And it’s over to Nick Cohen at the Observer for the usual outpouring of Islamophobic bile. We are subjected to yet another diatribe against “Islamism”, which apparently “wants an empire from the Philippines to Gibraltar – and which is tyrannical, homophobic, misogynist, racist and homicidal”. And just in case you are tempted to point out that there are plenty of “Islamists” who favour democratic reform and civil liberties, Cohen follows this up with a denunciation of the “Muslim Association of Britain and Yusuf al-Qaradawi who believe that Muslims who freely decide to change their religion or renounce religion should be executed”.
Category Archives: UK
Tebbit: Enoch Powell’s prophecy for Britain was correct
“Lord Tebbit, the former chairman of the Conservative Party, has claimed Enoch Powell’s controversial ‘river of blood’ speech in 1968 was a correct prophesy of the climate of fear that Britain is now facing following the two terrorist bomb attacks in London last month.
In an interview with the Sunday Herald, Lord Tebbit claimed Powell’s views were misinterpreted as racist and that Powell’s warning was focused on the dangers of a multicultural British society that would be fed from uncontrolled immigration…. Tebbit’s overt backing for a Powellite stance on immigration, shows the extent to which criticism of multiculturalism has become almost mainstream since the London attacks.”
Muslims invest money in London shock
“One city is emerging as the preferred city for Qu’ran friendly, Shariah compliant property investments and it is not Mecca, Ankara, Dubai or Tehran, it’s London! Yes London is the favourite place for wealthy Muslims to invest their money…. London based branches of global banks and investment funds are falling over themselves arranging for wealthy oil sheikhs, heroin exporters and feudal pillaging warlords to buy up Britain’s shopping centres, tower blocks and country estates. Maybe this is desirable, the lesser of the two evils forced upon us by our ‘Shariah compliant’ government which has eased regulation to allow these financial practices – at least these new landlords have too much money to even think about strapping explosives around their waist.”
Outrage! make prats of themselves over Qaradawi again
“The Crown Prince of Qatar should be stoned to death for being gay, according to Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim fundamentalist scholar who is based in Qatar. These allegations appear in the Middle East news magazine Aljazeera….
“Aljazeera quotes Dr Qaradawi as saying: ‘The scholars of Islam, such as Malik, Ash-Shafi’i, Ahmad and Ishaaq said that (the person guilty of this crime) should be stoned, whether he is married or unmarried’.”
Outrage! press release, 5 August 2005
As Islamophobia Watch has pointed out, the quotation is not from Dr al-Qaradawi at all, but from a Saudi Wahhabist named Mohammed Salih Al-Munajjid.
As for Qaradawi’s supposed fatwa “Homosexuality and Lesbianism: Sexual Perversions”, the link provided by Outrage! shows that this was not a fatwa issued by Qaradawi but by a “Group of Muftis”. Their fatwa did include a quotation from Qaradawi in which he summarised the opinions of various scholars on the punishment for homosexuality, but did not state his own view. Moreover, the quote was taken from his book The Lawful and Prohibited in Islam, which was published … in 1960!
If Dr al-Qaradawi does indeed called for the execution of gay men, then you would have thought that Outrage! would have been able to find some statement to that effect from his numerous writings and broadcasts over the subsequent forty-five years. They have been unable to find a single one.
Hizb ut-Tahrir slams Blair’s ban
Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain has slammed Prime Minister Tony Blair’s pledge to ban the Islamic group in the country as a part of anti-terror measures that also drew immediate criticism from rights groups and individual lawyers.
“Hizb ut-Tahrir is a non-violent political party,” spokesman Imran Waheed told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Friday, August 5.
“Our members are all for political expression, not for violence,” he said, calling Blair’s remarks “most unjust” and pledged the group would battle any ban via the courts.
As British Muslims we feel marginalised, criminalised
“As British Muslims we had been asked whether we were British or Muslim – as if we could not be both. It would have been better for the government to invite their harshest critics. But Blair never listened to the millions who marched against war. He ignored real democracy, opening a Pandora’s Box releasing the politics of hate.”
Glasgow human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar in a letter to The Herald.
One year on, still no justice for Babar Ahmad
IHRC notes with great concern the first anniversary of the imprisonment without charge of British political prisoner Babar Ahmad. Babar has spent 365 days in prison now while he awaits the British government to decide whether to extradite him to the US where he is likely to face torture or even death. To date, not a single shred of evidence has been produced in court to indicate his guilt. Furthermore to date, not a single police officer has been held responsible for the brutal life-threatening assault on Babar during his initial arrest in December 2003.
Hizb ut-Tahrir to be proscribed – Blair
The Hizb ut Tahrir organisation and Al-Muhajiroun – or its successor group – are to be banned, Tony Blair has announced. “We will also examine the grounds for proscription to widen them and put forward proposals in the new legislation,” he said.
Imran Waheed of Hizb ut Tahrir said his group would fight any ban and insisted they were “non-violent”. The Muslim Council of Britain said the ban would be “counter productive”.
The price of multiculturalism
“If young Muslim women have embraced the hijab as a badge of identity in a way their mothers never did, as a public political symbol, this is more a result of the demands of British multiculturalism than a spontaneous assertion of allegiance. Furthermore, the distinctive character of the identity promoted by multiculturalism is the identity of victim. In the world of multiculturalism, claims of victimhood provide the basis for recognition and status. Thus British Muslims proclaim a litany of persecutions and humiliations of Muslims around the world – in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Israel, in Bosnia – as the justification for their sense of grievance and their claim to a privileged position in the hierarchy of victimhood…. But the cult of victimhood in Britain has merely a vicarious relationship with the sufferings of people in Iraq or Palestine – its real origins are to be found in Britain. In the competitive struggle for prestige (and state resources) unleashed by multiculturalism, every minority must justify its claim by elevating its sufferings…. Muslims inflate every personal slight into a manifestation of Islamophobia.”
Another rant by Mark Steyn in the Telegraph, perhaps? No, it’s ex-RCPer Michael Fitzpatrick.
Banning non-violent groups is not the solution
The Muslim Council of Britain regards the Prime Minister’s statement today in which he announced a number of measures, including seeking to proscribe the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, with concern and alarm.
“The MCB holds no brief for Hizb ut-Tahrir – they are a group with whom the mainstream Muslim community has strong and well known disagreements concerning participation in our political process. However, banning Hizb ut-Tahrir is certainly not the solution and may well prove to be counterproductive. We understand that Hizb ut-Tahrir in the United Kingdom are an avowedly non-violent group. If there are groups that are thought to be contravening our laws, then they ought to be prosecuted in courts of law, not driven underground. Our democratic values need to be upheld, not undermined,” said Sir Iqbal Sacranie, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain.
“In addition, we are seeking clarification from the government to ensure that expressions of support for people who are living under brutal military occupation is not to be outlawed. That would be completely unacceptable. Our faith of Islam commands us to speak out against injustice wherever it occurs. To prohibit support for oppressed peoples would make us complicit in the injustice and would have dire consequences for the upholding of international legality,” said Sir Iqbal.
The MCB recalls the admonition given by the Chief Justice Lord Woolf who stated that: “In defending democracy, we must not forget the need to observe the values which make democracy worth defending.”