“Dr Ramadan called on his audience to be more ready to listen to non-Muslims and told them ‘to stop being on the defensive about being British citizens’. He said: ‘We have to deal with mistrust. We need mutual trust and knowledge and to return to the Koran. Your brother is not only Muslim, but also non-Muslim’.”
The Daily Telegraph reports yesterday’s speech by Tariq Ramadan.
“Britain’s Muslim leaders are waking up to the threat in our midst. Their plea yesterday for parents to tell police if they fear their sons could be suicide bombers is a vital blow against terrorism. Inayat Bunglawala, spokesman for the Muslim Council, and Dr Azzam Tamimi of the Muslim Association, made it clear that they spoke with the authority of the Koran. Their move is wholeheartedly backed by The Sun – and must win support from right-thinking people.”
Thus an editorial in the Sun, 25 July 2005
What a load of ignorant, condescending rubbish. Given that the MCB and MAB have never ceased to condemn terrorist attacks and to call on British Muslims to give information to the police, it is clear that the only people who are “waking up” are the Sun‘s editorial writers.
In another article in the same issue, referring to the shooting of an innocent man by police, the Sun reports approvingly that “an Islamic scholar accused of justifying suicide attacks said people should NOT blame police for the tragedy”. And who might this Islamic scholar be? Well, actually, it’s Tariq Ramadan – the man the Sun demanded should be banned from Britain. And who made the false accusation against Professor Ramadan that he justified suicide bombing? Yeah, that was the Sun as well. See here.
Can this erudite Swiss lecturer really be the man branded by The Sun as the “acceptable face of terror”? Paul Vallely meets Tariq Ramadan.
Senior members of the UK’s Muslim community have voiced fears the London bombing hunt is making innocent people feel they are under suspicion.
Labour peer Lord Ahmed said many Muslims in the north of England believed they could become victims of mistaken identity by armed police. And Azad Ali, chairman of the Muslim Safety Forum, said many young Muslims were reluctant to leave their homes.
“They fear that they’re all suspected bombers,” he told BBC Radio Five Live. “We’ve received many emails, we’ve received telephone calls, about how young Muslims don’t want to use the Tube now.”
“It is apparent to anyone who had the misfortune of viewing Peter Taylor’s BBC2 documentary, ‘The New Al-Qaeda; Jihad.com’ (broadcast on Monday 25th July 2005, 9pm) that the programme had only one agenda, and was extremely biased. It exploited the minds of an already vulnerable British public in the aftermath of the tragic 7/7 bombings. The whole aim of the programme was to put ahead one view and one opinion in order to prejudice the public with regards to Babar Ahmad.”
Yusuf Smith answers press distortions about the Brixton Mosque, Tariq Ramadan and sacked Guardian journalist Dilpazier Aslam.
Cherie Blair’s sister offers some forthright advice to her brother-in-law.
The case of a girl excluded from school for wearing Muslim dress is set to be heard in the House of Lords. Shabina Begum, 16, won a landmark ruling in March when the appeal court upheld her right to wear the jilbab, which leaves only the hands and eyes exposed. The court ruled that the ban breached human rights. The school, Denbigh High in Luton, Bedfordshire, has now won leave to take the case to the Lords and the governors are due to decide within the next few days whether to go ahead. The case could set a precedent for schools and Muslim children across Britain.
Why did Britain produce its “own” suicide bombers, Anthony Browne asks. “It is true that Britain, more cursed with political correctness than most, has shown a joyfully optimistic tolerance of Islamic extremists. The BBC, the Guardian and the Metropolitan Police promote groups like the Muslim Association of Britain, even though it openly supports terrorism (just not in Britain). No, the real answer to why Britain spawned people fuelled with maniacal hate for their country is that Britain hates itself. In hating Britain, these British suicide bombers were as British as a police warning for flying the union flag.”
Former foreign secretary Robin Cook has claimed the war in Iraq was a recruiting sergeant for al Qaeda. Amid a political row over whether the London bombings can be linked with the 2003 conflict to overthrow Saddam Hussein, the Labour MP said there was a correlation between the war and the level of suicide bombings. “The problem is that we have handed al Qaeda an immense propaganda gift, one that they exploit ruthlessly,” he told the BBC News 24 Sunday programme.
Cook called on the prime minister to take steps to reduce the causes of tension within the Muslim community and set a timetable for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq. “The Muslim leaders who, quite rightly, are being asked to confront fundamentalism and fanaticism in their own community are also entitled to say to Tony Blair ‘You have got to help us by removing the issues that contribute to the tension’, because if there is one issue that makes it difficult for young Muslims to support this government it is Iraq,” he said.