Category Archives: UK

Being anti-Islam is not racist claims Ian McEwan (as do the EDL, of course)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ian McEwan has insisted that criticising Islam is not racist and blamed left-leaning thinkers for “closing down the debate”. The Booker Prize winner said those who claimed judging Muslims was “de facto” racism were playing a “poisonous argument”. McEwan, 61, the best-selling author of novels including Amsterdam, Atonement and Saturday, thought many in the left wrongly took this position because they had an anti-Americanism shared with Islamists. In an interview with today’s Telegraph Magazine, McEwan said:

“Chunks of left-of-centre opinion have tried to close down the debate by saying that if you were to criticise Islam as a thought system you are a de facto racist. That is a poisonous argument. They do it on the basis that they see an ally in their particular forms of anti-Americanism. So these radical Muslims are the shock-troops for the armchair Left who don’t want to examine too closely the rest of the package – the homophobia, the misogyny and so on.”

Daily Telegraph, 13 March 2010

Protests force council to reject plans for giant mosque next to Sandhurst military academy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL protest against Camberley mosque
English Defence League supporters protest outside the council meeting

A controversial plan to build a mosque with two 100ft minarets next to Sandhurst has been scrapped to the jubilation of thousands of residents.

The £3million building would have had a clear view over the military academy and is just 400 yards from its parade ground – prompting fears it could be a security threat. A listed Victorian school building was set to be demolished to make way for the huge Saudi Arabian-style building.

More than 6,500 residents signed a petition to oppose the application because of fears it would change the Victorian character of the area.

The gigantic mosque was the idea of the Bengali Welfare Association, which worships at the al-Kharafi Islamic Centre in Camberley. The Victorian school, built in the 1860s, has been used as an Islamic Centre since 1996.

The plans for a new mosque were originally approved by Surrey Heath Borough Council’s planning committee earlier this year, but overturned on a technicality. On Wednesday night they finally backtracked after massive public opposition.

A special council meeting had to be held at the Camberley Theatre because of the volume of interest. Residents queued from 9.30am to make sure they got into the meeting, which started at 7pm. More than a thousand people sat inside the hall, while more residents who could not get in waited outside for the verdict.

All but two of the 36 councillors voted to refuse the planning application – a decision which was greeted with cheers both in and outside the theatre.

David Chesneau, chairman of the Camberley Society, said: “This was definitely the right result. They were thinking of knocking down a listed building. A mosque in its place would not have preserved or enhanced the Victorian and Edwardian character of the area.”

Daily Mail, 12 March 2011

Tory MP calls for veil to be banned in UK

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Philip Hollobone (2)The Daily Telegraph reports that Philip Hollobone, Conservative MP for Kettering, has called for a ban on Muslim women wearing the veil, on the grounds that it is “offensive” and “against the British way of life”.

Hollobone told the Commons: “This is Britain. We are not a Muslim country. Covering your face in public is strange, and to many people both intimidating and offensive. I seriously think that a ban on wearing the burka in public should be considered.”

Hollobone was speaking in a debate on International Women’s Day. His intervention follows previous comments that wearing the veil was like “going round with a paper bag over your head”.

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Review rejects ban on fascist teachers, says BNP and NF are ‘legitimate organisations’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP Islam Out of BritainTeachers in England should not be banned from membership of the British National Party or any group which may promote racism, a review has concluded.

The government commissioned the report last September after a leaked list identified 15 BNP members as teachers. Review author Maurice Smith added his recommendation should be reviewed every year, which ministers have accepted.

BNP leader Nick Griffin welcomed what he called a “common sense review” and said it was a great day for democracy.

Mr Smith said: “I do not believe that barring teachers or other members of the wider school workforce from membership of legitimate organisations which may promote racism is necessary at present.”

The NASUWT union, which has campaigned to have BNP members banned from schools, said it was disappointed by the review’s findings.

General secretary Chris Keates said the report was “an opportunity that’s been missed” to bring teachers into line with police and prison officers. “The idea that a person who signs up to membership of the BNP can simply leave these beliefs at the school gate and behave as a ‘professional’ when they walk into school is risible, ” said Ms Keates. “The report is woefully inadequate and littered with contradictions.”

BBC News, 12 March 2010

Update:  See “Why we must ban BNP from schools”, Sun, 13 March 2010

Book launch in Birmingham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A new book with a radical approach to Christian engagement with Islam is being launched at the Queens Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education on Monday 15th March 2010 at 6pm.

A Heart Broken Open – Radical Faith in an Age of Fear is the moving and insightful reflection by an Christian Minister of his grassroots engagement with Islam through relationships built from inner-city parish ministry in Leeds to the streets of Karbala, Iraq at a time of rising Islamophobia and the ‘war on terror’.

Read more here.

Islam has failed Douglas Murray

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“It is grotesque to argue that Europe has failed its Muslims. It has been made repeatedly obvious that it is Islam that has failed Europe.”

Writing on his Telegraph blog, Douglas (“conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board“, “there’s a very rational fear in being scared of Islam today and wanting to act against it“) Murray provides an entirely objective assessment of his recent debate with Tariq Ramadan.

The BNP Nazi at the heart of the EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Chris Renton at EDL protestThe man in this picture is Chris Renton. He was photographed on the racist English Defence League (EDL) march on parliament last Friday.

Renton is a well known member of the British National Party (BNP) – and he is also on the leadership team of the EDL. In fact, Renton was one of the group’s founders. He runs the EDL’s Facebook pages and set up the EDL website and forums.

The BNP and EDL deny any links with each other. But the fact that this BNP Nazi is central to the EDL proves otherwise.

In a radio interview in July 2009, then EDL spokesperson Paul Ray confirmed that Renton was a BNP activist. And Renton is not the only fascist central to the EDL. Davy Cooling, the administrator of the EDL’s Luton Facebook site, is also on the BNP membership list. Many other known BNP members were spotted on the EDL’s march in London.

This is more proof that the EDL is a dangerous organisation with fascism at its core.

Socialist Worker, 9 March 2010

Cf. Robert Spencer’s assurance that “the EDL is standing up for human rights, for the freedom of speech, for Western civilization, for Israel, and for the defense against the global jihad and the Islamization of Britain. There is no credible evidence that this group is racist or fascist in the slightest degree.”

Opposition grows to EDL’s anti-mosque rally in Dudley

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL slogans BirminghamResidents are being urged to stay away from Dudley town centre on Easter Sunday, as far right group the English Defence League is set to descend on the town.

The extremist party claims to be bringing around 3,000 supporters on April 4 to protest against the planned £18million mosque.

Council leader, Cllr Anne Millward, said she was angered that the EDL want to come to the “peaceful town”, as West Midlands Police confirm there will be a “robust police presence” on the day in case of trouble. She added: “They say they are coming to protest against the planned mosque, but we’ve had a mosque in Dudley for over 30 years. So what is the point of them coming? We don’t want them and for them to come on Easter Sunday, one of the most important days in the Christian calendar, I think is an absolute travesty. I just urge people to stay away.”

Cllr Millward has also condemned plans announced by anti-fascist group Unite Against Fascism (UAF) who have confirmed they will be holding a counter-demonstration on the day, with fears that thousands of outsiders could angrily clash in the town centre. Cllr Millward said: “The plans for the anti-fascist group to outnumber the EDL I think is highly irresponsible. This group just need to be completely ignored.”

But UAF officials said they are organising the “largest peace protest to counteract” the EDL, whose protest will just be “thuggery and hatred”. Martin Lynch, Black Country spokesman for Unite Against Fascism (UAF), said:

“We don’t think people who believe in racism and hatred should be allowed to come to Dudley town centre or anywhere else for that matter. At a recent demonstration in Stoke they ran amok smashing property and hurting people. There is no way this is a legitimate protest of any kind. It will just be thuggery and hatred. If this does go ahead we will seek to call the largest peace protest to counteract theirs.”

Meanwhile, Jim Warner, spokesman for Dudley’s Trade Union Council (TUC) said members had passed a resolution supporting UAF’s counterprotest. Mr Warner said: “We are calling on all our local union branches to encourage members to turn out with their union banners for a peaceful protest. We have also put together a unity statement which has been signed by all our trade union branches, community and faith groups supporting this decision and calling for the protest to be abandoned.”

Dudley News, 10 March 2010

Update:  See “English Defence League switch date for Dudley protest”, Birmingham Mail, 14 March 2010

Siddique released after terror conviction quashed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man branded a “wannabe suicide bomber” by prosecutors will not face a retrial on terrorism charges.

Mohammed Atif Siddique, 24, a student from Alva, Clackmannanshire, was found guilty under terrorism laws in 2007. But Appeal Court judges in Edinburgh said on 29 January he had suffered a “miscarriage of justice” on one of the charges and quashed the conviction.

The Crown Office has said it does not wish to seek a fresh prosecution. Siddique has now been released.

His family wept and hugged each other outside the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh, after Lord Osborne said judges would quash the main conviction.

In a statement read out by his solicitor Aamer Anwar on the court steps, Siddique said: “I have always maintained my innocence, but they took my liberty, destroyed my family’s reputation and labelled me a terrorist. But I never had any bombs or plans to hurt anyone. In court it was said I was a wannabe suicide bomber, but I have always said I was simply looking for answers on the internet.”

The shopkeeper’s son was jailed for eight years in October 2007 after a four-week trial in Glasgow. He was found guilty of two charges under the Terrorism Act 2000, one under the Terrorism Act 2006 and a breach of the peace.

The most serious charge related to the possession of articles that gave rise to “reasonable suspicion” they were connected to terrorism. His conviction on that allegation resulted in a six-year prison term.

But at his appeal hearing in January Lord Osborne criticised the way the trial judge explained the main Terrorist Act charge to the jury. The judge, sitting with Lords Reed and Clarke in Edinburgh, said the “material misdirection” amounted to “a miscarriage of justice”.

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