“If American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Quran.” Republican Virgil Goode warns of the perils of allowing the use of the Quran in connection with congressional swearing-in.
Category Archives: Right wing
Who and what really lies behind the veil?
David Conway poses the question. His answer? The niqab not only receives the support of Ayman al-Zawahiri but also represents a serious security threat. His conclusion? “There are enough genuine concerns as to who and what may really lie behind the veil to justify its proscription in public places.”
‘The Veil… and why these leading Muslims won’t wear it’
“As Channel 4 controversially celebrated women covering their faces and critics are dismissed as Islamophobics, Joan Smith talks to a group of women who fear the consequences of the veil’s acceptance.”
Independent on Sunday, 31 December 2006
Yes, it’s the familiar strategy pursued by Islamophobes of finding some Muslims who agree with them on a particular issue and then using this as a cover for attacks which feed into the wider media campaign being waged against the entire Muslim community. You’d have hoped that people wouldn’t fall for this, but they do. The irony here is that Khadijah Atkinson, the presenter of Channel 4’s “alternative Christmas message”, is a member of Minhaj-ul-Quran, which has aligned itself with an Islamophobic campaign against the proposed so-called “mega-mosque” in Newham. And now some of her fellow Muslims are collaborating with an anti-Islamic bigot like Joan Smith in attacking Khadijah and other veiled women. It’s not really the business of Islamophobia Watch to intervene in these matters, but surely some basic solidarity and an elementary sense of tactics wouldn’t come amiss here?
For the sort of comment Smith’s article has prompted from right-wing bloggers, see here and here.
Daily Mail ‘unmasks’ woman behind alternative Christmas message
“She was presented by Channel 4 as an authentic – but anonymous – voice of moderate British Islam. And on Christmas Day the veiled woman described only as ‘Khadijah’ was given a national televison platform for propagating her views in an ‘alternative Christmas message’ designed to rival the Queen’s. She told viewers Jack Straw was wrong to criticise the veil, claiming concealing facial features ‘liberated’ women. But the Daily Mail can now unveil ‘Khadijah’ – and reveal that she is in fact Elaine Atkinson, an English convert to Islam who travels the country working for a radical muslim group trying to take political control of Pakistan.”
The “radical Muslim group” is Mihaj-ul-Quran, an organisation associated with a political party – Pakistan Awami Tehrik – that gained precisely 0.7% of the popular vote in the last parliamentary elections in Pakistan and elected just one MP. So clearly it has some way to go before it takes political control of Pakistan.
And although the Daily Mail pours scorn on Khadijah’s “claims of being moderate”, the same paper recently quoted another supporter of Minhaj-ul-Quran as an example of the “moderate Muslims” who the Mail claims are opposed to Tablighi Jamaat building a new mosque in Newham.
The BNP have applauded the Mail for exposing Khadijah Atkinson’s “rejection of her traditional English background, and her determination to embrace radical Islam”. BNP news article, 30 December 2006
Top Jewish group ‘terror’ apology
Britain’s top Jewish body has apologised for branding a Muslim charity a “terrorist organisation”. In an out-of-court settlement, the Board of Deputies of British Jews said it should not have described Interpal in these terms.
London-based Interpal, which raises millions for Palestinian causes, had launched a libel action against the Board, due in the High Court next year. The board has now published a retraction and apology on its website.
In the statement, the Board said it had reached a settlement with Interpal in relation to a September 2003 article on its website which referred to “terrorist organisations such as Hamas and Interpal”. “We would like to make it clear that we should not have described Interpal in this way and we regret the upset and distress our item caused,” said the statement.
Interpal is one of the largest Muslim-led charities in Europe and says its funds humanitarian, educational and medical projects in the Palestinian territories. The charity, which spends approximately £5m a year, insists it keeps exhaustive records and audit trails of how its Palestinian partners spend money.
For the BoD’s retraction, see here.
Ban veils in public, says bishop
Muslim women should be banned from wearing the veil, to improve security and cohesion in Britain, the Church of England’s only Asian bishop has said. The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester, urged the Government to introduce legislation that would force Muslims to remove the veil when they are at work or travelling.
In an outspoken attack on the custom of Muslim women to cover their faces, the Pakistani-born bishop said that the Islamic community needed to make greater efforts to integrate into British society.
His call for new laws to control the wearing of the veil in public comes only days after it was revealed that Mustaf Jama, the Somali suspected of murdering WPc Sharon Beshenivsky, is thought to have fled the country by dressing in the niqab, which covers the whole face except the eyes.
Media: ‘Muslim woman = ruthless gunman’
“The sharp differences in how the papers reacted to the verdict in the trial of the killers of policewoman Sharon Beshinivsky this week exposed the media’s vicious racism and Islamophobia. After all, it’s tough being a newspaper editor. Should we use page 1 to bash the Muslims, or the asylum seekers? Decisions, decisions…”
Media Workers Against the War examine press coverage of the baseless story about a suspected murderer fleeing the country disguised as a Muslim woman in a veil.
They conclude: “The truth is that the Times, Express, Sun and Guardian seized on the flimsiest of hints of a story in order to fill their pages with anti-Muslim bile.”
‘Can you spot the villain in the veil?’ asks Daily Star
“Can you go one better than Britain’s security staff and spot the villain in the veil?” the Daily Star asks its readers.
“Ministers are facing a storm of criticism after resisting calls for routine checks on anyone wearing one while boarding a plane in the UK. That went against the wishes of an overwhelming 99% of Daily Star readers, who voted in our poll yesterday that Muslims should be forced to remove veils before boarding a plane.
“The outrage follows the astonishing revelation that a Muslim asylum seeker had hidden under a veil to escape justice over the killing of policewoman Sharon Beshinivsky, 38. Somalian Mustaf Jama, 26, skipped security at Heathrow as he jetted out of the UK to his homeland by donning a woman’s niqab. His brother Yusuf Abdillh, 20, was convicted earlier this week of murdering Pc Beshenivsky in Bradford in November last year.
“Jama’s escape has highlighted the poor state of Britain’s airport security and raised fears that political correctness is preventing full checks from being carried out on veiled passengers. But despite the public outrage, the Goverenment is refusing to order checks on ALL veiled passengers.
“To prove how tough this makes identification, we have veiled up some of the world’s most notorious criminals, plus a few famous faces. Can you tell the goodies from the baddies?”
Muslim babies take over UK
The Mail can’t even do their annual story about the most popular baby names without giving it an Islamophobic anti-“immigrant” twist:
“The boy’s name Mohammed has shot up the popularity charts in a new sign of the deepening influence of Islam on life in Britain…. The rise of Mohammed as a name is an indicator of growing numbers of Muslims in British society in recent years…. Numbers have been growing as a result of continued immigration from Pakistan and Bangladesh as well as waves of new arrivals from Islamic countries or countries with high Muslim populations in the Middle East and Africa, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Nigeria. Recent immigrants have swelled the Muslim population of around 1.6 million counted by the last national census in 2001.”
‘Off with the veil at UK airports’ says Sun
“The Sun today launches a campaign to close the veil loophole making a mockery of Britain’s airport security. We told yesterday how a member of the gang which killed WPC Sharon Beshenivsky sneaked out of Heathrow by donning a Muslim niqab, with just a slit for eyes. Now we are calling on Home Secretary John Reid to turn passport control at every airport in the country into a veil-free zone.“