Category Archives: Right wing

‘No, madam, it’s you who have offended MY values’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Daily Mail pollWriting in today’s Daily Mail, Allison Pearson introduces us the the concept of “Burkha Rage”, defined as shorthand for anger directed against Muslim women “taking the mickey out of our country and its tolerant ways”.

According to Pearson, Muslim women continue to exploit “our” tolerance, “despite a growing acceptance that multi-culturalism has been deeply damaging to race relations”. That would be as distinct from the positive contribution to race relations made by the Daily Mail and its columnists, would it?

Speaking of which, arising out of Pearson’s column, the Mail is today running a poll on “Should immigrants be forced to respect British culture?”

See also ENGAGE.

Conspiracy to take over Labour Party exposed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Shocking news from the Sunday Express:

“The growing influence of the Golders Green Synagogue, whose education wing was built with Israeli money, on the Labour party is causing concern in Downing Street. Gordon Brown, Justice Secretary Jack Straw and new Communities Secretary John Denham have been briefed on Zionist groups based there. Party officials have held crisis talks about one group in particular, the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Senior party members fear it has infiltrated Labour and exerts too much power over MPs and councillors in areas with large Jewish populations. Politicians fear that the BoD can persuade rabbis to direct bloc votes at elections.”

Oh no, hang on, this how the article actually reads:

“The growing influence of the East London Mosque, whose education wing was built with Saudi money, on the Labour party is causing concern in Downing Street. Gordon Brown, Justice Secretary Jack Straw and new Communities Secretary John Denham have been briefed on Islamic groups based there. Party officials have held crisis talks about one group in particular, the Islamic Forum of Europe. Senior party members fear it has infiltrated Labour and exerts too much power over MPs and councillors in areas with large Muslim populations. Politicians fear that IFE can persuade imams to direct bloc votes at elections.”

Update:  See IFE media release here.

‘Radical Islamists must be exposed, not invited to tea’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“One of the bravest things I have witnessed is the stand taken by ex-Cabinet Minister Hazel Blears against political Islam. As her adviser, I saw first-hand the pressures on her to sit round the table with groups whose political outlook was the diametric opposite of her beliefs in pluralist democracy, rights for minorities and equality for women. She consistently stood firm.

“For years, government ministers unquestioningly invited the leaders of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) to meetings to ‘represent’ the political, ethnic and religious diversity of Britain’s Muslims, as though such a thing were possible. First under Ruth Kelly, then Hazel Blears, the Government wised up to the nonsense that a small, unelected group of men, drawn from the conservative elements of Islamic politics, spoke for millions of Muslims in modern Britain….

“The hardliners in the MCB and other groups were challenged, not fêted. It culminated in a boycott of the MCB after one of its leaders attended a conference in Istanbul dominated by supporters of Hamas…..

“The way to tackle this strand of political Islam, which creates the environment for terrorists to brainwash and recruit potential bombers is not to debate with it, nor to invite it for tea at the Department for Communities or Number Ten. It is to expose it, disrupt it, and make it clear such views are repulsive and unacceptable. The new Secretary of State, John Denham, and the new Communities Minister, Shahid Malik, arrived at their desks this week. All eyes will be on them.”

Paul Richards in the Jewish Chronicle, 11 June 2009

Given Richards’ former role as Hazel Blears’ SpAd, this article provides a useful insight into the sort of ignorant, bigoted thinking behind DCLG’s decision to sever links with the MCB. At least we’ve now got rid of the truly appalling Blears, whose backstabbing antics in relation to her own party have hopefully destroyed any future revival of her political career. Things, as they say, can only get better.

Update:  See also ENGAGE, 12 June 2009

Holocaust museum attack – Muslims are to blame

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Debbie_Schlussel“Much is being made by Muslims and their many defenders on the left … that the shooter of several people (one now dead) at the U.S. Holocaust Museum is not a Muslim but a White guy, James W. Von Brunn, who is a neo-Nazi.

“But that is a distinction without a difference. In fact, it is because of Muslims – who are the biggest contributor to the worldwide rise in anti-Semitism to Holocaust-eve levels – that neo-Nazis feel comfortable – far more comfortable! – manifesting their views about Jews. Until 9/11 and our resulting new tolerance for Islam, the neo-Nazi types were marginalized and howling at the wind.”

Debbie Schlussel identifies the root cause of the shooting in Washington.

Via Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion.

Quilliam and the ‘Muslim world’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The reality is that, despite the paranoia of the Quilliam Foundation, ‘Muslim world’ is not a phrase conceived exclusively by radical Islamists for nefarious propaganda purposes, which we have then been duped and deceived into using. Nor is it a phrase without real meaning, purpose or import. On the contrary, in a world of multiple identities, both individual and collective, to refer to the Muslim world is to simplify, clarify and identify.

“As someone who has often used the phrase ‘Muslim world’ myself, I take great personal offence in now being told by Ed Husain and his patronising thinktank chums that I for one am bolstering the repulsive and divisive ‘al-Qaeda narrative’ by doing so. ‘Muslim world’ is a perfectly valid, alternative description of the ‘Muslim majority countries’ and ‘Muslim communities’ so beloved by the Quilliam Foundation, and not an Islamist conspiracy theory in any shape or form.

“There is also an element of hypocrisy in this latest Quilliam position, as there are numerous references to the ‘Muslim world’ on its own website from, among others, its director Maajid Nawaz. Did he not get the memo?”

Mehdi Hasan at Comment is Free, 7 June 2009

Mad Mel explains the BNP’s success

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Melanie Phillips Jihad in Britain“Anyone who objects to multi-culturalism is called a bigot; anyone who wants to curb immigration is called a racist; anyone who objects to the Islamisation of Britain is called an Islamophobe; anyone who wants to leave the EU and regain the power of national self-government is called a xenophobe; anyone, in short, who wants to retain Britain’s national identity rooted in the shared particulars of religion, law, history, traditions and culture and its powers as a self-governing nation finds themselves ostracised as a pariah….

“Working-class areas are particularly vulnerable to the BNP because they bear the full brunt of these policies. They are areas of very high immigration where the transformation of the ethnic, religious and cultural landscape has made indigenous inhabitants feel strangers in their own country…. The willed loss of control of this country’s borders, the blind eye to Islamisation, the refusal to allow the people to vote against the Lisbon treaty and the surrender of self-government to the EU – these are the things that have brought the BNP electoral success.”

Melanie Phillips’s blog, 8 June 2009

Not that Mel is exactly an expert on the BNP, of course. According to her, “they will not allow black people or Jews to be members”, which rather overlooks the fact that the BNP actually have a councillor of Jewish origin – one Patricia Richardson, who has sat on Epping Forest District Council for the last five years.

And as we’ve pointed out in the past, Phillips omits to mention one important factor in the rise of the BNP – the legitimisation of their racist politics by bigoted right-wing commentators like herself whose anti-Muslim tirades are often barely distinguishable from the sort of thing you might read in a BNP propaganda leaflet.

Sharia law ‘same as Krays’, says Tebbit

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Semi house trained polecatVeteran Tory Lord Tebbit provoked anger among Muslims yesterday by comparing Islamic sharia courts to gangsters. He likened the tribunals to the “system of arbitration of disputes that was run by the Kray brothers”.

The intervention from Lord Tebbit, the former Tory chairman and cabinet minister whose leading role in the Thatcher years has made him a revered figure for many in the party, reignited the row over Islamic courts and their role in the British justice system.

His comparison with the intimidation and violence used by the Krays to run their gangland empire brought an angry response.

Inayat Bunglawala, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “We can only wonder whether Lord Tebbit has ever set foot in a sharia council to see what they actually do before making such a baseless and ignorant comparison with the workings of the Kray brothers.

“Both Muslim sharia councils and Orthodox Jewish Beth Din courts exist to try and help resolve civil disputes amongst individuals through a voluntary process of arbitration. They are entirely legal and have to operate firmly within the law.”

Daily Mail, 5 June 2009

You’ll note that the Mail is incapable of reporting such issues without including some baseless reference to Muslim “anger”. So Inayat Bunglawala’s reasoned remarks have to be described as “an angry response”.

Although, to be fair, the Mail did at least make the effort to contact a representative figure from the Muslim community and ask for a comment, which is more than you can say for the Daily Express, the Daily Telegraph and the Sun.

Update:  See ENGAGE, 5 June 2009

American right scorns Barack Obama’s speech to Muslim world

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The American right scorned Barack Obama’s speech today, saying he had apologised for past American actions while failing to hold Arab and Islamic countries accountable for the words and actions of ­violent extremists.

US conservatives lashed out at the president for opening with a Muslim greeting in ­Arabic, for omitting to mention what they described as American successes in Iraq, and for exaggerating the number of Muslims living in the US.

While Republican party leaders were largely silent Thursday morning, conservative commentators and former Republican aides caricatured Obama as weak and insufficiently strident in his support for Israel.

“President Bush would never have criticised our military or our intelligence community on foreign soil,” a former Bush speechwriter, Marc Thiessen, said on Fox News. “He basically threw our military under the bus in front of a Muslim audience.”

Guardian, 4 June 2009

See also Media Matters for America, 4 June 2009

Global Day of Prayer London convenor claims Muslims ‘want to take over’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

GDOP London

The convener of the Global Day of Prayer London has delivered a tough call to Christians in the UK to wake up and take an uncompromising stand for their faith.

Speaking at the Newham prayer meeting in East London, Pastor Jonathan Oloyede said that it was time for Christians to pray and act. He warned in particular of the threat posed by ungodly legislation being passed by Parliament and plans to build a so-called mega mosque at the site of the London Olympics.

“I used to be a Muslim. The Muslims don’t just want to build a mosque. They want to take over. If you want to roll over and play dead while the legacy of your forefathers is thrown in the dust and you can’t stand up and say enough is enough then you are not fit to be a Christian,” he said.

Pastor Oloyede said Christians in the UK needed to “stop trying to be nice and cute” in the face of threats to their faith and the wellbeing of the nation. “All that stuff about not offending anyone is nonsense. I used to try to be nice to everyone but God said to me: You cannot be my messenger by being nice to everybody. So are you going to just play nice or are you going to be a follower of Christ?” he said.

“Many Muslim leaders have told me that if the Christians in this country stood up for their faith they would back off. London, England, wake up! You choose which way this nation will go. Pray that this nation will wake up to its true calling and intercede until we see his glory.”

In a video message broadcast to the GDOP London prayer meetings, London Mayor Boris Johnson paid tribute to the many Christian-run projects he said were helping to build community cohesion across the capital.

Christian Today, 1 June 2009

There certainly are Christians who are helping to build community cohesion across the capital. But the convenor of Global Day of Prayer London is clearly not one of them.