At this of all times, BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme launches an attack on the Muslim Council of Britain, accusing them of supporting suicide bombing. Needless to say, Dr al-Qaradawi’s name features prominently. Inayat Bunglawala replies on behalf of the MCB.
Multiculturalism under attack
“British politicians are not only having to review domestic security.They are being forced to think again about the mix of liberal policies pursued by successive governments since the 1960s – collectively known as multi-culturalism. Multiculturalism was designed to bring different communities together, but its critics argue it has only served to keep them apart.”
Guantánamo abuse ‘allowable’
Interrogators at Guantánamo Bay degraded and abused a key prisoner, forcing him to wear a bra and threatening him with a dog, military investigators claimed yesterday. But in a military report pre sented before the Senate armed services committee, the investigators said the treatment of the Saudi man, described as the “20th hijacker” in the September 11 attacks, did not amount to torture.
The man was not named during the hearing, but the Pentagon identified him as Mohamed al-Qahtani. The Senate panel heard that he was forced to wear a leash and subjected to investigations for up to 20 hours a day.
See also Washington Post, 14 July 2005
It is an insult to the dead to deny the link with Iraq
“The first piece of disinformation long peddled by champions of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan is that al-Qaida and its supporters have no demands that could possibly be met or negotiated over; that they are really motivated by a hatred of western freedoms and way of life; and that their Islamist ideology aims at global domination. The reality was neatly summed up this week in a radio exchange between the BBC’s political editor, Andrew Marr, and its security correspondent, Frank Gardner, who was left disabled by an al-Qaida attack in Saudi Arabia last year. Was it the ‘very diversity, that melting pot aspect of London’ that Islamist extremists found so offensive that they wanted to kill innocent civilians in Britain’s capital, Marr wondered. ‘No, it’s not that,’ replied Gardner briskly, who is better acquainted with al-Qaida thinking than most. ‘What they find offensive are the policies of western governments and specifically the presence of western troops in Muslim lands, notably Iraq and Afghanistan’.”
Seumas Milne in the Guardian, 14 July 2005
Muslim leaders condemning terror to deaf?
“Why don’t Muslims denounce terrorism? This has been a persistent drumbeat on talk radio, one that was echoed last year by syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin after CAIR took on a radio host in Boston. The organization, she wrote, ‘won’t condemn Muslim fanatics, but it has declared war on outspoken Americans who will’.”
Mark Woods points out that repeated denunciations of terrorism by US Muslims are systematically ignored by right-wing pundits.
Muslim communities must be treated as allies, not enemies
“Our best chance lies within the Muslim community itself – in its own capacity for reform and renewal. That’s precisely why the Sun‘s front page on Tuesday demonising the Muslim thinker Tariq Ramadan was so inexcusable.
“Here is a man who commands respect across the Muslim world. Here is one of those rare thinkers who can help us plot a way forward for a self-confident Islam securely established in Europe. He is a crucial figure in reaching audiences that non-Muslims cannot, yet the Sun wilfully twisted old quotes to depict him as a supporter of terrorism who should be banned from the UK, a call echoed by the Daily Telegraph yesterday.
“This is irresponsible journalism at its scaremongering worst.”
Madeleine Bunting in the Guardian, 14 July 2005
The anti-Muslim backlash begins
In the hours after the bombings in London, the backlash began. Innocent people, as in the bombings, were targeted in what appear to be racially motivated attacks. The Institute of Race Relations reports.
NUS statement about Tariq Ramadan
“Earlier this year and as a result of incorrect articles like those found in The Sun last week, the NUS National Executive Committee also condemned Mr Tariq Ramadan for his stance on women, homosexuals and other faith groups. We too were caught up in the hysteria that the media creates around prominent Muslims today.
“Such articles can only contribute to hostility and mistrust of the Muslim communities as a whole. In the past few days, the Muslim Council of Britain have received over 30,000 emails of anti-Muslim abuse. Our own Muslim members have reported being verbally and physically abused. Phrases such as ‘Islamo-nazi nutters’ as used in one of The Sun articles may give rise to even more anti-Muslim racism.
“Last week’s horrific attacks were not an ‘Islamic atrocity’. They were terrorist attacks against ordinary people, Black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old and we must work together as one in defiance against them.
“National Union of Students UK”
Muslim scholar’s invite defended
Met Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has defended the decision to invite a controversial Muslim scholar to speak at a police-sponsored conference.
Tariq Ramadan’s US visa was revoked in 2004 for “security reasons”. Mr Ramadan has been accused of supporting attacks in Israel and Iraq. He publicly condemned the 11 September and London attacks.
Sir Ian said his was an important voice that would be listened to by young radicalised Muslims. He said Mr Ramadan, who was also previously banned in France, had been visiting the UK for five years. “We can’t understand why he’s banned in the US, (and) he is no longer banned in France,” Sir Ian said.
Muslim scholar to press on with lectures
Britons of all races must pull together to promote a common understanding, a leading Muslim scholar said yesterday. Professor Tariq Ramadan said only a shared dialogue between Britain’s different communities could isolate extremists. He told the Guardian that he intends to press ahead with his lecture visit to London and Birmingham despite calls yesterday from the Sun for him to be banned from the country.