Category Archives: UK

‘Tread more carefully’ over Qaradawi

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jonathan Freedland in yet another ignorant attack on Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Not quite as bad as you might have feared, but we get the usual stuff – originating with the likes of MEMRI and Outrage! – about supporting the killing of unborn Israeli children and the state execution of gay men.

Guardian, 27 July 2005

The burden of Freedland’s argument is to oppose “hugging people who are sharply at odds with Britain’s progressive tradition”. Which of course ignores the need for alliances with people who represent a progressive force within their own tradition – people like Dr al-Qaradawi who promote democracy, women’s rights and dialogue with the West in the Middle East, and who constitute a democratic-reformist alternative to the terrorists of al-Qaida within political Islam.

Beards and scarves aren’t Muslim. They’re simply adverts for al-Qaeda (says Amir Taheri)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Muslims could also help by stopping the use of their bodies as advertising space for al-Qaeda. Muslim women should cast aside the so-called hijab, which has nothing to do with Islam and everything to do with tribal wear on the Arabian peninsula. The hijab … is now a visual prop of terrorism. If some women have been hoodwinked into believing that they cannot be Muslims without covering their hair, they could at least use headgears other than black (the colour of al-Qaeda) or white (the colour of the Taleban)…. Muslim men should consider doing away with Taleban and al-Qaeda-style beards. Growing a beard has nothing to do with Islam…. The bushy beards you see on Oxford Street are symbols of the Salafi ideology that has produced al-Qaeda and the Taleban.”

Right-wing Iranian exile Amir Taheri – a mainstay of the US neocon consultancy Benador Associates – offers some advice to Muslims.

Times, 27 July 2005

Nuke Mecca? Don’t rule it out, says Jihad Watch

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rebecca Bynum proposes the killing of Muslim civilians in retaliation for terrorist bombings:

To fight a terrorist war waged by Muslim civilians, we have no choice but to impose retaliatory measures on Muslim civilians, thereby impeding the advance of Islam, for that is the only thing the Islamic terrorists value, and this is by the standards of Islam they follow. Human life is, for true believing Muslims, famously Hobbesian – ‘nasty, brutish and short’ affair. Human life is not something cherished by Muslims; to be nurtured and preserved above all things, the way it is in our own Judeo-Christian tradition. The ideal Muslim life is one that is sacrificed for Islam. Therefore, we must make certain kinds of Muslim sacrifice, namely suicide bombings designed to kill infidels, totally untenable, and so damaging to the umma, the Community of Believers, and so damaging to the other instruments of Jihad, that the terrorism will cease, or be severely limited in scope.

Dhimmi Watch, 27 July 2005

Are these people seriously loopy, or what? We look forward to Melanie Phillips (who appears to have developed a mutual admiration for Jihad Watch) taking up this suggestion in her next Daily Mail column.

Two-thirds of Muslims consider leaving UK

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have thought about leaving Britain after the London bombings, according to a new Guardian/ICM poll. The figure illustrates how widespread fears are of an anti-Muslim backlash following the July 7 bombings which were carried out by British born suicide bombers.

The poll also shows that tens of thousands of Muslims have suffered from increased Islamophobia, with one in five saying they or a family member have faced abuse or hostility since the attacks.

Police have recorded more than 1,200 suspected Islamophobic incidents across the country ranging from verbal abuse to one murder in the past three weeks. The poll suggests the headline figure is a large underestimate.

Guardian, 26 July 2005

Fascists propose to ‘protect Britain from Islamic terror’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Protecting Britain from Islamic terror isn’t rocket science”, the BNP announces, “but it will take the courage to throw political correctness where it belongs – in the litter-bin of history. And the day when that happens is getting closer. In the days since the start of the terror campaign, BNP activists all over Britain have been working harder than ever to spread the message that the Muslim terror threat has its roots in bad political decisions made by successive Labour and Tory governments. Now is the time to make people understand that the only chance they have of a return to safety and security is to get rid of the politicians who have brought us ‘diversity’ and death.”

Proposals include ethnic profiling of suspects, an instant halt to immigration from Muslim countries, banning the veil (“What is the point of having CCTV cameras if terrorists can disguise themselves as the wives of Muslim fundamentalists and prowl our streets undetected behind veils and hoods?”), deporting illegal migrants, and sacking all Muslims “studying chemistry, biology and computer communications in our universities, or working in jobs giving them access to installations such as water treatment plants”.

BNP news article, 26 July 2005

Muslims tell of post-bomb fears

Posted on by Bob Pitt

London’s mayor Ken Livingstone has met Muslim leaders to discuss their fears after the London bombings.

Sadiq Khan, MP for Tooting, south London, said the most worrying thing was “British-born and British-raised Muslims… did this to London”. But he said they hoped to help catch those responsible for the attacks.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said they were very worried about the Met’s shoot-to-kill police and called for an inquiry. “This is the only way that we can be assured that the Muslim community is going to be taken seriously,” he said.

Addressing the conference Mr Khan said: “None of us should feel even more guilty than non-Muslims in this city. “People think of Muslims as a homogenous mass but we are not. We are very different groups of people. We will do all that we can to catch those responsible. It is important that we are united.”

Mayor Livingstone also vowed to crack down on anyone or any company who uses to the blasts as an excuse for discrimination, after learning a Muslim woman was not allowed to board a bus in east London.

“This is completely contrary to the law and bus companies that allow that to happen will not be allowed to keep their contracts,” he said. “I have said before we will not allow the bombers to divide us and we will not allow people to divide us here.”

BBC News, 26 July 2005

London’s Muslims voice new fears

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Muslim community here already felt the glare of suspicion in the wake of the deadly bombings that have terrorized London. Then came an admission by police Saturday that they had gunned down an innocent Brazilian on Friday who they thought was a would-be bomber. That, some in the community said, put London’s Muslims in a double bind: afraid of the militants, and afraid of the police.

“All of us must help police identify these suspect bombers and bring them to justice – yet yesterday’s events make it harder for us,” said Inayat Bunglawala, spokesman for the mainstream Muslim Council of Britain. “If people believe that the individuals they are informing on may be shot dead before it’s even verified they’re a threat, they’re going to be reluctant to tell the police.”

LA Times, 24 July 2005

Islamic scholars urge unity to fight terror

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ramadanA conference of Islamic scholars from around the world yesterday denounced the recent terrorist attacks on London as “barbaric and inhuman”, and called on the public and media to work more closely with the Muslim community to fight extremism.

Speakers at the Metropolitan police-sponsored conference, which was designed to educate young British Muslims about extremism and Islamophobia, also criticised the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes but said the young Brazilian’s death should not be allowed to upset community relations.

Tariq Ramadan, a Switzerland-based scholar whose visit to speak at the conference attracted condemnation from the Sun newspaper, said: “We should call for an independent investigation to make sure that this does not happen again.” He asked people not to react emotionally to recent events and to act as citizens who say “no to discrimination and no to extremism”.

Guardian, 25 July 2005

It must never happen again

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Liz DaviesIt must never happen again

By Liz Davies

Morning Star, 25 July 2005

London is a frightening place to live right now. We Londoners are being shown a small glimpse of what it must be like to live in Baghdad. We are in danger – from terrorist bombs and trigger-happy police.

On Friday, the police acted as judge, jury and executioner. Jean Charles de Menezes is a victim of the war on terror in London, just as those who died on 7 July are victims. He was killed for three simple reasons: he wasn’t white, he was wearing a bulky coat and he ran away from the police. Who knows why he ran, but for no reason that could justify summary execution.

The rush by leading London and national politicians, and by most sections of the media, to support the police action was breath taking. In a democratic society, the first response when a member of the public is killed by the police should be to suspend the officers involved and to announce an independent inquiry.

There are circumstances, obviously, when an inquiry might conclude that the only thing that the police could have done, to protect the public or themselves, was to kill. But the gravity of that conclusion is such that it should only be reached after independent scrutiny of all the circumstances, not as a knee-jerk reaction on the day. Instead, politician after politician queued up to explain that shoot-to-kill is now necessary.

Now that we know that Menezes had nothing to do with terrorism, and there is to be an inquiry, Sir Ian Blair expresses his regret at the tragedy but adds, almost casually, that it might happen again. The inquiry must examine not only the actions of the police at the scene, but the instructions from the top and the whole “shoot-to-kill” policy. It must never happen again.

Where have we seen the state operate “shoot-to-kill” before? Apartheid South Africa, present-day Palestine, Los Angeles, and, of course, Northern Ireland.

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London bombings due to lax immigration policies, multiculturalism (it says here)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Sadly, many metropolitan leaders seem less than prepared to meet today’s current terrorist threat head-on, in part due to the trendy multiculturalism that now characterizes so many Western cities. Consider London’s multiculturalist Mayor Ken Livingstone, who last year actually welcomed a radical jihadist, Egyptian cleric Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi, to his city….

“In continental Europe, multiculturalism has been elevated to a kind of social dogma, exacerbating the separation between Muslim immigrants and the host society. For decades, immigrants have not been encouraged or expected to accept German, Dutch or British norms, nor have those societies made efforts to integrate the newcomers. Not surprisingly, jihadist agitation has flourished in Hamburg, Amsterdam, Madrid, Berlin and Paris as well as London.

“If cities are to survive in Europe or elsewhere, they will need to face this latest threat to urban survival with something more than liberal platitudes, displays of pluck and willful determination. They will have to face up to the need for sometimes harsh measures, such as tighter immigration laws, preventive detention and widespread surveillance of suspected terrorists, to protect the urban future.

“They will also need to institute measures that encourage immigrants to assimilate, such as fostering greater economic opportunity for newcomers or enforcing immersion in the national language and political institutions.”

Joel Kotkin in the Washington Post, 24 July 2005