Category Archives: Right wing

Women with nose-bags over their faces have no place on British streets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

allison pearson“Since Jack Straw ignited a national debate by saying constituents who wear the niqab, leaving only their eyes exposed, made him uncomfortable, Muslim women’s views have got extensive and respectful coverage. They claim Mr Straw has saddened and insulted them. But what about the way the veil makes the majority of British women feel?

“A fortysomething mother in a practical Boden skirt and short-sleeved top sitting on a train opposite a woman in the full veil can suddenly be made to feel as tarty and sexually provocative as a Page 3 girl. It’s not a nice sensation – to feel judged for wearing your own clothes in your own country.

“The truth is that females who cover their faces and bodies make us uneasy. The veil is often downright intimidating. It implies a submission that is upsetting when women here fought so hard to be free. No one I know objects to a Muslim headscarf. But as for all the other restrictive clothing, I just don’t like seeing them on British streets.

“Nor do I want to see another newspaper provide, as it did this week, a cut-out-and-keep fashion guide to the different types of veil: ‘And here we see Mumtaz, or rather we don’t see Mumtaz because the poor kid is wearing a nose-bag over her face, modelling the latest line in female-inhibiting shrouds from the House of Taliban’.”

Allison Pearson in the Daily Mail, 11 October 2006

There is more joy in heaven…

Posted on by Bob Pitt

After weeks of making harsh statements about Muslims and handing out controversial cartoon booklets that depict Muslims as terrorists, a South Florida minister said that he is softening his stand.

Rev. O’Neal Dozier had openly criticized Islam, saying that it “teaches evil and hatred.” Much of his commentary on Muslims came after the Pompano Beach City Council voted to allow the Islamic Center of South Florida to erect a larger mosque on undeveloped land on Northwest 16th Avenue in a predominantly black community. Dozier took to the streets to pass out booklet that he said would “educate the public concerning the Islamic fascism.”

Tuesday, Dozier apparently had a change of heart. He released the following statement: “After much soul searching and deliberation concerning my previous statements about radical Islam being ‘a dangerous and evil cult,’ I want to applaud and thank those peace-loving Muslims who share our American values of freedom, tolerance, and human rights.”

Click10.com, 10 October 2006

Right-wing think tank dismisses Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In his report, We’re (Nearly) All Victims Now, published by the Civitas think tank, David Green said: “The political-recognised victim status described by this list of isms and phobias has begun to do lasting harm to our liberal culture. Groups who have been politically recognised as victims are starting to use their power to silence people who have had the cheek to criticise them.”

Dr Green added: “Modern victim groups create entrenched social divisions by defining opponents as oppressors who not only must be defeated by the state, but silenced by the state.” He cited the term Islamophobia as a word intended to demonise opponents.

“The pseudo-psychiatric term Islamophobia is a statement that any criticism of Muslims is evidence of clinical pathology,” Dr Green said. “Yet the label is often attached to valid criticisms of particular Muslims whose behaviour has laid them open to legitimate censure.”

Evening Standard, 10 October 2006

Stop the kid glove treatment of Muslims, Jon Gaunt demands

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jon_Gaunt“New Labour has turned tolerant Britain into a powder keg of racial and religious mistrust through their misguided and ill-thought-out policy of multiculturalism.

“Multiculturalism is meant to celebrate difference but I don’t see much to celebrate in today’s Britain. What I actually see is clowns like Sir Ian Blair pussyfooting around the sensibilities of a minority while the rest of us have been silenced for fear of being called racist.

“Since the 7/7 bombings, this Government has bent over backwards to win support from the Muslim community. Thousands have been spent on Muslim roadshows, laws against forced marriage have been dropped and prominent so-called community leaders have been knighted and promoted.

“And what has been the result of all this eggshell-treading? An increased level of victimhood, demonstrations and outrage at the slightest criticism of the Muslim religion and culture. Well, enough is enough.

“Forget lifting veils, Labour should remove the kid gloves and treat Muslims the same as every other British citizen. And it’s not just me saying this. Even the Church of England, in a leaked report, is saying the Government has shown preference to Muslims and has contributed to the divisions in modern Britain.”

Jon Gaunt in The Sun, 10 October 2006

Christian evangelist Franklin Graham blasts Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Franklin_GrahamThe Rev. Franklin Graham, a Christian evangelist whose criticism of Islam has frequently outraged Muslims, said Islam teaches its followers to “persecute” others until they convert, with the aim being “total domination.”

In the wake of the 2001 attacks on the United States, Graham outraged Muslims when he said that Islam “is a very evil and wicked religion.” In an interview last March, he told ABC News’ “Nightline” that he had not changed his mind about the faith.

In his latest salvo, Graham told The News & Observer: “It’s the teaching of Islam that is not tolerant of any other faith.”

“It’s world domination. When they dominate an area, they’ll let other belief systems exist, but they’ll persecute them so that (people) convert to Islam and there’s total domination. Once you’re in Islam you can’t get out of it. If you leave Islam you have to be killed,” said Graham.

Associated Press, 9 October 2006

‘Muslims demand respect for the veil, but won’t tolerate Western values’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Leo McKinstry writes about the experience of undergoing a search at a London airport:

“I reflected on the irony that I was being forced into this tiresome and humiliating ritual because of the murderous actions of Islamic terrorists. Yet, at the same time, Muslim community leaders were fulminating at Jack Straw for daring to suggest, in the mildest terms, that women should remove their veils when visiting his Blackburn constituency surgery.

“There could not be a more glaring example of Muslim hypocrisy and over-sensitivity. Millions of airline passengers are now being subjected to the grossest inconvenience, delays and physical intrusion as a result of the global jihad being waged in the name of Allah.

“But instead of issuing an apology for this mayhem or standing up to their violent co-religionists, Muslim representatives continually bleat about their rights, endlessly parading their grievances, justifying terrorism and demanding special treatment.

“The crisis has exposed the deepening crisis over Muslims’ reluctance to integrate properly into our modern, democratic society…. Muslims constantly demand respect for all their attitudes, no matter how repulsive, barbaric, prejudiced or superstitious, but few show any willingness to embrace the tolerant values of Western democracy.”

Daily Express, 9 October 2006

Well, of course, if we ever need a demonstration of “the tolerant values of Western democracy”, Leo McKinstry will be our first port of call.

‘A growing number use the veil to provoke us’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The burka and the full veil go unremarked in their countries of origin. But in Britain they sharply define one section of society and deliberately exclude the rest. And what were once masks imposed by men are increasingly adopted by some women as a silent gesture towards the host nation…. Meanwhile young men are being recruited across the country at secret meetings addressed by charismatic preachers of hate…. We are well down the road towards a divided nation where some predict Palestine-style conflict between one section and another.

“Too gloomy? A world statesman alarmed by Hezbollah’s sophisticated missile attacks on Israel from Lebanon thinks not. ‘In ten years, we may see rockets like these being fired from the suburbs of Paris’, he told me. And in London? In this context, the growing tendency to adopt the veil ceases to be a fuss about nothing. Islamic extremism thrives on grievances.

“For some women the veil is a genuine expression of faith. For most, it is a form of passive aggression. It is provocative. So, when someone stupidly – but predictably – reacts by ripping off a woman’s veil, a useful grievance is up and running. By the time anyone tries to restore order, that grievance is halfway round the Muslim world, with plenty more where it came from. And it feeds the case for those preaching jihad.”

Trevor Kavanagh in The Sun, 9 October 2006

Government gives ‘preferential treatment’ to Muslims, Church report claims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Church of England has launched an astonishing attack on the Government’s drive to turn Britain into a multi-faith society.

It claims that divisions between communities have been deepened by the Government’s “schizophrenic” approach to tackling multiculturalism. While trying to encourage interfaith relations, it has actually given “privileged attention” to the Islamic faith and Muslim communities.

Written by Guy Wilkinson, the interfaith adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, the paper says that the Church of England has been sidelined. Instead, “preferential” treatment has been afforded to the Muslim community despite the fact that it makes up only three per cent of the population. Britain remains overwhelmingly a Christian country at heart and moves to label it as a multi-faith society suggest a hidden agenda, it says.

The report lists a number of moves made by the Government since the London bombings in July last year to win favour with Muslim communities. These include “using public funds” to fly Muslim scholars to Britain, shelving legislation on forced marriage and encouraging financial arrangements to comply with Islamic requirements. These efforts have undermined its interfaith agenda and produced no “noticeable positive impact on community cohesion”, the Church document says.

“Indeed, one might argue that disaffection and separation is now greater than ever, with Muslim communities withdrawing further into a sense of victimhood, and other faith communities seriously concerned that the Government has given signals that appear to encourage the notion of a privileged relationship with sections of the Muslim community.”

Sunday Telegraph, 8 October 2006

Mad Mel enthusiastically welcomes the news: “This is a seismic reversal, in a Church that for decades has been on its inter-faith knees before multiculturalism and abandoned the defence of Britain’s Christian identity.”

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 8 October 2006

David Davis renews attack on multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

David DavisA month after the 7/7 bomb attacks in London last year, David Davis, the shadow home secretary, wrote in The Daily Telegraph that multiculturalism had failed Britain, called for Muslims to unite behind “common values of nationhood” and said the Government “should not flinch from demanding tolerance and respect for the British way of life”.

Last night, Mr Davis returned to the subject, more convinced than ever that urgent action was needed to slam the multiculturalism juggernaut into reverse. Multiculturalism had encouraged a divided society and led to a “splintering of loyalties which is a threat to modern society”, he said. “Britain has closed societies within an open society, and the situation has been made worse by the Government’s policy of neglect. For too long there has been a habit of tiptoeing around issues, particularly with respect to Muslim communities. This has led to the sort of problems that have fostered terrorism in our own country.”

Sunday Telegraph, 8 October 2006

More anti-Muslim propaganda from the Express

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims pledge to ruin StrawAnother characteristically stupid and provocative headline from the Sunday Express. The accompanying article asserts that “an unholy alliance of Muslims and far-Right extremists was last night threatening Jack Straw’s future as an MP”. Needless to say, no such alliance exists and the Express offers no evidence that it does.

The Blackburn Muslims interviewed are divided over expressing regret at Straw’s comments, asking for a discussion with him, calling for an apology and demanding his resignation. Only two of those interviewed adopt the latter position.

As for the BNP, it aims to take advantage of the anti-Muslim sentiments provoked by Straw’s comments by standing against him in the next general election. The fascists’ spokesman Phil Edwards is quoted as saying that Straw has played a “subtle” version of the race card in order to boost his standing with white voters. (The BNP, of course, will do the same thing but dispense with the subtlety.) Edwards adds: “We have been saying this about Muslim dress for some time. It’s all part of the problems of a multi-cultural Britain that he and the Labour Party helped to create.”

The article also quotes Tory defence minister Gerald Howarth as saying that parliament may be forced to change the law to ban the veil. “I don’t think we need to legislate today but the time may come – if this fashion grows – where we need to. It’s time we stood up for our Christian heritage.”

Sunday Express, 8 October 2006