Category Archives: UK

British Muslims – ‘not victims but victimisers’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Britain’s two million Muslims are being led astray. Instead of facing up to the problem of extremism in their own ranks they are being encouraged to wallow in an imagined sense of victimhood. The result will be an even bigger divide between Islam and mainstream British society and a growing regret among non-Muslims that this country should ever have allowed a substantial Muslim population to spring up in its midst…. Dr Bari was seeking to appropriate for Muslims the role of victims. In fact, because of the growing numbers of militants within their ranks, they are much more accurately cast as victimisers.”

Patrick O’ Flynn adds his ten cents to the misrepresentation of Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari’s views.

Daily Express, 13 November 2007

‘Only people stoking anti-Muslim feeling are idiots like Bari’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jon Gaunt and SunHOW dare Muslim “leader” Muhammad Bari use the eve of Remembrance Sunday to compare the persecution and eradication of six million Jews in Nazi Germany to the way Muslims are being treated today in Britain?

This opinion is almost as ludicrous as his haircut. Or is it just a bad wig? Not only is he insulting the Jews, he is also attacking every one of our forefathers, of all religions, who fought the Nazis to protect free speech in this country. The same free speech and democracy that allows this pious prat to mouth off and insult us all.

Muhammad, I know that you are a teaching assistant. So here’s a quick history lesson for you.

I don’t recall Jews carrying out suicide bombings or calling for their own form of law in Germany. Come to think of it, I don’t think there were stupid Jewish girls using public money to bring court cases about their rights to dress like Daleks in the classroom, or not show their hair if they wanted to be hairdressers. I also don’t think that Adolf would have tolerated “lyrical terrorists” working at Berlin airport, writing poems or threatening to kill Kaffirs (non-believers).

So for Bonkers Bari to suggest that this country is becoming like Nazi Germany, and that people’s minds are being poisoned against Muslims as they were in the Thirties, is just absurd. This is the most tolerant nation in the world. The only people promoting anti-Muslim feeling in the majority population are fools like him, who think that we should all adopt Islamic practices such as arranged marriages and the banning of alcohol.

Instead of telling the nation that has offered him a home how to run itself, Bari should be trying to put his own house in order and clearing the extremist literature off the shelves of the bookshop in the mosque he chairs. But no, he would rather tell us that suicide bombers are really “vulnerable” and isolated. My heart bleeds.

But silly me, of course it’s entirely our fault, or at least the fault of our foreign policies. It’s us who have turned these ordinary British-born and bred lads, who love cricket, into the arms of the extremists. Stone me for daring to believe that we have provided a society in which all religions co-exist, rather than a one-religion state that enforces only one world view through a systematic form of terror and barbaric punishments.

If Bari wants to live in a country like that he should proceed to the door marked Exit and take his Stone Age ideas with him. But no, he would rather stay here and bleat: “There is a disproportionate amount of discussion surrounding us”. I agree.

So I tell you what, Bari, I’ll stop using a disproportionate amount of my time discussing Muslims when some Muslims STOP using a disproportionate amount of legal aid to bring ridiculous cases to court, when they STOP getting disproportionate amounts of time to air their grievances on the BBC and when councils and governments STOP spending disproportionate amounts of my cash and time on trying to appease a minority religion in a Christian country.

But until that happens shut up, Wiggy, for Allah’s sake.

Jon Gaunt in the Sun, 13 November 2007

“How dare Muslim ‘leader’ Muhammad Bari use the eve of Remembrance Sunday to compare the persecution and eradication of six million Jews in Nazi Germany to the way Muslims are being treated today in Britain? This opinion is almost as ludicrous as his haircut. Or is it just a bad wig? … for Bonkers Bari to suggest that this country is becoming like Nazi Germany, and that people’s minds are being poisoned against Muslims as they were in the Thirties, is just absurd. This is the most tolerant nation in the world.”

Well, if it is, that’s because the majority of us are intelligent enough reject the bigoted ravings of idiots like Jon Gaunt.

In any case, none of the Telegraph‘s quotes from Dr Bari make any specific reference to the Nazis. What he said was: “Every society has to be really careful so the situation doesn’t lead us to a time when people’s minds can be poisoned as they were in the 1930s.” If Gaunt really thinks that bigotry and hatred towards the Jewish community during that decade was restricted to Germany, then you can only suggest that he’s in need of a history lesson himself.

Update:  See “Comparisions with the 1930s”, MCB press release, 15 November 2007

Hostility to Islam is not racism (part 596)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sick Face of IslamGay rights are the bellwether that indicates whether a society lives by civilised values, said Polly Toynbee, journalist and commentator, who was the guest speaker at a packed annual lunch of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association on Saturday 10 November in London.

Ms Toynbee, who is one of The Guardian’s senior columnists, told the humanist group that the level of commitment to human rights that any given nation has can be measured by its attitudes to its gay community. By that measure, Britain wasn’t doing too badly. She was critical of religious attacks on the human rights of gay people and alarmed at the rise of religious influence in the political sphere.

It’s easier to oppose Christian homophobia than that which emanates from Islam, she said. “It’s called ‘Islamophobic’ when we fight against the Islamic view of women or gay rights. It’s not Islamophobic. As dedicated humanists, we’re the ones who can say we’re against the whole lot of it. We know we’re not being racist. What they stand for is dreadful and harmful and awful – we are the ones who cannot be silenced. There has been a lot of turning-a-blind-eye to Islam. We are the ones who stand for progressive policies and have a unique voice to say so.”

GALHA news release, 12 November 2007

“We know we’re not being racist”? Is Polly Toynbee not addressing the same Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association whose then magazine Gay & Lesbian Humanist published the notorious “Sick face of Islam” issue only two years ago?

(Sample quotes: “it is not racist to be anti-immigration or anti-Islam” … “the reckless and mismanaged immigration polices of successive governments have led to the demographics of our major towns and cites being for ever changed by huge numbers of foreign settlers” … “the fastest-growing religion is Islam. Chillingly, it continues to grow like a canker, both through immigration and through … unrestrained and irresponsible breeding”.)

Wouldn’t a warning be in order here about how hostility to religious faith, when the faith in question is practised overwhelmingly by non-white minority communities, can in fact very easily tip over into the most appalling racist bigotry? If Toynbee made such a point at the GALHA lunch, it certainly doesn’t appear in their report of her speech.

It’s not that Toynbee is incapable of recognising that attacks on the beliefs and religious practices of a minority ethno-religious group can be a cover for racism. It’s just that she applies double standards.

This was evident in an Independent article from 1997 where she wrote: “I am an Islamophobe…. I am also a Christophobe.” She continued: “If I lived in Israel, I’d feel the same way about Judaism.”

But the fact that she doesn’t live in Saudi Arabia hasn’t prevented Toynbee from denouncing Islam. Restricting herself to condemning the religion that is dominant in the society in which she might live applies only to Judaism, it would appear. No doubt this is because, in the UK, with its long and shameful history of antisemitism, a non-Jew denouncing Judaism would rightly be construed as racist, or at least as giving credibility to racists. And if she was happy to call herself a Christophobe and an Islamophobe, why did Toynbee baulk at calling herself a “Judeophobe”? Perhaps for the same reason?

And, come to think of it, if Toynbee describes herself as an Islamophobe, why does she feel the need to indignantly assert that condemnation of Islam over gay rights is “not Islamophobic”? Or has she changed her position on that in the course of the past decade?

Media report reveals ‘torrent’ of negative Muslim stories

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Christmas bannedA “torrent” of negative stories has been revealed by a study of the portrayal of Muslims and Islam in the British media, according to a report today. Research into one week’s news coverage showed that 91% of articles in national newspapers about Muslims were negative.

London mayor Ken Livingstone, who commissioned the study, said the findings were a “damning indictment” on the media and he urged editors and programme makers to review the way they portray Muslims. “The overall picture presented by the media is that Islam is profoundly different from and a threat to the West,” he said. “There is a scale of imbalance which no fair-minded person would think is right.” Only 4% of the 352 articles studied last year were positive, he said.

Mr Livingstone told his weekly news conference that the findings showed a “hostile and scaremongering attitude” among the national media towards Islam and likened the coverage to the way the Left was attacked by national newspapers in the early 1980s. “The charge is that there are virtually no positive or balanced images of Islam being portrayed,” he said. “I think there is a demonisation of Islam going on which damages community relations and creates alarm among Muslims.”

Among the examples highlighted in the study was a report which claimed that Christmas was being banned in one area because it offended Muslims, which researchers said was “inaccurate and alarmist”.

The report said that Muslims in Britain were depicted as a threat to traditional British values. Alternative world views or opinions were not mentioned and facts were frequently distorted, exaggerated or over-simplified, said the report. The researchers said that the coverage weakened government attempts to reduce and prevent extremism.

A separate opinion poll published by Mr Livingstone today showed that Muslims in London were more likely to feel “British” in their attitudes than other members of the community. More Muslims were proud of their local area compared with other members of the public.

24dash.com, 13 November 2007

Chris Allen, one of the experts involved in the compilation of the report, has recently published an interesting collection, The First Decade of Islamophobia, to mark the tenth anniversary of the publication of the Runnymede Trust/Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia’s report, Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All.

Muslim attitudes – the real story

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MayorA new survey released today by the Greater London Authority confirms that London’s Muslim communities shares common values and concerns with the wider community, repudiating the image of conflicting values portrayed by certain sections of the media.

The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said: “There has been much discussion about how to engage politically and socially with the Muslim community, but this survey shows that the vast majority of Muslims hold views in common with the rest of London about respect for the law, the value of democracy, the importance of mutual respect and equal opportunities, and debunking myths that are so readily perpetuated by some commentators and in certain sections of the media. The view that the Muslim community as a whole holds fundamentally different views to the rest of Londoners is shown by these figures to be totally untrue. That is why those who attempt to demonise the Muslim community do great damage. It is, on the contrary, necessary to work with the overwhelming majority of the Muslim community to isolate the small number of dangerous people. Co-operation with the Muslim community is vital for the intelligence the police need to safeguard terrorists who kille Muslims just as much as other Londoners.”

The survey shows that Muslims in London want a society based on mutual respect for different beliefs as much as other Londoners. More than three fifths of Muslims believe it is important to have the freedom to say what they believe is true (84 per cent of Muslims and 88 per cent of Londoners as a whole). Furthermore, 95 per cent of Muslims think everyone should be free to practise their religion openly, compared to 86 per cent of the public.

The Mayor added: “One in twelve Londoners is Muslim and London’s Muslim communities, in all their diversity, play an essential part in the life of our city, contributing to its success as a global city. These findings show that Muslim Londoners whilst valuing their faith, share the same values as other Londoners. I will continue to work to increase understanding combat some of the ignorance, prejudice and Islamaphobia stirred up by some sections of the media which is deeply dangerous to Londoners.”

GLA press release, 13 November 2007

Our liberty depends on defending Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Many Irish Catholics across the UK supported, funded, harboured and cheered on the IRA men of violence. Some were passive supporters, thought bedfellows. I do not recall any collective punishment being meted out in the way we see with Muslims today. Nor was anyone tried and convicted for thinking the terrorists were right….

“Using the war on terror, our state is now ready to bend all citizens to its will. But remember unacceptable tactics approved for use on us Muslims today will be used on others tomorrow. And the terrorists will have achieved their biggest ambition – the death of British democracy.”

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in the Independent, 12 November 2007

UK terror detention limit is longest of any democracy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Charge or ReleaseBritain’s existing 28-day limit on holding terror suspects without charge is already far longer than that for any comparable democracy, according to a study to be published tomorrow.

The survey, by the human rights organisation Liberty, was carried out by lawyers and academics in 15 countries. It shows that the four-week maximum in Britain outstrips limits in countries that have also suffered al-Qaida inspired terrorist attacks in recent years, including the United States, Spain and Turkey. Although police in these countries also face increasingly complex terror plots with growing international dimensions, their maximum periods for pre-charge detention remain as short as 48 hours in the US, five days in Spain and seven and a half days in Turkey.

The findings are released as MPs await the publication of a new counter-terrorism bill that will propose extending detention without charge beyond 28 days. Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said any extension of pre-charge detention would put Britain even further out of line with comparable democracies around the world.

Guardian, 12 November 2007

Call to ban council staff from wearing the burka

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A group of councillors are proposing that staff at Calderdale Council be banned from wearing the burka and niqab.

Coun Allen Clegg has demanded staff be stopped from wearing the religious Muslim dress because “it intimidates people.” He likened the niqab – the face veil – and the burka, the garment that cloaks the entire body, often including the face, to outfits worn by the Ku Klux Klan.

He told the Courier: “Council workers are often facing the public and I don’t think the public feels comfortable or safe facing someone they essentially cannot see. It’s a matter of common sense. How would you feel if a social worker turned up at your door wearing something that resembled a Ku Klux Klan outfit?”

Halifax Evening Courier, 12 November 2007

An attack on liberty

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The case of the “Lyrical Terrorist” shows how far our freedom has been eroded by recent legislation, argues Inayat Bunglawala. He writes:

“There would appear to be something preposterously wrong with our criminal justice system if nearly five years after the Iraq war was launched and hundreds of thousands of wholly unnecessary deaths later, Tony Blair is able to just walk away from his responsibility for the ongoing carnage and unbelievably emerge as a Peace Envoy to the region, while a foolish young woman who did not harm anyone now faces a maximum 10-year term in prison for what can only be described as a thought crime.”

Comment is Free, 12 November 2007