Category Archives: UK

Fight all kinds of racism – Tariq Ramadan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tariq Ramadan 5Tariq Ramadan contributes to a forum on the subject “The one pledge I’d like to hear from the podium this afternoon”:

“Gordon Brown should pledge to reconsider the policies that divide the communities that make up British society. If we are serious about British values of democracy, freedom, equality and fairness, it is crucial to start by trying to be consistent in our domestic policies. It means fighting all kinds of racism, the old (anti-semitism) as well as the new one (against Muslims).

“It also means stopping connecting terrorism with integration: the generalisation on this topic sheds suspicion on a whole segment of the British population, while Muslims are already integrated and contribute a great deal to the richness of this country.

“And finally, it means having the courage to say that the government has to reassess its involvement in Iraq: it was and remains a great mistake. Gordon Brown will get immense recognition, nationally and internationally, if he dares to set a new independent policy for the UK, stop listening to the lies of the current US administration and take the leadership for a new, just and reasonable policy in the Middle East, and especially towards Iran.”

Guardian, 24 September 2007

Muslims – ‘go back where you came from’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Aamer Anwar accuses a Scottish court of suppressing free speech (your report, 18 September). The mindset, religion and culture of Muslims are incompatible with the indigenous Christian Briton and it will ever be thus. Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain Osama Saeed’s has a point: the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are illegal. I respectfully suggest that he and his fellow Muslims show their displeasure by returning to the countries of their roots, and take it from there.”

Letter in The Scotsman, 24 September 2007

Cohen defends ‘Undercover Mosque’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nick Cohen 3Rather belatedly, Nick Cohen adds his ten cents to the controversy over the Channel 4 documentary “Undercover Mosque” (for previous coverage see here):

“… the rules governing television documentaries remain incredibly tight. Channel 4 stuck to them. It substantiated every allegation and then gave the people it criticised a right of reply. Even so, the West Midlands police referred it to the television watchdog and, in the process, sent a message to other journalists thinking of exposing religious extremism to back off if they didn’t want the cops on their case as well.

“I could, if I wanted, go into a despairing peroration about a country so blinded by greed and stupefied by relativism it allows its police officers and libel lawyers to turn on those who report on hate-spouting imams.

“Fortunately, there are a few grounds for optimism. Ofcom will rule on Undercover Mosque in a few weeks and it looks like it will dismiss as laughable the West Midlands police’s claims that Channel 4 framed innocent preachers. The 56 hours of film shot by the documentary makers show that the crew didn’t turn tolerant men into howling bigots by using trick camera work and crafty editing but merely reported what its journalists found.”

Observer, 23 September 2007

Has Nick Cohen in fact seen the 56 hours of film, so he can – like the West Midlands Police – make an informed judgement on the accuracy of the programme? Don’t be silly. For Cohen, like many other self-styled defenders of Enlightenment values, when it comes to Islam and Muslims prejudice trumps objective evidence and rational thought goes out the window.

‘Our son is no terrorist, just a young Muslim’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The family of Mohammed Atif Siddique, the Scottish student convicted this week of al-Qaeda terrorist offences, have come together to tell of their heartache and their anger at the way he has been treated.

They described how their son adopted a stricter Islamic way of life, a change that fractured their close relationship and ultimately led to his conviction. But they insisted Atif – who faces at least ten years in prison – was not a terrorist and that his actions were similar to those of thousands of ordinary young Muslims seeking answers about al-Qaeda and the “war on terror”.

In a wide-ranging interview, the family claimed “thousands” of other people ran the risk of falling foul of the same offences for which Atif was convicted. They said he had been criminalised for carrying out research on al-Qaeda.

Atif was the first person in Scotland to be convicted under controversial new terror laws that have raised questions about the balance between civil liberties and protecting the public.

Speaking exclusively to The Scotsman, Mohammed Siddique, the father of the 21-year-old, said: “After what’s happened to my son, stop your children going on the internet in case they end up in jail. The sad thing is, why shouldn’t our young people be able to find out what is happening in Iraq or Afghanistan? Does it mean every child that goes on to a website is considered to be a terrorist? Thousands of young people in the Muslim community will have accessed the same material.”

Scotsman, 22 September 2007

‘A British company welcomes its future overlords’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bakery giants Greggs have installed a Muslims-only toilet at their new Scottish headquarters – despite the fact that no Muslims work there. Workers at the state-of-the-art factory were shocked when they were given a tour of the building and told a cubicle had been fitted for the use of Muslim employees.

But staff at the new £15million plant labelled the decision “political correctness gone mad”. One said: “We were being given a guided tour of the new factory before moving there when they told us that they had a toilet for use only by Muslims. I couldn’t believe, everybody was stunned because we don’t know of any Muslims who are working here. I don’t think anybody is really angry about it, but there just doesn’t seem to be any need for it. This sort of things is just political correctness gone mad.”

Another worker said: “The toilet just looks like a ceramic hole in the ground. I don’t think it will be getting much use and I don’t see why we couldn’t all just use the same toilet anyway. This sort of thing creates divisions between the workers.”

Daily Express, 21 September 2007

Of course, this sort of report is seized on by the far Right to back up their paranoid racist fantasies about the “Islamisation” of the UK.

See BNP Regional Voices, 21 September 2007 and Stormfront, 20 September 2007

And right-wing Australian blogger Tim Blair reports the story under the headline “A British company welcomes its future overlords“.

This onslaught risks turning into a racist witch-hunt

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The relentless media onslaught in Britain on Muslims, their culture and institutions risks turning into a racist witch-hunt. On the ground, it translates into violent attacks – and Crown Prosecution Service figures show that 82% of convictions for identified religiously aggravated offences last year involved attacks on Muslims. Those attacks reportedly spike not only after terrorist incidents but also in response to media feeding frenzies. Some pro-war liberals like to argue that Islamophobia doesn’t exist – try telling that to those at the sharp end.”

Seumas Milne in the Guardian, 20 September 2007

Apologists for terrorists condemn ‘apologists for terrorists’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islam a threat to us all“The politically correct lobby has already started to swing into action feeding the public the same tired old lines about tolerant Islam, but it seems that some sections of the Muslim community are more interested in denying there is a problem and even worse blaming others for it. BNP Scotland say public safety should come first and neither terrorism nor apologists for terrorists should not [sic] be tolerated in civilised Western society.”

Thus the BNP’s “crime correspondent” (well, given the BNP leaders’ long list of criminal convictions, they’d know all about that wouldn’t they?) at BNP Regional voices, 18 September 2007

The “apologists for terrorists”, according to the BNP, include Mohammed Atif Siddique’s father and lawyer, and Osama Saeed of the Muslim Association of Britain (for Osama’s actual views, see here and here).

Of course, if the BNP want to find actual apologists for terrorists they can find them rather closer to home.

‘Scottish kids forced to visit mosques’, fascists complain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Politically correct brainwashing sank to a new low today with the unbelievable announcement today that Scottish children in Clackmannanshire schools will be sent to local mosques to learn about tolerance in the wake of the conviction of Alva based Islamic terrorist Mohammed Siddique.

“Yes, you read that correctly. A Muslim man is convicted on terrorism charges and Clackmannanshire Council’s Education Department – Siddique used to attend Alva Academy – and Ochil and South Perthshire Labour MP Gordon Banks plan to send non-Muslim kids to mosques to ‘increase their understanding of other religions’.

“Surely in wake of the events, if such a hair-brained scheme is to be undertaken, then it is young Muslim kids who should be invited to churches and synagogues to teach them about being tolerant of other religions, so that we do not see any more Mohammed Saddique’s in court charged with spreading religious hatred and terrorism.”

BNP Regional Voices, 19 September 2007

See also BBC News, 18 September 2007

Damaging relations with the Muslim community

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Relations between Muslims and police in central Scotland have been battered by the country’s first al-Qaeda-linked terrorist case, with community leaders claiming the investigation has created mistrust and ‘left a bad taste in the mouth’. They are angry at the way Mohammed Atif Siddique’s family was treated. His parents, brothers – one of whom was 13 – and 15-year-old sister were shackled by police who raided the family home in Alva, Clackmannanshire.”

Scotsman, 19 September 2007

Note the casual reference to Mohammed Atif Siddique as an “al-Qaeda-linked terrorist”, which takes things to a new level of absurdity – and demonstrates that the police are not exactly alone in damaging relations with Scotland’s Muslim community.

Siddique trial was a travesty of justice

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The media this morning are asking ‘Guilty… But is Siddique really a terrorist?’ Of course Mohammed Atif Siddique isn’t a terrorist. With a prosecution case that sought to manipulate the emotions of the jury, and terrorism laws so ill-drafted that it seems they can mean anything at all, the jury can hardly be blamed for getting it wrong. But even under our Kafka-esque laws it makes no sense to call this young man a terrorist, and it is to be hoped that the argument will be taken successfully to the appeal court. The case has been a travesty of justice from start to finish.”

SACC press release, 18 September 2007