Category Archives: Right wing

‘Libraries put Bible on top shelf in a sop to Muslims’, Mail complains

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Librarians are being told to move the Bible to the top shelf to avoid giving offence to followers of Islam.

Muslims have complained of finding the Koran on lower shelves, saying it should be put above commonplace things. So officials have responded with guidance, backed by ministers, that all holy books should be treated equally and go on the top shelf together. This means that Christian works, which also have immense historical and literary value, will be kept out of the reach and sight of many readers.

Robert Whelan of the Civitas think-tank said: “Libraries and museums are not places of worship. They should not be run in accordance with particular religious beliefs. This is violating the principles of librarianship and it is part of an insidious trend.” He said the principle that books should be available to everyone was established in Europe in the Middle Ages. “One of the central planks of the Protestant Reformation was that everybody should have access to the Bible,” he added.

Simon Calvert of the Christian Institute said: “It is disappointing if the policy of libraries is dictated by the practices of one group. It is particularly disappointing if this is done to put the scriptures beyond reach.”

Daily Mail, 18 February 2009

Over at Holy Smoke Catholic Herald editor Damian Thompson asks “Don’t PC librarians make you sick?” and threatens: “I think I’ll pay a special visit to my local (super-PC) library this afternoon and have a look at the ‘holy books’. And then maybe do a little rearranging of my own.”

Wilders to incite hatred in USA

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geert Wilders Extremist2A member of the Dutch Parliament who was banned last week from entering the United Kingdom because of his inflammatory anti-Islamic views is about to be welcomed to the United States by some notable conservatives.

Geert Wilders – who has publicly compared the Koran to “Mein Kampf” – is scheduled to make public appearances in Washington next week, including a Feb. 27 press conference at the National Press Club. Wilders is seeking to promote his movie “Fitna,” an incendiary short documentary film that depicts Islam as a religion of terrorists.

The chief sponsor of Wilders’s National Press Club event is Frank Gaffney, a former Reagan administration Pentagon official who now runs the Center for Security Policy, a prominent neoconservative think tank. Others who hope to meet with Wilders include David Horowitz, a well-known conservative activist who promotes campaigns to fight Islamic extremism.

But Wilders’s U.S. tour seems to be testing the limits of free speech even among hard-core conservatives. Some seem to be keeping their distance – apparently fearful of associating with a right-wing political figure widely seen in Europe as a dangerous extremist and self-promoter. The organizers of next week’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington – a splashy gathering with prominent speakers like GOP Chair Michael Steele and former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee – have yet to decide whether Wilders will be welcome to speak.

David Keene, the president of The American Conservative Union and an organizer of the conference, at first told NEWSWEEK that he could not accommodate Wilders because all the speaking slots were booked. But after conferring with Gaffney over the weekend, he said he would seek to find time for a brief presentation. “If we can free up five or 10 minutes, we’ll see if we can let him speak,” Keene said.

Newsweek, 17 February 2009

Tennessee: Islamic subversion alleged by speaker

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A former FBI special agent told law enforcement and Homeland Security personnel that a network of Islamic organizations are working to incrementally implement Islamic law in the United States.

During a presentation at the Bedford County Emergency Management Agency, former FBI agent John Guandolo briefed members about groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, which he claims is working with other Islamic groups to slowly implement Shariah, also known as Islamic law, which encompasses all areas of life.

Every major Muslim organization is controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, the former FBI agent said, which he said was formed to overthrow America and establish Islamic law.

“They’re having great success of implementing Shariah law, I could give you a thousand examples,” Guandolo said. He said small concessions like installing foot baths, and colleges forced to have separate swimming times for Islamic men and women so not to offend Muslims, are other parts of the strategy.

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Anti-terror code ‘would alienate most Muslims’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The government is considering plans that would lead to thousands more British Muslims being branded as extremists, the Guardian has learned. The proposals are in a counterterrorism strategy which ministers and security officials are drawing up that is due to be unveiled next month.

According to a draft of the strategy, Contest 2 as it is known in Whitehall, people would be considered as extremists if:

  • They advocate a caliphate, a pan-Islamic state encompassing many countries.
  • They promote Sharia law.
  • They believe in jihad, or armed resistance, anywhere in the world. This would include armed resistance by Palestinians against the Israeli military.
  • They argue that Islam bans homosexuality and that it is a sin against Allah.
  • They fail to condemn the killing of British soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Inayat Bunglawala, a former spokesman for the Muslim Council of Great Britain, said such plans would affect many British Muslims. Bunglawala, who now runs Engage, which tries to get Muslims to participate in politics and civic society, said: “That would alienate the majority of the British Muslim public. It would be counterproductive and class most Muslims as extremists.”

Guardian, 16 February 2009

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Who is responsible for the attack on civil liberties?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In response to criticism of the government’s record on civil liberties by the former head of MI5, Stella Remington, Sunny Hundal writes:

“The fact that this government has exploited terrorism fears to curtail our civil liberties is… well, obvious. But it’s no use just blaming the government, there’s a whole industry of newspaper columnists, think-tanks, writers, bloggers and general wingnuts who have also contributed to this state of affairs because of their obsession with finding Islamists Under The Bed. Who do you think is also to blame? I’ll start with the easy ones: Melanie Phillips and Douglas Murray.”

Liberal Conspiracy, 17 February 2009

Rowan Williams ‘gives succour to extremists’, claims extremist

Posted on by Bob Pitt

douglas_murrayThe Archbishop of Canterbury has defended his controversial comments about the introduction of Islamic law to Britain and claimed that public opinion is now behind him.

On the anniversary of the interview in which Dr Rowan Williams said it “seems inevitable” that some parts of sharia would be enshrined in this country’s legal code, he claimed “a number of fairly senior people” now take the same view. He added that there is a “drift of understanding” towards what he was saying, and that the public sees the difference between letting Muslim courts decide divorces and wills, and allowing them to rule on criminal cases and impose harsh punishments.

But Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: “He has started a process which is deeply dangerous, damaging to Britain and to Muslim women in Britain. It was a wicked move because it undermines the progressives and gives succour to the extremists.”

Daily Telegraph, 16 February 2009

Yes, that’s the same Douglas Murray who said: “It is late in the day, but Europe still has time to turn around the demographic time-bomb which will soon see a number of our largest cities fall to Muslim majorities. It has to. All immigration into Europe from Muslim countries must stop…. Conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board: Europe must look like a less attractive proposition.”

The Douglas Murray whose slanders against Salma Yaqoob in a television discussion led to the programme being pulled by Central TV for fear of legal action. According to Salma: “He made all sorts of wild claims about me. He said that I was a supporter of terrorism, that I didn’t care about Muslims in Iraq and that I’d taken part in an anti-war riot. It was all such libellous nonsense I thought they would just halt the recording there and then…”

‘The shrill whistle of appeasement’ – Gaunt on the Wilders ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jon Gaunt and SunIn the soaraway Sun Jon Gaunt adds his ten cents to the Wilders debate, claiming that he “can clearly hear the shrill whistle of appeasement to a vocal minority community” and denouncing “double standards”. He tells us:

“After having 52 people slaughtered on 7/7, we spent millions on roadshows and diversion projects to keep young lads away from extremism. However, at the same time Labour allowed Muslim hotheads to preach death to the infidels on the streets of London, stirred up by radicals such as Abu Hamza.”

Er… actually, Abu Hamza is now serving a seven-year prison sentence and the idiots who took to the streets with provocative slogans during the 2006 demonstrations against the Danish cartoons have also been jailed.

Gaunt goes on to outline his position on the issue of freedom of expression: “As far as I’m concerned, in a mature democracy such as ours you should be free to worship who you like and criticise any belief structure you fancy as long as you don’t incite hatred.”

Sentiments with which we entirely concur. But the whole point about Wilders is precisely that he does incite hatred – in fact this is the charge on which he’s currently being prosecuted in the Netherlands. Hasn’t Gaunt watched Fitna? Well, since you ask, no: “I haven’t seen the film, just like I haven’t read the Koran. And I haven’t got any intention of doing either in the near future. Why? Because I am simply not interested.”

Still, never let your own ignorance stand in the way of a good rant about appeasing Muslims, eh Jon?

Times opposes Wilders ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Wilders not wanted“Mr Wilders is an elected politician in a member state of the European Union. Freedom of speech, association and travel is part of the political culture of Europe.

“For all the obvious hollowness of Mr Wilders’ credentials as a defender of free speech, the cause is a good one. It is a common notion that the right to free speech must be held in balance with the requirement to avoid needless offence. That is a mistake. The right to oppose, mock, deride and even insult people’s beliefs is essential to a society where bad ideas are superseded by better ones. There is no right to have one’s emotional sensibilities protected, for it is no business of government to legislate for people’s feelings.

“Mr Wilders’ views are obnoxious, and (not but) his freedom to express them must be defended. It is regrettable that Mr Wilders faces not just ostracism but prosecution in the Netherlands because of his comments about Islam….

“Demagogic speech is a test of the liberal political rights on which the culture of a liberal democracy rests. Let Mr Wilders exploit them. His political posturing is so self-evidently preposterous that, if he is permitted to speak freely, he will be arraigned before the best court in the land – the court of public opinion.”

Editorial in the Times, 12 February 2009

See also “Anti-Islamist politician Geert Wilders vows to defy ban by entering Britain“, where Wilders is quoted as saying: “I’ll see what happens at the border. Let them put me in handcuffs.” It’s not often that Islamophobia Watch finds itself in agreement with Geert Wilders, but this is a proposal we fully endorse.

Far-right Dutch MP refused entry to UK

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Wilders at HeathrowGeert Wilders, the rightwing Dutch politician accused of Islamophobia, was today refused entry to the UK after arriving at Heathrow airport in London.

Wilders was due to show his 17-minute film Fitna, which criticises the Qur’an as a “fascist book”, at the House of Lords today. But on Tuesday he received a letter from the Home Office refusing him entry because his opinions “threaten community harmony and therefore public safety”.

Lord Pearson, who invited Wilders to Britain, said the screening of the film would go ahead today, whether he was there or not. Speaking outside the House of Lords, Pearson said he disagreed with some of Wilders’s views but was “coming at this from the angle of free speech”. Pearson described the Dutch politician as a “very brave man” and said he did not think he was a racist.

The peer initially said he did not believe there should be any limits to freedom of speech but when pressed conceded that there should be “a very few”, such as language that incited violence. Pearson said he believed a Hitler-type figure should be allowed to speak in public in Britain.

The National Secular Society president, Terry Sanderson, said he wrote to the home secretary saying she should not have denied an application by a “democratically elected politician from a sovereign state who wants to come and express an opinion”. “It may be a controversial opinion but he is entitled to express it,” he said.

A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain described Wilders as “an open and relentless preacher of hate”. “We have no problem with the challenge of criticisms to our faith, but the film that will be screened by Lord Pearson and Baroness Cox is nothing less than a cheap and tacky attempt to whip up hysteria against Muslims,” he said.

The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, said that while it was important to defend freedom of speech, Wilders “has overstepped the line that should be defended in a civilised society”.

Guardian, 12 February 2009

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