Category Archives: UK

‘Clash of Civilisations – what’s that about then?’ asks Vanessa Feltz

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Today’s Vanessa Feltz show on Radio London (listen here) featured a discussion of the forthcoming Clash of Civilisations conference in London. Perhaps not the ideal subject for that particular presenter, given that she expresses total ignorance of what the “Clash of Civilisations” is about. Oliver Kamm is featured on the programme. For his take on the issue see here and here.

Kamm places an attack on Yusuf al-Qaradawi at the centre of his critique of the Clash of Civilisations event. Not only is it difficult to see the relevance of this – Qaradawi isn’t speaking at the conference – but Kamm gets his facts wrong. Qaradawi doesn’t support suicide bombings directed against Israeli civilians and he didn’t visit London “three weeks after the 7/7 bombings” but a year earlier, in July 2004.

Inciting racial hatred and murder – double standards?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A British Muslim called for American and Danish people to be murdered, at a protest against cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, a court has heard. Umran Javed, 27, of Washwood Heath Road, Birmingham, took part in the event on 3 February last year after the cartoons were published in Denmark. Prosecutor David Perry QC told the Old Bailey Mr Javed “encouraged killing and incited racial hatred”. Mr Javed denies charges of soliciting murder and stirring up racial hatred.

BBC News, 3 January 2007

Of course, if Javed is guilty of these charges there can be no objection to convicting him. However, there do appear to be some double standards at work here, when websites like this are able to consistently stir up racial hatred and even solicit the murder of their political opponents without any action being taken against them. (It’s not as though the police would have any difficulty identifying who is behind this loathsome website – see here and here.)

‘The Veil… and why these leading Muslims won’t wear it’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“As Channel 4 controversially celebrated women covering their faces and critics are dismissed as Islamophobics, Joan Smith talks to a group of women who fear the consequences of the veil’s acceptance.”

Independent on Sunday, 31 December 2006

Yes, it’s the familiar strategy pursued by Islamophobes of finding some Muslims who agree with them on a particular issue and then using this as a cover for attacks which feed into the wider media campaign being waged against the entire Muslim community. You’d have hoped that people wouldn’t fall for this, but they do. The irony here is that Khadijah Atkinson, the presenter of Channel 4’s “alternative Christmas message”, is a member of Minhaj-ul-Quran, which has aligned itself with an Islamophobic campaign against the proposed so-called “mega-mosque” in Newham. And now some of her fellow Muslims are collaborating with an anti-Islamic bigot like Joan Smith in attacking Khadijah and other veiled women. It’s not really the business of Islamophobia Watch to intervene in these matters, but surely some basic solidarity and an elementary sense of tactics wouldn’t come amiss here?

For the sort of comment Smith’s article has prompted from right-wing bloggers, see here and here.

Daily Mail ‘unmasks’ woman behind alternative Christmas message

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“She was presented by Channel 4 as an authentic – but anonymous – voice of moderate British Islam. And on Christmas Day the veiled woman described only as ‘Khadijah’ was given a national televison platform for propagating her views in an ‘alternative Christmas message’ designed to rival the Queen’s. She told viewers Jack Straw was wrong to criticise the veil, claiming concealing facial features ‘liberated’ women. But the Daily Mail can now unveil ‘Khadijah’ – and reveal that she is in fact Elaine Atkinson, an English convert to Islam who travels the country working for a radical muslim group trying to take political control of Pakistan.”

Daily Mail, 29 December 2006

The “radical Muslim group” is Mihaj-ul-Quran, an organisation associated with a political party – Pakistan Awami Tehrik – that gained precisely 0.7% of the popular vote in the last parliamentary elections in Pakistan and elected just one MP. So clearly it has some way to go before it takes political control of Pakistan.

And although the Daily Mail pours scorn on Khadijah’s “claims of being moderate”, the same paper recently quoted another supporter of Minhaj-ul-Quran as an example of the “moderate Muslims” who the Mail claims are opposed to Tablighi Jamaat building a new mosque in Newham.

The BNP have applauded the Mail for exposing Khadijah Atkinson’s “rejection of her traditional English background, and her determination to embrace radical Islam”. BNP news article, 30 December 2006

Media Muslim coverage scrutinised

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hostile coverage is driving Muslims away from the rest of society says Rageh Omaar, a Muslim journalist and former BBC correspondent now with Al-Jazeera. He blames self-proclaimed “liberals” for the negative media coverage: “I think that how you show that you really are liberal is your stance against what you perceive to be the threat of Islam, which journalists see as this monolithic backward looking, extremist threat to your liberal traditions. And I think it is just a knee-jerk reaction amongst a lot of my friends and colleagues in the media.”

BBC News, 28 December 2006

See Charlie Beckett’s piece at Comment is Free, 29 December 2006

Both of these pieces confuse the issue by portraying Islamophobic bigots like John Ware and Martin Bright as honest reporters (“tough liberals”) who are only eager to get at the truth.

See also Mukul Devichand’s article at Open Democracy, 29 December 2006

The transcript of the Analysis programme is here.

Top Jewish group ‘terror’ apology

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain’s top Jewish body has apologised for branding a Muslim charity a “terrorist organisation”. In an out-of-court settlement, the Board of Deputies of British Jews said it should not have described Interpal in these terms.

London-based Interpal, which raises millions for Palestinian causes, had launched a libel action against the Board, due in the High Court next year. The board has now published a retraction and apology on its website.

In the statement, the Board said it had reached a settlement with Interpal in relation to a September 2003 article on its website which referred to “terrorist organisations such as Hamas and Interpal”. “We would like to make it clear that we should not have described Interpal in this way and we regret the upset and distress our item caused,” said the statement.

Interpal is one of the largest Muslim-led charities in Europe and says its funds humanitarian, educational and medical projects in the Palestinian territories. The charity, which spends approximately £5m a year, insists it keeps exhaustive records and audit trails of how its Palestinian partners spend money.

BBC News, 29 December 2005

For the BoD’s retraction, see here.

Fascists announce Jihad Watch Bulletin

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The British National Party announces the latest issue of its “Jihad Watch bulletin” (no organisational link to Robert Spencer’s site – though no doubt there’s a considerable ideological overlap). It promotes a particularly barking piece from The American Daily detailing the Islamist “plan for world domination”. The BNP may have have dispensed with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, but they have evidently retained their enthusiasm for wacko racist conspiracy theories.

BNP news article, 29 December 2006

Clash of civilisations conference in London

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Conference: A World Civilisation or a Clash of Civilisations

20 January 2007, Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London SW1

The controversial “clash of civilisations” theory is the subject of a special one-day conference organised by the GLA on Saturday 20 January.

The view has been put forward that the world is going into an era of conflict and war driven by a clash of civilisations. The Mayor’s policies are based on the exact opposite idea: that the multicultural city is part of creating a new concept of world civilisation that corresponds to a globalised world.

This conference will debate these contrasting approaches and their implications. The conference will feature a debate between the Mayor and Daniel Pipes, Director of the Middle East Forum, an American think tank that advises US policymakers on the Middle East. He has argued that “there is not so much a clash of civilisations as there is one of civilisations vs. barbarism”.

Other sessions will see scholars and policy-makers discuss the impact of international events on London’s communities and examine issues such as religious tolerance, human rights, diversity and the approach to multiculturalism.

Further details on GLA website here and here.