The Mayor of London replies to Andrew Anthony.
Letter in the Guardian, 3 September 2005
Category Archives: UK
Straight talk about Tariq Ramadan
Re Tariq Ramadan’s appointment to a government taskforce on tackling extremism (Blair backs banned Muslim scholar, August 31): we feel it is important to make clear there are a multiplicity of views in the UK Jewish community. More importantly, a multiplicity of views are what is required on a task force.
Professor Ramadan’s views appear to concentrate on the complexity of issues, rather than alleged extremism. In his book Western Muslims and the Future of Islam, he argues for a new understanding of Islamic principles within a western context, calling for dialogue with non-Muslims. Following the London bombings, Professor Ramadan published an opinion piece in the Guardian entitled “Living together takes effort” (July 9).
We agree. In particular, we urge leaders of all communities to avoid hearsay and to renew efforts to seek common ground, thereby opening avenues for honest dialogue. The effort is worth it.
Jonathan Colman
Dr Edie Friedman
Reva Klein
Dr Brian Klug
Francesca Klug
Tony Lerman
Jewish Council for Racial Equality
Letter in Guardian, 2 September 2005
Britain to world: shut up
Michael Steinberg on the double standards inherent in Blair’s anti-terrorism measures.
‘Muslim students: taught to complain’
A conference of young Muslims played up their victimhood to an audience of political and media luminaries.”
The ex-RCP sneers at FOSIS.
Defend civil liberties
The so-called “War on Terror” has made our world a more dangerous place. 85 percent of the British people believe that there is a link between the dreadful bombings in London and the illegal invasion of Iraq. This link is acknowledged by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre and the Chatham House think-tank.
The policy is seen by many as a war on Islam with constant rhetoric by Bush and Blair about “fighting evil ideology”, “sharing our values” and demonising any organisation or person who speaks out against injustice. As a result, an atmosphere of hate and fear is created, attacks on Muslims have recently increased by 600 percent. Furthermore, the onslaught by right-wing extremists on Islam as a religion has crossed every boundary.
Muslims are not in denial, we are in the forefront of fighting terror against innocent civilians which ever the form or shape it takes. But our government is turning a blind eye to continuous oppression, occupation and state-sponsored terrorism around the world.
The first casualty of the “War on Terror” is our own freedom and liberties. We say “don’t take liberties with our liberties”. The new measures proposed by the Prime Minster will remove fundamental freedoms in British society and will not make our country safer.
Religion’s political role
Andrew Anthony (G2, August 31) accuses me of inconsistency, even hypocrisy. But that charge rebounds. By his own casuistry, the anti-religious Anthony must surely be inconsistent in celebrating the passing of the atheist Soviet Union. The inconsistency mounts when, in the name of liberal values, he equates all expression of political Islam with fascism. Those Muslim activists who draw on their traditions in the fight against the BNP are, in his eyes, of a piece with Mussolini and Hitler.
Movements against oppression and exploitation have fought under many different banners. For many it has been a version of socialism or radical nationalism. For many others today it is through radical interpretations of religion. Are the Latin American liberation theologists to be considered part of Anthony’s fascist menace? Or is he, as seems apparent, slandering Islam as a uniquely evil religion?
The grotesque intolerance of self-appointed “liberal” defenders of tolerance stands bare. They should come clean. Their problem is not with religion over secularism; it is with the increasing numbers of people – religious and non-religious – who are coming together in political movements to challenge corporate power and the Bush/Blair doctrine of permanent war.
George Galloway MP
Respect, Bethnal Green and Bow
Letter in Guardian, 1 September 2005
Living together: an interview with Tariq Ramadan
Tariq Ramadan is one Europe’s leading progressive Muslim scholars. He talked to Oscar Reyes about integration, multiculturalism and the role of the global justice movement after the London bombings.
The media has misrepresented our faith, claim Muslims
The media has misrepresented the Muslim faith and aggravated the “Islamaphobic” backlash to the July bombings, members of Birmingham’s Muslim community have claimed. The accusations were made during the visit of Home Office Minister Paul Goggins to the Victoria Street Mosque in Aston yesterday. Members of the mosque said they felt let down by the negative and extreme image of Muslims portrayed in television and newspapers.
Round-up of racial violence
Eight weeks after the London bombings racial violence is still on the rise, the Institute of Race Relations reports..
Mad Mel and Tariq Ramadan
“The government’s desperation to engage with ‘moderate’ Islam appears to mean that it is keen to embrace even those who believe in Islamicising the west, as long as they make ritual noises denouncing the terror that flows from such an agenda. At the root of this is its determination to avoid at all costs being thought to have a problem with the current state of Islam itself as opposed to a few ‘unrepresentative’ terrorists, whose motivation will therefore be ascribed to everything but. Such myopia spells cultural suicide.”
Mad Mel condemns the government’s decision to appoint Tariq Ramadan to a Home Office task force.
Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 31 August 2005
As you might anticipate, she parrots accusations from Daniel Pipes’ attack on Professor Ramadan (the same one that provided the basis for the Sun’s recent witch-hunt). For Ramadan’s demolition of Pipes’ slanders, see here