Category Archives: UK

Al-Qa’eda is winning the war of ideas, says Reid

Posted on by Bob Pitt

John ReidJohn Reid has issued a dire warning that the Government risks losing the “battle of ideas” with al-Qa’eda. The Home Secretary spoke out at an emergency meeting of ministers and security officials amid an ever-growing threat from home-grown Islamist terror groups.

He called for an urgent but controversial escalation in the propaganda war and said al-Qa’eda’s so-called “single extremist narrative” was proving ever more attractive to young British Muslims. The Government needed to do much more to win the “battle of ideas”, Mr Reid said.

The meeting came as ministers – including Jack Straw, Ruth Kelly and Phil Woolas – started to take a much more aggressive stance against radical Islam.

Sunday Telegraph, 22 October 2006

If Al-Qaeda is indeed “winning the war of ideas” among young British Muslims, it’s odd that the recent 1990 Trust poll of Muslim opinion found that less than 2% of respondents agreed with the 7/7 bombings. In fact, if anything is likely to broaden the terrorists’ minuscule base of support within Muslim communities, it’s the sort of Islamophobic hysteria that has been unleashed and encouraged by the irresponsible statements of Labour politicians in recent weeks.

White pupils less tolerant, survey shows

Posted on by Bob Pitt

White youths are more likely to believe they are superior to those from other races, and their attitudes are more of a barrier to integration than those of Muslims, a study for the government has found. The findings turn on its head the current debate about integration, where a succession of cabinet ministers have told Muslims they must do more to fit in.

The study, by the University of Lancaster, was sent to the Home Office in September, and is believed to be the first of its kind comparing levels of intolerance in different communities.

In recent weeks a succession of cabinet ministers have made remarks about Muslims, including home secretary John Reid, followed by Ruth Kelly, Jack Straw and this week the prime minister. Muslim groups reacted to the study by saying the government had attacked their communities despite their own report telling them they were not the biggest problem.

Government ministers were also rebuked on Thursday by an employment tribunal for commenting in advance on the case of Aishah Azmi, a British Muslim classroom assistant who lost her discrimination case after refusing to remove her veil in a West Yorkshire primary school when male colleagues were present.

The Lancaster University study, commissioned by the Home Office, examined the attitudes of 435 15-year-olds on race, religion and integration. It also gives an insight into the attitudes they are getting from their parents and other influences such as religion. It found that nearly a third of pupils at a predominantly white school believed one race was superior to another, compared with a tenth from a majority Asian Muslim school and fewer than a fifth at a mixed school.

The students surveyed were at a predominantly white school in Burnley, a predominantly Asian Muslim school in Blackburn, and a mixed school in Blackburn. The study concludes: “It might be reasonable … to suggest that it is the Asian-Muslim students in both the mixed and monocultural schools of Burnley and Blackburn who are in fact the most tolerant of all.” At the all-white school half felt it unimportant to respect people regardless of gender or religion, and a quarter felt there was no need to show tolerance to those with different views.

Continue reading →

NSS on the Aishah Azmi case

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“When I was the Chief Officer of an organisation (a Council for Racial Equality in Yorkshire as it happens) I would not have tolerated any member of my staff wearing a niqab, or any other kind of non-medical mask over their face. Had I ever been approached by a woman wearing a niqab (though I never was) I would have done exactly as Jack Straw claims he would do, and politely asked her to remove it.

“I do not know Ms Azmi or her personal circumstances but I do have some familiarity with the various communities in Kirklees. I was a founder member and the first Secretary of the Kirklees Community Law Centre but I resigned from the Management Committee over a decade ago because the other members were not willing to stand up to the unreasonable demands of the leaders of the local Pakistani Community Association.

“These so-called community leaders were so used to being indulged and deferred to in all matters relating to ‘their’ communities that their response to any opposition was to bully and bluster. I suspect that some of these same people will be bending the ears of the local authority at this very moment, demanding all sorts of concessions and assurances about future practices in schools and other areas of the public sector.”

Steve Radford on the National Secular Society website.

The worrying thing is that someone like this was ever responsible for racial equality in the first place.

Mail discovers ‘Veil teacher link to 7/7 bomber’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The Muslim teacher suspended for refusing to work without her veil is connected to a hardline mosque where the ringleader of the July 7 bombers worshipped, it has emerged.

“The family of classroom assistant Aishah Azmi, 24, plays a key role at the fundamentalist Markazi mosque in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire – which was attended by suicide bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan. Until recently, Miss Azmi’s father was joint headmaster of the secondary school attached to the building. The family are known to worship there and may have encountered Khan before his terrorist act.”

Daily Mail, 21 October 2006

Well, if Sidique Khan did attend the same mosque (and given the gulf that separated his methods from the apolitical approach of Tablighi Jamaat, I’ve always thought that was questionable) I suppose they might have met him. However, given that the Dewsbury Markaz holds 3000 people, statistically the chances of bumping into him would have been rather slight. As attempts to imply guilt by association go, this really is the pits.

Ban It! says the Express

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ban ItPressure was mounting last night for veils to be banned in Britain – just as they are in some Muslim countries. And rebels plotting fresh court protests were given a blunt warning by lawmakers: “Carry on, and we will bar you.”

The threat came amid a public outcry over the costs being racked up by teaching assistant Aishah Azmi as her lawyers, funded by taxpayers, continued their fight for her right to wear a veil in class. Daily Express readers responded in massive numbers to a poll on the crisis, with 99 per cent calling for the veil to be banned in schools, increasing pressure on the Government to act.

A ban would see Britain following many of its European neighbours, along with predominantly Muslim countries like Turkey and Tunisia in outlawing traditional Islamic headscarves in public schools and buildings.

Tory MP David Davies urged the Government to examine what other countries had done to discourage or outlaw the wearing of the full veil in public. “We should give it serious consideration too. It’s been banned in many countries, including Muslim. The time may have come for us to consider the same thing,” said the MP for Monmouth. “Tony Blair was right to say that it is a mark of separation. And what worries me is that it’s a way of subjugating women.”

Labour MP Ann Cryer, whose constituency in Keighley, West Yorkshire, has a large Muslim population, said she feared the high-profile Azmi case could spark a welter of copycat legal action by militants. And if that happened, she warned, legislation may be needed to enshrine in law a ban on veils being worn in classrooms and other civic buildings – which could mean on-the-spot fines and the withdrawal of state benefits.

Mrs Cryer said it was “totally unacceptable” to wear a full veil in front of young children and said an outright ban would be needed if people kept “pushing the boundaries” over the issue.

Daily Express, 21 October 2006

Ruth Kelly’s lies about ‘extremist Muslim hotspots’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rania_KhanRuth Kelly, New Labour’s communities secretary, told a meeting of council leaders and police chiefs last week that she wants them to target Muslim “hotspots” – schools, universities, mosques and colleges which are supposedly centres of extremism.

This followed her recent comments that there needs to be a “fundamental rebalancing” of relationships with Muslim organisations which, she argues, are not doing enough to tackle extremism.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) wrote to Kelly to complain that there had been a “drip-feed of ministerial statements stigmatising an entire community”. Kelly responded with an open letter to the MCB suggesting that they are “passive in tackling extremism and yet expect government support”.

Rania Khan [pictured], a Respect councillor in Tower Hamlets, told Socialist Worker, “Ruth Kelly’s comments about ‘Muslim hotspots’ are ridiculous and divisive. This is the latest stage in an increasing witch-hunt of Muslims. This scapegoating by the government is increasing racism. Speaking as a Muslim, I find it frightening.

“This is not how to tackle terrorism. Talking about targeting mosques and colleges is an appalling attack on our civil liberties. Just about every report into terrorism show that it is Britain’s foreign policy that is the main cause of terrorism. The only way to solve this would be to bring the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Socialist Worker, 21 October 2006

Right-wing press rails against Aishah Azmi

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Veil Case Teacher Costs UsAishah Azmi seems determined to pursue her warped agenda against the Church of England school that employs her all the way to the European Court – and the taxpayer will have to foot the legal bills.

Is it too much to hope that moderate Muslims will see what really lurks beneath this woman’s veil: not a victim with a genuine grievance but a politically motivated extremist who is doing terrible damage to their standing in the eyes of the long-suffering British public?

Editorial in the Daily Express, 20 October 2006

The bridge of her nose was all that could be seen of bolshie classroom assistant Aishah Azmi. Yet she was handed £1,100 of our money for refusing to remove her veil in school. She then had the gall to lecture US on integration.

What a ludicrous travesty of justice and common sense.

Why was this troublemaker prepared to remove the veil in order to get her job – but not after? How did the tribunal conclude she was a victim when she was the one who moved the goalposts? What message does this damaging ruling send to moderate Muslims who staunchly oppose the veil?

And how on earth could the panel be sure it was really her behind the black shroud covering her from top to toe?

Editorial in the Sun, 20 October 2006

The cult of victimhood has a new heroine. Aishah Azmi, the classroom assistant who insisted on wearing her niqab when in the presence of men (though not, apparently, when she was interviewed by a man for the job) has been awarded £1,100 for “injury to her feelings”.

Kirklees council had had the temerity to tell her to remove the veil when teaching because pupils said they found it hard to understand her. Mercifully, her claims of religious discrimination and harassment were thrown out. Yet that is unlikely to prevent Miss Azmi and her “supporters” proclaiming this as some sort of victory in an undeclared Holy War.

It is nothing of the sort. The wearing of a veil is a political and cultural statement, not a religious one, and the sooner this is more widely recognised, the less likely it will be that we have a repeat of this nonsense.

Editorial in Daily Telegraph, 20 October 2006

Muslims can never conform to ‘our’ ways

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Ministers appear whimsically to be shifting from the multi-cultural society towards an integrated one. They are whistling in the dark if they think that will play well with the followers of Islam in our midst. Muslims are rooted in their faith and it governs the way they live. It is the only faith on Earth that persuades its followers to seek political power and impose a law – sharia – which shapes everyone’s style of life….  It is vain to say: ‘Well, if they come here, they must conform with British society and its easy ways’. Muslims will not do that. Their religion forbids it.”

Bill Deedes in the Daily Telegraph, 20 October 2006

United States stops entry of British Muslim leader

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Kamal HelbawyThe United States barred a British Muslim leader from flying to New York from London on Thursday morning, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said.

The department’s Customs and Border Protection section would not elaborate on why Kamal Helbawy, 67, a founding member of the Muslim Association of Britain, was told by airline staff to get off his flight shortly before it was due to leave London.

“The individual was inadmissible to enter the U.S.,” said spokeswoman Kelly Klundt. “I can’t speak specifically to this case as to why he was inadmissible.”

Helbawy was due to speak on a panel on the Muslim Brotherhood, organized by the Center on Law and Security, an independent think tank based at New York University.

Karen Greenberg, the executive director of the center, said Helbawy did not know why he had been stopped from traveling to the United States. ”According to him they didn’t tell him,” she said. ”What they told him was that basically he would have to go to the American Embassy first before he could come here.”

Reuters, 19 October 2006