Category Archives: UK

In Europe, where’s the hate?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Gary Younge“Over the past year or so the rural Italian idyll of Colle di Val d’Elsa has played host to a bitter battle for Enlightenment values. On one side, the hamlet’s small Muslim community has raised a considerable amount of money to build a large mosque. Having gained the mayor’s approval, the Muslims signed a declaration of cooperation with the town hall and even planted a Christmas tree at the site as a good-will gesture.

“In response, other locals pelted them with sausages and dumped a severed pig’s head at the site. On a wall near the site vandals daubed: ‘No Mosque’, ‘Christian Hill’ and ‘Thanks to the communists the Arabs are in our house!!!’ Such is the central dynamic in European race relations at present.

“… the primary threat to democracy in Europe is not ‘Islamofascism’ – that clunking, thuggish phrase that keeps lashing out in the hope that it will one day strike a meaning – but plain old fascism. The kind whereby mostly white Europeans take to the streets to terrorize minorities in the name of racial, cultural or religious superiority.”

Gary Younge in the Nation, 20 December 2007

‘Muslims are stealing our culture and traditions’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Polly-ToynbeeIt’s not every day that Islamophobia Watch has cause to quote Polly Toynbee favourably, but her piece in today’s Guardian features an effective polemic against right-wing myths about the Muslim attack on “our” Christian culture:

“In a daft parliamentary debate this month on something called Christianophobia, Mark Pritchard MP accused the politically correct of banning religion from Christmas cards and advent calendars: ‘Many shoppers find it increasingly difficult to purchase greetings cards that refer to Jesus.’ … Evangelicals started a new myth this year that postage stamps with the Madonna and child are only sold under the counter: you have to ask for them, for fear of offending Muslims and Jews. Stuff and nonsense, retorted the Post Office. But you can bet this one will run and run – along with last year’s myth that 70% of offices banned Christmas decorations for multicultural reasons….

“All this would just be seasonal silliness if it were not cover for a more sinister drumbeat. The right has taken to flying the ‘Christian’ flag in ways that suggest none too subtly that foreigners – Muslims – are stealing our culture and traditions. ‘They’ are stopping ‘us’ celebrating Christmas and teaching Christian stories to our children. When Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, appeared on GMTV this week, although as usual he denied any atheist plot against Christmas, the theme in about 3,000 emails afterwards was: ‘We are not Muslims, our culture must not be silenced to avoid offending them.’

“The BNP has been quick to cash in. In the Christianophobia debate in parliament, the reported case of a BNP Christmas card was raised, ‘which portrays the holy family on the cover and inside are the words “Heritage, Tradition and Culture”.’ Pritchard warned television firms: ‘The fear of violence from a particular faith group should not be grounds for hand-selecting or targeting other faith groups who may choose to protest peacefully.’ Fear of Muslim violence is killing off peaceful Christianity, he implies.”

‘Overlook BNP at our own peril’ says BoD president

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Henry Grunwald offers a perceptive analysis of the BNP’s intervention in a recent by-election in Harrow, in a ward with a large Jewish electorate:

“….  it is important to understand that the recent foray into Canons Ward was meant to highlight a purported ‘common cause’ with Jews. How? Using the alchemy of hate, the BNP sought to turn a legitimate concern with radical extremism into generalised prejudice against British Muslims.

“If nothing else, this shape-shifting vilification tactic is a reminder of the BNP’s core ideology. For no matter how they dress up their pitch, and how coded their language may be, the BNP remains dedicated to propagating their worldview in Britain, based on an anti-integration, white supremacist credo.”

Totally Jewish, 19 December 2007

MPACUK incites murder (it says here)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MPACUK’s appeal for information about the Muslims who co-operated with Policy Research in compiling the fraudulent and discredited report The Hijacking of British Islam has not been without its critics (see for example Yusuf Smith’s reasoned comments at Indigo Jo Blogs). But the Islamophobic blogosphere has completely lost its marbles over this issue. David T at Harry’s Place has compared MPACUK to the fascist website Redwatch, while Conservative Home have posted a piece which in all seriousness invites us to accept the hysterical accusation by right-wing blogger Matthew Sinclair that MPACUK’s appeal represents “a direct attempt to recreate the murder of Theo van Gogh”! Read MPACUK’s response here.

Another non-terrorist imprisoned

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Taliban Fanatic...“A Halifax man with extreme Islamic beliefs has been jailed for four years. Rizwan Mahmood Ditta, 29, of Royd Terrace, Savile Park, supported the Taliban and the July 7 London bombings, a court heard. He admitted two offences under the Terrorism Act.

“Ditta, an English tutor for Asians in Halifax, would have been keen to take part in terrorist activity, said prosecutor Jonathan Sharp. Video footage found in his possession, showed military vehicles being blown up and audio messages encouraging terrorism.

“Ditta was arrested when counter-terrorism officers raided his Halifax home in January. He was charged with two counts of having data on a computer hard drive that contained information likely to be useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism.”

Halifax Courier, 18 December 2007

An accompanying editorial describes Ditta as having engaged in “a subtle type of terrorism” and observes: “Some may feel the sentence is lenient for a person described as supporting the Taliban and the London bombings on 7/7.”

Some, on the other hand, may note that Ditta didn’t actually engage in any form of terrorism at all, “subtle” or otherwise, nor did the prosecution present any evidence that he intended to do so. He was charged on the basis of downloading material from the internet.

As for the supposed “leniency” of the four-year prison sentence, some may wish to contrast that with the two-and-half-years that BNP member Robert Cottage received after being convicted of possessing explosives.

Much more than receipts

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Abdurahman Jafar“The report is fundamentally flawed. Policy Exchange seeks to name and shame institutions, not on the basis of evidence, but purely on the basis of their religious denomination or organisational affiliation. Further, there is a distinct difference between those institutions where receipts were genuine – these were largely apolitical, literalist and ultra-conservative Salafist or Deobandi ones – and those where the receipts have come under suspicion: institutions that were pragmatic and tolerant in their interpretation of Islam but according to the report were connected to the MCB. In my view, the evidence was cherry-picked to create a pre-determined conclusion designed to support an extreme ideology at odds with our national interests.”

Abdurahman Jafar produces the best demolition so far of the Policy Exchange report The Hijacking of British Islam.

Comment is Free, 17 December 2007