Who’s to blame for terrorism? The Islamofascists, and the Left, apparently

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Who is really responsible for the suicide bombers that target us? Is it the fault of George Bush or Tony Blair? Are we all somehow to blame? David Aaronovitch, journalist and commentator, has had enough of this argument. He asks how we’ve got to the point where British Socialists support Islamofascist Terrorism. Aaronovitch explains where the left have gone wrong on Israel, Palestine, the War in Iraq and the War on Terror.”

“David Aaronovitch: No Excuses for Terror” – documentary in the Don’t Get Me Started slot this evening, 7.15pm, on Channel 5.

Or, as today’s Morning Star prefers to summarise the contents of the programme: “The notorious reactionary launches into an extended right-wing rant.”

Postscript:  Yes, I’ve just watched it, and the Morning Star is right on the button.

Update:  With the enthusiastic approval of Atlas Shrugs, Harry’s Place has posted the documentary on YouTube.

Islamists are fascists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Make no apologies for the use of ‘Islamic fascism’. It is the perfect nomenclature for the agenda of radical Islam, for a variety of historical and scholarly reasons. That such usage also causes extreme embarrassment to both the Islamists themselves and their leftist ‘anti-fascist’ appeasers in the West is just too bad.”

Victor Davis Hanson in National Review, 25 September 2006

Mosques attacked in France, Russia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Vandals scrawled swastikas and racist slogans on the walls of two mosques in France and threw Molotov cocktails at a mosque in central Russia on Sunday, September 24, the day French and Russian Muslims started celebrating Ramadan.

The mosque which was torched, in the northwest town of Quimper, suffered damage from the flames. Six swastikas were painted on the outside of its walls, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Monday, September 25. In the southwestern town of Carcassonne, the other mosque was daubed with swastikas and slogans reading “France for the French”, “Arabs get out” and “Death to Islam”, officials said.

In central Russia, unidentified attackers threw Molotov cocktails at a mosque in Yaroslavl in the early hours of Sunday, but the building did not catch fire, the head of a local Muslim organization said.

A religious service was taking place at the time and there were worshippers in the room, but the bottles hit the window frame and fell back without exploding, he explained. The attackers also threw stones, breaking a number of mosque windows as well as the windows of cars parked in the courtyard.

Islam Online, 25 September 2006

Uri Avnery on Pope’s speech

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Uri Avnery (2)Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery replies to Pope Benedict:

“The story about ‘spreading the faith by the sword’ is an evil legend, one of the myths that grew up in Europe during the great wars against the Muslims – the reconquista of Spain by the Christians, the Crusades and the repulsion of the Turks, who almost conquered Vienna. I suspect that the German Pope, too, honestly believes in these fables. That means that the leader of the Catholic world, who is a Christian theologian in his own right, did not make the effort to study the history of other religions.

“Why did he utter these words in public? And why now? There is no escape from viewing them against the background of the new Crusade of Bush and his evangelist supporters, with his slogans of ‘Islamofascism’ and the ‘Global War on Terrorism’ – when ‘terrorism’ has become a synonym for Muslims. For Bush’s handlers, this is a cynical attempt to justify the domination of the world’s oil resources. Not for the first time in history, a religious robe is spread to cover the nakedness of economic interests; not for the first time, a robbers’ expedition becomes a Crusade. The speech of the Pope blends into this effort. Who can foretell the dire consequences?”

Gush Shalom, 23 September 2006  Also on IkhwanWeb.com, 25 September 2006

‘The shadow cast by a mega-mosque’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“It will be called the London Markaz and it is intended to be a significant Islamic landmark whose prominence and stature will be enhanced by its proximity to the Olympic site.

“When television viewers around the world see aerial views of the stadium during the opening ceremony in six years’ time, the most prominent religious building in the camera shot will not be one of the city’s iconic churches that have shaped the nation’s history, such as St Paul’s Cathedral or Westminster Abbey, but the mega-mosque.

“Its arrival in London will be a significant coup for Islam and a major event for the country as a whole. It will also make Abu Izzadeen’s depiction of that part of east London as ‘a Muslim area’ seem remarkably prescient.”

Philip Johnston in the Daily Telegraph, 25 September 2006

Mad Mel applauds Johnston’s article: “As Johnston observes, when people look at the Olympic village, itself a showcase for Britain, the dominant image will be not a church but a mosque towering over it. It will be a symbol of Islamic domination of Britain and Britain’s cultural surrender to the jihad, and as such will inspire many more jihadists on the basis that Britain has given up the cultural ghost.”

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 25 September 2006

The real Oriana Fallaci

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Fallaci seemed most concerned in her last days not to have her view of Florence marred by a minaret, as if that were as good a reason as any to unleash the dogs of war. In sum, it was otherness that revolted her. She admitted to hating Mexican immigrants in America as much as Muslims in Europe. Homosexuals were another bugbear. So were Jews. More grotesque supporters joined her new crusade. On her death September 15, unconditional praise for Fallaci came from La Padania, the organ of the hate-mongers of the xenophobic Northern League. Their language – just as hers in the end – resembled nothing so much as that of the Fascist rabble-rousers the girl Oriana went to war against in the 1940s.”

Peter Byrne at Swans.com, 25 September 2006

‘A closed door’ – US government continues to deny Tariq Ramadan a visa

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tariq Ramadan 5Tariq Ramadan outlines the latest developments in his appeal against the US government’s 2004 decision to deny him a visa:

“On September 21, 2006, after two years of waiting, an explanation at last arrived. The letter I received from the American embassy, though it refuses my visa application, puts an end to the rumours and baseless allegations that have circulated since my original visa was revoked. After two years of investigation, the State Department cites no evidence of ‘suspicious relationships’, of meetings with terrorists, of encouraging or advocating terrorism, or of so-called ‘doublespeak’. Instead, the State Department cites my having donated about 600 Euros to two humanitarian organizations (in fact a French organisation and its Swiss chapter) serving the Palestinian people.

“I should note that this was not something that the State Department’s investigation revealed. To the contrary, as the State Department acknowledges, it was I myself who brought these donations to the State Department’s attention. The U.S. government apparently believes that the organizations to which I gave small amounts of money have in turn given money to Hamas. But the organizations to which I donated are not deemed suspect in Europe, where I live. I donated to these organizations for the same reason that countless Europeans – and Americans, for that matter – donate to Palestinian causes: not to provide funding for terrorism, but because I wanted to provide humanitarian aid to people who are desperately in need of it.

“After two years of intense investigation, this is the explanation offered for the denial of my visa. I am of course disappointed in the government’s decision. At the same, time, however, I am glad that the State Department has abandoned its allegation that I endorse terrorism. While the State Department has found a new reason to deny my visa application, I think it clear from the history of this case that the U.S. government’s real fear is of my ideas. I am excluded not because the government truly believes me to be a national security threat but because of my criticisms of American foreign policies in the Middle East; because of my opposition to the invasion of Iraq; and because of my criticism of some of the Bush administration’s policies with respect to civil liberties. I am saddened to be excluded from the United States. I am saddened, too, however, that the United States government has become afraid of ideas and that it reacts to its critics not by engaging them but by suppressing, stigmatizing, and excluding them.”

Tariq Ramadan’s website, 25 September 2006

Disgraceful though it is, the US government’s decision does at least demolish Daniel Pipes’ slanders against Professor Ramadan.

For a recent interview with Tariq Ramadan, see Islam Online, 12 September 2006

Racist graffiti on arson mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Hampshire mosque set alight by arsonists last month has been vandalised again in what police described as a racist graffiti attack.

A man attending prayers at the Albirr Masjid Mosque in Sarum Hill discovered the graffiti on Saturday night. The attack coincides with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and is the second one on the Basingstoke mosque in less than two months. Police are still investigating an arson attack on the mosque on 12 August.

Insp Annabel Berry said: “We take all graffiti attacks seriously, but especially those that target particular sections of our community. I would like to reassure people that although this is the second attack on the mosque in the past couple of months such events are rare and we are investigating”

Hampshire Constabulary are appealing for anyone who was in the area between 2100 and 2200 BST on Saturday and who may have seen something suspicious to contact them.

BBC News, 24 September 2006

Update:  See also “Mosque targeted in racist graffiti attack”, Basingstoke Gazette, 25 September 2006

‘Battle to block massive mosque’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“A plan to build a ‘mega mosque’ in east London has become mired in controversy with allegations that it is being bankrolled by Islamist groups in Saudi Arabia. Opponents say it would promote a radical form of Islam. They accuse its backers of not consulting local people.”

Jamie Doward writes in the Observer, 24 September 2006

This piece is little more than a rewrite of Andrew Gilligan’s scare story that appeared in the Evening Standard back in July, complete with a quote from the discredited “expert” on Islam, Patrick Sookhdeo. You’d have thought that the Observer‘s home affairs editor might have done a bit of original research into the subject and maybe even challenged racist stereotypes about the threat from Muslim radicals, rather than just recycle second-hand Islamophobic fantasies. Or then again, perhaps not, given that one of Doward’s predecessors in that post was Martin Bright.

Barroso defends pope, attacks Muslim ‘extremists’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BarrosoJose Manuel Durao Barroso, the EU Commission president, has strongly defended Pope Benedict XVI, saying Muslim criticism was unacceptable. “Attacking the pope because he refers in a discourse to a historical document is completely unacceptable,” Barroso said in a newspaper interview on Sunday. “I was disappointed that there were not more European leaders who said: ‘Obviously the pope has the right to express his opinion’. The problem is not the comments of the pope but the reactions of the extremists … We must defend our values.”

Al-Jazeera, 24 September 2006

See also Associated Press, 24 September 2006