“Stills from a video entitled Nuclear Jihad: The Ultimate Terror, were posted on al-Ekhlass and al-Hesbah, two password-protected websites believed to be affiliated with al-Qa’eda.
“The images were created to facilitate discussions of the feasibility of nuclear strikes on the US or Britain, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which released the images.”
Except that the images were in fact lifted from a computer game called Fallout 3.
The following letter was published in the Church of England Newspaper, 30 May 2008:
Sir, In a time of fear and polarisation, Christians must avoid both the political right’s shrill paranoia and the liberal left’s naive secular arrogance.
Sadly, your leader (“Religious trends and our religious future“, May 23) falls into the former trap, with predictions of the UK as “an Islamic nation” and talk of concessions to Muslim “demands”.
Ironically, the supporting anecdotes, seemingly culled from the front pages of the Mail and Express, undermine the overall claim of a Muslim “advance”. The hospital bed story you cite, for example, was slammed as “entirely inaccurate” by the hospital in question.
We would not accept the same deluge of sensationalistic smears, generalisations and hate speech about any other race or religion. There is a humble yet honest conversation to be had between Christians and Muslims in Britain, but comments like these do not help.
Ben White
The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, this week claimed the influence of Christianity had been practically wiped out in recent decades, destroying Britishness and leading to the breakdown in family life and an increase in drunkenness and violence.
The bishop, a leading conservative who believes the Church of England should be doing more to convert Muslims, then warned that radical Islam is starting to fill the “moral vacuum” left by the decline in Christianity, which could lead to different values taking hold.
But his words have been condemned by some groups who have accused him of spreading fear and intolerance, and of putting across a similar message to the far-right British National Party.
Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “Dr Nazir-Ali’s remarks are ill-advised, dangerous and manipulative. He is playing a very dangerous game with these repeated scaremongering tactics against Muslims, and risks doing the BNP’s work for them. He risks creating even more hostility towards the Muslim community in this country – and community relations are already very fragile in some places.”
The NSS, which campaigns against what it calls the privileged position of religious groups in society, called on the Archbishop of Canterbury to discipline the bishop for his remarks and prevent him from making “further inflammatory statements”.
We couldn’t agree more. However, we can’t avoid noting some double standards here. If the National Secular Society is genuinely concerned about irresponsible attacks on Islam giving assistance to the fascists they could start by dissociating themselves from NSS member Pat Condell, whose Islamophobic rants on YouTube have been applauded by Terry Sanderson. It would appear that the incitement of hostility towards the Muslim community is OK with Sanderson when it’s done by fellow secularists.
See also Inayat Bunglawala at Comment is Free and the excellent leader in today’s Guardian.
For the BNP’s endorsement of Nazir-Ali, see here.
Is Rachael Ray, the talk-show host, cookbook author and magazine editor, a terrorist sympathizer?
Dunkin’ Donuts, worried that its customers might think so, abruptly yanked an ad in which Ray wears a scarf that resembles a keffiyeh – a traditional headdress worn by Arab men – after conservative commentators became enraged by the ad and even threatened to boycott the company.
The controversial ad, which appeared earlier this month on the doughnut chain’s Web site to promote its iced coffee, came under fire nearly two weeks ago when blogger Pam Geller posted it under the headline “Rachel [sic] Ray: Dunkin Donuts Jihad Tool.”
“Have you seen Rachel Ray wearing the icon of Yasser Arafatbastard and the bloody Islamic jihad,” Geller wrote. “This is part of the cultural jihad.”
Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin took up the cause when she wrote: “The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not so ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities and left-wing icons.”
After pulling the ad, Dunkin’ Donuts issued a statement from Margie Myers, senior vice president of communications for Dunkin’ Brands:
“In a recent online ad, Rachael Ray is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design. It was selected by the stylist for the advertising shoot. Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, as of this past weekend, we are no longer using the online ad because the possibility of misperception detracted from its original intention to promote our iced coffee.”
See also the Boston Globe, 28 May 2008
A Dudley councillor is calling on the people of the town to “create crowds” outside Dudley Council House as the future of the mosque is discussed inside.
For two days in June (10 and 11) the planning inspectorate from Bristol will be holding a public inquiry as to whether the council were right to refuse the application made by the Dudley Muslim Association last year. The council’s development control committee unanimously rejected the proposals after the project received opposition via petitions with more than 22,000 names.
Cllr Davis also asked residents to show their support by flying a flag on the two days the inquiry is being held. He said: “I think it is important for everyone to fly the flag every day, but it would be nice if we all flew them on those two days to show our loyalty to our town.”
Mad Melanie Phillips tells us that there is no principled difference between Al-Qaeda and mainstream Islamists like the Ikhwan, it’s all just a division of labour in the campaign to destroy western civilisation:
“… there are Islamists who oppose al Qaeda and terrorist action in the UK as a tactical mistake but nevertheless subscribe to the same strategic goal – to restore the medieval Caliphate, overturn British and western society and institute the rule of Islam instead. This is because there are two arms to the jihadi pincer: terrorist attack and cultural attack; and the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists use either or both depending on circumstances and upon differing strategic points of view between groups under the same jihadi umbrella.”
And over at Democratiya, we find two members of the Community Security Trust making the same point, assuring us that “Qaradawi condemned the suicide bombings in London on 7/7, but it does not appear that this was based on a principled objection to the methods or goals of the global jihadist movement”.
Which would come as something of a surprise to the Al-Qaeda leadership. As one commentator recently observed in an analysis of a statement by Ayman al-Zawahiri: “Zawahiri’s condemnation of Yusuf al-Qaradawi is particularly protracted and probably demonstrates how threatening he considers the popular Muslim Brotherhood scholar to be.”
The decline of Christian values is destroying Britishness and has created a “moral vacuum” which radical Islam is filling, one of the Church of England’s leading bishops has warned.
Yes, you guessed right. It’s another anti-Islam intervention by Michael Nazir-Ali.
See also BBC News, 28 May 2008
It’s worth noting that Standpoint, the magazine that has published Nazir-Ali’s article, is funded by the right-wing think-tank the Social Affairs Unit and edited by Daniel Johnson. Its “core mission” is to “celebrate and defend Western civilization, its achievements and its values”
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — US President George W. Bush on Wednesday likened America’s efforts to quell Islamic extremism in Iraq and Afghanistan to the US fight against fascism during World War II.
During the Second World War, “our nation faced evil men with territorial ambitions and totalitarian aims, who murdered the innocent to achieve their political objectives,” Bush said at a commencement speech for new graduates of the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Through a combination of military strength and national resolve, and faith in the power of freedom, we defeated these adversaries – and secured the peace for millions across the world,” Bush told the cheering cadets.
“Now, in the 21st century, our nation is once again contending with an ideology that seeks to sow anger and hatred and despair — the ideology of Islamic extremism,” said Bush, who earlier this month asked the US Congress for 70 billion dollars to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan into early next year, when his successor takes over.
Bush has said that the United States faces a “long struggle” on both fronts, but has insisted that “good progress” has been made in bringing democracy and stability to both war-ravaged countries.
“In today’s struggle, we are once again facing evil men who despise freedom, and despise America, and aim to subject millions to their violent rule. And once again, our nation is called to defeat these adversaries – and secure the peace for millions across the world. And once again, our enemies will be no match for the men and women of the United States Air Force,” the US leader said.
“If recent reports of trends in religious observance prove to be correct, then in some 30 years the mosque will be able to claim that, religiously speaking, the UK is an Islamic nation, and therefore needs a share in any religious establishment to reflect this. The progress of conservative Islam in the UK has been amazing, and it has come at a time of prolonged decline in church attendance that seems likely to continue.
“This progress has been enthusiastically assisted by this government in particular with its hard-line multi-cultural dogma and willingness to concede to virtually every demand made by Muslims…. At all levels of national life Islam has gained state funding, protection from any criticism, and the insertion of advisors and experts in government departs national and local…. While men-only gentlemen’s clubs are now being dubbed unlawful, we hear of municipal swimming baths encouraging ‘Muslim women only’ sessions and in Dewsbury Hospitals staff waste time by turning beds to face Mecca five times a day – a Monty Pythonesque scenario of lunacy, but astonishingly true. [In fact, completely untrue – ed.]
“… Islam is being institutionalised, incarnated, into national structures amazingly fast, at the same time as demography is showing very high birthrates…. Today the Christian story is fading from public imagination, while Islam grows apace.”
Editorial in the Church of England Newspaper, 26 May 2008
Over at the Spectator, this view is enthusiastically endorsed by Mad Mel: “Britain is being steadily Islamised – and hardly a word is being breathed about it.”
With its lace curtain bungalows and steepled Anglican church, the once tranquil town of Camden in New South Wales seems the most improbable of settings for a row that combines race and religion.
Proud of its rich history, the town promotes itself as “the birthplace of the nation’s wealth”, for it was here, in the early 19th Century, that the sheep and dairy industries first began to flourish. Now the town, which lies on south-west fringes of Sydney, is confronting a very 21st Century issue: the proposal to construct an Islamic school for some 1,200 Muslim pupils.
Back in November, more than 1,000 local people took part in a public meeting. Many participants expressed themselves with little regard for political correctness.
“This has to be one of the nicest places in New South Wales,” said one woman, who has lived in Camden for the past nine years. “Everywhere is being destroyed.”
“Why don’t we tell the truth. They’re wrecking Australia. They’re taking us over,” she said. “Why hasn’t anyone got any guts? They’ve got terrorists amongst ’em… They want to be here so they can go and hide in all the farm houses… This town has every nationality… but Muslims do not fit in this town. We are Aussies, OK.”
Some of the loudest cheers of the night greeted a speech from a local man in his late 70s. “Can I just say this without being racist or political?” he said. “In 1983, in the streets of London a parade by Muslims chanted incessantly ‘If we can take London, we can take the world’. Don’t let them take Camden.”
Update: See “Australia Muslim school rejected”, BBC News, 27 May 2008
See also the Daily Telegraph, which tells us that “residents demanded an apology for being labelled racists”, while the Sydney Morning Herald reports that “a resident, Kate McCulloch, emerged from the meeting declaring a victory for ‘decency’ – and insisted Muslims were incompatible with the local community. ‘The ones that come here oppress our society, they take our welfare and they don’t want to accept our way of life’, she said.”
Update 2: See “A win for racists in Camden”, Green Left Weekly, 31 May 2008