Category Archives: Right wing

Witch-hunt launched against Mohammad Khatami

Posted on by Bob Pitt

KhatamiSince Gemma Tumelty took over as president of the National Union of Students earlier this year the NUS has taken a sharp turn to the right. We’ve already witnessed the NUS executive voting down a motion that called for an immediate ceasefire during Israel’s war against Lebanon and censuring George Galloway for backing Hizbollah in its resistance to Israeli aggression. (The NUS executive evidently had no problem with anyone supporting Israeli state terrorism against the Lebanese civilian population.)

If further proof were needed of the mistake made by FOSIS in blocking Pav Akhtar’s election as president, we now have leading figures in the NUS calling for public protests against St Andrews University’s decision to award an honorary degree to former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami duting his visit to the UK later this month.

The first NUS executive member to be quoted in a Sunday Times article witch-hunting Khatami (“Fury as St Andrews honours Hezbollah backer“) is, significantly, Sophie Buckland – a supporter of the rabidly Islamophobic pseudo-left sect the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty.

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Ban The Veil

Posted on by Eddie Truman

expressveilJack Straw’s playing of the racist Islamophobia card in pursuit of his career ambitions has resulted in a renewed deluge of anti Muslim poison.

The Daily Express is happy to further up the tension with a front page clearly calculated to incite hatred.

“Concerned Britons gave massive backing last night to calls for Muslim women to ditch the veil. An astonishing 97 per cent of Daily Express readers agreed that a ban would help to safeguard racial harmony. Our exclusive poll came a day after Leader of the Commons Jack Straw spoke out against the veils.”

Already the BBC has reported an attack on a Muslim woman because of the remarks of the Leader of the House of Commons. We shudder to think what the effect of the Daily Express front page will be on the racist morons just waiting to be incited by this.

‘Whatever happened to free speech in Britain?’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“With the ink hardly dry on his words, Jack Straw is plunged into a maelstrom of denunciation for daring to suggest that Muslim women should discard the veil. Many of his constituents in Blackburn are vociferous in their dismay.

“The Lancashire Council of Mosques says he is ‘very insensitive and unwise’. The Islamic Human Rights Commission accuses him of ‘selectively discriminating’. The Muslim Public Affairs Committee attacks his ‘headline-grabbing’….

“But if this is the reaction to a calm and measured critique of Islamic culture – and one that is intended to open up a dialogue – what hope can there be of mature debate between the communities? Whatever happened to free speech Britain?

“Sadly, the pass was sold long ago. For years, this Government has actively promoted multiculturalism, encouraged Muslim ‘ghettoes’ and set its face against greater integration. Anyone who dared to question this new apartheid was routinely denounced as a ‘racist’.

“Britishness? Who cares? For New Labour – yes, including Mr Straw – it became an article of faith for the ethnic minorities to celebrate their own languages, culture and traditions, at the expense of shared values. There could hardly be a more effective recipe for division.

“Is it really surprising that some Muslims are now pressing for Sharia law in their own communities? Or if they see Mr Straw’s views on the veil as a juddering reversal of all that has gone before?”

Daily Mail, 7 October 2006

‘Isolation is no longer an option for British Muslims’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Riots Over Mosque“The violence in the quintessentially English town of Windsor is a shocking example of what crude multiculturalism can lead to – neighbouring communities with seething resentments towards each other and nothing in common.

“The great omission of the first wave of mass immigration from Asia was the failure of Britain’s political class to tell new arrivals what was expected of them in terms of integrating and accepting British values. Time and again the supine British establishment chose to look the other way or howl down objectors as racist whenever Islamic practices clashed with our culture….

“This discredited approach is, shockingly, still predominant within the British establishment. Hence a Muslim police officer is excused shifts protecting the Israeli embassy, while Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly has made a risible call for broadcasters to hire more Muslim women wearing the hijab to present television progammes.

“Things are beginning to change. Jack Straw is to be commended for asking Muslim women to discard their veils…. British Muslims must face up to their changed circumstances in the wake of last year’s London bombings. Insulating themselves against mainstream society must no longer be an option.”

Editorial in the Daily Express, 6 October 2006

‘I defend my right as a Muslim to wear a veil’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ruqayyah Ghani, 23, a British-born Muslim from Manchester, reacted strongly to Mr Straw’s comments last night and defended her right to wear a veil. Miss Ghani was brought up in an Islamic environment but did not start to immerse herself in her religion until she was 18. At that stage she started to wear the hijab (head scarf) and two years later began covering her face in public.

“According to Islam, a woman should cover herself up in front of any men apart from those she cannot legally marry. That is why I wear the niqab (face veil). I have not been forced to wear it by my family, in fact I am the only one in my family who chooses to wear one. They were as surprised as some outside the family when I decided to start covering my face. But they accept it. People see it as a symbol of repression, but that, along with the stereotype of the Muslim woman covered from head to toe needs to be done away with.”

Miss Ghani rejected Mr Straw’s comments that the face veil hindered community relations. “I have successfully studied and have a job in the health service, it has not held me back. It can become a hindrance if you want to make it an issue but if you put it aside and deal with people on a personal level, it is not a problem.”

Daily Telegraph, 6 October 2006

Not that this line of argument finds favour with the Torygraph’s leader writers. An editorial in the same issue, headed “Straw leads where the Met fears to follow“, opines: “Integration is not aided by the wearing of veils, just as it is not aided by the failure of immigrants to learn English. It is another example of the damage done by multiculturalism to the cause of real integration. Mr Straw is to be commended for brushing aside the politically correct nostrums that have inhibited such discussion among senior politicians.”

The editorial continues: “What a contrast to the supine behaviour of the Metropolitan Police when Pc Alexander Omar Basha sought to be excused duty outside the Israeli embassy – and was allowed to do so…. Once again, ultra-sensitivity to Muslim sensibilities appears to be warping the judgment of senior officers and could jeopardise the cohesion of the force.”

Mad Mel and the BNP on the clash of civilisations

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Taking up the report in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph, Melanie Phillips announces that “France is currently under violent siege from the jihad – and buckling under the onslaught”. This supposedly demolishes the claim that last year’s French riots were “about poverty and unemployment and other such sub-Marxist claptap” – they were “actually all about French Muslims declaring their turf to be no-go areas for the French state”.

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 6 October 2006

Mel’s co-thinkers in the British National Party concur: “The 21st century clash of civilisations is leading to bloodshed on the streets of Paris … with police officers being daily injured in rioting by Islamics.” The fascists predict: “The security authorities across western Europe have so far only had a mere glimpse of what horrors the next decade will deliver to their respective nation states. The sheer stupidity and criminality of the political leaders who have allowed an army of Islamic fifth columnists into our host nations will be repaid by chaos, death and destruction but it will be the ordinary voters who suffer; not those responsible for bringing about the apocalyptic end of Europe.”

BNP news article, 5 October 2006

Islamophobia, panic and public media

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Panic. That’s the operating system of the war on terror. Panic is produced and mobilized. The current outbreak of Islamophobia has distinct visual markers in the commercial mass media, visually shaping panic.”

Patricia R. Zimmermann analyses the visual presentation of the Pope Benedict controversy on US television, and the role of alternative media in countering the CNN and Fox News picture of the Muslim world.

MediaChannel, 4 October 2006

BNP accused of exploiting cartoons row with Muslim leaflet

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The far-right British National party was yesterday accused of deliberately ramping up racial and religious tensions by launching a leafleting campaign with anti-Muslim messages, including controversial cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. The depiction of the prophet with a bomb as a turban was one of several images that sparked protests across the world earlier this year. The BNP’s move was criticised as a blatant attempt to reignite the controversy. Azad Ali, of the Muslim Safety Forum, said: “This is a deliberate ploy to create huge tensions … and it is adding to the isolation, fear and frustration felt by many people in the Muslim communities.”

The BNP said the leaflet was part of a “coherent campaign to alert people to the Islamification of Great Britain”. It has produced another leaflet on immigration and a second on Islam, which describes the faith as “a threat to us all”. The leaflet was handed out in Sutton in south-west London. Politicians and community leaders said the BNP was trying to exploit a debate about plans to build a mosque in the area.

Guardian, 5 October 2006

But the BNP has its supporters. Over at the Western Resistance site, Giraldus Cambrensis writes:

“I am slightly ambivalent about the British National Party, on account of its racist past. Nowadays, under the leadership of Nick Griffin, a skilled politician, the racist agenda has become replaced by an agenda which is highly focused against Islam. With this aspect of its policies, I am in agreement. Islam poses a more serious threat to every aspect of British democracy than anything previously encountered. Under Labour, Britain has allowed wave after wave of unconstrained immigration into Britain. In most cities, as I wrote earlier, indigenous populations are marginalized in favor of those who claim ‘minority status’.”

Back in January this year, when we noted the support given by Western Resistance to Peter Tatchell, we were indignantly denounced by Mr Cambrensis for suggesting that Western Resistance is a right-wing racist operation. We rest our case.