Category Archives: UK

Douglas Murray links up with Christian fundamentalist homophobe to smear Newham ‘mega-mosque’ supporters

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Alan Craig and press release

Two weeks ago a public inquiry opened into Newham Council’s rejection of a plan by the Abbey Mills Riverine Centre to build a so-called “mega-mosque” on the site it occupies in West Ham.

Supporting the plan, and the right of the Riverine Centre to continue to run a smaller mosque on the site, is Newham People’s Alliance. Leading the charge against the proposal is the MegaMosqueNoThanks campaign headed by right-wing evangelical Christian and former Christian Peoples Alliance councillor Alan Craig.

One of Craig’s main witnesses at the inquiry was supposed to be Tehmina Kazi, director of British Muslims for Secular Democracy, who was expected to denounce Tablighi Jamaat, the conservative Islamic proselytising organisation who run the Riverine Centre, for its allegedly discriminatory attitude towards women. What better way to deflect charges of Islamophobia than to have a young Muslim woman making Craig’s case for him?

We have had some harsh words to say about Kazi’s role in the “mega-mosque” controversy in the past, pointing out that while she has been very ready to denounce “fundamentalism” within the Muslim community she saw nothing wrong in allying herself with a Christian fundamentalist like Craig. However, to her credit, Kazi has evidently had second thoughts about this dubious alliance. On the eve of the opening of the public inquiry, the anti-mosque campaigners found themselves wrong-footed when Kazi announced that she would not be appearing as a witness.

Craig immediately issued a press release (text below) claiming that Kazi had withdrawn because she had been “intimidated by misogynist mosque supporters” and “harried and pressured by members of Muslim-run Newham Peoples Alliance”. Craig demanded: “Why do Islamists always pick on women? Like misogynist bullies NPA intruded on Tehmina’s holiday abroad last weekend. By phone and email they harassed her, intimidated her and then on behalf of the Tablighi Jamaat mosque trustees gave her assurance that their future treatment of women at the site will improve.”

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Park View School governor accuses Michael Gove of ‘demonising communities’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Park View schoolA governor at Park View School in Birmingham has accused Michael Gove and Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw of “demonising” communities affected by allegations of a “Trojan Horse” takeover plot of schools by hardline Muslims.

David Hughes launched a stinging attack on the Education Secretary and the Ofsted chief inspector over their handling of the case and suggested that they had exploited the situation. In an open letter to Mr Gove and Sir Michael, Mr Hughes, who is also vice chair of Park View Educational Trust (PVET), warned that communities affected by the allegations feel “frightened, betrayed and let down”.

All three of PVET’s schools – Park View, Nansen Primary and Golden Hillock – were among the five schools declared inadequate and put into special measures by Ofsted following inspections at a number of Birmingham schools as part of an investigation into the alleged plot by hardline Muslims to take over schools in the city.

Mr Hughes asked why Park View School had been told it was outstanding but was then informed that it had swiftly deteriorated. He wrote: “We were told we were outstanding, not least in a personal visit from Sir Michael, and courted to set up our multi-academy trust. Now we are told we have deteriorated at an alarming rate – yet we are largely the same people, doing what we did previously.

“I find it astounding that you are now so vehement in condemning us as negligent and derelict in our duties at best, and dangerous at worst. I have to say, Mr Gove and Mr Wilshaw, I too feel exploited, intimidated, bullied and not valued.

“I doubt that you can make a better job of governing Park View than myself and my colleague governors who, like thousands of other governors across the country, make up the biggest volunteer force in the UK.

“You have some very angry communities now who feel frightened, betrayed and let down by the way you have exploited the Trojan Horse hoax and demonised them. You have my best wishes in dealing with what has been unleashed.”
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Far right campaigns to ‘ban the burka’ … in Berwick-upon-Tweed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scottish Defence League (2)Berwick will be the location of another pair of demonstrations this summer as far-right groups announced intentions to march through the town.

Far-right groups the Scottish Defence League and the North East Infidels plan to travel to Berwick in order to hold a protest on July 5.

At a meeting last Friday Berwick Trades Union Council along with local anti-fascist campaigners discussed the two groups’ planned protest.

A statement was released expressing the council’s “revulsion and deep concern at the prospect of these fascist thugs once again invading our community with their messages of hate and division. In February last year Berwick put up a tremendous display of solidarity in opposing the SDL and EDL. The fascists on the other hand chanted racist slogans and caused mayhem in the town centre.”

The statement went on to call for a local response, which will be in the form of a counter demonstration inn the same vein as last year.

“We call on all those who supported the anti-fascist demonstration last year to do the same this year but this time to make it even bigger and stronger. Let’s tell these racist thugs they are not welcome in our peaceful and inclusive community. We have an organising meeting on Friday June 20 open to all those groups and individuals in our community who want to show a collective opposition to the fascists.”

The visiting groups are describing their march as a Ban the Burka event, and are planning to wear balaclavas as a sign of protest.

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Trojan Horse plot driven by same ‘warped’ Islamic extremism as Boko Haram, says Tony Blair

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The alleged Islamic extremism seen in the Birmingham schools affair is the same as that practised by Boko Haram, the Nigerian terrorist network, Tony Blair has said.

The Trojan Horse ‘plot’ to bring hardline practices into Birmingham classrooms is part of a global extremist movement stretching from Britain to Africa to the Far East, the former Prime Minister claimed. Mr Blair said the alleged plot was part of a movement that included extremists in Pakistan and Boko Haram, the Nigerian terrorist group. The group is responsible for the kidnapping of hundreds of schools girls in Nigeria two months ago and dozens of deadly attacks on churches and predominantly Christian villages.

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Cameron calls for promotion of ‘British values’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mail on Sunday Be More BritishMuslim clerics in the UK who inflame terrorism by denouncing free speech, equality and democracy will be opposed in a “muscular” new defence of “British values”, David Cameron has pledged.

In a powerful intervention clearly aimed mainly at “preachers of hate”, the Prime Minister says the failure to stand up to such firebrands has “allowed extremism – both the violent and non-violent kind – to flourish”.

He plans to use the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta – 12 months from today – to reassert British values in a “Magna Carta for Modern Britain.”

It is time to stop being “squeamish about Britishness” and tell everyone who lives here that refusing to accept British laws and the British way of life is “not an option”, Mr Cameron argues.

The Prime Minister will emphasise the commitment by insisting that Magna Carta becomes part of the school curriculum.

Downing Street stressed the Prime Minister’s comments, which come in an article in today’s Mail on Sunday, are aimed at all sections of the community, not just Muslims. However, they appear to signal a key change in the stance of successive recent governments, Tory and Labour, on this sensitive issue.

They have faced claims that some unrepresentative ethnic minority leaders have been given free rein to promote extremist views – and trample on UK laws and rights on democracy, women’s equality, religious freedom and tolerance.

Mr Cameron’s initiative is a direct response to the “Trojan Horse” scandal of Islamist extremists who infiltrated state schools.

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Sharia expert warns of threat from Islam following ‘Trojan Horse’ inquiry

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sam Solomon Trojan HorseIn the wake of the so-called Trojan Horse inquiry into Islamic extremism in schools in Birmingham, Sharia expert, Sam Solomon, co-founder of Christian Concern, says that the Ofsted investigation rings a “warning bell” about the strategic aim that drives Islam – the imposition of sharia throughout British society.

Sam Solomon lectures on Islamic affairs to international audiences and is an adviser to governments including American, British and European politicians. He converted to Christianity after reading the New Testament.

In a detailed analysis of the lessons to be learned from the alleged ‘plot’ to apply sharia in Birmingham schools, Sam warns that Britain must safeguard its value system against an on-going plan by Islamists to subjugate the British way of life to sharia.

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An open letter to Student Rights

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Following their unanimous vote on 23 May to denounce the group, Imperial College student union has published an open letter to Student Rights:

“Being a project set up by the neoconservative Henry Jackson Society … we believe that your input in discussions around campus issues have and will continue to demonise and marginalise Muslim students, and we therefore have no confidence in your judgement. We are therefore pleased that our members, students of Imperial College London, have collectively decided to denounce Student Rights and its agenda, and as of today we are instituting a no-engagement policy with your organisation.”

Guardian columnist asks: Did notorious racist have a point after all?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ray Honeyford protestIt is a measure of the disorientation produced by the current wave of Islamophobia, and the accompanying assault on multiculturalism, that a liberal newspaper like the Guardian can publish an article lauding a notorious racist.

Here is Ian Jack (following the example already set by Allison Pearson in the Telegraph) writing about Ray Honeyford, who as a Bradford headteacher in the 1980s became a hero for the right because of his noxious opinions:

His views on schools – that they exist to teach rather than entertain or placate – have become orthodox long since. That immigrants “have responsibilities as well rights” is a cliche now embedded in every political party, which also demand that immigrants speak and read English before they take citizenship tests. And on the available evidence, the case of the Birmingham schools seems to show what happens when a version of multicultural freedom prevails, which Honeyford so fiercely opposed. By these lights, it’s hard not to think he was right or, if you prefer it more neutrally, well ahead of his time.

The most Jack is prepared to concede is that Honeyford showed a degree of insensitivity towards minority communities of recent migrant origin.

Jack cites “Education and Race – an Alternative View”, Honeyford’s infamous Salisbury Review article from 1984, observing that it “turned Honeyford from an obscure if opinionated headteacher into a national figure”. However, he omits to provide his readers with a link to the article, even though it is available online. And that is hardly surprising, since the article is quite sickening in its blatant racism.

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