Irshad Manji attacks multiculturalism, calls for less tolerance

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Irshad Manji Trouble With Islam“As Westerners bow down before multiculturalism, we anesthetize ourselves into believing that anything goes. We see our readiness to accommodate as a strength…. Radical Muslims, on the other hand, see our inclusive instincts as a form of corruption that makes us soft and rudderless. They believe the weak deserve to be vanquished. Paradoxically, then, the more we accommodate to placate, the more their contempt for our ‘weakness’ grows. An ultimate paradox may be that in order to defend our diversity, we’ll need to be less tolerant.”

Irshad Manji in the New York Times, 9 August 2005

Characteristic of Manji’s method is her reference to the play “Corpus Christi” by Terrence McNally, in which Jesus was depicted as a gay man. She tells us how in 1999 “Christians protested the show and picketed its European debut in Edinburgh, a reasonable exercise in free expression. But Omar Bakri Muhammad, a Muslim preacher and a judge on the self-appointed Sharia Court of the United Kingdom, went further: he signed a fatwa calling for Mr. McNally to be killed….”

Except that, if Bakri had indeed called for McNally to be killed, he would certainly have been prosecuted. In fact, what Bakri did was issue a fatwa “authorising” McNally’s execution by the Islamic state, while making it clear that individuals had no right to carry out the sentence. In other words, short of the establishment of Bakri’s version of the caliphate, which is not exactly an imminent threat, McNally was in no danger at all.

Continue reading →

Political correctness has crushed criticism of Islam in US, Robert Spencer claims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Over at Front Page Magazine Robert Spencer has a whinge about “the abysmal state of public discourse about Islamic terrorism today. The forces of political correctness as well as prominent American Islamic advocacy groups seem to be doing all they can to make sure that the American people are not exposed to any serious investigation of the genuine root causes of Islamic terrorism – such as I have undertaken in my new book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) [never miss an opportunity to give the book a plug, eh Robert?]. Even speaking the truth about Islam is becoming increasingly difficult in today’s stifling politically correct atmosphere”.

Well, looks like Islamophobia Watch is soon going to be out of a job, then.

‘Dire results of theory of multiculturalism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The theory of multiculturalism and its malevolent companion, political correctness, arrived on these shores from North America and was quickly taken up by the liberal, urban political elite. These theories were foisted on the British people without any consultation and the terrible consequences are only appearing now…. A Muslim festival like Eid is given as much importance as Christmas or Easter. There is something very wrong here.

“Minority groups, especially those from the Indian sub-continent, were encouraged not to integrate or mix, but to keep their own customs as though the UK did not exist…. So in many of our cities we have a society within the wider society with a religion, Islam, which often seems to the outsider to be more of a political movement than a way to being at peace with God and one’s neighbour. This society within a society has been encouraged to revel in its alleged victimhood, and, due to its lack of maturity, has never looked at its own faults but blames outsiders for all its ills…..

“The day that Muslims can accept rational criticism without the predictable cries of ‘Islamophobia’ will be the day when they are finally accepted into British society like the descendants of other immigrant groups over the centuries. Fear of western secular society and its achievements is perhaps due to the nature of Islam itself.”

Letter in the Herald, 9 August 2005

Secret courts for terror cases

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Special anti-terror courts sitting in secret to determine how long suspects should be detained without charge are now under active consideration, it emerged yesterday.

Home Office sources confirmed that ministers are considering making a French-style “security-cleared judge” responsible for assembling a pre-trial case against terrorist suspects, with in-camera access to sensitive intelligence evidence, including currently inadmissible phone-tap evidence.

The plan under consideration, which echoes elements of David Blunkett’s proposal last year for secret anti-terrorist courts, could also involve the use of security-vetted “special advocates” as legal representatives of those detained. But they would not be able to disclose the nature of the evidence under which their clients were held before being charged.

The proposal puts flesh on the point outlined by Tony Blair last Friday, when he said that part of the new anti-terror package would include “a new court procedure which would allow a pretrial process”. He said it would provide a way of meeting requests by the police and security services that detention before charge should be extended from the current 14 days up to three months.

Guardian, 9 August 2005

Judeo-Christian values rule OK

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Islam is not currently in the battle for men’s minds. Outside (and even inside) the Muslim world, it gains power largely through force. There are non-Muslims who convert to Islam out of sheer conviction, but in general, when Islam gains a foothold or actually attains power in a non-Muslim society, it is either through force or threats of force – e.g., Sudan, Thailand, the Philippines, Nigeria; or through a large immigration of Muslims – e.g., Western Europe. Its contemporary spread is not due to the power of its intellectual appeal, let alone the record of its contemporary social and moral achievements.”

Dennis Prager at TownHall.com, 9 August 2005

The new chauvinism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

George Monbiot“Out of the bombings a national consensus has emerged: what we need in Britain is a renewed sense of patriotism. The rightwing papers have been making their usual noises about old maids and warm beer, but in the past 10 days they’ve been joined by Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian, Tristram Hunt in the New Statesman, the New Statesman itself and just about everyone who has opened his mouth on the subject of terrorism and national identity. Emboldened by this consensus, the Sun now insists that anyone who isn’t loyal to this country should leave it. The way things are going, it can’t be long before I’m deported.”

George Monbiot in the Guardian, 9 August 2005

Labour MPs turn on Blair’s 12-point proposal

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Labour MPs are concerned that Tony Blair’s sweeping 12-point plan for tackling the threat posed by Islamist terrorism may hinder the very goals he seeks to achieve.

A former Home Office minister, the level-headed John Denham who now chairs the home affairs select committee, has expressed dismay that the government has abandoned the cross-party approach it pursued after the London bombings.

“The government responded to the bombings initially with a very measured approach, a very serious approach, good coordination across government,” he told the BBC.

“The last few days really give this sense that the government have got into a real state of nerves about the whole thing; it is displaying a lack of confidence in its own strategy and I think they’ve got to get a grip on it very, very quickly, stop floating half-baked ideas and get back to proper cross-party consensus on the serious measures that need to be taken.”

Labour backbenchers fear that Mr Blair is responding to tabloid criticism, exacerbated by militant comments on BBC Newsnight last week, and doing what he often does for good and ill – prodding a cautious Home Office into taking what may prove unwise steps.

What they see as Mr Blair “grabbing the agenda before it grabs him”, No 10 regards as a prudent attempt to address voters’ legitimate feelings. “Why the hell can’t we do something about these people?” as one senior MP puts it.

Guardian, 9 August 2005

See also Independent, 9 August 2005

Ann Cryer ‘defends’ multiculturalism (with friends like these …)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“For too long we have been urged to ‘celebrate diversity’. How can it be helpful to highlight the differences between us?”

Ann Cryer makes her usual helpful contribution to the defence of multiculturalism. Mind you, compared with some of her other interventions (see here and here) her Evening Standard piece is relatively restrained.

Continue reading →

How to nuke Mecca

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Muslim survivalists will only force the end to the terrorist activities springing up from amongst them when made to pay a terrible price. One ‘terrible price’ currently under debate is a nuclear attack on Mecca should any 9/11 scale attack (or larger) occur on US soil. I am in favor of such planning in the event of a catastrophic strike against America, because I believe the burden of loss needs to be shifted decidedly to fundamental Muslims themselves (and what they value most) if there is to be any hope of ending all this madness. To yield to Islamists’ demands and take the option off the table would be strategically stupid….

“But as has been pointed out by Robert Spencer, nuking Mecca could also be seen by Islamists as a weak action and could serve to unify Muslims and increase Jihad. But this is only true if not done properly and the city is left salvageable within a few years. Once devoted Muslims carry out their next major strike on America, the Mecca plan should be carried out without hesitation or warning. No Hiroshima class atomic wimp-weapon will do, only the 1,000 times more powerful hydrogen fusion device will work for this important job…. The strike is then repeated every 5 years or so if any kind of clean-up is attempted. Medina needs one too, to prevent Arabs from declaring the transference of the holy site to the secondary location.”

Vernon Richards at FaithFreedom.org, 6 August 2005