Category Archives: UK

Fascists campaign against Swindon ‘super-mosque’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Swindon branch of the British National Party reports on its campaign against the prospect of another mosque being built in the town. They have been distributing a “public information leaflet” which states:

“Swindon nationalists are deeply concerned over this news. We regard our town as being essentially English and culturally Christian and we want to keep it that way. We believe a purpose built mosque will not only serve to attract even more followers of the ‘Religion of Peace’ to Swindon but will also act as a focus for the development of a community within a community….

“Swindon British National Party intends, in the event of a formal application being submitted to the Council, to organising a local petition to present to Swindon Borough Council in the expectation that they will respond to public opinion and reject the proposed imposition of yet another mosque on our town!”

BNP Regional Voices, 9 September 2007

Note the accompanying advert for Bat Ye’or’s book Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis.

Muslim group behind ‘mega-mosque’ seeks to convert all Britain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“A Muslim group that wants to open a giant £100 million mosque in London has set its sights on ‘winning the whole of Britain to Islam’. Tablighi Jamaat aims to build an Islamic complex near to the site of the 2012 Olympic stadium, with a mosque for 12,000 people, by far the largest religious building in Britain.

“The organisation, which has millions of followers worldwide, insists that it is a peaceful, apolitical revivalist movement that promotes Islamic consciousness among individual Muslims. However, intelligence agencies have cautioned that the group’s ability to fire young men with a zeal for Islam acts as a staging post, for some, along a path that leads to jihadist terrorism.

“Kafeel Ahmed, the Indian doctor who died from burns last month after trying to set off a car bomb at Glasgow Airport, is the latest in a line of terrorists for whose initial radicalisation Tablighi Jamaat has been blamed. The group (literally, the preaching party) belongs to the ultra-conservative Deobandi school of thought within Sunni Islam, whose adherents run more than 600 of Britain’s 1,350 mosques.

“In recent days The Times has exposed the virulently anti-Western creed of some British Deobandis who preach that non-Muslims are an evil and corrupting influence. Their defensive, isolationist approach to life in Britain is shared by many British supporters of Tablighi Jamaat.”

Writing in today’s Times, Andrew Norfolk takes up where he left off with his anti-Deobandi scaremongering on Friday.

It appears to have escaped Norfolk’s attention that all religions have the ultimate objective of converting everyone to their faith. You might as well oppose the building of a Catholic cathedral on the basis that the “sect” behind it seeks to convert all of Britain to Roman Catholicism. And, of course, one of the distinguishing features of Tablighi is that, far from proselytising among adherents of other faiths, it restricts itself to persuading existing believers to be better Muslims.

Norfolk’s piece get the thumbs up from Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch, 10 September 2007

For Yusuf Smith’s comments, see Indigo Jo Blogs, 10 September 2007

‘Close down all the Deobandi establishments and confiscate their assets’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Apart from having no interest in being part of a tolerant democracy, the Deobandis preach contempt for, and often violence against, ‘the infidels’. They control roughly half the British mosques and Islamic seminaries, and they present a dangerous and polluting presence. Hand-wringing and calling upon their co-religionists to oppose the Deobandis is not an adequate response.

“The Government should close down all the Deobandi establishments and confiscate their assets. It should also take a hard, close look at some of the other Islamic sects active here that are not far behind the Deobandis in their abuse of British generosity and their loathing of all that Britain stands for.”

Letter in the Times, 10 September 2007

The author rejoices in the name of Patrick Vidaud de Plaud. For an earlier example of his views on Islam, see the International Herald Tribune, 27 July 2007

Greater prominence is however given to another letter which asserts: “The recent guidance published by the Muslim Council of Britain for the state schools is a fine example of their policies towards self-segregation and imposition of a harsh doctrine within Muslim families, which can only lead to a polarised and disenfranchised society, fostering discontent and thereby fulfilling the agenda of Saudi and Pakistani religious right.”

And who is the author of that piece of anti-MCB propaganda? It’s Shaaz Mahboob of an outfit called British Muslims for Secular Democracy, who agrees with David Cameron that there is a parallel between the MCB and the BNP.

Tablighi Jamaat’s ‘rejection of Western democratic values’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The leader of the Christian Peoples Alliance on Newham Council, Councillor Alan Craig has called the controversial Muslim group behind the proposed Olympics mega-mosque “secretive” after they refused to attend a Muslim-organised public debate on Friday.

Cllr Craig, who spoke at the meeting, labelled the Tablighi Jamaat “controversial” and “secretive”, and added that the group’s no-show was “a classic illustration of Tablighi Jamaat’s rejection of Western democratic values and their secretive, isolationist ways of conducting themselves”.

He continued: “We can only conclude that their hidden arrogance is as large as their secretive ambitions. They reject face-to-face public debate and scrutiny of the issues. This simply feeds the silly superficial knee-jerk reactions of those like Ken Livingstone on the left and the Islamophobic racist hostility of the BNP on the right.”

Christian Today, 10 September 2007

For a statement by the trustees of the Abbey Mills mosque, see here.

See also coverage of the debate at BBC London, 10 September 2007

‘There’s a blurred line between moderate and extremist Muslims’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The terms moderate and extremist are not much use to us when considering Islam; they sort of merge with one another. You can be shocked, if you like, that almost half of Britain’s Muslims attend mosques where Riyadh [ul Haq]’s views are de jour. But you may then wonder what goes on in the other 50%: do they have ‘hardliner’ mullahs or not?”

Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times, 9 September 2007

Faith schools – OK for Jews but not for Muslims, says Boris

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Boris JohnsonThe JC interviews Boris Johnson, aspiring Tory candidate for Mayor of London:

“As mayor, I can assure you I certainly would not welcome people like Mr al-Qaradawi,” he says. But he also declines to score some easy, minority-friendly points over faith schools, which he admits he does not instinctively support.

“If I was able to start from scratch, I’d probably have an American system in which I wouldn’t allow faith to be any kind of bar to a child’s entry to a school,” he says. “But we have some wonderful faith schools and we have lots of institutions that work, we have fantastically energetic parent bodies, teachers, they get terrific results – I’m not going to monkey around with that.”

Yet he worries about schools that, without proper regulation, might encourage divisions between communities. He does not mean Jewish ones. “It’s pretty obvious what I’m talking about,” he says, rather gruffly. Indeed it is. “I do worry there are some communities, where faith schools that aren’t properly regulated and controlled could be places that encourage more division, and I want to see unity.”

Jewish Chronicle, 7 September 2007

Don’t demonise Deobandis

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The Times reports today on the activities of one of the Deobandi imams, Riyadh ul-Haq, the former imam of Birmingham Central Mosque. It accuses him of preaching hate. If the Times has evidence that he is guilty of such a crime, I hope they will present it to the appropriate authorities and let him be tried fairly and openly by our legal system. But equally, the Times should be careful not to preach hate in the name of exposing those who preach hate.

“I believe that the Deobandi imam training curriculum needs an overhaul; their teaching methods needs radical change and modernisation and their world view – especially about Islam and politics – requires serious reform. But in its exposure of Riyadh ul-Haq, the Times should not to tarnish all Deobandis as Britain-hating, bloodthirsty and sword-waging Talibans.

“I can name you many Deobandi imams who are fantastic ambassadors for interfaith dialogue and community cohesion. Many graduates of the Deobandi seminaries work in our civil services as active members of British society and provide brilliant expertise. I can name you great institutions that have been established by some of the graduates of the Deobandi seminaries here in the UK. They are providing world class education for many young people of the community. This report fails to balance its message by not highlighting any of the positive work undertaken by many graduates from the same institution.”

Ajmal Masroor replies to the scaremongering articles “Hardline takeover of British mosques” and “The homegrown cleric who loathes the British” in today’s Times.

Comment is Free, 7 September 2007

See also MCB statement, 7 September 2007

Plus Inayat Bunglawala at Comment is Free, 7 September 2007
and Yusuf Smith at Indigo Jo Blogs, 8 September 2007

The Times “exposé” is welcomed by the far right. See BNP news report, 7 September 2007

‘Radical Islamic sect’ may have East London in its grip, Standard warns

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In an article headlined “Radical Islamic sect ‘has half of Britain’s mosques in its grip’“, the Evening Standard takes up today’s Times witch-hunt against Deobandism.

An accompanying leader opines: “Given that the Deobandis have links with Tablighi Jamaat, the group applying to build Europe’s biggest mosque in east London, the exact nature of these views needs to be understood and confronted…. the planning authority concerned for the proposed east London mosque is the London Docklands Development Corporation. As a matter of urgency, this body has a duty to analyze the risk that such views may be promulgated in the building, and their potential effect on the mixed population of east London.”

Report: Libraries stock Islamic terror books

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Public libraries are stocking hundreds of Islamic books by advocates of ‘holy war’, with many glorifying acts of terrorism, a new report claims…. An investigation by a leading think-tank found extremist literature at six libraries, three in the London area, two in the Midlands and one in the North….

“In the report, Hate on the State, published by the think-tanks Vigil and the Centre for Social Cohesion, the authors warn that some libraries have become ‘saturated with extreme Islamist books’…. authors on the shelves include Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the radical Muslim Brotherhood, and Sayyid Qutb, a major influence on Osama bin Laden.

“Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain and a Government adviser, said: ‘These are authors who are widely read in the Muslim world and it is not surprising that they are stocked in areas where there happens to be the highest concentration of Muslims. It does not necessarily mean you agree with them, it is part of a free society’.”

Daily Telegraph, 6  September 2007

See also BBC News, 5 September 2007

Hate on the State can be downloaded (pdf) here.

BBC Newsnight devoted a large chunk of last night’s programme to promoting the report, assisted by Ed “Lock ’em up” Husain and Haras Rafiq of the neoconservative (and largely non-existent) Sufi Muslim Council.

See also Yusuf Smith’s comments at Indigo Jo Blogs, 5 September 2007

Standard columnist hails repression of Muslims in Germany

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anne McelvoyIn the London Evening Standard (5 September 2007) Anne McElvoy expresses her admiration for the repressive methods pursued by Angela Merkel’s government in response to the threat of terrorism:

“Germany has a different approach to its Muslim immigrants than Britain. There is less emphasis on a ‘hearts and minds’ campaign; her hardline interior minister Wolfgang Schauble ended up in constitutional hot water for suggesting that if a suspected terrorist was wrongly killed, it was preferable to risking the wider loss of innocent life….

“What is striking is the difference in tone. The vast efforts of the Government in Britain since the first bomb attacks have gone into improving community relations, attempting to find Muslim leaders who can separate potential extremists from the mainstream. Mr Brown has reversed some of the more confrontational Blairite policies, like the ostracism of the Muslim Council of Britain. Borderline organisations like Hizb ut-Tahrir remain unbanned.

“In Germany and France, facing increasingly agitated Muslim populations, this would be unthinkable. Vast numbers of suspects are kept under the equivalent of control orders, deportations of troublemakers are more swift and frequent…. Germany, as one senior minister told me recently, does not believe in a ‘softly softly’ solution. ‘Look where that got you’, he said.”