Shahed Amanullah examines the efforts of US presidential candidates to incite fear of Muslims, and the role of Muslim grassroots political activists in confronting this.
Category Archives: Right wing
Muslims to be offered Sharia-compliant pensions by Government
Muslims are to be offered Sharia-compliant pension funds by a new Government body. The scheme to provide retirement funds for millions who do not already have a company pension is likely to include a special option that would not invest in companies deemed sinful under Islam.
The decision to provide a Sharia-compliant pension fund is another sign of the growing influence of Islamic law in British public life and in particular the country’s finance industry.
Douglas Murray, director of the Centre for Social Cohesion think tank, said the Government should not be creating parallel financial or legal systems for different groups in Britain. He said: “It’s a great mistake for the Government to think this is desirable or even necessary.”
Scots jail succumbs to the Islamisation of western civilisation
Prison chiefs are defying an official report and serving halal meat to an entire young offenders institute to avoid upsetting a handful of Muslim inmates. Managers at Polmont run the risk of being accused of pandering to political correctness.
It is thought they are buying in chicken from a halal supplier to avoid being accused of religious discrimination. But the chickens – which have their throats cut to satisfy Islamic law – are required by only seven young men.
Last year a report by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Prisons forced bosses to cut back on sourcing all of its meat from halal butchers due to the small numbers of Muslims. Inspectors found it too expensive to justify. But prison officials admit that they continued the policy to avoid “prejudicing the position” of the handful of religious inmates.
Mark Wallace, spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “A lot of people will be concerned that money meant for the criminal justice system is instead being spent on food that is dubious in terms of animal welfare, as well as more expensive.”
Mayor Johnson fails to condemn GPU smear by Policy Exchange
Murad Qureshi, member of the London Assembly, questioned the Mayor of London on the briefing circulated by Policy Exchange prior to the Global Peace and Unity event this year.
Murad asked: “In view of the warm welcome you sent to this year’s Global Peace & Unity Event at the Excel Centre, will you join me in condemning the irresponsible ‘briefing’ circulated by Policy Exchange which sought to associate this mainstream and well-attended event with extremism?”
Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, replied: “I am not aware of any such briefing, so I am unable to comment on it.”
The Mayor’s Director of Policy, Anthony Browne, and his Director of Arts, Culture and the Creative Industries, Munira Mirza, are both from Policy Exchange.
PX sought to discredit the hosting of the GPU this year and circulated a briefing note urging politicians and others to stay away. The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg MP, brought the briefing to light and wrote to Neil O’Brien, PX Director, criticising the organisation’s attempt to sully the reputation and intent of the GPU.
The Mayor’s response will seem unsatisfactory to many given the strong links between members of his administration and Policy Exchange.
Inayat Bunglawala – ally of al‑Muhajiroun
More barking nonsense from David Toube of Harry’s Place at Comment is Free. Toube accuses Inayat Bunglawala of “rushing to the defence of the jihadists of al-Muhajiroun” in his recent CiF piece.
Toube continues: “In relation to my call to arrest those who are presently running al-Muhajiroun, Inayat states ‘it is not entirely clear what crime Choudhury is meant to have committed’. Let me help him out. In 2006, the government banned al-Ghurabaa and The Saved Sect, which is what al-Muhajiroun at that time called itself. They’re on the list of proscribed terrorist organisations. There is no difference between the personnel, the organisation, or the message of those groups, and ‘Islam4UK’. Indeed, the site gives Choudhury and Omar Bakri Mohammed’s phone numbers as contacts. There is no legal reason that Choudhury should not be arrested. He ought to be. I hope that he soon is.”
As AllyF points out in the comments:
“So David, you’ve now written two separate blog pieces saying that Choudhury should have been arrested for incitement and membership of a proscribed organisation, without presenting a single shred of evidence in your support.
“One of the legal problems with proscribing organisations like Al-Muhajiroun / Saved Sect is that they abolish themselves and reappear under different names. It doesn’t give the police the right to retrospectively arrest people for prior membership of now banned organisations.
“And several times now you have accused Choudhury of incitement to terrorism without producing a shred of evidence in support of the claim. I’m amused that you don’t intend to sue Inayat for libel. If I were you I would cling to hopes that Choudhury has similar intentions towards you, because accusing people of serious criminal offences without evidence can be an expensive business.”
Anti-Semitism is ’embedded in many of the political manifestations of Islam’
Alasdair Palmer reviews Denis MacShane’s new book Globalising Hatred: The New Antisemitism:
“Anti-Semitism – virulent, violent anti-Semitism – is flourishing, principally because it is embedded in many of the political manifestations of Islam….
“If we are going to defend liberal values in Britain – if we are not to allow the ‘Endarkenment’, as MacShane calls the encroachment of fundamentalism – to erode the existence of a tolerant, secular society, then we have to fight bigotry, dogma and lies wherever they manifest themselves.
“Bigotry, dogma and lies are three of the essential planks of anti-Semitism in all its forms, and so long as radical Islam has anti-Semitism at its heart, it will be incompatible with any decent social order. That’s the message of MacShane’s book. I hope it is one that we all take to heart.”
Anti-Muslim bigot opposes … anti-Muslim bigotry
No doubt the Muslim community can scarcely believe their good luck. Hard on the heels of Douglas Murray rallying to the defence of European Muslims, we now have David Toube (“liar, racist, buffoon” – Jews Sans Frontieres) taking a stand against “anti-Muslim bigotry”!
As we observed some time ago: “Anyone who reads his posts at Harry’s Place will know that David T has two faces. He tries to maintain the appearance of being a sensible, rational and liberal sort of chap (after all, the bloggers at Harry’s Place are the self-proclaimed defenders of Enlightenment values) but sometimes he seems to lose control, and this frothing-at-the-mouth anti-Muslim bigot bursts out – a sort of Islamophobic version of the Incredible Hulk.”
In the three years since then, the frothing-at-the-mouth side of Toube’s character has come to dominate his posts at Harry’s Place – to the point where you feel it’s almost redundant to attack him, as he does such an effective a job of discrediting his views himself. So it’s a bit of a surprise to see him resurrect his Mr Reasonable persona. Trust us, it won’t last.
Update: How right we were. See Toube’s characteristically stupid rant against this perfectly reasonable piece by Sheikh Yasir Qadhi, whom Toube denounces as “utter scum” – a term that could far more appropriately be applied to Toube himself.
Engage writes to the Press Complaints Commission
ENGAGE has sent a letter to the Press Complaints Commission concerning the headline in the Daily Star on 6 November, Poppies banned in terror hotspots. The letter states:
“The use of the term ‘banned’ in the headline is clearly inaccurate and misleading given that there is clearly no ban in operation at all. The headline obviously contravenes Clause 1 of the PCC’s Code of Practice.
“In addition, we would argue that the headline was designed deliberately to incite anti-Muslim prejudice – a practice that Richard Desmond’s papers seem to indulge in day in and day out, sadly without any censure from the Press Complaints Commission.”
The full letter can be read here.
Muslim Fifth Column seeks to ‘advance the seditious program they call Sharia’
“In Stealth Jihad, Robert Spencer has performed an invaluable public service. He has ‘connected the dots’ on the enemy within, the Fifth Column that the Muslim Brotherhood and its foreign enablers have established in America – and other nations of the West – to advance the seditious program they call Sharia. This book should be required reading for every government official – and everyone else committed to the survival of our country in the face of this ominous threat.”
Frank Gaffney, founder and president of the Center for Security Policy, gives his enthusiastic approval to the latest exercise in Islamophobic paranoia from Robert Spencer.
Mad Mel on the Islamisation of Manchester City Football Club
“A week ago Gordon Brown, accompanied by his new best friend the Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, went cap in hand to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states to ask them to help bail out the stricken economies of the West by pumping billions into the International Monetary Fund.
“It is more than a little strange that the British Prime Minister should have apparently taken it upon himself to speak on behalf of the IMF. But the real concern is that asking for help from Saudi Arabia is not like tapping your friendly neighbourhood bank manager for a bigger overdraft. No, this loan comes with a devastating IOU – nothing less than a big slice of control over Britain and the West by a regime at the heart of the attempt to bring about the Islamisation of the free world….
“Lord Mandelson blurted out the truth when he acknowledged that the Saudis and other Gulf states would expect a bigger role in global institutions in return. This should be enough to chill the British marrow. Islamic influence is already spreading in Britain and the West, way beyond Muslim communities themselves. The Islamic world is buying a financial stake in increasing numbers of Western institutions. Among its latest acquisitions are Manchester City Football Club….”
Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail, 10 November 2008
We can only give thanks that Manchester United still remains free from the clutches of the stealth jihadists.