“So what did I think of the Geert Wilders film Fitna? I thought it was very effective, and very shocking, in showing that the inspiration for the evil acts of which it showed such horrifying glimpses lay in the Koran. It shows very clearly the precise nature of what the civilised world is up against, a war of religion with striking similarities to Nazi ideology and murderous mass hysteria.”
Category Archives: UK
Christian mayoral candidate continues campaign against ‘mega-mosque’
A rally of 32,000 church-goers at the Dockland’s Excel Centre this weekend heard Christian Choice mayoral candidate Alan Craig explain one of his key priorities for London Mayor and the London Assembly.
The Newham councillor formally started his campaign outside City Hall on Friday lunchtime, before addressing the Festival of Life event, which went on through the night.
At the prayer rally he focused on his election campaign stance against the proposed Olympics Mega Mosque in West Ham.
Commenting about the scale of the event, Alan Craig said: “I was pleased to speak to so many Londoners and explain our reasoned and reasonable objections to this huge landmark mosque – planned to be Europe’s largest.”
Family’s hell at the hands of racist yobs
A Sheffield mum says she has suffered years of sickening racist abuse for living with an Asian man. Nicola Clark says her life is being destroyed by racist yobs who have subjected her and her 33-year-old partner Aftab Hussain to a spate of attacks since they and their children moved on to the Arbourthorne estate two years ago.
Nicola said: “They have destroyed my life – I cry every night because I am so worried about our kids’ safety. “I would happily move out of my flat and into a shed in the middle of nowhere if it meant we could be safe. We have suffered so much abuse over the last two years – they have even thrown bacon at me because they know Muslims don’t eat pork. I’m not Muslim but I know it was a dig at my partner. It’s absolutely awful.”
She said yobs chased her partner up the street with an iron bar, and later threw a beer can at them. The 32-year-old claims the gang of teenagers, believed to be aged from about 13 to 17, have repeatedly hurled racist abuse at them and warned them to leave the estate. Nicola, who last year gave birth to her second child, Arshad, claims she has also been forced to scrap three cars over the last 18 months after they were vandalised by the yobs.
Fury over children being taught together and learning about one another
Five Chinese Crackers analyses the response by the right-wing press to the NUT’s faith education proposals.
Five Chinese Crackers, 25 March 2008
Via Indigo Jo Blogs
Religion is now a potential ally of radical social change
“Panicked by the rise of radical Islamism and the newly assertive religious identity of migrant communities in a secular Europe, the anti-religious evangelists are increasingly using atheism as a banner for the defence of the global liberal capitalist order and the wars fought since 2001 to assert its dominance.
“At the same time, they are unable to recognise the ethnic dimension of their Islamophobia, let alone the deeper reasons why people continue to search for spiritual meaning in a grossly destructive economic environment where social alternatives have been pronounced dead and narcissistic consumption is king….
“Just as the French republican tradition of liberation came to be used as a stick to beat Muslims in a completely different social context from which it emerged, so the militant secularists who fetishise metaphysics and cosmology as a reason to declare the religious beyond the liberal pale are now ending up as apologists for western supremacism and violence.
“Like nationalism, religion can play a reactionary or a progressive role, and the struggle is now within it, not against it. For the future, it can be an ally of radical change.”
Seumas Milne in the Guardian, 27 March 2008
Christian Voice and BPP protest against Mawlid procession
Cultures clashed on Easter Sunday when Muslims marched in the streets to celebrate the birth of their prophet Muhammad.
Leaving Memorial Park at 1pm, men, women and children marched through the town lead by Imam, Mazar Hussain Gilani, from Walthamstow, London. Shouting “Allah is great” and “Long live the Prophet” while waving Islamic flags, worshippers from across the country joined Surrey’s first Mawlid procession.
But in Brighton Road, the 450-strong crowd were confronted by Union flags and banners held by two opposing packs of protesters. Holding placards reading “Onward Christian Soldiers” and “Our Lord’s Day”, four members of the right-wing British People’s Party stood watching the parade pass. And member of church pressure group Christian Voice bellowed Bible verses from a megaphone besides two of his members as the chorusing crowds went by.
Irfan Akhtar, 32, from East Walthamstow, London, was handing out leaflets to spectators during the march and said: “This is a historic day for Surrey. We just want to show our beliefs. We’re not looking to upset or intimidate people. Islam is a peaceful religion.”
But the marchers were accused by the protesters of being provocative by choosing Easter Sunday for the event. BPP members Pete Williamson, 41, from Brighton, said: “Why have they chosen today of all days to hold this march? We heard that they [the Muslim population] wanted to hold a demonstration and we’re here just to make people aware of what we stand for.”
Christian Voice leader Stephen Green, 56, said: “Jesus is our living saviour and for them to be marching on this holy day of the Christian year is disrespectful to say the least. I think it’s intimidating.”
But march organiser Mohammed Khalid, head of the Redhill Islamic Centre, said the procession wasn’t a deliberate attempt to upset people. He said: “It was a peaceful procession to mark the birthday of Muhammad and it’s happening [in towns and cities] all over the UK today.” He added: “I wish a happy Easter to all my Christian fellows.”
The procession finished at Redhill Islamic Centre in Earlswood Road, Earlswood, at 2pm where the worshippers met for prayer.
Surrey Chronicle, 27 March 2008
See also BPP news report, 23 March 2008
‘NUT wants to promote Islam in our schools!’
“This follows on from the union recently establishing a political fund based on 1% of members annual union subscription, to ‘campaign against racist and fascist’ candidates and parties at election time – in particular, the British National Party! So there you have it folks – on the one hand these bigots seek to promote Islam in our schools, whilst on the other they want to oppose Britons defending their Christian culture and heritage at the hustings and, presumably, elsewhere!”
The fascists of the BNP take their inspiration from yesterday’s front page article in the Daily Express.
Britain targets Muslim women to fight extremists
In a school in south London, women in headscarves are learning English, childcare skills and citizenship, to smooth their integration into British life. The courses are encouraged under a new government policy to “empower” Muslim women, ultimately to combat the threat from Islamist violence, a threat made brutally clear when four homegrown suicide bombers killed 52 people in London in 2005.
The policy’s backers say the main goal is for Britain’s estimated 800,000 Muslim women to become more influential in their communities, which might stem the threat from disaffected young Muslim men. “Muslim women have a unique role to play in tackling the spread of violent extremism,” Communities Secretary Hazel Blears said as she unveiled the plan, backed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
In a document published in January, Blears highlighted figures showing almost two-thirds of Muslim women in Britain are “economically inactive” – as opposed to about a quarter of all women. Her plan would see tens of millions of pounds spent through local communities to raise their involvement. But despite visible backing for the scheme from Brown, some Muslim community leaders are alienated by the way it has been presented.
“Why is it that anything that has to do with Muslims, has to do with terrorism?” said Reefat Drabu, Chair of the Social and Family Affairs Committee of the Muslim Council of Britain. While in favour of female empowerment, she said linking it with reducing the threat of terrorism was ludicrous. “If they want to combat terrorism, they really need to get out of their denial and realise that they need to look at the policies, as far as foreign policies, policies at home, domestic policies to win the hearts and minds of people,” she said.
The Muslim Public Affairs Committee said Blears’ initiative was missing the larger point – discrimination. “What Blears seems to fail to recognise is that women are unequivocally recognised by Islam as the moral authority in their homes,” the organisation commented on its Web site. “They do not need condescending advice on how they can better fulfil their roles in this sphere.”
‘Why I won’t be gagged’
“There is so much violence worldwide perpetrated against Christians in the name of Islam. Yet I, as a Christian priest, am not supposed to notice it. I am expected to keep my mouth shut and certainly not to write about it in a daily newspaper. Where are the official complaints from the Archbishops, the rest of our failed and spineless hierarchy and the General Synod? Recall the spirit of appeasement from the 1930s. It was disastrous then and it will lead to a much greater disaster today.”
Peter Mullen, Rector of St Michael’s, Cornhill, in the City of London, and Chaplain to the Stock Exchange responds to the recent assault on Canon Michael Ainsworth.
Torygraph warns against Islamification of Britain
“The increasing influence of Islam on British culture is disclosed in research today that shows the number of Muslims worshipping at mosques in England and Wales will outstrip the numbers of Roman Catholics going to church in little more than a decade…. The projections show that, if the Churches do not reverse their historical decline, there will be more active Muslims than Christians in Sunday services across Britain before the middle of the century.
“The figures, based on Government and academic sources and the latest edition of Christian Research’s Religious Trends, come amid growing tensions over the place of Muslims in British society. They follow fierce rows over the extent to which Islamic law should be recognised and over claims that “no-go” areas for non-Muslims are emerging in parts of the country.”