Category Archives: UK

MCB calls for end to misrepresentation of proposed incitement law

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Muslim Council of Britain will today be joining the Commission for Racial Equality, the British Humanist Association and Justice to explain the need for legislation to protect faith communities from Incitement to Religious Hatred.

“It is our view that the public debate on this issue to date has caused more confusion about what the purpose of the legislation is, than shed light on what it is trying to achieve. Primary among the fears and concerns expressed is the belief that our right to freedom of speech is threatened by the proposal being put forward by the Government. Further to this there are people who have been ringing alarms bells about alleged curtailment of the right to criticise religious beliefs. This is emphatically not the case. The proposed legislation is meant to protect believers from incitement and not protect their faiths from criticism,” said Iqbal Sacranie, the Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain.

A presentation has been organised by the above named organisations in the House of Commons, for parliamentarians and journalists. The organisers will seek to clarify the purpose behind the proposed legislation. At this event the Secretary-General of the MCB will explain the need for the proposed amendment and clarify that “we are under no illusions that the proposed Bill offers protection to religious beliefs.”

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Tories misled over Muslim cleric comments

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ken Livingstone has hit back at Tory critics over his support for a Muslim cleric. The London mayor believes Yusuf al-Qaradawi has been deliberately misquoted over his views on the tsunami disaster.

Conservatives went on the offensive this morning over remarks attributed to al-Qaradawi that the Asian tsunami was God’s punishment for sex tourism in the region. Tory London Assembly member Bob Neill attacked Livingstone, who invited al-Qaradawi’s visit to City Hall last September.

But the mayor hit back, saying al-Qaradawi’s comments had been ‘completely distorted’ by a pro-Israeli organisation. Livingstone said:

“Qaradawi’s position is completely distorted by MEMRI, group set up by a former Israeli intelligence officer, which provided the translation. Qaradawi is campaigning to raise funds for the victims of the Tsunami in the Muslim world. He is quoted everyday on Al Jazeera calling upon Muslims to contribute to the relief. In the speech referred to by MEMRI, Qaradawi specifically calls for help for all the victims without discriminating between them according to religion.”

MEMRI – Middle East Media Research Institute – was set up by Colonel Yigal Carmon, a former Israeli intelligence and counter-intelligence officer and advisor to Israeli prime ministers.

Livingstone said he did not agree with all al-Qaradawi’s views, including the view that the tsunami was God’s retribution, but insisted the cleric was a moderate. To ban leaders like him was to cut off dialogue with the whole Muslim community. He admitted al-Qaradawi was not going to be seen on “the next gay pride march” but defending his right to meet the cleric, who was widely respected as a Muslim leader of international standing.

Other religious leaders of other faiths, like Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, had also expressed views that the earthquake and tsunami wave was an act of God, but al-Qaradawi was being singled out by people holding Islamophobic opinions.

BLINK news report, 12 January 2005

Mayor responds to ‘dossier’ on al-Qaradawi

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, today released a dossier comprehensively answering claims that he should not have met the Muslim scholar Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi in July last year. The dossier demonstrated that the allegations made against Dr al-Qaradawi were almost entirely inaccurate.

“As Mayor of London, I have a responsibility to support the rights of all of London’s diverse communities and to maintain a dialogue with their political and religious leaders, irrespective of the fact that there will always be different views on many issues.”

The dossier launched today demonstrates that Dr al-Qaradawi is, as the moderate main umbrella group of Muslim organisations, the Muslim Council of Britain has argued, “the most authoritative Muslim scholars in the world today”.

The document comprehensively rebuts the charges against Dr al-Qaradawi made in a dossier circulated to London Assembly members in November last year. The authors called for the Assembly to conduct an inquiry into Dr al-Qaradawi’s visit to London.

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Islamophobia and Tariq Ramadan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamophobia and Tariq Ramadan

From the Morning Star, 8 January 2004

By Ken Livingstone

Last month I appointed Yasmin Qureshi as my human rights adviser, and asked her to also address the related issue of the rise in Islamophobia.

One issue that Yasmin has drawn attention to is the treatment of respected Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan by the US authorities, after Mr Ramadan resigned his professorship at an American university following the withdrawal of his visa.

Swiss-born Professor Ramadan is one of the most respected philosophers of religion and conflict resolution. He was named by Time magazine as one of the world’s top 100 influential thinkers last year. He was described by the Christian Science Monitor’s commentator on ethics and religion, Jane Lampman, as “one of Europe’s most prominent Muslim reformers.”

Mr Ramadan spoke at City Hall last summer in favour of a woman’s right to choose to wear the Muslim headscarf, or hijab, in the light of the new French law banning conspicuous religious symbols in schools.

When the furore broke in the media last year about the visit of Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradawi to City Hall, Peter Tatchell and others condemned the conference at which he spoke on the grounds that no speaker had defended the right of women not to wear the hijab.

In fact, Tariq Ramadan said: “It is against the Islamic teaching to force a woman to wear the Hijab, because it is an act of faith.”

Despite Ramadan’s respected academic status, his American visa was revoked in July under the Patriot Act, adopted after the terrorist attacks on September 11, thus preventing him from taking up his post at the University of Notre dame in Indiana. He has so far been refused a new visa.

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The AWL and Tariq Ramadan: A case history in left-wing Islamophobia

Posted on by Eddie Truman

In October 2004, Alliance for Workers’ Liberty supporter Alan Clarke persuaded the national executive committee of the National Union of Students to adopt a resolution calling for leading Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan to be banned from speaking at the European Social Forum, which was to be held in London later that month. It quickly became clear that the motion had been based on an entirely false account of Professor Ramadan’s views.

Documented by Bob Pitt on the What Next? journal website

Qaradawi is welcome

Posted on by Eddie Truman

“Ever since Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi was welcomed to London’s City Hall by Ken Livingstone last July, Peter Tatchell and the gay rights organisation Outrage! have waged an obsessive campaign against this respected Muslim scholar. Unfortunately, their obsession is not matched by an equivalent concern for accuracy. The picture of Dr al-Qaradawi presented by Tatchell in the November issue of Labour Left Briefing (‘‘Qaradawi Not Welcome’) is nothing but an Islamophobic caricature which he uses as the basis for a more general attack on Muslims, their beliefs and their organisations.”

Peter Roberts on the What Next? journal website

Muslims urged to ‘use vote as weapon’ for SNP

Posted on by Eddie Truman

A leading Islamic spokes man has urged Muslims in Scotland to use their vote “like a weapon” and support the SNP in the forthcoming general elections. Dr Azzam Tamimi, director of The Institute of Islamic Political Thought (IIPT), told a conference in Glasgow yesterday that it would be a sin against Islam to vote for a pro-war candidate. He said the SNP was the best party in Scotland to represent Muslim interests and that its line on Iraq, Palestine and on the war on terror was the most acceptable of all the major Scottish parties.

Sunday Herald, 19 December 2004

Reported on Islam Online, 20 December 2004

More than just a scarf …

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Perhaps Ridley should consider the possibility that some of those ‘glaring passengers’ might have lost relatives to the terrorist organisations whose fashion sense she shares.”

Letter writers to the Observer give their opinions on Yvonne Ridley’s article recounting the prejudice she experienced as a result of wearing the Islamic headscarf.

Observer, 19 December 2004

For Ridley’s original article, see here.