Evening Standard attacks ‘self-appointed’ MCB

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Terrorism and the London response

Editorial comment, Evening Standard, 5 September 2006

THE POLL that we publish today of Londoners’ attitudes to Muslims and terrorism raises some disturbing conclusions about the social impact of terrorism.

More than a third of all Londoners – and more than a quarter of non-white Londoners – say they have felt uncomfortable near people of Asian or North African appearance on public transport. One-sixth of all Londoners surveyed have felt unhappy enough to move seats in such a situation.

Despite those anxieties, London has not been riven by the communal strife or racism predicted by some in the wake of the 7 July bombings last year.

Yet there is a clear warning in these poll figures for both the Government and for leaders of the Muslim community.

Only a quarter of those surveyed said they had confidence in the Government’s ability to tackle Islamic extremism. There was a clear majority in favour of extending the limit for the police holding terror suspects to 90 days, as originally proposed by the Government, and significant support for racial profiling of passengers to be searched at airports.

This will be a boost to those ministers, including the Home Secretary, John Reid, who favour tougher measures – although it is scarcely an endorsement of the Government’s response to extremism.

But the poll should send an equally clear message to Muslim leaders: three-quarters thought they could do much more to tackle extremism. The response of organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain to terror raids and tougher laws has almost invariably been to cast Muslims as the victims, effectively playing down the anxieties of the majority of Londoners, whites and non-whites alike.

The Government needs to take a less indulgent line towards such self-appointed leaders – and the community leaders themselves need to prove that they are actively working against extremism.

London’s tolerance and openness has held up amazingly well to date. It would be a tragedy if it were damaged by one community’s reluctance to face up to the threat.

Afraid to sit next to a Muslim on a bus?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Afraid to sit next to a Muslim on a bus? Londoners admit that, yes, they are

By Joe Murphy

Evening Standard, 5 September 2006

ONE in six Londoners admits moving seats on the bus or Tube to get away from a passenger they believe may be Muslim. The figure, revealing how people’s fears of terrorism have damaged the city’s community relations, is laid bare in an exclusive Evening Standard/YouGov poll.

More than a third admit that in the past 12 months they have felt nervous or uncomfortable while travelling near a person of Asian or north African appearance. Of these, half say they have moved seats or deliberately sat away from them. Almost 80 per cent confess to such behaviour two, three or more times.

The findings suggest the capital has become a less trusting and more divided city since the 7/7 bombings by Islamist extremists last year.

Londoners back tough measures to catch terrorists. Some 62 per cent endorse police demands for powers to detain suspected terrorists for up to 90 days without charge. Only 26 per cent say the current limit of 28 days is right and just six would revert to the old limit of 14 days. Among nonwhites, support for detentions is only slightly lower at 55 per cent.

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Half of Danes see Islam as incompatible with democracy: poll

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Nearly half of Danes consider Islam incompatible with democracy, according to a poll published on Monday. The Zapera poll, conducted for Danish think tank Mandag Morgen, showed 48 percent of those surveyed thought Islam was incompatible with democratic values. Thirty-four percent said they saw Islam as consistent with democracy while a further 18 percent said they were undecided. The results were in stark contrast to a poll conducted in February which indicated 51 percent of Danes thought Islamic values sat well with democracy, with 34 percent disagreeing – despite the poll being conducted in the wake of the Mohammed caricature row.

AFP, 4 September 2006

Massachusetts governor denounces Khatami visit to Harvard

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mitt RomneyGovernor Mitt Romney today ordered all Massachusetts state government agencies to decline support, if asked, for former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami’s September 10 visit to the Boston area, where he is scheduled to speak at Harvard University.

“State taxpayers should not be providing special treatment to an individual who supports violent jihad and the destruction of Israel,” said Romney.

Romney’s action means that Khatami will be denied an official police escort and other VIP treatment when he is in town.

Romney criticized Harvard for honoring Khatami by inviting him to speak, calling it “a disgrace to the memory of all Americans who have lost their lives at the hands of extremists, especially on the eve of the five-year anniversary of 9/11.”

Press release, 5 September 2006

But this doesn’t go far enough for Charles Johnson: “Unfortunately, Khatami’s security is already being provided by the same agency that authorized this outrage, the State Department, so Romney’s move is unlikely to make him forgo such a priceless opportunity to spread Islamic propaganda at one of America’s most prestigious schools.”

Little Green Footballs, 5 September 2006

More ignorance from Sookhdeo

Posted on by Bob Pitt

You might have thought that, after he made a fool of himself by calling for a major translation of the Qur’an to be banned, there would be few people who could take Patrick Sookdeo’s self-appointed role as an “expert” on Islam seriously. Unfortunately, the press has an insatiable appetite for attacks on Muslims and multiculturalism, no matter how discredited the author may be.

Thus the London Evening Standard had no hesitation in publishing a piece by Sookhdeo which tells us that: “The Islamic creed is non-negotiable. Those who do not share this creed are despised as kafir (infidels). Hatred of non-Muslims is preached in many British mosques.”

Sookhdeo continues: “the UK’s well-meaning policy of validating every faith and ethnic community culturally, in a depoliticised way, is naive when it comes to Islam. For Islam does not separate the sacred from the secular: it seeks earthly power over earthly territory. The result is that already the UK has reached the stage of parallel societies, where purely Muslim areas function in isolation. Worse, this is about to be made semi-official. In West Ham a gigantic mosque is planned by the radical Tablighi Jamaat group. The London Thames Gateway Development Corporation says that the new mosque will make West Ham a ‘cultural and religious destination’. This will be nothing less than an Islamic quarter of our capital city. But has anyone asked the people of West Ham?”

Summarising his argument, Sookhdeo writes: “I believe Islam needs different treatment from other faiths because Islam is different from other faiths. It is the only one which teaches its followers to gain political power and then impose a law which governs every aspect of life, discriminating against women and non-believers alike. And this is ultimately why a naive multiculturalism leads not to a mosaic of cultures living in harmony, but to one threatened by Islamic extremism.”

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Muslims are ‘death cult warriors in suicide belts’ says Nazi leader

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Nazi scumNick Griffin explains the problem with Muslims:

“It’s not just about Israel, or Palestine, or lraq (where, after all, the vast majority of civilian deaths have been at the hands of sectarian Muslims). It is also about their conviction that it’s their mission to Islamify Europe in general and Britain in particular. They see our lands as halfway towards falling into their hands, and read every attempt by the liberal Establishment to keep ‘moderate’ Islam onside as a further example of the weakness and decadence of our society. To them, our allowing their religion to be taught in our schools is not about multiculturalism or teaching ‘respect’, it’s a symptom of a society that has lost its way, that has forgotten its own roots – a society that it is Allah’s Will shall and must turn to the Way of the Prophet Mohammed (‘Peace Be Upon Him’, as our children will shortly have to say and write in schools).

“This is the problem for those who say that all we have to do to dodge the Clash of Civilisations is to change our policy in the Middle East. This is the line from all sorts of people, from leftists and liberals right through to neo-Nazis. But they are all either mistaken, fooling themselves, or lying. It’s too late for that; they don’t just want to get ‘the West’ out of Muslim lands, they also want to impose Islam on the West. The combination of ignorance and cowardice among our ruling elite that leads them to try to appease this unappeasable monster only serves to encourage them.

“There is no point in the cowards and apologists gesturing towards moderate strands of Islamic thought…. We have to deal with Islam as it is, not as liberals would wish it to be. Which means we have to deal with death cult warriors in suicide belts, not ascetic Holy Men wandering around in loin cloths.”

Chairman’s Column, 5 September 2006

Express opposes ‘burka-style’ hospital gowns

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express hospitalsThe Express reports on plans to offer “burka-style” gowns to Muslim women hospital patients:

“Last night Conservative MP Philip Davies, who has campaigned against political correctness, said the dress would stir up resentment on wards because patients would believe others were getting special treatment…. ‘It is another example of political correctness because it is the sort of thing that has been brought in because the words “faith” and “race” have been mentioned. The average patient on a ward will look at this and be resentful because they will say to themselves: “This has been brought in because it is a Muslim request”. They themselves may have other requests, like more visiting hours, more flexible meal times or a brighter lamp for their bedside table, but they know they’ve got less chance of achieving this. A burka-style hospital gown is only high on the priority list because of the politically correct world we live in.’ … The burka is the latest move to stir debate on priorities in the hard-pressed NHS.”

Of course, the garment in question has nothing in common with a burka, but the term is presumably chosen because it has associations with Afghanistan and the Taliban.

Daily Express, 5 August 2006

The bigger cultural picture

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Soumayya Ghannoushi“Is there anything inherently wrong in placing multiculturalism under the spotlight to critically examine it and assess its ills and virtues? The obvious answer is no. The problem is not with the question itself, but with its context, assumptions and terms.

“The current debate about multiculturalism takes place in the wrong context: terrorism. Like the non-heroes in Kafka’s tragic plots, who find themselves embroiled in situations in which they had no hand, multiculturalism has been dragged into the discussion of terrorism. It does not belong there.

“Those who have forced the subject into discussion start with a false diagnosis of the problem of terrorism. For example, that the problem is not political, but cultural. That policies and strategies are blameless. That culture and religion are culpable.

“The conclusion of this ostrich-like analysis is that the cultural pit must be drained if we are to get rid of the troublesome mosquitoes. Cultural diversity is at fault. It has allowed Muslims to continue behaving like Muslims.

“The now ubiquitous question about multiculturalism is, in reality, a question about Islam and Muslims. For ‘Has multiculturalism failed?’ read: ‘what is to be done about Muslims?’. The ‘multiculturalism problem’ is, in other words, a euphemism for ‘the Muslim problem’.”

Soumaya Ghannoushi at the Guardian’s Comment is Free, 5 September 2006

Media stereotyping in the ‘Molly Campbell’ case

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Misbah and fatherMolly’s case holds lessons for us all

By Sarfraz Manzoor

Guardian, 4 September 2006

When the news first broke that a 13 year old girl called Molly Campbell – also known as Misbah Iram Ahmed Rana – had been “abducted” by her Pakistani father and taken to Lahore the media appeared certain what kind of story this was: a vulnerable Asian girl is plucked from her Scottish home and forced into an arranged marriage.

The Independent quoted Molly’s grandmother claiming the schoolgirl had been taken to Pakistan and forced to marry a 25 year old man. Meanwhile, in the Times, Mary Ann Sieghart was bemoaning how “even the Outer Hebrides failed to provide sanctuary for Molly Campbell against a father determined to take her off to Pakistan”. Fellow columnist Camilla Cavendish waded in, noting that Molly’s “abduction” raises “fundamental issues of equality that cannot be swept under the carpet to protect ‘cultural sensitivities’.”

Cavendish was right that the alleged abduction raised fundamental issues, but wrong about everything else. On Friday afternoon Molly appeared on television with her father to announce she had left Scotland of her own free will and that she wanted to stay in Pakistan because she wanted to remain with her father. When the reporters continued referring to her as Molly she told them: “My name isn’t Molly, it’s Misbah.”

What I find particularly powerful about the case of Molly/Misbah is that it illustrates the dangers of racial profiling as practised by some of the media. No sooner had the story emerged than the news editors were preparing special reports on abductions and child brides, and the white middle-class columnists were busy revealing their lack of insight.

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‘Winning the War on Terror’ – fascists offer their advice

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The British National Party responds to the deaths of British soldiers in Afghanistan:

“If we are to bring about a victory in the War on Terror, then we must do so the British way. Uncuff the hands of the soldiers, and ensure that no lawyer in this country, can bring about any charges of any kind against any soldier for his/her actions in a foreign land…. We can win this war, and in doing so, put the fear of God into those British born, hate filled Muslims, that the only recourse for them, is to repatriate themselves back to their country of origin. Continual appeasement of the Muslim ‘community’ in Britain, by this treacherous New Labour regime, is the biggest crime of treason this country has ever seen. Whilst our boys are dying in a remote, inhospitable land, our politicians and senior policemen seek to ’embrace’ the Muslim community, rather than to fight it. ”

BNP news article, 4 September 2006