Category Archives: UK

Osama strikes back

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Osama Saeed (4)“At the Scotland United Against Terror rally I was heckled by someone in the crowd.

“Nothing new in that, happens quite a bit, par for the course. Caught a glimpse of the bloke near the front, just looked like the normal vagrant, possibly drunk, but definitely looking a complete state. He disappeared shortly after – possibly he’d been taken away by the police. He’d actually been pulled up by one of the other attendees to whom he retorted he was an academic and therefore was under the impression that he was above everyone else and allowed to act like a berk. Then he was pulled up by another academic who was on hand.

“I’ve just been told that the vagrant in question, was actually Tom Gallagher.”

Osama Saeed replies to articles by Gallagher in the Spectator and the Herald and to Brian Monteith’s piece in the Edinburgh Evening News.

See here, here and here.

More bigotry from Rod Liddle

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rod Liddle“Apparently, one in 11 British Muslims actively supports terrorist attacks over here and a further 20% or so ’empathise’ with those who carry out such attacks. This warning comes not from the BNP, but from a bloke called Haras Rafiq, who is an adviser to the government. I’d put the figures slightly higher – based on previous opinion poll findings – but Rafiq seems to be in the right sort of area. That’s something like 400,000-plus British citizens ready to either strap on the Semtex or smile indulgently while someone else does so.

“Who knows if this will come as a shock to the government, the leaders of Muslim organisations and the BBC which insist that terrorism has ‘nothing to do with Islam’ and that each act of carnage is simply the work of rogue nutters and wholly unconnected to the religion to which, seemingly by coincidence, they adhere.”

Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times, 5 August 2007

‘Racist’ letter sent to church

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A racist letter has been sent to members of a Lancashire church. The vicar and several parishioners at St Leonard’s Church in Penwortham have been contacted by a group calling themselves the Preston Pals, which has links to the far right BNP.

The letter asks the church to support their “cause” and stand up for Preston’s Christian population. They have previously leafleted residents in the Watling Street Road area of Fulwood peddling their opinions over proposals to replace the local mosque.

Vicar Nick Mansfield said he was shocked and upset that the church in Marshalls Brow had been targeted by the group, which has links to the British National Party. He condemned the senders of the letter as having “not a very Christian attitude”. He added: “To target people of another faith in this way is ludicrous.”

Lancashire Evening Post, 3 August 2007

Islamophobia is a myth, says neocon

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Douglas MurrayAuthor and commentator Douglas Murray, a strong public advocate of Israel, addressed a packed audience at Hendon United Synagogue on Monday. The 27-year-old was invited to speak by a congregant who had seen him on the BBC’s Question Time in July where he denounced Hamas and defended Israel amid loud boos from the audience. He was joined on Monday by Jeremy Newmark, chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council.

In response to Mr Newmark’s comments on the Jewish community being aware that Islamophobia also exists, Mr Murray called Islamophobia “a myth”. “A phobia is something irrational, but there’s a very rational fear in being scared of Islam today and wanting to act against it. Islam is not a race, it’s an ideology. Its not bad to dislike someone for their ideology. That is not racism,” he maintained.

Jewish Chronicle, 3 August 2007

Mosque fire treated as suspicious

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jamiyat Tabligh Ul Islam mosque fireA fire which severely damaged a Bradford mosque just before Friday prayers is being treated as suspicious by police. The blaze at the Jamiyat Tabligh Ul Islam mosque in North Side Terrace, Lidget Green, caused the ceiling on the first floor of building to collapse. Firefighters said it was believed to have started in an upstairs room.

Mosque president Mohammed Rafiq Sehgal discovered the fire 15 minutes before prayers were due to start at 1300 BST. He said a children’s homework club had finished less than an hour earlier and only two people were in the building at the time of the fire. “I think we’ve had a very lucky escape,” said Mr Sehgal. “It is very lucky that all the children had just gone home.”

BBC News, 3 August 2007

Home Office will continue sidelining MCB

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Martin Bright and John Kampfner interview Jacqui Smith:

“Smith is a fierce advocate of Brown’s ‘hearts and minds’ approach to tackling the radicalisation of young Muslims. She also believes that Muslim communities have not been best served by their leaders. She backs moves, put in place by Ruth Kelly when she was communities secretary, to broaden the kinds of groups with which the government engages and cut out, for example, the Muslim Council of Britain. ‘We’ve got to make serious attempts to go beyond those who have previously been seen as leaders of the community. She was absolutely right to do that. We have seen, in the immediate aftermath of the Glasgow and London bombings, that the response from leaders of the community was better because of the action previously taken’.”

New Statesman, 2 August 2007

Lib Dem MP defends right to incite hatred

Posted on by Bob Pitt

NF Islam Out of BritainAttacking Asghar Bukhari’s criticism of the decision to award Salman Rushdie a knighthood, Liberal Democrat MP and leading National Secular Society member Evan Harris writes:

“I will not tolerate the persistent demands, led by Muslim activists, for special protection for religious views. People should be allowed to attack religious ideas in ways which adherents may find offensive – whether by criticism, lampoon or even insult. I organised the Parliamentary campaign that last year voted down – by a margin of one – a Government plan to outlaw the incitement of religious hatred.”

National Secular Society website, 3 August 2007

So it’s not just just criticising, lampooning or insulting a religion that Harris defends but also the right to incite hatred against it. Little wonder, then, that his actions over the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill were applauded by the far Right, against whom the Bill was aimed. As one National Front activist wrote in appreciation of Harris’s efforts:

“Evan Harris is not a perfect MP but nevertheless he has spoken out on a number of important issues where others have remained silent. For instance he has campaigned against special religious education for minorities. He has opposed the hijab and was one of the few to criticise it in public. Harris is a defender of freedom of expression…. The government is attempting to legislate against ‘religious hatred’. All patriots must oppose this proposed law which could be used against us. You will find that Harris will be one of the most articulate spokesmen against this law.”

In his NSS piece Harris writes that he finds the ideology of the far Right loathsome and that he should be “entitled to incite hatred of Nazis”. Unfortunately, he also defends the right of Nazis to incite hatred of Muslims.

‘Muslim dialogue? Don’t bother’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geoffey AldermanThus the title of Geoffrey Alderman’s column in today’s Jewish Chronicle. The strap reads: “Most Muslims do not repudiate texts which call for Jews to be put to death. Why talk to people with such views?”

Responding to the news that the Jewish philanthropist Richard Stone has facilitated the donation of £1 million to the Woolf Institute in Cambridge to fund a Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations, Alderman warns that there is little point in the Jewish community trying to establish friendly relations with adherents of a faith which is both violent and anti-semitic.

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Ex-BNP council candidate is jailed for stockpiling explosive chemicals

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A former British National party candidate who stockpiled explosive chemicals and ball-bearings in anticipation of a future civil war was jailed for 2½ years yesterday. Robert Cottage, 49, of Colne, Lancashire, pleaded guilty to possession of the chemicals. He was cleared of conspiracy to cause explosions after two trials in which juries were unable to reach a verdict. As he has spent nearly a year in custody, he is likely to be released within six months.

Sentencing Cottage at Manchester crown court yesterday, Mrs Justice Swift said he held views “that veer towards the apocalyptic”. His actions had been “criminal and potentially dangerous” but there was a low risk of him committing further offences. “It is important to understand that Cottage’s intention was that if he ever had to use the thunder flashes it was only for the purpose of deterrence,” said the judge of the explosives he planned to make.

Alistair Webster QC, Cottage’s counsel, told the court his client accepted he had bought the potassium nitrate and sulphur planning to manufacture gunpowder, but said this would only be used to make thunder flash “bangers” to scare intruders.

Cottage, who stood three times unsuccessfully for the BNP in local council elections, was arrested last September after police found the stockpile of chemicals at his home in Colne.

Cottage’s wife told a social worker of her concerns about his behaviour and his belief that immigration was out of control. Police also found ball-bearings and a document about bomb making from The Anarchist’s Cookbook on his computer. He also had air pistols, crossbows and a stockpile of food.

Dave Williams of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, which monitors the BNP, said the sentence appeared lenient. “It is a damning verdict for the BNP,” he said. “The trial has shown his radicalisation through his local branch of the BNP. I am surprised the sentence is not stiffer. If this had been a group of Muslims, they would have been looking at a far longer sentence.”

A BNP spokesman said the prosecution had been brought for political reasons. “We’re not condoning it but it’s a quid pro quo to appease the Muslims,” said Phil Edwards of the BNP yesterday. “We certainly don’t support the bloke, we condemn all forms of violence … but I wouldn’t have thought you could do any harm with what he had.”

Guardian, 1 August 2007