Category Archives: Right wing

‘Islamists use raid to stir up UK Somalis’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Islamic extremists are exploiting American air strikes in Somalia to try to recruit British Somalis to their cause. Hizb ut-Tahrir, a global Islamic group whose activities are currently proscribed in Germany, Russia and Pakistan, was last week circulating leaflets in London, accusing the US of state-sponsored terrorism…. In August 2005, Tony Blair said he would ban Hizb ut-Tahrir, but the plans were reportedly shelved last year after officials said there was insufficient evidence to support a ban and that action might inflame Islamic extremism.”

Sunday Telegraph, 14 January 2007

And what is the extreme action that HT is accused of? The Sunday Telegraph reports that “the organisation plans to demonstrate outside the US embassy next Saturday”! It would appear that, as far as the Torygraph is concerned, peaceful protest is to be condemned, whereas killing over a hundred Somali civilians in what can only be described as acts of state terrorism doesn’t merit a word of criticism.

Read HT’s statement on the US airstrikes in Somalia here.

No caliphate in Catford, declares Michael Gove

Posted on by Bob Pitt

pillock (1)“Gove’s contention is that a small but determined brigade of Muslims has developed ‘transnational’ loyalties superseding any attachment to Britain…. Understandably the extremist dream of ensnaring everywhere from Catford to California in a caliphate makes this politest of men bristle in his Savile Row suit.”

Observer, 14 January 2007

It’s good to know that the citizens of London SE6 can sleep safely in their beds, secure in the knowledge that Michael Gove is defending them against the threat of Sharia law.

German politician lectures Muslims on Enlightenment values

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The German interior minister came out strongly against the burka Thursday, saying the body-covering garment worn by some religious Muslims impeded communication and obstructed integration. Calling on German and European Muslims to embrace European laws and norms, the minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said he generally accepted the rights of Muslims to wear the head covering of their choice but that the burka was a step too far.

“Politicians should not deal with headgear of men and women. But the burka is different,” he said in outlining Germany’s agenda for its European Union presidency. “You can’t see the eyes of someone, and that is the opposite of what we believe communication should be like. Integration requires communication, and we don’t want to isolate each other.”

Schäuble, a leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center right Christian Democratic Union, added that he wanted to make Muslim integration a key issue of the six-month EU presidency, which began this month. Alluding to the recent terrorist plots in Britain, Denmark and Germany – which are alleged to have been perpetrated by second-generation home-grown radicals – he said it was essential to prevent the entrenchment of “parallel communities” where Muslims lived on the fringes of European society.

Pointing to a values gap apparent in some elements of Islam, he noted that Christianity had undergone an Enlightenment after the excesses of the Crusades, while parts of the Islamic world had not experienced it. He added that Muslims in Germany needed to accept universal human rights, including the equal treatment of men and women.

New York Times, 11 January 2007

See also “Islam urged to accept Enlightenment”, Boston Globe, 12 January 2007

‘Molly Campell’ joins Taliban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Having had to abandon their initial lies about Misbah Rana – that she had been kidnapped by her Pakistani father, that she was being subjected to a forced marriage – the media have now come up with a new angle. Mishbah (or Molly Campbell, as they still insist on calling her) has been recruited by a group of al-Qaida sympathisers. She has joined a madrassah in Islamabad where one of the teachers even holds the outrageous view that when Muslim countries are attacked by the US they should resist.

Times, 11 January 2007 and Daily Mail, 11 January 2007

See also Abdiel, 12 January 2007

Update:  See “Misbah’s father denies school bid”, BBC News, 13 January 2007

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad supports restoration of caliphate shock

Posted on by Bob Pitt

HizbMore nonsense from Mad Melanie Phillips. She writes: “Hizb ut Tahrir, which has been banned in the Middle East, the United Kingdom and Germany, was going to host a Sydney conference this month to promote the takeover of Australia as part of an Islamic caliphate.”

And she quotes a Herald Sun report describing the HT video advertising the event: “In what appears to be a call to arms, the video features slogans attacking the United States and capitalism, and features militant anti-Western Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shaking his fist, before the slogan ’embrace the revival’.”

Mel welcomes the news that Bankstown City Council whose town hall was to be used for this event has cancelled it. She concludes: “Let’s hear it for Bankstown, which understands the difference between a liberal principle and being played for suckers in the attempt to destroy it. But the incident also dramatises the extent to which Australia is squarely in the global Islamisation frame.”

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 11 January 2007

It’s difficult to know where to begin. HT has not been banned in the UK, nor does it aim to take over Australia – its objective of restoring the caliphate is restricted to majority-Muslim countries. But perhaps the most bizarre claim is that the HT video included a clip of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Does Phillips really think that a video promoting the re-establishment of the caliphate would feature a prominent Shia politician? Or perhaps she should make the effort to view the HT video on YouTube. Does the individual concerned even look like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

Read HT’s own response here.

Regent’s Park Mosque is accused of extremist links

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mosque promotes fundamentalists preaching hatredMosque ‘promotes fundamentalists preaching hatred’

By Amar Singh

Evening Standard, 10 January 2007

LONDON’S busiest mosque has been accused of promoting Islamic fundamentalists who vilify Jews, call for Sharia law in Britain, blame Christians for deliberately spreading Aids in Africa and preach intolerance towards all non-Muslims.

The allegations against London Central Mosque in Regent’s Park follow a 12-month investigation by the Channel 4 Dispatches programme. It found the mosque’s official bookshop sells DVDs containing the speeches of two radical preachers, Sheikh Feiz and Sheikh Khalid Yasin.

In one, Sheikh Feiz is seen imitating the snorting noises of a pig when referring to Jewish people, whom he says will be killed when the day of judgment arrives. He says: “This creature will say, ‘Oh Muslim’ behind me is the Jew. Come and kill him. They will be [makes snorting noises] all of them, every single one of them.”

Sheikh Yasin, a charismatic American convert, has said the koran calls for men to “beat women lightly” and told Muslims they should never regard non-Muslims as a friend. The controversial cleric is vaunted on the mosque’s official website alongside other “famous visitors” such as ministers Jack Straw and Mike O’Brien. In DVD footage, Sheikh Yasin says: “The whole delusion of equality of women is foolishness… there is no such thing.”

He also claims Western powers are behind the Aids epidemic in Africa. He says: “Missionaries from the World Health Organisation and Christian groups went into Africa and inoculated people for diphtheria, malaria, yellow fever and they put in the medicine the Aids virus, which is a conspiracy.”

Both men are linked to the Wahhabi brand of Islam, which is dominant in Saudi Arabia and well-funded. Wahhabis are some of the most radical and fundamentalist Muslims, believing in Sharia law and interpreting the koran literally. Moderate Muslims are deeply concerned about its spread to the UK.

Continue reading →

With friends like these …

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Israeli writer warns against accepting the support of anti-Muslim bigots in Europe who declare their support for the state of Israel. She argues:

“… many of these new friends are Muslim-bashers first and Israel-backers second. Their blanket condemnation of Muslim communities on their continent rings eerily familiar. Their sweeping verdict against a whole civilization has that strange déjà vu feel…. I, for one Israeli, would be grateful to my newfound buddies if their sympathy for me did not rely on the trashing of another religion. Unlike them, I’m touched by the sight of young Muslim women in European university campuses. They remind my of my own grandmother, a student in Prague who had to flee after the Nazi rise to power, and of all the other young and hopeful Jews whose dreams and lives were shattered by the European culture they so admired. I will therefore not solicit support based on unqualified dislike of other human groups…. Beware of Islamophobes bearing gifts.”

Wall Street Journal, 7 January 2007

Mad Mel is not happy.

Right-wing US Christian group polls supporters on Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The American Family Association is currently polling Americans on their opinion of Islam as more Americans are converting to be Muslims. The growth of Islam in America is “concerning for a great many people,” said Randy Sharp, director of special projects for AFA, according to Agape Press.

According to the poll, the majority of respondents do not consider Islam to be a peaceful religion or a tolerant religion. The majority of respondents also said “no” to placing equal emphasis on the Koran and the Bible in America. In terms of politics, most Americans do not believe it would be good for America to have more Muslims in elected offices and most said they would not vote for a Muslim presidential candidate.

Christian Post, 8 January 2007

See also “AFA poll on Islam”, Daily Kos, 4 January 2007