‘Boris Johnson defeated Islamic extremists as well as Ken Livingstone’

Posted on May 5, 2008 by Bob Pitt

“This result isn’t just a wonderful victory for Boris and the termination of Livingstone. It’s also a defeat for the campaign – an exceptionally dirty one, at that – waged against Boris by a small band of separatists claiming to act in the name of all London’s Muslims.”

Tory MP Paul Goodman attacks the role of the British Muslim Initiative and Muslims4Ken in the London mayoral election. (Yes, that the same Paul Goodman who David Cameron appointed as shadow minister for Communities.)

Conservative Home, 3 May 2008

See Anas Altiktiti’s responses in the comments section. He writes: “Paul Goodman’s piece is symptomatic of all that’s wrong with politics and politicians today. Neither Mr. Goodman nor his party have ever asked to meet up with myself or with any of the organisations that he has so steadily listed, yet he hesitates not for a second to label me and those organisations as extremists. In fact his whole argument seems to suggest that all Muslims who voted for Ken Livingstone are on the extreme side, and that only those who voted for his party are ‘moderates’.”

And see also Anas’s piece at Comment is Free: “The constituency we were addressing was worried about Islamaphobia. And we managed to ensure the issue of Islam, Islamaphobia and discrimination against Muslims was on every candidate’s agenda and a hot topic in every hustings. If it did nothing else than persuade Johnson to clarify his views on Islam, assert his conviction that it is indeed a religion of peace, and get him to visit a few mosques in an attempt to win back votes he was convinced he had lost, then it was a great success.”

Schools for Muslims

Posted on May 5, 2008 by Bob Pitt

Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain replies to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown.

Guardian, 5 May 2008

A new era of Islamophobia?

Posted on May 4, 2008 by Bob Pitt

Fosters 1027 24 “What an election! We have the first Conservative Mayor for London and we also have the first racist Islamophobe from the BNP in the London Assembly. So what do we make of this? Is this the end of an era or is it a beginning of a new one? …

“So what caused this shock result? Was it anti-Brown or anti-Labour sentiments? Was it the recognition that ‘the Conservatives have changed into a party that can again be trusted after 30 years’? Was it the overt support of Muslims 4 Ken, as some have commented? Or was it the politics of fear created by the government and media? Can it even be as simple as ‘he’s been there too long’? We may never know the real reasons, as most voters will have different reasons for voting the way they do – but here is my thought on why the BNP got its first Assembly Member.

“If you recall the last 2 to 3 years, you will no doubt notice that the most discussed subject has been Islam and Muslims. The rancorous manner in which the government – a Labour government – attacked Islam and Muslim has been unforgivable. Together with the relentless and vitriolic media, it created the perfect atmosphere for the racist BNP to peddle its malevolence with impunity. In the eyes of the BBC this racist party has now become ‘The anti-immigration British National Party’. Anti-immigration! When Jack Straw said that it’s not Ken’s fault alone and that everybody in government had some responsibility, I sincerely hope he together with the likes of Ruth Kelly and others recall their Islam bashing and how they allowed the BNP to espouse the myth of ‘Islamofascism’. And how the hatred they spew is becoming acceptable and mainstream. Maybe this is the ‘new era’ that has begun!”

Azad Ali assesses the results of the London elections.

Between the Lines, 3 May 2008

Barnbrook calls for flying of Union Jack and a ban on burkas

Posted on May 4, 2008 by Bob Pitt

The mainstream party candidates walked off the stage when Richard Barnbrook stepped up to speak after becoming, early on Saturday morning, the first member of the British National Party to win a seat on the London Assembly. Mr Barnbrook was unpeturbed. He expects to be treated as a pariah for the next four years, but insists that he will not be cowed. “If I have to be a lone wolf I will be one,” he told The Times.

Mr Barnbrook, 47, said that he intends to become the voice of “true Londoners”, fighting against political correctness and preferential treatment for racial minorities. He will press for the Union Jack to be flown permanently over City Hall, for burkas to be banned from public buildings and for official celebrations to mark St George’s Day. He will resist the planned construction of a huge new mosque, the biggest place of worship in Britain, in Newham, East London.

The Times, 4 May 2008

Martin Freeman on multiculturalism

Posted on May 4, 2008 by Bob Pitt

Chris Sullivan interviews Martin Freeman:

Politely, I comment on his lovely house and the tranquillity that surrounds it. “When I moved up here this woman I know said, ‘Ooh! There are a lot of whiteys up there’, and I said, ‘I love white people; I’ve no problem with them at all’. The idea was that I was going to complain because there weren’t enough blues dances out here; not enough ragga around. But I’m not bothered by it.

“Multiculturalism hasn’t and doesn’t help, because rightly or wrongly it polarises people so much,” he continues. “Racism is one thing – and I don’t agree with that in any form – but noticing that there are differences is normal and fine and to be encouraged. We’ve reached a state now where it’s, ‘You shouldn’t notice. Why are you noticing he’s got a bomb and has a beard and is Muslim and wants to kill your family’?”

Mail on Sunday, 4 May 2008

Claiming damages, the Muslim policeman removed from Blair guard duty

Posted on May 2, 2008 by Bob Pitt

A Muslim policeman removed from his job guarding the Prime Minister on “national security grounds” yesterday launched a claim for compensation.

Firearms officer Amjad Farooq, 40, was transferred from the elite Diplomatic Protection Group on the advice of MI5, after it had carried out vetting checks on him.

Now, in what is believed to be a first for employment tribunals, the hearing into his claim that he suffered racial and religious discrimination is being held behind closed doors on the grounds of national security.

The case centres on concerns over a mosque that PC Farooq and his family attended in Swindon.

Daily Mail, 2 May 2008

See also “Muslim PC barred from own tribunal” in the Swindon Advertiser, 2 May 2008

Stop pandering to Muslims says ‘silent majority’

Posted on May 2, 2008 by Bob Pitt

The government’s attempts to placate Muslims will cause long-term damage to communities, a charity said yesterday.

The warning came from Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, chair and co-founder of the British Muslims for Secular Democracy, a new organisation claiming to represent the “silent majority who feel no conflict between their faith and democracy”.

Speaking before the launch, attended by Baroness Kishwer Faulkner and former Islamist Ed Husain, the journalist said the government was pandering to Muslims by granting too many concessions, fuelling their separation from the rest of society.

“The government has found a way of placating Muslims in a way that will only damage us in the long term, Muslims wanting separate schools or different measures. There must be one law for all. This differential accommodation leads to us being pushed to the edges. How is it that the Sikhs and Hindus can live in democracy but not Muslims?”

She added: “The perception is that Muslims receive a disproportionate amount of attention and funding and that perception is justified. This ridiculous, distorted, exaggerated single identity has made us no friends.”

Guardian, 2 May 2008

But what else can you expect from an organisation whose leading figures include Taj Hargey and Shaaz Mahboob? And since when did these characters represent the majority of British Muslims, silent or otherwise?

Update: See Yusuf Smith’s comments on Indigo Jo Blogs, 4 May 2008

Alan Craig loses fight over election broadcast

Posted on April 30, 2008 by Bob Pitt

A Christian party has lost a High Court bid to have its party election broadcast (PEB) repeated, after claims it was censored by the BBC and ITV. Christian Choice said the BBC forced changes to its description of a Muslim group in a PEB aired in London. Alan Craig, the party’s candidate for London mayor, had argued the action breached his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights – which guarantees the right to freedom of expression.

BBC News, 30 April 2008

Mad Melanie Phillips is not happy: “There is clearly no limit to British pusillanimity and sheer unadulterated funk when it comes to calling Islamic radicalism by even the most polite and restrained of proper names.” Melanie Phillips’s blog, 29 April 2008

Mad Mel warns against ‘the progressive Islamisation of London’s East End’

Posted on April 30, 2008 by Bob Pitt

Jamme Masjid mosque with minaret “From the East London Advertiser comes further news of the progressive Islamisation of London’s East End, and the lengths to which Ken Livingstone is going to court the Muslim vote for tomorrow’s mayoral election.”

Melanie Phillips responds to the report that – shock, horror – Ken Livingstone has pledged to help raise funds for a major revamp of the Jamme Masjid mosque in Brick Lane. And, what’s worse, the proposed development would feature a minaret.

“The height of this proposed minaret is no incidental matter”, Phillips informs us. “The fact that it would tower over Brick Lane is designed to make a powerful symbolic statement of the supremacy of Islam over that area and the subjugation of all non-Islamic creeds. Like the proposed vast Olympic village mosque, also in east London, it is thus in itself an act of jihad against British society. That is what Ken is endorsing.”

Melanie Phillips’s blog, 30 April 2008

Predictably, the fascists of the British National Party find common ground with Phillips on this issue.

See BNP news article, 27 April 2008