Category Archives: UK

BNP slammed over anti-Muslim Pac-Man spoof

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mark Collett PacmanA British National Party official has been accused of racism over an anti-Muslim message posted on the internet.

Mark Collett, the BNP’s publicity director, created a spoof of the Pac-Man computer game with the caption “Sortin’ out Muslims since 1980” and has uploaded it to a number of websites.

The image, which shows caricatures of Muslim women in veils being attacked by the computer character, is accompanied by a personal message from Collett on his Facebook page. He wrote: “Pac-Man knows how to deal with Muslims! I made this, I hope it makes you all smile! Feel free to send it out and spread the joy.”

Collett was cleared in 2006 of inciting racial hatred after a jury heard he had told a meeting in Keithley: “Let’s show these ethnics the door in 2004.”

But Muslim MP Shahid Malik, a minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government, has accused Collett of being “twisted” and said the game proves the BNP is racist.

He told Sky News: “If this is the work of Mark Collett, it only serves as further demonstration of what a sick, twisted and vile individual he is. It is useful to highlight this type of attitude in the leadership of the BNP. It helps expose the true face of this racist and fascist organisation.”

Collett’s comments about “how to deal with Muslims” are at odds with his party’s public statements on immigration and leader Nick Griffin’s claims the party is not racist.

The policy section of the BNP website claims the party is not opposed to non-whites, so long as whites stay the majority. It states: “We accept that Britain always will have ethnic minorities and have no problem with this as long as they remain minorities.”

Yet Dr Rob Berkeley from the Runnymede Trust, which campaigns to promote a multi-ethnic Britain, describes Collett’s game and comments as “clearly racist”. He said: “It is more evidence, if it was needed, that the BNP is a racist party, or at minimum a party of racists.”

Collett told Sky News his spoof Pac-Man picture was “simply a joke” and said he did not want to “sort out” Muslims. He said: “The Pac-Man character eats ghosts, but to suggest that anyone in the BNP wants anyone to eat women in burqas is laughable. It’s not suggesting that anyone needs sorting out, it was simply a joke.”

Sky News, 12 November 2009

Dirty tricks campaign against Salma Yaqoob

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Respect Party leader Salma Yaqoob has called in the police after becoming the victim of a dirty tricks campaign apparently targeting white voters. Professionally produced leaflets bearing the Respect logo have been posted to addresses in Moseley, Kings Heath and Balsall Heath bearing a fictitious quotation from Yaqoob saying “I am not big on Britishness.” They also show Muslim protestors in Luton jeering troops on their return from Aghanistan.

Yaqoob, a Sparkbrook councillor and prospective parliamentary candidate for Hall Green, commented: “This isn’t just a personal attack on me, it’s an attack on the whole community and is clearly designed to be divisive.  Anyone who knows me would understand that what whatever my thoughts on the war in Afghanistan, I would never target soldiers for criticism – only politicians.”

The leaflets combine fact with fiction, since they also include another quotation from Yaqoob which is accurate in an obvious attempt to confuse even well read members of its target audience – white voters in the constituency who are sent the leaflets by post.

One person who received a copy was Louise Maycock of Balsall Heath who contacted The Stirrer. “It wasn’t stuffed through my letter box. It was sent to me personally at my home address”, said Louise. “It was inflammatory and specifically designed to whip up Islamophobia.”

When asked if she had any idea who would produce such a leaflet, Yaqoob remarked: “You have to ask yourself who would benefit from these kind of attacks.”

The Stirrer, 10 November 2009

Muslim Mafia author calls for ‘backlash’ against US Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim MafiaA conservative author whose book was touted just last month by four Republican members of Congress is explicitly calling for a “backlash” against American Muslims in the wake of the Fort Hood shootings.

Dave Gaubatz, author of Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America, made the comment in a semi-coherent interview with the group Family Security Matters.

In assigning collective blame for the Fort Hood killings, Gaubatz said:

“Politicians, Muslims, and law enforcement are concerned about a ‘backlash’ against Muslims. Now is the time for a professional and legal backlash against the Muslim community and their leaders. Muslims know what materials are being taught in their mosques and they know many of the materials instruct young Muslims to kill innocent people who do not adhere to Sharia law. If Muslims do not want a backlash, then I would recommend a ‘house cleaning’. Stack every Saudi, al Qaeda, Pakistani, Taliban, Hamas, and Muslim Brotherhood piece of material from their mosque and have a bonfire. Tell the American, Jewish, and Muslim community this hatred will no longer be allowed in their mosques.”

All of this might be dismissed as the ranting of a fringe lunatic, but for the fact that Gaubatz’s work has been circulated and endorsed by prominent Republican officials.

TPM, 9 November 2009

Update:  Cf. this interview with one Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association who rejects a backlash against Muslims “just because they’re Muslims” but adds: “We should not allow Muslims to serve in the US military and we have got to raise questions about whether we can afford to allow Muslims to immigrate into the United States at all.”

Muslim advocates fasting during Ramadan shock

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ENGAGE replies to a particularly stupid piece of witch-hunting by Martin Bright in last week’s Jewish Chronicle attacking the appointment of Asim Hafeez as Community Advisor in the Home Office on the grounds that he is “a hardcore Islamist”. ENGAGE points out:

“An example Bright cites of Hafeez’s ‘hardcore’ credentials is this: ‘The new Home Office adviser is reported to have raised eyebrows at his new department during the Muslim festival of Ramadan, when he lectured guests at a reception about the benefits of fasting.‘ If a Muslim speaking of the benefits of fasting on the passing of Ramadan and celebration of Eid ul-Fitr is hardcore, then Hafeez shares the quality with all British Muslims.”

ENGAGE, 9 November 2009

Attacks on Muslim students at City University

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) regrets to inform that over the past week Muslim students at City University (London) have been the target of a series of attacks culminating with three Muslims being stabbed on St. John Street in the immediate vicinity of the University after being surrounded by over 30 youths.

Attacks earlier in the week left three students requiring hospitalisation for severe facial and head injuries as they were set upon by the gang shouting Islamophobic and racist abuse including statements like “Get those Muslims” and “Paki” being used repeatedly; they were subjected to a series of projectile missiles, including bricks, metal poles and sign posts.

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Fascism, not Islam, is the enemy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SDL badge“It caused quite a stir when it was built more than two decades ago, but now the distinctive domes of Glasgow Central Mosque are an unremarked-upon feature of the Clydeside skyline. The large modern building is a landmark of the transformed Gorbals, no more foreign than the nearby Citizens’ Theatre, with its reputation for staging highbrow European plays.

“Locals found the mosque more pleasing on the eye than the monolithic Sir Basil Spence tower blocks the council forced them to live in for decades. The quiet men and women who worship there were no trouble at all – and the Gorbals certainly knows trouble when it comes visiting.

“Trouble will visit this Saturday, in the form of an organisation calling itself the Scottish Defence League (SDL). It plans to protest near the mosque against what it says is the rise of Islamic extremism. There has never been any suggestion that Glasgow’s mosque gives succour to extremists – it does not. But that will not stop the SDL….

“Over on the social networking site Facebook, the SDL page includes the usual bulldog profile pictures. But the use of Scottish symbolism is more worrying – a lion rampant logo and phrases such as: ‘Let us rise now and be a nation again. We must unite the clans against the extremists.’ … All this fascism lite is intended to whip up hatred and will lead to more racist attacks….

“The choice is stark. A liberal society protects minorities. It allows collaboration between people who might disagree on some issues but find common ground when it matters – in this case opposing fascism. This is why I intend to join the counter-demonstration on Glasgow Green at noon this Saturday….

“Scotland United 2009 is a combination of churches, politicians and individuals who want the country to tell the far right they are not welcome here. Annabel Goldie, the Conservative leader at Holyrood, will speak alongside the SNP deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon.

“It is encouraging that the Scottish-Islamic Foundation is one of the main drivers. It has been criticised in the past for being too radically religious and the SNP government has been criticised for supporting it – Osama Saeed, one of the party’s prospective candidates, is one of its leading lights.

“But let’s be pragmatic and look at its record. The foundation has gone out of its way to vocally oppose terrorism, organising a spontaneous rally after the Glasgow airport attacks. By engaging young Muslims in the political process, by collaborating with the Holyrood government and cross-party organisations like Scotland United, it places the Muslim community firmly in middle Scotland. It builds bridges….

“Far from appeasing Islamists, as some claim, the close co-operation between civic Scotland and Muslim Scotland fostered by the foundation appears to be paying dividends. By demonstrating that Scottish national identity can embrace all faiths and ethnicities, you neutralise the alienation and resentment that drives young people towards the jihadists.”

Joan McAlpine in the Sunday Times, 8 November 2009

Opposition to Muslim girls’ school plan in Pendle

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pland to convert the former Smith and Nephew factory in Brierfield into a Muslim girls’ school have provoked widespread opposition. Brierfield’s Mayor, Michael Sutcliff, has spoken out against the plan.Town councillor Marie Starkie also voiced her disapproval. Pendle MP Gordon Prentice has lambasted the proposal. And a leading Pendle BNP councillor has condemned the idea in a letter to this newspaper.

Birmingham-based charity Islamic Help is planning to take over the mill and use it as the Pendle Boarding School for Girls. It is estimated as many as 5,000 students would attend the school if the plans came to fruition.

Mr Sutcliff says in a letter the school would lead to Pendle being faced with “a real problem”. He says: “The local education authority has spent millions of pounds on two new schools in Pendle, one of them in Brierfield, and millions on a new college in Burnley, and this pops up. It doesn’t make sense and it wants kicking into the long grass very quickly. It is funded, I rather think, for people with a lot of sand and oil whose way of thinking doesn’t fit in with very few people here.”

British National Party councillor Brian Parker said the school and an Islamic college proposed for Burnley were not needed. “Quite apart from anyone’s view on the desirability of having two communities living side by side with little in common and divided by religion, the sheer scale of these proposals make them unsuited to our two towns.

“Six and a half thousand young women will make up a very significant proportion of the entire population. Over the years, some will doubtless settle and like any other university those over the age of 18 will be entitled to vote, affecting the political make up of the councils and even who will be the MPs. One would like a little more information about the nature of the education intended to be provided by these colleges and why Muslims wish to be educated apart from the rest of us,” he said in a letter jointly signed by John Rowe, the BNP’s prospective Parliamentary candidate in Burnley.

Pendle Today, 6 November 2009

Islamic schools may groom children for terrorism – at taxpayer’s expense

Posted on by Bob Pitt

OMN logoFears are emerging that vulnerable children might be groomed for religious extremism or even terrorism at taxpayers’ expense.

Muslim pupils are being taken out of classes and sent to study at Islamic schools, or madrassas. A pilot scheme, the Open Madrasah Network, has received a £550,000 government grant to pay for under-achievers to attend lessons in Arabic, Urdu and religion.

The classes, described as booster lessons for primary and GCSE age pupils, are already running at four madrassas in Bradford, West Yorkshire. If pupils show improvement, the scheme is likely to be rolled out nationally. But critics say it will lead to the risk of taxpayers’ money being spent on “suspect” organisations.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “These institutions are devoted almost entirely to pumping Islam into the heads of their pupils. We need to know who will keep tabs on these indoctrination centres to ensure taxpayers’ money is properly spent. Although there is no suggestion that the Yorkshire scheme is suspect, if this kind of idea rolls out, who knows what will happen?”

There are almost 1,600 madrassas in Britain, where 200,000 children attend evening classes to study the Koran. But anti-terror police fear that extremists could indoctrinate pupils with anti-Western sentiments.

Sunday Express, 8 November 2009

‘Jihad at Fort Hood’ – according to Robert Spencer

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Major Hasan’s motive was perfectly clear – but it was one that the forces of political correctness and the Islamic advocacy groups in the United States have been working for years to obscure. So it is that now that another major jihad terror attack has taken place on American soil, authorities and the mainstream media are at a loss to explain why it happened – and the abundant evidence that it was a jihad attack is ignored.”

Robert Spencer at Front Page Magazine, 6 November 2009

See Mehdi Hasan’s comments at the New Statesman, 6 November 2009

Update:  See also Sunny Hundal, “Double standards over Fort Hood attack”, at Pickled Politics, 6 November 2009