Category Archives: Right wing

Obama says Islam smear offensive to Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ali Eteraz takes issue with those who criticise Barack Obama for failing to take a principled stand against the “Muslim smear” campaign. He posts a video in which Obama says:

“I have never been a Muslim. Am not a Muslim. These emails are obviously not just offensive to me, somebody who is a devout Christian, who’s been going to the same Church for the last twenty years, but it’s also offensive to Muslims, because it plays into, obviously, a certain fear-mongering there.”

And at the end of the video, Jane Fissler Hoffman, a minister from the Obama’s Church says: “There is absolutely nothing wrong with being Muslim. But second of all, Senator Obama doesn’t happen to be Muslim. He is a Christian and he’s a member of my Church.”

‘Don’t build this mosque’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The man who co-founded the separatist Muslim Parliament has denounced plans for a huge mosque next to the Olympic site. The Tablighi Jamaat’s PR company, Indigo, today launched its ‘charm offensive’ in the run-up to submitting proposals for a massive 12,000-seater mosque on contaminated land in Newham, East London. But Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, Indian-born elder-statesman of political Islam in Britain told Lapido Media:  ‘We have too many mosques. I think it should not be built.’ …

“Siddiqui’s views are in line with other prominent Muslims like Irfan Al-Alawi, Europe director of the Centre for Islamic Pluralism, who has expressed ‘extreme concern’ about the spread of Tablighi Jamaat. They have dared to speak out against the proposals despite pressure from the Muslim Police Association, the London Mayor Ken Livingstone – and now Indigo PR who are handling their propaganda. The mosque build is being seen as a test of strength by many observers around the world who are concerned it will tip a diverse city at ease with its multi-culturalism into an increasingly tense, religious politicisation….

“Councillor Alan Craig … in whose ward the mosque would be built, believes that it is ‘ludicrous’ for Indigo to describe the proposal by a massive, secretive sect hailing from South Asia as a ‘community project’. ‘What we seem to have now is the bizarre spectacle of the British “posh” who should know better, joining forces with newt-loving Red Ken against Pakistani and Indian Muslim elders in a sort of post-colonial guilt trip showdown which is just mind-boggling’ said Craig.”

Lapido Media, 3 March 2008

For details of the consultation with local residents, see the Abbey Mills Mosque website.

Download their leaflet (pdf) here.

Attacks on Obama highlight racism and Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Obama has devoted a lot of time to defending himself against these charges that question his religious beliefs and his patriotism. The gist of this has been – I am not now and never have been a Muslim. I am a Christian and a patriot. And, other candidates have apologized for anyone in their campaign who might have intimated that Barak was a Muslim, or have denied being responsible for such statements. The problem with this defense is that it seems to many American Muslims that what we are not hearing is an apology for the bigotry.”

Sheila Musaji in The American Muslim, 2 March 2008

Tariq Ramadan – ‘dangerous radical’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tariq_Ramadan“Fourest has rendered an invaluable service. She demonstrates with great skill that Ramadan is a dangerous radical who, far from modernizing Islam, is in fact attempting to Islamize modernity.”

Ibn Warraq reviews Caroline Fourest’s book Brother Tariq: The Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan.

City Journal, 29 February 2008

Note that this English language edition of Fourest’s Frère Tariq is published in the UK by the right-wing think-tank the Social Affairs Unit and features an introduction by Labour MP Denis MacShane.

See also The Australian for the controversy over Tariq Ramadan’s current visit to Australia.

Update: The Australian has commissioned Mad Melanie Phillips to deliver a characteristic rant under the headline “Master of Islamist doublespeak“, which warns the people of Australia that Professor Ramadan is “probably the most dangerous Islamist in the Western world”!

See also “MP warns scholar on racist messages“.

‘Target Harry – British fanatics threaten him’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Inayat_Bunglawala“Sneering Muslim fanatics labelled Prince Harry a target for assassins last night after his heroics against the Taliban.

“Harry’s perilous Army mission in Afghanistan was dismissed by British extremists as a mere publicity stunt. But they also claimed that by participating in an ‘illegal war’, the brave young Prince had made himself fair game for a terrorist attack.

“Tory MPs last night condemned the outpourings by three influential Islamic radicals as ‘highly irresponsible’. Andrew Rosindell, who represents Romford in Essex, said: ‘This is an appalling thing for them to say’.”

Daily Express, 1 March 2008

Who are these three “sneering Muslim fanatics”, I hear you ask. They’re Anjem Choudary, Omar Bakri … and Inayat Bunglawala! Along with a statement by Choudary, it’s a truncated quote from Inayat – “I am sure many Afghans opposed to the British presence will see him as a high-value target” – that provides the basis for the scaremongering headline.

The actual quotation, as reported in the Daily Telegraph, reads: “If he is still there I am sure many Afghans opposed to the British presence in Afghanistan will see him as a high-value target. We wish both him and his colleagues in the Army are brought back from Afghanistan out of harm’s way. The presence of foreign troops appears to be counter-productive, galvanising opposition.”

If I were Inayat, I’d sue.

It’s no slur to be called a Muslim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ObamaTurbanNaomi Klein on Barack Obama’s response to the “Muslim smear” campaign:

“What is disturbing about the campaign’s response is that it leaves unchallenged the disgraceful and racist premise behind the entire ‘Muslim smear’: that being Muslim is de facto a source of shame. Obama’s supporters often say they are being ‘Swift-boated’ (a pejorative term derived from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against the 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry), casually accepting the idea that being accused of Muslimhood is tantamount to being accused of treason.

“Substitute another faith or ethnicity, and you’d expect a very different response. Consider a report from the archives of the Nation. Thirteen years ago Daniel Singer, the magazine’s late Europe correspondent, went to Poland to cover a presidential election. He reported that the race had descended into an ugly debate over whether one of the candidates, Aleksander Kwasniewski, was a closet Jew. The press claimed his mother was buried in a Jewish cemetery (she was still alive), and a popular TV show aired a skit featuring the Christian candidate dressed as a Hassidic Jew. ‘What perturbed me,’ Singer said, ‘was that Kwasniewski’s lawyers threatened to sue for slander rather than press for an indictment under the law condemning racist propaganda’.

“We should expect no less of the Obama campaign. When asked during the Ohio debate about Louis Farrakhan’s support for his candidacy, Obama did not hesitate to call Farrakhan’s antisemitic comments ‘unacceptable and reprehensible’. When the turban photo flap came up in the same debate, he used the occasion to say nothing at all.”

Guardian, 1 March 2008

Islamophobia, Obamaphobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Barack Obama“Some of the dirtiest attacks against Barack Obama are being carried out by Jewish bigots in the US and Israel, and if Obama is the Democrats’ candidate for president, which looks very likely, these smears are going to get a lot worse.

“It’s not a whispering campaign, it’s not anonymous; Marc Zell, co-chairman of Republicans Abroad in Israel, put his name to an article in The Jerusalem Post’s Web edition last week that brands Obama as a Muslim anti-Semite. ‘Obama and the Jews‘ begins: ‘Less than two weeks before the critical primary elections in Ohio and Texas, Democratic voters have made it very clear: Barack Hussein Obama is for real.’

“Why would a Republican activist mention Obama’s middle name, especially in the first sentence, especially to readers of The Jerusalem Post? Everyone knows the reason, but I’ll spell it out anyway: To reinforce the false impression that Obama is a Muslim, knowing that many readers, Jewish and Christian, will hate and fear him for that reason alone….

“The record on Obama as an anti-Semite or enemy of Israel is utterly blank. He’s not a Muslim, either. (Although it doesn’t speak well for America that he can’t publicly say, ‘And what if I was?’ without killing his chances for election.) But it doesn’t matter – he’s caused legions of Jewish crazies to come crawling out of the woodwork….

“Yes, there is a problem of black anti-Semitism in America, but Obama isn’t part of it. There’s a problem of bigotry among American Jews, but Joseph Lieberman isn’t part of that. If American blacks or Muslims were running an ethnic/religious smear campaign against Lieberman like Jewish extremists are running against Obama, what would Jews call it? We’d call it anti-Semitic. The one against Obama is Islamophobic, with an undercurrent of white racism. It’s the exact same sort of bigotry.”

Larry Derfner in the Jerusalem Post, 27 February 2008

Police to implement sharia law, claims Tory MP

Posted on by Bob Pitt

PhilipDaviesPolice will be trained on the importance of Sharia law and the Koran to Muslim communities, under new plans to fight extremism.

The lessons in Islamic faith and culture will become part of the formal training of constables working in towns and cities across the country. Chief constables say that – by understanding the community they are policing – officers will build better relationships.

These could prove crucial in rooting out extremism and preventing a terrorist attack, according to the Association of Chief Police Officers.

But critics have described the plan as “politically correct thinking”. Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley, said: “Police officers are not there to implement Sharia law. They are there to implement British law. This idea is misguided. We will only get community cohesion when everybody signs up to being British and following British law.”

Daily Mail, 28 February 2008