Islamophobia is a myth, says neocon

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Douglas MurrayAuthor and commentator Douglas Murray, a strong public advocate of Israel, addressed a packed audience at Hendon United Synagogue on Monday. The 27-year-old was invited to speak by a congregant who had seen him on the BBC’s Question Time in July where he denounced Hamas and defended Israel amid loud boos from the audience. He was joined on Monday by Jeremy Newmark, chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council.

In response to Mr Newmark’s comments on the Jewish community being aware that Islamophobia also exists, Mr Murray called Islamophobia “a myth”. “A phobia is something irrational, but there’s a very rational fear in being scared of Islam today and wanting to act against it. Islam is not a race, it’s an ideology. Its not bad to dislike someone for their ideology. That is not racism,” he maintained.

Jewish Chronicle, 3 August 2007

Mosque fire treated as suspicious

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jamiyat Tabligh Ul Islam mosque fireA fire which severely damaged a Bradford mosque just before Friday prayers is being treated as suspicious by police. The blaze at the Jamiyat Tabligh Ul Islam mosque in North Side Terrace, Lidget Green, caused the ceiling on the first floor of building to collapse. Firefighters said it was believed to have started in an upstairs room.

Mosque president Mohammed Rafiq Sehgal discovered the fire 15 minutes before prayers were due to start at 1300 BST. He said a children’s homework club had finished less than an hour earlier and only two people were in the building at the time of the fire. “I think we’ve had a very lucky escape,” said Mr Sehgal. “It is very lucky that all the children had just gone home.”

BBC News, 3 August 2007

Home Office will continue sidelining MCB

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Martin Bright and John Kampfner interview Jacqui Smith:

“Smith is a fierce advocate of Brown’s ‘hearts and minds’ approach to tackling the radicalisation of young Muslims. She also believes that Muslim communities have not been best served by their leaders. She backs moves, put in place by Ruth Kelly when she was communities secretary, to broaden the kinds of groups with which the government engages and cut out, for example, the Muslim Council of Britain. ‘We’ve got to make serious attempts to go beyond those who have previously been seen as leaders of the community. She was absolutely right to do that. We have seen, in the immediate aftermath of the Glasgow and London bombings, that the response from leaders of the community was better because of the action previously taken’.”

New Statesman, 2 August 2007

One in 11 British Muslims backs suicide bombers, says ‘Brown aide’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

1in11“As many as one in 11 British Muslims agree with and proactively support terrorism, a Government adviser has warned police.

“Haras Rafiq also told officers at Scotland Yard that up to 20 per cent of the Muslim population ‘sympathise’ with militants, while stopping short of being prepared to ‘blow themselves up’. His remarks underline the scale of the task facing Gordon Brown to win the hearts and minds of Muslims, only a week after he promised an extra £70 million to councils and community groups to fight extremism.

“Mr Rafiq, an adviser to the Government’s preventing extremism taskforce, said: ‘A percentage of people actually agree and support proactively the people that are deciding to blow themselves up. It varies, it can be 7 per cent, 5 per cent, 9 per cent’. With 1.6 million Muslims living in the UK, nine per cent is the equivalent of 144,000 people supporting terrorism.”

Daily Mail, 3 August 2007

See also Jihad Watch, Western Resistance, CBN News and BNP website

Yes, that’s Haras Rafiq of the so-called Sufi Muslim Council. The reality is that when British Muslims are asked a straight question about whether they support terrorist attacks in the UK, the actual figure for those saying they do is between one and two per cent. See for example the 1990 Trust’s survey (pdf here) from October 2006.

Lib Dem MP defends right to incite hatred

Posted on by Bob Pitt

NF Islam Out of BritainAttacking Asghar Bukhari’s criticism of the decision to award Salman Rushdie a knighthood, Liberal Democrat MP and leading National Secular Society member Evan Harris writes:

“I will not tolerate the persistent demands, led by Muslim activists, for special protection for religious views. People should be allowed to attack religious ideas in ways which adherents may find offensive – whether by criticism, lampoon or even insult. I organised the Parliamentary campaign that last year voted down – by a margin of one – a Government plan to outlaw the incitement of religious hatred.”

National Secular Society website, 3 August 2007

So it’s not just just criticising, lampooning or insulting a religion that Harris defends but also the right to incite hatred against it. Little wonder, then, that his actions over the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill were applauded by the far Right, against whom the Bill was aimed. As one National Front activist wrote in appreciation of Harris’s efforts:

“Evan Harris is not a perfect MP but nevertheless he has spoken out on a number of important issues where others have remained silent. For instance he has campaigned against special religious education for minorities. He has opposed the hijab and was one of the few to criticise it in public. Harris is a defender of freedom of expression…. The government is attempting to legislate against ‘religious hatred’. All patriots must oppose this proposed law which could be used against us. You will find that Harris will be one of the most articulate spokesmen against this law.”

In his NSS piece Harris writes that he finds the ideology of the far Right loathsome and that he should be “entitled to incite hatred of Nazis”. Unfortunately, he also defends the right of Nazis to incite hatred of Muslims.

‘Muslim dialogue? Don’t bother’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geoffey AldermanThus the title of Geoffrey Alderman’s column in today’s Jewish Chronicle. The strap reads: “Most Muslims do not repudiate texts which call for Jews to be put to death. Why talk to people with such views?”

Responding to the news that the Jewish philanthropist Richard Stone has facilitated the donation of £1 million to the Woolf Institute in Cambridge to fund a Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations, Alderman warns that there is little point in the Jewish community trying to establish friendly relations with adherents of a faith which is both violent and anti-semitic.

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Republican candidate advocates threat to bomb Islamic holy sites

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tom Tancredo 2008Republican presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo says the best way he can think of to deter a nuclear terrorist attack on the U.S. is to threaten to retaliate by bombing Islamic holy sites.

The Colorado congressman on Tuesday told about 30 people at a town hall meeting in the state of Iowa that he believes such a terrorist attack could be imminent and that the U.S. needs to hurry up and think of a way to stop it.

“If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina,” Tancredo said at the Family Table restaurant. “Because that’s the only thing I can think of that might deter somebody from doing what they otherwise might do.”

A Washington-based Islamic civil rights and advocacy group responded in anger Thursday, calling Tancredo’s statement “unworthy of anyone seeking public office in the United States.”

“Perhaps it’s evidence of a long-shot candidate grasping at straws and trying to create some kind of a controversy that might appeal to a niche audience of anti-Muslim bigots,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Associated Press, 2 August 2007

European socialists decide to tackle Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Party of European Socialists (PES) – a caucus representing 214 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) drawn from 33 socialist and social democratic parties – has created a committee to seek ways to combat Islamophobia. Believing that Islam is now a European religion, the 25-member committee wants to “listen” to the 20 million Muslims now living in Europe in a bid to understand their problems, as well as provide solutions to alleviate their grievances.

PES says it resents the fact that the tone, nature and timing of the debate on Muslims in Europe have so far been set by ultranationalist and far-right parties. They also complain about the lack of serious answers given to parties that have flourished on enmity toward the Islamic religion.

Today’s Zaman, 2 August 2007

Ex-BNP council candidate is jailed for stockpiling explosive chemicals

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A former British National party candidate who stockpiled explosive chemicals and ball-bearings in anticipation of a future civil war was jailed for 2½ years yesterday. Robert Cottage, 49, of Colne, Lancashire, pleaded guilty to possession of the chemicals. He was cleared of conspiracy to cause explosions after two trials in which juries were unable to reach a verdict. As he has spent nearly a year in custody, he is likely to be released within six months.

Sentencing Cottage at Manchester crown court yesterday, Mrs Justice Swift said he held views “that veer towards the apocalyptic”. His actions had been “criminal and potentially dangerous” but there was a low risk of him committing further offences. “It is important to understand that Cottage’s intention was that if he ever had to use the thunder flashes it was only for the purpose of deterrence,” said the judge of the explosives he planned to make.

Alistair Webster QC, Cottage’s counsel, told the court his client accepted he had bought the potassium nitrate and sulphur planning to manufacture gunpowder, but said this would only be used to make thunder flash “bangers” to scare intruders.

Cottage, who stood three times unsuccessfully for the BNP in local council elections, was arrested last September after police found the stockpile of chemicals at his home in Colne.

Cottage’s wife told a social worker of her concerns about his behaviour and his belief that immigration was out of control. Police also found ball-bearings and a document about bomb making from The Anarchist’s Cookbook on his computer. He also had air pistols, crossbows and a stockpile of food.

Dave Williams of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, which monitors the BNP, said the sentence appeared lenient. “It is a damning verdict for the BNP,” he said. “The trial has shown his radicalisation through his local branch of the BNP. I am surprised the sentence is not stiffer. If this had been a group of Muslims, they would have been looking at a far longer sentence.”

A BNP spokesman said the prosecution had been brought for political reasons. “We’re not condoning it but it’s a quid pro quo to appease the Muslims,” said Phil Edwards of the BNP yesterday. “We certainly don’t support the bloke, we condemn all forms of violence … but I wouldn’t have thought you could do any harm with what he had.”

Guardian, 1 August 2007