Another attack on ‘anti-semitic’ MCB

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Brett Lock of Outrage! joins the witch-hunt against the Muslim Council of Britain, repeating the sort of accusations of anti-semitism that we’ve already heard from the likes of Rod Liddle. According to Lock, arguing that some of those responsible for the campaign against the MCB are pursuing a pro-Israel agenda is the same as blaming it all on a plot by “the Jews”.

Lock & Load, 23 August 2005

A disappointingly thin selection of links on this new blog, I notice. I’m sure Brett’s readers would appreciate being directed to some of his co-thinkers, such as Jihad Watch or Melanie Phillips.

MAB urges Home Secretary to be consistent

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Muslim Association of Britain today said that the Home Secretary Charles Clarke should try any terrorist suspects in the UK rather than deporting them. The organisation also queried what the definition of “terror” would be when judging if someone had “justified” or “glorified” it abroad.

Ahmed Al-Sheikh, President of MAB said:

“It’s only right that if someone is suspected of a crime that they should be tried for it. By saying the government is simply going to deport people instead, it leaves the suspicion that they are trying to appear tough on the issue. In reality, it’s not a very clever policy. To fight terrorism, the government needs to win hearts and minds through serious engagement and dialogue rather than introducing draconian measures which will alienate communities and erode civil liberties.

“One added complication seems to be the definition of terror which Mr Clarke has consistently avoided. We are concerned that recently the government has branded legitimate struggles against oppression and occupation as terrorism. This should not be the case, but if it is, then anyone glorifying or justifying the killings on the side of illegal military occupiers should also be guilty of inciting terror. There should not be a different moral standard whether the killing is carried out by homemade bombs or by F16s and tanks.”

MAB press release, 24 August 2005

Clarke unveils deportation rules

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The home secretary has published the grounds on which foreigners considered to be promoting terrorism can be deported or excluded from the UK. Charles Clarke issued the list of “unacceptable behaviour” by those said to indirectly threaten public order, national security, or the rule of law. The grounds, drawn up after the 7 July London bombings, include provoking and glorifying terrorism.

But civil liberty groups fear deportees could be tortured in their homelands. Amnesty’s Halya Gowan said: “The vagueness and breadth of the definition of ‘unacceptable behaviour’ and ‘terrorism’ can lead to further injustice and risk further undermining human rights protection in the UK. And the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) says the list of “unacceptable behaviours” is “too wide and unclear”.

BBC News, 24 August 2005

Muslims must learn to appreciate football

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mike Baker offers his impressions of a conference of Muslim students in Leicester:

“They made an arresting sight. Many wore traditional caps, headscarves and flowing robes. There were plenty of beards amongst the young men. Incongruously, they met at the Walkers Stadium, the home of Leicester City Football Club. Welcoming them, the chief executive of the club asked how many of them were football fans. Only a small minority indicated they were.

“Hardly any had been to a match at the ground, even though they all came from fairly nearby, either Leicester itself, Coventry or Birmingham. This was a sharp reminder of the cultural divide that can exist. The Muslim community in Leicester is large and well-established. The football club is well supported in the city. But local Muslim students do not join their fellow white and black students on the terraces.”

BBC News, 23 September 2005

What is this – the “football test”? If so, this member of the Islamophobia Watch collective would certainly fail it.

Posted in UK

MCB and CAIR bigger threat than al-Qaeda, claims Daniel Pipes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Qaradawi and Mayor 2Daniel Pipes asks: “Do terrorist atrocities in the West, such as the attacks of September 11, 2001 and those in Bali, Madrid, Beslan, and London, help radical Islam achieve its goal of gaining power? No, they are counterproductive. That’s because radical Islam has two distinct wings – one violent and illegal, the other lawful and political – and they exist in tension with each other. The lawful strategy has proven itself effective, but the violent approach gets in its way.”

As an example of the efficacy of the “lawful and political” strand of Islamism, Pipes points out that “political imams like Yusuf al-Qaradawi instruct huge audiences on Al-Jazeera television and visit with the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone”.

Surely an argument in favour of the West building links with that wing of Islamism, you might think, in order to isolate and weaken the “violent and illegal” tendencies? Apparently not. According to Pipes, it’s the advances made by “lawful and political” Islamists that pose the greatest threat to western civilisation:

“In tranquil times, organizations like the Muslim Council of Britain and the Council on American-Islamic Relations effectively go about their business, promoting their agenda to make Islam ‘dominant’ and imposing dhimmitude (whereby non-Muslims accept Islamic superiority and Muslim privilege). Westerners generally respond like slowly boiled frogs are supposed to, not noticing a thing…. Terrorism impedes these advances, stimulating hostility to Islam and Muslims. It brings Islamic organizations under unwanted scrutiny by the media, the government, and law enforcement. CAIR and MCB then have to fight rearguard battles.”

So, basically, Pipes regards the likes of Al-Qaida as playing an essentially positive role! This is where the warped logic of Islamophobia leads you.

New York Sun, 23 August 2005

BBC defends Panorama’s Muslim film

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The BBC has received 250 complaints about Sunday’s controversial Panorama documentary on the challenges faced by the Muslim community in the wake of the July 7 bombings, which was yesterday labelled “a complete travesty” by the Muslim Council of Britain.

The lobby group said yesterday that it planned to send a formal letter of complaint to the BBC director general, Mark Thompson, calling the programme “deeply dishonest”.

Guardian, 23 August 2005

See also “Muslims attack BBC over ‘unfair’ film”, Daily Telegraph, 23 August 2005

And “MCB demands BBC apology”, Islam Online, 23 August 2005

Irshad Manji: denial is scourge of Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Irshad Manji writes an open letter to Australian prime minister John Howard, much along the lines of John Ware’s Panorama witch-hunt, attacking mainstream Muslims and urging Howard to adopt an aggressive approach towards those attending today’s summit on religious violence. Yes, that’s the same John Howard who has been criticised for excluding more radical Muslim voices from the meeting, leading to accusations that he was only interested in talking to those who would tell him what he wanted to hear.

The Australian, 23 August 2005

Read this letter and ask yourself – is it any wonder that Manji is enthusiastically applauded by the likes of Daniel Pipes, Melanie Phillips and Anthony Browne, and almost universally loathed by her fellow Muslims?

Continue reading →

Panorama was a hatchet job on Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Being in denial has much in common with living a lie. The distorted picture in your mind becomes ever more detached from reality as it is challenged, to the extent that the two eventually bear no resemblance at all. That’s an apt description of the political and media reaction to the July bombings. Instead of directing the heat at politicians whose neo-colonial and Islamophobic motives led Britain into a quagmire in Iraq, the chattering classes have been digging the nation into an ever bigger hole by pointing the finger at its Muslim minority. Notwithstanding fitful spurts of interest in foreign policy, ‘the problem with Islam’ has become the dominant narrative.”

Faisal Bodi in the Independent, 23 August 2005

Chavez exports Islamic extremism

Posted on by Eddie Truman

You couldn’t make it up.

US far right Christian fundamentalist Pat Robertson tells the world that Hugo Chavez, the left wing President of Venezuala, is exporting communism and Islamic fundamentalism.

Robertson accused Chavez, a left-wing populist with close ties to Cuban President Fidel Castro, of trying to make Venezuela “a launching pad for Communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent.”

CNN, 23 August 2005

Robertson’s solution to the problem? Easy, the US should assassinate Chavez as soon as possible.

‘Talking freely about the enemy’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Daniel Pipes takes exception to the US State Department’s description of Tom Tancredo’s call to nuke Mecca as “insulting and offensive”, and to the sacking of radio talk show host Michael Graham for describing Islam as “a terrorist organisation”. Daniel explains:

“I do think it vital that they and others be able to conduct a freewheeling discussion about the Koran, jihad, radical Islam, Islamist terrorism, and related topics, without fearing a reprimand from the U.S. government or a loss of their livelihood…. nothing can be off limits in this debate; and there must be no penalty for those who express their views.”

Daniel Pipes blog, 22 August 2005