Category Archives: UK

Bishop of Rochester ‘doing the BNP’s work’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

nss2The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, this week claimed the influence of Christianity had been practically wiped out in recent decades, destroying Britishness and leading to the breakdown in family life and an increase in drunkenness and violence.

The bishop, a leading conservative who believes the Church of England should be doing more to convert Muslims, then warned that radical Islam is starting to fill the “moral vacuum” left by the decline in Christianity, which could lead to different values taking hold.

But his words have been condemned by some groups who have accused him of spreading fear and intolerance, and of putting across a similar message to the far-right British National Party.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “Dr Nazir-Ali’s remarks are ill-advised, dangerous and manipulative. He is playing a very dangerous game with these repeated scaremongering tactics against Muslims, and risks doing the BNP’s work for them. He risks creating even more hostility towards the Muslim community in this country – and community relations are already very fragile in some places.”

The NSS, which campaigns against what it calls the privileged position of religious groups in society, called on the Archbishop of Canterbury to discipline the bishop for his remarks and prevent him from making “further inflammatory statements”.

Daily Telegraph, 30 May 2008

We couldn’t agree more. However, we can’t avoid noting some double standards here. If the National Secular Society is genuinely concerned about irresponsible attacks on Islam giving assistance to the fascists they could start by dissociating themselves from NSS member Pat Condell, whose Islamophobic rants on YouTube have been applauded by Terry Sanderson. It would appear that the incitement of hostility towards the Muslim community is OK with Sanderson when it’s done by fellow secularists.

See also Inayat Bunglawala at Comment is Free and the excellent leader in today’s Guardian.

For the BNP’s endorsement of Nazir-Ali, see here.

Fears of ‘the Islamic problem’ brought BNP success at polls

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The principal strategy of Nick Griffin, its Cambridge-educated leader, has been to escape the jackbooted, knuckle-dragging image of street-fighting neo-Nazis and to become a popular anti-immigration party. The East End of London has become a stronghold, with the BNP installed as the official opposition on Barking & Dagenham council under the leadership of the artist Richard Barnbrook. Mr Barnbrook made a breakthrough by winning the BNP’s first seat in the London Assembly. The party’s electoral success came after it began concentrating its attacks on Muslims.

Times, 29 May 2008

See also “BNP seeks to make a martyr of activist killed by Muslim elder“. And yes, that’s a reference to Keith Brown, “an unemployed father of seven with a long criminal record” who was responsible for “a frightening campaign of intimidation, violence and racial abuse” against his Muslim neighbours – precisely the sort of racist thug who would make an appropriate “martyr” for the BNP.

Fly the flag in opposition to mosque, urges UKIP councillor

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Malcolm DavisA Dudley councillor is calling on the people of the town to “create crowds” outside Dudley Council House as the future of the mosque is discussed inside.

For two days in June (10 and 11) the planning inspectorate from Bristol will be holding a public inquiry as to whether the council were right to refuse the application made by the Dudley Muslim Association last year. The council’s development control committee unanimously rejected the proposals after the project received opposition via petitions with more than 22,000 names.

Cllr Davis also asked residents to show their support by flying a flag on the two days the inquiry is being held. He said: “I think it is important for everyone to fly the flag every day, but it would be nice if we all flew them on those two days to show our loyalty to our town.”

Halesowen News, 28 May 2008

Fascists expose ‘Islam’s 1,300 year war on Western Civilisation’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

jihad-book-final-cover-front.p65“Excalibur Books is proud to announce the launch of ‘Jihad: Islam’s 1,300 Year War on Western Civilisation’ by Arthur Kemp. This book, the first of its kind, maps out how, for centuries, violent Muslims have been trying to capture Europe for Islam.

“Sweeping out from its origin in Saudi Arabia, Islam has expanded through violent conquest into North Africa, the Middle and Near East – and very nearly into Europe itself, attacking through Spain, Italy, and the Balkans. Each time, the Islamic hordes were turned back by a united European military effort.

“Today, the Islamic invasion is not being carried out with sieges, scimitars, or cannon, but rather by immigration, birth rates, and demographics. Given current trends, Europe is set to be overrun before the end of this century.

“This book puts the current crisis into historical perspective, showing that instead of being a ‘religion of peace’, violent Islam has, in fact, been waging war on all its self-appointed opponents since its inception.

“Finally, this book dares to say what must be done if Europe is to avoid succumbing to the new invasion. The choice is hard, but is one which will determine whether Western Civilisation lives or dies.”

BNP news article, 27 May 2008

A fitting follow-up to Kemp’s earlier book March of the Titans: A History of the White Race.

For more on Arthur Kemp see here.

Zionists against Islamism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mad Melanie Phillips tells us that there is no principled difference between Al-Qaeda and mainstream Islamists like the Ikhwan, it’s all just a division of labour in the campaign to destroy western civilisation:

“… there are Islamists who oppose al Qaeda and terrorist action in the UK as a tactical mistake but nevertheless subscribe to the same strategic goal – to restore the medieval Caliphate, overturn British and western society and institute the rule of Islam instead. This is because there are two arms to the jihadi pincer: terrorist attack and cultural attack; and the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists use either or both depending on circumstances and upon differing strategic points of view between groups under the same jihadi umbrella.”

And over at Democratiya, we find two members of the Community Security Trust making the same point, assuring us that “Qaradawi condemned the suicide bombings in London on 7/7, but it does not appear that this was based on a principled objection to the methods or goals of the global jihadist movement”.

Which would come as something of a surprise to the Al-Qaeda leadership. As one commentator recently observed in an analysis of a statement by Ayman al-Zawahiri: “Zawahiri’s condemnation of Yusuf al-Qaradawi is particularly protracted and probably demonstrates how threatening he considers the popular Muslim Brotherhood scholar to be.”

‘Radical Islam is filling void left by collapse of Christianity in UK’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The decline of Christian values is destroying Britishness and has created a “moral vacuum” which radical Islam is filling, one of the Church of England’s leading bishops has warned.

Daily Telegraph, 28 May 2008

Yes, you guessed right. It’s another anti-Islam intervention by Michael Nazir-Ali.

See also BBC News, 28 May 2008

It’s worth noting that Standpoint, the magazine that has published Nazir-Ali’s article, is funded by the right-wing think-tank the Social Affairs Unit and edited by Daniel Johnson. Its “core mission” is to “celebrate and defend Western civilization, its achievements and its values”

‘The Islamisation of Britain’ (part 596)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“If recent reports of trends in religious observance prove to be correct, then in some 30 years the mosque will be able to claim that, religiously speaking, the UK is an Islamic nation, and therefore needs a share in any religious establishment to reflect this. The progress of conservative Islam in the UK has been amazing, and it has come at a time of prolonged decline in church attendance that seems likely to continue.

“This progress has been enthusiastically assisted by this government in particular with its hard-line multi-cultural dogma and willingness to concede to virtually every demand made by Muslims…. At all levels of national life Islam has gained state funding, protection from any criticism, and the insertion of advisors and experts in government departs national and local…. While men-only gentlemen’s clubs are now being dubbed unlawful, we hear of municipal swimming baths encouraging ‘Muslim women only’ sessions and in Dewsbury Hospitals staff waste time by turning beds to face Mecca five times a day – a Monty Pythonesque scenario of lunacy, but astonishingly true. [In fact, completely untrue – ed.]

“… Islam is being institutionalised, incarnated, into national structures amazingly fast, at the same time as demography is showing very high birthrates…. Today the Christian story is fading from public imagination, while Islam grows apace.”

Editorial in the Church of England Newspaper, 26 May 2008

Over at the Spectator, this view is enthusiastically endorsed by Mad Mel: “Britain is being steadily Islamised – and hardly a word is being breathed about it.”

Ed Husain accuses Muslim critics of ‘intimidation’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Quilliam FoundationThe Quilliam Foundation, the think tank devoted to promoting harmony in West/Islam relations, is facing the withdrawal of its financial backers.

The foundation was set up by former Hizb ut-Tahrir members Maajid Nawaz and Ed Husain in April with the explicit aim of freeing Western Muslims from “the cultural baggage of the Indian subcontinent and the political burdens of the Arab world”. Its work has already been feted by such figures as Michael Gove, the Conservative Shadow Secretary for Children, Schools and Families, and socialite Muslim Jemima Khan. But now its financial backers, based in the Gulf, have cut off funding because they are incensed at its criticism of Ken Livingstone’s favourite Islamist, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

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Couldn’t Sky Arts find a Muslim?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Three films on the three great Abrahamic faiths; three speeches by experts on those faiths. It sounds like the making of an admirably inclusive season of programming on Sky Arts, arranged by the channel’s chairman, Lord St John of Fawsley. A problem, however, looms. For while the lecture on Judaism is to be delivered by the Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, and the talk on Christianity is to be given by the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the contribution on Islam is to be provided by Hans Küng, who isn’t a Muslim, but another Catholic. Questions are being asked why nobody who actually practises Islam is deemed suitable….

“The Muslim Council of Britain, while saying it wants to see the lecture before criticising it, comments: ‘Hans Küng is a respected advocate of interfaith dialogue and it may well be that he will do a splendid job of explaining about Islam and Islamic architecture. It is somewhat regrettable that, unlike for the other faiths … the programme makers seem to have been unable to procure the services of someone who was actually a believer in the religion to present the programme’.”

Oliver Marre in the Observer, 25 May 2008

Posted in UK