‘Our son is no terrorist, just a young Muslim’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The family of Mohammed Atif Siddique, the Scottish student convicted this week of al-Qaeda terrorist offences, have come together to tell of their heartache and their anger at the way he has been treated.

They described how their son adopted a stricter Islamic way of life, a change that fractured their close relationship and ultimately led to his conviction. But they insisted Atif – who faces at least ten years in prison – was not a terrorist and that his actions were similar to those of thousands of ordinary young Muslims seeking answers about al-Qaeda and the “war on terror”.

In a wide-ranging interview, the family claimed “thousands” of other people ran the risk of falling foul of the same offences for which Atif was convicted. They said he had been criminalised for carrying out research on al-Qaeda.

Atif was the first person in Scotland to be convicted under controversial new terror laws that have raised questions about the balance between civil liberties and protecting the public.

Speaking exclusively to The Scotsman, Mohammed Siddique, the father of the 21-year-old, said: “After what’s happened to my son, stop your children going on the internet in case they end up in jail. The sad thing is, why shouldn’t our young people be able to find out what is happening in Iraq or Afghanistan? Does it mean every child that goes on to a website is considered to be a terrorist? Thousands of young people in the Muslim community will have accessed the same material.”

Scotsman, 22 September 2007

‘A British company welcomes its future overlords’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bakery giants Greggs have installed a Muslims-only toilet at their new Scottish headquarters – despite the fact that no Muslims work there. Workers at the state-of-the-art factory were shocked when they were given a tour of the building and told a cubicle had been fitted for the use of Muslim employees.

But staff at the new £15million plant labelled the decision “political correctness gone mad”. One said: “We were being given a guided tour of the new factory before moving there when they told us that they had a toilet for use only by Muslims. I couldn’t believe, everybody was stunned because we don’t know of any Muslims who are working here. I don’t think anybody is really angry about it, but there just doesn’t seem to be any need for it. This sort of things is just political correctness gone mad.”

Another worker said: “The toilet just looks like a ceramic hole in the ground. I don’t think it will be getting much use and I don’t see why we couldn’t all just use the same toilet anyway. This sort of thing creates divisions between the workers.”

Daily Express, 21 September 2007

Of course, this sort of report is seized on by the far Right to back up their paranoid racist fantasies about the “Islamisation” of the UK.

See BNP Regional Voices, 21 September 2007 and Stormfront, 20 September 2007

And right-wing Australian blogger Tim Blair reports the story under the headline “A British company welcomes its future overlords“.

US Pastor opposing airport’s sinks for Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Baptist pastor who lost a son in Iraq objects to the placement of special sinks that would aid Muslims at the Indianapolis airport in preparing for prayer because he opposes “the fraternization with our open enemies during a time of war,” according to a statement from his church.

The Rev. Jerry Hillenburg, pastor at Hope Baptist Church on the city’s Far Westside, is calling on Mayor Bart Peterson to halt the installation of the floor-level sinks at the Indianapolis International Airport.

The sinks, which would be installed near the parking lot where taxi drivers wait between runs, would aid Muslims in washing their feet in preparation for their ritual prayers. Many cab drivers serving the airport are Muslims. They currently wash their feet in regular sinks or by using bottles of water.

Hillenburg, who plans to preach a sermon Sunday titled “Stop Caving in to Islam,” sent a letter to the mayor seeking a face-to-face meeting to discuss his concerns.

Indianapolis Star, 21 September 2007

French Muslims’ mosque rights denied by rightists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

France is not providing its Muslim citizens enough Mosques to pray in. This becomes evident especially during the holy fasting month of Ramadan when worshippers are forced to pray in the streets. “We don’t have enough room for worshipers in ordinary days let alone Ramadan, which see more and more Muslims flocking to mosques for Tarawih prayers,” Al-Hajj Amadou, an official with the Fatah Mosque in Paris’ 18th district, told IOL.

Calls to facilitate the construction of stately mosques in France, home to a sizable minority of nearly six million Muslim, have largely fallen on deaf ears. Rightists stand as the main roadblock and derail strenuous efforts made by Muslims to have a proper place of worship just like other communities in France. In Montreuil, plans for building a modern-style mosque was halted after a lawsuit won by far-right politicians. The building of a stately mosque in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille – home to 250,000 Muslims – was frozen in April following a similar lawsuit.

Muslim Weekly, 21 September 2007

Vlaams Belang: ‘Stop Islamisation’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Vlaams BelangBRUSSELS – Extreme right wing Vlaams Belang is going to launch a campaign to “stop Islamisation,” first in Antwerp and later in other cities. The party is calling for a stop to the registration of newcomers in the city, a restriction on the number of mosques, and the expulsion of radical imams.

VB faction leader in the Flemish Parliament Filip Dewinter says that Islam is pursuing a deliberate strategy to conquer Flemish cities. That is being done through increasing concentration, the formation of ghettos, and the refusal to integrate, he says.

More and more native Belgians are leaving the cities and the government is making the situation worse, Dewinter says. “Allah is great and Patrick Janssens [Socialist Party mayor of Antwerp] is his prophet. He keeps giving in on essential issues and is not putting a stop to the Islamisation of our city,” Dewinter says.

Vlaams Belang wants to put a stop to immigration to Antwerp and encourage voluntary repatriation. In addition Vlaams Belang wants Islam to be scrapped as a recognised religion and that any subsidies be stopped.

“Personal religious observance should be free, also for Muslims, but we do not think that a sort of Islamic pillar of society should be created in our country to which we have to make all sorts of concessions, like segregated swimming areas and halal food in public schools,” Dewinter says. “Islam must adapt to our way of life, not the other way round “, Dewinter stressed.

Expatica, 20 September 2007

World Evangelical Alliance criticises UN report on Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

WEA logoThe religious liberty arm of the World Evangelical Alliance has rebuffed last week’s report from the UN claiming that the source of Muslim extremism is the “defamation” of Islam.

“I would propose that the very heart of the issue is not ‘defamation’ of Islam or ‘baseless’ Islamophobia,” expressed Elizabeth Kendal of the WEA’s Religious Liberty Commission, “but the fact that the dictators of Islam are now as ever consumed and driven by ‘apostaphobia’!”

“Indeed the new openness brought to the world through globalisation and developments in information and communication technologies is causing the power stakeholders and religious dictators of the non-free world to be seriously gripped by apostaphobia – a well-founded fear of loss of adherents, which is manifested primarily as uncompromising repression and denial of fundamental liberties, by violent and subversive means,” she said Monday.

Kendal, who serves as the principal researcher for the WEA RLC, was writing in response to a report to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) written by Doudou Diene, the UN’s special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

Christian Today, 20 September 2007

Islamophobophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rejecting the concept of Islamophobia (“fear of Islam is perfectly rational”), National Review Online columnist John Derbyshire explains the source of the Islamic threat to Western civilisation: “our troubles with immigrant Muslims are a mere aspect of our larger troubles with the great floods of Third World immigrants we have allowed to come into our countries this past forty years. This was a horrible and insane blunder….”

Derbyshire suggests a solution: “Would it be wise of Western countries, in the present state of affairs, to ‘fence off’ Islam – that is, to deny entry to foreign Muslims, to expel – regretfully, politely, and humanely, but firmly – resident foreign Muslims, and to restrict the activities of Muslim citizens (preventing them, for example, from proselytizing in our jails, or working in defense establishments)?”

National Review Online, 20 September 2007

See also “NRO’s Derbyshire wants to deny Muslims entry to the U.S. and ‘expel foreign Muslim residents'”, Media Matters, 21 September 2007

This onslaught risks turning into a racist witch-hunt

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The relentless media onslaught in Britain on Muslims, their culture and institutions risks turning into a racist witch-hunt. On the ground, it translates into violent attacks – and Crown Prosecution Service figures show that 82% of convictions for identified religiously aggravated offences last year involved attacks on Muslims. Those attacks reportedly spike not only after terrorist incidents but also in response to media feeding frenzies. Some pro-war liberals like to argue that Islamophobia doesn’t exist – try telling that to those at the sharp end.”

Seumas Milne in the Guardian, 20 September 2007

Apologists for terrorists condemn ‘apologists for terrorists’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islam a threat to us all“The politically correct lobby has already started to swing into action feeding the public the same tired old lines about tolerant Islam, but it seems that some sections of the Muslim community are more interested in denying there is a problem and even worse blaming others for it. BNP Scotland say public safety should come first and neither terrorism nor apologists for terrorists should not [sic] be tolerated in civilised Western society.”

Thus the BNP’s “crime correspondent” (well, given the BNP leaders’ long list of criminal convictions, they’d know all about that wouldn’t they?) at BNP Regional voices, 18 September 2007

The “apologists for terrorists”, according to the BNP, include Mohammed Atif Siddique’s father and lawyer, and Osama Saeed of the Muslim Association of Britain (for Osama’s actual views, see here and here).

Of course, if the BNP want to find actual apologists for terrorists they can find them rather closer to home.

‘Scottish kids forced to visit mosques’, fascists complain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Politically correct brainwashing sank to a new low today with the unbelievable announcement today that Scottish children in Clackmannanshire schools will be sent to local mosques to learn about tolerance in the wake of the conviction of Alva based Islamic terrorist Mohammed Siddique.

“Yes, you read that correctly. A Muslim man is convicted on terrorism charges and Clackmannanshire Council’s Education Department – Siddique used to attend Alva Academy – and Ochil and South Perthshire Labour MP Gordon Banks plan to send non-Muslim kids to mosques to ‘increase their understanding of other religions’.

“Surely in wake of the events, if such a hair-brained scheme is to be undertaken, then it is young Muslim kids who should be invited to churches and synagogues to teach them about being tolerant of other religions, so that we do not see any more Mohammed Saddique’s in court charged with spreading religious hatred and terrorism.”

BNP Regional Voices, 19 September 2007

See also BBC News, 18 September 2007