Fear of antagonising the Muslim community has put the country’s security at risk from Islamic terrorists, says former Tory minister George Walden.
Category Archives: UK
Is Britain policing or appeasing Islamic extremism?
The latter, according to Tory MP and shadow communities minister Paul Goodman, who has written to the home secretary complaining about the actions of West Midlands Police and the Crown Prosecution Service in relation to Channel 4’s “Undercover Mosque” documentary. Goodman protests against the decision by the police to refer Channel 4 to Ofcom, describing this as “a politically motivated referral, driven by the mistaken belief that the best means of dealing with separatist extremists is to appease them”.
Conservative Home, 16 August 2007
Read Goodman’s letter (pdf) here.
Fuelling fury
After an imam was attacked in a London mosque, the media have been blamed for spreading Islamophobia. When will we stand up to the press?
Ajmal Masroor writes at Comment is Free, 16 August 2007
Tories protest HT’s use of Alexandra Palace
A controversial Islamic group accused of being anti-Semitic hate mongers and condoning the murder of gay people recently held a conference at Alexandra Palace in north London, to the disgust of local Conservatives. Thousands of Hizb ut-Tahrir supporters gathered for the conference on how to realise the Khilafah – a global Islamic state.
Last month, Conservative leader David Cameron asked Prime Minister Gordon Brown why the group was not proscribed in the UK. Mr Cameron said: “People simply won’t understand why an organisation urging people to kill all Jews hasn’t been banned.”
Justin Hinchcliffe, of Haringey Conservatives, told the Muswell Hill Times: “Hizb ut-Tahrir is a fascist-Islamic organisation. Jihad (holy war), anti-Semitism, homophobia and misogyny are what it stands for. If Labour wants to be tough on terrorism it should ban such hateful groups instead of eroding the civil liberties of the law-abiding majority. Meanwhile, the bosses at Alexandra Palace should be ashamed of themselves. Clearly, they have placed profit above ethics, community relations, security and common sense. We don’t want these hate-mongers in Haringey.”
Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary general of The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), told the Muswell Hill Times he did not believe banning the group was the answer but that the MCB strongly disagree with the group’s position of non-participation in the UK electoral process. “The best way is surely to challenge some of their ideas and show clearly why integration and greater participation in the mainstream political process is a more fruitful path for all concerned.”
‘Immigrants must earn respect’
In an article headed “Immigrants must earn respect” John Lloyd adds his ten cents to the “Undercover Mosque” controversy.
He writes: “poor ethnic groups bring their own forms of crime. Sometimes this crime echoes down through the third and fourth generations of immigrants – as with the spate of black-on-black shootings in London and Manchester and the embrace of violent Islamism by some Muslim youths…. There is no longer any place for a view that pardons minorities for crimes and behaviour not tolerated in the majority. Bafflingly, such a view seemed to be in evidence when the UK’s West Midlands police and the Crown Prosecution Service chided a Channel 4 programme, broadcast in January, that showed violent prejudice against non-Muslims being preached in a mosque.”
‘Doctors give in to Muslims’
Thus the headline to an article in yesterday’s Daily Express.
‘Preachers of hate’ must be exposed – by fiddling the evidence, apparently
Predictably, Joan Smith joins in the defence of Channel 4’s discredited “Undercover Mosque” documentary:
“The Channel’s real offence, I suspect, lies in drawing attention to the idiocy of government ministers who have a history of accepting self-appointed ‘community leaders’ as representatives of millions of law-abiding Muslims who do not go to mosques; even worse, they have failed to inquire closely enough into the kind of Islam which is being preached and promoted there.”
See also Steve Hewlett in the Guardian, 13 August 2007 and the Organ Grinder, 13 August 2007
The West Midlands Police and Crown Prosecution Service, who accused the programme makers of distorting the evidence, did so on the basis of having examined 56 hours of film footage, so you might have thought they’d be rather better placed to make a judgement on the issue of distortion than the above commentators, who of course have seen only the carefully edited snippets included in the original programme. But never let an objective evaluation of the evidence get in the way of a bit of anti-Muslim bigotry, eh? So much for “Enlightenment values”.
For an alternative view, see Media Workers Against the War, 10 August 2007
Imam seriously injured in bloody attack at Regent’s Park mosque
An imam was in a serious condition in hospital today after being attacked in a London mosque. The Muslim cleric was assaulted at Regent’s Park mosque on Friday. The 58-year-old imam, who has not been named, suffered heavy blood loss, damage to both eyes and had to undergo emergency surgery, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said.
The MCB claim there have been a series of recent Islamophobic crimes in Britain, which they believe have been fuelled by the media. An arson attack on a mosque in Bradford on August 3 is being treated as suspicious by police. Strathclyde Police have also reported an increase in race crime in the west of Scotland since the suspected terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport on June 30.
An MCB spokesman said: “There is clearly a growing anti-Muslim climate in this country and it has some very worrying implications for all of us. It is deeply regrettable that sections of our media have been playing a key role in fomenting much of this Islamophobic prejudice and hatred against British Muslims.”
Evening Standard, 13 August 2007
See also MCB news release, BMI statement and the Muslim News.
And the Times, 13 August 2007
Bus company reaches a fare solution to veil row
Edinburgh’s bus drivers have been told they will not have to ask Muslim women to remove their veils after all.
A row broke out earlier this year in the wake of new guidelines issued to Lothian Buses staff as part of a crackdown on fare cheats. Drivers said they had been told to tell women to lift their veils or produce photo ID if they wanted to use a bus pass. The move sparked anger in some sections of the Muslim community, with at least one woman said to have walked off a bus.
But bus chiefs today insisted the new rules had been misunderstood and have issued fresh guidelines insisting that drivers should never ask for a veil to be removed. The firm has also worked with some of the city’s faith groups to produce a multilingual guide that explains the different options open to Edinburgh’s veiled women who want to use a bus pass. Unions and faith groups today welcomed the leaflet explaining the new rules.
The tragic consequences of demonising Muslims
Karima Hamdan reports on the attack at Regent’s Park Mosque.