Melanie Phillips finds a Muslim she likes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Irshad Manji Trouble With IslamMelanie Phillips can hardly restrain her enthusiasm for “Muslim refusenik” Irshad Manji, author of The Trouble With Islam, who recently visited Britain to much media acclaim.

Our Melanie expresses her doubts that Islam, unlike Judaism or Christianity, can ever be made compatible with individual liberty, even by Irshad Manji. “But her cause is the key to the future, and all of us who love freedom should give Irshad Manji – and all the other courageous Muslim refuseniks struggling towards the light – unequivocal backing in this war for civilisation.”

Jewish Chronicle, 20 May 2005

Well, Irshad Manji certainly has all the right people on her side – in addition to Melanie Phillips, there’s Daniel Pipes, Anthony Browne, Front Page Magazine … oh, and Peter Tatchell.

House resolution urges respect for Koran, condemns religious intolerance

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Islamic civil rights group is urging all “people of conscience” to support a Democrat-sponsored resolution recognizing that the Koran, like the holy book of any other religion, “should be treated with dignity and respect.” The resolution, to be introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), also “condemns bigotry and intolerance against any religious group, including our friends, neighbors and citizens of the Islamic faith.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations called the introduction of the resolution a winning move. “This resolution expresses America’s respect for the holy texts of all faiths. If passed, it will also reiterate our nation’s condemnation of bigoted behavior and religious intolerance,” said Corey Saylor, CAIR’s government affairs director.

CNSNews, 19 May 2005

Robert Spencer denounces it as “shameless political pandering”. He demands: “Why does this need a House resolution? Why do desecrations of things cherished by other religions not inspire similar resolutions? Why does the House not say anything about the desecration of Christian and Jewish symbols in the Islamic world?”

Dhimmi Watch, 20 May 2005

Let’s blame everyone but the Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The latest whipping boy for the mess in Mesopotamia is Newsweek. According to one mullah over there, printing anything that might offend Muslims is sufficient reason for some of them to riot in the streets and end up killing one another. That is, when they are not blowing up each other’s mosques or innocent civilians in the marketplace.”

A comment on the Qur’an desecration scandal from the folks who almost make Robert Spencer look like the voice of reason.

FaithFreedom.org, 20 May 2005

The ‘democratic idealism’ of the US

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“One recent Newsweek story alleged – or fabricated – that a single Koran was desecrated by an American soldier in Guantanamo Bay. The unsubstantiated rumor led to rioting and death in Afghanistan and general turmoil and rage across the Islamic world. Mullahs issued fatwas and the more lunatic even declared a ‘holy war’. What explains the unsubstantiated story and why the hysterical reaction?”

Victor Davis Hanson has the answer. It’s all due to “the increasing hatred of the United States and its policy of democratic idealism abroad”.

National Review, 20 May 2005

Koran ordered online contains hate slogans

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Culver City woman said Wednesday that a secondhand Koran she ordered through a book dealer working with Amazon.com contained anti-Islamic hate messages, including profanity and “Death to all Muslims!”

Azza Basarudin, a 30-year-old UCLA graduate student, said Amazon apologized, sent a new book and offered her a refund and gift certificate. But she and the Muslim Public Affairs Council called on the online bookseller to do more, including issuing a public condemnation of anti-Muslim hate speech and cutting commercial ties with the Pennsylvania-based book dealer that sent the Koran.

Holding up the book to display the messages at a news conference Wednesday, Basarudin said the incident resurrected the fear she felt after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when anxiety about anti-Muslim sentiment made her reluctant to leave her apartment for two weeks.

“I was taken back to 9/11, my fear that somebody is going to hurt me,” Basarudin said at the Islamic Center of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Times, 19 May 2005

See also Islam Online, 19 May 2005

Friedman vs Huwaydi

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Thomas Friedman in the New York Times (18 May 2005) denounces Muslims for their failure to take a stand against anti-Shia atrocities in Iraq: “… these mass murders – this desecration and dismemberment of real Muslims by other Muslims – have not prompted a single protest march anywhere in the Muslim world. And I have not read of a single fatwa issued by any Muslim cleric outside Iraq condemning these indiscriminate mass murders of Iraqi Shiites and Kurds by these jihadist suicide bombers.”

In reply, Marc Lynch quotes the Egyptian “New Islamist” Fahmy Huwaydi: “A strong Islamist condemnation is required … for the killing of Shia in Iraq … and for ignorant Salafism…. This has nothing to do with nationalist resistance … it is a form of terrorist crime which can not be justified in any way, and its criminal nature will never be changed by a statement or a fatwa issued by Abu Musab al Zarqawi condemning Shi’ites.”

“Of course”, Lynch comments, “Huwaydi’s piece wasn’t translated by MEMRI, so for Tom Friedman his article does not exist.”

Abu Aardvark, 18 May 2005

In the discussion that followed, Lynch added that earlier condemnations of attacks on civilians in Iraq, by Huwaydi’s co-thinker Yusuf al-Qaradawi, “had some real effect on Zarqawi’s activities – which helps proves Friedman’s point that such denunciations are important, but cuts against his ‘there are no denunciations’ point”.

A call for state-funded Muslim schools

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scotland’s only Muslim school was last week given just three months to improve its performance or face closure. The Imam Muhammad Zakariya School for girls in Dundee received its second poor report from education watchdogs, who said it had not “addressed sufficiently” concerns raised following a previous inspection a year ago.

The only other Muslim school founded in Scotland – Iqra Academy in Glasgow – shut two years ago after it too was criticised by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMI). Both schools were independently run, prompting calls for Scotland to have its first state-funded Muslim school in order to ensure their quality.

Osama Saeed of the Muslim Association of Britain argues that Scotland’s Muslims, like the country’s Catholics and Jews, should have state-funded schools as a matter of urgency.

MAB news report, 19 May 2005

Human Rights Watch: US Islam abuse genuine

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The row over a retracted Newsweek story that US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran is overshadowing genuine incidents of religious humiliation, according to Human Rights Watch. “Around the world, the United States has been humiliating Muslim detainees by offending their religious beliefs,” said Reed Brody, special counsel for the New York-based watchdog on Wednesday.

Newsweek on Monday retracted an article quoting an unidentified US official as saying that a probe into allegations of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo found that interrogators had thrown a Quran into a toilet to rattle Muslim prisoners. The weekly magazine said the sole anonymous source had “backed away” from the account.

Brody said condemnation of the Newsweek article, which sparked anti-US protests in Afghanistan and other countries that left at least 14 dead, had been so vocal as to drown out documented complaints of similar mistreatment. He said Human Rights Watch (HRW) had heard allegations that US interrogators disrespected the Quran from several former detainees, including three Briton and a Russian.

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