Category Archives: Right wing

Why HT should be suppressed, according to Shiraz Maher

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“There is a real danger with allowing the group to operate freely. Although it subscribes to a non-violent philosophy, on occasion its words may have inspired terrorist activity.”

Shiraz Maher in the Times, 15 January 2010

This comment piece accompanies the report “Senior member of extreme Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir teaches at LSE“. The reference is to Reza Pankhurst, who is a research student and graduate teaching assistant at the London School of Economics.

The shock-horror impact of the report is rather undermined by the revelation that HT “states on its website that its ‘political aim is the re-establishment of the Islamic Caliphate as an independent state’. It says that it rejects forcing change ‘by means of violence and terror’.” Not to mention the quote from an LSE spokesperson regarding Mr Pankhurst: “No concerns about his conduct have been raised with the school and we are not aware that he is a member of any proscribed organisation or has broken any laws or LSE regulations.”

The Evening Standard, for its part, weighs in with an article headlined “LSE’s Islamist teacher ‘groomed suicide bomber for Tel Aviv attack’” – an accusation for which it provides no evidence whatsoever.

Update:  See “Standard and Mail pay damages over suicide bomber slur”, Press Gazette, 28 July 2010

Nazir-Ali: Muslims must accept Judaeo-Christian values

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nazir Ali 2The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester, said the country must never again repeat the multicultural experiment of recent decades. He also called for an end to the segregation of Muslims in British cities, which he warned provides a breeding ground for extremists.

“Not only is there over-crowding, especially of metropolitan areas, but social, educational and medical services are placed under increasing strain and there is always the concern about jobs and housing for the indigenous population, particularly from its poorer sections.

“The question, however, is not simply one of numbers but also of the quality of would-be immigrants. One of the missing features of the mass immigration of the 50s and 60s was any concern for the congruence of such immigration with the values, culture and language of the host country. We must never again allow this to happen.”

The bishop admitted some immigration would be necessary, particularly with an ageing workforce, but added: “All would-be immigrants should be willing to adapt to living in a context shaped by traditional British values, which have been largely derived from the Judaeo-Christian tradition.”

Daily Telegraph, 15 January 2010

Who supports the ban on Islam4UK?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BMSD protest

Well, not the Muslim Council of Britain, who have issued a well-reasoned statement, “Ban groups if they break the law, not on the basis of media hysteria“. But support for the government’s stupid move comes from the Quilliam Foundation, the British Muslim Forum and the Muslim Women’s Network – all of whom are in receipt of state funding.

Backing for the ban also comes from Shaaz Mahboob of British Muslims for Secular Democracy. Remind me, weren’t BMSD the organisation that protested against Islam4UK last October brandishing placards reading “Free speech will dominate the world: All may speak their minds”? All except those who BMSD decides are not entitled to free speech, it would appear. The BMSD demonstrators urged us to “laugh at those who insult freedom”. However, their response to the ridiculous Anjem Choudary isn’t to draw attention to his comic potential but to support a state ban on his group.

Ignorance and fear in Sheepshead Bay

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Racial and religious tensions are flaring in Sheepshead Bay over plans to build a mosque on a residential street. Opponents say the mosque will lead to traffic and noise problems – but their complaints are littered with anti-Islamic attacks, like one letter to elected officials that said “mosques and Muslim schools preach hatred.”

“There’s a safety issue here. I don’t want my kids walking past it,” said Kathy Cash, 38, a mother of three children who attend Public School 52 around the corner on E. 29th St. “It’s disgusting,” said Cash, “they [Muslims] have no respect.”

“My children are scared and I am too,” said Victor Benari, 56, trying to rally neighbors against the mosque during a civic group meeting on Monday. “This is a security issue.”

New York Daily News, 8 January 2010

Via Loon Watch

Evening Standard says don’t give publicity to Choudary

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anjem Choudary 2“The decision by the Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, to ban the group Islam4UK will achieve little.

“As with some previous bans on extremist organisations, the group will simply reorganise under a new name, as it already has on at least one occasion. Worse, though, the Home Secretary appears to have fallen into the trap set him by the group’s notorious but media-savvy leader, Anjem Choudary.

“Mr Choudary has proven himself adept at grabbing publicity for what is apparently an almost entirely paper organisation. His announcement earlier this month that it planned to hold a protest march in Wootton Basset against the war in Afghanistan appears to have had no basis in fact: no application to hold a demonstration was ever made. This did not prevent much of the media from covering it at length, however; now the Home Secretary has simply given Choudary new victim status.

“There are real terrorist organisations that deserve to be banned. But Mr Choudary is telling the truth when he denies that his is a terrorist group: rather, it is a benefit claimants’ exercise in macho fantasy and a prop for his own ego. Most people find Choudary’s views repellent but he should be allowed to express them, if only to remind us just how silly and narcissistic is this armchair warrior from Welling. He will be delighted that Mr Johnson has instead taken the bait as intended.”

Evening Standard, 12 January 2010

Continue reading →

Weekend witch-hunts

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In the Observer, with the assistance of such reliable informants as Irfan al-Alawi (of Stephen Schwartz’s Center for Islamic Pluralism), Haras Rafiq (formerly of the Sufi Muslim Council and now of the “counter-extremism consultancy” Centri) and Maajid Nawaz (co-director of the Quilliam Foundation), Jamie Doward reveals that the Islam Channel is “linked to al-Qaida cleric al-Awlaki”.

Meanwhile, over at the Sunday Express, Paul Goodman MP accuses Wakkas Khan, the former FOSIS president who is part of Communities Secretary John Denham’s panel of faith advisers, of having “links to hardline Islamist party Hizb ut-Tahrir”.

You might not have thought it possible, but it does seem that anti-Muslim witch-hunts are becoming even more stupid and baseless than before.

Caldwell backs ‘desperate measures’ against Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Writing in the Financial Times Christopher Caldwell, author of Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, draws the lessons from the alleged attempt on the life of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard:

“Political violence is aimed at promoting a cause – in this case, special consideration for Islam. If a country cannot stop the violence directly, then the public will demand that it stop the violence indirectly, by thwarting the cause the violence serves. The rise of Geert Wilders’s party in the Netherlands, the referendum to ban minarets in Switzerland, theproposed ban on burkas in France – these are all desperate measures to declare that Islam is not the first religion of Europe.

“‘This is a war,’ the mainstream French weekly L’Express editorialised in the wake of the attempt on Mr Westergaard’s life. ‘To flee this conflict would be to buy tranquillity today at an exorbitant price in blood tomorrow.’ It concluded: ‘Banning every kind of full-body cover [the burka] in our public spaces is a necessity.’ This is not the non-sequitur it appears to be.”

France moves to outlaw the veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The parliamentary leader of the ruling French party is to put forward a draft law within two weeks to ban the full-body veil from French streets and all other public places.

The announcement by Jean-François Copé, cutting short an anguished six-month debate on the burka and its Arab equivalent, the niqab, will divide both right and left and is likely to anger President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr Copé, in an interview with Le Figaro to be published tomorrow, said that he would bring forward a law which would impose fines of up to €750 (£675) on anyone appearing in public “with their face entirely masked”.

Independent, 8 January 2010

See also the Daily Star which reports, under the headline “Women to be fined for wearing Burkas”, that “Strict new laws are being considered in France to tackle Islamic extremism. And campaigners want the same tough penalties in the UK.” Who exactly are these campaigners, you may ask. Well, the Star has found two.

One is right-wing Christian extremist Stephen Green who tells the Star: “We ought to assert our Christian heritage as strongly as France does its secular heritage. There’s no doubt the burka is culturally divisive. Measures like fines would send out a great signal. If we don’t take action against Islam now we are going to see terrible problems in this country in 30 years’ time.”

Bizarrely, the Star informs its readers that “many leading Muslim groups believe the burka should be outlawed in Britain”. But the only example they offer is Diana Nammi of the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation, not hitherto known as a leading Muslim group, who is quoted as saying: “We support bans anywhere in the world.”

Looks like Damian Thompson’s proposal for an alliance between secularists and right-wing Christians on the basis of a common hatred of Islam is already being implemented.