Category Archives: UK

Islamophobia – the McCarthyism of today

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ENGAGE draws our attention to “The new McCarthyism“, the Claudia Jones Memorial Lecture recently delivered by Liz Fekete of the Institute of Race Relations, which describes the new McCarthyism against Muslims sweeping across Europe and calls for a campaign against racism and Islamophobia in the media.

Fekete asks: “Could it be that we, too, are living in a world that is being shaped by a new form of McCarthyism? Only today the ‘Islam scare’ is replacing the ‘red scare’? Could it be that whereas once Communists were treated as a dangerous ‘fifth column’ subject to ‘foreign allegiance’, such fears are now being transferred onto those European citizens and residents who happen to be Muslim? Could it be that just as the media in the US carried out its own ‘hunt for subversives’, the media in Europe are contributing to the ‘Islam scare’.”

Andrew Boff – apologist for Islamism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Andrew BoffWell, according to Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens he is. At ConservativeHome, under the headline “Hate preachers should not be defended”, Meleagrou-Hitchens returns to the attack on City Hall’s supposed links with “Islamist extremism”. This time the object of his ire is Conservative Assembly Member Andrew Boff, who has defended Boris Johnson against Meleagrou-Hitchens’ earlier accusations.

It is not accidental that Meleagrou-Hitchens’ articles have been posted on ConservativeHome’s local government page, which is edited by Harry Phibbs. A one-time leading member of the notorious Federation of Conservative Students, Phibbs is one of those Tory right-wingers who expected Boris to implement a more thorough break with Ken Livingstone’s legacy after his election as mayor. Writing at ConservativeHome in July this year, Phibbs complained indignantly that “the Conservative administration in City Hall have been shamefully allowing Ken Livingstone’s ideology of quotas, interest groups, thought crime and racial separatism to remain largely intact”. For Phibbs, links with the Islam Channel and the East London Mosque show that Boris is extending this “Livingstone lite” approach to London’s Muslim communities.

But Boris has his eye on re-election in 2012 and is prepared to take a more pragmatic view than Phibbs. In the 2008 mayoral contest the publicising of Boris’s offensive journalistic remarks about Islam led to a significant mobilisation against him among Muslims in the capital, where they make up 8% of the population. This could well have cost Boris the election. So maintaining and publicising Eid in the Square is one of Boris’s ways of mending fences with Muslim Londoners, and if it means working with the Islam Channel and giving its CEO Mohamed Ali a platform then Boris is prepared to go along with that.

In the case of the East London Mosque a more specific issue is involved, namely that the Tories think they have a chance of victory in Bethnal Green & Bow or Poplar & Limehouse in next year’s general election, after Jim Fitzpatrick’s comments about a gender-segregated Muslim wedding severely damaged Labour’s prospects in the East End. So, from a party-political perspective, establishing a warm relationship between the Tories at City Hall and the East London Mosque makes good sense.

As we’ve pointed out previously, by extending their anti-Islamist witch-hunting to the likes of Jack Straw, Boris Johnson and now Andrew Boff, Meleagrou-Hitchens and the Centre for Social Cohesion have made a serious tactical blunder which risks undermining their whole operation. And that is certainly something we welcome here at Islamophobia Watch.

Inayat is mirror image of BNP says Mad Mel

Posted on by Bob Pitt

We recently reported on Inayat Bunglawala’s launch of Muslims4Uk and its planned counter-demonstration against al-Muhajiroun this Saturday. Mad Melanie Phillips is not impressed, though. According to Mel, Inayat is carrying out a cunning manoeuvre (on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood, apparently) designed to misrepresent himself as supporting “a multi-faith, multicultural democracy where people are free to practise their faith or not to if they so choose”. Mel is having none of it: “Bunglawala is surely the mirror image of Nick Griffin in hisattempt to reposition the BNP as a non-racist party – and about as plausible.”

Fareena Alam – agent of theocratic dictatorship

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yes, really. According to the increasingly crazed Spittoon blog, the former editor of Q-News should be removed from her position in the PVE-funded Radical Middle Way, because she works as a journalist and presenter for Press TV.

The Spittoon declares that “it is manifestly insane that an Iranian government employee, especially one who works for Tehran’s main English language propaganda outlet and who compares British soldiers to fascist storm-troopers, should be involved in running the UK’s most lavishly-funded counter-extremism programme”.

Stop the racist English Defence League in Leeds

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UAF_logoThe racist English Defence League is planning to descend on Leeds this Saturday 31 October.

Initial reports suggest that they are building heavily for this event to make-up for a poor showing in Swansea earlier this month and a complete no-show in Newport last weekend. On both occasions Unite Against Fascism organised successful counter demonstrations to show that the EDL and their affiliates are not wanted in Wales.

We need to get as many people as possible to Leeds on Saturday to send a clear message to the EDL that their brand of noxious racism has no place in Yorkshire either. Every UAF supporter in the North of England should try to get to Leeds with their friends, family and workmates. On every previous occasion where the EDL has tried to march it has been blocked by a much larger contigent of anti-racists. The presence of a multi-racial crowd standing in solidarity with Muslims against the EDL is the most powerful force stopping them from growing further.

UAF protest against the racist EDL
assemble 12 noon, Saturday 31 October
Leeds Art Gallery, The Headrow, Leeds LS1 3AA

Mayor’s office defends Mohamed Ali Harrath

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ConservativeHome carries a piece by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens (“Boris fails to tackle Islamic extremism“) revealing that it was the Centre for Social Cohesion who were behind the recent Sunday Express article (“Boris’s terror link“), which attacked the mayor of London for organising Eid in the Square in co-operation with the Islam Channel and allowing its CEO, Mohamed Ali Harrath, to address the event.

Meleagrou-Hitchens tells us that the CSC wrote to Boris Johnson complaining about his association with Mohamed Ali Harrath. They received the following response from the mayor’s office:

“The Islam Channel Chief Executive Mohamed Ali Harrath is not regarded as a threat by the British Government. He accompanied Robert Lambert, the former Head of the Met Police Muslim Contact [Unit] to a meeting last year with the Statutory Deputy Mayor. The Mayor’s office is proud to support Eid in the Square and this year’s celebrations were enjoyed by thousands of Londoners. The Islam Channel played a major factor in this success by broadcasting to millions of viewers in 132 countries.”

Islam is biggest threat to Sweden since World War II says far-right leader

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jimmie Akesson2With their party conference just barely over, the ultra right wing Sweden Democrats are creating headlines in Sweden again. In an article in Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet Jimmie Åkesson, party leader, writes that Islam is the greatest threat against Sweden since WWII.

According to Åkesson “today’s multicultural Swedish power elite is completely blind to the dangers of Islam”. He goes on to say that there are 10 Muslim terror organisations established in Sweden today, that Sweden has the highest number of rapes in Europe and that Muslim men are highly represented among the offenders. He concluded his article by saying that if the party is elected into parliament in 2010, he will do everything in his powers to “change the trend”.

Per Hultengård, lawyer for the Swedish Newspaper Publishers’ Association, told Aftonbladet that the article can be read as a warning to Swedish Muslims, not in the least due to Åkesson’s promise at the end. “I would take that as a threat,” said Per Hultengård to Aftonbladet. According to Jan Hjärpe, Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Lund, the rhetoric used by Åkesson has clear racist undertones. “This is the same kind of propaganda that was used by Nazi anti-Semites,” Hjärpe told Aftonbladet.

Aftonbladet‘s Jan Helin decided to print the article against the advice of legal experts. “I have decided to take that risk. Åkesson’s text is important because it shows clearly on what values a party, on its way into Parliament, rests on. You may think that he is right or wrong in his views. But through reading this article you get a chance to consider what the Sweden Democrats actually believe,” Helin writes in Aftonbladet.

In the latest opinion polls the Sweden Democrats received 4.7% of votes. This means that if elections were held today the party would get in to Parliament.

Radio Sweden, 19 October 2009

See also the response by Anna Waara, chairperson of Swedish Muslims for Peace and Justice, “What do the Sweden Democrats want to do with us Muslims?”, The Local, 21 October 2009

You can watch Alan Lake, the businessman who bankrolls the English Defence League, speaking at a Sweden Democrats meeting here and here.

EDL fails to spread its poison in Wales

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anti-EDL demonstration Newport

Newport anti-fascists scored a major victory this weekend when an impressive show of local unity stopped the English Defence League’s (EDL) attempt to spread its racist poison in Wales.

The EDL had planned a rally in the city’s John Frost Square on Saturday to launch the Welsh Defence League, but a 500-strong counterprotest and a complete lack of local support forced it to cancel.

This followed the fascists’ disastrous visit to Swansea last weekend, where they were driven off by a larger counterdemonstration.

“Newport is a multicultural city with an industrial background,” explained Ian Titherington of Searchlight Cymru, “and today’s fantastic turnout shows that racists are not welcome here.”

Campaigners, joined by local politicians and faith groups, occupied the square to celebrate multicultural Newport with live music, including a drum band and an impressive performance from the Cor Cochion Caerdydd (Cardiff Red Choir).

Unite Against Fascism marched through the city centre before joining the rally, which also heard speeches from Welsh Assembly Minister John Griffiths and local Labour MP Paul Flynn.

Morning Star, 26 October 2009

See also “Racists day off” on Paul Flynn’s blog, 24 October 2009

English Nazis plot to bring terror to streets of Scotland

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A mob of English racists and neo-Nazis planning to invade Scotland can be exposed by the Sunday Mail today.

The far-right trouble makers are planning to march in Glasgow under the banner of the Scottish Defence League near the country’s biggest Mosque.

Despite portraying themselves as Scots, the right-wingers – including senior BNP activists – will travel to Scotland from Birmingham, Luton, London and Carlisle.

The ragbag army of football hooligans, far-right activists and racist thugs want a confrontation with Scots Muslims.

They have even started selling s20 Scottish Defence League polo shirts on eBay for marchers to wear.

Organisers have admitted that previous marches have been attended by fascist thugs from Combat 18.

They hope to take advantage of the heightened profile given to the far right from Nick Griffin’s Question Time appearance on Thursday.

Sunday Mail, 25 October 2009