Category Archives: Right wing

Civil servants allowed to join non-violent political group shock

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hizb“Home Office staff are free to be members of the Islamic extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, it was revealed yesterday. Those working in the department responsible for immigration and homeland security do not even have to declare membership of the fanatical organisation, the Government admitted. This means Home Secretary John Reid has no idea how many of his staff hold the group’s radical views and he has no means of monitoring their activities.

“The revelation – in a written parliamentary answer – comes after Home Office IT manager Abid Javaid, 41, was found to be a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which supports a worldwide Islamic state run under hardline Sharia law and has refused to condemn last year’s London bombings [sic – see below]. Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green said: ‘This is really shocking. It is a dereliction of duty for them not to find out how many more Hizb ut-Tahrir members are on the Home Office payroll’.”

Daily Mail, 1 December 2006

“We would like to make it absolutely clear that we believe there was no justification whatsoever for the attacks on civilians in London on July 7th 2005. Islam does not allow the killing of innocent civilians as occurred in London.”

Hizb ut-Tahrir press conference statement, 31 July 2005

‘Brave Trevor makes so much sense on race’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“There are quite a few useful rules of thumb in life. If something seems too good to be true, it almost certainly is too good to be true. If a book is still boring after 100 pages, it’s not going to improve. And if Ken Livingstone violently disapproves of someone, the chances are that they are an admirable person. The London mayor keeps company with Jew-hating, gay-baiting Muslim extremists such as Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi. But he can’t bear the black, liberal chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips. Which is odd, as Phillips has so many brave and sensible things to say….

“It would have been easy for the chairman of the CRE to stay in the comfort zone of ‘diversity policy’ and the unquestioning defence of minority rights. Instead, Phillips supported Jack Straw’s expression of concern about Muslim women covering their faces in his constituency surgery. He criticised ‘so-called Muslim leaders’ for attacking Straw: ‘They were overly defensive and need to accept that in a diverse society we should be free to make polite requests of this kind.’ And he called on the teaching assistant Aishah Azmi to drop her discrimination case after she was suspended for refusing to remove her veil during lessons. Most of all, Phillips wants us to be able to talk about race freely, to bust the last taboo….

“Forget Ken Livingstone: Phillips talks a lot of sense. And it is not just ‘so-called Muslim leaders’ who should be listening to him. We all should.”

Mary Ann Sieghart in the Times, 30 November 2006

Profiling Muslims is like profiling the Ku Klux Klan says Coulter

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Right-wing US buffoon Ann Coulter expresses surprise that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has “piped in to complain about racial profiling of Muslims. The only reason Americans feel guilty about ‘racial profiling’ against blacks is because of the history of discrimination against blacks in this country. What did we do to the Arabs? I believe Americans are the victims in that relationship. After the attacks of 9/11, profiling Muslims is more like profiling the Klan.”

Front Page Magazine, 30 November 2006

‘Muslim law reaches Britain’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim Law is HereSecret courts imposing draconian Islamic justice are operating across Britain.

Last night politicians and religious leaders expressed outrage that sharia law is gaining an increasing foothold in our society. The hardline Islamic law allows people to be stoned to death, beheaded or have their limbs amputated.

Critics insisted Labour was allowing a chaotic two-tier legal system to flourish in the name of political correctness. And legal experts warned that it meant the authority of British justice was being undermined.

Sharia law dates back to the 10th century. In some countries women are stoned to death for adultery or giving birth out of wedlock and thieves can have both arms amputated. In Saudi Arabia, murderers, rapists and drug traffickers are publicly beheaded with a sword. The Islamic law also deals in all aspects of daily life including marriage and divorce.

Yesterday experts insisted the Government had already allowed elements of sharia law to be introduced. The Treasury has brought in measures including interest-free loans and mortgages which comply with the Islamic law. But it was also alleged unofficial criminal courts are meting out their own justice.

The scandal was outlined on BBC Radio 4’s Law in Action programme which uncovered evidence that Muslims are using their own laws here.

Daily Express, 30 November 2006

For Osama Saeed’s comments, see Rolled Up Trousers, 30 November 2006

Residents use pig races to deter building of mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

There’s an awful lot of exciting news when you round the corner on Baker Road. One of two big yellow signs announces a new neighbor is coming soon. K.I.A., that’s the Katy Islamic Association, plan to build a mosque here. Craig Baker owns pigs. He’s the guy behind the second big yellow sign on Baker Road. That’s the one announcing Friday night pig races.

But aren’t pigs on the property line racing on a Friday night a little offensive to a Muslim neighbor? “The meat of a pig is prohibited in the religion of Islam,” said Katy Islamic Association member Youssof Allam. “It’s looked upon as a dirty creature.” Yeah, there’s that and also that Friday night is a Muslim holy day. “That is definitely a slap in the face,” said Allam.

abc13.com, 29 November 2006

UK Muslim leaders support grand mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

British Muslim leaders have expressed their full support for plans to build a grand mosque beside the Olympic Park in East London.

IslamOnline, 27 November 2006

Mad Mel, on the other hand, takes heart from reports that “Muslims themselves have now spoken out against the proposal and warned that the mosque will be a site for Islamist extremism”.

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 28 November 2006

Sharia law is spreading, Telegraph warns

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The full headline in the print edition of the Torygraph reads “Sharia law is spreading as the authority of British justice wanes”. The article, by Joshua Rozenberg (Mr Melanie Phillips), reports on the findings of the BBC Radio 4 programme Law in Action on the role of unofficial religious courts, which arbitrate over civil issues.

Not that you’d know it from the Torygraph report, but the programme also dealt with the role of Beth Din courts in the Jewish community (see here). Can you imagine what Melanie Phillips’ response would be if the paper ran a story with the headline “Jewish law is spreading as the authority of British justice wanes”?

Daily Telegraph, 29 November 2006

More anti-Muslim witch-hunting from Michael Gove

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tory MP Michael Gove manages to have a go at the Finsbury Party mosque, the East London mosque, the Dewsbury mosque and the proposed Abbey Mills mosque, all in one short parliamentary speech. He did tell the House of Commons that some mosques are “exemplary houses of instruction that provide spiritual nourishment to our fellow citizens” – though where these mosques are to be found he didn’t say.

Hansard, 27 November 2006

See also ConservativeHome, 28 November 2006

Witch-hunt against HT continues

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A crisis meeting between police chiefs and local religious leaders has been held after the discovery of bomb-making equipment in a patch of woodland close to Croydon Synagogue. Police confirmed last week, after a BBC Newsnight report, that they had discovered a number of items which has aroused fears of extremist violence breaking out in Croydon.

On Monday morning at Croydon police station, in a meeting chaired by Chief Superintendent Mark Gore, representatives from Muslim and Jewish communities, Croydon Council and Croydon Mosque and Islamic Centre met to discuss the investigation. It follows confirmation from police that items were found in woodland off Shirley Oaks Road on November 4 and November 11. The land is opposite Croydon Synagogue and the items were said to include equipment that could be used to make petrol bombs.

The meeting came after a BBC report claimed the radical Islamic group, Hizb ut-Tahrir, were distributing leaflets outside Croydon Mosque and Islamic Centre in an attempt to recruit new members. A source in the group told Newsnight that they had uncovered a plot by Hizb ut-Tahrir’s members to attack the synagogue.

Croydon Guardian, 27 November 2006

Update:  See “BBC Newsnight and File on 4 misled public in their allegations about Hizb ut-Tahrir”, Islamophobia Watch, 1 August 2007

‘Pray-in’ protesters decry imams’ removal from flight

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Protesting the removal of six imams from a US Airways flight last week, a group of Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders staged a “pray-in” Monday near the airline’s ticket counter at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The six men, who had attended a national conference of Islamic scholars, were detained at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Nov. 20. Those attending Monday’s protest said the incident smacked of racial profiling because three of the men had been observed praying in the departure area.

“We are in a place in our society where xenophobia seems to win out,” said Rev. Graylan Hagler, senior minister at Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, after the protest. “The last time I checked, public prayer was still protected by the U.S. Constitution,” said Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, a Washington-based advocacy group.

Los Angeles Times, 28 November 2006

Meanwhile, US right-wingers have vociferously defended the decision to eject the imams from the plane. One typical contribution reads: “Anyone who’s made a habit of watching world events the past five years has had good reason to develop a healthy fear of Islam. When Islam makes the news, it’s usually because one of its adherents has blown himself up in a pizzeria, beheaded a newsman or crashed an airliner into a skyscraper.”

Hugh Hewitt at Townhall.com, 27 November 2006