Category Archives: UK

Muslim convert rejects radical label

Posted on by Bob Pitt

British Muslim, Abdur Raheem Green, has been blocked from coming to Australia. Mr Green attempted to board a plane from Sri Lanka to Wellington on Monday. The plane was due to make a one-hour stop in Brisbane en route. “I was told I could not board because the plane had to stop in Australia,” Mr Green told The Australian.

A man described by some Australian media as one of Britain’s most radical Muslim converts starts a speaking tour today for New Zealand Islamic Awareness Week. Abdur Raheem Green, who rejects the radical label, had been due to speak at the Auckland University of Technology on Monday but the public lecture was cancelled because he had to change his flight plans when he was refused entry to Brisbane for a one-hour stopover. Mr Green said he was told when checking in at Sri Lanka about three days ago that he could not land in Brisbane but was given no reason by the Australian High Commission.

New Zealand Herald, 9 August 2005

See also ABC News, 11 August 2005

The ban followed a right-wing campaign against Abdur Raheem Green, aimed at depicting him as a violent extremist.

SSP backs Muslim Association of Britain London demonstration

Posted on by Eddie Truman

SSPThe Scottish Socialist Party Executive last night unanimously agreed to support the call by the Muslim Association of Britain for an all Britain demonstration on 24th September in support of civil liberties, support for the victims of the London bombings, the condemnation of terrorism and in solidarity with the Muslim community in Britain.

Two of the SSP’s MSPs, Colin Fox and Tommy Sheridan will speak at public meetings in Edinburgh and Glasgow in the run up to the demonstration.

Colin Fox, SSP national convenor, today highlighted the headlong assault on civil liberties by the New Labour government since the July 7th London bombings and the massive rise in anti Muslim racism that has swept the UK in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

Religious hate crimes, mostly against Muslims, have risen six-fold in London since the bombings, figures show. There were 269 religious hate crimes in the three weeks after 7 July, compared with 40 in the same period of 2004.
Racist attacks in Scotland have risen by almost a quarter since the London bombings, according to police figures. There were 438 incidents reported from 7 July to the end of the month. That was up by 79 on last year, with 64 of those directly linked to the bombings.

Colin said today: “The SSP unequivocally denounced the terrorist bombs in London immediately after the attacks and we do so again today. These were acts of barbarism that have no place in society and the fact that amongst those killed were several devout Muslims shows that the bombers were in no way a part of the Muslim community a whole.

“The headlong rush into repressive legislation by the government must be resisted by all progressive forces in society; repression will never defeat terrorism as 30 years of history in Northern Ireland shows. The legislation the government is proposing is absolutely draconian and the SSP will be joining with the Muslim Association of Britain and other organisations in opposing this grave threat to our civil liberties.

“We stand together with the Muslim community in opposing the wave of racism and anti Muslim violence that has swept the country following the bombings in London. The SSP calls on all it’s members and supporters to make their voice heard in opposition to racism and Islamophobia and against the draconian measures being put forward by the New Labour government.”

Students rebuff Blair

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Students at Middlesex University have this week reiterated their decision to allow the Islamic organisation Hizb ut Tahrir to continue its activities on campus, despite moves by the Government to ban the group.

Keith Shilson, president of the Students’ Union, said: “If Tony Blair wants to ban an organisation known to be responsible for acts of violence, he should ban the British National Party, not a non-violent Muslim organisation. The union wishes to uphold a policy that prevents Islamophobia on its campuses, and Hizb ut Tahrir is neither an extremist group, nor a group that supports terrorism. The organisation rejected the July 7 attacks, issuing a statement that said the bombings had no justification and were illegal according to Islamic law.”

This is Hertfordshire, 10 August 2005

Anti-Muslim hate crime on rise in Wales

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim woman has described her fear during a racist attack on her Cardiff home, as a UK-wide study into the effects of hate crime is launched.

The £100,000 Victim Support research project aims to develop new guidelines and support for victims of hate and race crime. It comes as Muslims in Wales face rising levels of violence and intimidation after the London bombings. In July, animal parts and a racist letter were left at a Cardiff mosque. And on Wednesday, a Muslim woman, who did not want to be identified, told BBC Wales how her home had been attacked last week.

She said: “We were sitting in our living room when we heard this man shouting outside our door. He was throwing things, picking up stones from our front garden and throwing them at our door and our window. And then he smashed a section of our double-glazed window. He was shouting [a series of abusive names]. It was quite scary, because we didn’t know what he had. My niece was sleeping in the front room.

“We don’t feel secure at all. When you are in the house you are always fearing whether someone will come in or try and force their way in. They can do anything, they can put things in our letter boxes. And when you go out, you are always paranoid, always looking around and people do give you funny looks anyway, especially since the London bombings.

“You kind of think ‘I shouldn’t wear traditional clothing just in case somebody makes a comment, I’d rather fit in with the crowd and look more westernised’ and I don’t like doing that. I’m British but I’m also Pakistani. I’m Muslim and that’s my culture.”

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Asians hurt in attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Asian teenagers violently assaulted by racist thugs in a mindless reprisal for the London bombings were not even followers of Islam.

The revelation came as Sutton police disclosed the vicious revenge assault on the five innocent Asians who were sitting in Gillian Park in Sutton Common Road on Friday, July 29. The attack left one victim with a broken jaw needing a metal plate and stitches above his eye, and another with six stitches in his lip. Two more victims were treated for cuts, bruises and swellings in hospital.

Detective Inspector Michael Smith, of the Sutton police community safety unit, said: “This was an appalling unprovoked attack, based on ignorance. We are absolutely sure this was a reprisal attack. The attackers in Sutton were accusing their victims of being responsible for the bombings in London. They thought anyone who had dark skin would be Muslim.”

Surrey Online, 9 August 2005

‘Dire results of theory of multiculturalism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The theory of multiculturalism and its malevolent companion, political correctness, arrived on these shores from North America and was quickly taken up by the liberal, urban political elite. These theories were foisted on the British people without any consultation and the terrible consequences are only appearing now…. A Muslim festival like Eid is given as much importance as Christmas or Easter. There is something very wrong here.

“Minority groups, especially those from the Indian sub-continent, were encouraged not to integrate or mix, but to keep their own customs as though the UK did not exist…. So in many of our cities we have a society within the wider society with a religion, Islam, which often seems to the outsider to be more of a political movement than a way to being at peace with God and one’s neighbour. This society within a society has been encouraged to revel in its alleged victimhood, and, due to its lack of maturity, has never looked at its own faults but blames outsiders for all its ills…..

“The day that Muslims can accept rational criticism without the predictable cries of ‘Islamophobia’ will be the day when they are finally accepted into British society like the descendants of other immigrant groups over the centuries. Fear of western secular society and its achievements is perhaps due to the nature of Islam itself.”

Letter in the Herald, 9 August 2005

Secret courts for terror cases

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Special anti-terror courts sitting in secret to determine how long suspects should be detained without charge are now under active consideration, it emerged yesterday.

Home Office sources confirmed that ministers are considering making a French-style “security-cleared judge” responsible for assembling a pre-trial case against terrorist suspects, with in-camera access to sensitive intelligence evidence, including currently inadmissible phone-tap evidence.

The plan under consideration, which echoes elements of David Blunkett’s proposal last year for secret anti-terrorist courts, could also involve the use of security-vetted “special advocates” as legal representatives of those detained. But they would not be able to disclose the nature of the evidence under which their clients were held before being charged.

The proposal puts flesh on the point outlined by Tony Blair last Friday, when he said that part of the new anti-terror package would include “a new court procedure which would allow a pretrial process”. He said it would provide a way of meeting requests by the police and security services that detention before charge should be extended from the current 14 days up to three months.

Guardian, 9 August 2005