Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells the readers of Prospect magazine that she represents a force for progressive reform within Islam. This from the friend of late Dutch racist Theo van Gogh – a woman who, according to a recent sympathetic profile in the New York Times, has “endorsed the view that Islam is a backward religion, condemned the way women live under it and said that by today’s standards, the prophet Muhammad would be considered a perverse tyrant. She had also announced that she was no longer a believing Muslim” (see here). An effective force for Islamic reform? I think not.
Category Archives: Right wing
Robert Spencer’s mission – to ‘dispel myths and stereotypes’ about Islam
Robert Spencer, author of the new Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), told a group of college students gathered for the Young America’s Foundation conference in Washington, D.C., that he spends his life trying to “dispel myths and stereotypes” about Islam perpetuated in the media and on college campuses.
Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and a HUMAN EVENTS columnist, blamed political correctness, which “stifles public discourse,” combined with a general unwillingness among public officials to recognize the fundamental teachings of the Islam as a source for acts of terror throughout the Western world for distorting the public’s perception of the War on Terror.
He cited British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s rush to defend Islam as a peaceful religion as an example of the public’s failure to recognize that the motivation of Islamic extremism often comes directly from the Koran itself.
Political correctness betrays all of us – Torygraph
“All over the world, people must be baffled by the obsession of British politicians – government and opposition alike – with the question of whether or not the police should be concentrating their searches on members of ethnic minorities. What a ludicrous debate, at a time when there are Muslim fanatics on the loose who want to blow up men, women and children of all races on buses and trains…. In this emergency, we are all being betrayed by abject politicians of all parties who put political correctness before protecting the public.”
Editorial in Daily Telegraph, 3 August 2005
MCB and MAB defend multiculturalism
The Muslim Council of Britain said today there was “no contradiction” between having a multicultural society and achieving integration. Responding to a call for a rethink on multiculturalism by shadow home secretary David Davis, the MCB said it fully supported integration but being a good Muslim necessarily meant being a good British citizen. Spokesman Inayat Bunglawala told politics.co.uk the Conservative party should first look at itself and “consider the lack of Muslims in the parliamentary party”.
The Muslim Association of Britain attacked the suggestion by David Davis that multiculturalism should be rethought in the wake of the London terror attacks. Spokesman Anas Altikriti told politics.co.uk that people in the UK should be proud of the country’s diversity. “The Tory party seems to believe that we should rid ourselves of something we take great pride in, but our multi-layered identity makes us richer, better and stronger as a nation,” he said.
Bloggers target Times writer
“Bloggers have attacked a Times writer over an article comparing Islamic fundamentalism to Nazism and his links with a rightwing US website. Anthony Browne, the Times’ European editor and an outspoken critic of British immigration policy, has sparked furious online debate over his article ‘Fundamentally, we’re useful idiots’, published in the Times.”
Chris Tryhorn reports in the Guardian, 3 August 2005
In fact, it wasn’t just “Islamic fundamentalism” that Browne compared to Nazism but such mainstream organisations and figures as the Muslim Association of Britain and Yusuf al-Qaradawi.
For Browne’s links with US racists see Newshog, 1 August 2005
It’s worth noting that David T at Harry’s Place initially recommended Browne’s anti-Muslim rant as a useful “summary of the issues which we’ve been highlighting over the past few years” and had no problem at all with Browne’s characterisation of MAB and Dr al-Qaradawi as fascists. The objection David T eventually raised was not to “the argument which Browne makes about the fascist nature of radical Islamism” but to the fact that it was “part of a broader argument which he is making about ‘third world colonization’. The case for treating radical Islamism seriously can do without his support”. In short, David T finds little wrong with racist bigotry as long as it is directed exclusively against Muslims.
More Islamophobia from Harry’s Place
Over at Harry’s Place, it’s back to the nonsense about Yusuf al-Qaradawi calling for the execution of gay men. Harry reproduces a report that Qatar’s Crown Prince Tameem Bin Hamad Al-Thani has been outed in a Dubai-based publication after being banned from the G.A.Y. nightclub in London for getting involved in a bar fight.
“Anyway, who cares?” Harry comments. “Well, London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s ‘moderate’ mate Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi does. He gave this quote to Al-jazeera magazine: ‘The scholars of Islam, such as Malik, Ash-Shafi’i, Ahmad and Ishaaq said that (the person guilty of this crime) should be stoned, whether he is married or unmarried’.”
In fact, the quotation isn’t from Qaradawi at all, but from a prominent Saudi Wahhabist, Mohammed Salih Al-Munajjid. “Aljazeera” magazine (which has no connection to the famous TV station of that name) obviously made a mistake and misattributed it.
Harry is apparently a journalist by profession, and it is of course a general principle that journalists should check their sources. However, this principle evidently ceases to apply when it’s a question of attacking Muslims.
US radio host claims Quran teaches Muslims to lie
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called on a Washington, D.C., radio station to address the incitement of anti-Muslim hatred caused by its talk show hosts. CAIR issued that call after a replacement for a talk show host suspended for anti-Islam remarks made similarly Islamophobic comments.
On Friday, July 29, WMAL-AM replacement host Geoff Metcalf stated: “And by the way, let me just add a sidebar here that’s significant, and everybody forgets this, but according to the Quran, believers in Islam are not required to tell infidels, and that’s us, the truth. So they apparently have permission to lie when it is appropriate.” Most callers to the program expressed similar hostility to Muslims and to the faith of Islam.
‘In a rare media moment, a terror apologist meets his match’
The US Right attacks Azzam Tamimi of MAB as “an apologist for jihadists masquerading as a moderate Muslim intellectual”.
Blair must overturn 40 years of mistakes, says Mark Steyn
“We complain about ‘unassimilated’ Muslim immigrants, but in some respects they’ve assimilated too well. Witness the suspected Tube bomber who on his arrest last week cried: ‘I have rights!’ He and his colleagues demonstrate an impressive mastery of the salient features of the advanced social democratic state – the legalisms, the ethnic pandering, the bureaucratic inertia.”
Mark Steyn in yet other rant in the Daily Telegraph, 2 August 2005
But tell us, Mark, what should Tony Blair do?
“He has to regain control of Britain’s borders from the EU and of Britain’s education system from the teachers’ unions and of Britain’s welfare programmes from wily Somalis and others…. If ‘the images of ruin and destruction’ come to pass, it will not be because of the bombers but because of a state that lacked the cultural confidence to challenge them.”
Exploiting terror and death for bigotry and hate
Exploiting terror and death for bigotry and hate
By Ken Livingstone
Morning Star, 30 July 2005
The central pressing issue facing us in the wake of the bombings and attempted bombings in London over the past weeks is of course to apprehend those involved.
This is the issue that every Londoner, from tube driver to city banker will expect to be addressed.
But one issue that remains vital – and not at all unconnected to the task of stopping terrorism – is to stop the bombings from being used to promote bigotry and racism in our society.
In particular there is now a sustained campaign to use the bombings to attack the advances we have made against racism in our society by blaming multiculturalism, “diversity”, immigration, and even the “political correctness” of the police.