As their own contribution to the softening up of public opinion in preparation for a US attack on Iran, Peter Tatchell and OutRage! are gearing up to commemorate the hanging of two young Iranians in Mashhad in July last year. Yoshie Furuhashi is not impressed.
Category Archives: UK
More on Orr
Letters in today’s Independent responding Deborah Orr’s disgraceful article are mainly supportive of her views. For example: “Deborah Orr is ‘offended’ by the sight of veiled women swathed in black in the streets of London. Offended? Walking past women who cover their hair with scarves, their faces with veils, their bodies in shapeless garments for so-called religious reasons does not offend me: it makes my blood boil.” Another correspondent describes the niqab as “the most sinister garment since the IRA balaclava”.
Another outbreak of Islamophobia from Nick Cohen
As IslamExpo builds bridges between Muslims and Britain’s other diverse communities, Nick Cohen – with the assistance of Martin Bright – sets about smashing them. While responsible media commentators emphasise that the 7/7 bombers were a tiny unrepresentative minority within Muslim communities in the UK, the message from Cohen and Bright is that the terrorists are part of a general problem of extremism among British Muslims and their organisations.
See “The Foreign Office ought to be serving Britain, not radical Islam”, Observer, 9 July 2006
Karen Armstrong on 7/7
“It is a year since the London bombings, an act committed in the name of Islam by a viciously disaffected minority, but which violated the essential principles of any religion. Doubtless with this anniversary in mind, the prime minister has complained that British Muslims are not doing enough to deal with the extremists. The ‘moderate’ Muslims, he said testily, must confront the Islamists; they cannot condemn their methods while tacitly condoning their anger. The extremists’ anti-western views are wrong, and mainstream Muslims must tell them that violent jihad ‘is not the religion of Islam’.
“This regrettable step will put yet more pressure on a community already under strain. It ignores the fact that the chief problem for most Muslims is not ‘the west’ per se, but the suffering of Muslims in Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, Iraq and Palestine. Many Britons share this dismay, but the strong emphasis placed by Islam upon justice and community solidarity makes this a religious issue for Muslims….
“It is disingenuous of Tony Blair to separate the rising tide of ‘Islamism’ from his unpopular foreign policy, particularly when Palestinians are being subjected to new dangers in Gaza. He is also mistaken to imagine that law-abiding Muslims could bring the extremists to heel in the same way that he disciplines recalcitrant members of his cabinet. This is just not how religious groups operate.”
Karen Armstrong, author of Islam: A Short History, in the Guardian, 8 July 2006
BNP in Barking & Dagenham
“The man from the BNP breezes up in a white linen suit looking like some latter-day Martin Bell and says: ‘Can you believe it? Two of our schools are having Muslim days tomorrow – on 7/7! It’s like chucking mud in people’s faces’.”
The Guardian profiles Richard Barnbrook, fascist councillor in Barking & Dagenham.
‘Why the sight of veiled women offends me’
“I’ve been more and more troubled lately by the sight of veiled women swathed in heavy black, getting on with their everyday business in Britain. A woman on the bus the other day looked like she was auditioning for an Islamic version of the Blues Brothers, with the only part of her body uncovered by her drapes, hidden behind very black sunglasses….
“Multiculturalism tells us that it is rude and insensitive to be critical of such garb, and that we must tolerate and even celebrate difference. But I’m afraid I find that the sort of difference these women proclaim by getting themselves up in these sinister weeds to be deeply offensive.
“I understand that in a free society they are entitled to dress as they please, just as I am. But I also understand that in a free society I am at liberty to say that the values these outfits imply are repulsive and insulting to me.”
Deborah Orr in the Independent, 8 July 2006
Nazi backs Nick Cohen
Kevin Scott of Civil Liberty, the BNP front organisation, writes: “We are NOT suggesting that all Muslims are terrorist or terrorists sympathisers. But the current terrorism is inspired by Islam and its fantasies of world domination. Most terror acts in Europe have been inspired by Islam. As Nick Cohen of the Observer newspaper has pointed out such terrorism should be called ‘Islamic terrorism’.”
Civil Liberty website, 7 July 2006
Not content with endorsing Cohen, Scott also argues, in words that could have been written by David T of Harry’s Place: “… the Muslim Brotherhood is banned in several Muslim countries. We are concerned at the public recognition to some MB leaders such as Al Qaradawi who was welcomed by Ken Livingstone. We are very concerned at the activities of the Muslim Association of Britain which has links with the Brotherhood.”
BBC reports on IslamExpo
“The organisers insist it is a coincidence, but the fact that IslamExpo fell on the first anniversary of the London bombings was the powerful symbol British Muslims needed to say very publicly what they stand for.”
Livingstone kicks off celebration of Islamic culture
Mayor Ken Livingstone was joined by 2012 Olympic Games chief Sebastian Coe and singer Yusuf Islam – formerly known as Cat Stevens – at the launch of a four-day Islamic cultural festival at Alexander Palace in north London yesterday.
People attending the event today, which is expected to attract 40,000 visitors, will observe the midday two-minute silence in memory of the victims of last year’s outrage. And, immediately afterwards, former Iraq hostage and peace activist Norman Kember will share a platform with anti-war campaigner Anas Altikriti, who visited Iraq in an attempt to secure his release.
Festival spokesman Ihtisham Hibatullah said that the event would “see mainstream Muslims condemn the terrorist atrocities in London and elsewhere against innocents. The focus on Friday will be to share in the sorrow of the families of the victims and the survivors. There will be a strong message from the mainstream Muslim community against all violence by extremists.”
Planning for the festival began in 2002, according to organisers, who stressed that it only coincides with the July 7 anniversary by chance.
Morning Star, 7 July 2006
Out of a cycle of ignorance
“Islamophobia is a threat to our democratic way of life. This cancer should be as unacceptable as anti-semitism. Pluralism and tolerance demand greater understanding and respect from non-Muslims and Muslims alike. The more we learn about each other, the more we will see beyond our differences to a reservoir of common concerns, values and interests.”
John Esposito in the Guardian, 7 July 2006