Category Archives: Right wing

French religious leaders warn against divisive Islam debate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The leaders of France’s six main religions warned the government on Wednesday against a planned debate on Islam they say could stigmatise Muslims and fuel prejudice as the country nears national elections next year.

Weighing in on an issue that is tearing apart President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party, the Conference of French Religious Leaders said the discussion about respect for France’s secular system could only spread confusion at a turbulent time.

The UMP plans to hold a public forum on secularism next week that critics decry as veiled Muslim-bashing to win back voters who defected to the far-right National Front at local polls last week and could thwart Sarkozy’s reelection hopes in 2012.

Stressing that faith should foster social harmony, the religous leaders said the debate could “cloud this perspective and incite confusion that can only be prejudicial”. “Is a political party, even if it is in the majority, the right forum to lead this by itself?” they asked in a rare joint statement.

The statement was signed by the leaders of the Roman Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Protestant, Orthodox Christian and Buddhist faiths. The leaders formed the group last year to coordinate their approach to religious issues in public debate.

The faith leaders said France has held many long and serious debates about its secular system, introduced in 1905 to separate the church and state, and questioned the need for another one. “We are working for a common sense secularism,” they said. “Secularism cannot be separated from our fundamental values, especially the dignity and respect for the human person.”

Individual religious leaders have supported Muslims, who at about five million constitute France’s second-largest religion after Catholicism.

“It’s often difficult to be a Muslim in France,” Grand Rabbi Gilles Bernheim said last week. “This difficulty is worse today in this unhealthy climate, aggravated by talk that divides rather than unites,” the Jewish leader told the daily Le Monde.

French Protestant Federation head Pastor Claude Baty has joined Muslim leaders in announcing he would boycott the round-table discussions the UMP has scheduled for April 5.

Reuters, 30 March 2011

Hans-Peter Friedrich demands German Muslims renounce Islamists and spy on each other

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hans-Peter Friedrich2Muslim leaders in Germany on Tuesday protested the new interior minister’s demand that they should help root out extremists by coming forward with information shared in mosques.

The demand by Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich at the long- scheduled talks chilled five years of efforts to overcome suspicions between Berlin and the Islamic community, who make up 5 per cent of Germany’s population. Muslims had wanted to talk about ways to fight poverty and the high failure rates of their children in schools.

When he took office earlier this month, Friedrich said Islam had no place in German history, and then repeated the remark on national breakfast television Tuesday. The minister, who belongs to the conservative Bavaria-only Christian Social Union (CSU), then issued a briefing paper demanding that the community renounce Islamists, report radical sermons by imams and tell police about conversations that could indicate a terrorism threat.

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Religious leaders tell Terry Jones he’s not welcome in Detroit

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Everything he’s doing here is a violation of the Gospel,” said Pastor Ed Rowe with Central United Methodist Church.

Metro Detroit religious leaders are standing in solidarity, sending letters and sending a message to the controversial pastor from Florida. They say stay home.

“We do not agree with Terry Jones. We do not agree with his philosophy, and we want to continue to keep this region as unified as we possibly can,” said the Rev. Charles Williams II with King Solomon Baptist Church.

“We need more progress than anything right now. What we don’t need is any incendiary acts that would push us back,” said the Rev. Maurice Rudds with Greater Mount Tabor Baptist Church.

“Too many barriers have already been tore down, and so we say today to all that might hear my voice, we love Muslims, we love Jews, we love all God-fearing people,” said the Rev. Charles Williams, Senior with King Solomon Baptist Church.

What they don’t love is the visit Pastor Terry Jones is planning – a protest outside the Islamic Center of America on April 22. Jones is coming at the invitation of the Order of the Dragon, some newly-formed, obscure group of about five people from up north – hardly a ringing endorsement for Jones’ services.

“Shame on that militia group here in Michigan who was trying to import Mr. Jones, who’s a very controversial figure, to try to stir up trouble in their own state,” said Dawud Walid with CAIR Michigan.

MyFoxDetroit.com, 28 March 2011

EDL’s Alan Lake backs Christian Voice anti-halal campaign

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Christian_Voice

Christian Voice will be leafleting football supporters attending the England v Ghana friendly at Wembley Stadium this evening to warn them that halal meat is allegedly being served in the stadium takeaways.

The text of the leaflet can be consulted here. It states:

“We asked the FA to confirm in writing that the beef burgers at Wembley are not halal. They refused. They would not even say if their halal chicken, lamb and any beef on sale is stunned before slaughter. Even if it is, that is not the point. A Muslim slaughterman still chants ‘Bismillah Allahu Akbar’ (meaning ‘In the name of Allah, Allah is the greatest’) over each halal animal killed, sacrificing it to Allah. Anyone buying halal meat will be eating Sharia Law.”

“Eating Sharia Law”! Well, at least we’re spared the usual lying nonsense from right-wing anti-halal campaigners about being motivated by concern for animal welfare.

Alan Lake of the English Defence League, who has a background in right-wing evangelical Christianity, has been plugging the event on his 4 Freedoms site. But without any evident success. On the Protest Against Unlabelled Halal at Wembley Facebook page all of 10 people are listed as “maybe attending”.

Update:  It appears that the leafleting was less than a total success. One supporter who joined Christian Voice leader Stephen Green in handing out the leaflets reports that “a muslim complained and a Policeman arrived with someone from the Brent Council to challenge me as to whether I had sought permission to give them out. I had not… and neither had Stephen… So they seized whet leaflets we had in our hands… and sadly we had to stop”. According to another account, the leaflets that Green and his supporters did manage to distribute were “discarded like confetti all along Wembley Way”.

Herman Cain says he would not appoint a Muslim to his administration

Posted on by Bob Pitt

As the Republican presidential nomination process begins, one GOP candidate is making a name for himself as the Islamophobia candidate: Herman Cain.

Earlier this week, Cain gave an interview to Christianity Today in which he declared that, “based upon the little knowledge that I have of the Muslim religion, you know, they have an objective to convert all infidels or kill them.”

ThinkProgress caught up with the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza today at the Conservative Principles Conference in Des Moines, Iowa, to discuss his comments further. We asked him, in light of his statements on Islam, would he be comfortable appointing any Muslims in his administration. Rather than skirting the question or hedging his answer, as most presidential aspirants are wont to do, Cain was definitive: “No, I would not”:

KEYES: You came under a bit of controversy this week for some of the comments made about Muslims in general. Would you be comfortable appointing a Muslim, either in your cabinet or as a federal judge?

CAIN: No, I would not. And here’s why. There is this creeping attempt, there is this attempt to gradually ease Sharia law and the Muslim faith into our government. It does not belong in our government. This is what happened in Europe. And little by little, to try and be politically correct, they made this little change, they made this little change. And now they’ve got a social problem that they don’t know what to do with hardly.

The question that was asked that “raised some questions” and, as my grandfather said, “I does not care, I feel the way I feel.” I was asked, “what is the role of Islam in America?” I thought it was an odd question. I said the role of Islam in America is for those that believe in Islam to practice it and leave us alone. Just like Christianity. We have a First Amendment. And I get upset when the Muslims in this country, some of them, try to force their Sharia law onto the rest of us.

Cain’s apparent rationale for refusing to even consider a Muslim nominee for any position in his administration is as simple as it is abhorrent: he believes all Muslims would try to “force their Sharia law onto the rest of us.” This type of bigotry has been promoted by conservative figures like Frank Gaffney and Brigitte Gabriel for years. Now, it appears to be seeping into the presidential race via Herman Cain.

Think Progress, 26 March 2011

Brigitte Gabriel warns Texans of Islamic takeover

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Brigitte Gabriel on Fox“The Obama adminstration is focused on how to run and manage our lives. They are refusing to protect us from Al-Qaeda and radical Islam.”

That was part of the message that counterterrorism speaker Brigitte Gabriel delivered Saturday at the Taylor County Expo Center on behalf of the Abilene 912 project. Gabriel is co-founder of Act! for America, a grass-roots organization whose goal is to “effectively inform, educate and mobilize Americans regarding the multiple threats of radical Islam,” according to its website.

“Al-Qaeda is run under American management,” Gabriel said. She noted cases such as American born-cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who allegedly inspired Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hassan and that Al-Qaeda’s current chief operations officer grew up in Florida. Citing these and other examples, she then touched on events imbedded with controversy.

“How can people complain about Peter King holding hearings?” Gabriel said, referring to the hearings being held by the congressman in Washington, D.C., on the radicalization of American Muslims that have drawn heavy criticism from Muslim groups and other politicians. “Throw political correctness in the garbage, where it belongs!” she said emphatically, drawing a standing ovation from the audience.

She went even further, telling the audience that radical Islam, in the form of the Middle East-born organization the Muslim Brotherhood, was infiltrating the United States.

“They have a 100-year plan for Islam to dominate the United States and take over the rest of the world,” Gabriel said, referring to an document from the Muslim Brotherhood that she said came to light in the trial of an Islamic charity after the 2001 attack.

She cited mainstream Muslim organizations such as CAIR (Council on Islamic Relations), the Muslim Students Association and ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) as being fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood.

“CAIR works with groups like the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union),” she said. “What could they possibly have in common? They are useful idiots in the hands of our enemies.”

“There are more chapters of the Muslim Students Association then there are of Democratic or Republican organizations on college campuses in the U.S.,” she said, drawing gasps from the crowd.

Gabriel then discussed how Saudi Arabia had spent more than $85 million funding universities across America, and also told the audience of an instance in a California middle school where students were, in her words, “forced to become Muslims for two weeks.”

After the speech, audience members reacted positively. “I really didn’t know how bad the infiltration was in America,” said Wes Hamilton, whose boss had given him free tickets to the event. “I don’t know how dangerous it will become if we don’t do something about it.”

Stan Keen came from Mertzon, near San Angelo, to see Gabriel. “I agree with pretty much everything she had to say,” Keen said. “She’s against everything the left stands for.”

Abiline Reporter-News, 26 March 2011