Category Archives: UK

Bishop abused and threatened over support for Muslim call to prayer

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Bishop of Oxford was sent a death threat calling for his beheading after backing a plan to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer. The Rt Rev John Pritchard today told a meeting discussing the issue he had received a bundle of “extraordinary mail” containing a number of threats.

The Bishop gave his backing, in principle, for the call to prayer to be broadcast from the Oxford Central Mosque, in Manzil Way, East Oxford, in interviews with the Oxford Mail and local radio in January.

Speaking at a public meeting organised by the Anglo Asian Association in East Oxford at Oxford Community School, he said: “After the interview, I received extraordinary mail. One said, on a piece of A4, ‘resign’ six times in large font. One called on me to be beheaded and one said ‘I wish I was closer so I could spit on you’. The dark underbelly of British society was coming out.”

Oxford Mail, 9 March 2008

Update:  See also “Bishop’s death threats over mosque plan”, Daily Telegraph, 11 March 2008

Rachel Whitear’s parents condemn BNP

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The parents of heroin victim Rachel Whitear have condemned the British National Party for using a picture of her corpse in a campaign blaming Muslims for the drugs trade. Police are investigating whether the party can be prosecuted for inciting hatred in what 21-year-old Rachel’s mother and stepfather call an “insulting and offensive” leaflet.

After her death in 2000 they authorised the release of a harrowing photograph of her corpse slumped on the floor with a syringe in her hand for anti-drugs campaigns in schools. But they were disgusted to find that it features in BNP leaflets under the headline: “The heroin trade, a crime against humanity – time for Muslims to apologise.”

“I was truly horrified when I saw what they’d done with it,” said Rachel’s mother, Pauline Holcroft, 58 at her home in Ledbury, Herefordshire. “Even if one of the main political parties had asked us if they could use it in a campaign I think we would have to say No. For the BNP to use it without even seeking our permission is an insult to my daughter’s memory.”

Daily Mail, 10 March 2008

‘Islam is the enemy of Christianity and seeks its complete destruction’ – BNP

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Betraying Britain's Christian heritage“So Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, claims that the adoption of Islamic law in Britain is unavoidable. He believes that in a multi-cultural society our laws must be adapted to accommodate the other law traditions of the immigrant population, especially the Muslim community, in Britain.

“It doesn’t seem to worry the leader of the Anglican Church that Muslims regard sharia law as the word of God, their God, and as a divine law that regulates all areas of their lives. It doesn’t seem to worry him either that sharia law discriminates against women and against non-Muslims and lays down a multitude of punishments, including imprisonment, beating, annulment of marriage, disinheritance and death, for Muslims who leave their faith.

“The introduction of state-sanctioned sharia courts will further encourage the growth of fundamental Islam in Britain and will attract more Muslim immigrants to come to these shores. More mosques will be built and more churches will be closed yet Williams still seems determined on feeding and defending this dangerous cuckoo in our nest which is hellbent on destroying Christianity in Britain.

“Wherever sharia has been given expanded space in the legal systems of Muslim states, it has inevitably led to infringements of the rights of non-Muslims negatively affecting the intellectual debate, narrowing the limits of freedom and threatening the critics of Islam.

“Williams is appeasing Islam in the vain hope that the Muslim community here will feel more at home. In the promotion of multiculturalism he is prepared to discard the established principles of equality before the law and individual liberty which are the foundation stones of Western societies.”

“Britain is already a long way down the road towards Islamification. Many informal sharia courts are operating in Muslim communities, there is now a sharia compliant financial system set up by the Labour Government, sharia regulations such as those to do with halal food, Islamic dress and gender segregation in physical exercises are complied with in schools and educational institutions. Some of these regulations also operate in public services such as the police, the NHS and the prison system.

“What hope is there for our Christian traditions when the most senior of clergy in the country are opening the door and welcoming the enemy in. And make no mistake, Islam is the enemy of Christianity and seeks its complete destruction. The Archbishop of Canterbury can at best be considered mad, or at worst a dangerous threat to his faith and the Christian future of our country.”

Editorial in the Voice of Freedom, March 2008

Unite Against Fascism – media alert

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UAF media alert – URGENT – Complain to the BBC about Thursday night’s interview with fascist BNP leader Nick Griffin

Thursday night’s Newsnight programme contained a special report on the BBC’s White Season, a series of programmes billed as addressing the question of white working class alienation. As part of the report, Newsnight carried interviewed Nick Griffin, the leader of the fascist British National Party, who holds a conviction for inciting racist hatred for denying the Holocaust. We must reject the BNP’s attempts to present itself as spokespeople for the white working class and seek the legitimacy of the media including news programmes such as Newsnight. Griffin is seeking to scapegoat black communities for the decline of industrial manufacturing, the loss of council housing and some social services, when both black and white working class people experience the same problems and hardship.

The BNP is not a legitimate organisation: despite its attempts to present itself as an ordinary political organisation, the BNP has been exposed for its links to fascist groups around the world, its leading members and supporters who have been convicted of racist violence.

The Newsnight position on the show was to say that it “entertained all manner of opinion as long as it was within the law”. The BBC should acknowledge that the BNP’s racist, homophobic, Islamophobic hate-speech results in a rise in hate crimes, and these should not receive uncritical coverage or platform on the licence fee.

The BNP are the modern day successors of Hitler and Mussolini. The mainstream media should remember that when fascism took power last century, it shut down the free media. The BNP denies the reality of the Holocaust and whips up racism in areas it targets leading to a rise in racist attacks.

The program presented a survey which obfuscates many of the positive gains that Britain has made as a result of immigration, instead reflecting some of the perceived problems that people have on the issue. It should be the responsibility of Newsnight to challenge these perceptions, not entertain them. For example the view expressed by one of the interviewees that white people are becoming a minority in England should have been challenged as non-white people only represent 9% of the population.

Griffin was allowed to promote view that blamed Islam and the Pakistani community for drug crimes. The BNP’s position of being “wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples” was alluded to, but the nature of the interview meant that he was allowed to give this view cover by claiming that other ethnicities generally share this view, which is also untrue.

Please write / phone to complain about the BNP being given unfettered coverage on Newsnight to spread its fascist views. You can watch the programme online at the following link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7281314.stm

In the run into the elections this May, we believe giving legitimacy to the fascist views of the BNP will give it the legitimacy it craves in order to make gains at the ballot box.

BBC complaints:
0870 0100 222 (telephone/textphone) http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/

Please let us know when you have complained and send us any responses you may get.

www.uaf.org.uk
unite@ucu.org.uk
020 7388 4816

BNP leader blames Muslims for Britain’s drug problems

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Fat fascistThe BBC was last night dragged into a race row after it broadcast claims by the British National Party blaming Muslim immigrants for the country’s hard drugs problems.

The comments were made during a debate on multiculturalism on BBC2’s Newsnight, which examined the results of a survey for the channel’s White season – a series of documentaries on what it means to be white and working class in Britain today.

When informed the poll showed that white working class Britons were more concerned about drug and drink culture than immigration, the BNP leader Nick Griffin responded with an attack on Pakistani immigrants. He said: “You can’t possibly separate the hard drugs trade from the question of Islam and particularly Pakistani immigration. Any working class area of Britain – in a multiracial area – the hard drugs problem is related to Islam and Pakistan.”

Daily Mail, 7 March 2008

‘Drowning in a sea of migrants’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

White seasonWhite Brits are set to reveal what they really think about immigration in a series of bombshell telly shows. Members of the UK’s “forgotten” working class say they are drowning in a rising tide of immigrants. And they blast Labour politicians for abandoning them in the name of “multi-culturalism”.

They speak openly and honestly in a series of shows for the BBC’s White Season, but their controversial views are sure to spark outrage. Tomorrow night’s Last Orders features members of struggling Wibsey Working Men’s Club in Bradford, West Yorks. They say they are being driven into the arms of the extremist BNP by a Labour Party that no longer cares about them.

They say the heart has been ripped from their communities as mass immigration has seen them lose their traditions and their jobs. And they warn of a bloody race war. Scaffolder Paul, 21, said: “It isn’t our area any more, it is theirs. The Asians hate us and we hate them. The Muslims get all the new houses and the whites all the sh*te houses. There will be one big mass battle start in Bradford. I give it five years and it will explode.”

BBC documentaries head Richard Klein insisted last night: “I don’t think we have given a platform to extremist political parties. We have given a platform to people whose views aren’t often heard on TV.”

Daily Star, 6 March 2008

Police probe into BNP heroin leaflet

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A British National Party member could face police investigations after he distributed hundreds of leaflets across Preston which blame Muslims for the heroin trade in Britain.

Tony Bamber, who stood in local elections for the BNP in Tulketh ward in 2006, denied being solely responsible for the distribution of the leaflets but admitted he was involved. Mr Bamber, 52, said: “The leaflets are not making a comment about the Islamic religion, they are making a statement about the activities of Muslims. The leaflets were made by Preston Pals, a group of concerned indigenous people in the city.”

The question of whether the leaflets amount to incitement to religious hatred is now being considered by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Detective Sergeant Graham Gallagher, head of the Hate Crime Diversity unit at the Lancashire Constabulary, said: “This leaflet has been distributed around Preston, Burnley, and Pendle. We received a number of complaints after the leaflet was distributed to a number of addresses and we have now submitted a file to the Crown Prosecution Service to see if we have sufficient evidence to progress with our inquiry.”

Another inquiry looks set to be launched by the Royal British Legion, as the leaflets claim to be a Preston Pals’ publication. The Pals represent a Lancashire regiment – the 5th Battalion – which endured heavy casualties in the First World War. Mr Bamber, whose name appears on the leaflet, said he would continue distributing them.

This is Lancashire, 6 March 2008

‘We don’t need this Olympics mosque’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Evening Standard applauds Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui’s stand against the proposed new Islamic centre in Newham, east London. The Standard informs its readers: “The ‘megamosque’ in Newham is being planned by Islamic group Tablighi Jamaat, which the FBI has described as ‘a recruiting ground’ for al Qaeda – a claim it denies. Shoebomber Richard Reid and 7/7 bombers Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer were members.”

Alan Craig of the Christian People’s Alliance is also a happy man. He is quoted as saying: “It’s fantastic that Dr Siddiqui has come out in opposition to the mosque. There are many more that are reluctant to be involved with anything to do with Tablighi Jamaat because of their rumoured connections to the Taliban.”

‘Halt handouts to Muslim fanatics’ says Cameron

Posted on by Bob Pitt

David CameronDavid Cameron is to call for a ban on public handouts to Muslim extremists. And the Tory leader wants anyone who “rejects democracy” barred from sitting on public bodies.

Last night he also called on the Government to step up action to keep extremist preachers out of Britain, saying: “Terrorist apologists should be kept out, full stop, period.”

Mr Cameron told a leading Jewish charity that too many fanatical groups were still getting public funding. He accused Labour ministers of “taking their eye off the ball” in the fight against extremism.

In a speech to the Community Security Trust, which helps protect the Jewish community from anti-semitic attacks, he said: “The Government has allocated hundreds of thousands of pounds to local authorities to improve community cohesion. But there are worrying signs that ministers have taken their eyes off the ball.”

He cited examples of councils handing out cash for community projects that ended up going to extremist groups, including Hizb-ut-Tahrir.

Mr Cameron said that extremism was not confined to any particular religious or ethnic group. “During protests against the conflict in Lebanon, we witnessed the nauseating sight of well-scrubbed, middle class English people marching through central London holding placards that read ‘We are all Hizbollah’. That is the extremist mindset in action.”

Daily Express, 4 March 2008

The nonsense about “councils handing out cash” to Hizb ut-Tahrir is evidently a garbled reference to a recent debate organised by Anas Altikriti’s Cordoba Foundation at the London Muslim Centre (see here and here), at which Lord Ahmed and Osama Saeed opposed the HT view that Muslims should not involve themselves in electoral politics in the UK.

‘Don’t build this mosque’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The man who co-founded the separatist Muslim Parliament has denounced plans for a huge mosque next to the Olympic site. The Tablighi Jamaat’s PR company, Indigo, today launched its ‘charm offensive’ in the run-up to submitting proposals for a massive 12,000-seater mosque on contaminated land in Newham, East London. But Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, Indian-born elder-statesman of political Islam in Britain told Lapido Media:  ‘We have too many mosques. I think it should not be built.’ …

“Siddiqui’s views are in line with other prominent Muslims like Irfan Al-Alawi, Europe director of the Centre for Islamic Pluralism, who has expressed ‘extreme concern’ about the spread of Tablighi Jamaat. They have dared to speak out against the proposals despite pressure from the Muslim Police Association, the London Mayor Ken Livingstone – and now Indigo PR who are handling their propaganda. The mosque build is being seen as a test of strength by many observers around the world who are concerned it will tip a diverse city at ease with its multi-culturalism into an increasingly tense, religious politicisation….

“Councillor Alan Craig … in whose ward the mosque would be built, believes that it is ‘ludicrous’ for Indigo to describe the proposal by a massive, secretive sect hailing from South Asia as a ‘community project’. ‘What we seem to have now is the bizarre spectacle of the British “posh” who should know better, joining forces with newt-loving Red Ken against Pakistani and Indian Muslim elders in a sort of post-colonial guilt trip showdown which is just mind-boggling’ said Craig.”

Lapido Media, 3 March 2008

For details of the consultation with local residents, see the Abbey Mills Mosque website.

Download their leaflet (pdf) here.