In a letter published in Pink News, the Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism has rejected Outrage’s claim that Sir Iqbal Sacranie of the Muslim Council of Britain was dropped from the Unite Against Fascism conference on 18 February.
Category Archives: UK
Another MEMRI attack on Qaradawi
Yes, another attempt by the Middle East Media Research Institute to stitch up Yusuf al-Qaradawi as an anti-semite.
It’s the usual cut and paste job, with paragraphs and even individual sentences taken out of a much longer speech and amalgamated. At least in this case MEMRI has actually provided ellipses which allow the reader to see how the thing has been chopped up and put back together, which is more than they did on a previous occasion. Even from MEMRI’s butchered version of Qaradawi’s speech it’s quite clear that his remarks – “Our war with the Jews is over land, brothers. We must understand this. If they had not plundered our land, there wouldn’t be a war between us” – are directed against Israelis, not against the world Jewish community. Just over a year ago, at a time when it was under pressure over its misrepresentation of Qaradawi, MEMRI published a much longer transcript of an interview in which he outlined his real views on Jews and Judaism.
Of course, this hasn’t prevented the warmongers at Harry’s Place from uncritically endorsing MEMRI’s latest stitch-up of Dr Q. Yet, only a few weeks ago, when MEMRI published an equally dishonest hatchet job on Tariq Ramadan, David T and his friends ignored this. The reason is rather obvious. Even Harry’s Place readers have posted favourable comments on Professor Ramadan during the Danish cartoons controversy, and a discussion of MEMRI’s distortion of his role would have exposed that organisation as the bunch of lying propagandists that they are, thus making it a bit difficult to present MEMRI as a reliable source of information on Qaradawi’s views.
But what can you expect from Harry’s Place? David T recently launched a witch-hunt against Christian CND treasurer Neil Berry, whom he falsely accused of writing anti-semitic articles. They were in fact written by an entirely different Neil Berry. But, what the heck, it was the same name, and that was good enough for David T. And this from a blog that claims to uphold Enlightenment values. You know, respecting scientific evidence rather than relying on irrational prejudice, that sort of thing.
I note that David Aaronovitch, who repeated David T’s slurs on Neil Berry in an article in the Jewish Chronicle, has also retracted and apologised.
Hizb ut-Tahrir invited to Commons by Clare Short
Under the heading “Militants invited to Commons by Short”, the Daily Mail (1 March) condemns the former minister’s decision to host a meeting with Hizb ut-Tahrir. Predictably, the campaign in the right-wing press is aided and abetted by Peter Tatchell.
Jihad Watch applauds Trevor Phillips
Robert Spencer gives his seal of approval to CRE chair Trevor Phillips’ suggestion, following that of Australian deputy PM Peter Costello, to the effect that Muslims who want sharia law should go back where they came from. Under the heading “Anti-dhimmitude in the UK: Muslims who want sharia law ‘should leave'”, Spencer applauds “A welcome statement in the UK, echoing one that has already been made in Australia. Other non-Muslim states should follow suit.”
Muslims who want Sharia law should leave UK – CRE chief
Muslims must accept that freedom of speech is central to Britishness and should be preserved even if it offends people, says Sir Trevor Phillips. The chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) said we should “allow people to offend each other”. And he suggested that Muslims who wanted a system of Islamic Shariah law should leave the UK.
Update: See also Guardian, 27 February 2006
Blair backs Hizb ban
“Organisations that support terrorism take enormous care to avoid infringing the strict letter of the law. Last August, I named Hizb ut-Tahrir as such an organisation. Within days, its website changed, putting out a very moderate message, and I was lambasted for trying to curb free speech. But this is an organisation which has been banned in Germany and Denmark: it is active on campuses where it promotes its extremist message. People should be prevented from glorifying terrorism. You can say it is a breach of the right to free speech but in the real world, people get hurt when organisations encourage hatred.”
Tony Blair in the Observer, 26 February 2006
Protest to Telegraph over call for Qur’an ban
The Danish publisher Bookwright has circulated an appeal in response to Patrick Sookhdeo’s interview in last week’s Sunday Telegraph:
Sunday Telegraph article calls for the Qur’an to be Banned
An article by Alasdair Palmer in last week’s Sunday Telegraph (19 Feb 2006) entitled “The day is coming when British Muslims form a state within a state” contains the following paragraph:
“… For example, there is a book, The Noble Koran: a New Rendering of its Meaning in English, which is openly available in Muslim bookshops. It calls for the killing of Jews and Christians, and it sets out a strategy for killing the infidels and for warfare against them. The Government has done nothing whatever to interfere with the sale of that book. Why not? Government ministers have promised to punish religious hatred, to criminalise the glorification of terrorism, yet they do nothing about this book, which blatantly does both.”
You will probably know that the publication referred to is the Bewley translation of the Qur’an which is rapidly being recognised as one of the most accurate and readable translations. Not only does Palmer’s interviewee advocate banning the sale of the Qur’an but describes its contents in such a way as to suggest it is nothing more than a handbook on terrorism. He falsely claims that it “calls for the killing of Jews and Christians”.
The Qur’an does not call for Jews and Christians to be killed. This claim is a malicious lie. Furthermore the interviewee urges that the Qur’an itself be made illegal. It is outrageous that the Sunday Telegraph should promote such a viewpoint, particularly in the context of recent events. We cannot permit Allah’s Book to be traduced in this way in the National Press and allow the Sunday Telegraph to promote such an abhorrent view of the Qur’an.
It is important to note that this article represents a new and more sinister development. Previously, we have had attacks on the person of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the bearer of the revelation. This attack is on the revelation itself, and thus indicates a new and more dangerous front opened in the war on Islam. Certainly the minimum we can do is send an e-mail to the editor of the Sunday Telegraph expressing our outrage at this unprecedented open attack on the Qur’anic text.
The editor’s e-mail address is:
Sarah Sands: sarah.sands@telegraph.co.uk
Please forward this mail to as many people as possible and urge them to write to the Sunday Telegraph.
Open season on Islam – Salma Yaqoob
“The reverberations from Muslim protests offended at the cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) continue to resound. Despite peaceful protests in London by Muslim Association of Britain and Muslim Council of Britain, the organisers still found themselves subject to an attack in the Sunday Express (February 12) for failing to do enough to tackle extremism. On the same theme, the British National Party, fresh from their acquittal of inciting racial hatred, have announced plans to turn the May local elections into a ‘referendum’ on Islam. Other far right groups have made threats of book-burning sessions of the Qur’an. For Muslims, past echoes of Nazi demonisation of the Jews don’t seem so far away.”
Salma Yaqoob in the Muslim News, 24 February 2006
Unite: biggest conference against fascism for years
Over 600 anti-fascist activists from around the country met in London on Saturday of last week for a lively and determined conference organised by Unite Against Fascism. The conference discussed stopping the British National Party (BNP) at the 4 May local elections.
Several speakers highlighted how the BNP was seeking to exploit the current climate of Islamophobia, especially in the wake of the anti-Muslim cartoons row and the recent acquittal of BNP leader Nick Griffin on four race hate charges. The Nazis are trying to bill the May elections as a “referendum on Islam”.
The conference was the largest of its kind for over a decade, attracting a third more delegates than Unite’s previous national meeting held in February last year.
Socialist Worker, 25 February 2006
See also the conference report on the UAF website
Cartoon protests: uniting against Islamophobia
“The anger following the publication of racist depictions of the prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper, and their republication across Europe, has continued to find expression in meetings and protests. And the right wing columnists and politicians have continued to pump out their bile. First Islamophobia, the last ‘respectable’ form of racism, was used in an attempt to scare Muslims into submission. Then, when some dared to protest against the onslaught, Muslims were once more attacked for daring to assert themselves. Trevor Kavanagh, writing in the Sun on Monday of this week, was typical. ‘The strident voice of assertive Islam is here to stay,’ he wrote. ‘Flames are being fanned to intimidate the West and its allies in the Muslim world.’ He evoked the image of ‘women walking the streets of Britain wearing Taliban-style burkas’. Italian government minister Roberto Calderoli, a member of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, wore a T-shirt with the cartoons on them. After an outcry he was forced to resign from the right wing government. But continued racism has not silenced Muslims, or those on the left who remain determined to defend them.”
Joseph Choonara looks at the discussion on how to fight back after thousands of people have protested over the publication of racist cartoons.