The bomb factory you won’t hear about

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Police officers raided a home in Lancashire on Monday night and uncovered a huge cache of chemicals used to make explosives. Officers say it is the largest haul of such chemicals ever found in this country. One man has already appeared in front of Burnley magistrates charged under the Explosives Substances Act 1883. Another man has also been charged after a raid on his house uncovered rocket launcher and a nuclear biological suit.

“You’d have thought this would be national front page news, wouldn’t you? After all the hype, at last we have solid evidence of terrorists attempting to perpetrate a murderous outrage on the population – prosecutors say the pair had ‘some kind of master plan’.

“Except, of course, that the men charged are not Asian Islamists, but white fascists. Robert Cottage, who has been charged for the explosives haul, stood for the BNP in Colne at the last elections.”

Lenin’s Tomb, 6 October 2006

See Lancashire Evening Telegraph, 4 October 2006 and Pendle Today, 5 October 2006.

Update:  See also Socialist Worker, 7 October 2006

Jack Straw: Muslim women ‘should discard veils completely’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Take Off Your VeilCabinet Minister Jack Straw today waded further into the row over his call for Muslim women to remove their veils by saying he would like the garments to be discarded altogether.

The former Foreign Secretary sparked controversy when he revealed that he asks female visitors to his constituency surgery to uncover their faces, to improve “community relations”. But asked on the BBC if he would rather the veils be discarded completely, Mr Straw said: “Yes. It needs to be made clear I am not talking about being prescriptive but with all the caveats, yes, I would rather.”

Last night, Muslim leaders in the Commons Leader’s Blackburn constituency said many Muslim women would find his comments, originally made in his local newspaper, “offensive and disturbing” and Respect MP George Galloway demanded his resignation. But Mr Straw said the increasing trend towards covering facial features was “bound to make better, positive relations between the two communities more difficult”.

Associated Press, 6 October 2006

Straw’s Lancashire Telegraph article is reprinted in the Guardian, 6 October 2006

Petrol bomb attack on Muslim dairy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Medina DairyA Muslim-owned dairy has been targeted by youths over three nights in a campaign of harassment culminating in a petrol bombing, a worker said.

The Medina in Windsor, Berkshire, has suffered at the hands of local youths who have been targeting staff for the past three nights, the unnamed worker claimed. He said the youths would gather in gangs of up to 30 and throw stones and hurl abuse at staff working at the dairy late at night.

Police have been patrolling the area since Monday when the attacks started, he said. But on Wednesday night an attacker riding a motorbike threw a home-made petrol bomb at the dairy’s perimeter wall. The worker told the Press Association that police later found a stash of the bombs hidden around the corner from the firm, which is located on an industrial estate outside the town.

He said that workers had often had trouble with local youths who would target the company, but that things had escalated in the last three days. “We’ve had trouble before but never like this. The police always come but the youths only live round the corner so they know when the police have gone and that’s why they attack us.”

He said that a skeleton staff of just five male workers ran the dairy in the evenings and it was those workers who were bearing the brunt of the attacks, which usually occur after 10pm.

Dairy owner Sardar Hussain, 46, was not available to comment on the attacks. The businessman has recently been reported as saying that the area is in desperate need for a place for Muslim worship.

Press Association, 5 October 2006

See also BBC News, 5 October 2006

Reporting for Channel 4 News, Alex Thomson stated: “The fact that a small industrial plant in a largely prosperous town in the Home Counties can ignite such tension tells us much about Islam in Britain today.” A more appropriate comment, surely, would be that it tells us much about anti-Muslim bigotry in Britain today.

Islamophobia, panic and public media

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Panic. That’s the operating system of the war on terror. Panic is produced and mobilized. The current outbreak of Islamophobia has distinct visual markers in the commercial mass media, visually shaping panic.”

Patricia R. Zimmermann analyses the visual presentation of the Pope Benedict controversy on US television, and the role of alternative media in countering the CNN and Fox News picture of the Muslim world.

MediaChannel, 4 October 2006

BNP accused of exploiting cartoons row with Muslim leaflet

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The far-right British National party was yesterday accused of deliberately ramping up racial and religious tensions by launching a leafleting campaign with anti-Muslim messages, including controversial cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. The depiction of the prophet with a bomb as a turban was one of several images that sparked protests across the world earlier this year. The BNP’s move was criticised as a blatant attempt to reignite the controversy. Azad Ali, of the Muslim Safety Forum, said: “This is a deliberate ploy to create huge tensions … and it is adding to the isolation, fear and frustration felt by many people in the Muslim communities.”

The BNP said the leaflet was part of a “coherent campaign to alert people to the Islamification of Great Britain”. It has produced another leaflet on immigration and a second on Islam, which describes the faith as “a threat to us all”. The leaflet was handed out in Sutton in south-west London. Politicians and community leaders said the BNP was trying to exploit a debate about plans to build a mosque in the area.

Guardian, 5 October 2006

But the BNP has its supporters. Over at the Western Resistance site, Giraldus Cambrensis writes:

“I am slightly ambivalent about the British National Party, on account of its racist past. Nowadays, under the leadership of Nick Griffin, a skilled politician, the racist agenda has become replaced by an agenda which is highly focused against Islam. With this aspect of its policies, I am in agreement. Islam poses a more serious threat to every aspect of British democracy than anything previously encountered. Under Labour, Britain has allowed wave after wave of unconstrained immigration into Britain. In most cities, as I wrote earlier, indigenous populations are marginalized in favor of those who claim ‘minority status’.”

Back in January this year, when we noted the support given by Western Resistance to Peter Tatchell, we were indignantly denounced by Mr Cambrensis for suggesting that Western Resistance is a right-wing racist operation. We rest our case.

‘Europeans have stopped defending their values’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“When it comes to Islam, there is no freedom of the press nor freedom of opinion in Germany. Organized groups in Islamic communities want to decide what is said and done here…. Pluralism and tolerance are pillars of modern society. That has to be accepted. But pluralism doesn’t just mean diversity. It means that we share the same rules and values, and are still nevertheless different. Islam doesn’t have this idea. And Islam also has no tradition of tolerance. In Islam tolerance means that Christians and Jews are allowed to live under the protection of Muslims but never as citizens with the same rights. What Muslims call tolerance is nothing other than discrimination.”

Bassam Tibi explains the Muslim threat to Europe.

Spiegel, 2 October 2006

Anti-Islam slurs mar billboard about Sikhism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A billboard designed to educate drivers on Interstate 78 about Sikhism, an Indian religion that Americans often confuse with Islam, has been removed after it was marred by profanity aimed at Muslims.

“Arabs go to hell,” someone wrote across the billboard in black, along with “Jesus Saves,” “Hell Yeah USA” and a four-letter expletive directed at “Alah.” Muslims pray to Allah, which is Arabic for God.

The vandalism in Berks County came as midstate police were investigating threatening letters and e-mails sent to Muslims in the Harrisburg and York areas. The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission said Friday there have been “at least seven” such messages in the past two months.

The billboard proclaimed, “Sikhism. Freedom, Equality, Justice. One God,” alongside an image of a man in the broad turban that Sikh men use to wrap the hair they never cut.

The Patriot-News, 4 October 2006

Posted in USA

Dog returns to its vomit

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anthony Glees“A year after the publication of a damning report into Islamic radicalisation among students, Britain’s universities have been accused of burying their heads in the sand.

“Professor Anthony Glees says many vice-chancellors are still failing to confront the issue. His claim comes 12 months after he named 24 universities where he said extremist groups had been detected.”

Sky News, 5 October 2006

See also BBC News, 5 October 2006

This nonsense is given further coverage on BBC News at Ten. Watch here.