Category Archives: Right wing

Annual anti-GPU witch-hunt continues

Posted on by Bob Pitt

GPU 2010Once again we’re faced with the annual right-wing campaign against the Global Peace and Unity event, which takes place this weekend at the ExCeL centre in London.

There has been a last-minute push by the usual bunch of Islamophobes to pressure government ministers into boycotting the event. An appeal to that effect by Paul Goodman at ConservativeHome has unsurprisingly been endorsed by Harry’s Place. Given the role of the latter blog in witch-hunting the likes ofNew Statesman political editor Mehdi Hasan as Muslim extremists, you might have thought their support would hardly help Goodman’s case.

In that connection, note the Harry’s Place discussion thread where Ajmal Masroor of all people is denounced as an extremist on the grounds that he is “a presenter on the Islam Channel: a Muslim Brotherhood dominated organisation, whose CEO, Mohammed Ali Harrath is a convicted terrorist” and is accused of placing himself outside “mainstream politics” because he refuses to join Harry’s Place in witch-hunting Muslim organisations.

Meanwhile, on the discussion thread at ConservativeHome, Tory London Assembly member Andrew Boff comments: “Hey Paul – You should recruit this guy – he doesn’t like the GPU either.” And Boff provides a link to this anti-GPU rant at IslamicTube.

If the two parties that make up the coalition government really want to damage their reputation among Muslim communities across the UK, they really couldn’t do much better than succumb to this sort of hardline right-wing campaign and withdraw speakers from the GPU.

Lutfur Rahman elected Mayor of Tower Hamlets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lutfur_RahmanA former leader of Tower Hamlets Council who was dumped by Labour then stood as an independent has been voted in as the borough’s new mayor. Lutfur Rahman secured 51.76% of the vote to become the east London borough’s first directly elected mayor.

Former council leader Mr Rahman was Labour’s initial candidate. But when he was rebuffed by the party he announced he would stand as an independent with several Labour councillors’ backing.

Thursday’s poll was the first ever ballot for a directly-elected mayor in Tower Hamlets, with a 25.6% turnout.

Labour’s London mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone has risked internal discipline by campaigning for Mr Rahman against the party’s new candidate, Helal Abbas. On Monday, he was seen on the streets of Tower Hamlets campaigning with Mr Rahman.

Mr Livingstone called the deselection of Mr Rahman an “utterly unacceptable” move by Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) which “ignored the views of the local electorate”.

He insisted however that he backed the official candidate and was simply trying to encourage voters to put the independent down as their second choice in an effort to keep out the Conservatives.

Labour’s Mr Abbas launched a bitter attack on Mr Rahman, accusing him of being “in the gutter”. “This is a sad night for those of us who want to build a better future and a united Tower Hamlets. Lutfur Rahman has won tonight but not as he wanted, as the Labour candidate,” he said in a statement.

“Thankfully, Labour’s ruling National Executive had the backbone to stop him from being the Labour candidate. We may have lost tonight, but at least the Labour Party has clean hands.”

Votes were as follows:

  • Helal Uddin Abbas, Labour Party – 11,254
  • Alan Duffell, Green Party – 2,300
  • John David Macleod Griffiths, Liberal Democrats – 2,800
  • Neil Anthony King, Conservative Party – 5,348
  • Lutfur Rahman, Independent – 23,283

BBC News, 22 October 2010

See also Dave Hill’s London Blog, 22 October 2010

So Andrew Gilligan’s contemptible witch-hunting was all in vain. Needless to say, he is not happy.

Update:  And now Gilligan has posted a transcript of his Channel 4 documentary “Britain’s Islamic Republic” on his Torygraph blog. Give it a rest Andrew. You spent all that time and effort trying to stitch up the IFE and turn public opinion against Lutfur Rahman – and you lost.

Islam ‘advocates beheadings, forced conversions and paedophilia’, Murfreesboro Islamic Center opponent tells court

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Not WelcomeDay five of a hearing into whether to stop construction of an approved Islamic Center of Murfreesboro mosque continued with the opponents’ attorney trying to paint the project as a doorway to Islamic domination and tyrannical Shariah law in the United States. Attorney Joe Brandon Jr. called several witnesses on Thursday who tried to connect the Islamic Center to terrorism and plots to overthrow democracy.

Murfreesboro resident Jeanetta Alford was characteristic of Brandon’s approach in explaining her opposition to the mosque. She said she believes that the teaching of Islam violates the United States Constitution because it advocates beheadings, forced conversions and pedophilia. When asked if she would like to be rid of mosques in America, she responded, “That would be wonderful, probably.”

Rutherford County’s attorneys countered that there’s zero proof that the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro has broken any law. “Has the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro beheaded anyone?” asked County Attorney James Cope. “No, they have not,” Alford replied. Later, she said that the center wasn’t fully practicing Shariah law “because they can’t do it yet.”

The Tennessean, 22 October 2010

See also the Daily New Journal, which reports another witness, one Lisa Moore, as saying that “the religion part of Islam is only about 30 percent and ‘the rest of it is about killing non-believers’.”

WSMV Nashville reports the following exchange between Brandon and Randy Groce, an investigator with the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department:

“Is Islam a religion?” Brandon said.

“In my opinion, yes,” said Groce. “They have a belief in a deity, an afterlife.”

“You say an afterlife. Is this the same afterlife that, like, when you yell, ‘Allah akbar,’ and blow up several people, and you get several virgins – is that the afterlife you’re talking about?” said Brandon.

Murfreesboro: anti-mosque campaign lawyer suggests ‘flag of Shariah’ may already be flying over White House

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A hearing over plans to build a mosque southeast of Murfreesboro will continue in Chancery Court today despite a Justice Department brief supporting Islam as a religion.

Attorney Joe Brandon Jr., in a press conference on the Public Square Tuesday in response to the brief, said plaintiffs contend the real issue is Shariah Law, not Islam. “Is Shariah entitled to Constitutional protection or is it sedition, which we intend to prove,” Brandon said.

The Smyrna attorney – who is representing local residents Kevin Fisher, Lisa Moore and Henry Golczynski – vowed to continue presenting testimony supporting that claim when the hearing resumes before Chancellor Robert Corlew at 8:30 a.m. today at the Rutherford County Judicial Building.

Brandon has argued in court that the local Islamic Center supports Shariah Law and is a threat to the community and the country. He spoke of terrorists and said that “the same group of people” were responsible for the 9/11 attacks in 2001 that killed around 3,000 Americans.

Brandon questioned if the flag of Shariah is already flying over the White House.

Standing behind an encased historic Bible outside the courthouse Tuesday afternoon, Brandon told media to question why the same U.S. government that got involved with opposing Arizona’s immigration enforcement law should be taking a position involving the plaintiffs here.

The Tennessean, 20 October 2010

Fox News ‘liberal’ says America is at war with Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Last week, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly said on ABC’s The View that “Muslims killed us on 9/11,” prompting The View co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar to walk off the set in disgust. “If anybody felt that I meant all Muslims, then I apologize,” he said later in the program.

But now, O’Reilly, with handy assistance from his colleagues at Fox News, is defending his original claim. “There’s no question there is a Muslim problem in the world,” he said last night on his show. “The Muslim threat to the world is not isolated. It’s huge!” he said, adding, “It involves nations and millions of people.”

O’Reilly asked Fox News’ “liberal” Juan Williams if he’s wrong. Surprisingly, Williams joined with the other Fox Newsers in circling the wagons around O’Reilly, citing “political correctness” and seemingly because Muslims scare him:

WILLIAMS: Well, actually, I hate to say this to you because I don’t want to get your ego going. But I think you’re right. I think, look, political correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where you don’t address reality.

I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.

Williams justified his defense, saying that the would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad “said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts.”

Think Progress, 19 October 2010

Update:  See “NPR fires Juan Williams over anti-Muslim remarks”, Washington Post, 21 October 2010

Merkel inspires Islamophobia in Devon

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Values and cultures are so different across the whole of Europe so it was always going to be an almost impossible job to integrate the immigrants – mostly Muslim – in Christian countries.

Throughout Europe, ruling political elites have failed to get to grips with a happy bonding between the indigenous populations and the Muslim immigrant communities. Race relations are in a turmoil because both groups feel victimised – immigrants mainly, because they have never been challenged to adapt to their new surroundings, and native populations because they feel they are being treated as second-class citizens in their countries of birth.

There is only one way forward and that is to take radical steps to promote integration of immigrants into a more enlightened way of living.

Mrs Merkel should be congratulated for recognising that this is the best way forward. Now we must hope that our political leaders are brave enough to do the same.

Letter in Express & Star, 20 October 2010

Should perhaps read “Merkel and Richard Desmond inspire Islamophobia in Devon”. The letter is lifted directly from an editorial in Monday’s Daily Express.

Right-wing group launches media blitz to win yes vote in Oklahoma anti-Sharia ballot

Posted on by Bob Pitt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=onGxKNSDT3Q

A group vowing to fight “Islamofascism” has launched a media blitz in Oklahoma supporting a state constitutional amendment that would prohibit the courts from considering Islamic or other international law when ruling on cases in Sooner State courtrooms.

The campaign by Act! For America, founded by Lebanese American journalist Brigitte Gabriel, includes a radio ad that began airing Monday, opinion articles and robo-calls from former CIA director and Tulsa native James Woolsey urging residents to vote for the ballot initiative.

The group says the constitutional amendment will prevent the takeover of Oklahoma by Islamic extremists who want to undo America from the inside out.

“We want to make sure that the people in Oklahoma are educated about what Shariah law is all about and its ramifications,” Gabriel, president and CEO of the group, told FoxNews.com. “We’re not taking any chances with this initiative passing marginally. We hope it passes with great victory.”

In two weeks, Oklahoma voters will decide the fate of State Question 755, or better known as “Save Our State” amendment after the Republican-controlled state legislature passed it with an 82-10 vote in the House and a 41-2 vote in the Senate.

A poll by The Tulsa World in July found that 49 percent of voters support the amendment compared to 24 percent who opposed it and 27 percent who were undecided.

The group’s radio ad recounts the story of a New Jersey family court judge’s decision not to grant a restraining order to a woman who was sexually abused by her Moroccan husband and forced repeatedly to have sex with him. The judge ruled that her ex-husband felt he had behaved according to his Muslim beliefs and that he did not have “criminal desire to or intent to sexually assault” his wife.

“This is just one chilling example of how Islamic Shariah law has begun to penetrate America,” the narrator says. “Help us stop Shariah law from coming to Oklahoma.”

The ad did not mention that New Jersey’s Appellate Court overturned the decision in July, ruling that the husband’s religious beliefs were irrelevant and that the judge, in taking them into consideration, “was mistaken.”

Gabriel argued that Shariah law is taking hold in Europe, noting that at least 85 Shariah courts are operating in Britain. “When we look at Europe, it is a preview of what’s coming to the United States,” she said. “We want to make sure this does not happen here.”

Fox News, 20 October 2010

Tory MPs call for Charles Farr to be sacked over Zakir Naik case

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A court hearing starting tomorrow will apparently lay bare attempts by Charles Farr, the director of the Office of Security and Counter Terrorism, to undermine Mrs May’s decision to ban Dr Zakir Naik, an Indian television preacher, from the UK.

Mrs May banned Dr Naik from entering the UK for a lecture tour in June, saying his presence “would not be conducive to the public good”. However, hours after the ban was announced, Mr Farr told one of Dr Naik’s supporters in an email that he would try to help Dr Naik’s case to enter the UK, according to emails seen by The Daily Telegraph.

Conservative MPs last night said it suggested “civil servants are actively working to undermine ministers’ decisions”, and said that Mr Farr should stand down.

Nick Boles MP, who is close to Prime Minister David Cameron, said: “This email appears to confirm that civil servants are actively working to undermine ministers’ decisions. This is outrageous. If true he [Mr Farr] should be removed from any position where he is responsible for combating terrorism.”

Robert Halfon, another Conservative MP said: “This underlines what I have been saying that there are too many people who seem to be appeasing extreme Islamism, rather than confront it.

“I welcome Theresa May’s robust response to it and extreme Islamism. This man should be removed from the Home Office. He is not suited to do this role. Why on earth is someone in the Home Office trying to help bring an extreme Islamist into the UK?”

Daily Telegraph, 19 October 2010