Category Archives: UK

Scottish ‘Islamist terrorist’ wins appeal fight

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Scotland’s first Islamist terrorist today won the right to argue he did not get a fair trial. Mohammed Atif Siddique, 22, was jailed for eight years last October for a string of terror offences. He has always maintained his innocence.”

Herald, 23 July 2008

Well, correct me if I’m wrong, but if Mohammed Atif Siddique is indeed innocent – and Islamophobia Watch has argued strongly that he is – then he’d hardly be “Scotland’s first Islamist terrorist”, would he? Or has the Herald decided the result of the appeal in advance?

Muslims take police to task over stop-and-search procedures

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scottish Islamic FoundationScottish Muslims will today quiz police about “growing disquiet” over the use of anti-terrorist stop-and-search procedures in Scotland.

The Scottish-Islamic Foundation has set up a Question Time forum with the police to allow members of the Muslim community to express their feelings about heavy-handed questioning a year after stop- and-search powers were introduced across the UK in the wake of the Glasgow Airport car bomb attack.

There is concern that in some cases “suspects” are visited at home and questioned about internet sites they have viewed, fuelling fears that they are under surveillance. The foundation says that stop-and-search procedures should be strictly intelligence-led.

Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, at the Home Secretary’s discretion, allows police to stop and search any individual acting suspiciously.

Although Scottish police have been using the power sparingly, it is claimed the approach has not been adopted by the London-controlled British Transport Police.

Herald, 22 July 2008

See also BBC News, 22 July 2008

 

Update: Over at the laughably misnamed Centre for Social Cohesion, Douglas Murray writes:

“On the BBC’s website yesterday, headlined ‘Muslim concern at stop and search‘ the site leads with the news that: ‘Muslims in Scotland have expressed unease about the use of “stop and search” procedures at Glasgow Airport.’ In any season this is a story likely to spread irritation among the British public….

“But on reading through it emerges that the ‘Muslims’ expressing ‘unease’ at being searched at Glasgow airport are actually the Scottish Islamic Foundation (SIF). Readers might remember that this group was exposed last month, prior to its launch, as a Muslim Brotherhood-linked organisation….

“The iniquity of this is that the founders of the SIF can truthfully claim to represent almost nobody. But Salmond has been (to put it at its kindest) duped, public money has come rolling in, and next thing the BBC is willing to portray such an unrepresentative group as representative of ‘Muslims’ in Scotland.”

And in the comments section a supporter of Murray states: “Absolutely shocking. All part of the stealth jihad of course. The BBC has been infiltrated by muslim extremists right up to the highest level.”

Murray’s piece is crossposted at ConservativeHome.

The only ‘proper’ Muslim is a non-political one

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The government has stated that it is doing its best to tackle Islamists who are the source of extremism. According to the government, Islamists are all without exception terribly violent and bloodthirsty…. The only good Islamist is an ex-Islamist…. But the problem is that the term ‘Islamism’ has now been stretched to mean any Muslim who is political.

“Blears insinuates that Muslims who are not politically active are the preferred kind of Muslim. She said in a speech to the Policy Exchange: ‘The fact remains that most British Muslims, like the wider community, are not politically active, do not sit on committees, and do not attend seminars and meetings. They are working hard, bringing up families, planning their holidays, and going about their business.’ …

“The recent refusal of ministers to attend IslamExpo is a case in point. Irrespective of their opinion of the organisers, it was a chance to engage with forty thousand Muslims who want to create and settle into a comfortable peaceful British Islam. It smacks of an increasing confusion on the part of the government who are now not only failing to engage with Muslims, but are actively disengaging with those Muslims who are working to a positive peaceful agenda….

“Blears said that ‘You can’t win political arguments with the leaders of groups… who believe in the destruction of the very democratic process of debate and deliberation’. By excluding the Muslim opinions that the government doesn’t want to engage with through the devious method of saying that being a political Muslim is unpalatable, it is the government itself who is destroying the democratic process of debate.”

Spirit21, 22 July 2008

Islamophobe joins team Boris

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anthony Browne (2)Boris Johnson has appointed the director of a leading Tory think tank as his director of policy at City Hall. Anthony Browne of Policy Exchange will play a senior political role. The former journalist has headed the think tank since last May and will be responsible for developing new policy ideas for the Mayor.

Mr Johnson said of the appointment: “I am delighted that Anthony is joining my team at City Hall. As a policy expert in the fields of environment, health and politics for the influential Policy Exchange and a former journalist on the Times and Observer, I am sure Anthony will be a valuable asset in helping to shape London’s future over the next four years.”

However, Mr Browne’s appointment is certain to cause a degree of concern among his political opponents as he is known for his strong Right-wing stance on immigration.

He first came to prominence when he was denounced by then home secretary David Blunkett for “bordering on fascism” after a series of articles on immigration.

Mr Browne has also been criticised for “demonising” Muslims in an article headlined “the Muslims are coming – there’s no plot: Islam really does want to conquer the world” in The Spectator.

Former Mayor Ken Livingstone said: “Anthony Browne’s extensive Rightwing track record and his divisive attacks on immigration, are an indication that Boris Johnson’s administration is deeply at odds with the needs of a multicultural city like London.”

Evening Standard, 22 July 2008

For more on Browne see here.

Update:  Over at the hardline right-wing New English Review blog, one Mary Jackson welcomes the appointment of Browne in a post headed “Boris employs good egg“. In connection with Browne’s “The Muslims are coming” article published in the Spectator in 2004, with its “Islam really does want to conquer the world” standfirst, she observes: “Good title – it sounds like Boris used to before he stopped putting his foot in it.” Which is hardly surprising, given that Johnson was editor of the Spectatorat the time that Browne’s paranoid piece of anti-Muslim scaremongering was published.

Express denounces the Dudley mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dudley mosqueAn £18million mosque which will dwarf everything around it has got the go-ahead – des­pite objections from 22,000 people.

It had even been turned down by the local authority, but that refusal has now been over-ruled by a Government inspector.

Angry residents say allowing the 65ft tower and dome is simply pandering to the 7,000-strong Muslim com­munity – which makes up just two per cent of the local population.

The vast building in Dudley, West Midlands, will become as visible as the town’s historic castle, built in 1070, and its main Christian church.

Last night one local resident, who wished not to be named, said: “This mosque, which will be one of the biggest outside London with a 65ft tower, will dwarf Dudley church and the wishes of 22,000 people who protested against it.”

Daily Express, 22 July 2008

In an editorial the paper comments: “Perhaps Dudley’s Islamic population could agree a compromise: their mosque should get the go-ahead but only after a series of cathedrals have been built in Muslim countries throughout the world so as to allow local Christians to worship free from the fear of persecution.”

The Express editors will be gratified to hear that their proposed series of cathedrals has in fact already been built, and Anorak helpfully provides a select list:

Cathédrale de Notre Dame d’Afrique, Algiers
St Mary’s Cathedral, Dhaka
Katedral Santa Maria Diangkat ke Surga, Jakarta
Dormition of the Virgin Mary Cathedral, Damascus
St. John’s Cathedral, İzmir
St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Abu Dhabi
Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, Alexandria
Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, Faisalabad
Vank Cathedral, Isfahan

Anorak also provides a link to a (pdf) factsheet on the Dudley mosque proposals, which points out that, at 65ft, the mosque’s minaret will in fact be be dwarfed by the 175ft spire of St Thomas and St Luke’s C of E church.

UK MPs urge probe into Muslims torture

Posted on by Bob Pitt

British lawmakers called on Sunday, July 20, for a thorough investigation into charges that British intelligence turned British Muslim citizens to Pakistan for torture.

“We conclude that it is extremely important that the veracity of allegations that the Government has ‘outsourced’ interrogation techniques involving the torture of British nationals by Pakistani authorities should be investigated,” the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said in its annual human rights report.The call followed charges that British Muslims have been turned over to the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) so they can be tortured during interrogation.

A number of British Muslims complained that they were arrested and tortured with the full knowledge of British diplomats and intelligence officers.

In one of the cases, a medical student was abducted at gunpoint in August 2005 and held for two months in the offices of Pakistan’s intelligence bureau in Karachi. He says he was tortured by Pakistani agents and later questioned over the 7/7 2005 attacks on the London transport network. Five other men have made similar allegations.

The parliamentary report said it is “extremely important” the claims of the so-called “outsourcing” of torture are cleared up.”We also recommend that the Government should further tell us whether it was aware of all six individuals at the time of their detention, and whether intelligence or evidence gained by the Pakistani authorities in its interrogation of any of these men led in whole, or in part, to further investigations or charges in the UK.”

Islam Online, 20 July 2008

See also Guardian, 21 July 2008

Muslim family banned from bus

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A bus company has apologised after a Muslim family of nine was stopped from boarding a bus to Leeds. The Alhajeri family were refused entry onto the Transdev Harrogate and District No 36 bus from Harewood to Leeds on Monday evening, because the mother and eldest daughters were wearing burkhas.

They had been on a family day out visiting the house on holiday from their home country of Kuwait. They had travelled by bus from Leeds in the morning, and had a valid return ticket to get back that evening. The driver told the family they were not allowed to board as the CCTV cameras would not be able to see the faces of the women, who were wearing a full veil.

Harrogate Transdev and District said this week that it seemed the driver had misinterpreted guidance about photo card bus passes, and apologised for any embarrassment to the family.

Managing director Dave Alexander said: “It seems that he has misinterpreted some guidance using bus passes and photo cards. For those that have paid a cash fare, that is clearly not an issue. This certainly wasn’t in any way malicious or intended to offend anybody. I think the driver’s explanation was a genuine one.”

He said that the bus company would be willing to issue a formal apology to the family, and that the company would be re-issuing guidance to all drivers in the next few days.

The family did manage to return to Leeds as the next 36 bus allowed them to board without any trouble.

Wetherby News, 18 July 2008

‘State school pupils may be taught Islamic traditions’ shock

Posted on by Bob Pitt

State school pupils are set to be taught Islamic traditions and values in compulsory citizenship lessons. The move – part of a package of initiatives announced by Communities Secretary Hazel Blears yesterday – is designed to curb extremism. Education campaigners warned however against giving Islam a privileged position over other faiths.

David Conway, senior research fellow at the Civitas think-tank, said: “Some will see this as another sign of a creeping process of Islamisation – an insidious process which plays down the Christian basis of our culture and encourages children to learn more and more about Islam’s contribution.

“Muslims are still a relatively small minority in Britain and, while I have nothing against children in our multi-religious society learning about each other’s faiths, for one particular faith to be privileged in mainstream schools seems to me pointless, and won’t make for greater harmony. I fear it will play into the hands of the small minority who want to see the Islamisation of Europe, and believe they will triumph through sheer numbers.”

Daily Mail, 19 July 2008

Jewish example shows there is plenty of room for sharia in English law

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The experience of British Jewry demonstrates that there is plenty of room for aspects of Sharia to be incorporated within English law without in any way compromising the cardinal principle that all British citizens must be “equal under the law”. This is the major theme of an address to be given by Professor Geoffrey Alderman to the Islamic Shari’a Council on Sunday 20 July 2008.

Professor Alderman, who teaches politics and history at the University of Buckingham, is the author of The Jewish Community in British Politics and Modern British Jewry (both published by Oxford University Press); he writes a weekly column for theJewish Chronicle. He and his family are practising Orthodox Jews.

Supporting controversial remarks made earlier this year by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Professor Alderman, in his address, traces the history of the interface between Jews, Judaism and the English legal system. “The Jewish religion has – to some extent – been successfully incorporated with the English legal system,” Professor Alderman said: “this has damaged neither the status of British Jews nor the fabric of English law.”

Geoffrey Alderman press release, 18 July 2008

Well, that’s really going to piss off Melanie Phillips, isn’t it? Stand by for fireworks in the JC.

Agency pays damages to Yusuf Islam over sexism slur

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yusuf IslamFormer hit writer and chart topper Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam, today accepted “substantial” but undisclosed libel damages and a public apology at London’s High Court over an entertainment news agency slur.

Adam Tudor, the singer’s solicitor told top libel judge, Mr Justice David Eady, the piece at the centre of the complaint was published by World Entertainment News Network’s and was later used on Contactmusic.com, a website published by Contactmusic.com Ltd which is said to have 2.2 million page views a month. Contactmusic also apologised today and will pay part of the damages.

Tudor said the item appeared on 26 March last year under the headline: “Yusuf Islam Ignors Bare-Headed Women” and was reproduced on a number of websites including that of Contactmusic.

“The article suggested that Mr Islam, who is a Muslim, was so sexist and bigoted that he refused at an awards ceremony to speak to or even acknowledge any women who were not wearing a veil,” said Tudor. “It went on to suggest that Mr Islam’s manager had stated ‘Mr Islam doesn’t speak with women except his wife. Least of all if they don’t wear a headscarf. Things like that only happen via an intermediary’.”

Tudor continued: “As the defendants now accept, these allegations were entirely false. Mr Islam has never had any difficulties working with women, whether for religious or any other reasons. In his normal life, women feature among some of the most influential people in Mr Islam’s team. Furthermore, the statement attributed in the article to Mr Islam’s manager was simply never made.”

He said that the article had caused the pop star considerable embarrassment and distress particularly given that it had the effect not only of creating an utterly false impression of his attitude to women, but because it also cast serious aspersions, quite wrongly, on his religious faith.

The compensation he is to be paid be donated to charity, Small Kindness. He is also to receive his legal costs. For World Entertainment News and Contactmusic solicitor Marvin Simons said they apologised for the distress and embarrassment that had been caused as a result of the “false allegations.”

Press Gazette, 18 July 2008