Category Archives: Right wing

Multiculturalism – Torygraph returns to the attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Multiculturalism was a non-policy. It was a vacuum, a retreat from thinking that there was any need for a solution. The pretence was that there was no problem, because to admit that there was one was tantamount to saying that immigration was a problem, and that you were going to have to do some serious thinking about its consequences. The idea that many cultures could coexist in one country, going their own ways, living by their own values, and cultivating their own disparate and distinct identities, was always a cop-out.”

Janet Daley in the Sunday Telegraph, 7 August 2005

Ban public servants wearing headscarves – Dutch opinion poll

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A majority of the Dutch public wants a new law to ban public servants from wearing headscarves or “other Islamic attire”, a new poll has found. Polling organisation TNS Nipo carried out the research for the latest edition of independent magazine Binnenlands Bestuur.

Expatica, 5 August 2005

Needless to say, this meets with approval of Rebecca Bynum: Dhimmi Watch, 7 August 2005

The news is also greeted enthusiastically by the fascists of the BNP, who seem to be getting a lot of their inspiration from Ms Bynum and her colleague Robert Spencer these days: “Once again plucky Netherlanders are unravelling the multi-cultural experiment forced upon them by decadent and traitorous politicians. Seen for years as the most easy going, tolerant and liberal nation in Europe, the Dutch people are fighting back to reclaim their society from the twisted multi-culturalists.”

BNP news article, 7 August 2005

However, a closer reading of the Expatica report indicates that it wasn’t in fact “the Dutch public” whose views were surveyed: “TNS Nipo questioned 433 adults – 292 government employees and 50 municipal aldermen – for the poll.”

Tebbit: Enoch Powell’s prophecy for Britain was correct

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Lord Tebbit, the former chairman of the Conservative Party, has claimed Enoch Powell’s controversial ‘river of blood’ speech in 1968 was a correct prophesy of the climate of fear that Britain is now facing following the two terrorist bomb attacks in London last month.

In an interview with the Sunday Herald, Lord Tebbit claimed Powell’s views were misinterpreted as racist and that Powell’s warning was focused on the dangers of a multicultural British society that would be fed from uncontrolled immigration…. Tebbit’s overt backing for a Powellite stance on immigration, shows the extent to which criticism of multiculturalism has become almost mainstream since the London attacks.”

Sunday Herald, 7 August 2005

The price of multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“If young Muslim women have embraced the hijab as a badge of identity in a way their mothers never did, as a public political symbol, this is more a result of the demands of British multiculturalism than a spontaneous assertion of allegiance. Furthermore, the distinctive character of the identity promoted by multiculturalism is the identity of victim. In the world of multiculturalism, claims of victimhood provide the basis for recognition and status. Thus British Muslims proclaim a litany of persecutions and humiliations of Muslims around the world – in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Israel, in Bosnia – as the justification for their sense of grievance and their claim to a privileged position in the hierarchy of victimhood…. But the cult of victimhood in Britain has merely a vicarious relationship with the sufferings of people in Iraq or Palestine – its real origins are to be found in Britain. In the competitive struggle for prestige (and state resources) unleashed by multiculturalism, every minority must justify its claim by elevating its sufferings…. Muslims inflate every personal slight into a manifestation of Islamophobia.”

Another rant by Mark Steyn in the Telegraph, perhaps? No, it’s ex-RCPer Michael Fitzpatrick.

Spiked Online, 5 August 2005

Robert Spencer and Michael Graham – heroes of free speech

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Diana West recommends Robert Spencer’s The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) as “a book that explains, as the president and all his men (and Condi) cannot, why it is that the sharia-spreaders and the murder-bombers and, as Oriana Fallaci vividly labels them, ‘the head-choppers’ do it all for ‘the religion of peace’.” And she notes approvingly that book already features among Amazon’s best-sellers. West complains bitterly that “WMAL’s Michael Graham got his microphone yanked for daring to notice, mention and ponder the links between Islam and terrorism on the air”, and applauds the thousands of emails that poured into the radio station in support of Graham. Her conclusion: “people want facts – hard, non-PC, and vital to their understanding of what we’re really up against”.

Washington Times, 4 August 2005

Jihad Watch defends Tancredo and Graham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Those who follow the Qur’an word-for-word have declared war on the West, period. Cloak it in a religion, cloak it in a peaceful request for asylum and refuge, the fact remains that we’re at war. Muslims declared this war long before 9/11/01. War against non-Muslims was declared centuries ago. Islam has been at war with non-Muslims since its inception…. If Americans speak honestly about Islam and happen to say something negative, too bad.”

D.C. Watson rallies to the defence of Tom (“nuke Mecca”) Tancredo and Michael (“Islam is a terrorist organisation”) Graham.

Dhimmi Watch, 4 August 2005

Daily Express condemns BBC’s pro-Muslim ‘bias’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Fury over BBC’s bias to Muslims; They pack TV terror debate with anti-British audience

By Martin Evans

Daily Express, 4 August 2005

BBC bosses faced a furious backlash last night after they were forced to admit that they packed a TV terror debate with Muslims.

Angry viewers complained that the programme was anti-British and failed to offer a balanced view on the danger posed by Islamic extremists.

They were incensed that the opinions and feelings of the victims of the London bombings, which claimed 52 innocent lives and left 700 injured, were not given enough airtime in BBC1’s Questions of Security.

Instead, the “news special”, which was watched by millions, was dominated by militant factions in the audience who were heavily critical of the police and security services.

BBC bosses admitted they deliberately set out to give Muslims a louder voice in the debate hosted by Huw Edwards.

Continue reading →

CAIR ‘silences its critics’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Following the London bombings, Washington, D.C.-based radio host Michael Graham of the Disney owned 630 WMAL devoted a show to the attacks, saying that followers of Islam were terrorizing Great Britain. Some of Mr. Graham’s statements – such as ‘Islam is at war with America’ and ‘Islam is a terrorist organization’ – resulted in a campaign by CAIR to get him fired.”

Steven Stalinsky of MEMRI argues that Graham was correct, and that Islam is indeed an organisation of terror against non-Muslims.

Front Page Magazine, 4 August 2005

Foreign Office backs engagement with Qaradawi – Nick Cohen goes apoplectic

Posted on by Bob Pitt

YusufalQaradawiNick Cohen retails another series of lies and distortions about Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Qaradawi “ruled that the an [sic] Arab princeling should be stoned to death” (in fact he didn’t), Aljazeera magazine “hadn’t withdrawn the report” (in reality they had) etc etc. And Cohen concludes this demonstration of ignorant bigotry with the smug announcement that his mission as a journalist is to “tell Truth to readers”! What a plonker.

Observer, 4 August 2005

And what has made Cohen so cross? Well, it’s the fact that the Observer has acquired a leaked Foreign Office briefing which recommends that Dr al-Qaradawi should not be banned from entering the UK. The document is a well-informed piece of work, by Mockbul Ali, which entirely bears out the positive assessment of Qaradawi’s role made on this website and elsewhere. See (pdf) here.

The FCO’s line on Qaradawi, as summarised by Cohen, is to “try to detach him and the millions who listen to him from al-Qaeda”. This amounts to wilful distortion. The FCO document in fact argues for engagement with Qaradawi precisely because he is one of the most authoritative and influential opponents of al-Qaeda. He hardly requires any “detaching”. Cohen’s colleague Martin Bright (author of the Observer‘s witch-hunt against the MCB) also tries to imply a link between Qaradawi and al-Qaeda, reporting that “the memo contains the warning that refusing Qaradawi entry could lead to further terrorist attacks”. See here.

Cohen holds up the FCO briefing as evidence that “the mandarins have been preparing for an accommodation with radical Islam”, and Martin Bright agrees that the leaked document “will further fuel concerns of increasing ‘Islamist’ influence in the Foreign Office”.

It is notable that nowhere does the Observer deal with the arguments in favour of Dr al-Qaradawi that are presented in some detail in the FCO document, and unless you consulted the link in the online edition you’d be none the wiser. So much for “telling Truth to readers”. For that you have to go to Islam Online, 4 September 2005

It’s also worth noting that Cohen’s article is warmly welcomed by the Zionist right. See Israpundit, 4 September 2005

Multicultural Britain is not working, says Tory chief

Posted on by Bob Pitt

David DavisMuslims must start integrating into mainstream British society, says David Davis, the shadow home secretary and front-runner to take over the Conservative leadership.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph today, Mr Davis signalled a significant shift away from the policy of multi-culturalism, which allows people of different faiths and cultures to settle without expecting them to integrate.

“Often, the authorities have seemed more concerned with encouraging distinctive identities rather than promoting the common values of nationhood,” Mr Davis writes.

Daily Telegraph, 3 August 2005

See also Guardian, 3 August 2005

For Davis’s article, see here.

And over at Jihad Watch, Robert Spencer applauds this example of “common sense from David Davis”.

Dhimmi Watch, 3 August 2005