Statement against Imperial College’s ban on some forms of Islamic dress.
Category Archives: UK
Guardian letters on Hirsi Ali and religious hatred
A couple of interesting letters in the Guardian, from Lord Avebury and Liz Fekete of the IRR, replying to Timothy Garton’s Ash’s article on Dutch right-wing politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali and the proposed new law against incitement to religious hatred.
Avebury points out that the article “wrongly implies that Ayaan Hirsi Ali and others like her who robustly criticise religious beliefs, customs or sacred objects would be silenced by the racial and religious hatred bill”. Fekete argues that “for ordinary Muslim women, who face daily abuse for wearing the hijab, the ‘thoughtful, calm’ Ayaan Hirsi Ali is more provocateur than liberator”.
Mockbul Ali exposé – a damp squib
Rumours have circulated for some time that journalist Martin Bright was researching an exposé of Mockbul Ali, the foreign office’s adviser on Muslim Affairs. Ali’s sin was to have prepared an accurate briefing on Yusuf al-Qaradawi, which underlined the latter’s role as a force of moderation in the Muslim world – see (pdf) here. Clearly, from Bright’s perspective – he was the author of the Observer article boosting Panorama’s witch-hunt of the MCB – Ali was someone who needed to be discredited.
This week’s New Statesman (5 December 2005) contains the results of Bright’s labours – and a pretty damp squib it turns out to be. Ali’s unit at the foreign office apparently co-authored a PowerPoint presentation in which the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-e-Islami were described (entirely accurately) as “reformist” organisations. We are also informed that “Louise Ellman, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, has told the NS she intends to investigate Ali’s role in drawing up government policy towards British Muslims”.
Yes, well you can see why Ellman might not be too happy about Ali’s role. It was she who headed the witch-hunt of Dr al-Qaradawi during his visit to London in July 2004 and called on the home secretary to ban him. In 2003 she took advantage of parliamentary privilege (see here) to attack MAB:
“It is time that the spotlight fell on the Muslim Association of Britain, particularly the key figures, such as Azzam Tamimi, Kamal el Helbawy, Anas Al-Tikriti and Mohammed Sawalha. All of them are connected to the terrorist organisation Hamas. The Muslim Association of Britain itself is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood – an extremist fundamentalist organisation founded in Egypt in 1928, and the spiritual ideologue of all Islamic terror organisations. It is militantly anti-Semitic and always has been.”
Yup, that’s the same Anas Altikriti who’s currently in Iraq on behalf of MAB fighting for the release of hostages held by terrorists.
For Yusuf Smith’s comments on the NS piece, see Indigo Jo Blogs, 5 December 2005
For Osama Saeed’s comments, see Rolled Up Trousers, 6 December 2005
‘The Project’: an Islamophobic conspiracy theory
“Muslims may not be on course for another set of gas chambers as some seem to think, but Islamophobia in Europe is taking on yet another of the characteristics of traditional European anti-Semitism: the conspiracy theory.”
Yusuf Smith comments on the Muslim plot to conquer the world uncovered by Scott Burgess and Melanie Phillips.
Morning Star debate on the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill
Murad Qureshi’s article on the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill in the Morning Star has prompted an interesting debate in the paper’s correspondence columns, which we reproduce below.
Warning on ‘criminalising Muslims’
Government proposals to close mosques suspected of having terrorist links would criminalise entire communities, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said yesterday. He described the anti-terror measure as “the single most dangerous piece of legislation” if it were put into place.
Under Home Office proposals issued in October, members of mosque committees would face criminal charges if they failed to act against extremists using their premises. The home secretary, Charles Clarke, would then be able to close the mosque.
Sir Iqbal, who was speaking at the Global Peace and Unity event in Canning Town, east London, told the Guardian that the proposal should not be translated into law. “It’s not only divisive, counterproductive and ill-conceived, but it will cause more harm than good and will play into the hands of our enemies. We don’t have a problem with applying the law to tackle the incitement of hatred, violence or terrorism. That law is needed. But a mosque is a place of worship. It brings together a community and promotes messages of peace and tolerance.”
He also rejected the idea that there was any kind of dialogue between the government and the Muslim community. He said: “They ignored us when we told them the war in Iraq was wrong. After 7/7 the communication links were breached. We have sent our representations to the the government.”
Muslim peace rally attracts thousands
More than 20,000 British Muslims gathered yesterday at a conference in London, the largest meeting of its kind to be held in Europe. Ken Livingstone, Michael Mansfield, QC, and the former Pakistan cricketers Saeed Anwar and Imran Khan were among the speakers promoting “global peace and unity”.
‘Islamofascist’ on mission to Iraq
“Hopes for the release of a British hostage seized in Iraq last month were given a boost last night as prominent Sunni Muslim groups condemned the kidnapping. Five Sunni organisations announced they opposed the kidnapping of peace activist Norman Kember. The move followed the arrival in Baghdad yesterday of Anas Altikriti, a prominent member of the British anti-war movement [and the Muslim Association of Britain] who is leading talks to free Kember. Despite fears for his safety, Altrikiti’s initial attempts to persuade Kember’s kidnappers to release him appeared to produce immediate results. Sunni organisations were persuaded to issue a statement condemning the kidnappings and calling for the hostages’ release.”
Yes, like Dr al-Qaradawi before him, we have a leading representative of so-called “Islamofascism” campaigning for the release of western hostages in Iraq.
Livingstone chooses Muslims over gays, Yale students are told
“This month’s riots in the immigrant ghettos outside Paris are only the latest manifestation of a continent in decline. Expressly, Europe has abandoned its culture. Thus, it has lost the means by which to assimilate Muslims who have shown no inclination to emulate those who seek American citizenship and accept the pluralistic values our country represents…. A proper analysis of Great Britain’s attempts at integration of Muslims is far too great a task for a newspaper column, but the behavior of the mayor of that country’s capitol city is cause for distress.
“On first glance, London’s gay community could have no better friend than Ken Livingstone. A legendary member of the far-left wing of the Labour Party, the mayor has been an outspoken advocate for gay rights. He started the first Partnership Register in the United Kingdom. He regularly attends the London Gay Pride Parade. He has worked with his city’s police force to crack down on homophobic crime. In spite of this flawless record on gay rights, Livingstone has repeatedly expressed support for radical Islamist cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Qatar-based imam whom the mayor hosted at City Hall last year….
“Livingstone holds the value of ‘multiculturalism’ as the highest of all, even if that means respecting cultures that seek to destroy ours. The risk of offending a single Muslim is too onerous for Livingstone to condemn those who glorify terror. During the Cold War, the term ‘useful idiot’ (ironically coined by Lenin) was applied to those in the West who excused away or completely ignored the atrocities of Communism. ‘Red Ken’ Livingstone, as he is affectionately known, was a useful idiot then and is no less a useful idiot of the Islamofascists now.”
The usual right-wing American rubbish, assisted by quotes from Peter Tatchell and Brett Lock of Outrage.
Yale Daily News, 1 December 2005
Over at Jihad Watch, Robert Spencer draws the appropriate conclusions: “This article shows why it is so important for Westerners to drop the outmoded language of Left and Right, as I have argued many times: there are those who are interested in defending Western civilization against the jihad, and those who aren’t. Ken Livingstone isn’t.” Spencer spells out his own tactical recommendation: “Opponents and proponents of gay marriage … need to unite now and defend against a common enemy who would render all such controversies moot.”
Rather redundant advice, I would have thought. Tatchell, Lock and their friends long ago adopted the position that, in order to pursue their vendetta against Islam in general and Dr al-Qaradawi in particular, they are more than ready to form a bloc with the anti-Muslim Right.
Muslim plan for world conquest exposed
And Yusuf al-Qaradawi is behind it!
Daily Ablution, 1 December 2004
Predictably this nonsense receives the backing of Melanie Phillips, who is developing something of a taste for wacko conspiracy theories (cf. her support for Bat Ye’or’s “Eurabia” fantasy).
Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 1 December 2005
Odd that, because in the past Phillips has been quick to identify and condemn such theories. A couple of years ago, when novelist John le Carré accused neocons in the Bush administration of pursuing a pro-Israel foreign policy, she denounced this as a “demented Jewish global conspiracy theory” and an “obscene display of racist bigotry and irrationality”.