SSP on London bombings

The Scottish Socialist Party today sends it’s condolences to the families of those killed and injured in today’s bombings in London.

The SSP condemns outright the bombings which were targeted at working class Londoners going about their daily lives. Many of those dead and injured would have participated in anti-war protests and would have taken part in the Make Poverty History protests over the past week.

Meanwhile, the men responsible for the war on Iraq and the massacre of 100,000 civilians were safely cocooned behind fortified walls 500 miles away, protected by thousands of police and armed forces.

Today’s horrific events further expose the falsity of the claims by Tony Blair and George Bush that the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq have turned the world into a safer place. Exactly the opposite: the world is now darker and more dangerous than ever before.

Today’s wave of destruction also underlines the futility of trying to defeat terror by ever more repressive legislation. As the escalating violence in Iraq and Afghanistan illustrates, even the most ferocious repression cannot quell violence and terror.

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Club removes drink firm logo for ‘Muslim jerseys’

rfcIt’s not often that this member of the Islamophobia Watch collective can be heard praising Rangers Football Club but we’ve got to hand it to them for providing their supporters with the option of buying replica kit without their sponsor’s logo.

This has been done in direct response to Muslim fans of Rangers who didn’t want to be seen promoting alcohol.

Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesperson for the Muslim Association of Britain, made an excellent point in broadening out the issue of alcohol saying:

“Muslims are prohibited from selling, serving and promoting alcohol so this has been a difficult issue for Muslim fans of Rangers for many years.

“We do welcome the move by Rangers but there are wider issues of whether it’s responsible for football clubs to be promoting alcohol in this way.

“I would imagine other non-Muslims would not want their children particularly wearing alcohol branding.”

The story has had wide coverage in Scotland. See Press Association and Glasgow Evening Times.

An essay in imperial villain-making

William_Dalrymple“By the end of the 90s, the hardliners calling for regime change in the east found that they had a powerful ally in government. This new president was not prepared to wait to be attacked: he was a new sort of conservative, aggressive in foreign policy, bitterly anti-French, and intent on turning his country into the unrivalled global power. It was best, he believed, simply to remove any hostile Muslim regime that presumed to resist the west.”

William Dalrymple reports.

Guardian, 24 May 2005

McCartney attacks animal bill over ritual slaughter

Paul McCartney and Carla Lane, the comedy writer, have criticised the Scottish executive for failing to ban the ritual slaughter of animals. McCartney who, along with his wife Heather Mills, is a vocal campaigner for animal rights, accused ministers of living in the past by effectively condoning cruelty. Lane said the executive’s failure to ban halal and kosher methods of butchering animals – where their throats are cut without first being stunned – was motivated by political correctness.

Sunday Times, 22 May 2005

A call for state-funded Muslim schools

Scotland’s only Muslim school was last week given just three months to improve its performance or face closure. The Imam Muhammad Zakariya School for girls in Dundee received its second poor report from education watchdogs, who said it had not “addressed sufficiently” concerns raised following a previous inspection a year ago.

The only other Muslim school founded in Scotland – Iqra Academy in Glasgow – shut two years ago after it too was criticised by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMI). Both schools were independently run, prompting calls for Scotland to have its first state-funded Muslim school in order to ensure their quality.

Osama Saeed of the Muslim Association of Britain argues that Scotland’s Muslims, like the country’s Catholics and Jews, should have state-funded schools as a matter of urgency.

MAB news report, 19 May 2005

Maddening mullahs let young Muslims down (claims Muriel Gray)

“… there were no theological surprises for those familiar with the principles of Islam, as naturally everything the young folk fancied doing, singing, dancing, even drawing human figures upon which a textile student required to sketch fashion designs, was simply forbidden. Why even ask?”

Muriel Gray watches Sharia TV.

Sunday Herald, 24 April 2005

The National Secular Society approvingly quotes the standfirst stating that “Islam is its own worst enemy in these times of street violence, race hatred and political malevolence”.

NSS Newsflash, 25 April 2005

Interview: William Montgomery Watt

The Reverend Professor William Montgomery Watt has written over 30 books including Islamic Political Thought (1968) and Muslim-Christian Encounters: Perceptions and Misconceptions (1991). In Scotland he has been a member of the ecumenical Iona Community since 1960. Amongst Islamic scholars he has been held in an esteem described as “most reverential.” The Muslim press have called him “the Last Orientalist.” This interview was conducted in 1999, his ninetieth year, at his home in Dalkeith. With Professor Watt’s approval and careful agreement of the final text, it uses both spoken material and statements drawn from some of his most important articles of recent years. It is, in a sense, a distillation of his life’s work.

Alastair McIntosh’s website

Muslim miscarries in cell after grilling at airport

A Muslim woman detained by officials at Glasgow Airport suffered a miscarriage in an immigration cell, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

Marina Miraj, a Canadian Afghan, collapsed in the airport detention room last month after being questioned for hours by immigration staff.

The woman, who is in her 30s and was three months pregnant, was rushed to Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital after being found by airport officials on the cell floor.

Miraj had flown into the UK from Toronto to make plans to settle in Glasgow with her husband. She claims the stress of the interrogation and detention contributed to the miscarriage and is now considering legal action.

She described the ordeal as: “the worst experience of my life.” She added: “I will never be able to forget how I lost my baby in a police cell.”

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