Mahmoud Ahmadinejad supports restoration of caliphate shock

Posted on by Bob Pitt

HizbMore nonsense from Mad Melanie Phillips. She writes: “Hizb ut Tahrir, which has been banned in the Middle East, the United Kingdom and Germany, was going to host a Sydney conference this month to promote the takeover of Australia as part of an Islamic caliphate.”

And she quotes a Herald Sun report describing the HT video advertising the event: “In what appears to be a call to arms, the video features slogans attacking the United States and capitalism, and features militant anti-Western Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shaking his fist, before the slogan ’embrace the revival’.”

Mel welcomes the news that Bankstown City Council whose town hall was to be used for this event has cancelled it. She concludes: “Let’s hear it for Bankstown, which understands the difference between a liberal principle and being played for suckers in the attempt to destroy it. But the incident also dramatises the extent to which Australia is squarely in the global Islamisation frame.”

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 11 January 2007

It’s difficult to know where to begin. HT has not been banned in the UK, nor does it aim to take over Australia – its objective of restoring the caliphate is restricted to majority-Muslim countries. But perhaps the most bizarre claim is that the HT video included a clip of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Does Phillips really think that a video promoting the re-establishment of the caliphate would feature a prominent Shia politician? Or perhaps she should make the effort to view the HT video on YouTube. Does the individual concerned even look like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

Read HT’s own response here.

Regent’s Park Mosque is accused of extremist links

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mosque promotes fundamentalists preaching hatredMosque ‘promotes fundamentalists preaching hatred’

By Amar Singh

Evening Standard, 10 January 2007

LONDON’S busiest mosque has been accused of promoting Islamic fundamentalists who vilify Jews, call for Sharia law in Britain, blame Christians for deliberately spreading Aids in Africa and preach intolerance towards all non-Muslims.

The allegations against London Central Mosque in Regent’s Park follow a 12-month investigation by the Channel 4 Dispatches programme. It found the mosque’s official bookshop sells DVDs containing the speeches of two radical preachers, Sheikh Feiz and Sheikh Khalid Yasin.

In one, Sheikh Feiz is seen imitating the snorting noises of a pig when referring to Jewish people, whom he says will be killed when the day of judgment arrives. He says: “This creature will say, ‘Oh Muslim’ behind me is the Jew. Come and kill him. They will be [makes snorting noises] all of them, every single one of them.”

Sheikh Yasin, a charismatic American convert, has said the koran calls for men to “beat women lightly” and told Muslims they should never regard non-Muslims as a friend. The controversial cleric is vaunted on the mosque’s official website alongside other “famous visitors” such as ministers Jack Straw and Mike O’Brien. In DVD footage, Sheikh Yasin says: “The whole delusion of equality of women is foolishness… there is no such thing.”

He also claims Western powers are behind the Aids epidemic in Africa. He says: “Missionaries from the World Health Organisation and Christian groups went into Africa and inoculated people for diphtheria, malaria, yellow fever and they put in the medicine the Aids virus, which is a conspiracy.”

Both men are linked to the Wahhabi brand of Islam, which is dominant in Saudi Arabia and well-funded. Wahhabis are some of the most radical and fundamentalist Muslims, believing in Sharia law and interpreting the koran literally. Moderate Muslims are deeply concerned about its spread to the UK.

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With friends like these …

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Israeli writer warns against accepting the support of anti-Muslim bigots in Europe who declare their support for the state of Israel. She argues:

“… many of these new friends are Muslim-bashers first and Israel-backers second. Their blanket condemnation of Muslim communities on their continent rings eerily familiar. Their sweeping verdict against a whole civilization has that strange déjà vu feel…. I, for one Israeli, would be grateful to my newfound buddies if their sympathy for me did not rely on the trashing of another religion. Unlike them, I’m touched by the sight of young Muslim women in European university campuses. They remind my of my own grandmother, a student in Prague who had to flee after the Nazi rise to power, and of all the other young and hopeful Jews whose dreams and lives were shattered by the European culture they so admired. I will therefore not solicit support based on unqualified dislike of other human groups…. Beware of Islamophobes bearing gifts.”

Wall Street Journal, 7 January 2007

Mad Mel is not happy.

Canberra vetoes mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic leaders are demanding an explanation from Foreign Minister Alexander Downer after plans for the Saudi Government to invest in the construction of an Adelaide mosque were vetoed by Canberra.

The Foreign Minister revealed yesterday that the Government objected to a proposal for Saudi cash to be injected into development of the new mosque, which is believed to be located at Park Holme in Adelaide’s southern suburbs. Mr Downer said federal authorities had also been investigating broad concerns on funding sourced from the Middle East after concerns that mosques could become breeding grounds for extremists. “Obviously we don’t want to see any extremist organisation penetrate into Australia,” he said.

But Ali Vachor, secretary of the Islamic Society of South Australia, which manages the Park Holme mosque, told The Australian the decision had halted construction of the building. Mr Vachor said a “great portion” of funding for the development was being sourced from overseas and had not been approved.

Construction was halted after the laying of a concrete slab and prayers are being conducted in a recreation room. Mr Vachor said yesterday the Islamic Society of South Australia would seek an urgent meeting with Mr Downer to determine the reasons behind the Government’s decision.

The Australian, 9 January 2006

None are more equal than others

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“… just as the followers of different faiths should be protected against unfair discrimination in the provision of goods and services, so too should people on account of their sexual orientation. It seems to be an unanswerable argument. And it is one that British Muslims should be supporting….”

Inayat Bunglawala and Abdurahman Jafar at the Guardian‘s Comment is Free, 9 January 2007

Posted in UK

Why is my dad far away in that place called Guantanamo Bay?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Guantanamo5Ten-year-old Anas el-Banna will walk to the door of Number 10 Downing Street this week to ask for an answer to the question he has been trying to have answered for four years: Why can’t my Dad come home?

His father, Jamil, is one of eight British residents languishing among the almost 400 inmates at the American base at Guantanamo Bay, which opened five years ago to the day this Thursday – the day of Anas’s protest.

Mr Banna, was taken to Guantanamo Bay four years ago after being seized in Gambia along with fellow detainee Bisher al-Rawi. He was accused of having a suspicious device in his luggage. It turned out to be a battery charger. No charges have been made. He suffers from severe diabetes, but his lawyers say he has not been offered medication and has been denied the food he needs. His eyesight is now failing.

A year ago, his son wrote to Tony Blair for the second time to ask why the Government was not helping him return home. The then six-year-old did not even receive a reply. The second letter elicited a cursory note from the Foreign Office. It stated that because Mr Banna is not a British citizen, although his wife and children are, nothing could be done for him.

Independent, 9 January 2007

Right-wing US Christian group polls supporters on Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The American Family Association is currently polling Americans on their opinion of Islam as more Americans are converting to be Muslims. The growth of Islam in America is “concerning for a great many people,” said Randy Sharp, director of special projects for AFA, according to Agape Press.

According to the poll, the majority of respondents do not consider Islam to be a peaceful religion or a tolerant religion. The majority of respondents also said “no” to placing equal emphasis on the Koran and the Bible in America. In terms of politics, most Americans do not believe it would be good for America to have more Muslims in elected offices and most said they would not vote for a Muslim presidential candidate.

Christian Post, 8 January 2007

See also “AFA poll on Islam”, Daily Kos, 4 January 2007

As a mosque rises, a dispute flares in Berlin

Posted on by Bob Pitt

No Mosque in PankowA squabble over construction of the first mosque in formerly communist East Berlin is becoming the latest flash point between Muslims intent on asserting a strong identity in Europe and Europeans increasingly fearful that their secular societies are threatened by Islamic fundamentalism.

Members of the Muslim congregation hope the soaring minaret of the planned mosque will become a local landmark. “People should not fear us,” Iman Abdul Basit Tariq, the Pakistan-born leader of a flock of 200, said in an interview. “They should open their hearts to the beauty of Islam.”

Instead, the neighborhood has fought the mosque with marches, candlelight vigils, and petitions. Residents have also filed legal complaints that could block construction.

“Ideas of suppressing women and hatred for democratic values will soon be disseminated in the heart of our community,” said Roland Henning, a musician who lives half a block from the planned mosque. “And those of us who ask, ‘Why?’ are the ones being called intolerant and xenophobic. Europe isn’t just surrendering its culture. It’s surrendering any sense of logic.”

“Why should we be giving welcome to a group that hates German values and considers Christianity to be its enemy?” asked Joachim Swietlik, spokesman for the group opposed to the mosque. “Our concern isn’t based on their skin color or their countries [of origin]. It’s based on their contempt for the ideals of our liberal-democratic society.”

Boston Globe, 9 January 2007

[Picture: poster by the far-right Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD) who have been prominent in the campaign against the mosque.]