Category Archives: Right wing

Veil is ‘not a religious expression’ claims Dati

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rachida Dati in BlackburnThe former French justice minister, Rachida Dati, has condemned the wearing of the burka, saying that it “does not correspond” to European values.

Ms Dati, the first person of North African descent to serve in the French cabinet, is in the UK to visit the Justice Secretary Jack Straw’s Blackburn constituency.

In a rare interview, she told Today programme reporter Zubeida Malik that “it’s important to remind what helps citizens live together and have a common destiny and living together and having a common destiny means having principles and values in common.

“And it’s true that the burka does not correspond neither to our values nor to our principles whether French or British and not even European. So it is important to say no to this expression that is not a religious expression.”

Ms Dati rejected suggestions that banning the burka and other face veils would make them more popular. “We have to remember that often women who wear the burka are either doing it out of ignorance or others are motivated by an activism linked to the creation of a new identity,” she said.

“And to those for whom it represents the expression of an identity, it is important to say that in our countries there can’t be any confrontation of identities. There is one single identity based upon common values and principles shared by our countries.”

BBC News, 19 February 2010

See also “French politician defends veil ban call on trip to Blackburn”, Lancashire Telegraph, 19 February 2010

US conservervatives told ‘Islam itself is the threat’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

FDI CPAC

The speakers participating in “Jihad: America’s Third Rail,” an “unofficial” panel at today’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) wanted their standing-room only audience to know that there’s more to fear than jihad – it’s Islam itself that is the threat.

Sentiments like that are what has made this panel – which just ended here at the Marriott Wardman Hotel in D.C – one of the more controversial at the three-day conservative confab.

“Everyone knows Islam is a religion of peace that has been hijacked by a tiny minority,” said Robert Spencer, sarcastically and to a great amount of applause and guffaws. Spencer, executive director of Jihad Watch and associate director of the Freedom Defense Initiative, which he recently founded with Atlas Shrugged blogger Pamela Geller, told his audience everyone believes that “like they believe in Santa Claus though no one has ever seen it.”

He declared that “conservative media leaders even parrot this line” that Islam is a peaceful religion at its core.

So defined the event, which repeated the group’s message, that political correctness was preventing the American people – elected officials and the government included – from acknowledging – in Geller’s words – that Islamists “have infiltrated at every level of society and all levels of government.”

Fox News, 19 February 2010

Muslim criminals are taking over the underworld, claims Sun

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sun Muslim criminalsIn traditional Islamic headgear, Asian ex-gang member Amir poses with his sword and issues the stark warning: “Britain’s underworld belongs to the Muslims.”

The 21-year-old, whose organisation turned over thousands of pounds a day from drug-dealing and credit card scams, claims a post-9/11 fear of terrorism has allowed Muslims to develop a stranglehold on our criminal community.

Through Islam, he says, they have numbers which cannot be matched, and rival gangs are being forced out by ruthless Islamic criminals who only deal with each other.

Sun, 15 February 2010

Brick Lane plan for ‘hijab gates’ angers residents

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Brick Lane archesThe Guardian of all papers endorses the myth of the “hijab gates” in Brick Lane. Even the Daily Express had the honesty to at least quote the architect, David Gallagher, who was responsible for designing the arches, as saying:

“We were briefed to design something that celebrates the demographic changes of the area. The arches were not designed to look like hijabs. Huguenot and Jewish women wore headscarves. The arches are just modern curves and they will have symbols on them reflecting the different immigrant communities. Having the Star of David on them is one option we have considered, but no decision has been made yet.”

Update:  See also “Tracey Emin leads protest at ‘hijab gates’ for Brick Lane”, Evening Standard, 16 February 2010

Further update:  The relevant section of the Design and Access Statement can be consulted here.

Another update:  See Lutfur Rahman, “These are not ‘hijab gates’ – they represent the whole community”, Guardian, 26 February 2010

Michael Gove opposes mosque at centre of ‘inflammatory’ campaign

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Michael_GoveA Conservative frontbench spokesman, Michael Gove, has opposed plans to build a mosque in his constituency after it became the target of an “inflammatory and offensive” online campaign.

The shadow schools secretary, who warned that the west was facing a “total war” from Islamists in his book Celsius 7/7, had initially refused to take sides in the dispute over proposals to build a mosque next to Sandhurst barracks in Camberley, Surrey. But this week he said he had been convinced that the strength of feeling was threatening the area’s “good community relations” and called on local Muslims to withdraw the application.

“The issue has become a flashpoint and people from inside and outside the community were making statements that I did not think would further community relations,” he said. “It struck me that it was best to ask the Bengali Welfare Association to withdraw the application and to consider how to improve the facilities for worship for the Muslim community in a calmer environment.”

A Facebook group set up to oppose the mosque has 6,834 “fans” and was criticised by one local organisation opposing the mosque as “inflammatory and offensive”. The Facebook group is supported by the far-right English Defence League.

The local Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, Alan Hiliar, said Gove had “lost all respect” over the issue. “I reject Michael Gove’s decision to ask the community to withdraw their application on the ground that it’s ‘divisive’. To ask the Muslim community to withdraw the application is simply kicking the issue into the long grass; it resolves nothing.”

Guardian, 13 February 2010

Sensationalised TV report provokes attack on Nashville mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nashville mosque vandalismVandals spray-painted insults on a mosque overnight and left a hate-filled letter to Nashville’s Muslims.

Islamic leaders blame Channel 5’s sensationalized two-night report about a crackpot organization’s unfounded accusations of terrorist ties against a Middle Tennessee Muslim community.

“Muslims Go Home” and a Crusade-style cross were scrawled across the front of Al-Farooq Islamic Center on Nolensville Road, says Salaad Nur, a spokesman. He says the mosque, which primarily serves members of the Somali community, has contacted the police and the FBI.

“They also left a letter at the youth center that says Muslims are friends of Satan and we are here to destroy the United States and to destroy Israel and things of that nature,” he says. “We’re a little bit shaken up. I hope this is just a scare and things don’t get any worse than this.”

“It’s unexpected,” he adds. “The only thing I can think of is the sensationalized reporting [by Channel 5] over Sunday and Monday. That’s the only thing I can think of. Even after 9/11 we have never had any vandalism.”

Nashville Scene, 10 February 2010

Via LoonWatch

See also “Community reaches out to local Islamic Center after hate crime”, City Paper, 11 February 2011

Migrants must renounce veil if they want to live in France, says minister

Posted on by Bob Pitt

02/13/2007. Le couple Christian Estrosi, ministre delegue de l'amenagement du territoire et Nadine Morano, depute UMP de Meurthe et Moselle en visite a Nancy.Immigrants should sign a “no burka” contract before being allowed to live in France, the country’s families minister has said.

It would be added to an “integration agreement” that all newcomers already have to commit to, which also bans forced marriages and polygamy.

Nadine Morano said: “Equality between men and women is a fundamental principle of French society. “This applies to polygamy, forced marriages, female mutilation and the full-face veil.”

Her proposal came at a government conference yesterday following a three-month debate on national identity. Last month a government committee said women who wear the garment should be barred from using public transport and outlawed from public buildings like schools and hospitals.

Ms Morano has the backing of many prominent MPs in her call to have immigrants who wear burkas banned from staying in France.

French interior minister Brice Hortefeux said in December that both women who wear veils and their husbands should be “systematically refused” French residents’ permits. And President Nicolas Sarkozy has branded face veils “a sign of debasement” and said they were not welcome in France.

Daily Mail, 9 February 2010

France unveils national identity plans

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Newcomers to France will be made to sign a declaration of values as part of a new campaign to define national identity, France’s Prime Minister says. Francois Fillon announced the initiative after three months of public debates around the country.

Other measures include the flying of the French flag and the singing of the national anthem – La Marseilleise – at schools, to promote patriotism. Critics say the debate simply provoked anti-Muslim sentiment and racism.

Polls showed many French people found the discussions were not constructive and President Nicolas Sarkozy, originally a keen supporter of the initiative, quickly began to distance himself from the debate. The promised grand presentation of the findings was downgraded to a low-key event.

BBC News, 9 February 2010

Police chief blames Muslim community for failure to identify terrorists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims in Britain must do more to inform police of potential terrorists, one of the country’s top officers will warn tonight.

Sir Norman Bettison, Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, is to call for greater help from Islamic communities to identify suspects at home. He says: “I’m looking for the community to work much more closely with the police in identifying young people they have concerns about in terms of people they’re mixing with, the sort of websites they’re going on and the material they’re reading. That information can only come from the community itself.”

The police chief speaks out in a three-part BBC documentary, Generation Jihad, which begins tonight. It ­examines the threat posed by young ­Muslims who have been radicalised on the ­internet.

Ratna Lachman, director of JUST West Yorkshire, a project aiming to promote racial equality, said she was concerned that Sir Norman might be tarring “an entire community with a brush of non co-operation”.

But a spokesman for the Quilliam Foundation, a think-tank which aims to combat extremism, said: “Terrorism cannot be defeated by the police alone. It is important that all communities are alert to the dangers of extremism and help the police wherever ­possible.”

Daily Express, 8 February 2010

Sunday Times witch-hunts Moazzam Begg, tries to discredit Amnesty International

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Moazzam_BeggA senior official at Amnesty International has accused the charity of putting the human rights of Al-Qaeda terror suspects above those of their victims.

Gita Sahgal, head of the gender unit at Amnesty’s international secretariat, believes that collaborating with Moazzam Begg, a former British inmate at Guantanamo Bay, “fundamentally damages” the organisation’s reputation.

In an email sent to Amnesty’s top bosses, she suggests the charity has mistakenly allied itself with Begg and his “jihadi” group, Cageprisoners, out of fear of being branded racist and Islamophobic.

Sahgal describes Begg as “Britain’s most famous supporter of the Taliban”. He has championed the rights of jailed Al-Qaeda members and hate preachers, including Anwar al-Awlaki, the alleged spiritual mentor of the Christmas Day Detroit plane bomber.

Sunday Times, 7 February 2010

Read Amnesty’s response here.

Gita Sahgal is a member of a nutty group called Women Against Fundamentalisms. In a 2006 radio programme she defended the view that by consulting the Muslim Council of Britain the government was encouraging fundamentalism. In the same radio programme she also accused Tariq Ramadan of being a fundamentalist. Had she actually read any of his books, Professor Ramadan politely inquired. It was quite clear that she hadn’t. In fact she was completely unfamiliar with his writings. However, she did know that he was a fundamentalist.

It appears that Sahgal has now been suspended by Amnesty. Their mistake was in ever employing a crank like that in the first place.

Update:  Read Moazzam Begg’s letter to Richard Kerbaj, the author of the Sunday Times report, here.

Further update:  Read Andy Newman’s comments at Socialist Unity.