Of the Western countries polled, the UK comes out reasonably well, as does Italy. Only 15% of British respondents and 14% of Italians think a violent clash between “Muslim and Western cultures” is inevitable, compared with 31% in the USA and 39% in Germany.
Dudley mosque to be backed – UKIP and BNP protest
Plans for an £18 million mosque and community centre in the Black Country are to be recommended for approval.
Protesters have handed in petitions with more than 1,000 signatures and written hundreds of letters of objection. But sources have revealed planning officers are set to give the scheme, for derelict land between Hall Street and the Flood Street island in Dudley, the green light.
Ukip councillor Malcolm Davis, who has led opposition to the multi-million pound proposals, said recommending the scheme for approval would be a “monumental disgrace”.
Express & Star, 19 February 2007
The fascists of the British National Party – who claim that they have been “leading the collection of signatures by residents concerned that the town centre will be Islamified” – are also outraged: “The news of the mosque go-ahead comes just days after a Times story warned that thousands of Christian churches could close in the next decade and that the Christian landscape is in retreat.”
BNP news article, 19 February 2007
For the BNP campaign against the Dudley mosque see here.
Islamophobic violence
“Racist yob jailed for’ savage’ assault”, Crewe Chronicle, 14 February 2007
“Man convicted of racist attack”, EDP24, 9 February 2007
Via the IRR website.
Mosque is daubed with racist graffiti
Vandals have daubed racist graffiti on the door of Carlisle’s mosque. A police investigation is underway after slogans and symbols including a swastika were painted onto the building on Brook Street overnight on Wednesday.
Abbey Mills Islamic centre ‘will be blocked’
Controversial plans to build a “supermosque” on the doorstep of the London Olympics will be blocked by the Government.
The group behind the plans is Tablighi Jamaat, a Muslim missionary sect whose charitable trust, Anjuman-e-Islahul Muslimeen, has owned the 18-acre site since 1996. Tablighi Jamaat was called “an ante-chamber for fundamentalism” by French security services. Two of the July 7 London suicide bombers are believed to have attended one of its mosques.
A senior security source said that he was concerned about the proposed mosque, and expected ministers to use their powers to call in, and turn down, the planning application. The move was confirmed by a senior Government source, who said there were fears that the giant mosque could damage community relations in the area, and added: “We are going to stop it.”
Alan Craig, a Newham councillor for the Christian People’s Alliance party, has warned of the “community and security impact” that the mosque would have, and claims Muslims are already moving into the area in preparation for its opening.
Sunday Telegraph, 18 February 2007
Robert Spencer welcomes this example of “anti-dhimmitude in the UK”.
Being a Muslim American
“By most estimates, Islam is now the largest non-Christian religion in the United States. And yet some 60 percent of Americans claim never to have met a Muslim. No wonder, then, that so many wild misconceptions about Muslims endure in the United States. Indeed, a third of Americans told Gallup pollsters in July 2006 that they thought America’s Muslims are sympathetic to al-Qaeda…. American Islamprovides a welcome antidote to the widespread Islamophobia that has infected so many Americans over the last five years.”
Reza Aslan reviews Paul M. Barrett’s American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion.
Professor dropped by Jewish lobby group
A prominent Jewish lobby group has withdrawn support for an Israeli academic who warned that Muslim populations could place countries including Australia at risk of violence. The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council yesterday announced it had cancelled plans to co-host public appearances by Professor Raphael Israeli, including events in Melbourne next month. “AIJAC is very concerned by Professor Israeli’s implication that the Muslim community as a whole is a threat or a danger,” the council’s executive director, Colin Rubenstein, said. “His comments are both unacceptable and unhelpful and AIJAC cannot be associated with them.”
See also AIJAC press release, 16 February 2007
The original interview with Professor Israeli which caused the controversy (headed “Limit Muslim intake urges visiting scholar”) appears to have been removed from the Australian Jewish News website. However, it has been incorporated into a follow-up article, which reports:
“Citing France, where Muslims comprise about nine per cent of the population, as an example, Professor Israeli warned growing Muslim communities could change the political, economic, and cultural fabric of a country. ‘You have to adopt some kind of preventative policy. In order not to get there, limit the immigration and therefore you keep them a marginal minority, which will be a nuisance, but cannot pose a threat to the demographic and security aspects of a country’.”
Vicar attacked over mosque
Churchgoers at Dudley’s landmark Top Church have hit out at the vicar’s support for a proposed multi-million pound mosque and raised a 900-name petition. The Rev Tony Attwood, vicar at St Thomas and St Luke’s, has backed plans for a £6 million mosque and £12 million community centre and sent a letter in support of the scheme to council planners.
But about 30 members of the Sunday morning congregation disagree with the vicar’s stance and have signed a petition protesting against the plans. Churchgoers gathered more than 900 other names. The document was handed to the council on Thursday. One member of the congregation, who wished to remain anonymous, said he felt “betrayed” by church leaders.
Why is the BNP being legitimised?
“The problem we have at present is that not only is the rise of a fascist party not being given adequate attention, but its agenda is being capitulated to and fed from the mainstream.
“The daily diet of attacks on Muslims based on lurid headlines and without thought to the impact on community relations is dangerous and counterproductive and feeds the BNP. The stigmatisation of legitimate political engagement by Muslims and their community organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain, the hysterical debate on the veil, and so on, are doing the BNP’s work for them. Muslims are being singled out for attack.
“The fascist right sees the demonisation of Muslims as one of its chief weapons in sowing the seeds of division. Hatred and fear of Muslims is key to the BNP’s rhetoric, and its purpose is not to have a sensitive debate about multiculturalism in modern Britain but to whip up racism and discrimination.
“We have seen the notion of ‘Islamofascism’ invented, whilst mainstream Muslim organisations are openly equated with the fascists. On BBC News on January 29, for instance, Mark Easton reported a dossier on extremism and said: ‘Tonight the author of the report confirmed to me that they are likening the Muslim Council and the British National party’.”
Ken Livingstone in the Guardian, 16 February 2007
The politics of Policy Exchange
The Guardian publishes corespondence in response to the article by Marie Breen Smyth and Jeroen Gunning exposing the politically biased “research” carried out by the Tory-aligned think-tank Policy Exchange. Muhammad Abdul Bari of the Muslim Council of Britain writes:
“We concur with Marie Breen Smyth and Jeroen Gunning. Policy Exchange has assembled disparate arguments and ‘facts’ to fetishise difference and give credence to an emerging culture of bigotry. The report shows consistent vehemence towards the MCB. While we welcome constructive criticism, Policy Exchange appears to have made its research findings fit its political aims – not the other way round.
“More importantly, the report seeks to stigmatise young Britons with its monochromatic treatment of the Muslim diaspora as a homogeneous category, as opposed to the heterogeneous mosaic it truly represents. By confusing Islamism with increasing religiosity, it implies that those who seek to negotiate their faith with modern British values are somehow suspect. This is condescending to young Britons. Identity, ultimately, will be forged through consensus, not compliance. We are all in need of credible research that informs a mature discussion. Sadly, this is a missed opportunity.”