Category Archives: Right wing

Muslims undermine ‘the very fabric of the nation’ claims Torygraph columnist

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“It has taken a long time to happen, but at last an authoritative and senior establishment figure has pointed to the elephant in the room. Before the Bishop of Rochester’s article yesterday in The Sunday Telegraph, the debate about immigration focused almost exclusively on who benefits financially. We have tiptoed around its effect on our society and culture. Even the somewhat belated recognition by ministers that newcomers should show a commitment to British values and demonstrate a knowledge of English tends to be couched in economic terms and ones favourable to the immigrants themselves – that they will get a job more easily and their lives will be enhanced if they are more integrated.

“However, few politicians have been willing to do what Michael Nazir-Ali has done, which is to question the impact of a growing Muslim population upon the very fabric of the nation, turning it within half a century into a multi-faith and multicultural land….

“For many years, those who wanted Britain to be recognised as a multicultural society which needed to revise, or even jettison, five centuries of Protestant hegemony held centre stage. Anyone who questioned it had their reputations trashed. The multiculturalists even coined an insult – Islamophobia – to try to close down the debate. Some of them yesterday accused the bishop of ‘scaremongering’. But while multiculturalism began as a facet of Britain’s characteristic toleration of other people’s ways, religions, cuisines, languages and dress, it metamorphosed into a political creed that held that ethnic minority groups should be allowed to do what they like.”

Philip Johnston in the Daily Telegraph, 7 January 2008

See also “No tolerance for no-go areas”, in the Daily Mail, “Muslims call for ‘no-go’ CoE bishop to resign” in the Daily Telegraph and “Muslim anger at bishop’s ‘ghettoes’ attack” in the Independent.

For Inayat Bunglawala’s reply to Nazir-Ali, see Comment is Free, 7 January 2008

For Yusuf Smith’s comments, see Indigo Jo Blogs, 6 January 2008

And Yasmin Alibhai-Brown has a piece entitled “No-go areas that are all in the bishop’s mind” in the Independent.

Christian Peoples Alliance defends bishop over Islam comments

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Alan Craig in churchThe leader of the Christian Peoples Alliance group on Newham Council, Cllr Alan Craig, has come out in support of the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, after he warned on Sunday that Islamic extremism was creating “no-go areas” for people of a different faith.

Cllr Craig commended the Bishop as “courageous” for highlighting the “deliberate creation of Muslim enclaves by radical Islamists in Britain”. “Of course the Bishop will get attacked by ostriches who hide their heads in the sand and hope the problem will go away,” said Cllr Craig.

The CPA leader has spearheaded a lengthy campaign against the building of a giant mosque next to the London Olympics site in east London by the controversial Tablighi Jamaat group.

“Mega-mosque promoters Tablighi Jamaat have just such a track record of creating a Muslim enclave around their current UK headquarters mosque in the Saville Town area of Dewsbury in West Yorkshire,” said Cllr Craig. “Muslim superiority and separatism is what Tablighi Jamaat preach, and Muslim ghettos are often the result. That’s why we don’t want the Tablighi Jamaat mega-mosque in our diverse east London where social cohesion and integration are highly valued.”

He added, “LibDem leader Nick Clegg should visit Dewsbury before he further criticises Dr Nazir-Ali. He should see for himself the ‘parallel society’ Tablighi Jamaat have established in the streets around their mosque.”

Christian Today, 7 December 2008

BNP blogger English Rose, initiator of the notorious “mega-mosque” petition (see here, here and here), endorses Craig’s stand in support of Nazir-Ali.

Mayor in ‘Muslims cause mayhem with explosives’ row

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Robert BennettA Tory town council mayor has sparked an outcry after saying Muslims “cause mayhem with explosives”. Tory Mirfield mayor Robert Bennett made the remarks in an email to the town council clerk. Today his comments were branded as unacceptable and disgraceful by his party. The email, passed to the Yorkshire Evening Post, follows a request by the Huddersfield-based Ahmidiyya Muslim Association to appear before the town council to ask for funding.

Part of his email response to the request, says: “I am aware Islamic organisations are keen to promote a view that they are peaceful, forward thinking individuals who wish to integrate into the British way of life. The policy of clothing the feminine population of Dewsbury in black sack-like clothing from head to toe, the occasional trip out to cause mayhem with explosives and the proposal that all those of homosexual persuasion should be killed by shooting or other means is adequate and practical testimony to the level of progress being made in this direction.”

Yorkshire Evening Post, 7 January 2008

‘At last a trumpet blast against the creeping Islamification of Britain’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Fury at 'No-Go' AreasYes, the Bishop of Rochester’s remarks have produced yet another scaremongering anti-Muslim headline in the Daily Express. And readers are invited to participate in a telephone poll on the question: “Are you fed up with the fanatics changing Britain?”

The same issue features an article by Leo McKinstry, headed “Why we must listen to the Bishop’s warnings on the dangers of Islam“. McKinstry writes:

“At last a trumpet blast has been sounded against the creeping Islamification of Britain. For too long our ruling elite has been in denial about the consequences of this insidious process, pretending the assertiveness of Muslim culture is just another element in the rich diversity of British society…. Bishop Nazir-Ali is absolutely right. His critics are living in a fantasy world conjured up by their own deceitful clappy-happy rhetoric if they think Britain does not have a problem with the growing strength of Islam in our midst. The fact is that, in all too many of our cities, Muslim radicalism has led to segregation, oppression of women, criminality and terrorism….

“Islam in Britain could be portrayed as a combination of the outstretched palm of victimhood, begging for official support, and the clenched fist of grievance, threatening violence if demands are not met. All too often the political establishment has surrendered, dressing up its feebleness as multi-cultural sensitivity…. We now have state-funded Muslim schools, housing projects, leisure centre sessions and community groups. Cultural cringe means that every superstitious demand of the radicals, no matter how absurd, is taken seriously by the authorities. So, while elderly people are dying of neglect, nurses are instructed to turn the beds of Muslim patients five times a day towards Mecca….

“The generation that fought the Second World War to protect our nation from foreign occupation must wonder why they bothered as the social landscape of our country is transformed…. There is no more graphic symbol of the change sweeping Britain than the demand from Muslims in Oxford that the city council should give mosques the right to broadcast the call to prayers over loudspeakers at least three times a day. The noisy summons to Muslim prayers smacks of ideological supremacy rather than spiritual concern.

“It is absurd to pretend that Muslim culture is not becoming the dominant force in all too many cities…. What is remarkable is that, in the name of diversity, so-called liberals have promoted the misogynistic authoritarian theocracy they claim to despise. Christianity helped to build the safe, tolerant society which for generations has attracted migrants fleeing persecution or squalor. Yet now, as Christianity withers, large swathes of our country are starting to replicate the Third World.”

More dangerous nonsense from Bishop of Rochester

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Nazir Ali 2The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, is peddling more dangerous nonsense in the Sunday Telegraph today.

We’ve already covered his call for Muslim women to be banned from wearing the veil in public here and his claim that Muslims who convert to other faiths risk being killed here.

The Bishop’s latest intervention moves into territory that chimes perfectly with the BNP’s narrative of ‘no-go’ areas for non-Muslims and the far right racists website is using the story to full effect.

The Sunday Telegraph print edition carries another Muslim scare story on the same page, quoting residents of Oxford worrying about the possibilities of “population shift”, or a “Muslim ghetto” in racist newspaper speak, if a mosque is allowed to broadcast a call to prayer.

‘Islam’s silent moderates’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ayaan Hirsi Ali returns to her favourite theme: “It is often said that Islam has been ‘hijacked’ by a small extremist group of radical fundamentalists. The vast majority of Muslims are said to be moderates. But where are the moderates? … For example, I would welcome some guidance from that famous Muslim theologian of moderation, Tariq Ramadan. But when there is true suffering, real cruelty in the name of Islam, we hear, first, denial from all these organizations that are so concerned about Islam’s image. We hear that violence is not in the Quran, that Islam means peace, that this is a hijacking by extremists and a smear campaign, and so on. But the evidence mounts to the contrary.”

American Enterprise Institute, 4 January 2008

As one critic of Hirsi Ali recently remarked: “She has become well paid and famous because she demonizes her fellow Muslims. As with black Americans or any other group of despised people, the self haters, the Uncle Toms, are given a clear path to fortune and favor.”

Evangelical leaders condemned for ‘pledging common cause with Islam’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An attempt by leaders of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) to win friends and influence Muslims is alienating another group – evangelical Christians. Reactions have been negative and strong. Islam expert Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo has called it a “betrayal” and a “sellout.” Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Seminary (Southern Baptist), termed it “naiveté that borders on dishonesty.”

In November, NEA President Leith Anderson and NEA Vice President Richard Cizik signed onto a Christian response to an invitation to dialogue from 138 Muslim leaders around the world. Their response – initiated by Yale Divinity School and endorsed by other liberal Christian leaders – apologized for the sins of Christians during the Crusades and for “excesses” of the global war on terror, without mentioning Muslim atrocities. It appeared to leave the fundamentals of Christianity – especially the deity of Christ – open for discussion. It even seemed to acknowledge Allah as the God of the Bible.

Mohler said the agreement “sends the wrong signal” and contains basic theological problems, especially in “marginalizing” Jesus Christ. He also condemned the apology for the Crusades. “I just have to wonder how intellectually honest this is,” he said. “Are these people suggesting that they wish the military conflict with Islam had ended differently – that Islam had conquered Europe?”

Citizen Link, 3 January 2008

German Muslims angry at ‘anti-foreigner’ campaign

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BERLIN – German Muslim groups on Wednesday accused a senior politician in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party of stirring up hostility against foreigners in a bid to win a regional election.

Roland Koch of the Christian Democrats (CDU) has focused his campaign for re-election as premier of the prosperous western state of Hesse on crime, in particular offences by foreigners. He reacted to an assault on a German pensioner by two youths – one Greek, one Turkish – in a Munich railway station by saying Germany had too many young foreign criminals and urging an end to “multicultural” coddling of immigrants.

The brutal attack, caught on a surveillance camera and played repeatedly on German television in recent days, prompted calls for tougher sentencing, boot camps and even the deportation of criminals of foreign origins.

“The debate is shameful and scandalous,” head of the TGD Turkish Communities in Germany Kenan Kolat told Reuters on Wednesday, saying the deportation issue was “political arson”. “This is pure populism,” he said, urging Merkel to speak out against it.

Germany is home to about 15 million people with an immigrant background – about 18 percent of the population – and Merkel has talked often about the need to integrate the country’s 3.2 million Muslims, most of whom are of Turkish origin. But she says immigrants must accept German culture and won rapturous applause at a conference of her mostly Roman Catholic party last month for saying mosques should not dwarf churches.

Reuters, 2 January 2008

Update:  See also criticisms by Stephen Kramer of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, who has said that Koch’s campaign “can hardly be distinguished from the NPD,” a neo-Nazi party.

Giuliani on Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“If you’ve been listening to the war-mongering coming out of Rudy Giuliani since the start of his deteriorating presidential campaign, you’d think the United States isn’t fighting just jihadists but the entire Muslim ummah.”

Matthew Harwood examines the aspiring Republican candidate’s campaign ad which refers to Muslims as “a people perverted”.

Guardian Unlimited, 3 January 2008

See also Josh Marshall at TCM, 2 January 2008