Church leaders have accused the Government of giving preferential treatment to the Muslim community because of “political correctness”, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
Update: And the Daily Express. See the response by ENGAGE.
Category Archives: UK
‘Kill soldiers’ Muslim blogger is back in job as Treasury civil servant
The Mail on Sunday continues its witch-hunt of Azad Ali.
Mail on Sunday apologises to Inayat Bunglawala
The Mail on Sunday has today printed an apology to Inayat Bunglawala – Advisor on Research and Policy at ENGAGE – following a scurrilous story it ran about him on March 15 2009. The MoS apology – which also appears on the MoS website – reads as follows:
On March 15 we suggested that Inayat Bunglawala’s stabbing an intruder at his home questioned his suitability as a Government adviser on terrorism.
In fact Mr Bunglawala acted entirely in self-defence and no charges were brought against him.
Also, Mr Bunglawala does not support Al Qaeda or Abu Qatada as the article may have suggested.
We apologise to Mr Bunglawala for the distress caused and have agreed to pay him damages.
BNP’s Griffin: Islam is a cancer
The BNP leader Nick Griffin has described Islam as a “cancer” that should be removed from Europe by “chemotherapy”.
In an interview with Channel 4 News, Mr Griffin, who has just been elected to the European Parliament, said there was “no place in Europe for Islam”.
He added: “Western values, freedom of speech, democracy and rights for women are incompatible with Islam, which is a cancer eating away at our freedoms and our democracy and rights for our women and something needs to be done about it”.
The BNP leader said he agreed with a candidate for the Flemish far right party, Vlaams Belang, who had declared: “We urgently need global chemotherapy against Islam to save civilisation.”
Anti-Islamic attacks are not history
Violence against Muslims across Britain and Europe shows we have failed to consign such far-right extremism to the past, argues Inayat Bunglawala.
Secret ‘Sharia court’ claims are rejected
Muslim leaders have dismissed reports that a secret Sharia court is operating in Burton as “nonsense” and “completely misleading”. The Imam Jamia mosque, in Princess Street, is included in a list of centres which are alleged to put members breaking Islamic law on trial, independently of the Crown Prosecution Service.
The list was produced by researchers working on a report on Sharia courts in the UK. It was not included in the final report but was highlighted in regional newspaper The Sunday Mercury this week. However, prominent Muslims in Burton say the list, compiled following a study by think tank Civitas, is “nonsense”.
East Lancashire BNP activists won’t be charged over anti-Muslim leaflets
Three British National Party activists arrested last year in connection with campaign leaflets have been released from police bail.
The three, a 41-year-old man from Nelson, a 44 year-old man from Darwen, and a 57-year-old man from Nelson were all arrested in November on suspicion of the publication and distribution of written material intended to stir up racial hatred and the possession of racially inflammatory material.
The swoops were in connection with leaflets which claimed Muslims were responsible for the heroin trade.
Lancashire police have now told the three they will not face any charges.
A 53-year-old man from Preston arrested on suspicion of the same offences has been re-bailed until later this month.
Christopher Caldwell dissected
“Caldwell’s essential argument is that Enoch Powell’s predictions have been proven to be mostly correct and that European elites naively – and unnecessarily – entered into a new era of mass immigration after World War II, without thinking through its long-term consequences. As a result they have paved the way for the implantation of a Muslim ‘adversary culture’ in the heart of Europe that now threatens to engulf the continent demographically, culturally, politically and even sexually….
“All the essential elements of Islamic threat narratives are here; the empty church pews versus burgeoning mosques; Europe’s decadence and crisis of spiritual values versus the confidence and power of Islam; the dire warnings of an ageing Europe that is being out-bred by more virile and fertile Muslim immigrants; the failure of multiculturalism and the subsequent proliferation of parallel societies and ‘ethnic colonies’ characterised by female circumcision, honour killings, criminal violence and terrorism, gang rape and the oppression of women.
“… the uncritical reception given to this artful anti-Muslim diatribe in liberal circles is a depressing reminder of the extent to which its essential assumptions have moved from the political margins to form a new mainstream consensus.”
Matt Carr analyses Christopher Caldwell’s book, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West.
Head of Islamic community group in Loughton subject to arson attack
The head of a recently formed Islamic community group has received a threatening letter and had his house targeted by arsonists in an apparently racist campaign against him.
Noor Ramjanally, of Valley Hill, Loughton, said his family had been very shaken by the incidents which started after he hired the Murray Hall, in Borders Lane, for Islamic prayer sessions.
He told the Guardian: “Every Friday we have our prayers and meetings, then we disperse. This Wednesday I received a threatening letter saying: ‘We don’t want you to carry on at this. We know which school your kid goes to and which car you drive.’
“On Thursday they set fire to the front door of my home. They used an accelerant. It’s with the police and they are doing all the checks.
“I’m ok, but my wife and kid are very disturbed. I’ve had to take my kid out of his school. It’s definitely targeted. They don’t want the Islamic community centre in Loughton, I don’t know why.”
Essex Police have confirmed they are investigating both incidents as racially motivated.
In defence of ‘sharia courts’
“The rallying cry of the anti-sharia movement is ‘one law for all’. Banning sharia arbitration does not further that goal. Instead, it provides one law for Muslims (who cannot arbitrate), and another for people of other faiths or no faith (who can).”
Luke W. Goodrich at Comment is Free, 6 July 2009