Three cheers for Peter Oborne

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Peter Oborne“Until only a few months ago, mainstream British politicians were extremely cautious about articulating the fears and resentments felt by many ordinary people on the subject of mass immigration. Those who spoke out publicly (Enoch Powell’s ‘rivers of blood’ speech is the notorious example) were ostracised. Political parties which raised the issue were thrust beyond the outer margins of debate – the fate of the National Front and the BNP. This self-restraint has now vanished. Practically every day for the past two weeks, another minister has insulted the customs, habits or religious beliefs of Britain’s Muslim minority….

“It is now clear that Jack Straw’s comments on women who wear the veil were not, as seemed likely at the time, the result of some random rumination. He surely set out with the intention of putting in motion a national campaign. In other words, Labour has made the extraordinary decision to place the politics of religious identity at the centre of public discourse, in the same sort of way that Jorg Haider’s Freedom Party does in Austria and Pim Fortuyn’s List Party did in the Netherlands….

“There is a whiff of the lynch mob about the wave of attacks over the past fortnight, and it is no surprise to learn that the new national mood sparked by Jack Straw and sanctioned by Tony Blair has indeed led to a number of assaults on British mosques, including one firebombing. There have also been reports of a sharp rise of physical assaults on Muslims. It is nothing short of appalling that the Blair government has been ready to countenance this change in public culture….

“In the wake of last year’s London atrocity, the Prime Minister promised to engage with the mainstream Muslim community. He never really tried to do so – the ‘working parties’ set up in the wake of the July bombings met just two or three times, they were not listened to, and their recommendations were ignored.

“Now Tony Blair has allowed a campaign that is bound to undermine moderate Muslims and encourage extremism, whether from white supremacist parties like the BNP or within Islam itself. It is quite the nastiest and most irresponsible politics I have seen from a mainstream political party in my life, and we will all pay a horrible price for such cynical opportunism.”

Peter Oborne in the Daily Mail, 21 October 2006

Covered faces, open rebellion

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Having spent time getting to know young British Muslims, I believe that comments like Straw’s will be counterproductive. That is because the niqab is a symptom and not a cause of rising tensions. Few young Muslim women in Britain are forced by their families to wear the niqab. British Muslims come predominantly from South Asia, where the prevalent school of Islam, Hanifi, makes no insistence on a woman fully veiling herself. Indeed, only one of the four schools within Sunni Islam, Hanbali, which is followed in Saudi Arabia, requires women to completely cover up….

“Frustrated by unemployment rates more than double those of members of other religious groups, put off by stereotyping in the news media, and estranged from British foreign policy, many alienated Muslims have turned to more overt forms of religiosity to express a contrarian identity. Says Murad Qureshi, the only Muslim councilor in London’s Assembly: ‘Girls are choosing to reaffirm their Muslim identity because the community feels a sense of besiegement.’

“… Calls by British politicians for Muslim women to stop wearing the niqab will only enhance the political symbolism of this act and make its practice more widespread. Instead, what is needed is an ambitious program to address the core grievances of Britain’s young Muslims, for example by creating economic opportunities and tackling discrimination.”

Paul Cruickshank in the New York Times, 23 October 2006

This is a lot more informed than some of the condescending rubbish you read in the UK press from the likes of Johann Hari, who sees in the veil only a “misogynistic cultural practice” forced on oppressed Muslim women by tyrannical men. But Cruickshank still takes a negative view of young Muslim women who have chosen reaffirm their Muslim identity, in the face of a hysterical and increasingly violent racist campaign against Muslim communities, by wearing the niqab. At the very least, he could give them credit for their courage. Cruickshank has also swallowed the nonsense about how a quarter of British Muslims supposedly agree with the 7/7 bombings – when, as the recent 1990 Trust poll has confirmed, the actual figure is between 1% and 2%.

Warning over UK race riot danger

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Trevor PhillipsThe polarised debate over full-face veils could spark race riots in the UK, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality has warned. The debate surrounding the issue “seems to have turned into something really quite ugly”, Trevor Phillips said. “This could be the trigger for the grim spiral that produced riots in the north of England five years ago,” he told the Sunday Times.

Mr Phillips said a “gentle, nuanced” debate was needed. On Mr Straw’s comments, Mr Phillips told the Sunday Times Muslim leaders had been “overly defensive” in attacking the Blackburn MP.

Massoud Shadjareh, from the lobby group the Islamic Human Rights Commission, told BBC News 24 that “ministers after ministers after ministers” had been attacking the Muslim community recently, which was unfair and “not a means of respectable dialogue”.”I have to say the Muslim community really has been extremely calm, and extremely responsible,” he said.

The Muslim Council of Britain’s Secretary General, Muhammad Abdul Bari, said the integration debate had become “increasingly shrill and ugly”. He accused Mr Phillips of having a “poor track record” on this issue and criticised him for not mentioning recent attacks against Muslims which “accompanied this so-called debate”. Mr Abdul Bari said: “We have seen veils being forcefully pulled off Muslim women, a number of mosques subjected to arson attacks, and Muslim individuals, including an Imam in Glasgow, badly beaten up by thugs.”

BBC News, 22 October 2006

Europe draws battle lines on head scarves

Posted on by Bob Pitt

When Nora Labrak arrived at a private employment agency last summer near the French city of Lyon, the first question she heard was not about her resume. “I was asked to remove my head scarf at the lobby”, Labrak recalled in a telephone interview. When the 29-year-old refused, she was hustled to the door.

Long or short, sober black or brightly hued, the Muslim women’s head covering is drawing growing objections, and in some places downright hostility, in Europe. It has been banned from public schools in France and Belgium, and its strictest, face-concealing variation, the niqab, has been outlawed in several European towns.

Even in multicultural Britain, the niqab has sparked ferocious debate after the suspension of a Muslim teaching assistant and remarks by Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday that the garment was “a mark of separation”.

“There’s a rise in Islamo-skepticism,” said Franck Fregosi, an expert on Islam at France’s National Center for Scientific Research, referring to the unease many non-Muslims feel about the seeming reluctance of Muslims to be part of the mainstream culture. “There’s a fear and tension that’s installed in certain parts of the population, and I don’t think it bodes well for the future.”

In Brussels, 41-year-old Nicole Thill shares that foreboding. “I haven’t had problems until now, but things are changing,” said Thill, who converted to Islam and began wearing the veil in 2001. “People’s looks are increasingly hostile. And there’s less and less respect. People don’t mind jostling you on the street because, after all, you’re only a veiled woman.”

To be sure, sentiments about Muslims vary widely in Europe. Polls offer a fractured snapshot about how the region’s Islamic community is viewed – and how it views itself. A survey by the Pew Research Center, released in July, found that a majority of European Muslims did not sense hostility from non-Muslims. But a significant number – 39 percent in France, 42 percent in Britain and 51 percent in Germany – reported otherwise.

San Francisco Chronicle, 22 October 2006

Two useful  books on the recent attempts to suppress the hijab in Europe are Dominic McGoldrick’s Human Rights and Religion: The Islamic Headscarf Debate in Europe and John R.Bowen’s Why the French Don’t Like Headscarves: Islam, the State, and Public Space.

EU’s fight against radical Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Broder bookHenrik Broder, a prominent Jewish journalist in Germany, recently published a book titled, “Hooray! We Surrender!” which criticizes what the author refers to as “Europe’s weakness in its battle against Islam.”

“We must define what sets us aside as a society, and what values we must uphold in our struggle against Islam,” Broder tells Ynet.

Broder’s remarks come amid the ever-increasing tension in Europe between the traditional values and those of radical Islam, which are beginning to spread throughout the continent.

With the end of the Cold War 17 years ago, Europe was able to unite around values of democracy, individualism and a free market. But lately the atmosphere ion Europe has begun to change, and tolerant Europe has started to organize against radical Islam (and some say Islam in general), an ideology that is being referred to more and more as “an enemy of modern western society’s lifestyle.”

Until recently political correctness reigned in Europe, and those who dared point an accusatory finger at minorities were ostracized. When immigrants attacked their host-countries in Europe, the Europeans blamed western society for “inadequately absorbing them.”

Dialogue, not confrontation was the solution to the absorption difficulties of immigrants; criticism of the Muslim minority, part of which refused to accept the social ideals of the majority, was dismissed as racist – and so the Muslims in Europe did not integrate with the western population.

But following Madrid and London attacks, as well as the Muslim riots over the Mohammad caricatures, there are more and more signs indicating that the European Union is beginning to view Islam and the Muslim immigrants as an existential threat.

YnetNews, 21 October 2006

Al-Qa’eda is winning the war of ideas, says Reid

Posted on by Bob Pitt

John ReidJohn Reid has issued a dire warning that the Government risks losing the “battle of ideas” with al-Qa’eda. The Home Secretary spoke out at an emergency meeting of ministers and security officials amid an ever-growing threat from home-grown Islamist terror groups.

He called for an urgent but controversial escalation in the propaganda war and said al-Qa’eda’s so-called “single extremist narrative” was proving ever more attractive to young British Muslims. The Government needed to do much more to win the “battle of ideas”, Mr Reid said.

The meeting came as ministers – including Jack Straw, Ruth Kelly and Phil Woolas – started to take a much more aggressive stance against radical Islam.

Sunday Telegraph, 22 October 2006

If Al-Qaeda is indeed “winning the war of ideas” among young British Muslims, it’s odd that the recent 1990 Trust poll of Muslim opinion found that less than 2% of respondents agreed with the 7/7 bombings. In fact, if anything is likely to broaden the terrorists’ minuscule base of support within Muslim communities, it’s the sort of Islamophobic hysteria that has been unleashed and encouraged by the irresponsible statements of Labour politicians in recent weeks.

Sweden’s Muslim minister turns on veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nyamko SabuniThe latest media darling of Scandinavian politics is not only black, beautiful and Muslim; she is also firmly against the wearing of the veil.

Nyamko Sabuni, 37, has caused a storm as Sweden’s new integration and equality minister by arguing that all girls should be checked for evidence of female circumcision; arranged marriages should be criminalised; religious schools should receive no state funding; and immigrants should learn Swedish and find a job.

Supporters of the centre-right government that came to power last month believe that her bold rejection of cultural diversity may make her a force for change across Europe. Her critics are calling her a hardliner and even an Islamophobe.

Sunday Times, 22 October 2006

Looks like Sweden has found its own Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Sabuni has already received the endorsement of Little Green Footballs and Dhimmi Watch.

Update:  And Western Resistance and Pickled Politics.

White pupils less tolerant, survey shows

Posted on by Bob Pitt

White youths are more likely to believe they are superior to those from other races, and their attitudes are more of a barrier to integration than those of Muslims, a study for the government has found. The findings turn on its head the current debate about integration, where a succession of cabinet ministers have told Muslims they must do more to fit in.

The study, by the University of Lancaster, was sent to the Home Office in September, and is believed to be the first of its kind comparing levels of intolerance in different communities.

In recent weeks a succession of cabinet ministers have made remarks about Muslims, including home secretary John Reid, followed by Ruth Kelly, Jack Straw and this week the prime minister. Muslim groups reacted to the study by saying the government had attacked their communities despite their own report telling them they were not the biggest problem.

Government ministers were also rebuked on Thursday by an employment tribunal for commenting in advance on the case of Aishah Azmi, a British Muslim classroom assistant who lost her discrimination case after refusing to remove her veil in a West Yorkshire primary school when male colleagues were present.

The Lancaster University study, commissioned by the Home Office, examined the attitudes of 435 15-year-olds on race, religion and integration. It also gives an insight into the attitudes they are getting from their parents and other influences such as religion. It found that nearly a third of pupils at a predominantly white school believed one race was superior to another, compared with a tenth from a majority Asian Muslim school and fewer than a fifth at a mixed school.

The students surveyed were at a predominantly white school in Burnley, a predominantly Asian Muslim school in Blackburn, and a mixed school in Blackburn. The study concludes: “It might be reasonable … to suggest that it is the Asian-Muslim students in both the mixed and monocultural schools of Burnley and Blackburn who are in fact the most tolerant of all.” At the all-white school half felt it unimportant to respect people regardless of gender or religion, and a quarter felt there was no need to show tolerance to those with different views.

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NSS on the Aishah Azmi case

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“When I was the Chief Officer of an organisation (a Council for Racial Equality in Yorkshire as it happens) I would not have tolerated any member of my staff wearing a niqab, or any other kind of non-medical mask over their face. Had I ever been approached by a woman wearing a niqab (though I never was) I would have done exactly as Jack Straw claims he would do, and politely asked her to remove it.

“I do not know Ms Azmi or her personal circumstances but I do have some familiarity with the various communities in Kirklees. I was a founder member and the first Secretary of the Kirklees Community Law Centre but I resigned from the Management Committee over a decade ago because the other members were not willing to stand up to the unreasonable demands of the leaders of the local Pakistani Community Association.

“These so-called community leaders were so used to being indulged and deferred to in all matters relating to ‘their’ communities that their response to any opposition was to bully and bluster. I suspect that some of these same people will be bending the ears of the local authority at this very moment, demanding all sorts of concessions and assurances about future practices in schools and other areas of the public sector.”

Steve Radford on the National Secular Society website.

The worrying thing is that someone like this was ever responsible for racial equality in the first place.

Mail discovers ‘Veil teacher link to 7/7 bomber’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The Muslim teacher suspended for refusing to work without her veil is connected to a hardline mosque where the ringleader of the July 7 bombers worshipped, it has emerged.

“The family of classroom assistant Aishah Azmi, 24, plays a key role at the fundamentalist Markazi mosque in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire – which was attended by suicide bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan. Until recently, Miss Azmi’s father was joint headmaster of the secondary school attached to the building. The family are known to worship there and may have encountered Khan before his terrorist act.”

Daily Mail, 21 October 2006

Well, if Sidique Khan did attend the same mosque (and given the gulf that separated his methods from the apolitical approach of Tablighi Jamaat, I’ve always thought that was questionable) I suppose they might have met him. However, given that the Dewsbury Markaz holds 3000 people, statistically the chances of bumping into him would have been rather slight. As attempts to imply guilt by association go, this really is the pits.