Julie Burchill complains about “English toddlers being forced to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid when they are still trying to get their heads around the Easter Bunny”. Note the casually racist assumption that those who celebrate Easter are English while those who celebrate Eid are not.
Usually volatile mayor wins praise for low-key presence
“Ken Livingstone, London’s famously loose-lipped mayor, boarded a subway train here as cameras flashed, demonstrating this city’s resolve not to be cowed by the terrorist attacks that struck three subways and a bus last week. ‘We are going to work, we carry on our lives,’ Livingstone told reporters on Monday morning before resuming his usual commute to work. ‘We don’t let a small group of terrorists change the way we live.’ And that was all.
“Livingstone, 60, has emerged as a sort of anti-Rudolph Giuliani in the wake of the terrorist attacks, the worst the city has ever seen. He has made two solemn statements worthy of Winston Churchill, but has otherwise kept a remarkably low profile for a man whose quarter-century in politics has been marked by bold initiatives and maverick debates. There has been nothing of the post-Sept. 11 take-charge behavior that briefly catapulted Giuliani, as mayor of New York, to the national political stage.
“At last, some people are saying, ‘Red Ken,’ as he is known because of his outspoken liberal views, has hit the right note of humility and outrage and quiet resolve without getting anyone upset. But there may also be something else at play: Livingstone was lambasted last year for inviting an Egyptian-born, Qatari-based conservative cleric, Sheik Yousef al-Qaradawi, to London in what Livingstone’s defenders say was an attempt to demonstrate to the city’s disaffected, radical Muslim youth the mayor’s willingness to engage in dialogue.”
Or perhaps, duh, it might be because the Mayor of London has significantly fewer powers than the Mayor of New York. Or hadn’t the NYT noticed that? Plus, of course, two days after this article was published the mayor addressed a 50,000-strong vigil in Trafalgar Square to commemorate the victims of the bombings – and two days after that organised the massive London United concert to celebrate the capital’s diversity and protest against those who sought to destroy it.
Putting the onus on Muslims to defeat terror
Osama Saeed writes to the Glasgow Herald after Joan McAlpine writes her column essentially blaming Muslims collectively for the London bombings:
Joan McAlpine (July 14) says Muslims must do more to combat terror.
It would be the easiest thing in the world for me to join many Muslim leaders to say exactly that.
This begs the question – did Muslims really hear people threatening violence in this country but do nothing about it? I can say without reservation that if I had ever seen or met anyone proposing or hinting at bombings I would have no hesitation in reporting them. The reality is we don’t know who these people are, even their families didn’t.
The prime minister has of course welcomed this attitude and indeed led from the front on it. “In the end, this can only be taken on and defeated by the [Muslim] community itself, ” he said on Wednesday.
By doing this he put the onus on Muslims to defeat terror, handily absolving himself of all responsibility. Muslims are not in denial of our duties as above. But much like global poverty, world peace can only be achieved by the prime minister and his powerful allies.
There is a phenomenon at play here, and it is Mr Blair who is in denial about his role in this. He was told by the security services that his and Bush’s war in Iraq would put us in more danger, not less. Had Iraq not happened we would still be facing problems. But Iraq is the current front through which violence is being funnelled.
The Italian Parliament have now braced themselves for an attack on their soil. Why do they think they are next and not, say Norway?
Jack Straw this week apologised for Britain’s role in the Srebrenica massacre. This is welcome, but these apologies need extended to Britain’s more explicit roles in creating the injustices in the Muslim world. From the mess left in Kashmir, to the promising of one people’s land to another in Palestine. Apologies would be a start, but need a recognition of our mistakes, coupled with a commitment not to repeat these errors.
Either you can think these suicide bombers are part of Islam, or an irrational reaction to the injustice taking place in the world.
If it’s the first you have to explain why this hasn’t existed for the 1400 years of the religion.
Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesperson, Muslim Association of Britain, 16 Queen’s Crescent, Glasgow.
Multiculturalism has fanned the flames of Islamic extremism
“It has been only over the past decade that radical Islam has found a hearing in Britain. Why? Partly because, in this post-ideological age, the idea that we can change society through politics has taken a battering. And partly because the idea that we should aspire to a common identity and a set of values has been eroded in the name of multiculturalism.”
Former Revolutionary Communist Party supporter Kenan Malik joins with the racist Right in blaming multiculturalism for the London bombings.
‘Cleric who defended suicide bombers allowed into Britain’
“A Muslim cleric who has defended suicide bombings in Israel and Iraq is to be allowed into Britain next month for an international conference. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, 79, who has a visa to come to Britain but is banned from entering the United States, has been asked to attend the conference in Manchester.
“The invitation will be seen as the first test of the Government’s promise after the London bombings to clamp down on hardline Islamic preachers and other extremist clerics.
“Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, is expected to let Dr Qaradawi enter Britain despite having the power to ban him on the grounds that his presence is not ‘conducive to the public good’ and is a threat to public order.”
And good for Charles Clarke (it’s not often I say that). At least he can recognise a mainstream Muslim scholar who fights against the extremism that produced 7/7, which is more than can be said for the Murdoch press.
Islamophobia and liberalism
“Islamophobes don’t just see Muslims as culturally backward, they see Islam and any movement it might spawn as necessarily politically retrograde and monolithic. And the tendency by some to celebrate and congratulate ‘secular’ or ‘apostate’ Muslims (like the silly sap, Irshad Manji) reminds me of nothing so much as the Christian fundamentalist dictum about homosexuals – love the sinner, hate the sin. We nice liberals love Muslims, and wish to draw them to our breasts if only they’ll recant.”
London’s mayor: A terrorist puppet?
“Our hearts go out to London – but not to its mayor. London’s leader, Ken Livingstone, eloquently condemned the recent terrorist bombings. But in the past, he never seemed too concerned about terrorists murdering Israelis. The tale of Livingstone’s ambivalence is a sordid kind of Greek tragedy.
“Last year, he welcomed a violently Jew-hating Muslim preacher to London. In so doing, he became a silent partner of Islamic terrorism – which has now turned against his own city. Today, he is an updated Oedipus Rex, accessory to a horrible crime of which he himself is a victim.”
David Gelernter in the LA Times, 15 July 2005
US apologizes to UK imam for visa mishap
The United States administration has lifted a visa ban on an internationally renowned British Muslim scholar and apologized to him for the inconvenience, allowing him to visit the country anytime.
“I woke up Friday (July 15) to a phone call from the office of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, and his aides apologized on his behalf for the US move and told me that the minister would raise the issue with top US officials,” Zaki Badawi, head of the Islamic College in London, told IslamOnline.net by phone Saturday, July 16.
Badawi said few hours after the conversation, the US embassy in London called him to apologize in their turn and stressed that it was an unintentional mistake.
Political magazine misery
Yusuf Smith responds to articles from the Spectator and New Statesman on the London bombings.
The backlash has begun, and I fear for the innocent
“The immediate media response on numerous fronts has been to demonise Islam and bring out of the closet so-called experts and those on the fringes of Islam’s middle path, with their extreme views. Opinions from some media commentators are being conceded as legitimate interpretations of Islam, although many of them have no scholarly background on Islam and unanimously offend almost the entire Muslim world.
“Ironically, the universally respected scholars such as Tariq Ramadan are being targeted as extremists although merely scratching the surface of the accusations against him reveal their acute flaws. By creating a villain out of the voices of reason and reconciliation, Muslims are being deprived of their most eloquent spokespeople and subsequently the ability to adequately defend against false accusations.
“The mainstream media needs to take responsibility for its actions and seriously consider the incitement that misrepresentation of Islam and Muslims in Britain can set in motion. By sensationalising this tragedy, our communities are being torn apart.”
Rajnaara Akhtar in the Independent, 16 July 2005