‘Tis the season to bash Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP demonstrationSunny Hundal responds to the spurious “Christmas is Banned” stories:

“Christmas is the perfect season for two things: re-runs and silly publicity stunts. Combine the two in media-land and what do you get? The annual slew of screaming ‘Christmas has been banned!’ headlines of course, which now resurface as regular as clockwork. Usually all ‘ethnics’ and their politically correct co-conspirators are blamed.

“This year, given the spotlight they have been placed under, it has almost universally been made into a Muslim issue. The farcical charade usually plays out as follows. A tabloid makes the outraged claim on its front page. Muslims complain they have nothing to do with it. ‘Oh yes you have’, say the press, pointing to the fictitious PC brigade apparently too scared to offend anyone with anything as scandalous as some tinsel and flashing lights.”

Guardian, 11 December 2006

£350,000 trips to boost the image of British Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Torygraph manages to combine its favourite themes of inciting anti-Muslim prejudice and accusing the government of “wasting taxpayers’ money”:

“Taxpayers are funding a £350,000 globetrotting tour that is intended to improve the ‘image of British Muslims’ around the world. The Foreign Office has dispatched parties of up to eight Muslims as far afield as Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan, so they can ‘share their experiences’ with locals. The groups have been staying in exclusive hotels and even flown business class on some legs, with all accommodation and travel expenses met from the public purse….

“Critics claimed that the programme of visits, called Projecting British Muslims, are a waste of taxpayers’ money. Ben Wallace, Conservative MP for Lancaster and Wyre, who uncovered the cost using Parliamentary questions, said: ‘I’m not sure how sending British Muslims abroad to other Islamic countries helps to counter the jihadi movement at home. I can’t see that this is anything more than a jolly for a lot of people. ‘It should not be forgotten that Britain has an appalling record of exporting jihadi fighters to other countries, not the other way around’.”

Sunday Telegraph, 10 December 2006

Treatment of Muslims ‘echoes Jews under Nazis’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Osama Saeed (4)One of Scotland’s most prominent Muslims has compared the treatment of Asians in Britain with that of Jews in Nazi Germany.

Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain and a former Scottish National party candidate, said the growing number of attacks on Muslims echoed the state-sponsored persecution of Jews in pre-war Germany.

Saeed said many middle-class Muslims were considering leaving the country because they feared that they or their families would be attacked because of their religious beliefs. He fears tensions could spill into violent confrontations unless the government tackles souring relations with the Muslim community.

“We didn’t get to the situation in world war two out of nowhere,” said Saeed. “Hitler was a product of a German society where anti-semitic attitudes had existed unchecked for decades. We have got to listen and learn from what happened there and be vigilant. I am not talking about large numbers of people being rounded up, but we could be looking at situations where Muslims are routinely assaulted in the streets.

“We have got to be conscious that we are stoking an unpleasant atmosphere for the people that come after us. In Europe in the 1990s a slaughter of Muslims took place in Bosnia so we are not talking ancient history or pie in the sky. The climate can change quickly.”

Murdo Fraser, the deputy Scottish Tory leader, said the comments were ill-judged. “I don’t think it’s a rational response to compare the treatment of Muslims in today’s Britain in any way to the horrific treatment that the Jewish people suffered at the hands of the Nazis,” he said. “An approach of this sort will win no friends.”

Sunday Times, 10 December 2006

It will be interesting to hear Osama’s response to this. However, even judging by the Sunday Times‘ own report, it is clear that he was not saying that the level of oppression suffered by Muslims in the UK today is equivalent to that of German Jews under the Nazis. Rather he was making the point that the persistent demonisation of a particular community can establish the conditions under which violence against that community is incited and legitimised. But then, when did the right-wing press ever give fair coverage to spokespersons for the Muslim community?

Just who do we think we are?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Peter Beaumont questions the self-congratulatory rhetoric about the superiority of British values. He writes: “This is a country where casual Islamophobia finds expression across the political divide, to a degree that even liberal intellectuals are unembarrassed to make remarks that you could not imagine being made about Jews or other races without a reaction of absolute horror.”

Observer, 10 December 2006

Rod Liddle defends right to wear veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rod Liddle defends the right of Muslim women to wear the veil! He writes: “Surely if there is one area where immigrant communities should be allowed do as they like it is in the clothes they choose to wear.” Could it be that Rod has suffered a sudden attack of progressive politics? Nah. He continues: “Attack the ideology behind the veil, the Islamic attitude towards women – not the veil itself. But the PM can’t do that because he’s already attempted to force all of us, by law, to respect that ideology, regardless of its misogyny (and, one might add, homophobia, anti-semitism, etc).”

Sunday Times, 10 December 2006

Fascists applaud Blair speech on multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nazi scum“The Prime Minister’s latest utterance on the thorny issue of race relations looks like he has been watching copies of speeches made by Nick Griffin, BNP Leader and he looks as if he is backing a motion which was passed by a large majority at the BNP Annual Conference, two weeks ago, in which is was agreed that public wearing of Islamic headdress which covers much of the face, thereby preventing identification, should be proscribed….

“It all sounds much too little, much too late to make any real difference but at least Blair has vindicated the message of the BNP, a message gaining ground in areas where New Labour has abandoned its former support base.”

BNP news article, 10 December 2006

‘Has Blair seen the multi-culturalism light?’ asks Torygraph

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The most important feature of Tony Blair’s speech was an admission for which we have waited far too long: that there is a connection between Islamic extremism and political correctness. Muslims who hate this country are nourished by the constant assertions that our nation’s history is a catalogue of shame; indeed, many of them will have been taught this since their first history lessons in a British primary school….

“Multi-culturalism portrays itself as a means of celebration: in fact, it is an invitation to all minorities to complain, loudly and persistently, about their victimhood. And, when this self-pitying worldview comes into contact with religious fanaticism, the results can be – literally – explosive. That is presumably what Mr Blair means when he says that the events of July 7 last year threw the whole concept of multi-cultural Britain ‘into sharp relief’.

“The Prime Minister and his close colleagues are plainly fed up with the lumbering grievance-mongers of the race relations industry: in the fight between Ken Livingstone and Trevor Phillips, reforming head of the Commission for Racial Equality, they are cheering loudly for the latter. Good for them.

“True, the ideology that Mr Blair now decries has been advanced chiefly by his own party. Given his readiness to apologise for ancient wrongs, it would perhaps have been appropriate to acknowledge this more recent mistake. Still, we are delighted that Mr Blair has come round to the view that this newspaper has always held, and that our countrymen have clung to through decades of official bullying and hectoring.”

Editorial in the Daily Telegraph, 9 December 2006

Adopt our values or stay away, says Blair

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tony Blair formally declared Britain’s multicultural experiment over yesterday as he told immigrants they had “a duty” to integrate with the mainstream of society. In a speech that overturned more than three decades of Labour support for the idea, he set out a series of requirements that were now expected from ethnic minority groups if they wished to call themselves British.

These included “equality of respect” – especially better treatment of women by Muslim men – allegiance to the rule of law and a command of English. If outsiders wishing to settle in Britain were not prepared to conform to the virtues of tolerance then they should stay away….

Mr Blair’s volte face – just eight years ago he championed multiculturalism – was the culmination of a long Labour retreat from the cause. In recent weeks, Jack Straw, Ruth Kelly, John Reid and Gordon Brown have all played their part in a concerted revision of the Cabinet’s stand which began in earnest after the July 7 suicide bombings in London last year. Mr Blair, speaking in Downing Street, said the diversity of cultures in Britain should still be celebrated but the tone of his speech was against the ideology that became known as multiculturalism.

Daily Telegraph, 9 December 2006

See also the Times, 9 December 2006

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