How Muslim spies and subversives have penetrated Washington

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Infiltration“Washington hasn’t leveled with us about the full scope and depth of the Islamic threat not only inside America but inside the government, just as it hasn’t leveled with us about the true nature of Islam. We’ve been lulled into a false sense of security, and we’re just inviting another 9/11. So I wrote this book to expose the elaborate fraud that’s been orchestrated by our leaders in the Washington establishment and the leaders in the Muslim establishment, who are playing us all for suckers.”

Paul Sperry promotes his book Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives have Penetrated Washington at Front Page Magazine, 12 April 2005

Robert Spencer is impressed: Jihad Watch, 13 April 2005

The parallels between present-day Islamophobia and the anti-Soviet hysteria of the ’50s are quite striking. Just as McCarthy got so carried away by his witch-hunting that he began denouncing establishment right-wingers as crypto-Communists, the most extreme of today’s anti-Muslim witch-hunters appear to have turned on the Bush administration, condemning it for going soft on Islam. It is at least reassuring to see the Islamophobic right tearing itself apart in this way.

Incitement to religious hatred legislation to be reintroduced

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In the Labour Manifesto document to be launched this morning, it will say that the Labour government would reintroduce legislation to outlaw incitement to religious hatred, which was dropped last week from the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill, after opposition from the Conservative and Liberal Democrats, The Muslim News has learnt exclusively.

“This inclusion by the Labour Party is to placate the bitter disappointment of the Muslim community by the Government’s second failure to enact the legislation in the last Parliament, ” said Editor of The Muslim New, Ahmed J Versi.

The Prime Minister had assured the Muslim community in an exclusive interview with Editor of The Muslim New, Ahmed J Versi, last month, that he would not drop the incitement to religious part of the Bill as the Government had done in December 2001, when they dropped incitement section (which was part of the anti-terror legislation) after opposition from the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

However, the Government has put the blame squarely on the Conservatives and Lib Dems. In a letter to mosques yesterday, Home Secretary, Charle Clarke, said, “The reason we cannot pass this legislation is because both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives have blocked the legislation in Parliament. The Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives made it clear that they were not willing to see this measure become law. They bear full responsibility for blocking this part of the Bill.

Muslim News, 13 April 2005

UN calls for combating anti-Islam campaigns

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted on Tuesday, April 12, a resolution calling for combating defamation campaigns against Islam and Muslims in the West.

The measure, put forward by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), was voted for by 31 countries and 16 against, with five abstentions and one delegation absent, Reuters reported.

“There was a growing trend of defamation of Islam and discrimination faced by Muslims and the people of Arab descent in many parts of the world,” Pakistan’s UN envoy, Masood Khan, said in a speech.

Khan cited a series of attacks against mosques in different parts of the world. “Stereotyping of any religion as propagating violence or its association with terrorism constitutes defamation of religion. It unfortunately breeds a culture of hatred, disharmony and discrimination,” he stressed.

The French Organization against Islamophobia (CCIF) said earlier this year that during the period from October 2003 to August 2004, 26 cases of verbal and physical assaults on Muslims, 28 cases of vandalism and attempted arson targeting mosques, and 11 cases of desecration of Muslim graves have been registered. The CCIF also listed a considerable number of internet sites spreading anti-Muslim propaganda.

Cuba’s delegate Rodolfo Reyes Rodriguez said Islam has been the subject of “very deep campaign of defamation.” “All you have to do is look at the films which have come out of Hollywood the last few years,” he said.

The resolution, however, was rejected by the United States and the European Union as “unbalanced” for what they termed failure to address problems suffered by other religious groups. “This resolution is incomplete inasmuch as it fails to address the situation of all religions,” Leonard Leo, a member of the US delegation, said in a speech.

The Netherlands, speaking for the EU, also said it regretted that the 25-nation bloc EU had been unable to agree on a “more balanced” joint text with the pan-Muslim organization. “Discrimination based on religion or belief is not confined to any one religion nor to any one part of the world,” said Dutch ambassador Ian de Jong.

Islam Online, 12 April 2005

Secularism test for French citizenship

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Immigrants applying for French citizenship will have first to take a “secularism test” before being naturalized.

The exam is recommended by a new Guide for Rights and Duties of French Citizenship, which has been drawn up by the Ministry of Integration. “It outlines the values that shaped up our country,” the Minister of Integration Nelly Olin told Le Monde Tuesday, April 12.

The guide, unveiled by Olin Monday, says applicants should provide clear answers to questions like “can the French reveal religious symbols at workplace?, “Do you consider men and women equal?” and “what are the colors of the French flag?” Mastering the French language is also a citizenship must.

Booklets on the French culture and the three basic values of liberty, equality and freedom are available for applicants before answering the questions. They provide thorough information about the history of secularism in France and controversial issues that made headlines recently.

The new document puts into effect amendments made by former interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy to the law of citizenship and residency issued November 26, 2003. It is the result of efforts made by the integration and interior ministries, and the supreme council for integration.

The guide underlines that religious symbols are banned at public institutions, particularly at schools and hospitals.

Islam Online, 12 April 2005

The myth of Islamic tolerance

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Islam is a totalitarian ideology that aims to control the religious, social and political life of mankind in all its aspects; the life of its followers without qualification; and the life of those who follow the so-called tolerated religions to a degree that prevents their activities from getting in the way of Islam in any way. And I mean Islam, I do not accept some spurious distinction between Islam and ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ or ‘Islamic terrorism’.”

Alyssa A. Lappen reviews Robert Spencer’s book The Myth of Islamic Tolerance.

Front Page Magazine, 11 April 2005

Robert Spencer (you remember him – he’s the man who welcomes reformist Islam) is dead chuffed.

Jihad Watch, 11 April 2005

Muslim schoolgirl detention condemned

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The arrest of a 16-year-old Muslim schoolgirl in the United States on charges of planning to be a suicide bomber drew fire from her teachers and classmates, reported a leading American daily on Saturday, April 9.

“She is, yes, an orthodox Muslim, but completely integrated into this school,” Jessica Siegel, an English teacher at Heritage High School in East Harlem, told The New York Times. “She’s a wonderful, wonderful girl.”

The Guinean tenth-grader has been described by the FBI as “an imminent threat to the security of the United States” on allegation of planning to be a suicide bomber, according to a government document provided to the daily by a federal official.

She is being held in an immigration detention center in Pennsylvania and her father is now in immigration jail facing deportation.

“She’s about the last person anyone could imagine being a suicide bomber,” said Ms. Siegel, who was profiled in Samuel G. Freedman’s book Small Victories as an unsentimental but fiercely committed teacher who provoked and delighted her students.

Ms. Carr, a speech pathologist, was no less furious. “They have painted this picture of her as this person that is trying to destroy our way of life, and I know in my heart of hearts that this is bogus,” she said.

“I feel like, how dare they? She’s a minor, and even if she’s not a citizen, she has rights as a human being,” said Ms. Carr, who welcomed the girl to her house daily and knows her family well.

Islam Online, 9 April, 2005

Reformation and Enlightenment

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Over at Harry’s Place, David T has discovered a Muslim he’s prepared to do business with. It’s Abdel Nour Brado, Secretary of the Islamic Commission of Spain, who wants to open a discussion among Muslims about the possibility of recognising same-sex marriages. Brado and his co-thinkers are the sort of “religious political progressives within Islam” to whom the left can relate, David T argues.

Unfortunately, by this definition progressives probably amount to somewhat less that 1% of the Muslim world. The remaining 99% who would reject same-sex marriages are all categorised by David T as “religious and political conservatives”, and no distinctions are made between them.

Thus the reformist moderate Yusuf al-Qaradawi is described by David T as a “Qutbist”, i.e. a supporter of the Egyptian Islamist Sayyid Qutb who was executed by Nasser in 1966. Qutb’s denunciation of the entire Muslim world as “jahiliyya” (pagan ignorance and barbarism), his call for armed struggle against every existing regime in the Islamic world and his condemnation of all those Muslims who decline to participate in this struggle as apostates have nothing in common with Qaradawi’s views whatsoever. Indeed, Qaradawi has accused Qutb of promoting an extremist ideology “which justified the takfir (excommunication) of (whole) societies … and the announcement of a destructive jihad against the whole of mankind”. Some Qutbist!

But this is the method adopted by “left” Islamophobes like those at Harry’s Place. They issue a formal declaration that Islam is not a monolithic bloc and proclaim their support for liberal, progressive Muslims – but they define this category so narrowly that only a minuscule minority of actually existing Muslims qualify, and they then dismiss the remainder as one reactionary, undifferentiated mass.

BNP: ‘Muslim extremists attack British freedom of speech’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“We can see that the Islamic religious hatred and intolerance of Western liberal values such as freedom of speech that led to the murder of Theo Van Gogh in Holland also has a growing power base in this country.”

The British National Party whinges about the cancellation of its contract with the Saudi-owned printing company Satellite Graphics.

BNP news article, 7 April 2005

It’s notable that the fascists, no doubt inspired by the example of Pim Fortuyn, are increasingly adopting the language of liberal Islamophobia. See also here.

Reformation and Enlightenment

Posted on by Bob Pitt

David T over at Harry’s Place has discovered a Muslim he’s prepared to do business with. It’s Abdel Nour Brado, Secretary of the Islamic Commission of Spain, who wants to open a discussion among Muslims about the possibility of recognising same-sex marriages. Brado and his co-thinkers are the sort of “religious political progressives within Islam” to whom the left can relate, David T argues.

Harry’s Place, 7 April 2005

Unfortunately, by this definition progressives probably amount to somewhat less than 1% of the Muslim world. The remaining 99% who would reject same-sex marriages are all categorised by David T as “religious and political conservatives”, and no distinctions are made between them.

Thus the reformist Yusuf al-Qaradawi is described by David T as a “qutbist”, i.e. a supporter of the Egyptian Islamist Sayyid Qutb who was executed by Nasser in 1966. Qutb’s denunciation of the entire Muslim world as “jahiliyya” (pagan ignorance and barbarism), his call for armed struggle against every existing regime in the Islamic world and his condemnation of all those Muslims who decline to participate in this struggle as apostates have nothing in common with Qaradawi’s views whatsoever. Indeed, Qaradawi has accused Qutb of promoting an extremist ideology “which justified the takfir (excommunication) of (whole) societies … and the announcement of a destructive jihad against the whole of mankind”. Some Qutbist!

But this is the method adopted by “left” Islamophobes like those at Harry’s Place. They issue a formal declaration that Islam is not a monolithic bloc and proclaim their support for progressive, reformist Muslims – but they define this category so narrowly that only a minuscule minority of actually existing Muslims qualify, and they then dismiss the remainder as one reactionary, undifferentiated mass.

Religious hatred incitement law: British Muslims let down again

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Muslim Council of Britain is deeply disappointed by yesterday’s announcement that the Government was dropping the Incitement to Religious Hatred section from the Serious and Organised Crime Bill due to opposition from the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative Party.

“Sadly, British Muslims will now continue to remain second-class citizens and denied the legal protection that is given to some racial and religious groups such as Jews and Sikhs under existing racial incitement laws. We deplore the position of the Liberal Democrats – who had proposed an amendment backed by the Tory Party – that would have regarded Muslims as a racial group, notwithstanding the fact that Muslims transcend racial boundaries. We regarded this as a vital piece of equality legislation that would have accorded Muslims and other faith groups protection from those who are deliberately inciting hatred against them,” said Iqbal Sacranie, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain.

MCB press release, 8 April 2005

For MAB’s response, see MAB news report, 6 April 2005 and Islam Online, 6 April 2005