Mark Steel on the plot to kill the pope that wasn’t.
Category Archives: Right wing
Harvard faces protests over honour for Martin Peretz
Harvard academics and students are demanding that the university rescind a plan to honour the editor-in-chief of a leading Washington political magazine this week after he wrote that Muslims are unfit for the protections of the US constitution and said that “Muslim life is cheap”.
Martin Peretz has partially apologised for the comments but critics say they are only the most recent of a long line of bigotted columns in theNew Republic by the former Harvard professor that have drawn accusations of double standards in how the American media confronts prejudice.
Peretz caused a stir when he wrote in a column earlier this month that Muslims in the US should not be entitled to constitutional guarantees of free speech. “Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims … So, yes, I wonder whether I need honour these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse,” he said.
The comments provoked criticism from bloggers and academics but were initially ignored by mainstream newspapers despite Peretz’s prominence – among other things he is a close friend of the former vice-president Al Gore – and the influence of his magazine.
Some of the strongest criticism has come from Harvard, where some students and academics are demanding that the university cancel a ceremony on Friday to name a $500,000 (£322,000) social studies chair after Peretz.
“Such an invitation lends legitimacy and respectability to views that can only be described as abhorrent and racist in their implication that the rights guaranteed by the US constitution should be withheld from certain citizens based on their religious affiliation,” student organisations said in a letter to the university that has been signed by more than 400 people.
Among the critics is Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs at Harvard, who described Peretz’s views as hateful. “If you had said this about blacks, Jews or Catholics, it would be a scandal,” he told the Boston Globe.
See also the Daily Beast, 19 September 2010
Yay! Ed Husain is leaving the country
Yes, Ed Husain is indeed leaving the UK. Having spent the past few years trying to poison public opinion against mainstream Muslim organisations here, Husain is evidently off to the US to do the same there. According to the Jewish Chronicle he’s resigning from the Quilliam Foundation to become a senior fellow at the Council for Foreign Relations.
And good riddance, I say. At least the Muslim community in the UK will be spared the further attentions of this contemptible little man. Of course, you might say I’m biased. My past experience of Husain has involved him sending a threatening email to a London Assembly member in whose office I worked demanding that he stop me criticising the Quilliam Foundation and, when that failed, hiring libel lawyers in an attempt to silence me. And all this while Husain’s employment at Quilliam was being subsidised by public money.
CAIR and other organisations in the US Muslim community should prepare themselves for a Husain-inspired campaign of misrepresentation and slander against them.
Brooklyn Tea Party anti-mosque demo
More than three dozen self-professed Tea Party members rallied next to the 9-11 memorial at the 69th Street pier on Sunday to condemn controversial mosques near Ground Zero and in Sheepshead Bay.
“Islam has an inherent aggressiveness and the Muslim American Society [the developers of the Sheepshead Bay mosque] are their warriors on the front line,” claimed John Press, president of the Brooklyn Tea Party, which plans to attend a protest outside the Voorhies Avenue mosque site this Sunday. “We have to delay their expansion.”
At least one woman spent the afternoon in a black burka, carrying a sign reading, “I am Nancy Pelosi,” a reference to the Speaker of the House, a Democratic who has become a lightning rod for conservatives nationwide.
Former Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey, Blue Collar Corner blogger Andrew Sullivan, Republican congressional candidate Bob Turner and Republican Assembly candidate Nicole Malliotakis all addressed the crowd, although Malliotakis did not take the Brooklyn Tea Party pledge to freeze the budget and reduce capital spending by 15 percent, to fight the so-called Ground Zero mosque and support a divisive Arizona immigration law that allows police to demand immigration papers from anyone they suspect of being in this country illegally.
The Brooklyn Tea Party formed five months ago. Sunday’s rally was its second, and most successful, outing, Press said, adding that party members usually meet informally every Sunday at the Kosher Hut of Brooklyn on Kings Highway in Midwood.
Many Tea Party groups focus strictly on fiscal issues, but the Brooklyn Tea Party has a strong social conservative component in line with Press’s strong “culturist” beliefs. But Press denied that his group’s opposition to the two mosques is racially motivated.
“This has nothing to do with race. It has to do with culture,” he said. “We fully acknowledge some cultures are different and cultural diversity is real. This is not an Islamic country. We have the majority culture based on democracy and the separation of church and state. We have our own holidays, history and heroes – and we must define and protect it.”
Netherlands: former VVD leader quits in protest at coalition deal with Wilders
Former minister and parliamentary leader of the conservative VVD Joris Voorhoeve has resigned his party membership. His move is in protest at the VVD holding talks with the Christian Democrats (CDA) on the formation of a minority government which will rely on support from the anti-Islamic Freedom Party (PVV).
He is against the VVD being dependent on Geert Wilders’ populist PVV, saying he does not wish to share responsibility for such a situation. Last month, he said he was against working with the PVV which he described as “undemocratic”.
Mr Voorhoeve was parliamentary leader of the VVD from 1986 to 1990 and served as defence minister from 1994 to 1998. He is a member of the Council of State, the highest administrative court and governmental advisory body in the Netherlands.
New York: Muslim leaders reject Islamophobia, stand by Park51 project
Build the Ground Zero mosque, ASAP.
That’s the recommendation of a specially convened summit of local and national Muslim leaders, who expressed concern Monday over a wave of anti-Muslim bigotry that’s been unleashed by the planned construction of the Park51 mosque and community center two blocks from Ground Zero.
“We stand for the constitutional rights of Muslims, and Americans of all faiths, to build houses of worship anywhere in our nation as allowed by local laws and regulations,” Imam Al-Amin Latif, president of the Islamic Leadership Council of Metropolitan New York, told reporters Monday outside the mosque site on Park Place.
It was the first time in 20 years the group had convened a special gathering of Muslim religious leaders from all over the country, said its executive director, Zaheer Uddin. The closed-door summit took place Sunday. The last time was to formulate a response to the Gulf War.
Latif and other Muslim clerics plan a nationwide “Week of Dialogue” Oct. 22 through 24, when they’ll hold open houses at their places of worship in a bid to ease tensions caused by the Park51 mosque plan.
“Ground Zero belongs to all Americans,” said Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, recalling there were Muslim victims on 9/11 and Muslim first responders.
New York Daily News, 20 September 2010
See also New York Times, 20 September 2010
If it’s not sharia hysteria it’s halal hysteria: Mail on Sunday denounces ritual slaughter
“A Mail on Sunday investigation – which will alarm anyone concerned about animal cruelty – has revealed that schools, hospitals, pubs and famous sporting venues such as Ascot and Twickenham are controversially serving up meat slaughtered in accordance with strict Islamic law to unwitting members of the public….
“Animal welfare campaigners have long called for a ban on the traditional Islamic way of preparing meat – which involves killing animals by drawing a knife across their throats, without stunning them first – saying it is cruel and causes unnecessary pain….
“The extent of halal meat consumption, even in areas of Britain with a very small Muslim population, was revealed as the Pope, on his first visit to Britain, expressed fears that the country was not doing enough to preserve traditional Christian values and customs.”
Yes it’s another piece of “Islamification of Britain” scaremongering in the Mail on Sunday, who adopt the pretence that they’re motivated not by hostility towards Muslims but by concern for animal rights, just as they frame their campaign against “sharia courts” in terms of a defence of women’s rights.
The fact that non-Muslims have for decades eaten halal meat in “Indian” restaurants (many of which are of course run by Muslims of Bangladeshi origin) without it ever becoming an issue for them is completely ignored.
And anyone who believes that opposition to ritual slaughter in the name of animal rights is necessarily progressive should check out the biography of Arnold Leese, to whom the present-day BNP can trace its organisational and ideological roots.
As for the Mail‘s sensitivity towards unnecessary suffering on the part of poor dumb animals, if the paper ever registered support for a ban on foxes being torn apart by packs of hounds it certainly passed us by.
Update: See also ENGAGE, 20 September 2010
‘Muslim plot to kill Pope’ turns out to be nothing of the sort
It has now been widely reported that the six Westminster street cleaners arrested in connection with an alleged plot to attack Pope Benedict have all been released without charge. The arrests apparently resulted from someone overhearing them make a joke in their works canteen about assassinating the pontiff.
You’d be inclined to suspect that the men being of North African origin might have had something to do with them being reported to the authorities in the first place. And while the police have a duty to investigate such reports, you can’t help feeling that there would have been rather less of an over-reaction if the joke had been made by participants in yesterday’s overwhelmingly white protest march against the pope’s visit.
Moreover, as Tabloid Watch observes: “Hearing the six men have been released without charge may come as something of a shock to readers of the Express who had been told on Saturday that the men were almost certainly guilty, having hatched a ‘Muslim Plot to Kill Pope‘.”
Tabloid Watch quotes some of the disgraceful statements in the Express article. The arrested men were described as “Islamic terrorists disguised as street cleaners” and readers were told that “the threatened attack was foiled at the 11th hour after police raided a cleaning depot in London”, although there was no evidence that the men were terrorists, Islamic or otherwise, or that there was any real threat of an attack.
Eager to hype up this supposed threat, the Express claimed that it was “feared plotters with links to Al Qaeda planned ‘a double blow to the infidel’ by assassinating the head of the Roman Catholic church and slaughtering hundreds of pilgrims and well-wishers” – though who exactly feared this apart from the Express itself, and who the “double blow to the infidel” quote was from, was left unclear.
And, in order to tie the terrorist threat into its obsession with irregular migrants, the Express added: “An investigation is also under way to determine if the foreign nationals had entered Britain legally and were entitled to work here.” This despite the fact that there was no evidence at all to indicate that the men were in the UK on anything other than a legal basis.
As the Tabloid Watch piece concludes: “The question is what will the Press Complaints Commission do? As there are six men directly involved they will only consider a complaint from one of them. Although it would be understandable if they didn’t want to remain in the public spotlight, let’s hope they do complain. But if they don’t, the PCC should consider acting anyway.
“The Express used its front page to smear six men as Islamic terrorists with links to Al-Qaeda. A front page correction, retraction and apology must follow.”
See also Inayat’s Corner, 18 September 2010
Update: And see Tabloid Watch for details of the Express‘s coverage in Monday’s edition of the news that the “Islamic terrorists disguised as street cleaners” had all been released without charge: it amounts to a single sentence buried at the bottom of an article on page 9.
Residents voice support for Murfreesboro mosque
Supporters of a new mosque in Murfreesboro asked Rutherford County commissioners on Thursday not to bow to pressure to rescind approval of the project and accused opponents of making the community look bad.
“The embarassment, shame and humiliation I feel as a lifelong resident cannot be expressed in words strong enough,” said John Green, who described himself as a fifth generation resident.
He and several others sought to dispel the idea that those who support the mosque are outside agitators. Several speakers held up their drivers licenses while introducing themselves.
“Here’s proof that I’m not from out of town,” said Jase Short. He attributed mosque opposition to a desire “to influence elections on behalf of an agenda of hate.”
The one person speaking against the mosque, Donald Westcott, of Smyrna, held up a book called “Sharia Law for Non-Muslims” that he said he had passed out to the commissioners. He said he believes Muslims want to take over the country and impose Islamic law.
“This democratic council would have to be disbanded because you would have to submit to an imam or mullah,” he said.
Associated Press, 17 September 2010
See also “Lawsuit filed to stop Mosque as supporters speak up”,Murfreesboro Post, 17 September 2010
Newt Gingrich stokes sharia hysteria
The second morning of speeches at the Values Voter Summit here in DC was dominated by a man who is swiftly becoming the nation’s spokesperson for Islamophobia – former House speaker Newt Gingrich.
Fresh off the release of his Islam-focused film “America At Risk,” Gingrich told the crowd at VVS that it’s time to take federal action to prevent Shariah Law from infiltrating courtrooms in the US.
“We should have a federal law that says sharia law cannot be recognized by any court in the United States,” Gingrich said to a standing ovation from the audience. The law will let judges know, Gingrich said, that “no judge will remain in office that tried to use sharia law.”