Category Archives: UK

Tea Party email reveals motive behind campaign against ‘Ground Zero mosque’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Writing at the Huffington Post, Ahmed Rehab of CAIR reproduces a email circulated by the Tea Party opposing the Park51 development. As he points out, it demonstrates that the campaign against the “Ground Zero mosque” is “motivated by an ideological belief that ‘Islam is evil and must be stopped; America is Judeo-Christian'”.

The Tea Party email asserts that the principle of freedom of religion does not apply to Islam, as it is “a religion [that] can and does demand world domination by any means, including violence if necessary”. The email demands:

“Should the first amendment protect the practice of a religion which has a hostile political agenda wrapped in cleric’s robes? Should the U.S. Constitution protect a religion whose focus is converting the United States from a Democratic Republic into a Theocracy lead by religious cleric’s who are antithetical to what made this nation great and what keeps it great? …

“Should ‘We The People’ give haven to religions whose main purpose it to install a system of Theo-political colonization? Shall the American people welcome with open arms a religion having untold millions of members demanding the beheading of western infidels? Shall the People of America grant safe haven to those who cheerfully work for the day Israel, the United States and all other non-Islamic states are finally eradicated off the face of the earth?

“These bothersome questions are not ones of religious rights, but rather of the will of the people. Will the people tolerate everything? Will ‘blanket tolerance’ be the downfall of the Judaic/Christian basis of the American society?”

Via LoonWatch

More scaremongering over ‘radicalised’ Muslim prisoners

Posted on by Bob Pitt

PrintBritain faces a potential “new wave” of home-grown terrorist attacks as a result of an escalating rate of radicalisation of Muslims inside the prison system, according to a report published today by a leading defence and security thinktank.

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) says that up to 800 “potentially violent radicals” who have not been convicted of terrorist offences could be released from prisons in England and Wales over the next five to 10 years and will pose a significant challenge to the security services to identify them.

The estimate rests upon “prison probation sources” saying that one in 10 of the 8,000 Muslim prisoners in high security jails in England and Wales could be successfully targeted.

However, the Ministry of Justice disputed the figures in the report. It said last night: “The prison and probation service does not recognise the figure of 800 ‘violent radicals’ referred to in the report, nor do we agree that jihadist radicalisation is taking place at a rapid rate.

“There are only 6,000 prisoners in the high security estate, most of whom are not Muslim. The figure of ‘one in 10 of the 8,000 Muslims’ in the high security estate is therefore unrecognisable.”

Guardian, 27 August 2010

So the RUSI report’s figures, which are evidently based on nothing more substantial than the subjective opinion of unnamed individuals in the probation service, don’t add up. Or at any rate the report’s authors know so little about the subject that they are unable to distinguish between the general Muslim prison population and those in high security jails. Unsurprisingly, the right-wing press doesn’t see the need to highlight this point.

The Mail performs its usual trick of running a shock-horror headline (“Muslim inmates ‘turning to terror’ as think tank says convicted terrorists are radicalising fellow inmates”) while burying the Ministry of Justice’s rejection of the RUSI’s claim at the bottom of the article. The Sun (“800 fanatical Muslim lags ‘waiting to hit UK'”) and the Star (“Muslim radicals bred behind bars says think-tank”) do the same. And, just to show that the liberal press isn’t immune to this sort of thing either, so does the Independent (“Muslims ‘being turned into terrorists in jail'”).

Neither the Telegraph (“Britain faces new terror wave”) nor the Express (“Jailed Muslims ‘converted to terrorist cause'”) bother to quote the Ministry of Justice at all.

Predictably, it is the Telegraph version of the story that is reproduced by Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch.

Mark Steel on the ‘Ground Zero mosque’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mark Steel“To give yourself a stressful and futile day, try telling people there are no plans to build a mosque at Ground Zero. You’ll get nowhere, although the truth is there are plans to build an Islamic centre, with a swimming pool open to everyone, two blocks away from Ground Zero. So if this is a continuation of the terrorist agenda as claimed, it’s been a peculiar plan, and Bin Laden must have started by telling his followers ‘First we will destroy their buildings – and then, oo it’s so deliciously evil, we will get people to swim near to where the buildings were… mwaHAHAHAHAHA’.”

Independent, 25 August 2010

The Nazis who infest the EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZjFU47Ia7rs

Via Lancaster Unity

One of the EDL’s staunchest defenders is of course Pamela Geller, who has written:

“The EDL is routinely smeared in the British media, as the Tea Party activists are smeared in the U.S. media. The corrupt, biased media defames any group, person, or organization standing against Islamic supremacism. They tar, feather, and destroy the good name of good people who stand for life, liberty, and individual rights. Libel and slander like ‘racist’, ‘fascist’, ‘bigot’, etc. color every news report of every counter-jihad action. The quisling media is the propaganda arm of jihad. It’s despicable. There is nothing racist, fascist, or bigoted about the EDL.”

See also “Racist thugs urged to hurl pork at Muslims”, Daily Star, 22 August 2010

Demos defends EDL’s right to march in Bradford, says it would help them ‘feel a sense of belonging to the society in which they live’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Dudley2The Home Secretary should lift the ban on marches in Bradford this weekend or risk making protesters more radical, according to a think-tank. Banning protests by extremist groups is an ineffective way of combating their ideology, Demos said.

The warning comes as police in the West Yorkshire city prepares for clashes between the English Defence League (EDL) and Unite Against Fascism this weekend, despite Home Secretary Theresa May authorising a blanket ban on marches in the city.

Jamie Bartlett, a researcher at Demos, said banning the march “could push members of the English Defence League into more radical groups like Combat 18 or the Racial Volunteer Force”.

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Home secretary bans EDL march in Bradford

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL in BirminghamHome Secretary Theresa May has authorised a blanket ban on marches in Bradford on August 28 – the day the English Defence League (EDL) was planning a protest.

The far-right group had intended to march down Manchester Road, one of the biggest Asian areas in the city, and Unite Against Fascism (UAF) had planned a protest in the city on the same day.

A Home Office spokesman said: “Having carefully balanced rights to protest against the need to ensure local communities and property are protected, the Home Secretary gave her consent to a Bradford Council order banning any marches in the city over the bank holiday weekend.”

The city council sought a marching ban following an 11,000-strong public petition and a formal request by West Yorkshire Chief Constable Norman Bettison. Mr Bettison said he was taking the action after considering the “understandable concerns of the community.”

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Racially motivated attack on Muslim man in Heckmondwike

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim man was attacked by a gang of white youths on his way to a Kirklees mosque. Now police are appealing for witnesses to the racially motivated attack on the 51-year old man.

It happened on Thursday, August 12, at around 6:45pm, as the man was walking down an alleyway on Goose Hill, in Heckmondwike. He was approached by a group of between six and ten young white men all in their mid to late teens, who shouted racial abuse at the man who was then punched in the face by one of the youths before they all ran away towards High Street.

Huddersfield Examiner, 18 August 2010

MP pleased that women who wore niqab have gone

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MP Philip Hollobone says he is pleased that the only two women in Kettering who wear burkas have left.

Inam Khan, chairman of Kettering Muslim Association, said the two women, whose husbands were doctors at Kettering General Hospital, left the town shortly after Mr Hollobone first criticised the burka in February.

The Kettering MP, who is trying to change the law to ban the burka, which some Muslim women wear to cover their face, said: “I’m pleased to hear that. Wearing the full face veil is inappropriate. To hear that no-one in the town is wearing one is a sign of an integrated society.”

Despite having no constituents who wear one, Mr Hollobone has tabled a private members bill in the House of Commons calling for the burka to be banned.

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