Category Archives: Right wing

MCB – not ‘moderate’ enough for Catholic Herald editor

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Damian Thompson 2Unlike the rest of the press The Herald has gone to the trouble of asking Muslim organisations in the UK for their response to the Gillian Gibbons case.

Naeem Raza of the Islamic Society of Britain told the paper: “If this is true it is religion gone mad. There should be some honour in Sudan that Mohammed was the most popular name. They are children for goodness sake.” And a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain is quoted as saying: “This appears to be a horrible misunderstanding. We hope the Sudanese authorities will move swiftly to end this unfortunate incident by releasing this woman.”

But this is just not good enough for Damian Thompson, Telegraph leader writer and editor-in-chief of the Catholic Herald. In a piece on his Holy Smoke blog headed “‘Moderate’ Muslims speak out” (note the sneer quotes round “moderate”), Thompson entirely ignores Naeem Raza’s statement and complains that the MCB are “very moderate in their defence of a middle-aged lady who faces 40 lashes for doing nothing wrong. Funny, that.”

Good to see that Damian’s still doing sterling work in promoting harmonious interfaith relations.

See also MCB press release, 27 November 2007

US presidential candidate would not have Muslims in his cabinet

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mitt RomneyPresidential canidate Mitt Romney has discounted appointing Muslims to his cabinet on more than just the one occasion reported in a CSM op-ed yesterday.

TPM Election Central has learned that at a private fundraising luncheon in Las Vegas three months ago, Romney said a second time he would probably not appoint a Muslim to his cabinet – and on this occasion, he made other comments that one witness described as “racist.”

The witness, Irma Aguirre, a former finance director of the Nevada Republican Party, paraphrased Romney as saying: “They’re radical. There’s no talking to them. There’s no negotiating with them.” A second witness, a self-described local registered Republican named George Harris, confirmed her account.

The new accounts provided by the witnesses lend credence to the now-notorious account of a more recent private Romney event that appeared in the Christian Science Monitor yesterday that already caused an uproar. In that account, a Muslim businessman, Mansour Ijaz, claimed that Romney had said that based on the “numbers of American Muslims” in the country, “I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified” for a Muslim.

TPM, 27 November 2007

It is proper to challenge Islam, but not to demonise Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jemima Khan“I recently attended a debate entitled ‘Is Islam good for London? … It wasn’t just me who found the title, tone and content of the debate disturbing. The liberal rabbi, Pete Tobias, described it as a ‘damaging and hurtful exercise’, sinisterly reminiscent of the campaign a century ago to alert the population to ‘the Problem of the Alien’ – namely the Eastern Jews fleeing persecution who had found refuge in the capital.

“My view is that it was symptomatic of a much wider and deeper hostility to Islam and, contrary to the claims of the panellists, to Muslims too…. On the subject of Muslims, liberal intellectuals like Amis find themselves uncomfortably in bed with the neocons. They even sound alike. British Muslims that I know feel overwhelmed in the face of such hostility.

“… although Muslims increasingly feel like a demonised minority, even by liberals, it is also true that Islam is an ideology. As such it must expect to be challenged in an open society, no matter how uncomfortable or personal that debate becomes…. But it would help greatly if critics of Islam would give as much attention to the moderate Muslims engaged in that vital internal debate as they do to the hook-handed, effigy-burning few.”

Jemima Khan in the Sunday Telegraph, 25 November 2007

Tories accused of ‘bare-faced lies’ over schools’ HT links

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A political row has broken out over claims public money was given to two schools which, the Tories say, have links to Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. Tory leader David Cameron suggested money from an “anti-extremist fund” had been given to “extremists”. But Schools Secretary Ed Balls accused the Conservatives of “playing politics” and making “untrue” allegations. Hizb ut-Tahrir said it did not run any school and accused Mr Cameron of “bare-faced lies”.

BBC News, 25 November 2009

See also Hizb ut-Tahrir press release, 25 November 2009 and “Tories admit David Cameron Islamic schools claim ‘had mistakes'”, Times, 26 November 2009

‘Martin Amis is no racist’ (it says here)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

HitchensWell, that the claim made by ex-leftist-turned-Bush-supporter Christopher Hitchens, who rallies to the defence of his friend and fellow writer. Let us remind ourselves what Amis said in his September 2006 interview with Ginny Dougary:

“There’s a definite urge – don’t you have it? – to say, ‘The Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order’. What sort of suffering? Not letting them travel. Deportation – further down the road. Curtailing of freedoms. Strip-searching people who look like they’re from the Middle East or from Pakistan. Discriminatory stuff, until it hurts the whole community…”

So how does Hitchens justify this appalling rant? He tells us that “the harshness Amis was canvassing was not in the least a recommendation, but rather an experiment in the limits of permissible thought”.

Guardian, 21 November 2007

In a letter in the same issue another friend and author, Ian McEwan, also attempts to defend the indefensible.

For Yusuf Smith’s response to Hitchens, see Indigo Jo Blogs, 21 November 2007

Aussie Tories’ vile race tactics exposed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Gary ClarkThe Liberal Party has been hugely embarrassed over a campaign team caught delivering fake letters linking Labor with the Bali bombers. The grubby night-time operation in St Marys, in the seat of Lindsay, was busted by a squad of ALP sleuths who conducted a stake-out.

The letter appeared to be from a Muslim organisation, the Islamic Australia Federation. But the organisation does not exist.

The fictitious group was said to be backing Kevin Rudd because Labor supported forgiveness for “our Muslim brothers who have been unjustly sentenced to death for the Bali bombings”. It also said Labor endorsed construction of a mosque in St Marys. “In the upcoming federal election we strongly support the ALP as our preferred party to govern this country and urge all other Muslims to do the same,” the letter read.

It was clumsily worded and ended with “Ala Akba”, a dismal attempt at the traditional Islamic salute of “God is Great” – “Allah Akbar”.

Daily Telegraph, 21 November 2007

See also “Fake flyer meant as a joke: Lib MP”, ABC News, 21 November 2007

Islamic Australia Federation bogus leaflet

‘Let’s stop handling Islam with kid gloves’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The failed action West Midlands police took against a Channel 4 programme exposing extremist Islamic preachers highlights our dysfunctional attitude to free speech…. The job of the police is to uphold the law but, deeming no law had been broken, they instead decided to be media watchdogs. They stepped wildly beyond their remit here.

“I think they did so in a public effort to seem sensitive to the Muslim community, which is apparently ‘demonised’ by the media (according to last week’s farcical report commissioned by Ken Livingstone). On the contrary: Islam is treated with kid gloves in Britain…. The police shouldn’t exceed their powers when addressing discussion of Islam. It only legitimises the misplaced sense of victimisation that extremists exploit in instances where they have no cause for complaint.”

Nirpal Dhaliwal (writing from another planet, apparently) in the Evening Standard, 21 November 2007

Ofcom rules against ‘Undercover Mosque’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Channel 4 logoAs had been leaked in advance, Ofcom has rejected complaints made by West Midlands Police, the London Central Mosque and the Saudi embassy over the notorious Channel 4 documentary Undercover Mosque. (Ofcom did however uphold a complaint about George Galloway’s Talk Sport radio programme. So you can see a sort of consistency here.)

Ofcom’s ruling has met with the approval of the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, the British National Party, Jihad Watch, Harry’s Place and the Lib Dems (whose reputation as friends of the Muslim community – based mainly on the fact that they opposed the Iraq war for a couple of months before the invasion was actually launched – is looking increasingly threadbare).

Meanwhile over at the Spectator Melanie Phillips is calling for the West Midlands Police themselves to be investigated.

Martin Amis and the new racism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Amis’s views are symptomatic of a much wider and deeper hostility to Islam and intolerance of otherness. Only last week, the London Evening Standard felt able to sponsor a debate entitled: Is Islam good for London? Do another substitution here and imagine the reaction had Judaism been the subject. As Rabbi Pete Tobias noted on Comment is Free, the so-called debate was sinisterly reminiscent of the paper’s campaign a century ago to alert its readers to the ‘problem of the alien’, namely the eastern European Jews fleeing persecution who had found refuge in the capital. In this context, Rod Liddle’s contribution to proceedings – ‘Islamophobia? Count me in’ – sounds neither brave, brash nor provocatively outrageous, merely racist. Those who claim that Islamophobia can’t be racist, because Islam is a religion not a race, are fooling themselves: religion is not only about faith but also about identity, background and culture, and Muslims are overwhelmingly non-white. Islamophobia is racist, and so is antisemitism.”

Brilliant piece by Ronan Bennett in the Guardian, 19 November 2007