The Sunday Telegraph has published details of the Queen’s Speech. The list of bills to be introduced before the summer recess includes:
Terrorist Asset Freezing Bill. (Treasury)
There is already provision for freezing terrorists’ assets in law – however, a new Bill could be the vehicle for expanding the definition of an organisation classed as terrorist, possibly to include Hizb-ut-Tahir, the revolutionary Islamist party, which David Cameron has said he will ban.
This exchange between right-wing US TV presenter Bill O’Reilly and political commentator Imogen Lloyd Webber would be funny if it weren’t for the fact that a lot of US citizens get their information from Fox News.
Lloyd Webber attacks the proposed French ban on the veil as “a massive mistake”, “an infringement of women’s rights”, “completely counterproductive” and “an act of discrimination” – which is not at all to O’Reilly’s taste. He counters that the French “are really worried about these Muslim ghettos”, which he associates with riots and suicide bombing.
O’ Reilly insists: “The same thing’s going on in London. You have neighbourhoods in London, they’re totally Muslim, they speak Arabic. You walk in those neighbourhoods, you’re not in England – you’re not there, you’re in Kuwait.”
“I can’t actually think of one in London”, Lloyd Webber replies. “Clapham Common”, suggests O’Reilly, bizarrely. Lloyd Webber responds that “Clapham Common is full of posh people with push-chairs”!
Thus Douglas Murray’s take on the proposal to build a new mosque and community centre in New York, not far from the site of the former World Trade Center.
Meanwhile, over in the USA, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer have written a piece entitled “The 9/11 mosque’s peace charade“. They dismiss the anti-extremist credentials of the Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement, the organisations proposing to build the mosque:
“How will a mosque, the place where jihadis go for spiritual sustenance, at Ground Zero help stop jihad terrorism? … Whom does a mosque at 9/11 really honor: the Americans who lost their lives, or the jihadis who murdered them?”
Geller and Spencer are organising a protest rally on 6 June through their organisation Stop Islamization of America.
And one Mark Williams, a leading figure in the Tea Party movement, has written on his blog:
“The animals of allah for whom any day is a great day for a massacre are drooling over the positive response that they are getting from New York City officials over a proposal to build a 13 story monument to the 9/11 Muslims who hijacked those 4 airliners. The monument would consist of a Mosque for the worship of the terrorists’ monkey-god and a ‘cultural center’ to propagandize for the extermination of all things not approved by their cult.”
Writing in the Daily Express, Anne Widdecome offers her views on the case of the Ellesmere Port pupil whose mother refused to allow her to participate in a school visit to a mosque (a story from last month belatedly latched onto by the Daily Mail, followed by the Express, the Telegraph, the Daily Star and the Mirror):
Learning about another religion should not mean having to practise it and insisting that a Catholic schoolgirl should dress as a Muslim and visit a mosque is a nonsense that her parents would not have expected to encounter when they chose a specifically Catholic school.
Indeed why does the head think they selected a Catholic school? Presumably it was to enable that child to learn that faith.
The bishop should have a quiet word with the headmaster of Ellesmere Port Catholic High School and suggest that he revert to the usual practice of teaching children to defend not surrender their faith and to know the difference between tolerating other faiths and adopting them.
If he cannot pass that test the diocese should find a head who can. Would that same head insist a Muslim child attend Mass wearing a crucifix?
No, of course he wouldn’t, but he would undoubtedly ask pupils to dress appropriately for a visit to any place of worship. And that is what the pupil at the centre of this controversy was asked to do – not “dress as a Muslim”. Is Widdecombe perhaps suggesting that the head would have no problem with a pupil attending Mass dressed in a bikini?
It’s worth noting that other parents at Ellesmere Port Catholic High School voiced their objections to the mosque visit, without bothering to hide behind the nonsense about “dressing as a Muslim”. As one of them explained: “I’m not racist or anything but I live in England, I send my daughter to an English speaking catholic school, so I don’t see why she should go to a mosque.”
Far-right group the English Defence League are planning a march through Newcastle, sparking counter protests. The EDL, which claims to protest against Muslim extremism, will march from the city’s Central Station to the Bigg Market, on Saturday, May 29. Members of anti-fascist groups and trade unions are planning counter demonstrations for the same day. Some councillors have called for the EDL’s parade to be banned.
Coun Dipu Ahad, Labour member in Elswick, said: “Do we really want this kind of thing in our city? Relationships between communities in Newcastle are very good and harmonious and this can only stir up hatred. It’s all very well saying a demonstration will be peaceful, but it only takes a few individuals to cause trouble and you have a riot. Newcastle is billed as a City of Peace, so how can this march be allowed to threaten that? I’ve had many emails and phone calls from the Muslim community and they are extremely worried. This march can only serve to break up bonds built up and increase tension.”
Peace campaigners will join Muslim community organisations and anti-racist activists in a one-day conference next month to prepare for a potential rise in Islamophobia as the new government steps up war efforts in the Middle East.
The event, entitled Defend the Muslim Community, will take place on June 5 and has been organised by the Stop the War Coalition (StWC) and the British Muslim Initiative with support from numerous other organisations.
Explaining the event, StWC convener Lindsey German told the Star yesterday: “The government’s Prevent anti-extremism programme has actually gone a long way in attempting to criminalise Muslims for their political beliefs. A person should not be regarded as an extremist just because they oppose a war most people in this country do not support.
“We want to bring together people on the left with the Muslim community and peace campaigners and anti-racists to discuss what can be done.
“People are claiming the discrimination is not racist because it is about religion. But that is exactly what they said about the Jews and we all know what happened there.
“We hope this will be the start of a campaign which will see Muslims and non-Muslims standing together to reject the scapegoating of the Muslim community and racist attitudes.”
The conference is scheduled to feature guest speakers including Daud Abdullah from the Muslim Council of Britain; director of Cage Prisoners Moazzam Begg; CND chairwoman Kate Hudson; Respect party representative Salma Yaqoob; former head of Scotland Yard’s Muslim Contact Unit Robert Lambert and journalists Seumas Milne and Peter Oborne.
The conference will take place at the Camden Centre from 10am to 5pm on Saturday June 5. To book tickets visit www.stopwar.org.uk or call 020 7801 2768
A white supremacist who dismissed other extreme groups as weak and gutless was jailed for 10 years today after becoming the first Briton to be convicted for producing a chemical weapon.
Ian Davison, 42, whose Aryan Strike Force idolised Hitler and flew swastika flags on secret training days in Cumbria, was castigated by a judge for recruiting his teenage son Nicky, a part-time milkman and would-be soldier, who was given two years’ detention for possessing material useful to commit acts of terror.
A sentencing hearing at Newcastle crown court heard that other alleged members of the ASF, which recruited some 350 people worldwide online, will face trial later this year.
Ian Davison had discussed poisoning Muslims’ water supplies with an avowed Nazi in Serbia, as well as emailing other ASF members about posting cockroaches through letterboxes of Asian restaurants and businesses to start infestations and for their closure.
Although the hatred was often focused on Muslims and ethnic minorities, the group’s propaganda – fed online by Nicky Davison – often attacked “Zionist governments”. Ian Davison wrote on an internet forum: “The Jew is the Aryan’s sworn enemy above all.”
Thus the front page headline in today’s Daily Star, which has belatedly latched on to the case of Amy Owen, whose mother refused to allow her to join a school trip to a mosque. Inside the paper an editorial offers the following observations:
“It’s political correctness gone mad. Schoolgirl Amy Owen was punished for refusing to dress as a Muslim on a trip. The school branded her a ‘truant’ and wrote a stern letter to her family. The headmaster insisted it was ‘compulsory’ for the 14-year-old to visit a local mosque. And he tried to force Amy to wear a Muslim-style headscarf.
“It’s disgusting. Everyone involved should hang their head in shame. Amy is a Catholic. Her beliefs should be respected. Demanding she ditch her faith for Islam is the ultimate religious insult.”
“Ditch her faith for Islam” – because she was asked to cover her head in a visit to a mosque? What are these people on?
See also the Daily Mail and the Sun.
A frightening attack by a gang of hooded thugs on an Islamic centre was last night being treated by police as racist.
The group of neds in their late teens and early 20s who hurled eggs into the building while prayers were being held in the afternoon were yesterday branded despicable by one shocked worshipper.
At first those gathered at the centre were astonished at what was happening and didn’t have a clue what had been thrown. All that was heard were shouts of abuse and the loud noise of a main door banging shut. The alarming incident happened on Friday, May 7, at the Dar-Ul-Quran Islamic Centre in Paisley Road, Renfrew.
One man, who spoke to the Paisley Daily Express, said: “At the time it was scary. The attackers were very abusive and shouting at the tops of their voices. Then something was hurled into the building and we didn’t know what it was at first. This has never happened here before and we’re all disappointed. It was a despicable act.”
Police said there was a “racist incident” around 2.15pm while prayers were being held. There were a few worshippers inside when a main door of the centre suddenly opened and eggs were thrown inside.
A robber wrapped a Muslim woman in a carpet and set fire to her after he raided her home.
The attacker gained entry to the woman’s Westminster flat by claiming to be an inspector from her local council, but once inside he bashed her and tied her up before stealing thousands of pounds worth of valuables. As he left, he wrapped her in a carpet and set it alight, telling her: “This is your Eid present, you Muslim.”
The woman, aged in her 40s, was saved by neighbours who broke into her flat after hearing her screams.