Two-thirds believe London bombings are linked to Iraq war

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Two-thirds of Britons believe there is a link between Tony Blair’s decision to invade Iraq and the London bombings despite government claims to the contrary, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today.

The research suggests the government is losing the battle to persuade people that terrorist attacks on the UK have not been made more likely by the invasion of Iraq.

According to the poll, 33% of Britons think the prime minister bears “a lot” of responsibility for the London bombings and a further 31% “a little”. Only 28% of voters agree with the government that Iraq and the London bombings are not connected.

Guardian, 19 July 2005

Posted in UK

‘The real suicide bomb is multiculturalism’ says Mark Steyn

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“It was the Prime Minister’s wife, you’ll recall, who last year won a famous court victory for Shabina Begum, as a result of which schools across the land must now permit students to wear the full ‘jilbab’ – ie, Muslim garb that covers the entire body except the eyes and hands. Ms Booth hailed this as ‘a victory for all Muslims who wish to preserve their identity and values despite prejudice and bigotry’. It seems almost too banal to observe that such an extreme preservation of Miss Begum’s Muslim identity must perforce be at the expense of any British identity…. Is it ‘bigoted’ to argue that the jilbab is a barrier to acquiring the common culture necessary to any functioning society?”

Mark Steyn takes up the apparently endless right-wing refrain that the London bombings were due to multiculturalism and the failure to impose a uniform “British” (read: white majority) culture on all citizens.

Daily Telegraph, 19 July 2005

Congressman threatens Islamic holy sites

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Colorado congressman told a radio show host that the U.S. could “take out” Islamic holy sites if Muslim fundamentalist terrorists attacked the country with nuclear weapons.

Rep. Tom Tancredo made his remarks Friday on WFLA-AM in Orlando, Fla. Talk show host Pat Campbell asked the Littleton Republican how the country should respond if terrorists struck several U.S. cities with nuclear weapons.

“Well, what if you said something like – if this happens in the United States, and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims, you know, you could take out their holy sites,” Tancredo answered.

“You’re talking about bombing Mecca,” Campbell said.

“Yeah,” Tancredo responded.

Associated Press, 18 July 2005

Finding jobs ‘not easy’ for Muslim graduates

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim students are finding it harder to break into the job market than other graduates, government figures revealed today.

The minister for employment, Margaret Hodge, revealed that 76% of Muslim graduates of a working age are in jobs compared with 87% among all graduates.

Ms Hodge, who chairs the cross-government ethnic minority employment taskforce, told a seminar in London today: “Ensuring everybody has equal access to work is not just morally right – it’s good for business and the economy because it means we are making the most of our talents.”

She added: “But these figures show that some employers are missing out and too many graduates from ethnic minority communities are being left behind.”

Guardian, 19 July 2005

Posted in UK

Sarwar in talks after city bombs

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Glasgow MP Mohammed Sarwar has told the prime minister that more must be done to engage young Muslims in mainstream British life.

Mr Sarwar was part of a delegation of senior Muslims who met Tony Blair to discuss the London bombings.
The Labour MP said they were united in the fight against terrorists.

A task force will look at the problem of young Muslims feeling disconnected – a move greeted with scepticism by the Muslim Association of Britain.

Mr Sarwar said the Muslim community in Scotland was in a “state of shock” after the bombings in London.

BBC News, 19 July 2005

GALHA calls on home secretary to ban Qaradawi

Posted on by Bob Pitt

GALHA’s secretary, George Broadhead, said: “As well as supporting extremist positions on many sensitive issues, notably suicide bombing, Dr Qaradawi is virulently homophobic. He is not the sort of person who should be welcomed here at any time, let alone at a time when the country is reeling from the kind of extreme violence that is spawned by his religion. We are particularly concerned about the incitement to violence and hatred that his preaching brings. There should be no room for bigots like him in our pluralist society.”

GALHA news release, 19 July 2005

Ken: Why West must take share of the blame

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ken: Why West must take share of the blame

Evening Standard, 19 July 2005

Ken Livingstone today suggested that decades of western intervention in the Middle East and the Iraq war may have an impact on the bombers. The Mayor pointed to abuses of captured Iraqi prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison and of detainees at Guantanamo Bay by American forces. He said the ban on moderate Muslims, such as former singer Cat Stevens, from entering the United States would also have contributed. He said the war on Iraq ‘wouldn’t have helped’ and said the CIA had funded Osama bin Laden to fight against Soviet forces only for him to turn against the West.

Giving his first City Hall press conference since the London bombings, Mr Livingstone said: “We created these people. We built them up. We funded them. This has been a terrible legacy. This will all have some impact on how these young men’s minds were formed. 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.”

He also revealed that controversial Muslim preacher Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who was banned from entering the US and who was reported to be attending a conference in Manchester next month, was in fact not going to attend. The Mayor’s office recruited an Arabic speaker to contact Al-Qaradawi’s office and was told that the sheikh was “unaware of any invitation to come to Britain”.

Mr Livingstone, who met Al-Qaradawi at City Hall last year, also said academics described him as a “leading progressive Muslim”.

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Controversial cleric to visit UK

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mohammed Umer, of the Ramadhan Foundation, said the invitation to Dr Qaradawi had been sent in January and there was no reason to rescind it following the London bombings. “What’s actually happened in London, we condemn it, yet the reality of Youssef al Qaradawi is that he is the flag bearer of moderation in the Muslim world,” he said. “We agree with people and we disagree with people. For example, Nelson Mandela, when he was in prison, he was labelled as a terrorist but when he came out he became a freedom fighter. Youssef al Qaradawi is the same person who, after the London events, came out and clearly stated that it was un-Islamic.”

BBC News, 18 July 2005

Another right-wing call to ‘rethink our multicultural society’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Those close to Blair say it is now time to ask whether multiculturalism is to blame – and to accept that pockets of Muslim Britain have been allowed to become isolated and radicalised, thinking they live in an enemy state.

“It is a sign of the paucity of debate in Britain that multiculturalism is used interchangeably with ‘immigration’. It is, instead, a specific form of immigration where the foreigners are not encouraged to integrate. The alternative is the ‘melting pot’ method of integrationism used by the United States, whose newcomers must learn English, salute the flag and sign up to a set of values. They must buy into a basic idea that they have to belong. This would be seen as cultural imperialism in Britain, where a mosaic-style of immigration has been preferred. The natural consequence has been segregated ghettos – and pockets of radicalism, left alone to seethe.”

Fraser Nelson in Scotland on Sunday, 17 July 2005