Anti-Islam Republican convention in Texas

cherrytreelogoA convention of a group of Republicans was due to take place in Texas on Tuesday that critics and concerned Muslims have denounced as anti-Islam. The group, which calls itself Cherry Tree Republicans, charges that Muslims are bombing Israel, Jordan, England, Spain, France, and that Al Qaeda has training camps “as close as Mexico and South America”. “Our borders,” the convention literature states, “are crossed by thousands illegally every week, including illegal aliens from Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iran and Syria.”

Muslims, the group claims, either want to “convert us or kill us”. It goes on to say that “Islam teaches that Muslims must wage war to impose Islamic law on non-Muslim states”. American Muslim groups are said to be engaged in a “huge cover-up of Islamic doctrine and history”, and “today’s jihadi terrorists have the same motives and goals as the Muslims who fought the Crusaders”. The group says that Muslim persecution of Christians has continued for 13 centuries and still goes on.

Daily Times, 16 November 2005

‘The pathology of an Islamic mind’

“Always able to put the blame elsewhere for all of Islam’s crimes and problems, Muslims eagerly accept any and all excuses for the sins of Islam, no matter how illogical those excuses may be. If their warped minds can’t accept the fact that their ‘religion of peace’ is to blame, the blame is pushed off on the Jews, or justified by claiming it was Islam that was attacked first. Denial is their first line of defense.”

Barbara J. Stock assesses the Amman bombings. ChronWatch, 16 November 2005

The battle to banish Babar Ahmad

Free BabarHome Secretary Charles Clarke has authorised Babar Ahmad’s extradition to face terrorism charges in the US. The decision follows a long fight by the US for his removal and by Mr Ahmad and his supporters against the move. The 31-year-old computer expert from Tooting, south London, is accused of running websites supporting terrorism and urging Muslims to fight a holy war.

BBC News, 16 November 2005

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain, stated: “This is a very sad day for all who value fairness and justice. It is unacceptable that under the Extradition Treaty 2003 there is no longer any need for the US government to prove to a UK court or even to the Home Secretary that there is a prima facie case against British citizens. We are very disappointed that the Home Secretary has agreed to this extradition request and we call on him to renegotiate the Extradition Treaty 2003 so that it better protects our citizens – whether Muslims or non-Muslims – from this type of manifest injustice. If our government has any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Babar Ahmad then he should be charged in this country and put on trial here.”

MCB news release, 16 November 2005

‘Me – racist?’ Diesel Balaam replies to his critics

Sick Face of Islam“Mr Fernando is right to say that racism has no place in the lesbian and gay community. As I wrote in the Gay & Lesbian Humanist magazine ‘… racism is the antithesis of Humanism. We are not concerned where people come from genetically or geographically, but we ought to care very much about where they are going, ideologically. Racial discrimination is abhorrent …’ In other words, no one should be discriminated against or victimised because of their race, ethnicity, or skin colour – however, we should (and I quote again from the article) ‘… hold people to account for their beliefs and the actions that arise from them’.”

Diesel Balaam defends himself against the accusation by Denis Fernando of LAGCAR and other critics that his article in the current issue of Gay and Lesbian Humanist magazine is racist.

Gay.com, 10 November 2005

Happily, Balaam’s article is now available online and readers can judge for themselves.

Mad Mel strikes back

“The attitude of much of the liberal media in Britain, France and the US to the French riots is now clear. The riots have nothing to do with Islam. The fact that most of the rioters are Muslim is irrelevant. The riots are about poverty, unemployment and discrimination. Anyone who says there’s an Islamist agenda here is a far-right bigot peddling patent and dangerous untruths.”

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 14 November 2005

Mel also accuses Jason Burke of arguing that “my analysis is rooted in a barking mad species of conservative thought”. Couldn’t have put it better myself.

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 13 November 2005

Racial integration increasing, study shows

Britain has become more racially integrated over the past decade, according to research released today which also debunks what it calls “myths” about Muslims choosing to live separately.

The research from Manchester University is at odds with claims by Trevor Phillips, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality, who has said Britain is “sleepwalking to segregation”.

Guardian, 15 November 2005

It’s the latest disease: sensible people saying ridiculous things about Islam

David Aaronovitch“It’s time, apparently, that I woke up and smelt the cardamom, or whatever scent it is one associates with Islam. I’m wasting my time, some people reckon, stuck in a cushioned ante-room off a corridor leading away from reality while asserting – as I did last week – that the French riots were not to be explained by the religion of many of the rioters. Last Tuesday my e-mail box declared itself full after a small deluge of readers wrote in, most declaring that, although they weren’t French and hadn’t been there for a while, they knew – absolutely knew – that Islam was behind it all. And that those who thought otherwise were in a state of denial.”

Times, 15 November 2005

Who’d have thought it? An article by David Aaronovitch I actually agree with – well, apart from the implication that Rod Liddle is to be included in the category of “sensible people”.

‘Bicultural Europe is doomed’ – Torygraph columnist predicts civil war

A new right-wing take on the multicuturalism debate. Mark Steyn asserts that it is not the co-existence of multiple cultures within a society that is a problem but the supposed fact that in Europe there are only two cultures – Muslim and non-Muslim. With its “ageing native populations, and young Muslim populations”, Europe is heading for inevitable confrontation between these two irreconcilable cultures – “you can’t buck demography – except through civil war”.

Daily Telegraph, 15 November 2005