“… the ultimate price we pay for our altruism is the loss of our country and the extinction of our kind. Already in some parliamentary constituencies in Britain an astonishing 40% of the population are Muslim. With the much higher birthrate amongst the Islamic community within the next few decades we have to face the reality that our country is on course to become an Islamic state.”
Nazis make their contribution to the struggle against multiculturalism.
Former British cabinet minister Clare Short said Sunday, July 17, she “had no doubt” the London bombings were linked to Britain’s role in the US-led invasion-turned-occupation of Iraq, warning that news anti-terror laws would only recruit more extremists.
“Some of the voices that have been coming from the government talk as though this is all evil, and that everything we do is fine,” Short said in an interview to be broadcast on the GMTV television program later in the day, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP). “When in fact we are implicit in the slaughter of large numbers of civilians in Iraq and supporting a Middle East policy that for the Palestinians creates this sense of double standards – that feeds anger,” she stressed.
“The Guardian newspaper is refusing to sack one of its staff reporters despite confirming that he is a member of one of Britain’s most extreme Islamist groups. Dilpazier Aslam, who has been allowed to report on the London bombings from Leeds and was also given space to write a column in last Wednesday’s edition of The Guardian, is a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical world organisation which seeks to form a global Islamic state regulated by sharia law.”
Independent on Sunday, 17 July 2005
Shiv Malik takes up the witch-hunt against Dilpazier Aslam initiated by the Daily Ablution and Harry’s Place blogs.
Britain’s involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan contributed to the terrorist attacks in London, a respected independent thinktank on foreign affairs, the Chatham House organisation, says today.
According to the body, which includes leading academics and former civil servants among its members, the key problem in the UK for preventing terrorism is that the country is “riding as a pillion passenger with the United States in the war against terror”.
It says Britain’s ability to carry out counter-terrorism measures has also been hampered because the US is always in the driving seat in deciding policy.
The Guardian report also quotes Azzam Tamimi of the Muslim Association of Britain as saying that the Muslim community would not suffer in silence for the crimes of the suicide bombers:
“We will continue to talk, we will continue to write and we will continue to challenge the government. I say to Muslims, do not bow to pressure to keep accepting those pointing fingers at you. Say, ‘No, I’m not responsible for what happened on July 7. My heart bleeds, I condemn it, yes, but I did not make those boys angry. I did not send those bombs to Iraq. I do not keep people locked in Guantánamo Bay and I do not have anything to do with Abu Ghraib, except to denounce it.’ Politicians, see what you have done to this world?
No place in our country for this preacher of hate
Sunday Express, 17 July 2005
Over the past 10 days, shocking evidence has emerged of the extent to which hard-line Islamic extremism has taken hold in Britain. Of the four suicide bombers, three were born here. The police are certain there is an Al Qaeda connection – there are reports that captured Al Qaeda operatives actually warned of plans to bomb London’s transport system. Against that appalling background comes the news that Home Secretary Charles Clarke is to allow Tariq Ramadan, an Egyptian-born academic who justifies terrorism, access to this country.
Plans by an alliance of rightwing extremists and football hooligans to exact “revenge” on Muslims after last week’s bomb attacks are being monitored by police. The Guardian has learned that extremists are keen to cause widespread fear and injury with attacks on mosques and high-profile “anti-Muslim” events in the capital.
Football hooligans communicating over the internet have spoken of the need to put aside partisan support for teams and unite against Muslims. Hooligans from West Ham, Millwall, Crystal Palace and Arsenal are among those seeking to establish common cause.
As part of wider plans to generate a backlash, rightwing groups such as the Nationalist Alliance and the National Front are said to be planning marches. Extremists hope to hold a march along Victoria Embankment in London tomorrow.
It is also known that many mosques have received bomb threats since the attacks.
“In my gym last week, a young white woman was watching coverage of the London bombing on TV. She suddenly turned to me, ashen faced and angry, and said: ‘They’re talking as if this just affects Muslims. Why are we concentrating on placating and reassuring them when we should be concentrating on the dead and injured?’
“And she’s right. In the past week there has been less time spent talking about the victims of London’s 9/11 and more on what this atrocity means to British Muslims. To make matters worse the head of the Muslim Council, Iqbal Sacranie, has been screaming about how we keep referring to the terrorists who killed 54 people and injured 700 more as Muslim extremists: ‘Why not just call them criminals?’ he demanded. And that’s precisely the kind of idiocy that gives root to the political correctness that has allowed this country to become the world headquarters for Islamic terrorism.”
Another thoughtful piece by Carole Malone.
But what should we do, Carol? “We can start getting things done by forbidding Tariq Ramadan to come to this country on July 24 on a lecture tour funded by the Met Police to tell us why suicide bombings in Iraq are justified. We can round up every member of Al-Muhajiroun in this country – the organisation which celebrated the death of the victims of September 11 – and chuck ’em out.”
Well, yeah, except that Tariq Ramadan opposes suicide bombings and attacks on innocent civilians, Al-Muhajiroun formally dissolved itself some months ago and therefore doesn’t have any members, and in so far as Omar Bakri still has any organised followers, most of them are British citizens, so where would they be deported to?
“Was anyone as sickened as I was to see Ken Livingstone crying on national TV talking about his beloved London and the assault on our capital city? This is the same Ken Livingstone who invited one of the most extremist Islamic clerics on the planet to London last year and proudly paraded him around the city on his arm.
“Just for your information, Yusuf al-Qaradawi is the lunatic who said all victims of the tsunami deserved to die, he hates women and he advocates the death of all homosexuals – preferably by burning at the stake. How dare Ken now show surprise or hurt at what has happened here? It is precisely the influence of extremist clerics that drove those four British men to become suicide bombers.”
Carole Malone in the Sunday Mirror, 17 July 2005
Hundreds of people have attended a vigil in memory of those killed or injured in the London bombings. Stop The War Coalition (StWC) and the Muslim Association of Britain organised the rally in Russell Square.
Crowds listened to speeches by members from the two groups and Respect MP George Galloway who blamed the war on Iraq for the London bombings. Organisers said their aim was also to show solidarity with the families of victims and the Muslim community.
“Public opinion is divided over controversial plans to ban incitement to religious hatred, according to an ICM poll for the BBC News website. The poll, taken in the days following the London bombings, found 51% in favour of such a move but 44% against….
“In January an ICM poll for The Guardian newspaper suggested stronger public support for incitement to religious hatred laws. The poll found 57% agreeing a ban was ‘needed to stop those who want to stir up hatred against people who want to stir up hatred against people of particular religious faiths’. It found 36% said the new law was ‘wrong because people should be allowed to express their opinions freely, however hateful’.”
The reason for this change, however, is that BBC got ICM to ask a different question. Respondents were asked: “Which comes close to your view? 1. I support laws preventing abuse or inciting hatred on faith grounds 2. Banning criticism of of those with different religious beliefs is a curb on free speech.”
The issue of religious hatred is thus expanded to include the more general category of “abuse” (which the current bill does not deal with) and it is suggested that the new law would amount to “banning criticism of of those with different religious beliefs” – which of course it doesn’t propose to do.