Category Archives: UK

‘Islam is different’ – Christopher Caldwell on immigration

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Christopher Caldwell, author of Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, calls for a discussion on immigration. Or rather, Muslim immigration. He’s not necessarily against immigrants as such, you understand. Latin American migration into the US hasn’t been such a problem, according to Caldwell, but that’s because the migrants are at least Christians, and their presence requires “no fundamental reform of America’s culture or institutions”.

However: “Islam is different. Living with Muslim cultures requires larger adjustments, and they touch deeper, more essential parts of European culture. This kind of change needs to be considered when we talk about the costs and benefits of immigration.”

But don’t imagine that Caldwell’s article is feeding paranoid racist fantasies about the “Islamification” of Europe. Not at all. As he assures his readers: “Discussing immigration and its consequences openly is not rude. It is necessary to lower the temperature of the debate.”

Mail on Sunday, 11 October 2009

Sunday Times exposes Labour MP’s links with Islamic extremism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

And the Labour MP is none other than Jack Straw! The Liberal Democrats are apparently the source of an attempt, taken up by the Sunday Times, to make an issue of Straw’s role in gaining a donation from the Emir of Qatar towards the construction of a mosque in his Blackburn constituency.

Haras Rafiq of the Sufi Muslim Council steps forward to claim that “Some of the biggest mosques and institutions in the UK have been funded by foreign money and have been proven to be portraying extremist viewpoints”. And Anthony Glees and Patrick Mercer also weigh in with warnings about the threat from foreign donations.

The Sunday Times concedes that the Emir of Qatar has a reputation of being “a pro-western reformist and moderniser”, which does rather undermine this scaremongering campaign. But that doesn’t prevent the paper trying to make a case that the emir is some sort of extremist.

After all, he helped to establish Al-Jazeera in Qatar, and one of the TV station’s regular presenters is Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who “has praised suicide bombings in Iraq”. Whereas of course Qaradawi has in reality opposed suicide bombings in Iraq.

See also “Jack Straw ‘too close’ to pro-Hamas faction”, Sunday Times, 4 October 2009

And Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, “Times exposes Jack Straw links with Blackburn radicals”, ‘Focus on Islamism’ Standpoint blog, 4 October 2009

Racists post threatening comments on anti-mosque Facebook group

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Threatening and racist comments have appeared on an anti-mosque Facebook group. “No to the new Mosque in Weston-super-Mare” has been set up in opposition to proposals for a new Muslim centre in Orchard Street.

Last week the Weston & Somerset Mercury revealed the Weston Islamic Education Centre group had applied to covert the former Rock Gardens site into a community centre which would also be used for prayer.

But some of the 440 members have written threatening comments in the internet forum. One post said: “Muslims are never gonna take over this country….well at least weston super mare, I swear on my life if they built this new mosque in weston I will set fire 2 it and thats a f***in promis.” Other comments say that all Muslims are terrorists and one aggressive member threatens to drive a bus into the centre and blow it up if it is given planning permission.

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EDL protest in Manchester

Posted on by Bob Pitt

English Defence League Hold Demonstrations In Manchester

Ten people were injured and 44 people arrested in the English Defence League protest in Manchester city centre. Police imposed a lockdown around Piccadilly Gardens as EDL demonstrators faced off against Unite Against Fascism (UAF).

The two factions stood on opposite sides separated by a police line with officers on horseback and in riot gear. EDL supporters, who oppose “radical Islam” and Sharia law made Nazi salutes and sang patriotic songs, while UAF protesters maintained a non-stop anti-fascist chant. There were several hundred EDL protesters and more than 1,000 from the UAF.

The stand-off continued for about four and a half hours on Saturday afternoon. Shops were closed around the Piccadilly area. Around 4.30pm some UAF protesters began to disperse. Shortly before 5pm police moved the EDL supporters off Piccadilly Gardens and escorted them to bus and train stations.

UAF spokesman Mike Gilligan said: “It was a tremendously successful day for the anti-racist movement. The EDL were run out of town, they were not very powerful, they completely failed. Our protesters reflected the energy, particularly of young people, who showed their disgust at the racists trying to group together in Manchester city centre. It was a vibrant celebration of multi-cultural Manchester.”

Manchester Evening News, 10 October 2009

EDL Manchester

How to improve the Prevent strategy – stop giving taxpayers’ money to Ed Husain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Quilliam FoundationWriting at Comment is Free, Ed Husain of the Quilliam Foundation takes up the report by the Taxpayers’ Alliance attacking the government’s Prevent strategy.

The report, Ed writes, reveals that “many groups that have received handsome grants of taxpayers’ funds are groups whose leading members include supporters of hardcore Islamist ideologies. Such organisations include the Islamic Society of Britain (with some exceptions), the UK Islamic Mission, the Islamic Foundation, the London Muslim Centre and Da’watul Islam”.

Happily, a solution is to hand: “The government needs to begin working with Muslim partners who will actively contribute towards making British society more cohesive and harmonious – rather than groups that can only promise not to actively sabotage such aims. Quilliam, with the help of Prevent funding, aims to do just this.”

But, according to Ed, the government needs to look beyond Quilliam to find partners with similar politics, “who are unafraid to say that terrorism is driven by an ideology of victimhood and notions of reward in the afterlife”. Ed makes no proposals as to who these partners might be. And that is hardly surprising. There are, after all, few Muslim-led organisations who are prepared to promote the Daily Mail‘s agenda with quite the same fervour as Ed Husain does.

If John Denham and DCLG are really concerned to re-establish the Prevent strategy on a more effective basis – and it appears that they are – then the first step should be to withdraw all state funding from the loathed and despised Quilliam Foundation and redirect it towards organisations that actually have roots in the Muslim communities.

Update:  See also ENGAGE, 10 September 2009

Further update:  Interestingly, in the USA the right-wing magazine Human Events takes a very similar line to Ed Husain, condemning the FBI for allying with Islamist organisations in order to fight terrorism. For US conservatives, as for Ed Husain, their obsessive campaign against Islamism takes precedence over the obligation to defend the nation’s citizens from terrorist attacks.

Grayling accused of double standards on ‘extremism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Race Hate Row EruptsThe Tories were blasted yesterday for “perpetuating dangerous myths about the law” and “scapegoating the Muslim community” in a shallow attempt to grab votes.

Addressing the Conservative conference in Manchester, shadow home secretary Chris Grayling outlined his proposals for law and order.

In particular he dredged up the perennial spectre of Islamic extremism, pledging to outlaw groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir, which he accused of “actively inciting hate and violence.”

“Under this government the extremists have been free to protest on our streets and incite violence and hatred in the most blatant ways,” he said. He also pledged a crackdown on immigration, saying there would be “no open door to Britain.”

At no point, however, did he refer to far-right extremist groups such as the BNP and the English Defence League, which has staged anti-Muslim marches in cities across the country in recent months.

This omission was condemned by anti-racist campaign group Unite Against Fascism, which accused Mr Grayling of further demonising the Muslim community while ignoring the fascist threat.

A spokesman for UAF said: “There has been a rise in racist attacks, particularly on the Asian and Muslim population. There is a direct link between this increase and the atmosphere of fear and hatred whipped up against the Muslim community in the popular press.

“When Christopher Grayling goes on about extremist beliefs, the only time he mentions Muslims seems to be to further demonise them.

“Why not mention the extreme right-wing groups, who we have seen recently involved in bomb plots amongst other things? Why not address the issue of the EDL which has held marches and incited hate and violence?

“The issue of racism doesn’t seem to have been addressed. I hope this isn’t a signal that the Tories are not going to take this issue seriously.”

Morning Star, 8 October 2009

See also “Tory lies about Hizb ut-Tahrir are populist attempts to boost poll ratings”, Hizb ut-Tahrir press release, 7 October 2009

Who incites hatred against Muslims in Manchester?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP Islam Out of BritainThe impact of Saturday’s planned English Defence League demonstration in Manchester has rightly been highlighted in coverage of the desecration of Muslim graves in the city’s Southern Cemetery. But the role of the British National Party in inciting hatred against Manchester’s Muslim community should not be ignored.

In recent weeks the BNP have conducted a hysterical campaign (“Genocide: how Islamic colonisation destroys your heritage“) against the conversion of a derelict church in Longsight into an Islamic Centre. The BNP made a particular issue of what they falsely claimed was the demolition of the (long disused) cemetery:

“The bloodless genocide and ethnic cleansing of the British people and culture continues apace with the latest example being the ripping up of a century old Christian cemetery to make way for a mosque in Manchester. The grave desecrations, being carried out with a large Komatsu earthmover in the graveyard of the St John the Apostle and Evangelist church at the corner of Holmfirth Street and St John’s Road, is part of the re-opening of this nineteenth century church as the Dar-ul-Ulum Qadria Jilania ‘Islamic Centre’….

“These Christian British graves – the only remnant of the now ethnically cleansed British people in the area – are obviously offensive to the Muslim colonisers, who have brought in the earthmoving machine to smash up the gravestones which are being literally crushed to rubble. St John the Apostle and Evangelist church is a real time history lesson of what will happen to Britain unless the insane multicultural Lib/Lab/Con genocidal policies of mass Third World immigration are not only brought to an end, but reversed.”

Of course, in line with their new respectable image, the lesson drawn by the BNP is that the “indigenous population” should cast a vote for their party in elections: “The British voters will soon be faced with a choice between their continued extermination at the hands of the Lib/Lab/Con ethnic cleansing party, or their survival as a free and independent indigenous people with the BNP.”

But it is hardly surprising that this sort of inflammatory language should have motivated some of the BNP’s supporters to take more direct action against the “Muslim colonisers”.

Home Office in state of denial over EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Some idiots in the Home Office might be fooled by the English Defence League but the racist agenda of the hooligan gang is becoming more obvious by the day.

“At the end of last week the EDL got hold of an email that had been widely circulated by the North West TUC advertising a meeting of trade unions to discuss the planned EDL protest for Manchester City Centre next Saturday. The EDL response was illuminating. The EDL administrator – who publicly claims not to be racist – riled against ‘building mosques’, ‘uncontrolled immigration’ and the ‘multicultural hell hole of a country’ Britain had become.

“The racist sentiments were also evident in the latest EDL posting to their members, where the woman who has been liaising with police, said that many of their followers were planning to wear masks during the protest in opposition to the burka.

“Despite the glaring racist agenda of the EDL the Home Office continue to bury its head in the sand. It refuses to even classify the group as right wing and says that they are not linked to hooligans.”

Nick Lowles at the Hope Not Hate blog, 4 October 2009