Category Archives: UK

Le Pen convicted of inciting race hatred

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jean-Marie Le PenFrance’s highest court yesterday convicted the far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen of inciting racial hatred for telling a newspaper in 2003 that Muslims would one day run France and strike fear into the hearts of the non-Muslim population. The ruling by the Court of Cassation came just over two years after Le Pen was originally convicted in the same case.

In February 2005, an appeals court confirmed the 2004 ruling against the president of the National Front party. Le Pen was ordered to pay a €10,000 (£6,800) fine for his remarks in Le Monde and an additional €5,000 in damages and interest to the League of Human Rights, which had filed suit.

Le Pen’s party blames Muslim immigrants for an array of social woes in France, which has western Europe’s largest Muslim population. The National Front contends that Muslim immigrants are taking jobs from the French. The National Front leader is looking to run in next year’s presidential election.

In the 2003 interview Le Pen urged the French to beware of “the day in France when we have 25 million Muslims, not five million” – the estimated population of Muslims in France today – because “it is they who will command”.

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Yet more self-justifying nonsense from Tatchell

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Outrage Protest (2)Peter Tatchell has a letter in the latest issue of Tribune, replying to Kirsten Hearn’s criticism of OutRage!’s call for Unite Against Fascism to exclude the Muslim Council of Britain and its general secretary Sir Iqbal Sacranie from the platform of February’s UAF conference. Tatchell says that Hearn’s article “symbolises the political dishonesty and opportunism of the pro-Islamist left”.

Kirsten Hearn wrote, in opposition to OutRage!’s position on the UAF conference: “To suggest we jettison the Muslim community from the anti-fascist movement at a time when the fascists are advancing by attacking Muslims is obscene…. Specifically, the MCB is an umbrella and mainstream body representing more than 450 Muslim organisations and therefore must be central to anti-fascist unity in this country.”

In reply, Tatchell claims that he merely criticised UAF for inviting Sacranie as an individual, on the grounds that he had made homophobic comments: “My objection was to Sir Iqbal Sacranie. I suggested replacing him with a liberal, progressive Muslim speaker. To me, that does not sound like ‘jettisoning’ the Muslim community.”

But the Outrage! press release called for a ban not just on Sacranie but on the MCB as a whole. OutRage! urged UAF to “withdraw your invitation to Sir Iqbal and the MCB”, on the basis that “the MCB is not a liberal, progressive organisation. It represents only conservative, reactionary opinion. It is not a suitable partner organisation for the movement against fascism”. Tatchell cannot claim that he is unaware of the representative character of the MCB. He himself has described the MCB as “a mainstream organisation … which is the umbrella organisation of all Muslim groups in this country”. Yet this was the organisation that he wanted excluded from the UAF conference platform, to be replaced by one of several suggested individuals none of whom represents any significant force at all among Muslims in Britain. What does that amount to, other than “jettisoning the Muslim community”?

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Criminalising dissent in the ‘war on terror’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“In practice, the introduction of the new offence of glorification is likely to widen the net beyond incitement but in an entirely arbitrary way. Noticeably, the whole debate on the glorification clause has been conducted on the tacit assumption that only Muslims will be prosecuted. Charles Clarke makes much of the idea that juries know instinctively what glorification means and will take notice of the context in assessing whether glorification has occurred. In fact, given the arbitrary nature of terms like ‘glorification’, juries will be forced to make entirely subjective decisions and, in the current context of Islamophobia, it is likely that they will be much readier to convict someone who has already been labelled a Muslim extremist by the press.”

Arun Kundnani argues that the new crime of “glorifying” terrorism, recently introduced under the Terrorism Act 2006, will lead to the suppression of legitimate debate on the causes of terror.

IRR news, 2 May 2006

Tatchell ‘defends the Muslim community against Islamophobic discrimination’!

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Peter Tatchell continues his campaign against the Muslim Council of Britain. He writes: “I defend the Muslim community against Islamophobic discrimination” and adds: “we still hold out our hands in friendship and solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters”. Clearly, Tatchell’s brain is an irony-free zone.

Comment is Free, 4 May 2006

A ‘referendum on Islam’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP leaflet 3Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain analyses the BNP’s anti-Muslim campaign:

“Carefully hidden – from public view at least – is the old-style racism of the past. Gone is the continual blaming of the ‘coloureds’ for all the ills of our society. Behind the smiling mask and the sharper suits, however, the British National party is out vigorously peddling the same combustible mixture of half-truths, exaggerations and outright lies, but this time with one crucial difference.

“Since Nick Griffin took over the party leadership in autumn 1999, the remodelled BNP has energetically focused on promoting a new and more voter friendly one-line answer to all problems: it’s all the Muslims’ fault. Following on from its shameless attempt to exploit the tensions caused by the 7/7 bombings in London, the BNP has been trumpeting tomorrow’s May 4 local elections as a ‘referendum on Islam’. Griffin’s choice of Islam as a target for focusing hatred reveals how he has correctly sensed that stoking up anti-Muslim sentiment has now become more socially respectable in Britain – as also in much of Europe – than other forms of xenophobia….

“The BNP has not exactly been hindered in its anti-Muslim campaign by our tabloid papers with their regular diet of hysterical stories claiming that our national culture is under threat from minorities. Richard Desmond’s Daily Express and Daily Star titles have been particularly nasty in this regard…. A vocal band of pro-Israel commentators – led by Melanie Phillips, whose rants are routinely published in the Daily Mail – has also decided to zero in on British Muslims as constituting a mortal threat to civilisation as we know it….

“Even if the polls have overstated the support for the BNP, current trends right across Europe would seem to indicate that the BNP’s anti-Muslim campaign is here to stay for the foreseeable future.”

Comment is Free, 3 May 2006

Fascism, racism and ‘Christian Voice’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Christian Council of Britain“For the BNP, Christian is just another word for white, just as Islamic has become another word for Asian. Now that the religious hatred bill has been watered down, groups like the BNP are free to use religious affiliation as code for race, translating illegal incitement to racial hatred into legal incitement to religious hatred…. what is so utterly ridiculous about the BNP’s desire to defend ‘Christian culture’ is that the vast majority of Christians in the world are not white. The average Anglican, for instance is a black woman living in Africa.”

An interesting article by Giles Fraser, vicar of Putney, on the failure of the BNP’s attempts to link up with evangelical Christians.

Guardian, 3 May 2006

However, Fraser’s claim that the breakdown of relations between the fascists’ front organisation, the Christian Council of Britain, and the fundamentalist group Christian Voice “demonstrates how deeply resistant Christianity is to all forms of racism” is questionable to say the least. Christian Voice’s position on Islam – “no Muslim has any assurance of salvation, except as a Jihadist, and it is this belief that physical fighting in the cause of Allah is the highest calling that makes Islam so dangerous and implacable” – is in fact a clear illustration of Fraser’s point about how denunciations of a religion are used as a cover for whipping up hostility against minority ethnic communities. If relations between the BNP and Christian Voice have soured, it is for reasons other than the latter’s attitude towards the fascists’ anti-Muslim racism.

London conference dissects Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Leading Islamic scholars, politicians, journalists, non-governmental organisations and diplomats from the Islamic world and Western countries are gathering in London, on Tuesday and Wednesday to look at ways to stem the growth of Islamophobia in Europe.

The international conference, ‘Challenging Sterotypes in Europe and the Islamic World: Working Together for Constructive Policies and Partnerships’ – believed to be the first such meeting on the issue – is being organised by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

The conference’s inaugural speech, due to be delivered by OIC secretary general, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, was expected to focus on ways to repair the damage to Muslim-Western relations caused by the re-publication earlier this year of Danish-originated cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed by newspapers all over the world.

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Scotland: Harassment of the Siddique family

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Asif SiddiqueOn April 12th Mohammed Atif Siddique and his uncle were prevented from boarding a flight to Pakistan from Glasgow airport (see more on situation at Glasgow airport here). They were briefly detained and allowed to return to the family home in Alva, Scotland. The next morning the house was raided by dozens of MI5, Special Branch and uniformed police officers using the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2000.

Two uncles of Atif arrested at the same time were released from Govan top security police station at 2.30am in the morning without charge after 13 days in custody. Atif’s brother Asif was held for a further period but then released without charge.

Mohammed Rafiq, a farmer from the Punjab and the paternal uncle of Atif and Asif Siddique, said he was “deeply upset” at what had happened. “My wife and five children are both utterly shocked at this as well,” he said. “I had never heard of the word terrorism until I came to this country. I came to visit my family and all I want to do now is to go home. I will never come back to Scotland.”  (The Herald)

Asif later revealed that police had questioned him about postcards found in the Siddique house from New York: “They found postcards I had got from friends who went on holiday to New York a few years ago. They asked me about who they were from and why I had them, which I found ridiculous because it was a holiday postcard. They also kept asking me what I thought about September 11 and I kept telling them that I condemned the attacks. We were shocked innocent lives should be taken like this.”  (Sunday Mail)

On Thursday 27th April Atif Siddique was charged with offences under Section 58(1b) of the Terrorism Act at a specially convened court in Falkirk. The offences relate to the possession of documents or records containing information “likely to be useful” to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. Atif was remanded in custody and will appear in court again this week.

Drink-soaked popinjay may initial Euston Manifesto

Posted on by Eddie Truman

HitchDrink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay (not our description) Christopher Hitchens today teased the 977 lonely hearts the Euston Manifesto has brought together with a suggestion he may consider initialing the document. “So call me a neo-conservative if you must: anything is preferable to the rotten unprincipled alliance between the former fans of the one-party state and the hysterical zealots of the one-god one.” Hitch reveals that he has “been flattered by an invitation to sign it, and I probably will”.

There will be sighs of relief amongst many on the left who were likewise flattered to be asked to sign an attempt to establish a left neo-conservative grouping in the UK but read the manifesto and instantly realised what was going on.

See Christopher Hitchens, “At last our lefties see the light”, Sunday Times, 30 April 2006

Martin Sullivan adds:  And now Mad Mel has declared herself “delighted” by the Euston Manifesto – “it’s great to see such a brave statement of decent principles and an open denunciation of the left for being on the wrong side of history. Such a challenge from within its own ranks is essential if the left is ever to stop causing so much lethal damage to the west”.

Meanwhile, online signatories to the Euston Manifesto have been outlining their motives for signing. Harriet Baber explains that “we liberals need to take back the Enlightenment” – which apparently means supporting human rights, “not peace, non-interference in the business of sovereign nations or respect for other cultures”. Neil Denny has signed in protest at a situation in which “to declare a support for Enlightenment values is to seemingly out oneself as an Islamophobe and a racist”. And Aidan Fleming adds: “The curse of democracy is the Qur’an. All supporters of the Euston Manifesto Group should read, The Sword Of The Prophet by Serge Trifovic. It should be declared that ISLAM is not a religion but a non-democratic political organisation.”

Concerns raised as innocent Muslims detained

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Senior members of Scotland’s Pakistani community last night revealed that they had approached the chief constable of Strathclyde Police to complain about the number of innocent Muslims being detained at Glasgow Airport. Ashraf Anjum, president of the Glasgow Central Mosque, the largest in Scotland, said he had personally raised the issue with Sir Willie Rae last month in response to a growing number of incidents being reported to him.

Sunday Herald, 30 April 2006