Category Archives: Right wing

Sadiq Khan: ‘appeaser of terrorism’ (according to Donal Blaney)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sadiq KhanSadiq Khan is the Labour MP for Tooting. Khan, whose parents were Pakistanis, has been on a fact-finding mission to Pakistan. I wonder if he got time in his busy schedule to see any relatives?

He’s worked out why it is that young muslims want to wage jihad in Britain: it’s all because of American foreign policy. His solution? Britain should distance itself from its closest ally, the United States.

There was I, thinking that this kind of anti-American sentiment was supposed to disappear after President Bush left the White House in January. The arrival of the Chosen One, Barack Hussein Obama, was to herald a new dawn. Evidently not, in the case of Sadiq Khan, who is reading straight from the George Galloway “Blame America First” playbook of terrorist appeasement and excuse mongering.

Clearly Khan hates the United States and all it stands for. In and of itself that shouldn’t matter: he is free to hold whatever warped views he likes, even if it gives succour to our enemies who want to turn Britain into a shariah law dominated caliphate. And he wonders why he was bugged by the police.

But Sadiq Khan isn’t free to say whatever he wants to for one simple reason – he is a government minister. He is the Minister for Social Cohesion and yet delights in denigrating the nation of 500,000 people living and working in this country. How, pray, does that help social cohesion?

In attacking US foreign policy, was Sadiq Khan speaking for the British government? If not, he must surely be fired.

Blaney’s Blarney, 12 April 2009

See also “Sadiq Khan: one man MCB?” at Harry’s Place and “Muslim MP criticizes killing Muslim terrorists” at USS Neverdock.

The figures for deaths caused by US drone attacks in Pakistan (only 10 of the 60 attacks in 2006-9 hit their targets, resulting in the killing of 14 Al-Qaida members and 687 innocent civilians) are given in The News, 10 April 2009

‘My persecution by the Muslim McCarthyites’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Taj Hargey“Just as Senator Joseph McCarthy ruined the lives of countless Americans during the 1950s when he and his committee smeared innocent people as communists, the Muslim hierarchy in Britain have used witchhunts to maintain their unquestioned theological power….

“Islam in Britain has been taken over by the followers of a warped manifestation of the faith. The Muslim Council of Britain, the main Muslim newspapers and many of the big mosques are dominated by men who subscribe to a virulent and backward-looking brand of Islam that has been exported from the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent.”

Poor, persecuted Taj Hargey writes in the Times, 10 April 2009

But Hargey does have his admirers – Melanie Phillips for one. And you can see why, can’t you?

Update:  See the comment at ENGAGE, 14 April 2009

And by Yusuf Smith at Indigo Jo Blogs, 14 April 2009

Facebook campaign against proposed mosque in Lichfield

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lichfield mosque threat

A leading Muslim businessman says he is “frightened” by the response a plan to build a mosque in an historic city has received. It has emerged that a group is using a social networking site which has been set up in protest at plans by Lichfield’s growing Muslim community to build a mosque in the city.

Curry entrepreneur Abdul Salam, who has lived in the city for 25 years and owns the Eastern Eye restaurant, unveiled the plan last week and as yet no planning application has been submitted to Lichfield District Council. But already more than 1,600 people have posted objections on Facebook.

Mr Salam claimed that one objection stated that if the mosque was built it would be burned down. He said: “Comments like burn up the mosque which have been left on Facebook show that we have a tremendous problem in Lichfield which we didn’t think we had. We have been left concerned and a bit frightened. We are looking to live together in peace.”

Another objector said: “There is no way we will have a mosque overshadow our beautiful cathedral city.” A third objector recorded: “I’ve been all over this world, came back to Lichfield – it’s one of the last unspoilt bastions of Englishness.”

Birmingham Post, 8 April 2009

See also “MP warns against plan for traditional mosque in Lichfield”, The Lichfield Blog, 1 April 2009

Update:  See “Lichfield Cathedral in BNP advert row”, Birmingham Mail, 23 April 2009

 

US polls: 48% unfavourable towards Islam, 10% still think Obama is Muslim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

President Obama is visiting Turkey, which looks to be the occasion of his promised “major address” in a muslim-majority country. In some sense it’s a “safe” choice, as Turkey is seeking EU membership and clearly is trying to position itself between the western and islamic worlds. I think that a major address in Cairo would have been far more significant, especially in building credibility amongst the muslim masses for Obama’s rhetoric about respect and engagement with the muslim world. Maybe next time.

In stark contrast to the President’s agenda, however, is the astonishing finding by ABC News’ poll (PDF) that finds 48% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion towards Islam, the highest since 2001. 29% believe that mainstream Islam encourages violence towards non-believers (a point of view that is internalized as dogma in the Republican Party especially).

That’s not all, though. Another poll by the Pew Center finds that 10% still believe Obama is a muslim! That’s the same level as during the campaign. This really speaks to the existence of a basal level of Islamophobia in the population at large, for the muslim smear to have such staying power this long (and in the face of such obvious and overwhelming evidence to the contrary).

beliefnet, 6 April 2009

Mohammed cartoonist accuses BBC of ‘appeasing Muslim fanatics’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The BBC has been accused of appeasement of radical Islam by the artist behind one of the infamous cartoons of Mohammed. Kurt Westergaard claims the corporation’s decision not to air a recent interview with him came because they are petrified of upsetting Muslims extremists.

Mr Westergaard told the Daily Mail last night: “I am disappointed on behalf of the freedom of speech. Every time you are afraid I think you make a step backwards. That is depressing me.” He compared the BBC’s behaviour with the way countries tried to appease Hitler before the Second World War.

Daily Mail, 3 April 2009

When you get to the end of the article you find the following: “A BBC spokesman said last night: ‘No decision has been made yet. As and when one is, it will be based, as always, on editorial merit’.”

National Secular Society promotes ‘Islamization’ of Britain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Traditional Values CoalitionWhich will no doubt come as a surprise to the deeply Islamophobic NSS. But the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon is convinced:

“A disturbing cultural trend is emerging in Britain – one that could result in the eventual Islamization of this great ally in the war on terrorism. More than 100,000 Brits have downloaded ‘certificates of de-baptism’ from a National Secular Society (NSS) web site. These men and women have decided to openly reject their Christian heritage….

“Last year, the Bishop of Rochester, England, Right Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali warned against the increased secularization of British culture. He noted that Britain’s ascendency in world history could never have been achieved unless it had been based on Christian principles. He noted that Islam poses a major threat to England. In fact, he was so outspoken about Islam last year that he faced death threats. Regrettably, he resigned his post just a few days ago. A prophetic voice is now gone.

“With a Christian vacuum emerging in England, radical Islam will fill the void – and those Britains who so casually rejected their Christian heritage, will eventually be subjugated under Shariah Law…. Christianity not only brought the truth of Jesus Christ to Britain and other nations, but the concept of progress and human freedom. As Britains reject Christianity, the evil totalitarian political system known as Islam waits to fill this vacuum. If Brits thought Nazism was bad, wait until Islam seizes control of this island nation.”

Traditional Values Coalition, 1 April 2009

The CSC’s latest exercise in undermining social cohesion

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Robin Simcox promotes the latest publication by the surreally misnamed Centre for Social Cohesion – foreigners, you’ll be shocked to hear, and worst of Saudi Arabia and Iran, are funding courses at colleges in the UK. David Shariatmadari accuses Simcox of drawing “peculiar conclusions that only really make sense in the context of the CSC’s relentless Islamophobia”.

Quilliam Foundation links up with Harry’s Place

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Well, it had to happen eventually, didn’t it? Today the pro-war, frothing-at-the-mouth, anti-Muslim blog Harry’s Place features a guest post by James Brandon, Senior Research Fellow and Head of Communications at the Quilliam Foundation.

If Ed Husain’s project wasn’t sufficiently discredited already among the UK’s Muslim communities, this surely sets the seal on it. Yet the government pours hundreds of thousands of pounds into the Quilliam Foundation, while severing relations with the genuinely representative Muslim Council of Britain.

‘Now fire service introduces hijab headscarves for Muslim workers’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Fire Service uniformThus the headline to a story in today’s Daily Mail. The report itself is in fact quite neutral, but the editorial staff presumably chose this headline to provoke a particular response among the paper’s readers. And they were not disappointed. Some examples of online comments:

“God, I’m sick and tired of minority splinter groups.”

“Pathetic, the powers at be in this country are fast becoming our enemies.”

“I wonder when the Government will wake up or we will finally elect a Government which represent the majority and not ethnic minorities?”

“If Muslim recruits insist on wearing more than standard fire service uniforms, they can pay for it themselves.”

“another National Disgrace”

“Yet more discrimination against the Indigenous population. Uniform should be UNIFORM, whatever your religion.”

“How can a woman clad in all this flowing garb be expected to fight a fire?”

“Attending a fire with flamable material wrapped around your head – they are just taking the p!ss now aren’t they? However I have no objections to sending as many as possible into burning buildings.”

“Great outfit to burn to death in, Baggy unwealdy and totally unsuited to purpose.”

Though occasionally a voice of reason breaks through:

“Oh for goodness sake, read the article properly. This uniform isn’t for fighting fires in!! It clearly says: ‘The hope is that the uniforms, designed for wearing round the station and for outings such as school trips…’.”

“This is a good idea, it will help integration. The Muslim community are just as keen to get involved in the public services as any other grouping of the population and should be encouraged.”

Policy Exchange forced to apologise, takes report off website

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Policy Exchange (1)The right-wing thinktank Policy Exchange has been forced into a humiliating climbdown over its report, “The Hijacking of British Islam”, for making allegations in the report that it now admits were unsubstantiated.

In late 2007 Policy Exchange published the report, reported in the right-wing press without any further fact-checking, that around a quarter of Mosques and Muslim centres of the 100 they visited, were carrying “hate literature”.

Only BBC Newsnight bothered looking further and found that some of the allegations made in the report were refuted by the very organisations accused of selling hate literature.

Policy Exchange has withdrawn the entire report from its website. It has also published this humiliating apology:

The Hijacking of British Islam:
Al-Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre

In this report we state that Al-Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre is one of the Centres where extremist literature was found. Policy Exchange accepts the Centre’s assurances that none of the literature cited in the Report has ever been sold or distributed at the Centre with the knowledge or consent of the Centre’s trustees or staff, who condemn the extremist and intolerant views set out in such literature. We are happy to set the record straight.

Sunny Hundal reports, at Pickled Politics, 30 March 2009

Can we expect that Hazel Blears who addressed a Policy Exchange seminar last July, or Ruth Kelly who provided a foreword to the latest anti-Muslim “report” by Policy Exchange, will now break all links with this discredited right-wing organisation that does so much damage to community cohesion? On balance, probably not.