Clarke unveils deportation rules

Posted on August 24, 2005 by Bob Pitt

The home secretary has published the grounds on which foreigners considered to be promoting terrorism can be deported or excluded from the UK. Charles Clarke issued the list of “unacceptable behaviour” by those said to indirectly threaten public order, national security, or the rule of law. The grounds, drawn up after the 7 July London bombings, include provoking and glorifying terrorism.

But civil liberty groups fear deportees could be tortured in their homelands. Amnesty’s Halya Gowan said: “The vagueness and breadth of the definition of ‘unacceptable behaviour’ and ‘terrorism’ can lead to further injustice and risk further undermining human rights protection in the UK. And the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) says the list of “unacceptable behaviours” is “too wide and unclear”.

BBC News, 24 August 2005

The rise of the democratic police state

Posted on August 20, 2005 by Bob Pitt

“On 15 July, Blair’s Britain of the future was glimpsed when the police raided the Iqra Learning Centre and bookshop near Leeds. The Iqra Trust is a well-known charity that promotes Islam worldwide as ‘a peaceful religion which covers every walk of life’. The police smashed down the door, wrecked the shop and took away anti-war literature which they described as ‘anti-western’.

“Among this was, reportedly, a DVD of George Galloway addressing the US Senate and a New Statesman article of mine illustrated by a much-published photograph of a Palestinian man in Gaza attempting to shield his son from Israeli bullets before the boy was shot to death. The photograph was said to be ‘working people up’, meaning Muslim people.”

John Pilger in the New Statesman, 22 August 2005

Asian men targeted in stop and search

Posted on August 17, 2005 by Bob Pitt

The use of counter-terrorism stop and search powers has increased sevenfold since the July 7 attacks on Britain, with Asian people bearing the brunt of the increase. People of Asian appearance were five times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people, according to the latest figures compiled by British Transport police. None of the stops have resulted in a terrorism charge, the force said.

Azad Ali, chairman of the Muslim Safety Forum, said: “This does not look like intelligence-led stop and search. This is disproportionate on an unacceptable scale.” He said police should record whether those stopped were Muslim or not.

Guardian, 17 August 2005

UK terror fight adds to Arab fears

Posted on August 16, 2005 by Bob Pitt

The planned deportations and a raft of other proposed measures to curb militant Islamist activity in the wake of the July bombs in London, are bashing a fresh dent in Britain’s reputation in the wider Arab world. Dia Rashwan, an expert in Islamism at the Cairo-based Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, argues they could be counter-productive by playing to the perception that in the war on terror, the rights of all Muslims are under attack.

Many exiled radicals in London have been under close surveillance, he argues, and there is no proven legal case yet that they have contributed to radicalising British-born Muslims who carried out the bombings. Yassir al-Sirri, a London-based Egyptian condemned to death in absentia in Egypt, goes further, suggesting the government’s measures, if adopted, would hand a victory to extremists. He was among a small group of Islamist exiles in London who urged the British government yesterday not to betray Muslims “by deporting them to countries from which they fled”.

Financial Times, 16 August 2005

Anti-terror legislation condemned

Posted on August 16, 2005 by Bob Pitt

Muslim groups have condemned proposed anti-terrorism legislation saying it could lead to the “demonisation” of legitimate Islamic values and beliefs. An Islamic Human Rights Commission statement has 38 signatories, including the Muslim Association of Britain.

See BBC News, 16 August 2005 and Guardian, 16 August 2005

Robert Spencer is appalled: “What about wanting to establish the caliphate in the West, replacing Britain’s political system with Islamic law? Is that legitimate political expression?”

Jihad Watch, 16 August 2005

Well, I can’t see why not. Mind you, given that Muslims here number around 1.6 million out of a total population of almost 60 million, the establishment of the caliphate in the UK would appear to be a rather distant prospect.

Anti-terror plans could be counter-productive, warns London Mayor

Posted on August 15, 2005 by Bob Pitt

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, Monday expressed serious reservations about the government’s new anti-terror plans, particularly extending the exclusion and deportation powers of the Home Secretary.

In response to the Home Office’s consultation document on the new proposals, Livingstone also raised concern about the government’s list of ‘unacceptable behaviors’ and called people to be allowed to express their views on issues as the Middle East conflict.

“People such as the founders of the United States, the founder of Israel, opponents of Ian Smith’s regime in ‘Rhodesia’ (Zimbabwe), Nelson Mandela and the Yasser Arafat have all been branded terrorists by someone at one time or another,” the mayor said.

“But nothing would have been gained by us banning either side in those conflicts. Today it would be totally counter-productive as it would reduce the trust, and therefore the information, from the communities whose help is indispensable to the police,” he warned.

IRNA report, 15 August 2005

‘Islamic radicals run brainwashing camps in Lake District’

Posted on August 13, 2005 by Bob Pitt

Islamic extremists are running “indoctrination” camps in Britain’s national parks, a senior police officer has warned. “Wherever there’s a national park, you’ll find them – the Yorkshire Dales, the Lake District, the West Highlands.”

Colin Cramphorn, the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, says that the police need greater powers to combat the extremists’ efforts to radicalise young Muslims.

Mr Cramphorn, whose West Yorkshire force has played a leading role in the investigation into the July 7 bombings of London – the suicide bomber team was based on his patch – made his comments in an interview for The Spectator magazine.

Mr Cramphorn said: “Consider the training camps run in this country by the extremists. They’re not like IRA camps in Donegal where people are learning how to fire mortars. They’re actually pure indoctrination camps. It’s much more than just a few white-water-rafting trips in Wales.”

Mr Cramphorn, a former deputy chief constable of the RUC, voiced frustration at the extent of the authorities’ powers to combat such activities. He said that there might be lessons to be learned from the security and legal system evolved to tackle terrorism in Ulster. He added: “All we can do now is track them.”

Times, 12 August 2005

Update: “The chief constable was using national parks as an analogy,” a West Yorkshire police spokeswoman explains. “He was not talking about camps as physical locations.”

Muslim convert rejects radical label

Posted on August 11, 2005 by Bob Pitt

British Muslim, Abdur Raheem Green, has been blocked from coming to Australia. Mr Green attempted to board a plane from Sri Lanka to Wellington on Monday. The plane was due to make a one-hour stop in Brisbane en route. “I was told I could not board because the plane had to stop in Australia,” Mr Green told The Australian.

A man described by some Australian media as one of Britain’s most radical Muslim converts starts a speaking tour today for New Zealand Islamic Awareness Week. Abdur Raheem Green, who rejects the radical label, had been due to speak at the Auckland University of Technology on Monday but the public lecture was cancelled because he had to change his flight plans when he was refused entry to Brisbane for a one-hour stopover. Mr Green said he was told when checking in at Sri Lanka about three days ago that he could not land in Brisbane but was given no reason by the Australian High Commission.

New Zealand Herald, 9 August 2005

SSP backs Muslim Association of Britain London demonstration

Posted on August 11, 2005 by Eddie Truman

SSP The Scottish Socialist Party Executive last night unanimously agreed to support the call by the Muslim Association of Britain for an all Britain demonstration on 24th September in support of civil liberties, support for the victims of the London bombings, the condemnation of terrorism and in solidarity with the Muslim community in Britain.

Two of the SSP’s MSPs, Colin Fox and Tommy Sheridan will speak at public meetings in Edinburgh and Glasgow in the run up to the demonstration.

Colin Fox, SSP national convenor, today highlighted the headlong assault on civil liberties by the New Labour government since the July 7th London bombings and the massive rise in anti Muslim racism that has swept the UK in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

Religious hate crimes, mostly against Muslims, have risen six-fold in London since the bombings, figures show. There were 269 religious hate crimes in the three weeks after 7 July, compared with 40 in the same period of 2004.
Racist attacks in Scotland have risen by almost a quarter since the London bombings, according to police figures. There were 438 incidents reported from 7 July to the end of the month. That was up by 79 on last year, with 64 of those directly linked to the bombings.

Colin said today: “The SSP unequivocally denounced the terrorist bombs in London immediately after the attacks and we do so again today. These were acts of barbarism that have no place in society and the fact that amongst those killed were several devout Muslims shows that the bombers were in no way a part of the Muslim community a whole.

“The headlong rush into repressive legislation by the government must be resisted by all progressive forces in society; repression will never defeat terrorism as 30 years of history in Northern Ireland shows. The legislation the government is proposing is absolutely draconian and the SSP will be joining with the Muslim Association of Britain and other organisations in opposing this grave threat to our civil liberties.

“We stand together with the Muslim community in opposing the wave of racism and anti Muslim violence that has swept the country following the bombings in London. The SSP calls on all it’s members and supporters to make their voice heard in opposition to racism and Islamophobia and against the draconian measures being put forward by the New Labour government.”

‘Muslims are not cockroaches’

Posted on August 11, 2005 by Bob Pitt

It may like to call itself proudly the “birthplace of human rights”, but when it comes to dealing with Islamist clerics, France is rarely reluctant to set such scruples aside.

The country waited only days after the London bombings before summarily expelling its first two radical preachers. It has since sent two more packing and plans to deport a total of some two dozen by the end of this month.

Underlining a longstanding difference in approach between London and Paris, an interior ministry official said France had “no problem whatsoever” in deporting anyone accused of inflaming anti-western feeling – even if they had French citizenship and were formally recognised as preachers by the Muslim community.

The planned arrests and expulsions follow repeated statements by the interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, since the July 7 London attacks that France “must and will act against radical preachers capable of influencing the youngest and most weak-minded”.

Fundamental rights such as freedom of speech, that in Britain have, until very recently, protected the controversial clerics, count for precious little in France when the speech concerned is considered an incitement to hatred or violence.

Guardian, 11 August 2005

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