Nick Cohen writes: “Last week’s papers were full of accounts of the supposed plot by nine men held in raids in Birmingham. Every type of paper, upmarket and down, ran headlines such as ‘Terror gang planned to kidnap, torture and behead a soldier on our doorstep’ or ‘Terror hitlist named 25 Muslim soldiers’ with barely an ‘alleged’ thrown in to hint that none of the claims had been proved in court.”
Category Archives: Right wing
From a single issue of the Sunday Times
In addition to Rod Liddle’s piece, here are some other articles from the same issue of the Sunday Times: We’re far too nice to Muslim extremists, Al-Qaeda tells British cells to carry out wave of beheadings and Preacher calls for death to all Muslim soldiers.
Dirty little secret of who is behind the rise in antisemitism
Rod Liddle has the answer. And yes, you guessed it, anti-semitic attacks are not the responsibility of white racists and the far right but of the Muslim community.
Government accused of appeasing Muslims, discriminating against Catholics
“I’m wondering if we had Muslim adoption agencies in this country which had objected to having to consider gay couples as adoptive parents whether this Government would have stuck two fingers up at their beliefs in the way they have at Catholic adoption agencies.
“Last week those agencies – who on the grounds of conscience and belief had asked to be excluded from new gay rights laws forcing them to consider homosexuals as adoptive parents – were told: ‘You’re not going to be excluded so either get over it or close down.’
“Had a Muslim organisation been told that there’d have been rioting in the streets. There’d have been endless newspaper stories, and TV debates about the rights of a religion to flourish in a democracy. But because this was about Catholics, this Government knew there wouldn’t be any riots or the burning of effigies, so they decided the Catholic Church – its doctrines and its objections – just weren’t valid.
“In not wanting to deal with homosexual couples as adoptive parents, the Catholic Church wasn’t being discriminatory – it was simply following its teachings. Just as Muslims believe you can get divorced by saying three times: ‘I divorce you’, just as they can take four wives, just as they believe women should be covered up, Catholics believe a child should have a mother and father – not terribly radical in this day and age.
“And this Government should be ashamed for dumping on Catholic beliefs when we all know they’d bust a collective gut to allow Muslims in this country to practise their faith however they want.”
Carole Malone in the Sunday Mirror, 4 February 2007
Stop bleating about terror raids, McKinstry tells Muslims
“Here we go again. The anti-terror police raids in Birmingham have prompted the usual outpouring of grievance from Muslim community leaders and activists. The airwaves have been full of the predictable accusations of Islamophobia against the police and the Government, with endless bleating about the alienation and stereotyping of Muslim youths.
“Once more we hear the moans about British foreign policy, while some conspiracy theorists have even come up with the absurd idea that the police took action just to distract attention from the cash-for-honours scandal engulfing Downing Street.
“Yes, there is a conspiracy but it is a real one, organised by radical Muslims bent on the destruction of Western civilisation and the ultimate triumph of fundamentalist Islam over our freedom and democracy.”
Leo McKinstry in the Daily Express, 2 February 2007
Muslims – ‘Disaffected, raging, and hungry for the harsh finality of Sharia law’
“Three Muslim women wearing the traditional burqa and niqab were walking along a Birmingham street this week when they were approached by a photographer. They had been confronted by the enemy – an outsider – and their response was instant and instinctive. One covered her eyes with her hand, while another fixed a defiant stare at the camera. The third’s response was the most striking of all. She lifted her hand and gave that most British of gestures – the V sign. This yobbish image – made even more shocking by the seeming reticence of the veils – captured absolutely the growing polarisation between some sections of Britain’s Muslim community and the mainstream.”
Natalie Clarke in the Daily Mail, 3 February 2007
What the gesture more likely captured was entirely understandable irritation at a press photographer taking a picture without even bothering to ask the permission of those being photographed, and with the predictable intention of using the photo to illustrate yet another scaremongering article depicting Muslims as an alien presence whose barbaric culture poses a threat to western civilisation.
‘Sleepwalking with the enemy’
“Founded in Egypt in 1928 to restore the Caliphate, the Muslim Brotherhood is a skilful international operator which, in Britain, runs innumerable sharp-suited entryists who claim to be moderate spokesmen for British Muslims and who, for years, have been feted uncritically by the political establishment. The FCO has been under the illusion that it could do business with the appalling Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Brotherhood’s spiritual leader, and has spent British taxpayers’ money on flying him to a conference on European Islam.
“Ken Livingstone has welcomed him as a brother, despite Qaradawi’s approval for suicide bombers and his belief that gays should be executed and women subject to men. At a Livingstone-sponsored conference recently (A World Civilisation or a Clash of Civilisations), the mayor assured us that Qaradawi is a moderate. But then Livingstone is the lodestar for the self-deluding, hypocritical Left whose communal self-loathing makes their country’s enemies their friends.
“I saw at first hand in the 1980s how Livingstone and his acolytes encouraged and, where possible, financed the malcontent IRA-supporting Irish who hated the country in which they lived while despising those of us who were working for integration and mutual understanding. These people march against the war in Iraq alongside people who would install the Taliban in Downing Street….
“As the American counter-terrorism analyst Daniel Pipes put it at Livingstone’s conference in a speech that showed up his host to be the time-warped, paranoid Lefty that he is, we are not dealing with a clash of civilisations: it is the civilised world against the barbarians. And the enemy is Islamism. As they infiltrate universities, prisons, politics, the media and the public service, the army of self-confident Islamists watch us crumble when accused of Islamophobia and believe we no longer have the stomach for a fight.”
Ruth Dudley Edwards in the Daily Telegraph, 3 February 2007
Christian Zionists take on Islamists
Evangelical Christians, Zionists and members of the Knesset met together at Central Hall, Westminster, this week to discuss ways to confront radical Islam and revive Christian Zionism in Europe.
The Knesset Christian Allies Caucus – which oversees contacts between Knesset members and Christian leaders – joined the Jerusalem Summit think-tank to consider the need for a joint diplomatic strategy in the face of what many believed is a threatening situation.
“We are in a critical season and crossroads for Great Britain, which is a test case for the challenge of Islam,” said one Christian delegate, Christine Darg, head of the UK-based Exploits Ministry.
Israeli speakers, including Knesset members Benny Elon and Orit Noked, called for co-ordination among members of both faiths to support Israel. “The Bible is the real bridge between us,” said Rabbi Alon, a member of the National Religious Party.
Other participants included Baroness Cox, Canon Andrew White and British Jewish philanthropist Cyril Stein.
Jewish Chronicle, 2 February 2007
Tory lies fuel racism
“Tory leader David Cameron has tried to cultivate an image of being a caring and socially liberal kind of guy. But he revealed his true colours with his remarks on multiculturalism, Muslims and immigration this week.
“Cameron began by attacking ‘Muslim extremists’, describing them as the ‘mirror image’ of the fascist British National Party (BNP). What he really means is that Muslims are the main enemy, not the Nazi BNP. This is borne out by the rest of Cameron’s speech, where he echoes the BNP’s racism, attacking multiculturalism as ‘divisive’ and scaremongering over ‘uncontrolled immigration’ – two favourite themes of the fascists.
“Tory think-tanks have also warmed to this theme, attacking young Muslims for becoming ‘politicised’.
“Politicians who pander to anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment – whether Tory or New Labour – simply fuel the BNP by normalising its racist lies. Cameron’s concern for ‘community cohesion’ is a sham, and his words will lead to more division not less.”
‘Plots and paranoia are mainstream views for Muslims of Sparkbrook’
“To wander the streets of Sparkbrook yesterday, from shabby corner shop to proud, white-domed mosque, was to enter a world where conspiracy theories are the breath of life. Many ordinary Muslims did not believe that Wednesday’s arrests were an act to foil a terrorist plot aiming to visit unspeakable barbarity on a young British soldier. Rather the entire operation was a giant con trick. This fits a growing perception of a post-9/11 world in which innocent Muslims are demonised, and the terror threat manufactured to suit the dark designs of the West’s Judaeo-Christian elite.”
See also “Angry Muslims urged to stay calm” – an informative article despite its condescending headline: BBC News, 2 February 2007