Joint statement by the Muslim Council of Britain and the National Assembly Against Racism on the London bombings.
Category Archives: UK
Police pledge tough action as race hate attacks rise
Police have vowed to deal “robustly” with any religious or racist reprisals in the wake of last week’s bombings.
The Metropolitan police have recorded a sharp rise in hate crimes following the London attacks, including attacks on mosques, physical attacks and verbal abuse.
In the three days after the bombing, police in London recorded 180 racial incidents. A total of 58 faith-related crimes were recorded, compared with one in the same period last year.
Attacks have also been reported on mosques in Tower Hamlets and Merton, both in London, Telford, Leeds, Bristol, Birkenhead and Gloucester, and on a Sikh temple in Kent.
West Yorkshire police said the front door of the Pakistani consulate in Bradford had been damaged by fire.
In Birkenhead, Wirral, a Muslim man had to be rescued by firefighters as he slept in a room above a mosque which was attacked by arsonists.
Another hoo-hah over Tariq Ramadan
Yusuf Smith comments on the Tariq Ramadan case.
Irshad Manji on the London bombings
Irshad Manji, author of The Trouble With Islam and Daniel Pipes’ favourite Muslim, assesses the London bombings. Her conclusions? 1. They have nothing to do with Iraq; and 2. They are based on the authority of the Qur’an. Thanks, Irshad. That’s a real help.
Sun denounces Tariq Ramadan as terrorist supporter
The Sun launches a lying attack on respected Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan.
The accusations against Profesor Ramadan in the main article, by Anthony France, are mainly lifted (without acknowledgement) from a piece by Daniel Pipes written to justify Ramadan’s exclusion from the US in 2004 (see here). Pipes’ accusations were systematically demolished by Ramadan himself at the time (see here). The other accusations in the Sun article are taken from the discredited Steve Emerson (see here) – the “terrorism expert” who assured everyone that the 1995 Oklahoma bombing was carried out by Muslims.
Why Here? Why Now?
By Anthony France
Sun, 12 July 2005
A decision to invite an Islamic academic who justifies terrorism to a London conference provoked disbelief and dismay last night.
Professor Tariq Ramadan, an Egyptian-born Swiss citizen, will preach to young Muslims on July 24 – 17 days after the 7/7 outrage.
The visit by Ramadan – who has been banned from entering the US and France – is backed by £7,500-worth of funding from British taxpayers via the Metropolitan Police and the Association of Chief Police Officers.
But serving cop Norman Brennan, head of the Victims of Crime Trust, said: “Many will be horrified to learn that the Met and ACPO are funding an event where the speaker will be a man who believes suicide bombings are justified. The timing of this could not have been worse. Officers have spent the last five days picking up human remains with their bare hands.”
Security chiefs across the world have built up dossiers on Ramadan, 44.
Last year he was banned from entering the US after America’s Homeland Security Department said he had “endorsed terrorist activity”. In 1996 he was barred from France on suspicion of having links with an Algerian behind a terror campaign in Paris. In 1999 a Spanish judge declared that he had “routine contacts” with an Algerian al-Qaeda disciple.
Islamic militant or revolutionary?
Islamic extremist or the man leading reform of the faith? Professor Tariq Ramadan explains why his critics are wrong and why the London bombings mean more than ever that Western Muslims must split from the East.
He’s the man the Sun loved to hate. Five days after the London bombings, the newspaper ran a front-page story inviting readers to “MEET ISLAMIC MILITANT PROFESSOR TARIQ RAMADAN”, urging the government to ban the Swiss academic from a conference this past weekend.
A week later, The Sun had a change of heart and ran a second piece, describing him as a “hero of young Muslims”. Prof Ramadan came to London and indeed spoke to a large audience on the “Middle Way” at one of London’s largest mosques.
Stephen Pollard aids terrorists
“On Thursday Ken Livingstone gave his response to the murders: ‘It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any considerations for age, for class, for religion.’ He has been greeted with a paean of praise, even from his political opponents. And certainly, his words alone expressed the sentiments of all decent people.
“But with Mr Livingstone, the words alone are never enough…. Mr Livingstone has repeatedly defended the views of the Muslim cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi and even invited him to City Hall to share his wisdom. Mr Livingstone has proudly hugged him in public. In doing so, the mayor shows himself to be a keen fellow traveller of a man who can be described with some precision as evil.”
Stephen Pollard joins Nick Cohen et al in playing into the hands of the terrorists by rejecting dialogue with democratic-reformist Islamism.
Campaigners call for action against Islamophobia
Campaigners call for action against Islamophobia
By Louise Nousratpour
Morning Star, 11 July 2005
Peace campaigners called for urgent action against burgeoning Islamophobia in the light of the London bombings after news of a series of hate crimes in and outside the capital yesterday.
The most serious of these incidents was an arson attack on the Shahjalal Mosque in Birkenhead, Merseyside, in the early hours of Saturday morning. The building was empty at the time, but one man living in a flat above the mosque was treated for smoke inhalation at the scene.
Merseyside TUC secretary Alec McFadden said that the trade union movement will not sit in silence over these “fascist and criminal” attacks on innocent people. “We all feared that, following the London attacks, far-right groups would use them to attack innocent Muslim communities”, he added.
Commenting on the arson attack, Mr McFadden said that he was convinced it was the work of fascist BNP members travelling in from neighbouring areas such as Oldham and Burnley. “Our Merseyside Coalition Against Fascism and Racism is very strong and, wherever the BNP raises its ugly head, we are there to stamp it out”, he insisted. Mr McFadden added that the coalition would be getting in touch with Muslim leaders in the area and “taking it from there”.
‘A defiant Islam rises among young Britons’
According to the Christian Science Monitor, “there is little doubt that many British Muslims feel that Britain ‘deserved’ the attacks for supporting the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan”. There is, moreover, the CSM correspondent reports, a serious problem with racism … but it’s racism on the part of Muslims “toward white British people”! And then, of course, there’s the issue of “Muslims’ high birth and immigration rates, which to many Muslims promises increased political and social influence in the future”. Indeed, there are already “attempts by some radical Muslims to begin a process of Islamicizing British cities”.
Christian Science Monitor, 11 July 2005
The author is one James Brandon. You begin to wonder whether Nick Griffin has acquired a new pseudonym.
Iraq, Afghanistan and the London bombings
“People who insist that the London attacks have nothing to do with Iraq or Afghanistan are living in their own fantasy world. There are reports of threats of retaliation against Muslims because dozens of people were killed by bombs. Is it not possible that there might be similar threats against Britain because Western bombs killed tens of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan? The website of the organisation claiming to be behind the attacks explicitly stated that the attacks are revenge for Afghanistan and Iraq.
“We are being reminded, as we learnt with Northern Ireland, that what we do in other places may come with a price nearer home. Politicians who are surrounded by mountains of security give us sanctimonious speeches about good and evil whilst the rest of us have to pay the price of their actions. It is high time that we held them to account.”
Bilal Patel, letter in the Times, 11 July 2005