Category Archives: UK

Muslim Council of Britain statement on Wilders exclusion

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Geert Wilders has been an open and relentless preacher of hate, there is little difference between his views and those of the far right. We have no problem with the challenge of criticisms to our faith, but the film that will be screened tomorrow by Lord Pearson and Baroness Cox is nothing less than a cheap and tacky attempt to whip up hysteria against Muslims.

“Mr Wilders’ xenophobic and repugnant views have been identified by a Dutch court, and are now confirmed by his official exclusion to the United Kingdom. It is now time to ask why Peers of Realm who promote such demagogues without any censure are allowed to be regarded as mainstream, responsible leaders in our community.”

MCB press release, 11 February 2009

Times opposes Wilders ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Wilders not wanted“Mr Wilders is an elected politician in a member state of the European Union. Freedom of speech, association and travel is part of the political culture of Europe.

“For all the obvious hollowness of Mr Wilders’ credentials as a defender of free speech, the cause is a good one. It is a common notion that the right to free speech must be held in balance with the requirement to avoid needless offence. That is a mistake. The right to oppose, mock, deride and even insult people’s beliefs is essential to a society where bad ideas are superseded by better ones. There is no right to have one’s emotional sensibilities protected, for it is no business of government to legislate for people’s feelings.

“Mr Wilders’ views are obnoxious, and (not but) his freedom to express them must be defended. It is regrettable that Mr Wilders faces not just ostracism but prosecution in the Netherlands because of his comments about Islam….

“Demagogic speech is a test of the liberal political rights on which the culture of a liberal democracy rests. Let Mr Wilders exploit them. His political posturing is so self-evidently preposterous that, if he is permitted to speak freely, he will be arraigned before the best court in the land – the court of public opinion.”

Editorial in the Times, 12 February 2009

See also “Anti-Islamist politician Geert Wilders vows to defy ban by entering Britain“, where Wilders is quoted as saying: “I’ll see what happens at the border. Let them put me in handcuffs.” It’s not often that Islamophobia Watch finds itself in agreement with Geert Wilders, but this is a proposal we fully endorse.

Far-right Dutch MP refused entry to UK

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Wilders at HeathrowGeert Wilders, the rightwing Dutch politician accused of Islamophobia, was today refused entry to the UK after arriving at Heathrow airport in London.

Wilders was due to show his 17-minute film Fitna, which criticises the Qur’an as a “fascist book”, at the House of Lords today. But on Tuesday he received a letter from the Home Office refusing him entry because his opinions “threaten community harmony and therefore public safety”.

Lord Pearson, who invited Wilders to Britain, said the screening of the film would go ahead today, whether he was there or not. Speaking outside the House of Lords, Pearson said he disagreed with some of Wilders’s views but was “coming at this from the angle of free speech”. Pearson described the Dutch politician as a “very brave man” and said he did not think he was a racist.

The peer initially said he did not believe there should be any limits to freedom of speech but when pressed conceded that there should be “a very few”, such as language that incited violence. Pearson said he believed a Hitler-type figure should be allowed to speak in public in Britain.

The National Secular Society president, Terry Sanderson, said he wrote to the home secretary saying she should not have denied an application by a “democratically elected politician from a sovereign state who wants to come and express an opinion”. “It may be a controversial opinion but he is entitled to express it,” he said.

A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain described Wilders as “an open and relentless preacher of hate”. “We have no problem with the challenge of criticisms to our faith, but the film that will be screened by Lord Pearson and Baroness Cox is nothing less than a cheap and tacky attempt to whip up hysteria against Muslims,” he said.

The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, said that while it was important to defend freedom of speech, Wilders “has overstepped the line that should be defended in a civilised society”.

Guardian, 12 February 2009

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Racist vandals attack hall leased by Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim people suck

Vandals have scrawled racist graffiti on a community sports hall which is due to be leased to a Muslim group. The slogan Muslim People Suck was daubed on the side of Woodfarm Sports Hall in Thornliebank, which is to be converted into an after-school education centre.

The council-owned venue had been previously leased to the care charity Quarriers but has been empty since last summer. It’s emerged the Woodfarm Education Trust, a group backed by Muslim business leaders and professionals, is now in advance talks over a long-term lease. The new facility would host language and maths classes, social events and be open to the entire community, regardless of race or religion.

Local East Renfrewshire councillor Alan Lafferty said: “This graffiti is clearly the work of some misguided local person as no-one outwith the community was likely to have known about the plans. I am calling on the local community to join me in condemning this criminal action and to let the police know who did it. Otherwise, it is a stain on the reputation of the entire area.”

Evening Times, 10 February 2009

Geert Wilders banned from entering UK – right wing not happy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geert WildersA far-right Dutch MP whose film linking Islamic texts with the terror attacks on New York sparked protests around the Muslim world was last night banned from entering Britain.

Geert Wilders, who leads the small Dutch Freedom Party, was due to show his controversial 17-minute film at an event in the House of Lords tomorrow, but was informed yesterday by British officials that he would not be allowed to enter the country. The decision sparked an immediate diplomatic row after the Dutch Government pressed Britain to reverse the ban.

The film Fitna, which criticises the Koran as a “fascist book”, sparked violent protests around the Muslim world last year. The film, which has been posted on the internet, juxtaposes images of the Koran with footage of the 9/11 twin tower attacks and other terrorist atrocities. Mr Wilders had been invited to show the film at an event in Westminster hosted by Lord Pearson of Rannoch, the former Conservative, who is now a UK Independence Party member of the House of Lords.

Independent, 11 February 2009

See also BBC News, 11 February 2009

Over at the Spectator, under the headline “Britain capitulates to terror”, Melanie Phillips denounces this as “another fateful and defining issue for Britain’s governing class as it continues to sleepwalk into cultural suicide”. On his Telegraph blog, Daniel Hannan demands: “Can this really be true? An elected representative, the leader of a legitimate political party, banned from entering the United Kingdom? On what possible grounds?”

The fascists of the BNP join in the condemnation of the ban on “the courageous Dutch MP Geert Wilders”. And Wilders has his supporters at the Nazi Stormfront forum. Sample comments: “This man is a true hero”; “This is outright tyranny”; “Since when did ‘public order’ equate with or to protecting precious muslim feelings?”; “Geert is an absolute hero to many westerners who feel helpless at the snuffing out of their very civilisation”; “What on earth is happening to our once great land, where muslim evil dictators now rule?” etc, etc.

Ban Qaradawi but not Wilders, says Ed Husain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Quilliam Foundation has announced its opposition to the decision by the Home Office to ban Geert Wilders, the Dutch MP, from the UK. The Quilliam Foundation believes that although many of Wilders’ public statements are bigoted, ill-informed and offensive to people of all faiths, this is not an adequate reason to prevent him from coming to the UK.

Ed Husain, the co-Director of the Quilliam Foundation, says: “Geert Wilders is undoubtedly an ill-informed, hate-driven bigot with many unpleasant views but he is not directly inciting violence. As a result, unlike in the case of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, I do not support the decision to ban him from the UK. By threatening parliament with a mob, Lord Ahmed is contributing to the negative portrayal of Muslims and their religion.”

Qulliam Foundation press release, 11 February 2009

Wilders to attend London showing of Fitna

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Parliament has ordered extra security for a House of Lords event with the controversial Dutch MP Geert Wilders. The private screening of Wilders’ film Fitna was initially postponed to allow time for clarification on issues concerning freedom of speech. Despite threats of demonstration from a British Peer and Muslim community leaders, the meeting will go ahead Thursday 12th February.

Wilders’ film Fitna features verses from the Quran alongside images of the terrorist attacks in the US on 11 September 2001, Madrid in March 2004 and London in July 2005. The film equates Islam’s holy text with violence and ends with a call to Muslims to remove “hate-preaching” verses from the Quran.

Wilders currently faces prosecution in Holland for incitement to hatred and discrimination. The charges are based on his film Fitna and comments in the Dutch press last year in which he argued that as Mein Kampf has been banned in Holland, the Quran should similarly be banned under Dutch incitement laws.

PR Newswire, 10 February 2009

‘Another Muslim ghetto takes shape’ – another paranoid rant by Damian Thompson

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The resignation of a Sheffield head teacher after she tried to scrap all-Muslim assemblies is a sign of things to come….

“Julia Robinson, head teacher of Meersbrook Primary School, wanted to end the divisive Islamic assembles for Muslim pupils, who make up about a quarter of her 240 pupils. Staff and many parents backed her; Muslim parents accused her of being – you’ve guessed it – ‘racist’.

“Those Christians who think that it’s better to have separate Christian and Muslim assemblies rather than the ‘inclusive’ services Mrs Robinson planned are missing the point. They think ‘faith’ is good, irrespective of what faith it is. Myopic idiots….

“Muslim ghettos are being constructed across the North of England, and among their building blocks are school-sanctioned meetings for children from ethnic minorities designed to turn them into strictly observant Muslims – whether they like it or not. The Muslim indoctrination of primary school children is designed to produce young adults who reject and despise the tolerant, liberal society in which they live.”

Catholic Herald editor Damian Thompson at Holy Smoke, 10 February 2009

The Daily Telegraph chimes in with “Muslim parents should accept the law of the land”.

Regarding the “inclusive” assemblies, if you check the Daily Mail report, when you get beyond the scaremongering “I was forced out for trying to axe Muslim-only assemblies, claims headmistress” headline you find the following:

“Fiyza Awan, 19, a Muslim whose younger sister is a pupil, said problems began when hymns were introduced to the all-pupil assemblies. ‘When Mrs Robinson took over she said she wanted one assembly for all the students,’ she said. ‘We didn’t have a problem with that but wanted a secular assembly where no hymns were sung and topics involving all the children could be discussed. But after a while hymns were introduced again and we objected. We told Mrs Robinson we wanted our children withdrawn and to have a separate assembly again. We felt we were being marginalised. We didn’t put any pressure on her, we want continuity at the school, it was her decision to leave’.”

See also ENGAGE, 10 February 2009

Mad Mel exposes ‘the sinister and dangerous implications’ of Islamic banking

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic Bank of Britain“Worried that Britain is going bankrupt? Cheer up – we’re about to be bought up by the Islamic world. A report by International Financial Services London reveals that Britain’s Islamic banking sector is now bigger than that of Pakistan. The study says that the UK has by far the largest number of banks for Muslims of any western country….

“What has to be understood is that sharia finance is simply a modern jihadi strategy to help Islamise Britain’s institutions and society. It was devised in the mid-20th century by the ideologues who promoted the radical Islamism that threatens us today. They advocated sharia finance as element of a separate, self-sustained Islamic order with its own Islamic ideology, Islamic politics and Islamic economics that taken together would guarantee an Islamic way of life and ultimately the Islamic state as the first step toward establishing Muslim rule worldwide.

“As Britain’s government and banks congratulate themselves on the stunning growth of sharia banking in the UK, do any of them have the slightest understanding of what they are doing?”

Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail, 10 February 2009