Category Archives: Scotland

Scottish Islamic Foundation Launch

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Islamophobia Watch was delighted to take up our invitation to attend the launch of the Scottish Islamic Foundation in Edinburgh on Thursday 26th June.

We were in auspicious company; representatives from all 4 of Scotland’s major political parties spoke from the platform, including Alex Salmond, the First Minister.

The event had been the subject of much angst from the Islamophobes, Melanie Philips leading the charge.

Attempts by Tory blog ConservativeHome to smear the SNP Scottish Government backfired spectacularly with the appearance of the Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie at the event and her fulsome praise of the Scottish Islamic Foundation.

The audience also included representatives from Lothian and Borders Police and the Jewish community, further undermining Islamophobic attempts to portray SIF, and Osama Saeed in particular, as secret Islamic fundamentalists, intent on creating a “Caledonian Caliphate”.

From the perspective of this member of the Islamophobia Watch collective, the real story of the launch of SIF is the prominence of social justice and opposition to imperialism in its objectives.

Osama Saeed has repeatedly advocated the need for young, disaffected, Scottish Muslims to be given space to engage in political discourse.

The launch of the Scottish Islamic Foundation is exactly the space that is needed to develop that discourse.

‘A Caledonian caliphate’ – Mad Mel warns against the Islamisation of Scotland

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mad Mel“Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party, has been spectacularly canny and effective as Scotland’s first minister, moving his nationalist pieces across the British constitutional chessboard with stealth and skill.

“But there’s a dimension to this that has so far passed below the radar – the scimitar slung around the kilt.

“Tomorrow, the Scottish Islamic Foundation will be launched in Edinburgh in Salmond’s presence. But as the invaluable Centre for Social Cohesion tells us, the  leading members of this group and many of those who lead its events are closely linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, whose aim is the Islamisation of Britain and Europe.

“Its chief executive Omar [sic] Saeed, who has worked as Salmond’s researcher and is the SNP’s parliamentary candidate for Glasgow Central, is an Islamist and leading light in the Brotherhood front the Muslim Association of Britain. Saeed follows the usual Brotherhood line of promoting certain limited moderate positions, such as calling for an end to forced marriages or opposing terrorism in Britain, thus enabling him to pass himself off as a moderate while he slips and slides over issues such as sharia. But he is of course an unequivocal supporter of the Brotherhood leader Yusuf Qaradawi who endorses terrorist mass murder in Israel and Iraq – support which inescapably identifies the holder of such a view as an extremist and terrorist sympathiser….

“The Salmond/Saeed axis is not merely a disturbing sign of Salmond’s own prejudices. It has a potential strategic significance that goes beyond Scotland. The Brotherhood’s strategy for Britain is to promote separate Islamic development, declare sharia-only enclaves and infiltrate mainstream institutions as a springboard for Islamising the entire society. Since Salmond’s aim is to make Scotland independent from the rest of the United Kingdom, with one leap the Brothers could achieve an Islamised country on England’s border. Scottish voters might be getting more than they bargained for: a Caledonian caliphate.”

Melanie Phillips’s blog, 25 June 2008

“The scimitar slung around the kilt”? “With one leap the Brothers could achieve an Islamised country on England’s border”? Surely it can’t be long before the men in white coats arrive for Mel.

See also Douglas Murray’s “Alex Salmond cosies up to Muslim Brotherhood” at ConservativeHome.

Muslim in call centre abuse wins £20,000

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim worker at a call centre based at the home of Rangers Football Club in Glasgow has been awarded more than £20,000 for racial and religious discrimination, after colleagues abused him for complaining about how they treated Irish and ethnic-minority callers.

James Lipka, 58, who worked for the Student Loans Company and Rangers Projects from Glasgow-based Response Handling’s call centre in Ibrox Stadium, complained that workers handling calls for the football club would mimic the accent of Northern Irish callers phoning to buy match tickets. Mr Lipka, who is Polish, said comments were frequently made suggesting the Irish callers were stupid. He also claimed call handlers regularly made racist comments regarding those calling about student loans.

Mr Lipka’s father came to the UK from Poland during the Second World War as a member of the Free Polish Army. His ancestors were Mongol Tartars, who had gone to live in Poland in the 14th century and retained their Islamic religion.

The abusive comments at his workplace got worse after the bombings in London on 7 July, 2005, with some of the agents becoming openly hostile towards Muslims. The abuse lasted until he left Response Handling in August 2006, but the company denied there had been any racist or religious comments.

In his written judgment yesterday, an employment tribunal judge, Stewart Watt, said: “The tribunal has no doubt that this conduct, viewed in any reasonable way, must have the objective effect of violating Mr Lipka’s dignity and creating an intimidating hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for him.”

Scotsman, 3 June 2008

Muslim leader’s protest at police ‘spy tactics’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Osama Saeed (4)Strathclyde police are facing accusations that it operates a covert intelligence monitoring unit which is infringing the rights of Muslims, after the force launched an investigation into claims that a group of Asians on a clay pigeon shoot had behaved “like terrorists”.

Osama Saeed, chief executive of the Scottish Islamic Foundation, has written to Strathclyde’s chief constable, Stephen House, expressing concern at the way Special Branch officers are questioning Asians about their lifestyles, religious and political beliefs and internet activities. He added that the continued use of the tactics would lead to “further marginalisation of Muslims”, and is already leading some to think twice about practising their beliefs for fear that police will disrupt their lives.

His comments came as one solicitor claimed police have also been secretly “recruiting” Muslims to provide information about their community in return for payments.

The 10-strong shooting party were questioned informally at their homes and businesses by two policemen a year after their November 2006 trip to Kypeside Farm, an activity centre near Lesmahagow in Lanarkshire. The officers, believed to be from Special Branch, were reacting to a tip-off from a member of the public who claimed the group had been overheard discussing “shooting AK-47 rifles in Pakistan”.

The 29-year-old trip organiser, who declined to be identified, said: “They wanted the names of my family and friends and my thoughts on Afghanistan, Iraq and what I would do if I encountered an extremist at my mosque. I replied that I didn’t think I would go to them because they were so ignorant, but would speak to the imam.

“I had my solicitor present, who told me that it was no coincidence several men were standing trial for involvement in a terror camp in the Lake District. It hadn’t even crossed my mind what we did could be seen as terrorist activity and I found it very sinister.”

Sunday Herald, 1 June 2008

SNP courting ‘radical Muslims’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Osama Saeed (4)“Osama Saeed, who has openly called for ‘a caliphate’, a pan-Islamic global state, has a serious chance of being elected for Glasgow Central when the failing Brown government finally calls a general election. Salmond doesn’t seem to care about the harm being done to the Muslim community by elevating someone such as Saeed, who last week was appointed to be a member of the Scottish government’s working group to look at the issue of Trident replacement.”

Tom Gallagher renews his campaign against the Scottish National Party and one of its leading Muslim activists.

Sunday Times, 13 April 2008

Update:  See also Postman Patel, 15 April 2008

He draws attention to the fact that Gallagher is a research fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington.

Stab woman made ‘terrorist’ claim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mary McKayA 32-year-old woman who stabbed an Asian teenager she called a terrorist has been jailed for six years.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, Mary McKay admitted attempting to murder Tarik Husan, 17, in Tollcross Road, Glasgow, on 10 September, 2007.

Lord Menzies said: “It seems to me this was a completely unprovoked attack on an unarmed stranger in the public street without any explainable motive.”

McKay will be supervised for two years after her release.

She stabbed Mr Husan in the chest and arm at a bus stop in Glasgow and told him “you’re all terrorists”. McKay, who had taken cocaine, later claimed she had gone to stab her mother, but had missed the bus and stabbed Mr Husan instead.

The court heard that after the attack she walked into a shop still clutching the knife and waited for the police to arrive. “I just stabbed a guy with the same colour of skin as a terrorist,” she later told police.

Mr Husan, 17, had only arrived in Scotland a short time before the attack.

BBC News, 13 February 2008

Siddique lawyer faces contempt charge

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Aamer AnwarAamer Anwar, the lawyer represesenting Mohammed Atif Siddique, is to face contempt of court charges following remarks he made after the case.

It is the first time in UK legal history that a solicitor has faced a contempt of court allegation in respect of remarks made outside of court.

BBC News report, 12 February 2008

For our previous coverage of this case see here, here and here.

Sudden Jihad Syndrome comes to Scotland

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim fanatics in Scotland could be radicalised within weeks, the country’s terror czar has warned. And John Corrigan stressed that the exact potential of the threat is constantly changing and can never be quantified. He spoke to Scotland on Sunday just six weeks before retiring as Scotland’s counter-terrorism chief, having spent four years in the post overseeing such operations as the arrest of Mohammed Atif Siddique and the inquiry into the would-be car bombing of Glasgow Airport.

Recent research has shown the time it takes for an individual to show an initial interest in fundamentalism to actively taking part in an attack is reducing all the time. Several years ago, experts figured that period may be up to 18 months but now with perceived threats to Muslims being featured virtually daily on our television screens, that timescale is down to just a few weeks.

Scotland on Sunday, 3 February 2008

Corrigan would appear to be inspired by Daniel Pipes’ invention, the “Sudden Jihad Syndrome“.

‘Al-Qaeda’s white army of terror’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Hundreds of British non-Muslims have been recruited by al-Qaeda to wage war against the West, senior security sources warned last night. As many as 1,500 white Britons are believed to have converted to Islam for the purpose of funding, planning and carrying out surprise terror attacks inside the UK, according to one MI5 source…. Security experts say the growing secret army of white terrorists poses a particularly serious threat as they are far less likely to be detected than members of the Asian community.”

Scotland on Sunday, 13 January 2008

Paranoid nonsense, you might think, but let’s be fair –  it does provide a strong argument against racial profiling.

Diversity – ‘a recipe for anarchy’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The sharp increase in Scots who feel distanced from Muslims, as revealed in a survey conducted before the foiled attack on Glasgow Airport in June, has produced remarkably similar responses from members of the Scottish establishment. Communities Minister Stewart Maxwell has promised ‘leadership’ to fight prejudice and Osama Saeed of the Muslim Council of Britain has called for ‘educating the wider public’.

“Can the fact that 50% of Scots are uncomfortable with more Muslims coming to the country be ascribed wholly or mainly to racism or Islamophobia? Might it have something to do with certain Muslim leaders demanding more special rights or demands for ethical autonomy that are incompatible with the western design for living? …

“I was shaken by the insistence of Morag Alexander of the Equality and Human Rights Commission that it is necessary to ‘create a Scotland that is at ease with all aspects of diversity’. This is a recipe for anarchy….”

Letter from Tom Gallagher in the Herald, 15 December 2007