A reason to hate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“One of the most bewildering sights since last month’s dramatic Heathrow alert has been the succession of government ministers insisting that the terrorist threat has nothing to do with Iraq and British support for American foreign policy. Such political certainties fly in the face of all the empirical evidence I have found in a year of investigating how young Muslims are radicalised and recruited to fight in Iraq, not just in Britain but across Europe and the Middle East. Whenever and wherever I asked the families and friends of suicide bombers why their loved ones had been prepared to blow themselves up, top of their list was Iraq. Some were radicalised by the alleged illegality of the US invasion, others by torture at Abu Ghraib and abuses by the American military, and all by the continuing occupation of a Muslim land by foreign forces – including the British army.”

Peter Taylor in the Guardian, 1 September 2006 

Posted in UK

Australian banned from contacting Bin Laden

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Australian magistrate has ridiculed as “farcical” a government order banning a terrorism suspect from contacting the world’s most wanted man, Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

Magistrate Graham Mowbray made the comment while hearing an application to extend an interim “control order” placed on Joseph “Jihad Jack” Thomas after his conviction on terrorism charges was overturned on appeal. The control order restricts Thomas’s movements, imposes a curfew and prohibits him from contacting a list of people – including Bin Laden.

Political commentators have also scorned the inclusion of Bin Laden on the list, suggesting the government should instead be delighted if Thomas could lead them to the man the US has been hunting for five years. Thomas’ lawyer Lex Lasry, said the list included 13 people who were either dead or in custody at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He described the situation as “ridiculous”.

The government used controversial new anti-terror laws for the first time on Monday to place the control order on Thomas after an appeal court overturned his conviction and five-year jail sentence for receiving money and an air ticket from Al-Qaeda.

A control order can be granted if it is thought it might prevent a terrorist attack, or if it is suspected a person has received training from a terrorist organisation.

AFP, 31 August 2006

‘Islam-phobia’ abounds in post 9/11 America

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Nearly a third of Muslims in the United States are Black. However, ‘Islam-phobia’ – negative images and buzz words that produce stereotyping, physical and verbal attacks, and racial profiling of Muslims of color, including Muslims of African descent – has exploded in this country since the events of September 11, 2001.”

Charles Hallman reports on a panel discussion on media perceptions and misperceptions on Islam during the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention in Indianapolis earlier this month.

Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, 30 August 2006

MCB ‘not doing enough to stamp out extremism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain’s leading Muslim organisation is not doing enough to root out anti-Western extremism, eight out of ten people believe. A new opinion poll day suggests an overwhelming majority think the Muslim Council of Britain should do more to tackle dangerous radicalism in young Muslims. The survey, carried out for PR Week magazine, found 78 per cent of people overall, rising to nearly 90 per cent of over-55s, strongly agreed the organisation was not doing enough.

Daily Mail, 31 August 2006

Considering that most respondents have probably never even heard of the MCB, still less have any knowledge of its activities, it would be difficult to come up with a more stupid opinion poll. All the poll succeeds in registering is a high degree of ignorant anti-Muslim prejudice among the general population.

This hasn’t prevented mindless right-wing Islamophobes from seizing on the poll’s “findings” to attack the MCB. See, for example, Western Resistance, 31 August 2006

Muslim Miss England accuses Blair

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The country’s first Muslim Miss England has accused Tony Blair of fuelling hostility towards Islam in the wake of the London bombings. Hammasa Kohistani, 19, said the attacks of July 7 last year had in some ways brought communities together, as people from many different backgrounds were killed. But statements from the Government in the year since the bombings had created “negative stereotypes” of Muslims, she said.

Press Association, 31 August 2006

Don’t penalise all Britons – just Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Americans are at last waking up to the threat posed by British-born Islamists…. The fact that Americans are worried is gratifying. This column was among the first to warn about the radicalization of the British Muslim community. But there is a risk that, having ignored the danger hitherto, Americans may now overreact by penalizing all Britons, not just the minority who really do threaten security.

“It is true that opinion polls show that a significant proportion of British Muslims have at least some sympathy for jihadist extremism, and that even their leaders are unwise or unscrupulous enough to use the threat of terrorism to put pressure on Tony Blair to abandon his support for America and Israel. It is also true, however, that the overwhelming majority of non-Muslim Britons are just as hostile to Islamist terrorism as Americans.

“Even more significantly, the British – like the Americans – are now much more concerned about Islam than was the case five years ago. They no longer believe the assurances of ‘moderate’ Muslim leaders or their non-Muslim apologists that Islam is a religion of peace. People are much better informed and understand that there is a real problem about Islamic theology, which is constantly used to justify jihad against America, Britain and Israel, while suicide ‘martyrs’ are glorified.

“About half of all Britons now see Islam as such, not merely its most extreme versions, as a potential threat to their way of life – not before time. It is not only the war on terror that has to be won; there is a culture war, too. This involves resisting the encroachments of aggressive multiculturalism, which acts as a Trojan horse for Muslim demands to live under Shariah law or to censor legitimate criticism or comment.”

Daniel Johnson in the New York Sun, 31 August 2006

Faith schools – they’re OK so long as they’re not Muslim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

lord bakerIn a letter to the Times, Lord Baker of Dorking has written: “The Government, in its first flush of multiculturalism, allowed new exclusive faith schools to be established and funded by the state…. There are 100 Muslim schools waiting to apply. Their entrance criteria are explicit: the purpose is to create a total Muslim personality, and the required familiarity with the Koran means that non-Muslims would not be acceptable.”

Oddly enough, when he was education secretary under Thatcher in the late 1980s, I can’t remember Baker proposing to withdraw support from the thousands of Church of England schools that receive state funding.

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Western Union blocks Muslims’ transfer

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Western Union, a global money transfer agency, has delayed or blocked thousands of cash deliveries by American Muslims on suspicion of terrorist connections simply because senders or recipients have names like Mohammed or Ahmed, drawing rebuke from the community as a yet another form of identity harassment.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights advocacy in the US, insisted that the department has the right to fight terrorism, but not over Arab and Muslim Americans rights.

“A comprehensive policy has to be implemented by the Treasury Department to ensure accuracy in efforts to fight terrorism and stop funneling of money to terrorists,” Husam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR Los Angeles chapter, told IOL.

“But at the same time, those Americans who have not committed any wrongdoing must be able to transfer money without any problems or delays,” he stressed.

Ayloush said CAIR’s national office has met with Western Union to eliminate errors and ensure innocent individuals are able to transfer money without any fears or obstacles.

“We also urged Western Union to change its forms to include the first name, last name and middle initial of the sender and the recipient to help reduce false positives that could delay money transfers otherwise,” he added.

“CAIR also filed an FOIA request with the Treasury Department to become aware of what procedures are used to put the list together.”

Iman al-Asyouti believes these regulations seem like an accusation for every single Muslim American. “It means that they [the government] treat us as terrorists until we could prove the opposite,” she said. “It seems like a joke to me and I still can’t believe that things like this are happening here, in America,” she fumed.

Islam Online, 30 August 2006

OAP beaten unconscious in attack close to mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A disabled Bangladeshi pensioner was beaten unconscious with his own walking stick in a vicious assault in Wirral. Police are treating the attack on the 71-year-old as racially motivated and last night appealed for calm in the Muslim community

The pensioner, who is partially sighted and registered blind, was attacked by two men after he left the Shahjalal Mosque on Borough Road, Birkenhead, on Saturday evening. One of the men punched the victim in the face and he fell to the floor. They then took his walking stick and beat him until he was unconscious.

When the victim came round the offenders had fled. He managed to walk to his home nearby and alerted a neighbour to what had happened. The pensioner was taken to Arrowe Park hospital where he received treatment to a three-inch cut on his head and severe tinnitus, from which he is still suffering. He also lost a front tooth in the attack.

DI George Davies of Merseyside police said: “This was a despicable attack on a 71-year-old man who was walking home from the mosque after prayers.

“We are determined to find the cowards who carried out this sustained and brutal attack on a defenceless man and are appealing for members of the community who may know who is responsible for this to come forward. Nothing was stolen during the incident and at this moment in time we believe that the attack was racially motivated.

“Borough Road is a very busy thoroughfare and I am sure that many motorists will have driven along Borough Road on Saturday night and they could have information which could prove vital to our investigation.”

He added: “We are appealing for calm in the Muslim community and are working with the local elders to reassure them and to ask if anyone witnessed the attack.”

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