Terrorism due to testosterone and nihilism not foreign policy, Times explains

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Islam has an identity crisis that it must combat. A virulent strain that mixes testosterone and a nihilistic theology has afflicted a small minority of young Muslims.

“There will also be critics and cynics who are not Muslim, who would like to believe that if only foreign policy would change, the threat would immediately recede and the extremism evaporate. Those who would commit mass murder are not to be appeased by this or that policy fluctuation. Jihadists see Western society as innately evil, an existential threat to their puritanical, obscurantist version of Islam. They cannot come to terms with sexual equality, Western values, tolerance or democracy. To them, the Palestinian or Iraqi contexts are only settings for the introduction of an ideology that is utterly intolerant and regards moderate Muslims as apostates. If policy on either changed, they would look for other justifications for their fanaticism.”

Times, 11 August 2006

US Muslims reject Bush term ‘Islamic fascists’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

US Muslim groups criticized President George W. Bush on Thursday for calling a foiled plot to blow up airplanes part of a “war with Islamic fascists,” saying the term could inflame anti-Muslim tensions.

“We believe this is an ill-advised term and we believe that it is counter-productive to associate Islam or Muslims with fascism,” said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group.

“We ought to take advantage of these incidents to make sure that we do not start a religious war against Islam and Muslims,” he told a news conference in Washington.”We urge him (Bush) and we urge other public officials to restrain themselves.”

Reuters, 10 August 2006

‘Britain a soft target for Islamists’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Britain, like much of Europe, has discarded the anchors that held society in place and enabled it to endure in times of uncertainty. Churches are being turned into mosques…. Britain has made a virtue of its post-colonial guilt and its own loss of values by embracing multiculturalism, a fuzzy notion which holds that all cultures, all standards, all values are of equal merit. Into this morass of uncertainty step the young Muslims, certain of their belief and confident in their identity. Like the stranded passengers at London’s airports, wandering around glassy eyed and lost, Britain has become a soft target for these new Islamists. They know exactly who they are and where they are going.”

Douglas Davis explains the background to the alleged terrorist plot.

National Post, 11 August 2006

Terrorism due to ‘leftist radicalism and appeasement’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“By Thursday morning security forces had arrested some 21 suspects. All are British citizens. All are Muslims. It is not a stretch of the imagination to assume that these British Muslims are jihadists. Indeed, it can probably be assumed that, like their predecessors last July 7, they made their decision to commit an unspeakable atrocity against their countrymen to advance Islam’s takeover of Britain….

“… why is the jihad picking up steam now? Why are fanatical Muslims on the march this summer? It would seem that the answer to this question is found in the increased cultural weakness of the two states leading the war against radical Islam: the US and Britain. In both countries, for the past two years, the forces of leftist radicalism and appeasement have been on the rise.”

Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post, 11 August 2006

Anti-Muslim sentiments fairly commonplace

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Substantial minorities of Americans admit to having negative feelings or prejudices against people of the Muslim faith, and favor using heightened security measures with Muslims as a way to help prevent terrorism. Personally knowing someone who is Muslim – which 41% of Americans say they do – corresponds with more favorable attitudes on these questions. These are they key findings of a July 28-30, 2006 USA Today/Gallup Poll focusing on U.S. attitudes toward Muslims living in the United States.

Americans’ personal discomfort with Muslims is reflected in survey questions dealing with their reaction to being near Muslims in different situations. Nearly one quarter of Americans, 22%, say they would not like to have a Muslim as a neighbor. Slightly fewer, 18%, say they would feel nervous if they noticed a Muslim woman flying on the same airplane as themselves, while significantly more – 31% – say they would feel nervous if they noticed a Muslim man on their flight.

Americans tend to disagree with the notion that Muslims living in the United States are sympathetic to al-Qaeda; still, fewer than half believe U.S. Muslims are loyal to the United States.

Muslims are widely perceived to be committed to their religious beliefs, but this is not necessarily a positive assessment. While 47% believe Muslims are respectful of other religions, nearly as many (40%) disagree. Also, 44% say Muslims are too extreme in their religious beliefs and a slight majority (52%) say Muslims are not respectful of women.

All of this adds up to a significant number of Americans being willing to admit they harbor at least some feelings of prejudice against Muslims. Nearly four in ten Americans (39%) say they do feel some prejudice while 59% say they don’t.

The array of concerns about Muslims’ loyalty to the United States and religious extremism may also help to explain why about 4 in 10 Americans favor more rigorous security measures for Muslims than those used for other U.S. citizens. This includes requiring Muslims – including those who are U.S. citizens – to carry a special ID, and requiring them to undergo special, more intensive, security checks before boarding airplanes in the United States.

Gallup, 10 August 2006

British Muslims react to alleged terror plot

Posted on by Bob Pitt

British Muslims reacted with a mixture of concern and defensiveness to the latest terror alert and arrests. Raw memories of the Forest Gate fiasco and last year’s Stockwell shooting tempered their response. Sir Iqbal Sacranie, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “We applaud the action of the police in taking appropriate action to avert a tragedy but what is really required now is to be aware of the appropriate facts on which their action was taken. There is a danger of stigmatising a whole community. We should not allow certain sections of the media and politicians to use the opportunity to carry out a diatribe against us. We need to know the facts.”

Guardian, 11 August 2006

CAIR on LGF

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights organization often vilified on Johnson’s blog, calls Little Green Footballs “a vicious, anti-Muslim hate site … that has unfortunately become popular.” The irony, Hooper says, is that if the same kind of “hatred” that appears on LGF appeared on Muslim sites, it soon would be used by LGF’s fans to justify their worldview.

Like many politically themed blogs, Little Green Footballs doesn’t always traffic in subtlety and nuance. Dissenting points of view often are dismissed as “idiotarian” or “LLL” (for “loony liberal left”), and Islam is mockingly referred to as “RoP,” meaning “religion of peace.”

Hooper says the Reuters incident is unfortunate in itself, but says such sites as Little Green Footballs use such lapses “as a club against the entire mainstream media. Their line is basically that if one freelance photographer alters a photo, then everything Israel does must be justified. Or if one of the sentences that Dan Rather once uttered wasn’t correct, then the media is corrupt and Dan Rather’s whole career is rotten to the core.”

The FBI, according to Hooper, recently investigated several threats of physical harm against Muslims posted by Little Green Footballs readers.

Washington Post, 9 August 2006

Most Muslims are not separatists or extremists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Channel 4’s Dispatches survey has contributed nothing to the ongoing tense, contorted debate over identity and belonging. It is part of a currently fashionable trend to scrutinise Muslims and place every aspect of their lives under the spotlight, lest they may realize their inherent potential for extremism and violence. While they use every twist of the English language to assert their tolerance of difference, those who have succumbed to this trend can only be called arrogant, authoritarian, prejudiced and islamophobic. Why else would they regard the frequenting of a mosque, or wearing of a headscarf, as the marks of a separatist and would-be extremist?”

Soumaya Ghannoushi responds to the Dispatches documentary “What Muslims Want“.

Comment is Free, 10 August 2006

Police need to tackle ‘institutional Islamophobia’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Police Service risked further alienating young British Muslims unless more was done to tackle “institutional Islamophobia” in its ranks say Islamic groups spokespersons. The comments came after Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, called for an independent judicial inquiry into the radicalisation of young Muslims in the wake of the July 7 London bombings.

Massoud Shadjareh, chair of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said: “It has been clear for a very long time that there is an institutional Islamophobia in the implementation of stop and search. We need to get rid of a culture that exists – unfortunately it exists in our society as a whole, but it is much more damaging when mixed with the powers the police have.”

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, added, “Almost every Muslim family seems to know of someone, somewhere in the UK who has been stopped and searched for no reason other than the way they look or dress.”

Asian Image, 10 August 2006

Meanwhile, in a letter to the Times, a fellow copper takes issue with Tarique Ghaffur: “All police officers who have the task of policing the streets will be unimpressed that a senior officer is supplying ammunition to disaffected individuals, who will moan about police actions. It is hard enough to do your job without being undermined by your own senior management. We should try and keep Muslim communities on board, but we cannot change the profile of the current terrorist threat and adopt different ‘softly softly’ tactics. We would appear as a service unable to do our job because of being scared of offending Muslim communities. The bottom line is that the terrorist threat is from the Muslim world.”

Times, 10 August 2006

‘BNP call to ban Muslims from our skies’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP demonstration“Once again, British people are being inconvenienced by the activities of home grown Muslim terrorists who, it appears, have conspired to plant bombs on passenger planes leaving the UK…. The British National Party Executive’s solution to this problem is to ban immediately, ALL MUSLIMS from flying out of (and in to) Britain until the security situation has been fully resolved.”

BNP news article, 10 August 2006

In a further item on the subject, the fascists write:

“Many Muslim leaders who claim to be community spokesmen have tried to reassure the population at large that there is not a significant terrorist threat in this country from their community. They have gone out of their way to emphasis that recent high-profile raids have wrongly singled out members of their community. In words tantamount to blackmail they have suggested that if this targetting of their communities continues there is a risk of unrest. As such it should be obvious to all that there is an orchestrated and devious attempt to obstruct the job of our security services in a calculated Islamocentric and politically motivated manner.

“The raids today which appear to have been carried out after lengthy and detailed intelligence operations may have thankfully saved several thousand innocent lives and spared thousands more the grief of losing a family member or friend in an horrific orgy of murder and carnage over the Atlantic. The raids once again undermine the stance of the Muslim spokesmen who claim there is no threat from their community.

“Our readership should observe very closely the way in which Labour and the BBC put the security of this country at risk by downplaying the real threat in an attempt to preserve ‘community cohesion’.

“Further let’s demand an apology from these so-called community spokesmen made directly to the non-Muslim majority population for the massive disruption, fear and financial damage that members of their community have inflicted upon us today.”

BNP news article, 10 August 2006