The politics of choice

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Individuals and groups are entitled to decide how they wish to live, what they wish to eat, drink and wear, even if we strongly disapprove of their choices, as long as they cause no harm to others. Moreover, the state cannot intervene to impose a uniform way of life or way of thinking on its citizens. If it did, it would be sliding into totalitarianism. That is precisely what communism did in the name of cultural revolution, what Saudi Arabia is doing in the name of religion, what France is doing in the name of secularism, and what some sections of the media and political class would have us do in the name of integration and security.”

Soumaya Ghannoushi at the Guardian’s Comment is Free, 9 October 2006

Jack Straw should be praised for lifting the veil on a taboo

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Jack Straw was right to make the simple human point that it is rather hard to conduct a conversation with someone wearing the full veil. He was also right to make the further point that the full veil does not help relations between different communities.

“He didn’t quite say that the veil has no place in a liberal secular society, but if that was his intention I agree with it. This is not to persecute Muslims for their beliefs or deny them rights: it is simply to say that the veil, like it or not, has become increasingly regarded as a symbol of separatist aspiration and of female subservience. Many wear it voluntarily, but it does not stop this being a symbol of women’s oppression which stretches back to the times of classical Greece.

Henry Porter in the Observer, 8 October 2006

Government gives ‘preferential treatment’ to Muslims, Church report claims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Church of England has launched an astonishing attack on the Government’s drive to turn Britain into a multi-faith society.

It claims that divisions between communities have been deepened by the Government’s “schizophrenic” approach to tackling multiculturalism. While trying to encourage interfaith relations, it has actually given “privileged attention” to the Islamic faith and Muslim communities.

Written by Guy Wilkinson, the interfaith adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, the paper says that the Church of England has been sidelined. Instead, “preferential” treatment has been afforded to the Muslim community despite the fact that it makes up only three per cent of the population. Britain remains overwhelmingly a Christian country at heart and moves to label it as a multi-faith society suggest a hidden agenda, it says.

The report lists a number of moves made by the Government since the London bombings in July last year to win favour with Muslim communities. These include “using public funds” to fly Muslim scholars to Britain, shelving legislation on forced marriage and encouraging financial arrangements to comply with Islamic requirements. These efforts have undermined its interfaith agenda and produced no “noticeable positive impact on community cohesion”, the Church document says.

“Indeed, one might argue that disaffection and separation is now greater than ever, with Muslim communities withdrawing further into a sense of victimhood, and other faith communities seriously concerned that the Government has given signals that appear to encourage the notion of a privileged relationship with sections of the Muslim community.”

Sunday Telegraph, 8 October 2006

Mad Mel enthusiastically welcomes the news: “This is a seismic reversal, in a Church that for decades has been on its inter-faith knees before multiculturalism and abandoned the defence of Britain’s Christian identity.”

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 8 October 2006

Women who wear the veil can be ‘frightening and intimidating’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Phil WoolasMuslim women who cover their faces with veils can be “frightening and intimidating”, says Britain’s Race Minister Phil Woolas. Mr Woolas has raised the stakes with a warning that Muslim veils could increase racial tensions in Britain.

The minister, who has a large Muslim population in his Oldham constituency, backs Mr Straw for starting a national debate. But he warns Muslims must do more to avoid alienating people of other races and faiths.

Writing in the Sunday Mirror today, he says: “Muslim women have every right to wear a veil covering their face. But they must realise that other people who don’t understand their culture can find it frightening and intimidating.”

Sunday Mirror, 8 October 2006

See also BBC News, 7 October 2006

Offended by Straw’s comments on the veil? Go back where you came from

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Simon Jenkins“When Straw asks his women constituents if they might remove their veils during interviews – he does not insist – he was reacting like any normal person to conversing with someone in a mask. To a westerner such conversation is rude. If Muslim women, and it is a tiny number, cannot understand this, it is reasonable to ask why they want to live in Britain…..

“What to a Londoner is an exotic sight on the other side of the street, in the Midlands or northwest is a declaration of apartheid. It announces a group of newcomers who will integrate legally but not culturally, commercially but not socially…. Those who claim such hospitality owe some duty of respect to their hosts, or at the very least cannot complain if the hosts object.”

Simon Jenkins in the Sunday Times, 8 October 2006

Jenkins is, of course, such an expert on the subect that he can’t tell a burqa from a niqab.

David Davis renews attack on multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

David DavisA month after the 7/7 bomb attacks in London last year, David Davis, the shadow home secretary, wrote in The Daily Telegraph that multiculturalism had failed Britain, called for Muslims to unite behind “common values of nationhood” and said the Government “should not flinch from demanding tolerance and respect for the British way of life”.

Last night, Mr Davis returned to the subject, more convinced than ever that urgent action was needed to slam the multiculturalism juggernaut into reverse. Multiculturalism had encouraged a divided society and led to a “splintering of loyalties which is a threat to modern society”, he said. “Britain has closed societies within an open society, and the situation has been made worse by the Government’s policy of neglect. For too long there has been a habit of tiptoeing around issues, particularly with respect to Muslim communities. This has led to the sort of problems that have fostered terrorism in our own country.”

Sunday Telegraph, 8 October 2006

More anti-Muslim propaganda from the Express

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims pledge to ruin StrawAnother characteristically stupid and provocative headline from the Sunday Express. The accompanying article asserts that “an unholy alliance of Muslims and far-Right extremists was last night threatening Jack Straw’s future as an MP”. Needless to say, no such alliance exists and the Express offers no evidence that it does.

The Blackburn Muslims interviewed are divided over expressing regret at Straw’s comments, asking for a discussion with him, calling for an apology and demanding his resignation. Only two of those interviewed adopt the latter position.

As for the BNP, it aims to take advantage of the anti-Muslim sentiments provoked by Straw’s comments by standing against him in the next general election. The fascists’ spokesman Phil Edwards is quoted as saying that Straw has played a “subtle” version of the race card in order to boost his standing with white voters. (The BNP, of course, will do the same thing but dispense with the subtlety.) Edwards adds: “We have been saying this about Muslim dress for some time. It’s all part of the problems of a multi-cultural Britain that he and the Labour Party helped to create.”

The article also quotes Tory defence minister Gerald Howarth as saying that parliament may be forced to change the law to ban the veil. “I don’t think we need to legislate today but the time may come – if this fashion grows – where we need to. It’s time we stood up for our Christian heritage.”

Sunday Express, 8 October 2006

Witch-hunt launched against Mohammad Khatami

Posted on by Bob Pitt

KhatamiSince Gemma Tumelty took over as president of the National Union of Students earlier this year the NUS has taken a sharp turn to the right. We’ve already witnessed the NUS executive voting down a motion that called for an immediate ceasefire during Israel’s war against Lebanon and censuring George Galloway for backing Hizbollah in its resistance to Israeli aggression. (The NUS executive evidently had no problem with anyone supporting Israeli state terrorism against the Lebanese civilian population.)

If further proof were needed of the mistake made by FOSIS in blocking Pav Akhtar’s election as president, we now have leading figures in the NUS calling for public protests against St Andrews University’s decision to award an honorary degree to former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami duting his visit to the UK later this month.

The first NUS executive member to be quoted in a Sunday Times article witch-hunting Khatami (“Fury as St Andrews honours Hezbollah backer“) is, significantly, Sophie Buckland – a supporter of the rabidly Islamophobic pseudo-left sect the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty.

Continue reading →

Shock over anti-Muslim graffiti

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Kill Muslims graffitiA Teesside family have returned from holiday to find their house daubed with anti-Muslim graffiti.

The Joacph family home and its neighbouring garage, in the Saltersgill area of Middlesbrough, were covered with messages. These claimed that the family were terrorists, and also called for the killing of Muslims.

The Joacphs, who are practising Roman Catholics, say they are devastated by the incident. Originally from India, they have lived in the area for three years.

BBC News, 8 October 2006

Update:  See also “Anti-Muslim graffiti daubed”, Yorkshire Evening Post, 10 October 2006

Ban The Veil

Posted on by Eddie Truman

expressveilJack Straw’s playing of the racist Islamophobia card in pursuit of his career ambitions has resulted in a renewed deluge of anti Muslim poison.

The Daily Express is happy to further up the tension with a front page clearly calculated to incite hatred.

“Concerned Britons gave massive backing last night to calls for Muslim women to ditch the veil. An astonishing 97 per cent of Daily Express readers agreed that a ban would help to safeguard racial harmony. Our exclusive poll came a day after Leader of the Commons Jack Straw spoke out against the veils.”

Already the BBC has reported an attack on a Muslim woman because of the remarks of the Leader of the House of Commons. We shudder to think what the effect of the Daily Express front page will be on the racist morons just waiting to be incited by this.