Islamist takeover: the inevitabilty of gradualness

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The Islamists could make huge strides in their campaign to undermine Western societies if they used any tactic other than terror. And, in fact, in Great Britain, they have made incredible progress by playing upon Britain’s overindulgence of any minority complaint. Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes keeps a running chronicle of British abjectness on his website….

“If the Islamists had but the patience to play upon the guilt-ridden West’s weakness, they might have their victory in a few decades. Leaning over backwards has become so common in the West that its enemies could reasonably wonder whether any spine remained at all. Brutal attacks like that in London snap us back to reality and remind all but the most weak-minded Europeans and Americans that appeasement is nothing less than slow surrender.”

Mona Charen offers tactical advice.

TownHall.com, 8 July 2005

London Muslims fear backlash after bombs

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Thousands of Muslims crowded London mosques for Friday prayers, condemning the bombings, but also wary they could be made scapegoats and fearful of reprisals against their growing and vibrant community.

At the East London Mosque, near the site of one of Thursday’s attacks, an imam told the 8,000 worshippers to be “confident in our identity” as part of London’s multicultural fabric.

The mosque said it had received hate e-mails and a telephone threat to disrupt Friday prayers. A few police officers stood outside during the prayers, which ended peacefully.

Outside, some Muslims said the attacks had made them more cautious on the streets, but others said they were secure in their identity as Londoners _ confident of the city’s tolerant traditions.

“It will have some impact on people. But this is London, a cosmopolitan city,” said student Ali Ayubi. “Maybe after one or two months it will go back to normal.”

Associated Press report, 9 July 2005

Telegraph poll on attitudes towards British Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A YouGov poll for the Telegraph finds that only 23% of people believe that “practically all British Muslims are peaceful, law-abiding citizens who deplore the bombings as much as everyone else”. A further 64% believe while that the “great majority” of British Muslims are peaceful, there is a “dangerous minority” willing to support or engage in terrorism. Another 10% believe that a “large proportion” of British Muslims “are prepared to condone or even carry out acts of terrorism”. Furthermore, 81% believe that “the threat is so serious that the authorities should act against suspected terrorists even if they have not committed any offence”.

‘Where is the Gandhi of Islam?’ Charles Moore wants to know

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“When Britain was afflicted by Irish republican terrorism, most Irish people repudiated that terrorism. It was nevertheless the case that the great majority of the terrorists – more than 95 per cent – were Irish, or of Irish origin, and they drew overwhelmingly on Irish people to help and hide them. This was not a funny coincidence. It was because the IRA preached a doctrine about Ireland and called on the loyalty of a perverted version of Irishness. Therefore, the words ‘Irish’ and ‘terrorist’ went together, hard though this was on the majority of Irish people…. So it must be with Muslims in Britain….

“We flap around, looking for moderates and giving them knighthoods, making placatory noises, putting bits of Islam on to the multi-faith menu in schools, banishing Bibles from hospital beds, trying to criminalise the expression of ‘religious hatred’, blaming George Bush and Tony Blair….

“If you look at the Koran, you will find many glorifications of violence. In Sura No 8, for example, God is quoted as saying: ‘I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers!’ This punishment comes to them for having ‘defied God and His apostle’. It seems reasonable to ask Muslims what this sort of remark means in the modern world….

“When did you last hear criticisms of named extremist groups and organisations by Muslim leaders, or support for their expulsion, imprisonment or extradition? How often do you see fatwas issued against suicide bombers and other terrorists, or statements by learned men declaring that people who commit such deeds will go to hell?… When did a British Muslim last go after a Muslim who advocates or practises violence with anything like the zeal with which so many went after Salman Rushdie?”

Charles Moore in the Daily Telegraph, 9 July 2005

Update:  See “We don’t need a Gandhi”, Indigo Jo Blogs. 12 July 2005

Putting Islam on the Stand

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In a recent criminal trial in Virginia, the prosecutor told the jury that the defendant couldn’t be trusted to tell the truth, that he would lie to their faces – all because of his religious beliefs.

The defendant, an American citizen accused of supporting terrorism, was convicted. The religion in question, of course, was Islam.

Now, the Virginia attorney representing Ali Al-Timimi is pushing for a new trial, saying that prosecutors secured the guilty verdict by appealing to religious bigotry against Muslims.

Continue reading →

‘And this is why they did it’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“There are many Muslims who believe that the idea that all other faiths have been ‘abrogated’ and that the whole of mankind should be united under the banner of Islam must be dropped as a dangerous anachronism. But to the Islamist those Muslims who think like that are themselves regarded as lapsed, and deserving of death.”

Right-wing Iranian exile Amir Taheri, one of the “thinkers” promoted by the neocon PR company Benador Associates, offers his explanation of the motives behind the London bombings. Note that Taheri adopts the same approach as the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty – blurring the difference between political Islam and terrorism in order to suggest that all “Islamists” are terrorists.

Times, 8 July 2005

Indeed, for Taheri, there is a clear overlap between mainstream Islam and terrorism: “Go to any mosque in the West (let alone in the Islamic countries) on any Friday and you are sure to hear a litany of woes about how the ‘cross-worshippers’ have allied themselves with the ‘plotting Jews’ in order to destroy Islam, which, as God’s final message, is the only true faith.”

New York Post, 8 July 2005

AWL blames ‘political Islam’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Alliance for Workers’ Liberty statement on the London bombings blames “political Islam”. It adds:

“Political Islam is a political current; and the mass of people of Muslim religion or background are its prime victims and opponents. It is ‘anti-imperialist’ only in a reactionary sense. Its hatred of US imperialism is no more progressive than fascists’ hatred of Jewish finance-capitalists.”

AWL website, 7 July 2005

Given that the AWL includes organisations like MAB under that heading, the irresponsibility of this accusation is really quite disgraceful.

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Muslims fear hate attacks in wake of bombings

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A backlash against British Muslims began almost immediately as news of the bomb explosions spread. The Muslim Council of Britain received more than 1,000 emails containing threats and messages of hate, several reading: “It’s now war on Muslims throughout Britain.”

Government planning for how to cope with a terrorist attack has included how police and the authorities will calm community tensions and crack down on any surge in hate crimes directed at British Muslims.

Last night an emergency meeting was held of the Muslim Safety Forum, where top police officers and representatives of Muslim communities meet to discuss the policing of terrorism and other issues.

Azad Ali, chair of the MSF, said: “This is the biggest test for community relations. The years of planning, of ifs and buts – now the time has come. Our concern is of the potential backlash. We have already received numerous reports of spitting, verbal abuse and attacks.”

Guardian, 8 July 2005

See also ‘Religion has no part in this’, by Sher Khan of the MCB: Guardian, 8 July 2005

And Tariq Ali, who argues that “The principal cause of this violence is the violence being inflicted on the people of the Muslim world. And unless this is recognised, the horrors will continue.” Also in the Guardian, 8 July 2005

‘The jihad comes to Britain’ – Mad Mel reflects on the London bombings

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“It was nauseating to witness the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, deliver his ringing condemnation of terrorism yesterday – the same Ken Livingstone who invited the terrorism supporter and Islamic extremist Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi to speak in the capital last summer and physically embraced him on the platform.

“Even more alarmingly, the country’s principal police force involved in counter-terrorism is now under the control of an officer whose obsession with the ‘diversity’ agenda is thought to be undermining the fight against terror…. Sir Ian’s obsession with attacking ‘Islamophobia’ is now raising serious concerns among certain police officers and security sources. It is getting in the way of the job the police are called upon to do. Officers who try to address the delicate issue of terrorism and its supporters within the Muslim community now find themselves in danger of being accused within their own force of Islamophobia.”

Mad Mel on the lessons of the London bombings.

Daily Mail, 8 July 2005

‘The twisted logic of Galloway’ (and Max Hastings)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

GeorgeGallowayUnder the headline “The twisted logic of Galloway” (“Outrage as he claims capital has ‘paid the price’ of war on Iraq”), the Daily Mail denounces George Galloway’s statement on the London bombings.

The Mail is appalled that Galloway should point out: “We argued, as did the security services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically Londoners have now paid the price of the government ignoring such warnings.”

Ironically, the same issue of the Mail features an article by Max Hastings which makes an almost identical point:

“We must acknowledge that, by supporting President Bush’s extravagances in his ill-named War On Terror and ill-justified invasion of Iraq, Blair has ensured that we are in the front line beside the U.S., whether we like it or not. We could help to stem recruitment to Al Qaeda by achieving a more constructive engagement with Muslim nations…. But … Bush’s bellicose rhetoric, his commitment to crude military might as a means of imposing his vision of U.S. universalism on the world, form a huge obstacle…”

Of course, the practical conclusions drawn by the two authors are rather different. Galloway calls for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, Hastings for a crackdown on civil liberties.