“Isn’t it becoming terribly clear that Islam – at least the Islam of Australia’s Arab sheiks and imams – is hostile to our society? … Isn’t the evidence that some cultures – Muslim Arab ones – pose more problems than their importation at this rate is worth? Isn’t multiculturalism making these problems worse? … the London bombings, perpetrated by home-grown Muslims, makes our silence on such issues not a sign of civility, but suicide.”
Andrew Bolt in the Herald Sun, 20 July 2005
“Mayor Ken Livingstone faced calls to quit last night after trying to justify suicide bombing. He said: ‘Given that the Palestinians don’t have jet fighters and don’t have tanks, they have only their bodies to use as weapons. In that unfair balance, that is what people use.’
“Last night Lord Janner of the World Jewish Congress said: ‘His sad attempt to justify Middle Eastern suicide bombers is a betrayal of the hundreds of innocent people who suffered from this terrorist barbarism in London.’ The Board of Deputies of British Jews added: ‘It is absurd he should parrot this apology for indiscriminate mass murder.’ Ann Widdecombe demanded Mr Livingstone resign.”
Ken Livingstone yesterday blamed western policies for contributing to the spread of the extremist beliefs that inspired the London bombers. The mayor of London highlighted the West’s role in the creation of al-Qa’eda by saying: “We created these people. We built them up. We funded them.”
Mr Livingstone has condemned the London bombings in the strongest terms, and immediately after the attack he was widely praised for the way he spoke up on behalf of all Londoners.
But yesterday he abandoned his consensual approach when he claimed that western policies in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Iraq may have influenced the bombers.
Mr Livingstone said: “This particular strand of extremism was funded by the West in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden was just another businessman until he was recruited by the CIA.
“I suspect the real problem was that we funded these people, as long as they were killing Russians. We gave no thought to the fact that when they stopped killing Russians they might start killing us.”
U.K. Jewish leaders reacted with outrage to the latest comments of London mayor Ken Livingstone, and called him “a lackey of the Muslim agenda” in Great Britain and said he has “always had this extremist hatred of Jews and Israelis.”
Their reactions came in response to comments by Livingstone Tuesday where he seemed to suggest he backs Palestinian terrorists. “He is a lackey of the Muslim agenda in this country,” Jon Benjamin, director general of The Board of Deputies, elected leadership of the U.K. Jewish community, told Ynetnews Wednesday. “Livingstone is prepared to say anything for his support base.”
You can just imagine what the response of the BoD would be if someone were accused of being “a lackey of the Jewish agenda in this country”.
“Those who insist on attacking leading Muslim figures such as Al-Qaradawi, who by the way is not visiting London this summer – though he should be made welcome in the country at anytime for it would be an honour to have him – only play into the hands of the terrorists whose recruiting powers are enhanced by the discrediting of mainstream authoritative scholars and thinkers.
“During his visit to the UK last summer, Sheikh Al-Qaradawi told the Muslim youth in this country that they had only one option and that is to integrate into society, engage in the political process and be law-abiding citizens. He has always insisted that there is no contradiction between being loyal to Islam and to the UK or between an Islamic religio-cultural identity and a British national identity.”
“IHRC is deeply concerned at what appears to be the British government’s strategy to ‘deal with the Muslim community’. In the wake of the attacks of 7/7, Islamic belief and practice has been routinely and glibly criticised by no less than the Prime Minister himself. However more worryingly, the Muslim community has repeatedly been asked, if not ordered to ‘tackle extremism’, ‘fight the causes of extremism’ and other such tasks that are portrayed to the public at large as essential measures to combat the type of terrorism witnessed in London.
“These statements simply fuel the idea that the attacks in London were the result of a process that is understood, transparent and above all accessible to all Muslims in the UK. This simply scapegoats Muslims as the cause of terrorism and is a dangerous stereotype to promote at any level, let alone as the formulation of government policy.”
“… we are constantly told this terrorist attack has nothing to do with Islam by ‘mainstream’ Islamic groups in Britain such as the Muslim Council of Britain and the Islamic Human Rights Commission. The political Islamic movement is so vile that even some of its brethren – at least in public and in Europe – aim to disassociate themselves from it – but no matter how hard they try, they cannot succeed. Britain’s ‘top Muslim scholars’, for example, are to issue a fatwa effectively ex-communicating the ‘bombers’ – something they are not really allowed to do but good PR nonetheless.
“And they say they are not part of the same movement and that this has nothing to do with Islam. In fact, terrorism is justified and encouraged in Islam. In an interview with BBC’s Newsnight last year, Yusef al-Qaradawi, Ken Livingstone’s ‘moderate Islamic scholar’, said Islam justified suicide bombings. He said: ‘This is not suicide. It is martyrdom in the name of God.’ The Koran is full of verses supporting terrorism…”
Yeah, I know, difficult to distinguish this from the sort of stuff you find on the BNP website, isn’t it? But the author is in fact Maryam Namazie of the Worker Communist Party of Iran.
A controversial Muslim cleric who was invited to speak at a conference in Britain is not coming, according to the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.
Egyptian-born scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi, 79, who has praised suicide bombings by Palestinians, was expected to speak at the Muslim Unity Convention in Manchester next month. But Mr Livingstone, who has welcomed al-Qaradawi on previous trips to London, said that the cleric was not even aware he had been invited.
The mayor’s office telephoned al-Qaradawi’s office with an Arabic speaker and were told that he is not coming to Britain. Mr Livingstone said: “Not only is he not coming (to Britain), he was not aware that he was invited.”
Muslim leaders defend Al-Qaradawi visit
By Hugo Duncan
Press Association, 19 July 2005
Muslim leaders have defended the forthcoming visit of a controversial cleric who praised suicide bombings by Palestinians. Egyptian-born scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi, 79, who is banned from entering the United States, has been asked to speak at a conference in Manchester just weeks after the London bombings. Al-Qaradawi, who is head of an Islamic research centre in Qatar, visited Britain last year as a guest of Mayor of London Ken Livingstone. The visit sparked protests from Jewish groups and gay people, who al-Qaradawi also criticised.
Although he distanced himself from suicide attacks in the West he defended suicide attacks against Israelis. He is expected to speak at the Muslim Unity Convention at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on August 7. Mohammed Shafiq, of the Ramadhan Foundation, which organised the event, said: “I do not think that it is a problem. He is a moderate and he says what he has said has been taken out of context and we take his word on that. He is a respected figure in the Muslim community and that is why he has been invited, to help promote cultural and religious diversity.”
“Now the truth is out. After days of tough talking from the Prime Minister, assurances that strict measures will be put in place against future terrorist attacks and a vow to crack down on the extremists in our midst, the Egyptian-born scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi is to be allowed in to this country.
“He is due to speak at a conference in Manchester: it has yet to be seen whether he repeats his view that suicide bombing in Palestine is ‘martyrdom in the name of God’.
“Just what are we doing letting in a man like that? The United States has barred him: we should be doing exactly the same. For far too long, we have allowed preachers of hate to visit these shores, spouting their evil rhetoric, and what happened in London two weeks ago is a direct result of that.
“It is time to understand once and for all that there are many people throughout the world and some – thanks to a misguided policy of tolerance – living in our very midst who want to destroy the West. And they believe that only by supporting violence and terror will they be able to do so.
“The British tradition of free speech is a fine thing but it has been abused far too far. We should ban this man al-Qaradawi at once.”
Daily Express, 19 July 2005