Category Archives: UK

Islam is not the threat to our planet, says Ken

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islam is not the threat to our planet

By Ken Livingstone

Morning Star, 24 September 2005

The terrorist attacks on London in July brought out the best in millions of people. As we came to terms with the horror of the attacks, Londoners made clear they were not going to be divided by terrorists, nor by anyone trying to exploit those tragic events.

This was shown a week later when millions came out onto the streets to stand side by side with people of every race and religion in memory of those who had lost their lives.

Some tabloid newspapers ran articles praising Britain’s Muslim leaders who urged their communities to help the police to find anyone connected with the planning or execution of the attacks.

The dozens of opinion polls since the attacks showed the same pattern. People want everything possible done to prevent further attacks.

At the same time, two thirds of people support multiculturalism and believe it makes Britain a better place to live and three out of four people think Britain’s role in Iraq made it more vulnerable.

Nonetheless, since 7 July, and far more openly since the attempted bombings two weeks later, there has also been a steadily mounting campaign by the right wing media and others to exploit the attacks to try to smash the progressive response to the bombings.

The ideological axis of this is the idea that the world is increasingly dominated by a “clash of civilisations” in which Islam is pitted against the West.

In an ironic mirror image of Al Qaeda’s denunciations of the West, Islam is portrayed as uniquely evil, or, in the left variants, uniquely reactionary.

In this latter camp can be found a whole raft of supposedly “left-wing” internet blogs.

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The new McCarthyism in Britain: Actually, old chap, it is a war on Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“About fifteen years ago Muslims in Britain fought a long battle for the defence of Islam after the publication of Salman Rushdie’s blasphemous novel ‘The Satanic Verses’. In the two months since the bomb-blasts in London on July 7, it has become increasingly clear that Muslims in Britain face a similar battle now, as secular and liberal fundamentalists in Britain use the bombings as opportunity and justification for a much wider attack on the Muslim community in this country. Although it is entirely understandable that the British authorities should step up security precautions, and intensify investigations of those tiny and marginal groups among Muslims that espouse the sort of appalling violence that was seen on July 7, British politicians and many media and social commentators have turned the debate about the attacks of July 7 into a debate about Islam and Muslims in Britain and, in many cases, another full-scale offensive on Islam in this country.”

Iqbal Siddiqui at Media Monitors Network, 26 September 2005

Teenage punks behind black hijabs

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The unsmiling girl in the black hijab defined her identity thus: ‘I am a Muslim of Arab origin, living within British society.’ Hadil, 18, could not attend a more racially integrated school than Quintin Kynaston in West London where, according to its Ofsted report, ‘the wealth of cultures and faiths is valued, respected and appreciated’.

“Hadil, along with a number of fellow pupils, had taken part in a documentary called ‘Young, British and Muslim’ and here she was up on stage, giving her views to an audience at the National Film Theatre. Yet in reply to the question ‘Do you feel British?’ Hadil shrugged and said: ‘I look at British culture and see no moral values which appeal to me.’

“And it was hard not to bristle, not to think unbecoming, angry thoughts such as: ‘Why endure our repulsive morality a moment longer? Wouldn’t you simply be happier in a Muslim country?'”

Janice Turner in the Times, 24 September 2005

See also Daniel Pipes blog, 24 September 2005

‘Boycott Islam’ stickers in Edinburgh

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stickers urging people to “Boycott Islam” have been posted on a shop window, sparking fear in the city’s Asian community.

The Capital’s only Asian councillor, Shami Khan, said it was the latest attack on the Muslim community. He said some businesses run by Muslims had reported a downturn since the London bombings. And the Edinburgh Racial Equality Council said some Asian shopkeepers had received anonymous calls from people accusing them of being terrorists.

Last week, racists targeted Nicolson Square Methodist Church with leaflets containing offensive messages after it forged links with Edinburgh’s Central Mosque next door. Nina Giles, EREC director, said: “It would concern me if it is part of an organised attack. If it is just one person, it is less concerning. We will be reporting it to the police.”

The Scotsman, 23 September 2005

‘Don’t sacrifice free speech to appease the Muslim fanatics’ says McKinstry

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Leo McKinstry in the Express usefully summarises all the lies and distortions promoted by opponents of the religious hatred bill. “It is a scandal that centuries of the right to free expression can be overthrown because of the craven wish to appease Islamic extremism.” You know the sort of thing.

McKinstry claims: “Our laws already provide ample protection against genuine hate crimes. In 2003, for instance, Mark Norwood, a British National party activist in Shropshire, was prosecuted under the Public Order Act for displaying a poster which read: ‘Islam out of Britain’.”

In fact, the successful prosecution of Norwood was not for inciting hatred – he was convicted (in 2002) on the relatively minor charge of causing religiously aggravated “harassment, alarm or distress”. An attempt to convict another BNP member, Dick Warrington, under racial hatred legislation for displaying a poster with the same “Islam Out of Britain” slogan failed because Islam is not a mono-ethnic religion and therefore it is held that Muslims cannot be victims of racial hatred.

It is nonsense to claim, as McKinstry does, that only Muslim organisations back the proposed new law. The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Church of England, the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, the Hindu Council and the Network of Sikh Organisations are among those who support the Bill.

And so on, and so forth.

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Hizb ban debated

Posted on by Bob Pitt

HizbIn the first significant public debate as to whether the radical Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir should be proscribed, some of the organisation’s most severe critics opposed the move.

The debate, entitled Should Hizb ut-Tahrir be Proscribed?, was chaired by David Goodhart, editor of Prospect magazine, who opened the proceedings by requesting there be no “rants” from the 150-strong audience. He said the ban had been floated by Tony Blair in the wake of July 7 because, it was argued, HT “creates an ideological context in which extremism can flourish”.

For a debate about an organisation described by its critics as hostile to everything the UK stands for, the setting could not have been more British. It was held in what was once William Gladstone’s music room in a building close to the Mall, and tea and biscuits were served.

Imran Waheed, a psychiatrist, opened the batting for HT by saying: “There are many myths I would like to dispel … We are not looking for a Taliban state or one that oppresses women.”

He also denied the organisation was anti-semitic. He said HT had been formed as a non-violent Islamic party in 1953 to replace the “unelected dictators and despots” ruling in much of the Muslim world. The aim was for a caliphate, an Islamic authority, to govern in Muslim countries but the group was not seeking to introduce one into Britain.

“Our members have never resorted to armed struggle,” he said. “They are as likely to use violence as Tony Blair is to pay for his own holidays.”

Guardian, 23 September 2005

President suspended in Muslim group row

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The president of Middlesex University’s student union was suspended indefinitely as a student on Tuesday after refusing to cancel a debate with a Muslim organisation the Government wants to ban. Michael Driscoll, the university’s vice-chancellor told Keith Shilson on Monday to withdraw the union’s invitation to Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) to take part in a ‘Question Time’ at its campus in The Burroughs, Hendon, otherwise the meeting would be banned. But Mr Shilson, a final-year politics and history student refused, saying there was no evidence to suggest the group whose name translates as ‘party of liberation’ is linked to terrorism. He was escorted off the premises by security staff. The university said it was taking this step in light of concerns over the organisation’s reputation for extremist views.

This is Hertfordshire, 22 September 2005

See also Guardian, 21 September 2005 and MPACUK, 21 September 2005

Sheikh Al-Qaradawi welcomes Anglican Church’s initiative

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Qaradawi2Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the leading and world renowned Sunni scholar, has welcomed the initiative of the Bishops of the Church of England calling on Britain’s Christian leaders to apologise to the Muslims because of what the war on Iraq has caused. In a meeting with a delegation of British Muslims visiting him at his residence in Doha, Qatar, the Sheikh said the Bishops clearly denounce the war and seem to tell us that they regret it. It is as if they wish to apologise on behalf of the British government. This, the Sheikh added, is a very positive step although we do not hold the Anglican Church responsible for the policy of the British government which insisted in taking part in the war against the wish of the majority of the British people who have since the very beginning been opposed to it.

MAB press release, 22 September 2005

Melanie Phillips is less impressed: “Is there no limit to the abjectness of the Church of England’s response to Islamic terror?”

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 20 September 2005