“Lurking behind what is called ‘religion’ is a grotesque ideology that envisions all people living under the command and control of a tiny handful of men who dictate every facet of human life.”
Henry Lamb on Islam, in World Net Daily, 27 August 2005
Tariq Ramadan gets Oxford job
A prominent Islamic scholar who has been banned from the US is to teach at Oxford University. Professor Tariq Ramadan, who lives in Geneva, was named as one of the 21st Century’s great innovators by Time Magazine last year for his work. St Antony’s College says he is due to begin a Visiting Fellowship in October.
A college spokesperson said: “Professor Ramadan is an internationally-recognised scholar. Professor Ramadan is a regular visitor to Britain and the other states of the EU, without exception. St Antony’s college is a forum for free academic exchange on the issues of our times, and opposes all manifestations of hate speech and intimidation designed to curb academic freedoms.”
Robert Spencer is not happy: Dhimmi Watch, 27 August 2005
‘Never mind what the woman thinks, wearing a veil is offensive to me’!
“A robustness of attitude against the subordination of women is growing among us, and the wearing of the full veil is seen (accurately, despite the protests of some Muslims) as an outward manifestation of that subordination. It is not acceptable; it has to stop; and we should say so….”
Matthew Parris in the Times, 27 August 2005
Only united communities will defeat terrorism and protect civil liberties
The Mayor of London and a coalition of politicians, trade unions, faith groups and lawyers have signed a statement expressing grave concern over parts of the Government’s anti-terror proposals.
GLA press release, 26 August 2005
See also Guardian, 26 August 2005
The racist backlash goes on…
In the seven weeks after the London bombings the racist backlash against has continued, the Institute of Race Relations reports.
Torygraph lectures mayor on double standards
“Mr Livingstone’s comments will be gratefully seized on by the international Islamist brotherhood – not merely as useful corroboration of their own view, but as further evidence of the disunity and spinelessness of the West.”
The Torygraph takes issue with the Mayor’s supposed view that “homicidal attacks on Israelis are acceptable” (where did they get that from?).
‘The next victims of Islamic terror’ – BNP
“The July attacks on the capital’s transport systems were the opening salvos from the forces of the 5th columnists who have nothing less than the total Islamification of these islands as their ultimate goal. Western ideas … have been undermined by Britain’s Open Door immigration policy which has allowed nearly 2 million adherents of an alien faith walk in and settle here.”
The return of Mad Mel
No doubt you were hoping that Melanie Phillips, like Omar Bakri, would make her holiday a long one. But she’s back, with a series of rants that indicate she’s had difficulty bottling up her rage over the past three weeks or so. Here’s the short version: the government’s crackdown on civil liberties doesn’t go nearly far enough, Inayat Bunglawala’s statement that the Panorama attack on the MCB was motivated by a pro-Israel agenda betrays “the signature obsession of the Muslim fanatic”, Patrick Sookhdeo’s Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity is an admirable source of information and analysis and so is Daniel Pipes, the Mayor London is a “groupie for Sheikh Yusuf Quaradawi”, there’s the usual swipe at “the anti-Israel bigotry of the British left”, and so on and so on.
Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 26 August 2005
I particularly liked the letter Mel reproduces from one of her admirers denouncing the decision to issue Nottinghamshire police with green ribbons: “Incensed upon reading how the Chief Constable has issued his 4,000 officers with badges pledging support to the Muslim community in the wake of the London bombings I phoned and was put through to his PA…. I was given the usual gumph about how we shouldn’t tar one entire community with the same brush etc etc etc – usual liberal/public sector clap-trap. I suggested that they should in fact wear badges showing solidarity with the community under attack by the fanatical Muslims and the poor devils killed and maimed in these latest attacks. Whereupon I was accused of being a racist.”
It’s political correctness gone mad, I tell you.
‘Progress’ attacks MAB and Qaradawi
“That the Stop the War Coalition should have allowed the Muslim Association of Britain to be a partner organisation is disgraceful, given the MAB’s support for sharia law (with its disregard for women’s and gay rights), its belief that Muslims who renounce their faith should be put to death, and its calls for the state of Israel to be abolished.
“While we do not expect much better from the Stop the War Coalition, given its domination by the Socialist Workers party, others should know better. Ken Livingstone’s credibility as a spokesman for the rights of minorities and women, and his condemnation of terrorism in London, are severely undermined for so long as he continues to defend his decision last year to invite the radical Islamic cleric, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, to speak at a Greater London Authority event. On his website, al-Qaradawi advocates the killing of ‘perverted’ homosexuals, defends husbands who beats their wives and questions the innocence of rape victims. Al-Qaradawi is, furthermore, an out-and-out antisemite: defending not only the murder of Israeli civilians in suicide bombings but also looking forward to the day of judgement when ‘Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them’. Would the mayor be happy to host an American white supremacist who advocated the murder of African Americans?”
Editorial in Progress, September 2005
It’s rather ironic that this Islamophobic rant appears in the same issue of Progress that announces Sadiq Khan MP has just become one of its patrons (see here).
‘A Question of Leadership’: MCB letter to Ofcom
Here is the text of the Muslim Council of Britain’s letter of complaint to Ofcom in response to the Panorama programme “A Question of Leadership”:
Dishonest Omissions
1. The programme portrayed the MCB as being ‘in denial’ about extremism. The MCB makes no claims about perfection and we do have many shortcomings. However, it was deeply unfair of the Panorama team not to make mention of the MCB’s efforts to help promote the common good by sending a written emergency appeal – following the Madrid bombings – to every Islamic organisation and mosque in the country urging vigilance against the terror threat and cooperation with the police. In addition, in September 2004, the MCB printed 500,000 copies of a Pocket Guide on Rights and Responsibilities. This contained a section on ‘Vigilance and the Terror Threat’ in which we prominently printed the Anti-Terror Hotline Number.
The inclusion of the above information would have refuted the “denial” portrayed by John Ware. Accordingly, the omission of such information in our view breaches paragraphs 5.7, 5.11, 7.1 and 7.9 of the Broadcasting Code.
2. Sir Iqbal Sacranie was questioned in the programme in detail about statements attributed to some of our affiliates. By contrast, Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui (of the Muslim Parliament) was approvingly quoted in the programme several times and was not questioned in the programme at all about the far more controversial statement about bombing No 10 Downing Street made by his deputy Dr Yaqub Zaki which appeared in the national newspapers on the very morning of the Panorama programme.
The omission of such information in our view further breaches paragraphs 5.7, 7.1 and 7.9 of the Broadcasting Code.