Category Archives: UK

Bright’s fright night

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bright’s fright night

Martin Bright’s feeble TV hatchet job on London Mayor Ken Livingstone may have missed its target, but it speaks volumes for the pro-war ‘left’, writes ANDREW MURRAY.

Morning Star, 23 January 2008

THE most remarkable moment in this week’s partisan hatchet job on London Mayor Ken Livingstone on Channel 4 was not in fact about the mayor at all.

It was the moment when reporter Martin Bright, in the course of a segment about Venezuela, dismissed the Chavez regime in terms straight from the Bush State Department handbook – allied to Iran, associated with cocaine-smuggling guerillas and accused of human rights abuses.

With that passing phrase, Bright managed to align himself with the global neocon agenda on the Middle East and Latin America as well as the matter ostensibly in hand.

For make no mistake, the travesty of journalism that was the Dispatches programme reveals two things above all. First, getting Livingstone out of office is now priority number one for the warmongering, Muslim-bashing neocon “left.” Second, they are now prepared to openly embrace even the reactionary Toryism of Boris Johnson in order to further this end.

One of only two people can be elected mayor this year – Livingstone or Johnson. And Bright, seconded by his soulmate Nick Cohen in The Observer, has effectively come out for a Johnson victory, so great is his venom against anything even approximating to an authentic socialist left.

That was made abundantly clear in the Evening Standard, in which Bright hyperventilated on his personal mission to see the mayor driven out of office.

“I feel it is my duty,” he intoned with a pomposity worthy of a higher office than political reporter on a small-circulation weekly, “to warn the London electorate that a vote for Livingstone is a vote for a bully and a coward who is not worthy to lead this great city of ours.”

Bright himself has form working to the agenda of the global right. He teamed up with the Policy Exchange, which is run by charter neocon and former Daily Telegraph chief leader-writer Dean Godson, to produce a pamphlet telling Britain’s Muslims how they should behave.

This venture earned him a public commendation from Richard Perle, the leading imperial strategist for the Reagan and Bush administrations and one of the chief boosters of the Iraq war in Washington. The Policy Exchange has since been accused of fraudulent research in a subsequent Muslim-baiting television programme.

Research was not an issue for “BoJo” Bright. When the shadow secretary of state for business and enterprise Alan Duncan popped up in the programme in the guise of a “former oil trader” to bear expert witness on Venezuela, we knew that we were not really in the realm of Woodward and Bernstein but in the party political broadcast zone.

A similar incidence of “research-light” was the risible interview with Marc Wadsworth, a former anti-racist activist who sensationally announced that some of Livingstone’s advisers were affiliated to the “Communist Fourth International based in Moscow.” Did no-one bother poor “Bright” with the news that the Communist International and the Fourth International were two entirely different and bitterly opposed bodies and that the latter has never ever been based in Moscow, a famously inhospitable location for Trotskyists?

As for the attack on “Socialist Action,” surely John Ross, Redmond O’Neill and the rest can, after eight years, be judged on their contribution to the running of London rather than their membership of any particular political group. This is simply McCarthyism at a puerile Daily Express level, an attempt to scare the Tories of Orpington and High Barnet into getting to the polls in May before the Soviet comes to town.

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Britain’s Muslims are too extreme

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain's Muslims are too extremeMosques in Britain are spreading a dangerous brand of extremism that would be outlawed in Iraq – says the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq.

The “shocking indictment” came from Dr Barham Salih, who said he was appalled by the level of fundamentalism he found taking root here.

After visiting mosques in Lancashire, Dr Salih said: “I am not surprised that you British are facing so many problems with extremists after what I saw in those mosques in Blackburn. What I saw would not be allowed in Iraq – it would be illegal.”

Last night his comments re-ignited the debate on terror within the UK and led to a call for a tougher approach towards mosques. Intelligence expert Professor Anthony Glees warned: “This needs to be taken very seriously but the Government is turning a blind eye to it, which I believe is a grave mistake. It should be banned. The Government has to make it clear that there are some things that are simply not negotiable. This is one of them.”

It was during talks in Baghdad that Dr Salih made his shocking revelations to Shadow Culture Minister Tobias Ellwood. “I do not believe these comments can be dismissed out of hand. He went in the mosques and said literature he saw would be illegal. He was quite clear,” said Mr Ellwood. He added: “Is it not time that we took a much tougher approach to what is happening in the 1,300 mosques that we have in the UK?”

Muslim leaders in Blackburn dismissed the claims as “rubbish” last night but the town has had high-level links to terror in the past and been targeted by preachers of hate.

Daily Express, 23 January 2008

See also the Daily Mail, the Sun and the Star. And in an editorial headed “Labour too soft on evil” the Star comments:

“Mosques in Britain are filled with more hate for the West than those in Iraq. That’s the alarming verdict of Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Dr Barham Salih. He was shocked by what he discovered on a visit to Blackburn – home of Justice Secretary Jack Straw. “What I saw could not be allowed in Iraq – it would be illegal, ” he said.

“Muslim extremists in the UK have been able to distribute propaganda literature and videos as well as making bloodthirsty speeches. They have sent followers to al-Qaida training camps to prepare for jihad. And they inspired four Brits to become suicide bombers and kill 52 innocent people in London.

“Labour has adopted a softly, softly approach to the growth of Islamic extremism in Britain – taking years to clamp down on dangerous figures like Abu Hamza. As a result of this feeble approach – as Dr Salih found out – the extremists have gained in strength.“

Britain is a Christian country says minister

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A new “tool kit” for universities issued today by Bill Rammell, the Universities Minister, advises universities to draw up a national watch list of guest speakers who should be banned from speaking on campus. It also suggests that universities consider setting up multi-faith chaplaincies instead of separate prayer rooms for different faiths, to promote integration and prevent pockets of extremists forming.

Mr Rammell was adamant that Muslim students – particularly those coming from overseas – did not have the right to demand special treatment from British universities. “Britain technically is a Christian country with many secular features. It’s those two things. It’s not anything else. If you expect that you would have the same response to your faith needs in Britain as would happen within a Muslim or Islamic country, [you] would be disappointed,” he said.

His comments follow fears that some Islamic societies and prayer rooms in universities had become no-go areas for the authorities, where extremists may be free to preach hatred and violence to vulnerable students.

Times, 22 January 2008

See also “Extremists turn attention to Muslim women” in the Daily Telegraph and “Extremists are ‘grooming’ female students, security officials warn” in the Daily Mail.

BNP flyers circulated in Burnt Oak

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP changing face of london leafletThe Hendon & Finchley Times has reported that racist leaflets promoting the far-right British National Party have been distributed in Burnt Oak and Colindale in north London.

The flyers contrast a scene from 1950s Britain with three women in Islamic veils. Under the 1950s picture of an all-white street party the leaflet states: “… this is the way London used to be… If you would like London to be like this again, then support the British National Party.”

The paper states that the likely source of the flyers is the BNP presence in Harrow, where the fascists stood a candidate in a council by-election in December. Their candidate, Howard Studley, received 56 votes and finished last.

As Henry Grunwald of the Board of Deputies pointed out, the BNP’s aim in contesting that election was to win support within the Jewish community on an anti-Muslim programme, and their leafleting in Barnet may well have the same objective.

The Hendon & Finchley Times quotes Shakil Ahmed, of the Hendon Mosque, as saying that relationships between different communities in Barnet are good, but that there are always concerns about such views spreading.

He told the paper: “We don’t know what affect this is going to have. The worry in view of the nature of the flyer is that the hatred is going to be targeted at Muslim women on the streets dressing in this particular way. I don’t think we’ve had that many incidents in Barnet, but I’ve heard of things in Brent, where women in headscarves have been attacked for nothing. That’s not far away, so it is a concern.”

Barnet councillors have said that they will investigate whether the BNP flyers breach anti-racism laws.

Don’t vote for Ken says Bright

Posted on by Bob Pitt

martin_brightMartin (“I could think of nothing worse than to support Boris Johnson”) Bright has now come off the fence. A mere four days ago he was suggesting that voters should do no more than reconsider voting for Ken Livingstone in the London Mayoral election in May. Yet in today’s issue of the Tory rag the Evening Standard (or the Evening Boris, as it has recently become known) Bright tells his readers:

“I now believe Ken Livingstone is a disgrace to his office and not fit to be Mayor of London. Any Londoner with a progressive bone in his or her body should not consider voting for him in the forthcoming mayoral elections.”

At least this has the merit of consistency. And it’s entirely in line with Bright’s argument that the “left” (a term he laughably applies to himself and the likes of Nick Cohen) should form an alliance with the anti-Muslim right – hence his association with the right-wing think-tank Policy Exchange.

Give it another four days and no doubt we’ll see Bright officially signed up to Boris Johnson’s election campaign.

Postscript:  The exposure of Livingstone’s leftist allies at City Hall is a bit old hat, by the way, having been accomplished successfully several years ago.

US hard right backs Nazir-Ali

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“When others in his church and nation are often blinded by multiculturalism and rigid political correctness, the Church of England’s ethnically Pakistani Bishop of Rochester often speaks boldly…. Extreme secularists in both Britain and the U.S. naturally prefer to ignore the Jewish and Christian origins of their cultures and democracies. Their extreme version of multiculturalism, while ostensibly intended to protect the dignity of various cultures, instead denigrates Western culture and religion, while enthroning cultures that are hostile to Western democracy. Mainline Protestant clerics, presiding over emptied churches, often enthusiastically endorse this trend. But at least one Church of England bishop of Pakistani origins is warning against the swelling dangers.”

Mark D. Tooley at Front Page Magazine, 21 January 2008

Islam – ‘an intrinsically violent, aggressive and murderous ideology’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP dustbin“The big lie of our times is to deny that Islam is an intrinsically violent, aggressive and murderous ideology. Our lords and masters repeat their PC denial of this blindingly obvious fact in various forms (‘Religion of Peace’, or ‘tiny minority of extremists’etc), in the belief that like some sort of magical spell, it will become true if recited often enough.

“Supporting strands of this web of deceit include claims that Islamic aggression is a recent reaction to the sins of the West (colonialism), or is caused by poverty (buy them off with more jizya), or is carried out by a tiny minority who misunderstand the peaceful commandments of the Koran, or, in a whopper that would be worthy of Goebbels himself – that Islamic terrorism is actually anti-Islamic, as preached by the hypocrite Jacqui Smith.”

A fascist blogger spells out the BNP’s view of Islam. (Not that different from Melanie Phillips’s it would appear.)

Home of the Green Arrow, 20 January 2008

Another paranoid anti-Muslim rant from Mad Mel

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Once again, Britain’s ‘moderate’ Muslim community is upping the ante against the British society in which it resides. The Sunday Telegraph reports that senior Muslims are pushing to integrate sharia law into English law. Dr Suhaib Hasan who, we learn, has been presiding over sharia courts in Britain for more than 25 years, is anxious to dispel any idea that sharia means flogging, stoning or amputations. Good grief no, perish the thought apparently it’s ‘only’ about family law.

“Uh huh. But as Baroness Cox points out in this story, sharia family law is utterly inimical to English law and British values, based as it is on the subjugation of women and the negation of individual freedom….

“And to back up his whole sinister proposal, he makes the utterly false analogy with Jewish religious law…. This is rubbish….

“It is very important that people understand that the pressure to sharia-ise Britain is far more dangerous even than terrorism because – see the government’s embrace of ‘sharia finance’ – its implications simply aren’t understood and it is likely therefore to be accepted. Salami-slice by salami slice, this is how British society will be dismembered.”

Meanie Phillips’s Spectator blog, 20 January 2008

UK is ‘slouching towards dhimmocracy’ says Mad Mel

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mad Melanie Phillips condemns on the government’s reported decision to drop the phrase “war on terror” when, according to Mel, what we are facing is “the attempt to murder large numbers of innocent people in the pursuit of a political aim – namely, the Islamisation of Britain”.

Taking her inspiration from Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch website, Mel launches an attack on home secretary, Jacqui Smith, for stating that terrorists are behaving contrary to their faith, rather than acting in the name of Islam:

“The speech was a frightening demonstration of intellectual and moral funk. She said: ‘As so many Muslims in the UK and across the world have pointed out, there is nothing Islamic about the wish to terrorise, nothing Islamic about plotting pain, murder and grief. Indeed, if anything these actions are “anti-Islamic”.’

“This is demonstrably ridiculous. The campaign of terror being mounted against the free world is being perpetrated in the name of Islam, sanctioned and even mandated by leading Islamic scholars around the world, and rooted in Islamic theology – and in the history of violent jihadi conquest to which it gave rise that stretches back to the beginning of Islam in the seventh century….

“In its ignorance, panic and confusion over terrorist violence, the government has failed to grasp that Britain is being squeezed by a jihadi pincer movement of both terrorism and cultural aggression, each reinforcing the other and, according to plan, causing the governing class to descend into that state of cultural servitude to Islam known as ‘dhimmitude’.”

Spectator blog, 17 January 2008

Any website bans must include far right, say UK Muslim youth

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A leading British Muslim youth organisation Thursday welcomed the government action against websites promoting hatred but expressed concern about plans announced Home Secretary Jacqui Smith that they could be “discriminatory”. The Ramadhan Foundation said it was “concerned that action is not being taken on far right and fascist websites that also promote violence and hatred.” Many that promote hatred and violence against minority communities that should be also closed, it said.

Mathaba News Network, 18 January 2008