Category Archives: Right wing

One in 11 British Muslims backs suicide bombers, says ‘Brown aide’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

1in11“As many as one in 11 British Muslims agree with and proactively support terrorism, a Government adviser has warned police.

“Haras Rafiq also told officers at Scotland Yard that up to 20 per cent of the Muslim population ‘sympathise’ with militants, while stopping short of being prepared to ‘blow themselves up’. His remarks underline the scale of the task facing Gordon Brown to win the hearts and minds of Muslims, only a week after he promised an extra £70 million to councils and community groups to fight extremism.

“Mr Rafiq, an adviser to the Government’s preventing extremism taskforce, said: ‘A percentage of people actually agree and support proactively the people that are deciding to blow themselves up. It varies, it can be 7 per cent, 5 per cent, 9 per cent’. With 1.6 million Muslims living in the UK, nine per cent is the equivalent of 144,000 people supporting terrorism.”

Daily Mail, 3 August 2007

See also Jihad Watch, Western Resistance, CBN News and BNP website

Yes, that’s Haras Rafiq of the so-called Sufi Muslim Council. The reality is that when British Muslims are asked a straight question about whether they support terrorist attacks in the UK, the actual figure for those saying they do is between one and two per cent. See for example the 1990 Trust’s survey (pdf here) from October 2006.

Republican candidate advocates threat to bomb Islamic holy sites

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tom Tancredo 2008Republican presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo says the best way he can think of to deter a nuclear terrorist attack on the U.S. is to threaten to retaliate by bombing Islamic holy sites.

The Colorado congressman on Tuesday told about 30 people at a town hall meeting in the state of Iowa that he believes such a terrorist attack could be imminent and that the U.S. needs to hurry up and think of a way to stop it.

“If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina,” Tancredo said at the Family Table restaurant. “Because that’s the only thing I can think of that might deter somebody from doing what they otherwise might do.”

A Washington-based Islamic civil rights and advocacy group responded in anger Thursday, calling Tancredo’s statement “unworthy of anyone seeking public office in the United States.”

“Perhaps it’s evidence of a long-shot candidate grasping at straws and trying to create some kind of a controversy that might appeal to a niche audience of anti-Muslim bigots,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Associated Press, 2 August 2007

It’s time to ban the veil says Daniel Pipes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pipes5“… burqas and niqabs should be banned in all public spaces because they present a security risk. Anyone might lurk under those shrouds – female or male, Muslim or non-Muslim, decent citizen or criminal – with who knows what evil purposes….

“Expressing the universal fear aroused by these garments, a recent Pakistani horror film, Zibahkhana (meaning ‘slaughterhouse’ in Urdu) includes a sadistic cannibalistic killer figure dubbed ‘Burqa Man’…. The time has come everywhere to ban from public places these hideous, unhealthy, socially divisive, terrorist-enabling and criminal-friendly garments.”

Daniel Pipes in the Jerusalem Post, 1 August 2007

Islamophobes are not racists, claims anti-Muslim bigot

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dennis Prager“Whoever coined the term ‘Islamophobia’ was quite shrewd. Notice the intellectual sleight of hand here. The term is not ‘Muslim-phobia’ or ‘anti-Muslimist’, it is Islam-ophobia – fear of Islam – yet fear of Islam is in no way the same as hatred of all Muslims. One can rightly or wrongly fear Islam, or more usually, aspects of Islam, and have absolutely no bias against all Muslims, let alone be a racist.

“The equation of Islamophobia with racism is particularly dishonest. Muslims come in every racial group, and Islam has nothing to do with race. Nevertheless, mainstream Western media, Islamist groups calling themselves Muslim civil liberties groups and various Western organizations repeatedly declare that Islamophobia is racism.

“… if one says that Islam does not appear compatible with democracy or that the Islamic treatment of women is inferior to the West’s, he or she is labeled a racist Islamophobe … the term ‘Islamophobia’ has one purpose – to suppress any criticism, legitimate or not, of Islam. And given the cowardice of the Western media, and the collusion of the left in banning any such criticism (while piling it on Christianity and Christians), it is working.”

Dennis Prager at Real Clear Politics, 31 July 2007

It was Prager, you may recall, who attacked US Congressman Keith Ellison’s decision to take his oath of office on the Qur’an. Prager claimed that “the act undermines American civilization” and went on to compare the Qur’an to Mein Kampf. (See here, here and here.)

BBC Newsnight and File on 4 misled public in their allegations about Hizb ut-Tahrir

Posted on by Bob Pitt

HizbIn a ruling published earlier this month, the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit (ECU), found that Newsnight and File on 4 had misled the public by broadcasting allegations in November 2006 concerning Hizb ut-Tahrir that were not based on evidence.

The ECU noted that both programmes alleged that Hizb ut-Tahrir, or a splinter group of its members, was responsible for planning a fire-bomb attack on a Croydon synagogue, based on information passed on by the shadowy organisation Vigil. The ECU ruled that this “was not a strong enough basis on which to mount such a serious allegation”.

In addition, Richard Watson, a reporter for Newsnight, misled listeners when he assured the Home Office Minister, Tony McNulty, that File on 4 had clear evidence that Hizb ut-Tahrir “seeks to propagandise on behalf of terrorists and glorify terrorism”. No such evidence existed and to this date the Home Office has not received any material from Newsnight, File on 4 or Richard Watson concerning Hizb ut-Tahrir. The ECU ruled that the programme did not cite sufficient evidence to justify these allegations.

Commenting on the ECU ruling, Dr Imran Waheed, media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir, said, “In what has already been a mensis horribilis for the BBC, the ruling of the ECU dents the credibility of the reports on Newsnight and File on 4 which were dominated by smear and innuendo. The allegations presented by Newsnight and File on 4 were serious, but completely lacking in credibility. The BBC has a responsibility to its viewers and listeners to ensure balance and impartiality when relying on shadowy sources that are not open to public scrutiny. The BBC should not be a propaganda outlet for such organisations and their claims should be scrutinised. The BBC is a public broadcaster that must take its responsibilities to rigorously examine issues in an impartial manner seriously.”

“It is unfortunate that media outlets are able to rely on shadowy organisations and anonymous uncorroborated sources. Too often they operate on the margins of journalism by straying into the arena of smears and propaganda. It is also important to remember the context of last November’s fictitious and slanderous BBC allegations. The timing of the report by File on 4 and Newsnight was closely associated with the desire of the Home Office to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir as Blair visited Musharraf and offered £480m for the ‘war on terror’.”

Hizb ut-Tahrir press release, 1 August 2007

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Are Muslims being censored in the Conservative Party?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A comment on the Muslim Public Affairs Committee website attacks the Conservative Party leadership for refusing to take on board criticisms of the “interim report” Uniting the Country (pdf here – MCB’s response here) which was issued in January by the Tories’ policy group on National and International Security, chaired by Dame Pauline Neville-Jones:

“When the report was first published, a leading group of Muslim Conservatives came together to offer a response to their party’s policy group. They were scathing in their attack of what they considered to be a ‘weak and damaging document which made unsubstantiated comments’. Authors of the report included Lord Sheikh, Kabir Sabar, Imtiaz Amin, Yousif Miah, amongst others. Their comments were dismissed out of hand. Muslims within the party who voiced concern at the tone of the report found themselves sidelined from an increasingly influential set of people around Cameron.”

The expanded version of Neville-Jones’ report, published last week as An Unquiet World (pdf here), shows how contemptuously criticisms were dismissed. “Uniting the Country” is incorporated unchanged into the new publication. The attack on Muslim Council of Britain is retained (see the MCB’s response here), the division of Islamists into two groups – those who aim to destroy Western society by violent means and those who seek to achieve the same objective by exploiting “democratic freedoms” – is repeated word for word, and there is the same ignorant attack on Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who it is claimed is a follower of Sayyid Qutb and was supposedly banned from entering the UK when Michael Howard was home secretary.

However, Dame Pauline’s report has met with an enthusiastic reception from Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society, who welcomes the Tories’ insistence that “the Government is wrong to communicate with people from ethnic minorities as though they were members of groups rather than individual citizens”. A principle which, if applied literally, would of course deprive minority ethnic communities of any opportunity of collectively influencing the government. Would Sanderson apply the same reasoning to secularists? Evidently not, because the NSS energetically demands the right to be consulted over state policy on religious issues. Yet, in Sanderson’s view, minority communities (and their faith-based organisations in particular) should be excluded from collective representation in the public sphere.

Rod Liddle again

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Rod Liddle continues to use his Sunday Times column to illustrate his descent into the depths of anti Muslim racism. This week he writes about Shambo the holy bullock which was worshipped by monks of the Skanda Vale Community and which tested positive to a tuberculin skin test and was subsequently put down.

With officials of the Welsh Assembly involved in the decision, Liddle writes: “But I wonder too if the members of the assembly would have dared to make their decision if it were Muslims rather than Hindus who chose to revere cattle? And what would have happened if they did? By now there would be priests set alight from Jakarta to Rabat, effigies burnt, fatwas issued. Cardiff airport would be missing an international departure gate.”

Galloway takes on Islamophobia in New Zealand

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mosques and MiraclesChristians are being urged to stand up against what a visiting author says is a Muslim push to take over the world. Pastor Stuart Robinson, Australian author of the book Mosques and Miracles, has drawn about 200 people to a conference in Greenlane this weekend aimed at revealing what he says are the true dangers of Islam.

Meanwhile, rebel British left-wing MP George Galloway is expected to attract about 450 people to a rival meeting in Freemans Bay tonight to condemn Mr Robinson’s “islamophobia”.

Mr Robinson’s two-day Mosques and Miracles conference has been organised by missionary groups Open Doors, Middle East Christian Outreach, Asian Outreach and Interserve, with support from the Vision Network of evangelical churches. He said most Westerners did not understand that Islam taught that peace would prevail in the world only when the Muslim religion predominated.

He said Muslim theology “teaches that war has to be prosecuted against the infidel until the day of judgment when Jesus Christ returns”. Unlike Christianity, which offered salvation simply through faith, he said Islam taught that the only sure way to paradise was to die as a martyr for the faith. “That becomes an enormous recruitment device for a lot of the suicide bombing that we see,” he said.

But Mr Galloway, a Catholic who has backed the Palestinian cause for 32 years, said New Zealand’s 45,000-strong Muslim community was moderate and law-abiding and had never carried out any terrorist acts. “Have you seen any signs of New Zealand’s Muslims launching a jihad [holy war]?” he asked. “Of course you haven’t. These people [Mr Robinson’s followers] are trying to place fear and hatred in the hearts of ordinary New Zealand people against peaceful neighbours.”

New Zealand Herald, 28 July 2007