Category Archives: UK

Blunkett’s ban will fan the flames – Mark Steyn

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the Western world, but Blunkett wants us to pretend that it’s a wee delicate bloom which has to be sheltered from anything unpleasant. The other week, the governor of one of those Nigerian states that now lives under sharia called for the burning of all Christian churches within his jurisdiction. Every Friday, on state TV and radio throughout the Arab world and in mosques somewhat closer to home, the A-list imams call for the killing of Jews and infidels. Well, good luck to them. But, if they can dish it out so enthusiastically, couldn’t they learn to take it just an eensy-teensy-weensy bit?”

Mark Steyn responds to the proposed reform of existing race relations law to ban incitement of religious hatred.

Daily Telegraph, 13 July 2004

Livingstone attacks French headscarf ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ken Livingstone yesterday hosted the first conference of a campaign to safeguard the right of Muslim women to wear the hijab or headscarf, and declared the ban in French schools the most reactionary proposal since the second world war.

London’s mayor also railed against the “demonisation” of Islam in some British newspapers – and warned that in his second term he would examine whether media organisations’ recruitment policies reflected the diversity of the community.

He was addressing the Assembly for the Protection of Hijab (known as Pro-Hijab), which holds that the right to wear the headscarf is a fundamental aspect of religious freedom.

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Cleric hits back at uninformed critics

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Muslim cleric at the centre of a storm over comments attributed to him on homosexuality and wife-beating hit back yesterday, and claimed that coverage of his comments was “totally inaccurate and unfair”. Speaking exclusively to the Guardian, Yusuf al-Qaradawi said he could not fathom the purpose behind the “misleading” stories in some newspapers last week.

Faisal al Yafai speaks to Dr al-Qaradawi.

Guardian, 12 July 2004

Hijab: a woman’s right to choose

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Assembly for the Protection of Hijab ‘Pro-Hijab’ and all those associated therewith would like to note their sincere thanks and profound appreciation to all our speakers, guests, delegates and the Greater London Authority staff for the remarkable efforts that went in to making this landmark conference a reality.”

Assembly for the Protection of Hijab (Pro-Hijab) statement, 12 July 2004

Qaradawi and rape victims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“I abhor the views of Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi … but I’m not happy with what the London Telegraph did to him this morning. It attributed to Qaradawi an accusatory view of rape victims: ‘To be absolved from guilt, the raped woman must have shown some sort of good conduct.’ These words actually belong to someone else, a consultant to the website Islamonline. Even if Qaradawi is ostensible head of the committee that oversees this website, a Muslim jurist can only be deemed responsible for his own fatwas…. Today’s Telegraph article establishes nothing.”

Even anti-Qaradawi commentator Martin Kramer baulks at false accusations against Dr al-Qaradawi in the Daily Telegraph. See ‘Qaradawi non-quote’, 11 July 2004,  in Kramer’s Sandbox blog.

Kramer was responding to an article in the Telegraph, 11 July 2004

But the false accusation originated in an OutRage! press release, 10 July 2004

We must be allowed to criticise Islam

Posted on by Eddie Truman

“The Islamic world was intellectually and economically wrecked by its decision to put religion beyond the reach of invective, which is simply an extreme form of debate. By so doing, it put science and art beyond the reach of experiment, too. Now, at the behest of Muslim foreigners who have forced themselves on us, New Labour wants to import the same catastrophe into our own society.”

Opinion article by ‘Will Cummins’ in the Sunday Telegraph, 11 July 2004

Scholar with a streetwise touch defies expectations and stereotypes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, as respectful supporters address him, is a complex, international figure, whose religious pronouncements address the dilemmas confronting Muslims in the modern world. To many in the Middle East, the 77-year-old scholar is recognised more for having spoken out in condemnation of al-Qaida’s indiscriminate massacres than for supporting suicide bombers in Israel. He does not fit into the common stereotype of fundamentalist, militant preacher.”

The truth about Dr al-Qaradawi starts to get through.

Guardian, 9 July 2004

Tories call on Blair to bar Muslim ‘extremist’

Posted on by Eddie Truman

A government drive against religious extremism was mired in controversy last night over the presence in Britain of a fundamentalist Muslim cleric who allegedly supports suicide bombings and beating women.

On the day that David Blunkett proposed tougher laws against Islamists – and far-Right evangelical Christians – who preached hatred of other religions, the Home Office said it was not right to keep Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Qatar-based imam, out of the country on the grounds of his views alone.

However, Tory and Labour MPs said Mr Blunkett should reconsider his position and exclude the cleric.

The row overshadowed a wide-ranging speech on race and integration by the Home Secretary, in which he said extremist religious leaders undermined efforts to establish better community relations in Britain.

Daily Telegraph, 8 July 2004

Daily Star: Welcome to get-tough Britain, Your Evilness!

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Welcome to get-tough Britain, Your Evilness!

By Macer Hall, Political Editor

Daily Star, 8 July 2004

JUST AS David Blunkett was pledging a crackdown on religious hatred yesterday a fanatical Muslim cleric was welcomed into Britain.

The Home Secretary promised a new law to jail extremists who incite hate and violence against other faiths. The new offence is likely to be closely modelled on the existing crime of inciting racial hatred, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment. But his crackdown was branded a “nonsense” as rabble-rouser Yusuf al-Qaradawi waltzed into Britain.

The Qatar-based sheik – who supports attacks on Jews and backs suicide bombers – is banned from the US but allowed to speak at Muslim conferences here. Al-Qaradawi was born in Egypt, like hook-handed fanatic Abu Hamza, the Finsbury Park preacher the Home Office has been trying to kick out of the country.

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