Defeat of political Islam is cause for celebration

Arjomand and media“The Ontario government’s decision to reject the introduction of Islamic arbitration courts in its jurisdiction is an important victory against the spread of political Islam in Canada and a severe blow to those who preach it.

“This victory could not have been celebrated without the tireless activism of Canadian Muslims such as Homa Arjomand, a woman who fled her native sharia-ruled Iran and knows first-hand the inequities of Islamic law.”

A right-wing Zionist applauds the efforts of the Worker Communist Party of Iran and condemns mainstream Jewish organisations in Ontario for their capitulation to political Islam.

Judeoscope, 12 September 2005

But where did everyone get the idea that comrade Arjomand, a leading figure in a far left sect characterised by its extreme, dogmatic secularism and fanatical Islamophobia, is a Muslim? Well, it could just be that they were encouraged in that illusion by exchanges like the following, from a TV interview:

Interviewer:  Ms Arjomand, if we could get your bona fides, are you a Muslim? And have you had personal experience of sharia law?

Homa Arjomand:  Yes, I have. I was born and raised in a Muslim family, and I lived in an Islamic state, Iran, and I experienced lots of horrible, horrible things … I fled Iran….

See the video clip here.

Of course, it was to the advantage of the WPI to pass themselves off as Muslims because it gave their opposition to the proposed arbitration courts much greater credibility than it would have had if they’d come clean about their actual politics. And in their role as “Muslims” they provided a useful cover for the right-wingers and racists with whom they promoted the same hysterical caricature of Islam.

‘5,000 suicide bombers in Germany’, Bavarian interior minister claims

Germany is home to between 3,000 and 5,000 potential Islamic suicide attackers, a senior security official touted as the country’s next interior minister has been quoted as saying.

Guenther Beckstein, currently interior minister in the German state of Bavaria, said on Monday in an interview with the online Netzeitung newspaper that he was worried small cells of “fanatics” could prepare attacks without detection.

“In Germany we have between 3,000 and 5,000 of these Islamists who are prepared to use violence and do not shrink from suicide attacks,” Beckstein was quoted as saying.

He said they included individuals who are ready to fight in Iraq and Chechnya.

CNN, 12 September 2005

Liberal Islamophobia panders to racism

“Why is it that a significant section of liberal and left-leaning opinion has signed up with such relish to the ‘clash of civilisations’ argument? Its champions in the media may not phrase it as such, but you can hear the creak of the drawbridge being pulled up: they believe they are surrounded by enemies – Muslims and their dastardly non-Muslim apologists – and must defend to the last man the checklist of universal Enlightenment values that sustain their mission. Their most ferocious firepower is directed at former allies on the left whom they regard as yet to see the light.”

Madeleine Bunting takes on Nick Cohen et al in the Guardian, 12 September 2005

Over at Nick Cohen’s favourite blog, Marcus complains: “She fails to mention that the ‘thorn in the side of the muscular liberals’ as she approvingly describes al-Qaradawi incited the murder of a gay person because of his sexuality as recently as last month according to gay rights group Outrage. ‘The scholars of Islam, such as Malik, Ash-Shafi`i, Ahmad and Ishaaq said that (the person guilty of this crime) should be stoned.”

Harry’s Place, 12 September 2005

Meanwhile, the obscure “Aljazeera” magazine that was the source of this fairytale has removed the report from their website, GALHA have withdrawn their press release based on the “Aljazeera” story – but Outrage and Harry’s Place continue repeating the slander unencumbered by any concern for the facts.

McGuinty government rules out use of sharia law

“Seeking to end months of debate, Premier Dalton McGuinty now says ‘there will be no sharia law in Ontario’ – an announcement that should quell a growing public-relations crisis concerning the use of Islamic law, but which also exposes Queen’s Park to attacks from other religions. Following widespread condemnation of a plan that would formally allow the tenets of sharia to be used in resolving family disputes, the Premier said he’ll make the boundaries between church and state clearer by banning faith-based arbitrations…. Many moderate Muslims say they are overjoyed by the Premier’s announcement. ‘I’m so happy today. It’s a victory for the women’s rights movement’, said Homa Arjomand, an Iranian immigrant who has launched a campaign to stop sharia in Ontario.”

Globe & Mail, 12 September 2005

Homa Arjomand a “moderate Muslim”! But that is of course how she has dishonestly presented herself in the course of her inflammatory campaign.

Robert Spencer, too, is dead chuffed at this “hard-won victory for human rights”, although he thinks the ban should be restricted to Islamic arbitration.

Dhimmi Watch, 12 September 2005

For Yusuf Smith’s response to Spencer, see Indigo Jo Blogs, 12 September 2005

Author hopes her book will help Christians come back to Christ

Notre Dame de Paris Mosque is an anti-utopia, the action takes place in the mid-21st century. Islam becomes the EU state religion, while Christians and other Europeans are forced to live in ghettos. A small group of the Resistance movement refuses to live according to the Sharia laws and fights for their rights with the new masters of Europe.” Thus the plot of a new novel by Elena Chudovina, who has been dubbed Russia’s answer to Oriana Fallaci.

Interfax, 9 September 2005

Roman Silantyev, executive secretary of the Interreligious Council in Russia, argues that Muslims have only themselves to blame, and that the novel is a result of the “consistent anti-Christian campaign” waged in the Islamic mass media.

Interfax, 12 September 2005

This is ‘tackling extremism’?

Andrew C. McCarthy asserts that the Blair government cannot fight terrorism by co-operating with Inayat Bunglawala, Tariq Ramadan, Yusuf Islam … or indeed any other influential Muslim figure who is, in fact, opposed to terrorism. Note, too, that this US right-winger uses Nick Cohen as the source for his accusation that the government is “hell-bent on a strategy of ‘engagement’ with militant Islam”.

National Review Online, 12 September 2005

Jihad Watch backs WPI

Robert Spencer returns to the protest against the establishment of Islamic family arbitration bodies in Ontario. He approvingly quotes Homa Armojand of the Worker Communist Party of Iran, the co-ordinator of the protest, who claims that the lobby to allow faith-based arbitration for Muslims is “not a coincidence, but part of a global move pushed by leaders of political Islam who need validation from the government of the West”. Spencer also endorses Arjomand’s attack on Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty: “McGuinty flirting with political Islam is playing a dangerous game. He is putting the lives of women and children in jeopardy. Shame.”

Dhimmi Watch, 11 September 2005

This is not the first time that the WPI has received Spencer’s backing. A couple of months ago, he gave his seal of approval to a speech by Maryam Namazie. It is clear that the hysterical Islamophobia of the WPI, just like that of Outrage! in Britain, dovetails neatly with the right-wing anti-Muslim bigotry of Jihad Watch.

Mad Mel discovers ‘The monster in Britain’s midst’

“No fewer than three separate and deeply disturbing stories in today’s newspapers serve to confirm that Britain’s core values are not only now under sustained and entrenched assault from a section of its Muslim minority but that its governing and intellectual class remains unable or unwilling even to grasp the nature and extent of the threat.”

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 11 September 2005