Maya Mikdashi analyses the US media’s response to the assault on Lara Logan.
Category Archives: UK
Muslim Brotherhood slams Cameron’s ‘arrogance’
Reuters reports that senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam el-Erian has “slammed what he described as ‘British arrogance’, saying Prime Minister David Cameron had interfered in the country’s politics during a visit to Cairo this week. Cameron did not meet with the Brotherhood during his trip, and British officials said this was to highlight the fact that Islamists were not the only alternative to Mubarak. ‘Egypt finished with the British occupation 65 years ago’, Erian said.”
Windows smashed and EDL graffiti left at Luton Labour HQ
Bricks have been thrown through the windows and the initials of the racist English Defence League have been sprayed on the door of the Labour Party’s Luton office.
The incident follows a spate of similar attacks on homes, which began with EDL graffiti and broken windows at two homes on the edge of the Bury Park areas – where many of Luton’s Asian community live.
Now, the Luton and Dunstable Express reports that a total of seven buildings have been attacked, including the Labour Party office, in incidents that featured EDL grafitti and broken windows.
The paper quotes EDL leader “Tommy Robinson” – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley Lennon – denying members of his organisation had caused the attacks. He said: “Why would we do that? If we wanted to damage anything we would have smashed stuff up on Saturday and we didn’t.”
But the first two houses were vandalised just a few hours after the EDL’s demo in Luton on Saturday 5 February.
The EDL is an organisation of racist thugs – with links to the British National Party and other fascist groups – which mainly targets Muslims.
Bedfordshire police are investigating the incidents.
EDL protestors in Barnsley ‘intent on causing disorder’ say police
About 60 English Defence League supporters from across the north came to Barnsley “intent on causing disorder”, said Barnsley’s commanding police officer.
Ch Supt Andy Brooke admitted the force was surprised by the arrival of the EDL group, which marched to Churchfields where a Unite Against Fascism parade was congregating.
Mr Brooke said officers acted quickly to contain the EDL and prevent disorder. He said: “About 60 or 70 EDL arrived in the Courthouse car park. They marched en masse towards the UAF intent on confronting them and causing disorder. Officers put a cordon in place and dispersed them. It was extremely problematic because there were a few officers and a significant number of EDL.”
There were no arrests but a number of public order offences are being investigated.
Barnsley Chronicle, 21 February 2011
The UAF march was in fact against the British National Party, and the EDL intervention against UAF was in solidarity with the BNP. See “Barnsley: antifascists march as EDL’s links to BNP exposed”, UAF news report, 19 February 2011
Leo McKinstry rails against the ‘malevolent traits of Islam’
ENGAGE has posted a reply to Leo McKinstry’s column in yesterday’s Daily Express, where he warned against celebrating the overthrow of tyrants like Mubarak and Ben Ali.
McKinstry spouts the usual right-wing nonsense about the possible “installation of hardline Muslim theocracies in Cairo, Algiers or Tripoli”, resulting in “a terrifying new era of totalitarian repression, which would also grievously threaten the security of both Israel and Europe”. It is clear, however, that McKinstry’s real hatred is directed not so much against the “hardline Muslim theocracies” of his imagination but rather against Islam as a faith.
Referring to the horrific assault on US reporter Lara Logan in Tahrir Square, McKinstry writes: “Two of the most malevolent traits of Islam were captured during her terrifying ordeal. One, the rampant misogyny we see all the time in Britain, whether it be in the imposition of the burkha or the activities of Muslim sex gangs preying on young white girls. The other, the ingrained anti-semitism of the creed.”
He continues:
Islam has long proved incompatible with Western ideas of secular liberalism, which makes the events in Africa all the more concerning. Thanks to the malign twin forces of mass immigration and multi-culturalism, all our societies have large Muslim populations: three million in Britain, five million in Germany and 10 million in France.
Instead of integrating, many Muslims in Europe have clung to separatism, reflected in everything from the incidence of domestic terrorism to the demands for the acceptance of Sharia law. One shocking survey of Muslim students at British universities showed that a third supported killing in the name of Islam.
The response of Western politicians is sickening. Rather than strive to uphold our civilisation, they tell us there is no cause for worry. The real problem, they tell us, is the nasty prejudice of Islamophobia, so they try to impose a climate of censorship with accusations of racism.
Even worse, parts of the Left have sought to make common cause with Muslim zealots, pretending that the anti-Western, anti-Israeli, anticapitalist sentiment of Islam is somehow progressive when in truth it is deeply reactionary.
We have to open our eyes. The West will not survive if we continue to deceive ourselves.
If you’re ever inclined wonder where the likes of the EDL and the BNP acquire their ignorant racist fantasies about Islam, just read Leo McKinstry’s column.
Airline accused of racial discrimination
A Muslim airport worker has accused airline Cathay Pacific of racism after he was refused a job interview – only to be offered one when he applied two days later using a fake white British-sounding name.
Algerian-born Salim Zakhrouf applied to Cathay Pacific for a job as a passenger services officer at Heathrow Airport. Mr Zakhrouf, 38, who has lived in Britain since 1991 and is a UK citizen, was told by email he had not been selected for interview.
But applying 48 hours later as “Ian Woodhouse” with an identical CV and home address, he was invited for an interview by the same personnel officer who had first refused him.
A furious Mr Zakhrouf, who has 17 years’ customer-service experience and works as a Heathrow flight handling agent, refused to attend. Instead he called his union, Unite, which plans to bring a case accusing Cathay Pacific of racial discrimination to an employment tribunal.
Taj Hargey forms alliance with right-wing Christian fundamentalist to attack Tablighi Jamaat
An Islamic group fighting to keep its east London mosque, near to the Olympics site, has been described by opponents as a “supremacist movement” that encourages isolationism from wider British society.
Tablighi Jamaat, a global proselytising movement with tens of thousands of members in the UK, is trying to overturn an enforcement notice on its mosque, called the Riverine Centre, after temporary planning permission expired in 2006.
A planning inquiry at Newham town hall will determine whether the group can continue to use the modest collection of buildings. On Thursday it heard that followers of Tablighi Jamaat were taught to “shun integration with all unbelievers in order to be uncontaminated Muslims and to isolate themselves from wider society”.
According to evidence from Dr Taj Hargey, an imam who runs a progressive Islamic educational centre in Oxford, the “isolationist dynamic” of Tablighi Jamaat has caused the growth of a “separatist Muslim enclave” in the streets around its Dewsbury headquarters.
Hargey was called as a witness by Newham Concern, a local campaign group which has long opposed Tablighi Jamaat and its ambitions to expand its facilities. The group is behind plans to build a much larger facility at the site, dubbed a “megamosque” by the media, although it currently has no planning application in place.
Evening Standard witch-hunt of Lutfur Rahman is directed against Ken Livingstone
Last week the London Evening Standard devoted many column inches to attacking Lutfur Rahman, the mayor of Tower Hamlets. Wednesday’s issue had a report headlined “Mayor of poverty-hit council hires adviser in £1,000-a-day deal” – co-authored by Tom Harper, who has form on such issues, having previously witch-hunted Azad Ali for the Mail. It began:
One of the poorest boroughs in London today came under fire for spending £1,000 a day on a personal aide for its mayor.
Tony Winterbottom is an “executive adviser” on regeneration and development to Lutfur Rahman, the mayor of Tower Hamlets who was ousted from the Labour Party over alleged links to Islamic extremists.
Local government secretary Eric Pickles accused Mr Rahman of wasting taxpayer money. He said: “It is astonishing that one of the poorest boroughs in the country sees fit to squander such colossal amounts of public cash in this way.
“Tower Hamlets seems to be living the ultimate champagne socialist lifestyle, leaving taxpayers to pick up the tab. I fail to see the business case for shelling out this money, which should be diverted towards protecting frontline services.”
As is usual with witch-hunting articles in the right-wing press, you have to read to the end of the report to find information that completely contradicts the shock-horror headline and introduction. Tony Winterbottom is quoted as saying:
“I tendered a bid for £1,000 a day. In reality, I get paid £125 an hour but I have not yet put in an invoice. I wanted them to respect me as an individual so I asked them to pay me a proper price but I’m not going to charge them.
“I’m absolutely squeaky clean. This is not a money-making operation. This is about fighting for Lutfur Rahman who’s trying to do good work.”
So it turns out that, far from costing the citizens of Tower Hamlets £1,000 a day, Tony Winterbottom hasn’t charged a penny for his services. The real story here is that a former senior official at the London Development Agency whose expertise commands fees well in excess of that figure has provided his knowledge of regeneration and development to Lutfur Rahman for free, because of his admiration for the work the mayor is doing in the borough.
EDL leadership falls out with Jewish Division over relations with JTF
Richard Bartholomew has the details.
Netherlands: research group exposes fascist links to Wilders’ party
A number of right-wing extremists are among the people who signed pledges of support for the anti-Islam PVV in the provincial elections, according to the anti-fascist research group Kafka in Wednesday’s Volkskrant.