Category Archives: Right wing

‘Oriana Fallaci has enrolled in the Society of Jesus’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“… the Islamization of the West is neither a phantasm nor merely something feared: it is an intention and a fact that emerges from an objective examination of the evidence. Moderate Islam, properly so called, does not exist because there is no institutional and moderate form of Islamic theology. There are moderate Muslims, and some of them see things with a clear and long-term perspective. But Islam itself, or rather the institutional religious culture of the Muslims, has reacted in its encounter with modernity by entrenching itself in fundamentalist positions….

“There is, therefore, an objective convergence between the trend in Islamic theology and the ideology of the terrorists…. This is why it would not only be prudent, as cardinal Giacomo Biffi has suggested, to discourage Islamic immigration in Europe, it would be masochistic to encourage it without demanding reciprocation in terms of integration. Islam is not compatible with liberal democracies…. Unfortunately, open and liberal society becomes paralyzed when it encounters a closed and incompatible civilization…. in Islam, there is no foundation for tolerance in the broad sense that characterizes our secular societies.”

Two Jesuits assess Islam in a recent issue of the Italian Catholic journal Studium. Sandro Magister suggests that this is part of a shift (see for example here) towards a more aggressive approach to Islam on the part of the Vatican under Pope Benedict XVI.

Chiesa, 10 April 2006

Robert Spencer applauds this indication of “anti-dhimmitude and clear-eyed realism at the Vatican”.

Dhimmi Watch, 12 April 2006

EU lexicon to shun term ‘Islamic terrorism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The European Union, tiptoeing through a minefield of religious and cultural sensitivities, is discreetly reviewing the language it uses to describe terrorists who claim to act in the name of Islam.

EU officials are working on what they call a “lexicon” for public communication on terrorism and Islam, designed to make clear that there is nothing in the religion to justify outrages like the September 11 attacks or the bombings of Madrid and London. The lexicon would set down guidelines for EU officials and politicians.

“Certainly ‘Islamic terrorism’ is something we will not use … we talk about ‘terrorists who abusively invoke Islam’,” an EU official told Reuters. Other terms being considered by the review include “Islamist”, “fundamentalist” and “jihad”.

The latter, for example, is often used by al Qaeda and some other groups to mean warfare against infidels, but for most Muslims indicates a spiritual struggle. “Jihad means something for you and me, it means something else for a Muslim. Jihad is a perfectly positive concept of trying to fight evil within yourself,” said the official, speaking anonymously because the review is an internal one that is not expected to be made public.

EU counter-terrorism chief Gijs de Vries told Reuters that terrorism was not inherent to any religion, and praised moderate Muslims for opposing attempts to hijack Islam.

“They have been increasingly active in isolating the radicals who abuse Islam for political purposes, and they deserve everyone’s support. And that includes the choice of language that makes clear that we are talking about a murderous fringe that is abusing a religion and does not represent it.”

Reuters, 11 April 2006

This is the sort of thing that reduces Robert Spencer to apoplexy.

Update:  Yes, predictably, Spencer is not pleased, particularly with the stuff about the concept of jihad encompassing spiritual struggle when, as he never ceases to tell us, “the word in the Qur’an is clear, and it means warfare”.

Dhimmi Watch, 11 April 2006

Giraldus Cambrensis also takes exception to the EU position on jihad: “I should here remind readers that the title of Hitler’s book Mein Kampf also meant ‘my struggle’.”

Western Resistance, 11 April 2006

Christian Democrat leader, Wilders reject charge of ‘Islam bashing’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

geert wilders (1)AMSTERDAM — Maxime Verhagen, the parliamentary party leader of the Christian Democrat Party (CDA), and MP Geert Wilders have angrily rejected a claim they are guilty of rabble-rousing in the debate over Islam and Sharia Law.

The accusation has been levelled against them by researcher Jan Schoonenboom of the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR). Schoonenboom has spoken out against Verhagen’s call to ban any political parties that advocate Sharia in the Netherlands.

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A testing time for immigrants

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A new entrance test for would-be immigrants to the Netherlands has been condemned by some as Islamophobic and detrimental to the country’s economy. The “civic integration” test, part of a broader government policy shift on immigration, came into effect in February.

It includes the compulsory viewing of a film which includes scenes of gay men kissing and topless women. Critics say the film, which forms part of a study pack for would-be immigrants, is designed to discourage applicants from Muslim countries who may be offended by its content.

Arzu Merali, spokeswoman for the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission, says the test indicates that Muslims are not welcome. People seeking entrance from other EU countries, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan do not have to take it.

“Sadly the Dutch authorities are now openly exhibiting the type of Islamophobia that sends a very clear message to wider society,” Merali said. She said the message is that new Muslim immigrants are unwelcome, as are those already present who do not conform to a uniform idea of a Dutch citizen.

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Europe and the coming (Islamic) apocalypse

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The only question about Europe is whether it’s going to be (a) catastrophically bad or (b) apocalyptically bad, as in head for the hills, here come the Four Horsemen: Death (the self-extinction of European races too self-absorbed to breed), Famine (the withering of unaffordable social programs), War (civil strife as the disaffected decide to move beyond mere Citroën-torching), and Conquest (the inevitable victory of the Muslim successor population already in place). I’d say option (b) looks the better bet….”

Mark Steyn (again) on how Europe is about to succumb to the Muslim hordes.

Macleans, 5 April 2006

Islamophobic? Not us, says UKIP MEP

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nigel FarageUK Independence Party MEP Nigel Farage has threatened to sue over Tory leader David Cameron’s claim that UKIP contains “closet racists”. According to the Guardian, Farage cited the recent expulsion of four Italian Northern League MEPs from UKIP’s grouping in the European parliament after one of the League’s leaders wore a t-shirt printed with cartoons satirising the prophet Muhammad. Farage said: ‘We thought the Italian Northern League were OK. But they have become Islamaphobic to an extent we find unsettling … We adopt a firm line on immigration and asylum. But you haven’t got to be racist to do that’.”

This would be the same Nigel Farage who, according to former UKIP leader Alan Sked, rejected the inclusion of a statement on the party’s membership form opposing discrimination against minorities. “We will never win the nigger vote”, Sked quotes Farage as saying. “The nig-nogs will never vote for us.” As for anti-Muslim bigotry, former UKIP member Aidan Rankin has recounted his disillusionment with the party: “I listened, with increasing loathing, to a repertoire of anti-Muslim barbs from people who knew nothing whatsoever about Islam and were proud of their ignorance…. Islamophobia pervades its internal dialogue.”

The Noble Qur’an and the Telegraph

Posted on by Bob Pitt

We recently gave coverage to the controversy over Patrick Sookhdeo’s interview with the Telegraph, and his reported claim that a well-known translation of the Qur’an by Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley calls for “the killing of Jews and Christians, and … sets out a strategy for killing the infidels and for warfare against them”. The Telegraph eventually apologised to the Bewleys. (See here, here, here and here.)

However, the paper failed to print a letter by Ahmad Thomson or his review of the Bewleys’ translation that he asked to be published as a corrective to the Sookhdeo accusation. Ahmad kindly sent us a copy of the letter and review along with an introduction outlining the dispute between the Bewleys and the Telegraph. You can read it here.

Phyllis Chesler interview in Guardian

Posted on by Bob Pitt

phyllis chesler 2John Sutherland interviews US feminist Phyllis Chesler. “Chesler’s critics say the vehemence of her language points to Islamophobia. A piece she wrote last month for the controversial webzine Frontpagemag.com suggested that ‘a small but organised number of Muslim-Americans and Muslim immigrants … are currently seeking to begin the Islamisation of America’. It went on to compare the Muslim academic Tariq Ramadan to Hitler. The blog Islamophobia Watch suggested that this signalled ‘the point of total dementia’.”

Guardian, 4 April 2006

For our original post, see here.

For another recent piece on Chesler, see here.

Gay Muslim claims Islamophobia denied him post as student leader

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pav AkhtarThus the headline to a Pink News article analysing the narrow defeat of Pav Akhtar in the elections for National Union of Students president last week.

Over at Harry’s Place, the inimitable David T has suggested that homophobia on the part of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies was to blame: “FOSIS refused to back Akhtar. It isn’t clear exactly why that was, although the rumour is that the ‘sinister reason’ was his sexuality.” (Needless to say, David also implies that Pav is a member of a left group called Socialist Action. But then, it seems there are very few of us on the left who David doesn’t think are members of Socialist Action.)

As for the reasons for Pav’s defeat, Pink News quotes him as saying that both Islamophobia and homophobia might each have played a minor part but that the result had more to do with “factional politics”, with FOSIS failing to back him as part of “a deal to get their preferred candidate elected as secretary”. Does David T ever get any of his facts right?

Joe Kaufman’s anti-Muslim malice

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Kaufman’s malice leaves no Muslim out of its reach. He has condemned Muslims that any regular reader of their writings would know are peaceful people solely on the grounds that they articulate normative Muslim doctrine and participate in mainstream Muslim organisations. In some ways it is par for Front Page’s biased and often malicious course; much of its content consists of diatribes against Muslims and other immigrants, but Kaufman’s practice of flagrantly twisting people’s words, apparently not caring if his claims can be easily debunked, bring it to a new low.”

Yusuf Smith takes apart right-wing US blogger Joe Kaufman.

Indigo Jo Blogs, 4 April 2006