ENGAGE has the details.
Category Archives: Right wing
The British amateur terror trackers: A case study in dubious politics
Tom Mills and David Miller investigate.
How Quilliam smears anti-fascists
On 18 August we posted a piece entitled “Quilliam accuses anti-BNP protestors of ‘thuggery and hooliganism’“, which criticised an article by Lucy James of the Quilliam Foundation that had appeared on the Progress Magazine website.
Our criticisms provoked a hostile reaction from one of the Harry’s Place wannabees who run a blog rejoicing in the name of the Spittoon, where we were accused of producing “an amateurish bit of slime” against Lucy James. I hadn’t intended to post on it here, but as the Spittoon piece is being punted around as a “comprehensive rebuttal” of our article, I think it’s necessary to place an answer on record.
‘Muslim immigration: the most radical change in European history’
“Christopher Caldwell is a mild-mannered Financial Times journalist who over the past decade has covered continental Europe (France especially) and its relationship with Islam in particular.
“That Caldwell is so mainstream, well-respected and analytical makes his conclusion all the more devastating – that the mass migration of Africans and Asians into Europe since the Second World War was an unprecedented, economically unnecessary and ill-thought-out plan that has had a profoundly negative impact on our way of life. Furthermore, he says, the mass importation of Muslims at a time when Europe has lost its own faith and Islam has developed a dangerous and powerful radicalism threatens the very freedom of Europe.
“… self-loathing was at the heart of the immigration experiment and later experiments in multiculturalism and political correctness; only a society so racked with self-hatred would have invited foreign labour in such numbers despite the economic benefits being so thin….
“Can Europe be the same? Clearly not. Can we reach some happy compromise that peacefully integrates such large communities and avoids the conflicts that have plagued such multi-cultural countries in the past? Probably not.
“Pim Fortuyn in Holland offered the best hope of a non-racist [sic!], liberal Europe that believed in itself; after his murder the future lies either with Nicolas Sarkozy, who believes in republican integration, or the likes of Geert Wilders, whose implacable hostility to Islam is increasingly shared across Europe.
“This is a fascinating, earth-shattering account of the most radical change in European history.”
Yet another adulatory review of Caldwell’s paranoid anti-Muslim tract, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, this one by Torygraph blogger Ed West in the Catholic Herald, 21 August 2009
US pastor uses 10-year-old daughter to promote Islamophobia
GAINESVILLE — A 10-year-old girl was sent home on her first day back to school in Gainesville for wearing a shirt that was deemed offensive.
Faith Sapp wore a shirt to class Monday with the words “Islam Is Of The Devil” printed on it. The words are the same as those at an outreach center where her father serves as the pastor.
The girl’s dad let her wear the shirt, but the school says it is against the dress code. The code states that a child must dress in a way that is not offensive or inappropriate. The school board says that Sapp is not suspended or expelled and can return to school Tuesday, but she must follow the dress code.
Update: See also the Gainesville Sun, 26 August 2009
Fathima Rifqa Bary custody case becomes anti-Muslim circus
Richard Bartholomew has the details.
‘It’s time to end the cultural appeasement’ says Paul Richards
At Progress Online the dreadful Paul Richards, former advisor to the no less appalling Hazel Blears, offers his take on the Jim Fitzpatrick affair.
No surprises here – Richards hails the “courage” of the MP for Poplar & Canning Town who walked out of his constituents’ wedding. Those of us who condemned Fitzpatrick’s boorish behaviour are, as you might expect, guilty of “cultural relativism”.
Equally predictably, Richards takes an ignorant swipe at Iqbal Sacranie: “He has served on this board and that, advised our Labour government, was secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), and has been knighted by the Queen. But looking at the CV, you are hard-pressed to find any evidence of having been elected by anyone to anything.”
And how does Richards suppose that Iqbal Sacranie got to be secretary-general of the MCB – through a military coup?
Richards claims to see a parallel between Fitzpatrick and, of all people, George Lansbury. He notes that in 1912 Lansbury resigned his East London seat to fight a by-election in support of women’s rights: “He lost the seat, but placed himself on the right side of decency, progress and equality for women, just like the Fitzpatricks when they walked away from the London Muslim Centre last weekend.”
The only parallel I can see here is that Fitzpatrick looks likely to lose his seat too.
Still, Richards sees hope for the future: “It is entirely reasonable, based on the evidence, that those sections of Britain’s Muslim communities … whose culture is tainted by medieval prejudice and abuse of power, will change.”
Update: Read ENGAGE’s response to Richards here.
Update 2: See “Sir Iqbal Sacranie: Correction and Apology”, Progress Online, 21 October 2009
Glen Jenvey admits to faking evidence for Sun article
Richard Bartholomew has the latest on Glen Jenvey, who now admits to his role in faking the evidence behind the notorious “Terror Target Sugar” story in the Sun, which reported that Muslims were plotting to attack British Jews.
Glenvey now claims to have converted to Islam under the guidance of Anjem Choudary’s “School of Shariah”. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if this turns out to be some sort of sting operation on Glenvey’s part. But then again, it could be that I’m doing him an injustice and he is in fact just a total fruitcake.
Caldwell’s ‘extended apologia for Enoch Powell’s views’
“… the author’s synthesis and analysis are hard-eyed and bracing. A relatively weak, self-doubting Europe, he argues, has allowed mass immigration from a fundamentally alien, basically antagonistic culture on such a scale that the continent’s future is no longer its to decide. Caldwell’s Cassandra is the brilliant anti-immigrant Tory parliamentarian Enoch Powell, who sacrificed a promising career to this issue. In fact, this book can be read as an extended apologia for Powell’s views.”
Tim Rutten reviews Christopher Caldwell’s Reflections on the Revolution in Europe.
Danish Conservatives call for burqa ban
“We don’t want to see burqas in Denmark. We simply can’t accept that some of our citizens walk around with their faces covered,” Naser Khader, a Danish member of parliament of Syrian-Palestinian extraction who was recently appointed spokesman for integration issues for the Conservative Party, told the newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
In comments published on Sunday, Khader said the burqa is un-Danish and oppressive towards women and should be completely banned. He and his party say that what people do in their own homes is their business, but as soon as they walk into the public domain, one should be able to see their faces.
The Danish People’s Party and the Social Democratic Party have welcomed the proposal, while the Liberal Party, which is the senior partner in Denmark’s coalition government, rejects the idea of legislating about citizens’ clothing, provided they are not employed in a public function.
“It’s going too far if we start legislating on what sort of clothes people can and cannot wear. The burqa and covered faces should not be allowed if you work with people in the public sector — but that is where we draw the line,” says Liberal Party political spokesman Peter Christensen, who adds that it is important that politicians know where to draw the line in introducing policy.
Khader, however, says a ban is the only solution. “My view is that (the burqa) is not Islamic at all,” Khader says. “The modern burqa was introduced by the Taliban when the movement came to power. So I associate the burqa with the Taliban.”
The burqa ban is part of an integration initiative that the Conservatives’ parliamentary group approved on Friday, although the party has not decided what punishment should be meted out to those who break the ban.
“Initially we’re sending out a signal by saying that it should be banned. Then it’s up to the lawyers to find out what sanctions should be introduced,” Khader told the Jyllands-Posten.
Denmark is not the only European country where politicians have proposed a ban on burqas. French President Nicolas Sarkozy recently said that the burqa was “not welcome” in France, while France’s urban regeneration minister, Fadela Amara, told the Saturday edition of the Financial Times that she was in favor of the burqa “not existing in my country.” The Netherlands has also considered a ban on burqas.