Islamophobia is not racism – Rod Liddle

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“When Islam appears on the agenda, the goalposts are moved: the normal rational thought processes are not applied. Suddenly those Left-liberal shibboleths are not very important: they can be forgotten. Append the description ‘Muslim’ to anyone and all bets are off; he or she can get away with pretty much anything, be it the execution of homosexuals or the idea that Jews and Freemasons are running the government. This springs from the misconception, widespread on the Left, that being anti-Islam is in some way ‘racist’. It is not. It has nothing to do with race.”

Another anti-Muslim rant by Rod Liddle in the Spectator, 17 September 2005

“Nothing to do with race”? Well, apart from the fact that the overwhelming majority of Muslims are non-white, of course. But then, Liddle claims that his hardline anti-immigration stance has nothing to do with race either.

He identifies racism narrowly with prejudice against people on the basis of their skin colour. This of course ignores the fact that racist propaganda these days more often takes the form of diatribes against the supposed undermining of “British” values by “alien” cultures. From which standpoint Liddle is clearly categorisable as a racist.

Uni slams terror report

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A top Welsh university last night hit out after being labelled a haven for Islamic extremists in a new report. Swansea University described the claims as “alarming and irresponsible” after being named among 30 British universities where extremists and terror groups have been detected.

The report, by Anthony Glees, director of Brunel University’s centre for intelligence and security services and one of Britain’s leading terror experts, will be published this week. It lists universities where Islamic extremists, members of the far-right British National Party and animal rights fanatics have operated.

The report accuses Swansea of having played host to Muslim extremists and refers to Ramzi Yousef, a student who took part in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York. But Yousef had studied electrical engineering at now-closed West Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education, not Swansea University.

icWales, 18 September 2005

The report, entitled When Students Turn to Terror, is published by the respectable-sounding Social Affairs Unit, whose director is Michael Mosbacher. For some useful info about Mr Mosbacher, and his record of involvement with right-wing organisations, see here.

Muslim groups, others call for Romney apology

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A coalition of Muslim and civil-libertarian organizations yesterday demanded that Gov. Mitt Romney apologize for suggesting earlier this week that some mosques be wiretapped. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of Massachusetts delivered a letter, co-signed by 21 other organizations, saying Romney’s comments depicted Muslims living in the United States as potential or actual terrorists.

“Governor Romney, the safety of Massachusetts is built upon the trust all residents – citizens and immigrants – have in their government,” the letter stated. “Your willingness to profile and scapegoat an entire community based on religious affiliation only serves to erode trust and increase fear.”

Lowell Sun, 17 September 2005

See also Boston Globe, 17 September 2005 

Robert Fisk asks: ‘How can we lecture the Islamic world?’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Take the Christians who massacred the Muslims of Srebrenica. Or take the Christians – Lebanese Phalangist allies of the Israelis – who entered the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in Beirut and slaughtered up to 1,700 Palestinian Muslim civilians.

“Do we remember that? Do we recall that the massacres occurred between 16 and 18 September 1982? Yes, today is the 23rd anniversary of that little genocide – and I suspect The Independent will be one of the very few newspapers to remember it. I was in those camps in 1982. I climbed over the corpses. Some of the Christian Phalangists in Beirut even had illustrations of the Virgin Mary on their gun butts, just as the Christian Serbs did in Bosnia.

“Are we therefore in a position to tell our Muslim neighbours to ‘grasp the nettle’? I rather think not. Because the condition of human rights has been so eroded by our own folly, our illegal invasion of Iraq and the anarchy that we have allowed to take root there, our flagrant refusal to prevent further Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank, our constant, whining demands that prominent Muslims must disown the killers who take their religious texts too literally, that we have long ago lost our moral compass.”

Robert Fisk in the Independent, 17 September 2005

‘Britain’s ostrich mentality’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The Terrorism Act of 2000, in section 59 1(a), ‘Inciting Terrorism Overseas’, clearly states, ‘a person commits an offence if he incites another person to commit an act of terrorism wholly or partly outside the United Kingdom’. Needless to say, such an act also constituted an offense when committed in England. Yet Islamist imams were allowed with impunity to incite suicide bombing in British mosques, on the Internet and in the media. They were allowed to do so because this incitement chiefly targeted Israel.

“Although such incitement has recently lessened in intensity, the very same Islamist leaders, preachers, imams and scholars who supported it have been appointed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to a new task force to tackle extremism among young Muslims. Among the appointees are Tariq Ramadan, the Swiss grandson of Hasan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and Inayat Bunglawala, the spokesperson of the Muslim Council of Britain.”

Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen have a go at Tariq Ramadan and Inayat Bunglawala, plus Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Ken Livingstone and George Galloway.

Front Page Magazine, 16 September 2005 17

Extremist groups active inside UK universities, report claims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A report due to be published next week by Anthony Glees, the director of Brunel University’s centre for intelligence and security studies, lists more than 30 institutions – including some of the most high-profile universities in the country – where “extremist and/or terror groups” have been detected. “This is a serious threat,” Professor Glees told the Guardian. “We have discovered a number of universities where subversive activities are taking place, often without the knowledge of the university authorities.”

Guardian, 16 September 2005

Note the weasel formulation “extremist and/or terror groups”. The only Islamist groups the article refers to are Al-Muhajiroun and Hizb ut-Tahrir. The former has in fact dissolved itself, and its successor organisations, the Saviour Sect and Al-Ghurabaa, reportedly have a total membership that doesn’t even reach three figures. Hizb ut-Tahrir, by contrast, has a couple of thousand members, but publicly dissociates itself from terrorist violence. Of course, we’ll have to wait for the report, but on the face of it this looks like another anti-Hizb witch-hunt.

Clarke’s draft bill proposes new offence of glorification

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The government’s proposed anti-terrorism laws published yesterday are so widely drawn that anyone who “glorifies, exalts or celebrates” any terrorist act committed over the past 20 years could face a sentence of up to five years in prison. But the small print of the draft terrorism bill published yesterday shows that the home secretary is preparing to go even further and draw up a list of historical terrorist acts which if “glorified” could mean a criminal offence being committed.

A Home Office spokeswoman said 9/11 was such an example; it would become a “listed event”, the appropriate ban lasting longer than 20 years. However, the 1916 Irish Easter Rising would be exempt. Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said the offence of “glorification” was so broad it meant the home secretary was now acquiring powers to determine which historical figures were terrorists and which freedom fighters.

Guardian, 16 September 2005 

Muslim fears at terror plans

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The government has unveiled its package of proposed anti-terror measures – and for many Muslims in Britain it is deeply troubling. No leading Muslim argues against tough measures to prevent terrorism because it is a danger to everyone: the list of the London victims included black and white, rich and poor, Muslim and non-Muslim. But many still regard the government’s response as being, at best, cack-handed and, at worst, having the potential to infuriate an anxious, young constituency that already feels that it is under the spotlight.

BBC News, 16 September 2005