“The problem lies in a refusal to acknowledge that Islamist extremism is rooted in religion. Instead, ministers and security officials prefer to think of it as a protest movement against grievances such as Iraq or Palestine, or ‘Islamophobia’. They simply ignore the statements and signs which show unequivocally that the aim is to Islamicize the west.”
Melanie Phillips rants on, this time in the New York Post, 4 June 2006
Another plug for Bruce Bawer’s hysterical Islamophobic rant, While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West From Within, this one by Andre Zantonavitch:
“While Europe Slept argues that while Europe is currently only about ten percent Islamic – vs. two percent for America – if present trends continue it will only take a generation or two for Muslims to become the majority. The once-noble Continent will become what Bat Ye’or in 2005 called ‘Eurabia’. The shocking claim by Gary [sic] Bawer is that well before 2050, most of Europe is likely to become an outpost of Islamdom governed by Sharia.
“The second theme is that Europe today is a hellhole of leftist multiculturalism, far worse than anything in America, and even far worse than almost anyone in America suspects. American expatriate Bawer – who has lived the past ten years in various European countries, mostly Holland and Norway – is almost uniformly horrified by every country he resides in or visits. According to him, political correctness and multiculturalism are ‘a habit of thought that in America is an annoyance but in Europe is a veritable religion’.
“Bawer excoriates his European friends for their propensity to display phony ‘respect’ and ‘understanding’ of the various foreigners in their midst, especially Muslims.”
Remember Cardinal George Pell, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, who was recently condemned for arguing that Islam is an inherently violent religion that poses a threat to Western democracies? Well, he’s at it again, telling an interviewer that “Islam is a much more war-like culture than Christianity”. Well, who could disagree? We can only be thankful that the West is governed by peace-loving Christians like George Bush and Tony Blair.
The western state of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany’s most populous, has banned teachers in public schools from wearing hijab.
The state’s regional parliament, where the conservative Christian Democrats hold a majority, adopted a law banning hijab on Wednesday, May 31. The law was voted against by the Greens and the Social Democrats. North-Rhine Westphalia became the eighth of Germany’s 16 federal states to ban hijab in public schools.
The Muslim minority blasted the hijab school ban as unconstitutional. The Central Council of Muslims in Germany said the new law does not treat all religions as equal, banning only the hijab and not the Christian cross or other religious symbols.
The constitutional court, Germany’s highest tribunal, ruled in July 2003 against a decision by the Baden-Wuerttemberg state to forbid a Muslim teacher from wearing hijab in the classroom. But it said Germany’s 16 states could issue new legislations to ban the Muslim headscarf if they believe it would influence children.
A number of states, including Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, still allow hijab at schools. Others, including Baden-Wurttemberg, Saarland and Lower Saxony, ban teaching staff in state schools from wearing symbols that express religious, political, or ideological affiliation, including hijab.
“Perhaps the greatest idea of the Leftist parties after the Cold War was to re-invent themselves as Multicultural immigration parties and start importing voters from abroad. In addition to this, they have managed to denounce the opposition as racists, bigots and extremists. A new alliance of convenience between Leftists and Muslim immigrants is taking shape in Europe. I think the deal is that the Leftist parties get a number of new clients, I mean voters, in return for giving Muslims privileges and subsidies, as well as keeping the borders more or less open for new Muslims to enter.”
Fjordman at Dhimmi Watch, 30 May 2006
“Europe and Islam are traveling a path that can only end in an unparalleled clash of civilizations…. Bible prophecy assures us that this trend will only intensify in the coming months and years.”
The Philadelphia Church of God offers its take on the recent study of rising anti-Muslim sentiment in Germany.
One of the recurring themes of Islamophobia is the idea that there is no such thing as a moderate Muslim or that there are as many and varied strands of thinking amongst Muslims as there is with the rest of humanity. The mere fact of being a Muslim is enough to make you a supporter of suicide bombings, an anti-semite, a threat to “Western Civilisation” and of course a potential terrorist.
When the racists and Islamophobes come across Muslims who are not sword wielding Mad Mullahs out to establish a world caliphate their reaction is not to temper and refine their own views but instead to attack, smear, denigrate and falsify in order to portray their target as being a reflection of their own caricature of Muslims.
We have seen this repeatedly in the past 2 years in relation to Yusuf al-Qaradawi and even Tariq Ramadan.
Inayat Bunglawala is Media Secretary for the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and is an extremely eloquent and intelligent spokesman for that organisation.
An intelligent and articulate Muslim? Now there’s a thing to get the Islamophobes ranting and foaming at the mouth.
Inayat is now 36 years old and the best that the right wing press can offer as proof of his extremism is an article he wrote for a Muslim youth magazine 14 years ago in 1992 when he was 22 years old. I don’t know about anybody else but I held some views when I was 22 that I’d wish to refine somewhat in the cold light of 14 years more experience of the world.
The fact that Inayat contributes to the Guardian’s ‘Comment is Free’ website clearly infuriates the racists and Islamophobes and an absurd attempt to smear Inayat developed in the comments section of hislatest posting.
Regular readers of Islamophobia Watch will be aware of the vile “little green footballs” blog and it was through this site that an absurd allegation regarding a death threat Inayat is supposed to have made to that site was published.
Apparently the threat came from someone with a Reuters account and because Inayat works in the media, ipso facto it was him. Absolute hysterical nonsense of course but ludicrous claims and smear attempts are par for the course for the Islamophobes, as they have once again proved.
Melanie Phillips claims that after the Satanic Verses controversy “the promotion of Islam in Britain became fused with an agenda of murder”.
You might wonder why a liberal newspaper gives space to a hard-right journalist like Phillips to promote her vile opinions about Muslims. But Phillips’ views are not that far removed from those expressed on a weekly basis by Observer columnist Nick Cohen, and the paper has given prominence to Martin Bright’s campaign to depict maintream Muslim organisations in Britain as supporters of violent extremism. As we never cease to point out on this site, when it comes to Islamophobia the differences between liberals and the racist right have become increasingly blurred.
Canada Paper Sorry About Erroneous Story on Iranian Jews and Christians
Associated Press, 26 May 2006
A Canadian newspaper apologized Wednesday for publishing an erroneous story last week claiming that an Iranian law would require Jews and Christians to wear badges identifying them as religious minorities.
The National Post article Friday caused an international uproar. Tehran on Wednesday summoned Canada’s ambassador to its foreign ministry.
Iran’s conservative parliament last week began debating a draft law that would discourage women from wearing Western clothing and encourage citizens to wear Islamic-style garments.
The Post erroneously said the bill included provisions requiring Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims to wear a patch of colored cloth on the front of their garments.
That incorrect description appeared to many as a chilling throwback to Nazi Germany when Jews were forced to wear the yellow star of David.
The United States, which is locked in a standoff with Iran over its nuclear program, criticized the bill. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, a Jewish human rights group, had sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan asking him to investigate, according to the National Post.
Iranian officials labeled the newspaper account a lie and a copy of the bill, obtained by The Associated Press in Tehran on Saturday, made no mention of requiring special attire for religious minorities.
“Ramadan’s program of ijtihad is not a call for modernizing Islam, but rather, a battle plan for his Muslim audience in the West to follow to Islamize the West. All evidence indicates that Tariq Ramadan’s battle plan is succeeding.”
So Patrick Poole claims at Front Page Magazine, 25 May 2006