“Politicians from all the major parties have declared open season for all who want to blame Muslims for the problems in Britain and to blame the victims of racism for the racism in society.”
Category Archives: UK
Who leaked the PC Basha story?
Jack Straw: Muslim women ‘should discard veils completely’
Cabinet Minister Jack Straw today waded further into the row over his call for Muslim women to remove their veils by saying he would like the garments to be discarded altogether.
The former Foreign Secretary sparked controversy when he revealed that he asks female visitors to his constituency surgery to uncover their faces, to improve “community relations”. But asked on the BBC if he would rather the veils be discarded completely, Mr Straw said: “Yes. It needs to be made clear I am not talking about being prescriptive but with all the caveats, yes, I would rather.”
Last night, Muslim leaders in the Commons Leader’s Blackburn constituency said many Muslim women would find his comments, originally made in his local newspaper, “offensive and disturbing” and Respect MP George Galloway demanded his resignation. But Mr Straw said the increasing trend towards covering facial features was “bound to make better, positive relations between the two communities more difficult”.
Associated Press, 6 October 2006
Straw’s Lancashire Telegraph article is reprinted in the Guardian, 6 October 2006
Petrol bomb attack on Muslim dairy
A Muslim-owned dairy has been targeted by youths over three nights in a campaign of harassment culminating in a petrol bombing, a worker said.
The Medina in Windsor, Berkshire, has suffered at the hands of local youths who have been targeting staff for the past three nights, the unnamed worker claimed. He said the youths would gather in gangs of up to 30 and throw stones and hurl abuse at staff working at the dairy late at night.
Police have been patrolling the area since Monday when the attacks started, he said. But on Wednesday night an attacker riding a motorbike threw a home-made petrol bomb at the dairy’s perimeter wall. The worker told the Press Association that police later found a stash of the bombs hidden around the corner from the firm, which is located on an industrial estate outside the town.
He said that workers had often had trouble with local youths who would target the company, but that things had escalated in the last three days. “We’ve had trouble before but never like this. The police always come but the youths only live round the corner so they know when the police have gone and that’s why they attack us.”
He said that a skeleton staff of just five male workers ran the dairy in the evenings and it was those workers who were bearing the brunt of the attacks, which usually occur after 10pm.
Dairy owner Sardar Hussain, 46, was not available to comment on the attacks. The businessman has recently been reported as saying that the area is in desperate need for a place for Muslim worship.
Press Association, 5 October 2006
See also BBC News, 5 October 2006
Reporting for Channel 4 News, Alex Thomson stated: “The fact that a small industrial plant in a largely prosperous town in the Home Counties can ignite such tension tells us much about Islam in Britain today.” A more appropriate comment, surely, would be that it tells us much about anti-Muslim bigotry in Britain today.
BNP accused of exploiting cartoons row with Muslim leaflet
The far-right British National party was yesterday accused of deliberately ramping up racial and religious tensions by launching a leafleting campaign with anti-Muslim messages, including controversial cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. The depiction of the prophet with a bomb as a turban was one of several images that sparked protests across the world earlier this year. The BNP’s move was criticised as a blatant attempt to reignite the controversy. Azad Ali, of the Muslim Safety Forum, said: “This is a deliberate ploy to create huge tensions … and it is adding to the isolation, fear and frustration felt by many people in the Muslim communities.”
The BNP said the leaflet was part of a “coherent campaign to alert people to the Islamification of Great Britain”. It has produced another leaflet on immigration and a second on Islam, which describes the faith as “a threat to us all”. The leaflet was handed out in Sutton in south-west London. Politicians and community leaders said the BNP was trying to exploit a debate about plans to build a mosque in the area.
But the BNP has its supporters. Over at the Western Resistance site, Giraldus Cambrensis writes:
“I am slightly ambivalent about the British National Party, on account of its racist past. Nowadays, under the leadership of Nick Griffin, a skilled politician, the racist agenda has become replaced by an agenda which is highly focused against Islam. With this aspect of its policies, I am in agreement. Islam poses a more serious threat to every aspect of British democracy than anything previously encountered. Under Labour, Britain has allowed wave after wave of unconstrained immigration into Britain. In most cities, as I wrote earlier, indigenous populations are marginalized in favor of those who claim ‘minority status’.”
Back in January this year, when we noted the support given by Western Resistance to Peter Tatchell, we were indignantly denounced by Mr Cambrensis for suggesting that Western Resistance is a right-wing racist operation. We rest our case.
Dog returns to its vomit
“A year after the publication of a damning report into Islamic radicalisation among students, Britain’s universities have been accused of burying their heads in the sand.
“Professor Anthony Glees says many vice-chancellors are still failing to confront the issue. His claim comes 12 months after he named 24 universities where he said extremist groups had been detected.”
See also BBC News, 5 October 2006
This nonsense is given further coverage on BBC News at Ten. Watch here.
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Urgent action needed to save Babar Ahmad from extradition under unfair laws. Lobby your MP to support crucial amendments to extradition arrangements with the U.S.
Muslims are waging civil war against us, claims police union
“Radical Muslims in France’s housing estates are waging an undeclared ‘intifada’ against the police, with violent clashes injuring an average of 14 officers each day. As the interior ministry said that nearly 2,500 officers had been wounded this year, a police union declared that its members were ‘in a state of civil war’ with Muslims in the most depressed ‘banlieue’ estates which are heavily populated by unemployed youths of north African origin.”
Straw’s veil comments spark anger
Jack Straw, the ex-foreign secretary, has angered Muslim groups by suggesting women who wear veils can make relations between communities more difficult. The Blackburn MP says the veil is a “visible statement of separation and of difference” and he asks women visiting his surgery to consider removing it.
The remarks attracted an angry response from some organisations representing Muslims.
It was “astonishing” that Mr Straw chose to “selectively discriminate on the basis of religion”, said Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission. Halima Hussain, from civil liberties group the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, asked BBC News 24: “Who is Jack Straw to comment on negative symbols within a religion that is not his own?” Rajnaara Akhtar, who chairs the organisation Protect-Hijab, suggested the “appalling” comments showed “a deep lack of understanding”.
See also “Straw in plea to Muslim women: Take off your veils”, Lancashire Telegraph, 5 October 2006
And Jack Straw, “I want to unveil my views on an important issue”, Lancashire Telegraph, 5 October 2006
Met chief orders inquiry into Muslim PC embassy row
The media are trying to whip up anti-Muslim sentiment over the issue of Alexander Omar Basha, a Muslim police officer guarding the Israeli embassy in London who asked to be transferred to another post during Israel’s war on Lebanon, where he has relatives.
It’s not often this site has reason to endorse the views of a Tory member of the London Assembly, but we note that Richard Barnes blames senior officers rather than PC Basha. The Evening Standard quotes him as saying: “I think it was crass management in the first place. They should have recognised there could have been a problem and not suggested this officer be posted at this embassy.”
Another member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, Peter Herbert, has described the row as a “ridiculous fuss about nothing”. He added: “From a security point of view, the Met would be seriously criticised if this guy has relatives in Lebanon and his picture was used around the world to demonstrate the irony about having a Muslim defending the Israeli embassy in the UK.”
Glen Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said just one two-hour slot outside the embassy had been affected. The officer had not refused to do duties and had made a simple request which it was “fairly sensible” to grant, Mr Smyth said.
Postscript: It turns out that PC Basha was never posted to the Israeli embassy in the first place, according to a statement by Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson.