Somers said.

Jones said that was an example of the influence of sharia, or Islamic law, in Dearborn. “Sharia is much closer than we thought,” Jones said. “The judge even made a statement, that if the mosque elders and leadership would have desired the restraints placed on us of not going near the mosque be lifted, then he would have taken that into consideration. Thus proving that this whole thing is a direct violation of freedom of speech and that they are favoring the religion of Islam.”

Detroit Free Press, 23 April 2011

See also “Jones’ Jesus stunt and his inadvertent supporters”, Weblog of Dawud Walid, 23 April 2011

Detroit’s religious leaders unite against Terry Jones as pastor battles to hold anti-Muslim rally

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dearborn demonstration

With some of metro Detroit’s biggest political and religious leaders united behind Muslims in Dearborn, Florida Pastor Terry Jones is expected to appear in court this morning for a jury trial that could determine whether he can hold a rally at the largest mosque in the city.

This “bigot does not represent” us, Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini, head of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, declared to a crowd of about 700 on Thursday at a rally that drew U.S. Rep. John Dingell, a Dearborn Democrat, and the local heads of the Catholic and Episcopal churches.

Al-Qazwini’s mosque is where Jones wants to rally today against what he calls “the radical element in Islam.” Jones appeared in court Thursday and refused to post a bond for the massive security effort Dearborn says it would have to deploy if Jones were allowed to rally. The judge then ordered the trial.

As Jones addressed reporters during a chaotic day, Dearborn residents shouted at him. “Shame on you!” yelled Leyla Abdul-Ghani, 40, who is Muslim. “We are decent, hardworking people.”

Detroit Free Press, 22 April 2011

See also “Koran-burning pastor’s gun discharges outside of Detroit TV station”, Fox News, 22 April 2011

For Pamela Geller’s take on the situation, see “Sharia trumps Constitution in Michigan: Terry Jones denied permit to rally, could face arrest”, Atlas Shrugs, 21 April 2011

Tennessee: Republican politician defends right to ‘confront a political-militaristic-religion responsible for 10 out of the last 11 terrorist attacks on Americans’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rick WomickDebate surrounding proposed state legislation that critics say unfairly targets Islam continues to spill beyond the halls of the state Capitol. In a fiery email response to a local Jewish man, state Rep. Rick Womick defended his confrontation with a Columbia Muslim after a House committee hearing this week.

Womick, a Rockvale Republican who serves on the House Judiciary Committee, wrote an email Wednesday to Aaron Nuell of Murfreesboro stating that he sat “respectfully and politely” and listened to four people, including Daoud Abudiab of Columbia, accuse him and fellow legislators of denying them their constitutional rights, inflaming intolerance, making false accusations and being hate-mongers, racists and white supremacists such as the KKK.

“And you write me to scold me because I dare speak up and defend my character and confront a political-militaristic-religion responsible for 10 out of the last 11 terrorist attacks on Americans?” Womick wrote.

Continue reading →

Pope ‘plotter’ still traumatised after arrest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim plot to kill popeA street cleaner arrested on suspicion of plotting against the Pope last year has told the BBC he is still traumatised by his ordeal.

Last September, when the Pope was visiting London, Sami, who has asked the BBC not to use his full name for fear of reprisals, was one of six men arrested under anti-terrorism laws. The 26-year-old from Algeria was the youngest.

The men, all street cleaners for Westminster Council, were detained after a tip-off to police. All were released without charge less than two days later – police said they posed “no credible threat” to the Pope.

Sami is now considering legal action against the police for false imprisonment. He accepts the police had a duty to protect the public from any potential threat but says the affair has had a profound affect on him.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme through an interpreter, Sami said that when police first detained him he had no lawyer or interpreter and did not really understand what was happening.

“The first interview – yes, it was me alone,” he said. “I was there and was being subjected to all sorts of questioning. At one stage the person interrogating me started saying ‘If anything happens to the Pope, anything at all, then you will be held responsible.’ Until now I am still traumatised by what I was subjected to.

“I felt my entire world crumbling around me. And I felt this is the end of my life. I would be lying to you if I didn’t say that I started thinking about Guantanamo Bay – you know, being transported over there.”

Earlier this year, BBC Radio 4’s Face the Facts programme reported on concerns that many negative newspaper stories about Muslims turn out to be untrue. Sami says he is shocked at the way one newspaper in particular distorted the facts.

The day after the men were arrested, under the headline “Muslim plot to kill the pope“, the front page of the Daily Express accused them of being “Islamic terrorists… with links to al-Qaeda”, plotting a “double blow to the infidel” by assassinating the head of the Roman Catholic Church and slaughtering hundreds of pilgrims and well wishers.

The Press Complaints Commission received numerous complaints about the paper’s coverage. But it is powerless to act because the Express group has withdrawn from the PCC. So Sami would have to go directly to the newspaper itself – and he is not confident of success.

“Of course I would like to make a complaint and the end goal for me would be like they alleged this against us – and me personally – on the front page: I would like them to reprint another front page saying ‘We got it wrong and we apologise’. I don’t think they will be fair.”

A report is due out in the next few weeks over whether the Metropolitan Police were justified in arresting the men. It is being carried out by the new independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, David Anderson QC.

The Daily Express and Scotland Yard declined to comment.

BBC News, 19 April 2011

The ‘Islamification’ of Tower Hamlets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scaremongering about the threat of “Islamification” facing the east London borough of Tower Hamlets has been popular in the right-wing press since Andrew Gilligan’s witch-hunting Channel 4 documentary Britain’s Islamic Republic was broadcast last year. Several papers this week have published articles on that theme.

Continue reading →

Tennessee Muslims gather at state Capitol for hearing on anti-sharia bill

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hundreds of Muslims thronged the state Capitol Tuesday morning for a hearing on a bill that once targeted adherents to Islamic law.

Muslims from across the state packed a committee room and corridors to hear testimony a bill that supporters say would help Tennessee law enforcement stop terrorist plots but opponents believe targets Muslims by targeting their beliefs. The bill has since been amended to remove any references to Islam and Shariah, the basic set of Muslim religious laws that covers everything from the rules of warfare to inheritance.

But opponents said in brief testimony that the bill is inherently flawed because it was written by an Arizona organization that has been described as a hate group. They urged the House Judiciary Committee and the measure’s sponsors, House Speaker Pro Tempore Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma, and state Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, to withdraw the bill.

“If a bill was written by the KKK, would you consider it even if it was amended?” said Sabina Mohyuddin, a youth coordinator at a Nashville mosque, who testified. “The intent of the bill remains the same.”

The Tennessean, 19 April 2011

Koran scholar Chuck Norris warns of creeping sharia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

WALLPAPER - CHUCK NORRISHappy Holy Week! This year, Walker Texas Ranger star and Internet meme Chuck Norris is celebrating things a little differently – by writing a special week-long series at WorldNetDaily on the dangers of creeping Islamic Sharia law in American society.

Norris, who wants to make clear that he is absolutely not an Islamophobe, warns that “where Muslim religion and culture has spread, Shariah law has shortly followed”:

Of course, many Americans watch on video a Middle Eastern woman allegedly caught in adultery, buried in the ground up to her head and being stoned to death, and think, “That could never happen in America.” But they fail to see how Shariah law has already been enabled and subtly invoked in our country, and that any such induction like it is brought about by understated lukewarm changes, like a frog boiled in a kettle by a slow simmer.

As proof of the slow boiling of the American frog, Norris cites three examples: A Florida judge ordering two Muslim parties to settle their dispute through Islamic arbitration, per the terms of their mutually agreed-upon contract; the push by various state legislators to ban Islamic law from state courts; and an Obama adviser telling a British audience that Sharia has been “oversimplified.” And that’s just in the last few months!

Of course, each of these points has its self-refuting flaws. Judges turn cases over to pre-selected religious arbitrators all the time, for instance, and not just for Muslims. None of the state legislators in question have produced a single example of Sharia being forced upon their states. And as for the argument that Sharia has been “oversimplified,” I would just point you to the fact that a quasi-mulleted martial arts actor from the mid 1990s feels qualified to explain to a national audience what Sharia is.

Tim Murphy at Mother Jones, 20 April 2011

Only 3 out of 249 EU terrorist attacks were carried out by Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The number of terrorist attacks recorded in the European Union last year dropped 21.2 percent to 249 compared with the previous year, the Europol police organisation said Tuesday.

“In 2010, 249 terrorist attacks were reported in nine member states,” killing seven people, it said in an annual report on terrorism within the 27-member bloc.

Most of these attacks, 160, were carried out by separatist groups and only three by Islamic groups, it added.

Middle East Online, 20 April 2011

Cf. David Cameron’s speech at the Munich security conference in February, in which he stated:

“… the biggest threat that we face comes from terrorist attacks … we should acknowledge that this threat comes in Europe overwhelmingly from young men who follow a completely perverse, warped interpretation of Islam, and who are prepared to blow themselves up and kill their fellow citizens.”