Mockbul Ali exposé – a damp squib

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Martin Bright (1)Rumours have circulated for some time that journalist Martin Bright was researching an exposé of Mockbul Ali, the foreign office’s adviser on Muslim Affairs. Ali’s sin was to have prepared an accurate briefing on Yusuf al-Qaradawi, which underlined the latter’s role as a force of moderation in the Muslim world – see (pdf) here. Clearly, from Bright’s perspective – he was the author of the Observer article boosting Panorama’s witch-hunt of the MCB – Ali was someone who needed to be discredited.

This week’s New Statesman (5 December 2005) contains the results of Bright’s labours – and a pretty damp squib it turns out to be. Ali’s unit at the foreign office apparently co-authored a PowerPoint presentation in which the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-e-Islami were described (entirely accurately) as “reformist” organisations. We are also informed that “Louise Ellman, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, has told the NS she intends to investigate Ali’s role in drawing up government policy towards British Muslims”.

Yes, well you can see why Ellman might not be too happy about Ali’s role. It was she who headed the witch-hunt of Dr al-Qaradawi during his visit to London in July 2004 and called on the home secretary to ban him. In 2003 she took advantage of parliamentary privilege (see here) to attack MAB:

“It is time that the spotlight fell on the Muslim Association of Britain, particularly the key figures, such as Azzam Tamimi, Kamal el Helbawy, Anas Al-Tikriti and Mohammed Sawalha. All of them are connected to the terrorist organisation Hamas. The Muslim Association of Britain itself is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood – an extremist fundamentalist organisation founded in Egypt in 1928, and the spiritual ideologue of all Islamic terror organisations. It is militantly anti-Semitic and always has been.”

Yup, that’s the same Anas Altikriti who’s currently in Iraq on behalf of MAB fighting for the release of hostages held by terrorists.

For Yusuf Smith’s comments on the NS piece, see Indigo Jo Blogs, 5 December 2005

For Osama Saeed’s comments, see Rolled Up Trousers, 6 December 2005

Muslim leaders demand the release of kidnapped peace activists in Iraq

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yusuf_al_Qaradawi“While fully supporting the right of the Iraqi people to resist occupation with all legitimate means, we denounce as illegitimate any act of aggression against innocent civilians irrespective of their religion or nationality. We therefore call for the immediate release of these four hostages and of all other Western civilians kidnapped in Iraq and urge whoever has the ability to play a role in the endeavour to secure their release and their safe return to their countries to spare no effort in this regard. All illegitimate acts of aggression against innocent civilians, including kidnappings, indiscriminate killing or other forms of harm inflicted upon non-combatants, only harm the just cause of the Iraqi people and their legitimate struggle for freedom and independence.”

Yusuf al-Qaradawi and other leading figures in the Muslim world issue an appeal for the release of the peace activists held hostage in Iraq.

MAB news release, 5 December 2005 

‘The Project’: an Islamophobic conspiracy theory

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Muslims may not be on course for another set of gas chambers as some seem to think, but Islamophobia in Europe is taking on yet another of the characteristics of traditional European anti-Semitism: the conspiracy theory.”

Yusuf Smith comments on the Muslim plot to conquer the world uncovered by Scott Burgess and Melanie Phillips.

Indigo Jo Blogs, 5 December 2005

Warning on ‘criminalising Muslims’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Government proposals to close mosques suspected of having terrorist links would criminalise entire communities, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said yesterday. He described the anti-terror measure as “the single most dangerous piece of legislation” if it were put into place.

Under Home Office proposals issued in October, members of mosque committees would face criminal charges if they failed to act against extremists using their premises. The home secretary, Charles Clarke, would then be able to close the mosque.

Sir Iqbal, who was speaking at the Global Peace and Unity event in Canning Town, east London, told the Guardian that the proposal should not be translated into law. “It’s not only divisive, counterproductive and ill-conceived, but it will cause more harm than good and will play into the hands of our enemies. We don’t have a problem with applying the law to tackle the incitement of hatred, violence or terrorism. That law is needed. But a mosque is a place of worship. It brings together a community and promotes messages of peace and tolerance.”

He also rejected the idea that there was any kind of dialogue between the government and the Muslim community. He said: “They ignored us when we told them the war in Iraq was wrong. After 7/7 the communication links were breached. We have sent our representations to the the government.”

Guardian, 5 December 2005

US Muslim group urges release of Iraq hostages

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The leading US Muslim civil liberties group has called for the immediate release of four Christian peace activists kidnapped in Iraq and threatened with murder.

“Those who left the comfort of their homes to advocate for the rights of others that do not share their faith, ethnicity or language should be celebrated and honored by Muslims, not humiliated by being made captives or, God forbid, killed,” Parvez Ahmed, chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told a news conference Sunday, December 4.

“As a leader of the American Muslim community and the head of America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group, I make a personal appeal to the captors of the four members of the Christian Peacemakers Teams – release our brothers in humanity immediately and unconditionally,” he said in a statement posted on CAIR’s Web site.

Islam Online, 5 December 2005

Over at Jihad Watch that well-known scholar of all things Islamic, Robert Spencer, asks: “Has CAIR ever protested against the kidnapping of anyone else in Iraq? … this protest of the kidnapping of the collaborators is the first one I personally can recall ever seeing from them.”

Jihad Watch, 5 December 2005

Well, I claim no expert knowledge of CAIR myself, but a quick google reveals several examples of the organisation condemning hostage taking in Iraq. For example here, here, here and here.

‘Islamofascist’ on mission to Iraq

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Hopes for the release of a British hostage seized in Iraq last month were given a boost last night as prominent Sunni Muslim groups condemned the kidnapping. Five Sunni organisations announced they opposed the kidnapping of peace activist Norman Kember. The move followed the arrival in Baghdad yesterday of Anas Altikriti, a prominent member of the British anti-war movement [and the Muslim Association of Britain] who is leading talks to free Kember. Despite fears for his safety, Altrikiti’s initial attempts to persuade Kember’s kidnappers to release him appeared to produce immediate results. Sunni organisations were persuaded to issue a statement condemning the kidnappings and calling for the hostages’ release.”

Observer, 4 December 2005

Yes, like Dr al-Qaradawi before him, we have a leading representative of so-called “Islamofascism” campaigning for the release of western hostages in Iraq.

Livingstone chooses Muslims over gays, Yale students are told

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“This month’s riots in the immigrant ghettos outside Paris are only the latest manifestation of a continent in decline. Expressly, Europe has abandoned its culture. Thus, it has lost the means by which to assimilate Muslims who have shown no inclination to emulate those who seek American citizenship and accept the pluralistic values our country represents…. A proper analysis of Great Britain’s attempts at integration of Muslims is far too great a task for a newspaper column, but the behavior of the mayor of that country’s capitol city is cause for distress.

“On first glance, London’s gay community could have no better friend than Ken Livingstone. A legendary member of the far-left wing of the Labour Party, the mayor has been an outspoken advocate for gay rights. He started the first Partnership Register in the United Kingdom. He regularly attends the London Gay Pride Parade. He has worked with his city’s police force to crack down on homophobic crime. In spite of this flawless record on gay rights, Livingstone has repeatedly expressed support for radical Islamist cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Qatar-based imam whom the mayor hosted at City Hall last year….

“Livingstone holds the value of ‘multiculturalism’ as the highest of all, even if that means respecting cultures that seek to destroy ours. The risk of offending a single Muslim is too onerous for Livingstone to condemn those who glorify terror. During the Cold War, the term ‘useful idiot’ (ironically coined by Lenin) was applied to those in the West who excused away or completely ignored the atrocities of Communism. ‘Red Ken’ Livingstone, as he is affectionately known, was a useful idiot then and is no less a useful idiot of the Islamofascists now.”

The usual right-wing American rubbish, assisted by quotes from Peter Tatchell and Brett Lock of Outrage.

Yale Daily News, 1 December 2005

Over at Jihad Watch, Robert Spencer draws the appropriate conclusions: “This article shows why it is so important for Westerners to drop the outmoded language of Left and Right, as I have argued many times: there are those who are interested in defending Western civilization against the jihad, and those who aren’t. Ken Livingstone isn’t.” Spencer spells out his own tactical recommendation: “Opponents and proponents of gay marriage … need to unite now and defend against a common enemy who would render all such controversies moot.”

Dhimmi Watch, 4 December 2005

Rather redundant advice, I would have thought. Tatchell, Lock and their friends long ago adopted the position that, in order to pursue their vendetta against Islam in general and Dr al-Qaradawi in particular, they are more than ready to form a bloc with the anti-Muslim Right.

Attacking Islam hinders integration: Danish Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim activists blasted recent anti-Islam remarks by a Danish lawmaker, cautioning that recurrent attacks on their faith by politicians and some media hinder the minority’s integration into society.

“The Muslim minority has for sometime been suffering from anti-Islam and anti-Muslim statements which send shockwaves through the minority,” Qassim Saeed Ahmed, the media officer of the Copenhagen-based Scandinavian Wakf, told IslamOnline.net.

MP Martin Henriksen of the People’s Party has recently described Islam as a “terror network,” describing Muslims and their faith as enemies of Western civilization. “Such statements infuriate Muslims and stymie their integration into the Danish society,” Ahmed said.

He stressed that the Scandinavian Wakf, the main Muslim organization in Denmark, is coordinating with other groups the possibility of taking the lawmaker to court.

Henriksen’s attack on Danes who revert to Islam have also triggered rebuke. “I think such statements would eventually having their toll on Muslim reverts,” Ahmed. The Danish legislator described Danes who embrace Islam as morally inferior, accusing them of betraying their roots and culture by becoming Muslims.

“This is unacceptable and violates Danish laws,” Abdul Wahid Pedersen, a Danish-born imam, told IOL. “Such statements demonstrate utter ignorance of the true teachings of Islam,” he added. Pedersen, who embraced Islam 28 years ago, shrugged out any influence of such hostility on himself. “But new reverts might be affected.”

Both Ahmed and Pedersen agreed that the more the Danes understand Islam, the more they will respect the Muslim faith and its believers.

Islam Online, 4 December 2005