Mad Mel on Islamism, jihadi terror, appeasing the Muslim lobby etc etc

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Londonistan“Despite a hardening of the public mood against Islamism, the British establishment is still sleepwalking toward cultural surrender. The essence of the problem is that although it understands it is fighting an unprecedented terrorist threat, it still does not understand the religious ideology driving the threat. It still believes, instead, the Islamist propaganda line that the root causes of jihadi terror are poverty, discrimination, or foreign policy – in other words, that terrorism against the West is the West’s own fault.

“The good news is that the mood is beginning to change among British Muslims. Debate has been electrified by the decision of a few young Muslims to renounce Islamist radicalism. Accounts such as Ed Husain’s book The Islamist have blown apart all the usual excuses for Islamist terror. Husain said the cause was nothing other than religious fanaticism; and he called for Hizb ut-Tahrir – the jihadi organization to which he had belonged – to be banned….

“The bad news is, in brief, that the British government is choosing to look the other way. It should be making it crystal clear that there is no place for Islamist extremism in Britain. Not only is it refusing to do so, however, but its response to Islamism remains one of appeasement. Although much about the new prime minister, Gordon Brown, remains studiedly ambiguous, the dynamic of British politics – with its visceral hostility toward Israel and America, and with Muslim voters steadily increasing their political influence – means he may yet put Britain and the West at even further risk.

“Indeed, there are worrying signs that Brown will actually go further than the government has already gone in appeasing the Muslim lobby. He is refusing to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir – which is radicalizing countless young British Muslims, particularly on campus. He is refusing to ban the building of what is intended to be the largest mosque in Europe on the site of the 2012 Olympic village in east London – a mosque funded by the Tablighi Jamaat, said by the FBI and French intelligence to be the ‘antechamber to al-Qaeda’ in Europe…. Whereas the Blair government finally started to treat the (supposedly representative) Muslim Council of Britain as the Islamist extremists that they are, Brown has brought them back in from the cold.”

Melanie Phillips at National Review Online, 11 September 2007

‘Neither Washington nor mosque’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Thus the title to a blog post by Labour Party member and longtime leftist Dave Osler marking the anniversary of 9/11. What he means is that the Left should back neither US imperialism nor Al-Qaida terrorism. The word “mosque” is used as a synonym for the latter, thereby identifying all practising Muslims with the atrocities carried out by a minuscule minority – a theme more usually associated with the racist Right.

Outlining his proposals for combating the threat of further terrorist attacks, Osler writes that “Islamist networks can and must be infiltrated and smashed” – which would mean infiltrating and smashing Hizb ut-Tahrir, presumably. Since when did socialists support the right of the state to infiltrate and smash legal and non-violent political organisations? In fact, on the generally accepted definition of “Islamism” as a politicised version of the faith, organisations like the British Muslim Initiative would also fall victim to Osler’s “anti-terrorism” strategy.

Osler even charges the left with “regarding al Qa’eda as somehow allies of convenience in an imagined common anti-imperialist struggle”. As a contributor to the comments section of his blog points out, this echoes the right-wing idiocy peddled by the likes of Martin Amis who claims that “given the choice between George Bush and Osama bin Laden, the liberal relativist, it seems, is obliged to plump for the Saudi”.

What significant tendency on the left adopts the position of treating the 9/11 terrorists as anti-imperialist allies? None, so far as I know. Where can we find left-wing publications putting forward that argument? Nowhere.

See Dave’s Part, 11 September 2007

‘Soft terrorism’ – the Islamic takeover of the West

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Chuck Colson“In the days leading up to today – the sixth anniversary of the deadly September 11 attacks by Islamo-fascist terrorists – we have had two reminders of just how determined our enemies are.

“First came the news of the arrest in Germany of three suspected Islamic terrorists. They are accused of plotting bomb attacks against the U.S. Air Base at Ramstein and Frankfurt International Airport. According to the Associated Press, the terrorists nursed a ‘profound hatred of U.S. citizens’. Then there was the latest rant from Osama bin Laden, celebrating the ugly work of the September 11 terrorists and spewing more hatred for the West. He also invited all Americans to convert to Islam. Thanks, but no thanks.

“But as a Muslim convert to Christianity notes, we have more to worry about than violent attacks. We should be just as concerned about the quiet inroads Islam is making in Western societies. Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, who was born into a Muslim family, is now an Anglican priest living in England. He is the author of several books about Islam, and as a former Muslim, he brings a knowledgeable perspective about Islamic attitudes….

“To Sookhdeo, the signs are not good. He notes that a book ‘published in 1980 by the Islamic Council of Europe gives instructions for how Muslim minorities are to work towards achieving domination of European countries through a policy of concentration in geographical areas’.

“In England and France, this has already begun. Muslims have created large enclaves in urban centers in which sharia law is in effect, in ‘areas of finance and mortgages; halal food in schools, hospitals, and prisons, faith schools funded by the state; prayer rooms in every police station in London’. Instead of assimilating into the larger culture, Muslims have, he says, created a ‘parallel society in the UK’. And with this parallel society has come increasing violence against non-Muslims, Sookhdeo warns. There has been a rapid growth of so-called ‘honor killings’, and now, suicide bombings.

“We have to ask ourselves: Will what is happening in Europe eventually happen in America?

“As we remember the innocent victims of September 11, we need to realize that the kind of soft terrorism Sookhdeo describes is every bit as deadly as planes being flown into buildings. We must educate ourselves about it and be as determined to defend liberty, human dignity, and our way of life as we were six years ago, when we were still clearing away the rubble in New York City and at the Pentagon.”

Former Watergate conspirator Chuck Colson in the Christian Post, 11 September 2007

The latest from Taj Hargey and friends

Posted on by Bob Pitt

You might have thought that any Muslim organisation would welcome as a victory for civil rights the decision to lift a ban on veiled women voting in elections in Quebec.

Not the so-called Muslim Canadian Congress. In a press release headed “Allowing masked voters a rude joke, says MCC President” the MCC complains that “enabling voters to conceal their identity represent a compromise of the democratic process”, warns that “such allowances will embolden Islamists and their supporters to seek even greater concessions in the future” and expresses concern that “the current trend to appease fundamentalist forces may be symptomatic of a larger problem forcing governments to capitulate to the bullying tactics of Islamists”.

Mind you, this is the outfit that denounced fellow Muslims who demonstrated against Israel’s attack on Lebanon as “Canadian supporters of Hezbollah”.

The MCC, you may also recall, is the group who gave financial assistance to Taj Hargey in his campaign against the right of British school pupils to wear the niqab. And in today’s Times we find Mr Hargey himself, congratulating the paper on its scaremongering campaign against Deobandi influence in UK mosques: “Your Deobandi exposé is welcomed by progressive Muslims. Sadly, most British Muslims, through ignorance or fear, cannot resist the insidious designs and dogmas of this secretive and reactionary sect and its many dangerous offshoots in this country.”

Muslims parade in NYC, face protestors

Posted on by Bob Pitt

AAH logoThousands of Muslims from across the New York region marched down Madison Avenue in Manhattan Sunday, waving flags and flashing peace signs to protesters.

The 22nd annual United American Muslim Day parade was a peaceful affair on a warm, bright day that drew hundreds of beaming children. Though few people gathered on the sidewalk to watch the parade, the street was filled with proud participants. A small but vocal contingent of hecklers taunted marchers at 41st Street, though police officers kept both groups apart.

A well-dressed elderly woman walking up Madison Avenue told a friend on a cell phone: “I’m the only one in the street without a schmata on my head,” using the Yiddish word for rag. A passerby who heard the remark muttered under his breath that she was also the only one with dyed hair.

Rita Thompson, 44, traveled with her boyfriend from their home in Redington Beach, Fla., to protest the parade. Thompson later shouted expletives at marchers and said, “They’re all going to be bin Ladens.” “I’m so appalled by this, two days before the anniversary of 9/11,” she said later in an interview, adding that she called City Hall earlier in the week to urge Mayor Michael Bloomberg to cancel the event.

Newsday, 10 September 2007

The organiser of the protest was Joe Kaufman of the laughably named group Americans Against Hate, who denounced the parade as “a pre-9/11 celebration” that posed “a threat to New York and a threat to national security”, and called for it to be banned.

This hysterical campaign was rejected by mayor Bloomberg who insisted that Muslims are a “vital part of our city” and that it would be “a terrible mistake for anyone to implicate a whole group of innocent individuals – no matter what their faith – with the terrible acts committed on September 11, 2001”.

See Newsday, 7 September 2007

See also Front Page Magazine, 17 August 2007

Fascists campaign against Swindon ‘super-mosque’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Swindon branch of the British National Party reports on its campaign against the prospect of another mosque being built in the town. They have been distributing a “public information leaflet” which states:

“Swindon nationalists are deeply concerned over this news. We regard our town as being essentially English and culturally Christian and we want to keep it that way. We believe a purpose built mosque will not only serve to attract even more followers of the ‘Religion of Peace’ to Swindon but will also act as a focus for the development of a community within a community….

“Swindon British National Party intends, in the event of a formal application being submitted to the Council, to organising a local petition to present to Swindon Borough Council in the expectation that they will respond to public opinion and reject the proposed imposition of yet another mosque on our town!”

BNP Regional Voices, 9 September 2007

Note the accompanying advert for Bat Ye’or’s book Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis.

US ‘comedian’ on profiling

Posted on by Bob Pitt

US comedian and political commentator Dennis Miller offers his take on racial profiling, in an interview with Fox News: “I’m going to say that I scope out the Norwegians on airliners when I get on. But I don’t. If there’s a shaky looking Islamic cat near me, I keep an eye on him. And it’s just like watching the in-house movie. I have all these scenarios running through my head where I’m James Bond and I come upside their right temple with a sugar block as they go up the aisle way. And I’m sorry. I’m a human being. You know, I do Islam a disservice when I don’t point out its failings to it. And the simple fact is, they’ve been blowing a lot of things up lately.”

Quoted by Abdiel, 7 September 2007

Muslim group behind ‘mega-mosque’ seeks to convert all Britain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“A Muslim group that wants to open a giant £100 million mosque in London has set its sights on ‘winning the whole of Britain to Islam’. Tablighi Jamaat aims to build an Islamic complex near to the site of the 2012 Olympic stadium, with a mosque for 12,000 people, by far the largest religious building in Britain.

“The organisation, which has millions of followers worldwide, insists that it is a peaceful, apolitical revivalist movement that promotes Islamic consciousness among individual Muslims. However, intelligence agencies have cautioned that the group’s ability to fire young men with a zeal for Islam acts as a staging post, for some, along a path that leads to jihadist terrorism.

“Kafeel Ahmed, the Indian doctor who died from burns last month after trying to set off a car bomb at Glasgow Airport, is the latest in a line of terrorists for whose initial radicalisation Tablighi Jamaat has been blamed. The group (literally, the preaching party) belongs to the ultra-conservative Deobandi school of thought within Sunni Islam, whose adherents run more than 600 of Britain’s 1,350 mosques.

“In recent days The Times has exposed the virulently anti-Western creed of some British Deobandis who preach that non-Muslims are an evil and corrupting influence. Their defensive, isolationist approach to life in Britain is shared by many British supporters of Tablighi Jamaat.”

Writing in today’s Times, Andrew Norfolk takes up where he left off with his anti-Deobandi scaremongering on Friday.

It appears to have escaped Norfolk’s attention that all religions have the ultimate objective of converting everyone to their faith. You might as well oppose the building of a Catholic cathedral on the basis that the “sect” behind it seeks to convert all of Britain to Roman Catholicism. And, of course, one of the distinguishing features of Tablighi is that, far from proselytising among adherents of other faiths, it restricts itself to persuading existing believers to be better Muslims.

Norfolk’s piece get the thumbs up from Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch, 10 September 2007

For Yusuf Smith’s comments, see Indigo Jo Blogs, 10 September 2007

‘Close down all the Deobandi establishments and confiscate their assets’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Apart from having no interest in being part of a tolerant democracy, the Deobandis preach contempt for, and often violence against, ‘the infidels’. They control roughly half the British mosques and Islamic seminaries, and they present a dangerous and polluting presence. Hand-wringing and calling upon their co-religionists to oppose the Deobandis is not an adequate response.

“The Government should close down all the Deobandi establishments and confiscate their assets. It should also take a hard, close look at some of the other Islamic sects active here that are not far behind the Deobandis in their abuse of British generosity and their loathing of all that Britain stands for.”

Letter in the Times, 10 September 2007

The author rejoices in the name of Patrick Vidaud de Plaud. For an earlier example of his views on Islam, see the International Herald Tribune, 27 July 2007

Greater prominence is however given to another letter which asserts: “The recent guidance published by the Muslim Council of Britain for the state schools is a fine example of their policies towards self-segregation and imposition of a harsh doctrine within Muslim families, which can only lead to a polarised and disenfranchised society, fostering discontent and thereby fulfilling the agenda of Saudi and Pakistani religious right.”

And who is the author of that piece of anti-MCB propaganda? It’s Shaaz Mahboob of an outfit called British Muslims for Secular Democracy, who agrees with David Cameron that there is a parallel between the MCB and the BNP.