Right-wing evangelist offers ‘friendly advice to peaceful Muslims’

“If the ‘peaceful’ majority of Muslims do not begin to actively and vigorously expose the radicals in their communities, then we, the people of the United States and United Kingdom, will have to do it for them. We are tired of the ‘peaceful’ Muslims sitting by and doing nothing to expose the disciples preaching hate and jihad in their mosques. There is almost a silent admiration of these fanatics on the part of some. Many allow their financial contributions to be used by the jihad preachers….

“Our intelligence forces all warn that it is only a matter of time before Islamic terrorist will attack our cities with weapons of mass destruction. This includes everything from nuclear to biological bombs. When one of these attacks happens, a flood of rage will burst forth, and nothing or anyone will be able to stop it. The law of the jungle will take over. Muslim communities who did nothing to stop the radicals among them will be the first targets.”

Hal Lindsey writes in World Net Daily, 21 July 2005

Good Muslim, bad Muslim, moderate Muslim?

West's dialogue with Tariq Ramadan“Ramadan, whose grandfather Hassan al-Banna was the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, is considered the most important Muslim religious intellectual in Europe. He has written and spoken extensively on the need for Muslims to avoid building a ‘ghetto Islam’ and to work with people of all faiths to build a culture of peace and justice….

“Yet days before he was to move to Indiana to take up his position at Notre Dame the Bush Administration revoked his visa on the unsubstantiated charge that he was a ‘secret supporter of al-Qa’eda’. The real reason would seem to be his outspoken criticism of the Israeli and US occupations, despite the fact that Ramadan has explicitly recognized Israel’s right to exist, warning his followers against ‘simplistic and superficial anti-Americanism’, and vociferously opposes terrorism.”

Mark Levine weblog, 22 July 2005

Change foreign policy – top Muslims

Senior Muslims have warned the Government that it needed to revise British foreign policy if it wants to put an end to the violence.

Dr Azzam Tamimi, from the Muslim Association of Britain, said the country was in real danger and that this would continue so long as British forces remained in Iraq. He described the July 7 bombings and the attempted attacks in London on Thursday as “horrifying” but said it was not enough to simply unite in condemnation of the bombers.

Dr Tamimi, speaking after a Sky News debate in Birmingham, said: “The latest developments very clearly show this is a very big thing. It’s not just a few individuals from Leeds. I think it’s time everybody got serious and engaged in an attempt to prevent it. Part of that would be to understand what’s going on.

”7/7, 21/7, and God knows what will happen afterwards, our lives are in real danger and it would seem, so long as we are in Iraq and so long as we are contributing to injustices around the world, we will continue to be in real danger. Tony Blair has to come out of his state of denial and listen to what the experts have been saying, that our involvement in Iraq is stupid.”

Continue reading

Will police now shoot to kill?

A Muslim group has said it is concerned there is a new police “shoot to kill” policy in the UK following the shooting dead of a man in south London. The Muslim Council of Britain said it was getting calls from Muslims who were “distressed” about the incident at Stockwell Tube station. Roy Ramm, former Met Police specialist operations commander, said the rules for confronting potential suicide bombers had recently changed to “shoot to kill”.

BBC News, 22 July 2005

Will police now shoot to kill?

A Muslim group has said it is concerned there is a new police “shoot to kill” policy in the UK following the shooting dead of a man in south London. The Muslim Council of Britain said it was getting calls from Muslims who were “distressed” about the incident at Stockwell Tube station. Roy Ramm, former Met Police specialist operations commander, said the rules for confronting potential suicide bombers had recently changed to “shoot to kill”.

BBC News, 22 July 2005

‘Radical Islamists at Scots universities’ claim refuted

Radical Islamic groups are trying to recruit students at Scotland’s universities despite attempts to ban them.

Extremist organisations such as al Muhajiroun and Hizb ut Tahrir are operating under different names and moving bases within the UK to avoid detection, it was claimed yesterday.

The National Union of Students (NUS) Scotland said it was concerned that extremist organisations were trying to operate on campuses and that, although several had been banned, they had circumvented this by changing their names.

The comments came as the author of a study about to be published, called How Safe are British Universities? , said it was vital that universities in Scotland worked more closely with the security services.

Anthony Glees, director of Brunel University’s centre for intelligence and security studies, said his research documented 14 cases since 1993 of people being charged with terrorism offences having been in contact with extremist groups on campus.

This included the case of Shamsul Bahri Hussein, a Malaysian who read applied mechanics at Dundee University and who has links with Jemaah Islamiah, the organisation accused of being behind a string of bombings in Indonesia, including the 2002 Bali blasts.

“The time for a softly, softly approach is over when you are dealing with people who will kill themselves for an ideal. It is a growing problem as more people are attending universities and as some are starved of cash they now recruit more from overseas without being careful enough of who they attract, ” Mr Glees said.

The Herald, 20 July 2005

Continue reading

London’s Muslims feel public hostility

Muslim youths walked with a determined stride to London’s East End Mosque to say their prayers on Friday, just hours after armed police surrounded the building after a bomb threat.

Wearing the traditional shalwaar kameez, their heads crowned with the white prayer caps of Islam, swathes of young second-generation Muslims from Pakistan and Bangladesh made their way to the mosque on Whitechapel Road, one of the oldest and busiest in London.

Other teenagers on their way to prayers said they felt all Asians were suffering at the moment, whether they were muslim, sikh or hindu, and that few of the public really understood that only a minority of Muslims engage in terrorism, with the majority condemning it.

“Anyone with brown skin is suffering from these attacks. When I get on a bus, I feel very afraid. People look at me suspiciously and some even shout ‘Bin Laden, Bin Laden’ at me,” said Siratu.

Continue reading

Posted in UK