Category Archives: Right wing

Oriana Fallaci dead, Robert Spencer inconsolable

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Oriana FallaciThe woman who wrote that “Muslims have been told to come here and breed like rats” has died. Robert Spencer is heartbroken:

“Many times in her last months, after she did me the honor of calling me her friend, I thought to myself, What can I do for Oriana? Of course, the only answer was to do exactly what I am doing here at this site, and in my books, and in traveling around the country speaking, trying to alert people to the reality and magnitude of the global jihad.

“I invite you, then, on this day of sadness and loss, to pay tribute to Oriana. There is no way we can make up for what we have lost in her. But the best way we can pay tribute to Oriana is by becoming Oriana. Let there be a hundred new Orianas today, a thousand new passionate and articulate and absolutely unbowed defenders of Western culture and civilization, with a fine contempt for all the many weapons of physical and psychological intimidation that the jihadists and their non-Muslim allies and tools in the Western media and government establishments use to try to silence and discredit us.

“Buy her books. Give them to your friends and coworkers. Explain to them why she said … that ‘Europe becomes more and more a province of Islam, a colony of Islam’. Explain to them why that matters for so much that they hold dear. Enlist them also in the anti-jihad resistance.

“And when we prevail, we will be able to memorialize her fittingly, as a light that shone in our darkest days. May her memory be eternal.”

Jihad Watch, 15 September 2005

Chin up, Robert. As readers of our site can confirm, there is is no shortage of racist bigots ready and willing to replace dear departed Oriana.

Don’t pick on the poor pontiff

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Poor old Pope Benedict XVI (not a description I thought I’d ever use) seems to have inflamed some excitable sections of Muslim opinion around the world with his ruminations to scientists at Regensburg University during his trip to Germany this week.

“He’s not the first elderly academic inadvertently to stir up outrage with what he thought were innocent remarks and, in the modern digital age, he certainly won’t be the last, but on this occasion at least I think he’s innocent of the charges of stirring up hatred against Islam being made against him.

“It is difficult to believe that those making the claims, who include the Muslim Brotherhood, the Pakistan parliament, Sheikh Youssef al-Qardawi (a fine one to feel insulted, given what he says about Jews), the Organisation of Islamic Conferences and a senior religious official in Turkey, can possibly have read the remarks in full or in their proper context.”

The Guardian religious affairs correspondent, Stephen Bates, rallies to the defence of il papa.

Comment is Free, 15 September 2006

So does Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, who blames the fuss on whingeing Muslims and implies that they would be better occupied putting their own house in order.

Carey said: “The Pope is a distinguished scholar and one unlikely to say offensive things. If he quoted something said 600 years ago we should not assume that this represents the Pope’s beliefs about Islam today. But Muslims as well as Christians must learn to enter into dialogue without crying foul. We live in perilous times and we must not only separate religion from violence but also not give religious legitimacy to violence in any shape or form.”

Scotsman, 15 September 2006

Muslims must do more to integrate, says Archbishop

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Archbishop of York yesterday urged Muslims to do more to integrate into British society. Dr John Sentamu said Muslims should follow Christian teaching to ‘love thy neighbour’.

The advice came in a lecture in which Dr Sentamu condemned Islamic terrorists as murderers who pervert their faith. But he said that like others who speak out on the subject, he risked being accused of Islamophobia.

Daily Mail, 14 September 2006 

More lies about Qaradawi

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Qaradawi and MayorJonathan Freedland spares a moment from attacking the Mayor of London over his relations with Hugo Chávez to take a swipe at Yusuf al-Qaradawi:

“It’s only on foreign policy that the Mayor gets the chance to strike some of the old, Leftist poses. I am sure that the folk at City Hall are sincere in their admiration for Chavez’s social reforms – but they also love that el presidente styles himself as George W Bush’s great Latin nemesis. Standing next to him gives the Livingstone circle a rush of ideological blood.

“The less forgivable example is the relationship with Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Egyptian cleric still hailed by Livingstone as the voice of moderate Islam – yet who recently added to his earlier positions condoning wife-beating and the stoning of homosexuals with a declaration that today’s Jews bear responsibility for the death of Jesus.

“The Mayor likes al-Qaradawi’s tough line on Israel – the sheikh supports suicide bombings against Israeli civilians – so he ends up hugging a man who bends Islamic theology to take on the vilest tropes of Christian anti-Semitism.”

Evening Standard, 14 September 2006

Except that Qaradawi supports neither wife-beating, nor the stoning of homosexuals nor suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. And the story about Jews bearing responsibility for the death of Jesus originates with the Middle East Media Research Institute – an organisation headed by a former colonel in Israeli military intelligence which has a long history of misrepresenting Qaradawi’s views by publishing carefully selected extracts from his speeches and interviews. By these means MEMRI has been able to “prove”, for example, that Qaradawi believed the victims of the tsunami deserved to die and that he argued it was a duty for Muslims to become suicide bombers in Iraq.

You can see why a right-wing rag like the Evening Standard hires a supposedly liberal journalist like Freedland to write for them. His standards of journalistic integrity fit right in with theirs.

US senator rejects Bush’s ‘Islamic fascists’ slur

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold called on President Bush to refrain from using the phrase “Islamic fascists,” saying it was offensive to Muslims and has nothing to do with terrorists fighting the United States.”We must avoid using misleading and offensive terms that link Islam with those who subvert this great religion or who distort its teachings to justify terrorist activities,” Feingold said Tuesday in a speech to the Arab American Institute on Capitol Hill.

The Wisconsin senator, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, said the label “Islamic fascists” makes no sense and doesn’t help the U.S. effort to combat terrorism. “Fascist ideology doesn’t have anything to do with the way global terrorist networks think or operate, and it doesn’t have anything to do with the overwhelming majority of Muslims around the world who practice the peaceful teachings of Islam,” Feingold said.

Associated Press, 12 September 2006

Stand by for a denunciation at Dhimmi Watch.

Church sign stirs anger in Florida

Posted on by Bob Pitt

muslims can convert“Muslims can convert to Christianity here!” read the sign Monday in front of the Congregational Church on Laurel Road. It was an invitation that the church’s pastor, K.C. McCay, admitted he didn’t expect anyone to accept. But coming on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it was bound to stir a response. And it did.

“If church leaders are really interested in saving people, they would find much less offensive ways to do it,” said Ahmed Bedier, director of the Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “Religious leaders are adding fuel to the fire. It’s a shame.”

The church, which was founded by McCay’s father in 1977, has between 50 and 100 members, depending on the time of year. It is a conservative church that views Christianity as the only path to God. “We will not vary from that,” McCay said. “If Muslims want us to water it down, that might be all right for you, but we’re not biting.”

HeraldTribune.com, 12 September 2006

Pope pontificates on Islam and jihad

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict stepped into the controversy over Islam and violence Tuesday, citing historic Christian commentary on holy war and forced conversion.

The German Roman Catholic Pope quoted from a book recounting a conversation between a 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and an educated Persian on the truths of Christianity and Islam.

“The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war,” the Pope said. “He said, I quote, ‘Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached’.”

Toronto Star, 12 September 2006

Pope Benedict XVI weighed on the delicate issue of rapport between Islam and the West. He said that violence, embodied in the Muslim idea of jihad, or holy war, is contrary to reason and God’s plan, while the West was so beholden to reason that Islam could not understand it. In a major lecture at Regensburg University in Germany, where he taught theology from1969 to 1977, he said Christianity was tightly linked to reason and contrasted this view with those who believe in spreading their faith by the sword.

Several Vatican watchers believe the Pope’s speech seemed to reflect the struggle of Vatican over how to confront Islam and terrorism. The 79-year-old Pope pursues what is often considered a more provocative, hard-nosed and skeptical approach to Islam than his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. In his speech, the Pope used language open to interpretations that could inflame Muslims, at a time of high tension among religions and three months before he makes a trip to Turkey.

TimesNow.tv, 13 September 2006

See also Islam Online, 13 September 2006

Robert Spencer applauds this example of “anti-dhimmitude from Pope Benedict XVI”.

Dhimmi Watch, 13 September 2006

Protestors hang Bin Laden effigy outside US mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bin Laden effigy hangedActivists hanged an effigy of Osama Bin Laden across the street from a Southern California mosque Sunday to protest radical Islam on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

With a crowd of about 100 people shouting “Remember 9-11!” and “No more Jihad!” two men on the back of a pickup truck slipped a noose around the neck of a dummy wearing a Bin Laden mask and strung it up, while the crowd pelted the effigy with shoes.

The protest was organized by the United American Committee, a group that says it promotes awareness of internal threats facing America.

About 70 counter-protesters described the King Fahd Mosque as a peaceful center for area Muslims and yelled “racists go home!” during the ritual. A group of clergy joined hands with some of the mosque’s worshippers and stood in a circle in front of the mosque.

“I think it’s crazy,” said mosque spokesman Usman Madha. “We have never encouraged extremism. We were the first mosque that condemned the Sept.11 atrocities and we kicked out a few people that protested that condemnation.”

In 2003, Jewish Defense League activist Earl Krugel pleaded guilty to conspiring to bomb the mosque along with the office of San Diego congressman Darrell Issa.

Associated Press, 10 September 2006

Robert Spencer can’t understand why supporters of the mosque should object: “… why is it that when the United American Committee hanged Osama in effigy, the members of the King Fahd mosque didn’t eagerly join in, happy for the chance to show that they’re patriotic Americans who are outraged at what bin Laden and his ilk have done to their faith? Why instead did they mount counter-protests crying racism?”

Jihad Watch, 11 September 2006

For photos of the protest and counter-protest, see LA Indymedia, 10 September 2006

Culver City anti-racists

‘Me? An Islamophobic bigot?’ Richard Littlejohn is offended

Posted on by Bob Pitt

richard liittlejohnA characteristically thoughtful and informed comment from Richard Littlejohn in today’s Daily Mail:

“With exemplary tact and exquisite timing, the ‘leader’ of Britain’s Muslims chose the eve of the fifth anniversary of 9/11 to warn that we are facing the threat of two million home-grown Islamic terrorists. The preposterous, self-aggrandising ‘secretary-general’ of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), Muhammad Abdul Bari, predicted an angry backlash against what he perceives as widespread ‘Islamophobia’ in this country.

“To be honest, I did wonder whether it was worth even dignifying this garbage with a reaction, especially when it comes from a man who appears to wear a ginger wig with a grey beard. But someone’s got to do it.

“Bari and his sidekicks are regularly wheeled out as the authentic voice of ‘moderate’ Islam. Their victimhood shtick is treated as gospel by broadcasters and they are taken seriously by government ministers and senior police officers. They never miss an opportunity to advance their own agenda. It always the same old song. They utterly condemn terrorism, you understand, but unless we give them exactly what they want, they can’t be held responsible for the actions of the more excitable members of their community.

“Criticise them and you are damned as an ‘Islamophobe’. When I described the MCB as a ‘self-appointed bunch of chancers’ a few weeks ago, Bari’s ridiculous Mr Bean-lookalike press officer Inayat Bunglawala wrote accusing me of being a bigot.”

Now, where could Inayat possibly have got that idea from? As for the “self-appointed” accusation, the MCB has over 400 affiliates and the leadership is of course elected every two years. And the “threat of two million home-grown Islamic terrorists” bit is just based on a misunderstanding of what Dr Bari said. As I understood his remarks, he was saying that there was a risk of treating Britain’s entire Muslim community as though they were terrorists (see here). Not that two million Muslims were about to turn themselves into suicide bombers.

Californians asked to repudiate mayor’s anti-Muslim remarks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Sacramento Valley chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SV) has called on Californians to repudiate remarks insulting to Muslims made by a mayor in the northern part of that state.

CAIR-SV said that Redding, Calif., Mayor Ken Murray claimed Shia Muslims “believe it’s acceptable to lie, cheat, steal and kill as long as it ultimately glorifies Allah.”

“Folks, they’re not like us,” said Murray.

When asked about his offensive remarks, Murray drew a distinction between “mainstream” and Shia Muslims, who he called “wing nuts.”

“Either the Judeo-Christian philosophy will survive or the Islamic philosophy will survive,” said Murray.

“The unthinking bigotry and ignorance of such remarks are unworthy of an American public official and should be repudiated by all those who seek tolerance and mutual understanding,” said CAIR-SV Executive Director Basim Elkarra.

CAIR news release, 11 September 2006