Category Archives: UK

Henry Jackson Society opposes ‘hate speakers’ – except when they’re leading members of the Henry Jackson Society, of course

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Henry Jackson Society logo

Students’ unions should introduce tougher rules to keep “hate speakers” off campuses and stop the spread of Islamist extremism, MPs have heard.

Hannah Stuart, co-author of Islam on Campus: A Survey of UK Student Opinions and Islamist Terrorism: The British Connections, made the suggestion in evidence to the Home Affairs Committee’s inquiry into the roots of violent radicalisation.

The committee held a day-long session at De Montfort University last week, including a workshop titled “How can we best counter radicalisation in universities?”

Nabil Ahmed, president of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, rejected many of Ms Stuart’s arguments, countering from the audience that it was “upsetting and hurtful for Muslim students to be caricatured as potential extremists, potential radicals, when none of this is applicable to 99.9 per cent of not just Muslim students, but all students”.

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Luton: Drill Hall ‘no longer for sale’ to Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stephen Lennon with anti-mosque placard2The controversial sale of the Drill Hall site in High Town to a Muslim group has been axed, with Luton Borough Council announcing yesterday (Dec 21) that homes will be built there instead.

At a secret meeting last week, members of the council’s executive decided that the site should be used for housing, rather than be sold to the Shia Muslim Masjid-e-Ali group for £1.5 million.

A spokesman for the group said its members were “extremely disappointed” by the decision.

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Hate mail sent to Detroit mosques

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dearborn — The local office of a national Muslim civil rights group says they have met with postal investigators about several anti-Muslim hate mailings that were sent recently to area mosques, Islamic centers and Muslim organizations.

Officials for the Michigan office of Council on American-Islamic Relations, located in Southfield, say they were investigating mail received by a local mosque that contained pornographic references to Islam.

Lena Masri, the staff attorney for CAIR-MI, said the organization has turned over several pieces of obscene mailings. Masri said the correspondence they received from a local mosque was pornographic material making reference to Islamic religious symbols.

“Unfortunately, given the rise in Islamaphobia, we’ve seen a rise in hate mail mailed to mosques as well as to our offices,” said Masri on Monday.

Masri said she was informed by local officials with the U.S. Postal Inspector’s Office that a Dearborn mosque was mailed a letter containing a page from the Quran that was smeared with feces.

Masri said CAIR has issued an advisory for local mosques and Islamic organizations and others to be cautious when opening their mail. She urged people not to open mail without a return address and to report suspicious letters and packages to the U.S. postal inspector or to CAIR’s office.

Detroit News, 20 December 2010

Resist a burglary and you’re a hero to the Mail – unless you’re a Muslim, that is

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Daily Mail reports: “A courageous housewife stabbed a machete-wielding burglar when he threatened to cut off her son’s finger, a court was told yesterday. Gillian Wilson, 55, was praised by a judge after she rushed at violent burglar Nigel Greenwood, 29, and plunged a knife into his arm, causing him and his accomplices to flee.”

What a sharp contrast this report presents to the Mail‘s coverage of Inayat Bunglawala’s resistance to a violent intruder at his own home in 2009 (see here and here), for which the paper was subsequently obliged to issue an apology and pay damages.

Former UKIP parliamentary candidate criticises Farage over proposal to ditch veil ban policy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Abhijit Pandya (2)Yesterday’s Guardian interview with UKIP leader Nigel Farage, in which he stated that he intended to re-examine his party’s manifesto commitment to “tackle extremist Islam by banning the burqa or veiled niqab in public buildings and certain private buildings”, and didn’t personally support such a ban, hasn’t gone down too well with some people.

Over at the Mail‘s Right Minds blog (edited by Simon Heffer) we find former prominent UKIP member Abhijit Pandya upholding the view that a ban is justified because the veil is “a deliberate political statement whose meanings any free democratic society, least of all one that pretends to believe in women’s freedom, should consistently and unapologetically challenge”. Pandya continues:

That the one time UKIP leader Lord Pearson had the courage to recognise the political necessity of confronting this political issue, was a break from the normal political apathy towards protecting our culture. That Nigel Farage is considering abandoning this commitment ought to force us to ask whether there is any courage left amongst our politicians to fight for our cultural heritage and gender equality.

This criticism of Farage as having gone “soft on Islam” echoes recent comments by another ex-UKIP member, Paul Weston of the British Freedom Party.

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Man urinated on Muslim’s trainers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Bracknell man who admitted urinating in a Muslim man’s trainers, during a racist “happy slapping” incident, will be sentenced for the “vile and disgraceful” act in January.

IT worker Darren Scott and his friend Aidan Ostintelli, of Camberley, were drunk and high on cannabis when they abused and attacked Mustapha Himedean after a trip to Amsterdam in July.

Scott, of Northbrook Copse, Forest Park, admitted religiously aggravated common assault, religiously aggravated harassment and aggravated harassment. Ostinelli, who denied the charges, was jailed for six months at Maidstone Crown Court on Tuesday, December 12, for his part in the attack.

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Martin Bright continues his campaign to poison relations between Jewish and Muslim communities

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jihad and Jews

The current edition of the Jewish Chronicle has yet another piece by the paper’s political editor Martin Bright attacking the East London Mosque. Entitled “Jihad and Jews don’t go together”, this is just the latest installment in the JC‘s obsessive (and so far entirely futile) campaign to destroy the relationship between community organisers London Citizens and ELM (see here, here, here, here, here, here and here).​ An outraged Bright relates the shocking news that Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg of North London Synagogue “agreed to take part in a ‘multi-faith peace procession’ alongside the chairman of East London Mosque, Mohammed Abdul Bari”.

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ConservativeHome withdraws Paul Goodman article, apologises to Sir Iqbal Sacranie

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ConservativeHome has published the following apology:

Sir Iqbal Sacranie

In a Diary post by Paul Goodman (“Pickles and Warsi wrestle for control of Government strategy on anti-Muslim hatred”, 19 November) we repeated in good faith a statement wrongly reported elsewhere that Sir Iqbal Sacranie is a trustee of Union of Good, an organisation which has been listed by the US Treasury as a Special Designated Global Terrorist group. We also suggested (wrongly) that it was possible that, as a result of this association, the UK government had rejected Sir Iqbal as a possible candidate for membership of the Muslim Leadership Council (MLC).

We now understand that in fact Sir Iqbal is not, and never has been, a trustee of Union of Good.  We also accept Sir Iqbal’s assurance that while he was approached with a view to participating in the MLC initiative, he declined to do so. He was not on the list of individuals that was put forward and was not rejected by the government as we had suggested.

We are sorry for any embarrassment caused to Sir Iqbal by our Diary post.

To be fair to Paul Goodman, he probably didn’t set out intentionally to libel Sir Iqbal. It’s just that when it comes to the Muslim community Goodman doesn’t know what he’s talking about and uncritically recycles second-hand right-wing smears.

Via Inayat’s Corner

Arson attack may have been directed against halal abattoir, councillor suggests

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Burnt electricity pole HattonArsonists who brought down a power line leaving 1,100 homes without electricity were trying to target a Muslim-run slaughterhouse, it has been claimed.

An electricity pole in Bradshaw Meadow, Hatton, has been burned down five times, including the latest attack early yesterday. Now the councillor for the area has voiced his concerns that the incidents are directed at a nearby abattoir, which produces ritually slaughtered halal meat. But Councillor Andy Roberts’ claims have been denied by both the owners of M Najib and Sons, based in Miry Lane, Foston, and police investigating the attacks.

It took more than seven hours to restore power to all the affected homes after the latest blackout happened at 3am yesterday.

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