Category Archives: Right wing

Another day, another ex-Islamist calling for a ban on HT

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“By focusing almost exclusively on violent extremism, the government has got it wrong. It has failed to appreciate how the general culture of extreme Islamist dissent can, and often does, give rise to terrorism itself. Islamist groups thrive on preaching a separatist message of Islamic supremacy, which concerns itself with reversing the temporal decline of Islam and challenging the ascendancy of the west by reviving a puritanical caliphate….

“Although groups like Hizb insist that their activities are merely intellectual, the movement is no paper tiger. It is an active revolutionary organisation with tentacles spread across the world. And its culpability in inspiring terrorists cannot be denied. Hizb has consistently raised the temperature of Islamist anger across Britain by issuing inflammatory leaflets aimed to agitate and provoke.”

Shiraz Maher in the New Statesman, 13 July 2007

There appears to be an ever-expanding market for former members of HT who are willing to endorse a right-wing agenda about the supposed threat from non-violent Islamism and encourage the state repression of their former associates.

For an alternative view, see Rolled Up Trousers, 12 July 2007

‘Scotland’s nationalist-Muslim embrace’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Well, at least this makes a change from the usual “Left-Islamofascist alliance” nonsense. Tom Gallagher has identified an equally dangerous political bloc in Scotland between the SNP and “unapologetic advocates of hardline Islamism” like Osama Saeed. According to Gallagher, this raises the nightmare prospect of an independent Scotland becoming “a northern version of Ken Livingstone’s left-leaning multicultural metropolis in London”.

Open Democracy, 11 July 2007

Ed Husain completely loses the plot

Posted on by Bob Pitt

HizbSo who’s responsible for comparing Hizb ut-Tahrir to the Nazis and issuing the hysterical warning that we must consider HT “a subversive fifth column in our midst, awaiting instructions from a coming caliph before they turn to mass suicide bombings”? Mad Melanie Phillips, perhaps? Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch? Nah, it’s Ed Husain, author of The Islamist, writing at Comment is Free. But what can you expect from a man who refers approvingly to Channel 4’s The War on Britain’s Jews? as “Richard Littlejohn’s excellent television documentary”?

You might ask why Husain, a man who became an Islamist for a few brief years as a confused teenager during the early 1990s, hasn’t been active in any Islamist organisation since leaving HT around 1995, and spent most of this century living abroad, should suddenly be adopted as the media’s favourite self-styled expert on Islamism in Britain. Well, of course, it’s because he tells them what they want to hear. Echoing the arguments of Martin Bright and John Ware, Husain enthusiastically contributes to the prevailing Islamophobic discourse. And he seems to be building a successful career out of it.

The case for mistrusting Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“… despite friendly and long-lasting relations with many Muslims, my first reaction on seeing Muslims in the street is mistrust…. The fundamental problem is this: There is an asymmetry between the good that many moderate Muslims can do for Britain and the harm that a few fanatics can do to it…. And the plain fact of the matter is that British society could get by perfectly well without the contribution even of moderate Muslims…. their cheap labor that we imported in the 1960s in a vain effort to bolster the dying textile industry, which could not find local labor, is now redundant. In other words, one of the achievements of the bombers and would-be bombers is to make discrimination against most Muslims who wish to enter Britain a perfectly rational policy.”

Theodore Dalrymple in the Los Angeles Times, 8 July 2007

Bright holds out hope for ‘process of reform’ at MCB

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Blimey. Martin Bright graciously concedes that there may yet be hope for the Muslim Council of Britain.

True, as you might anticipate, Bright attacks Madeleine Bunting’s article in yesterday’s Guardian for capitulating to Islamofascism – “treating international Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-i-Islami as if they are the primitive products of third world victims of colonialism rather than sophisticated totalitarian movements”, as he puts it. Bright also declares himself “delighted” at the thought that his anti-MCB propaganda may have resulted in the government cold shouldering the most representative Muslim organisation in Britain and transferring its support to an utterly fraudulent outfit like the Sufi Muslim Council (yes, well done there, Martin).

But, credit where it’s due, Bright does believe that, as far as the MCB is concerned, “the process of reform is beginning”. Which does represent a rather more liberal stance than the one adopted by the rabid anti-Islamist bigot Dave T over at Harry’s Place. Admittedly, that isn’t difficult.

Postscript:  David T is not happy about being characterised as a “rabid anti-Islamist bigot”, which he describes as “a rather strange turn of phrase”. Well, how else would you characterise someone who has described Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain as “a piece of scum” and Osama Saeed of the Muslim Association of Britain as a fascist? The recent juvenile abuse of Salma Yaqoob is one of the milder examples of the obsessive and ceaseless attacks on politically engaged Muslims by Harry’s Place.

Scroll down through the comments and you’ll find Martin Bright asserting that “Islamophobia is a daft term”. Odd, then, that Bright told a FOSIS conference in August 2005 that he had no problem describing himself as an Islamophobe “because there is a lot in Islam to be fearful of”. Bright also wants to know “why calling the Sufi Muslim Council a ‘fraudulent outfit’ doesn’t count as Islamophobia. Or don’t Sufis count as Muslims?” They certainly do, but they never elected Haras Rafiq and Azhar Ali as their representatives. Even the government has evidently reached the conclusion that the SMC is a waste of space and has now shifted its patronage to Khurshid Ahmed’s British Muslim Forum.

Combating terrorism – conference at Islamic Cultural Centre

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, delivered the opening address at the Islamic Cultural Centre conference on Saturday.

MCB news report, 9 July 2007

See also BBC News, 7 July 2007

Over at the Sunday Telegraph Alasdair Palmer informs his readers that the conference’s call for co-operation with the police and security services came as “a surprise because, in the past, the MCB has seemed to be somewhat lukewarm about encouraging British Muslims to go to the police or security services with any suspicions they might have about friends or acquaintances who they think might be involved in terrorism. It is, after all, only nine months since Mr Bari issued a scarcely veiled threat to the authorities: he said that if the Government and ‘some police officers and sections of the media’ continued to ‘demonise Muslims… Britain will have to deal with two million Muslim terrorists, 700,000 of them in London’.”

Of course, the MCB has repeatedly urged the community to co-operate with the police in countering terrorism. As for the “two million Muslim terrorists” nonsense, which is based on the Sunday Telegraph‘s own distorted presentation of a September 2006 interview with Dr Bari, the MCB replied to this at the time. But never let facts get in the way of an anti-Muslim story, eh Alasdair?

‘Thousands’ of London Muslims back Anjem Choudary, claim US rightwingers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Robert Spencer“Across town from the site of the recent attempted car-bomb attacks, several thousand Muslims gathered in front of the London Central Mosque to applaud fiery preachers prophesying the overthrow of the British government – a future vision that encompasses an Islamic takeover of the White House and the rule of the Quran over America. ‘One day my dear Muslims’, shouted Anjem Choudary, ‘Islam will govern Britain!’ Choudary was a co-founder of Al Muhajiroun, the now-banned group tied to suspects in the July 7, 2005, London transport bombings and a cheerleader of the 9/11 attacks.”

World Net Daily, 9 July 2007

See also Jihad Watch, 9 July 2007

That would be a reference to this protest outside the London Central Mosque, would it? As you can see, reliable estimates of the attendance at Anjem Choudary’s demonstration varied between “about 20” and “two dozen”. Now, in the fevered imagination of gibbering right-wing Islamophobes in the USA, the figure has grown to “several thousand”. But we can hardly expect anything better from Robert Spencer, the self-proclaimed expert on all things Islamic who once assured Jihad Watch readers that Al Muhajiroun was “Britain’s largest Muslim group“!

‘Muslim extremists are the only ones trying to blow up Britain today’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

PD*1006852“Mr Brown thinks we upset decent Muslims by referring to bombers as ‘Islamic fanatics’ even if they shout ‘Allah is great’ as they blow us to pieces…. Some sensible Muslims are more prepared to call a spade a spade than our own mealy-mouthed politicians. It was Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, of Al-Arabiya TV, who first told the embarrassing truth after 9/11. ‘It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists’, he said. ‘But it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims.’

“He was right then and he’s right now. When did a Jew or Sikh last put on a belt of explosives and blow himself and others to smithereens? Or a Hindu protester put a bomb in a mosque?

“If Gordon’s ‘New Speak’ encourages Britain’s three million Muslims to play their part in ending terrorism, I’m all for it. But rebranding won’t alter the fact that Muslim extremists are the only ones trying to blow up Britain today. They are infiltrating our police, spy agencies, universities and government offices with the express purpose of imposing their own view on our world. Sadly, the courageous Muslims who are ready to risk their own lives by saying so can be counted on the fingers of one hand.”

Trevor Kavanagh in the Sun, 9 July 2007

“Muslim extremists are the only ones trying to blow up Britain today”? Well, apart from far-right racists like Robert Cottage of course. And how many op eds has Kavanagh produced on that? Answer: none. Indeed, how much coverage has the Cottage case received in the Sun? Three short reports back in February, and that was it.

And in answer to Kavanagh’s question as to when a Hindu protestor last put a bomb in a mosque, this would appear to be a likely candidate.

‘Flying the flag is only the first step to victory’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Charles Moore examines the issue of “Britishness”. He writes: “… millions whose first language is not English now live in this country. A significant minority of them cannot even speak English. Many of these people are Muslims, and some seem to hate the country they inhabit. Their most prominent leaders, including the Muslim Council of Britain, which claims to be their main umbrella organisation, equivocate about the requirements of being British.”

Daily Telegraph, 7 July 2007

See also the Torygraph’s lead article, headed “We must make Muslims loyal subjects again”!