Category Archives: Right wing

Muslims create their own ghettos says Daily Star

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims want to create their own communities and remain segregated from British society. A shocking 44% think they should be free to develop along separate lines. But critics are fuming Muslims are refusing to fit into our way of life. English Democrats’ chairman Robin Tilbrook said:

“As far as I’m concerned, what we want to be about is having an integrated society. If people don’t want to integrate, they shouldn’t be here. It’s not at all right to have what’s really a sort of ghetto situation developing – it’s going to lead to trouble. We can’t have a single society with lots of different rules.”

Stephen Green, national director of Christian Voice, said: “I’m not surprised because there are already Muslim enclaves all over the country. They keep themselves to themselves anyway.”

Daily Star, 21 January 2009

MSF defends Azad Ali

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Latest Witch Hunt on Muslim leader by the Mail on Sunday

The Muslim Safety Forum is dismayed with the provocative article written in the Sunday Mail on the 18th January 2009 regarding MSF Trustee Azad Ali.

The central objective of MSF has been to build relations between communities and the police service during very difficult circumstances and ensuring dialogue remains open. The MSF is a voluntary organisation built on good will and trust between communities, the wider public and the police.

Azad Ali embodied that civic commitment and led the bridge building efforts between the police service and the community following the terrorist atrocities of 7/7 and the failed bombings of June 2007.

Chair of the MSF Mujib Miah said “Instead of highlighting the positive community building work Azad Ali has accomplished throughout his career, The Sunday Mail has sought to misrepresent his work. We understand he is taking legal advice in that regard.

“I have been inundated with calls from members and the wider public expressing disappointment and alarm by the serious distortion of Azad Ali’s character. In these difficult times inflammatory headlines such as these are counter productive and damage community cohesion.”

END

Note for Editors:

The MSF is made up of national and regional Islamic organisations including: Al Ershad Centre, Al Ikhlas Foundation / Muslim Prisoners Support Group, Al Khoei Foundation, Al Maghrib, Al Muntada Al Islami, Amal Trust, AMP – BTP, AMP – MPS, An Nisa Society, Bangla 2000 – 1990 Trust, Barnet Muslim Advisory Group, Basildon Islamic Centre, British Muslim Forum (BMF), Eritrean Muslim Community, FAIR, FOSIS, IFE, Iqra Trust, ISB, Islamic Cultural Centre, Kingswood Islamic Committee, LMC, MAB, MCB, Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre, Muslim Directory, Muslim Parliament, Muslim Voices, Muslimaat UK, Q News, Somali Muslim Community, Cage Prisoners, The Avenue School, The Muslim College, UKIM, Women’s Relief, YMO, UMO.

The MSF is the key advisory body for the Police Service and has signed a working protocol with the Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police & ACPO to build better police / community relations. It has been advising the police on matters of safety and security from the Muslim perspective for over five years now. It meets on a monthly basis with senior representatives of ACPO and the MPS, the MPA, Home Office, CPS and the IPCC amongst others.

‘Britain’s surrender’ – another paranoid rant from Mad Mel

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Melanie Phillips Jihad in Britain“In Britain, the war in Gaza has revealed the extent to which the media, intelligentsia and political class have simply crumbled in the face of the global jihad….

“Years of demonizing Israel and appeasing Islamist extremism within Britain have now coalesced, as a result of the media misrepresentation of the Gaza war as an atrocity against civilians, in an unprecedented wave of hatred against Israel and a sharp rise in attacks on British Jews.

“Throughout the war, London’s streets have witnessed a hallucinatory level of violent and explicit support for Hamas from Muslims, members of the far left and supposedly progressive individuals….

“Last Thursday, Mr. Miliband wrote in the Guardian that there was no single, unified Islamist threat but merely a set of various local grievances, such as Kashmir or the Golan Heights. Such startling ignorance of the goals and ideological antecedents of the Islamic jihad, from Hamas to Hezbollah to Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba, is of a piece with the British government’s stubborn refusal to accept that the West is under assault from a war of religion.

“The government denies this fact because it does not want to face up to the unpalatable realities of fighting such a war. So although ‘middle Britain’ is beginning to grasp that the Islamists in Gaza are the same as those rampaging through the streets of London, ministers are intent on appeasing Muslim extremism and intimidation both at home and abroad.

“Accordingly, while Britain’s security services have had significant success in smashing Islamic terrorism plots, government strategy for combating Islamist extremism rests upon seeking to mollify Britain’s two million or so Muslims by avoiding confrontation – which means turning a blind eye to threatening statements.

“Recently, prominent British Muslims who advise ministers against Islamist extremism wrote an open letter making the veiled threat that unless the government condemned Israel there would be a rise in violence in Britain.

“Ministers’ openly stated fear that this will indeed happen as a result of the war in Gaza makes them anxious to show Britain’s Muslims that they oppose Israel’s actions. They don’t understand that, by showing such weakness in the face of intimidation, they are not just betraying their Israeli ally but also undermining the Western defense against the jihad.

“Across the spectrum, Britain’s elites are terrified of dealing with militant Islamism. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that, in a pattern which goes back to the foundational Christian blood libel against the Jews, they are concealing their fearful inability to deal with Islamist aggression by displacing the blame onto its Israeli victims instead.”

Melanie Phillips in the Wall Street Journal, 20 January 2009

Government gives £1m to Ed Husain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Quilliam FoundationAlmost £1 million of public money is being given to a think-tank run by two former Islamic extremists, despite reservations being expressed by members of the Government and the Opposition. The funding is for the Quilliam Foundation – a counter-extremism think-tank set up nine months ago by Ed Husain, a bestselling author, and Maajid Nawaz, a former political prisoner in Egypt – as part of the Government’s strategy to combat the radicalisation of British Muslims.

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Witch-hunt against Azad Ali: letters to the Mail on Sunday and others

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“I am writing to complain about the article published in the Mail on Sunday (18/01/09) about Azad Ali, one of the bloggers on Between the Lines. The article selectively quotes from his blog to paint a picture which is misleading and falsely portrays him as an extremist.

“The specific and central allegation in the article entitled: Muslim civil servant suspended over ‘killing British troops is justified’ blog, claims that Azad Ali ‘suggested that killing British troops in Iraq is justified’; this is completely untrue and libelous.”

Between the Lines reproduces the letter of complaint sent to the Mail on Sunday, Daily Telegraph and Evening Standard in response to their false accusations against Azad Ali.

Italian right condemns Muslim Colosseum prayers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A group of Muslims who prayed in front of the Colosseum during a protest march against the Israeli offensive in Gaza this weekend was accused of threatening behaviour by centre-right politicians on Monday. Around 50 Muslims knelt with their backs to the Roman amphitheatre and prayed towards Mecca during the march on Saturday, refueling a row over a similar incident that took place in front of Milan’s Duomo earlier this month, also during a Gaza protest.

”The pseudo-prayers in Milan and in front of the Colosseum are nothing to do with religion – they are threatening and intimidatory acts towards the Italian people,” said Maurizio Gasparri, Senate whip for Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) party. ”Those who take part should be identified by the police and possibly expelled from our country. People mustn’t use prayer as a political weapon”.

ANSA, 19 January 2009

UK Right witch-hunts Azad Ali

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A senior Muslim civil servant has launched an astonishing verbal onslaught against the Government over its response to Israel’s military strikes in Gaza – and has suggested that killing British troops in Iraq is justified. Treasury official Azad Ali, president of the Civil Service Islamic Society, now faces the sack over the remarks.

Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell – who is the patron of the society – acted immediately after being alerted to the comments by The Mail on Sunday. Shortly after this newspaper contacted the Cabinet Office, a senior official disclosed that Mr Ali had been suspended for the remarks made on his personal internet blog.

Mail on Sunday, 18 January 2009

It is surely unfair for the Mail to take all the credit for the victimisation of Azad Ali. As is almost invariably the case these days, this campaign originated with David Toube of Harry’s Place. In his latest piece Toube describes Ali as “a man whose politics are as great a threat to our democratic, liberal and pluralist system as any white fascist”.

But don’t get the idea that Toube wants Azad Ali to lose his job. Not at all. As Toube piously declares: “Patrick Mercer thinks that Azad Ali should be sacked. I do not. I cannot believe that there is no job in the civil service in which a man who dreams of jihad can be safely employed.”

To which one can only respond that it would not be entirely accurate to describe Toube as a piece of poisonous witch-hunting scum. Rather, he should be characterised a lying, hypocritical piece of poisonous witch-hunting scum.

Update:  Today’s Daily Mail returns to the attack with “Muslim civil servant ‘backed fanatic’s call to kill our troops in Iraq’“, and the Telegraph has “Muslim civil servant suspended for hardline blog attacking Government over Gaza“, while the Evening Standard goes with “Police give £35,000 taxpayers’ money to group headed by anti-British Muslim“.

Under the heading “The enemy within: senior Muslim civil servant justifies killing British troops“, the fascists of the BNP comment that the case reinforces their call for “the halting and ultimate reversal of Third World immigration”.

US Right witch-hunts Ingrid Mattson

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ingrid_MattsonFor at least the second time since last summer, those close to President-elect Barack Obama are defending the selection of the leader of a Muslim group, linked by the U.S. government to terrorists, to play a leading role in an ecumenical religious service.

Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America, is one of several religious leaders scheduled to speak at the inaugural prayer service Wednesday at Washington’s National Cathedral.

As WND reported in August, Mattson spoke at the Democratic National Convention’s “interfaith gathering” in Denver. At the time, Fox News reported ISNA was suspected of having ties to radical terrorism worldwide and during last year’s Holy Land Foundation terrorism trial was regarded as an “unindicted co-conspirator” by the U.S. government.

The government alleged documents show ISNA is supported by the Muslim Brotherhood, which has called for “jihad” against the West. Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy told Fox the Muslim Brotherhood seeks “our destruction.”

World Net Daily, 18 January 2009

Mark Pelavin, director of inter-religious affairs for the Union for Reform Judaism – another organization participating in the prayer service – called Mattson “a really important voice denouncing terrorism.”

“Clearly, Dr. Mattson has been welcome throughout the government,” he said. “I haven’t found anyone anywhere who’s found anything Dr. Mattson has said that’s anything other than clearly denouncing terrorism in quite explicit Islamic terms.”

Pelavin’s group has a partnership with the Islamic Society to encourage members of mosques and synagogues to build ties nationwide.

Associated Press, 17 January 2009

Update:  Over at Front Page Magazine Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch claims that Ingrid Mattson is a defender of Osama Bin Laden who has “endorsed al-Qaeda’s goals”, is an apologist for Wahhabism and has “tried to set Jews and Christians against once [sic] another”.

Islam based on ‘an explicit anti-Jewish discourse’ says Geoffrey Alderman

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The conflict in Gaza has also furnished us, most usefully, with further proofs of Islamic prejudice against Jews and Judaism. As I reminded you last week, I have not hesitated to point out that Islam was founded in part on the basis of an explicit anti-Jewish discourse, and that this discourse is alive and well.

“I have been pilloried publicly, on more than one occasion, for having said this. So I have taken some pleasure in drawing the attention of my critics to (a) the calls by Hamas ‘commander’ Mahmoud Zahar (on Al-Aqsa TV, January 6) for the worldwide murder of Jewish children and (b) the much-reported possibility that an Islamist website has been used to compile a ‘hit list’ of prominent British Jews deemed guilty of ‘war crimes’.”

Geoffrey Alderman in the Jewish Chronicle, 14 January 2009

For a reply, see ENGAGE, 16 January 2009

For earlier articles by Alderman in the JC see here and here.

‘There’s probably no Allah’ – Iain Dale makes a prat of himself

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Smug git“The row over the ‘There’s Probably No God’ adverts took a new twist today. The Telegraph reports today that a devoutly Christian bus driver in Southampton has refused to drive his bus because it has the advert pasted to the side. The bus company have given him another bus to drive.

“Personally, I have no issue with the ASA passing this advert. But the thought does occur to me. If the advert had said ‘There’s Probably No Allah: Now, Stop Worrying & Enjoy Your Life’, would it have got through the ASA’s censors? I think we all know the answer. And if it had, somehow, got through the ASA, would the bus company have touched it with the proverbial bargepole? Of course not.”

Iain Dale’s Diary, 17 January 2009

Well, a “Probably No Allah” advertisement almost certainly would have been rejected – and rightly so, because, while “Allah” is just the Arabic word for “God” and as such is also used by Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews, the slogan would be taken as targeting Muslims’ religious beliefs specifically, suggesting that Islam is a particular problem and encouraging Islamophobia. “There’s Probably No Yahweh” would presumably be rejected on similar grounds, namely that it attacked the beliefs of the Jewish community, suggested that Judaism is a particular problem and therefore encouraged antisemitism.

The “Probably No God” advertisement is no less offensive to Muslims than to Christians or Jews or indeed the adherents of any monotheistic faith. So far, however, the only person who has refused to drive a bus carrying the atheist slogan is an evangelical Christian. Imagine that it was a Muslim bus driver who had done this. The press, right-wing and liberal, would be full of articles and editorials denouncing it as yet another example of Islam’s supposed incompatibility with western civilisation and Enlightenment values.