No place for an apologist for atrocities

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Reports that an Islamic academic, banned from America and France for justifying terrorism, has been invited to speak in London will leave people of all faiths aghast. Egyptian-born Professor Tariq Ramadan is due to address young Muslims in the capital later this month, his visit funded by the Metropolitan Police and the Association of Chief Police Officers… in other words, taxpayers. It seems incredible that anyone with sympathetic views on how and why suicide bombers kill should be heading here just days after terrorist atrocities which claimed dozens of lives.”

Yorkshire Evening Post, 12 July 2005

What is truly incredible is that any serious journalist should parrot accusations from a witchhunting article in the Sun without making the slightest effort to check the facts.

Daily Mail attacks multiculturalism and Tariq Ramadan, applauds Irshad Manji

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The foreign media are awash with references to ‘Londonistan’, describing how this country has become a safe haven for Islamic extremists – ‘a crossroads for terror’ according to the New York Times. They also voice incredulity that the malign impact of multiculturalism and political correctness has for years seen Britain segregated into inward-looking communities that eschew British values while the forces of law and order walk on eggshells, desperate not to offend.

“The Americans have a point. As extremist clerics preach a gospel of hate, we wring our hands but do nothing. Should we then be surprised when impressionable young men heed their words and act, with horrific results?

“Far from silencing the extremists, we welcome them. Tariq Ramadan, an Egyptian academic who has justified acts of terrorism is coming to this country – invited by the Metropolitan Police! It’s beyond parody. This is the same force whose Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick said after the bombs: ‘As far as I’m concerned Islamic and terrorist are two words that do not go together.’…

“The author Irshad Manji wrote wisely this week that moderate Muslims must condemn terrorism, abandon the ‘myth’ that Islam has nothing to do with the atrocities, and reject Islamic infallibility.”

Editorial in the Daily Mail, 13 July 2005

Britain’s biggest Muslim group were Al-Qaida admirers – Robert Spencer

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Robert Spencer has words of advice for Tony Blair: “I’m sure many Muslims in Britain are indeed decent and law-abiding. But I see no indication that Blair has considered the implications of the New York Times’ January 2005 assertion that the now-disbanded jihadist group Al-Muhajiroun was Britain’s largest Muslim group.”

Perhaps that is because Blair’s advisers, unlike this self-styled expert on jihad and Islamic terrorism, are not so gobsmackingly ignorant as to believe that Omar Bakri’s tiny band of Al-Qaida admirers was ever anything of the sort.

Dhimmi Watch, 13 July 2005

Update:  For Spencer’s reply, see here.

‘Mullah who’s not mad enough’ – Daily Star on Tariq Ramadan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mullah who’s not mad enough

By Stephen Rigley

Daily Star, 13 July 2005

A fiery Islamic cleric due to preach in London 17 days after the terror attacks has been blasted by Muslims for being “too liberal.”

But Professor Tariq Ramadan’s views are nothing compared to the hate-fulled rants of a string of mad mullahs already in our midst.

Yesterday a row erupted after it emerged Prof Ramadan will preach to young Muslims later this month at taxpayers’ expense.

The Egyptian-born Swiss citizen, 44, has been banned from entering the US and France for allegedly backing terrorism.

But his £9,000 visit to the capital’s Islamic’s Cultural Centre on July 24 is being funded through Scotland Yard and the Association of Chief Police Officers.

Last night the centre’s publication manager Abdul Haq al-Ashanti, 28, said: “Professor Ramadan is not an extremist or militant at all, in fact he’s the complete opposite. He is a real liberal, in fact he is too liberal and I don’t agree with him.”

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Torygraph calls on Muslims to boycott Tariq Ramadan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Islamic leaders have commendably called on British Muslims to assist the police in exposing those who plan and commit such outrages. It is now incumbent on ordinary Muslims to follow their leaders’ commands. They should also deny a welcome to the likes of Tariq Ramadan, the Islamist ‘academic’ and supporter of suicide bombing who has been invited – by the Metropolitan Police, no less – to address young Muslims later this month.”

Condescending editorial advice for British Muslims from the Torygraph. Note the contemptuous use of quotation marks around “academic”.

As for the proposal that Muslims should boycott a man who is recognised as one of the leading Islamic thinkers in Europe today, do Telegraph leader writers actually get paid to think up this crap?

Daily Telegraph, 13 July 2005

Anti-Islamic Italian author in new legal fight

Posted on by Bob Pitt

forzaThe author foresees a “clash of civilisations” such as that defined in Samuel P Huntington’s 1998 work of that name. But, she adds, “it annoys me even to talk about two cultures, to put them on the same plane”. Her main theme is that Muslims are engaged in a plot to conquer her native continent by immigration, transforming it into what she dubs “Eurabia”.

“Europe becomes more and more a province of Islam, a colony of Islam,” she writes. “In each of our cities lies a second city: a Muslim city, a city run by the Koran. A stage in the Islamic expansionism.”

Guardian, 13 July 2005

(A useful article on the Oriana Fallaci case, though the case is hardly “new” and Huntington’s book was published in 1996.)

Islamophobia blamed for attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim man has been beaten to death outside a corner shop by a gang of youths who shouted anti-Islamic abuse at him, the Guardian has learned. Kamal Raza Butt, 48, from Pakistan, was visiting Britain to see friends and family. On Sunday afternoon he went to a shop in Nottingham to buy cigarettes and was first called “Taliban” by the youths and then set upon.

Nottinghamshire police described the incident as racially aggravated, not as Islamophobic, angering Muslim groups and surprising some senior officers. They say it was not connected to a backlash against Muslims following the London bombings, which has seen mosques firebombed and Muslims attacked in the street.

On Monday the case was discussed at the Muslim Safety Forum, where senior police officers and Muslim community representatives meet. Senior sources who were at the meeting last night said it was the view of all present that the killing was a hate crime triggered by his faith.

Muslim leaders last night said the killing and the fact that it was Islamophobic would heighten anxiety in their communities, which was already high before the London bombings and which has deepened with every report of attacks.

Guardian, 13 July 2005

‘London United’ gig set for this Saturday

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has announced a free music festival – London United – to be held on Saturday 16 July to remember all of those who died in the attacks last Thursday and to show London’s defiance of those who try to change the character of the city through terror.

Madness star Suggs, who will be performing at London United, said: “We love London because London lets you be yourself. On Saturday at ‘London United’ we will show that London stands firm in all its diversity after the terrible events of last week.”

Billy Bragg, who will be also be appearing, said: “This free festival gives all Londoners an opportunity to come together to send a message of defiance to the bombers by celebrating the diversity they wish to destroy.”

GLA press release, 13 July 2005