Under the heading “Militants invited to Commons by Short”, the Daily Mail (1 March) condemns the former minister’s decision to host a meeting with Hizb ut-Tahrir. Predictably, the campaign in the right-wing press is aided and abetted by Peter Tatchell.
Cartoon-krieg: politics as war by other means
“Make no mistake. Jyllands-Posten is not in the business of promoting the freedom of speech. Nor are the European governments that rallied to its defense. What they claim is the license to injure the oppressed and marginalized.”
Lila Rajiva in MRZine, 28 February 2006
US pays Muslim detainee £170,000
An Egyptian arrested after the September 11 attacks, detained for 10 months and then deported, has been awarded £170,000 by the US government. Ehab Elmaghraby, who ran a restaurant in Manhattan, was among dozens of Muslims detained after the outrages in New York and Washington. He sued the government with another former detainee, a Pakistani immigrant, who is still pursuing the action.
Mr Elmaghraby, 38, was held in maximum security conditions in Brooklyn from October 2001 until August 2002. In the lawsuit, filed in 2004, the men said they were shackled, shoved into walls and punched, kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day and denied adequate meals and medical care. Haeyoung Yoon, Mr Elmaghraby’s lawyer, said her client had wanted to continue with the lawsuit but settled because he was ill and faced mounting medical costs.
Muslim garb ‘confronting’, says Aussie PM
Most Australians found the full traditional garb of Muslim women confronting, Australian prime minister John Howard said today.
“I don’t mind the headscarf but it’s really the whole outfit, I think most Australians would find it confronting. I don’t believe that you should ban wearing headscarfs but I do think the full garb is confronting and that is how most people feel. Now, that is not meant disrespectfully to Muslims because most Muslim women, a great majority of them in Australia, don’t even wear headscarfs and very few of them wear the full garb.”
Note that while Howard is reported as ruling out a change in the law regarding any form of Islamic dress, in the actual quotes he only rules out a ban on the headscarf.
Jihad Watch applauds Trevor Phillips
Robert Spencer gives his seal of approval to CRE chair Trevor Phillips’ suggestion, following that of Australian deputy PM Peter Costello, to the effect that Muslims who want sharia law should go back where they came from. Under the heading “Anti-dhimmitude in the UK: Muslims who want sharia law ‘should leave'”, Spencer applauds “A welcome statement in the UK, echoing one that has already been made in Australia. Other non-Muslim states should follow suit.”
Who is really responsible for violence?
Haroon Siddiqui on the violence provoked by the Danish cartoons crisis: “As tragic as all this is, it pales in comparison to the million innocent Muslims killed, and millions more maimed, in the name of fighting terrorism or finding non-existent weapons of mass destruction or other excuses. Those who in recent days have been lecturing Muslims about violence seem strangely out of touch with reality, or to be riding the high horse of hypocrisy. They would have had greater credibility had they not been the cheerleaders of, or silent partners in, the creation of the killing fields whose dust now drifts our way every once in a while.”
Howard and Hanson back Costello
Prime Minister John Howard has backed his deputy Peter Costello over the treasurer’s call for radical Muslims to assimilate or move to another country.
Mr Costello made a host of radio and television appearances today to hammer home his attack on what he calls “mushy multiculturalism”. He also challenged Muslim leaders to pledge their allegiance to Australia before criticising his views on immigrants and the values they brought to this country.
Mr Costello’s remarks come three days after the publication of comments by Mr Howard, accusing some Muslims of bringing jihadist views and opinions about women that did not fit in Australian society. Last week Liberal backbencher Danna Vale warned that Muslims could be in the majority in Australia within 50 years.
Muslim leaders say they are concerned about a continuing government attack on their religion and called on Mr Howard to censure Mr Costello. Federal Labor politicians accused Mr Costello of playing politics and trying to distract attention from the AWB Iraq wheat bribes scandal.
But NSW Labor Premier Morris Iemma said Mr Costello was right. And former One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said the treasurer had vindicated her own views.
Mr Howard said Mr Costello’s comments were fundamentally accurate and not designed to inflame or divide people. “What Peter was basically saying is that if people don’t like what this country is then they shouldn’t come here,” Mr Howard told Southern Cross Broadcasting. “That is an unexceptionable position to take.”
Women condemn Howard’s Islamophobia
A large number of women and women’s organisations across Australia have issued a statement condemning PM John Howard’s latest anti-Muslim comments.
Muslims who want Sharia law should leave UK – CRE chief
Muslims must accept that freedom of speech is central to Britishness and should be preserved even if it offends people, says Sir Trevor Phillips. The chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) said we should “allow people to offend each other”. And he suggested that Muslims who wanted a system of Islamic Shariah law should leave the UK.
Update: See also Guardian, 27 February 2006
Blair backs Hizb ban
“Organisations that support terrorism take enormous care to avoid infringing the strict letter of the law. Last August, I named Hizb ut-Tahrir as such an organisation. Within days, its website changed, putting out a very moderate message, and I was lambasted for trying to curb free speech. But this is an organisation which has been banned in Germany and Denmark: it is active on campuses where it promotes its extremist message. People should be prevented from glorifying terrorism. You can say it is a breach of the right to free speech but in the real world, people get hurt when organisations encourage hatred.”
Tony Blair in the Observer, 26 February 2006