The Lib Dems and the Muslim Council of Britain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lord Lester writes to the New Statesman (7 February 2005):

“Nick Cohen purports to describe a meeting in my chambers. The meeting, held at the request of the Muslim Council of Great Britain [sic], was to discuss the government’s proposed offence of incitement to religious hatred. The views attributed to me are not what I said.”

For Cohen’s article see here.

But it seems that the only other Lib Dem present at the meeting was leading National Secular Society member Evan Harris (see the MCB’s letter to Charles Kennedy). So who could have provided Cohen with his distorted account of the proceedings? You, as they say, do the maths.

MCB letter to Charles Kennedy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Muslim Council of Britain writes to Charles Kennedy raising concerns about his party’s attitude to the proposed law banning religious hatred, and complains that details of an MCB meeting with the Lib Dems were leaked to Nick Cohen for his article in the New Statesman (see here).

Now who was responsible for that leak, we wonder. Couldn’t possibly have been leading National Secular Society member Evan Harris, could it? Of course not, and we would never suggest otherwise.

The MCB also complains that Cohen’s account of the meeting was “shamelessly dishonest” and that he failed to contact the MCB to hear their side of the story. Investigative journalism at its best, eh?

See here.

Qaradawi and the tsunami

Posted on by Bob Pitt

As part of its mission to discredit Arabs and Muslims, in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster the Middle East Media Research Institute devoted much effort to accumulating quotations from Islamic leaders explaining the disaster as the result of God’s anger with sinners. One of these was Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

MEMRI’s reports were reproduced in the Times, which gave over a whole page to what it called Islamic “tsunami conspiracy theories“.

Of course, Muslims were not alone in offering a “wrath of God” explanation for the disaster. Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi, Shlomo Amar, declared that the tsunami was an “expression of God’s ire with the world”, while one of his predecessors, Mordechai Eliahu, argued that it was a product of divine resentment at Sharon’s decision to pull out of Gaza. Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri, considered Israel’s leading Kabbalist rabbi, added that it was “not for naught that this place was hit, where many of our compatriots went to look for this-worldly lusts”.

But can you imagine the Times devoting a whole page to attacking Jewish views of the tsunami as a punishment for humanity’s sins? Obviously not, because this would rightly be construed as anti-semitic. But Muslims are considered fair game by the Murdoch press.

And not only the Murdoch press. Taking his inspiration from the Times piece, Peter Tatchell wrote a press release for Outrage! headed “Qaradawi says tsunami victims deserved to die“. Tatchell attacked Qaradawi as “a reactionary fundamentalist who says 150,000 people deserved to die because some of them were immoral and failed to observe his hardline interpretation of Islam”.

But Abu Aardvark challenged MEMRI’s summary of Qaradawi’s sermon.

He pointed out that, far from arguing that victims all deserved their fate, Qaradawi had stated that the tsunami presented a challenge to the faith of believers because “it took the honest and the wicked, the reverent and the licentious, the believers and the unbelievers alike”. Abu Aardvark concluded that “this does seem to be a case of MEMRI’s selective translation leaving readers with the wrong impression of his meaning”.

Abu Aardvark observed wearily that “rational discussions of Qaradawi seem to be virtually impossible these days. The demonization campaign seems to have worked, and people who really should know better just throw names around, casually equating Qaradawi with bin Laden and putting the most outrageous things in his mouth”.

Germans to put Muslims through loyalty test

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims intent on becoming German citizens will have to undergo a rigorous cultural test to gauge their views on subjects ranging from bigamy to homosexuality. Believed to be the first test of its kind in Europe, the southern state of Baden-Württemberg has created the two-hour oral exam to test the loyalty of Muslims towards Germany.

Brigitte Lösch, a leading member of the Green party in the Baden-Wurttemberg parliament, called for the oral exam to be dropped, arguing that it inferred from the outset that all Muslims were “violent per se” and unable to abide by German law. “This list of questions is only to be used for applicants from Islamic countries. It is an unbelievable form of discrimination,” she said. “If Germans were asked some of the questions, they would find it difficult to answer them.”

The European Assembly of Turkish Academics rejected the questionnaire as “strongly discriminatory and racist” against Germany’s three million-strong Muslim population, most of whom are Turkish. Kerim Arpad, an assembly spokesman, said: “The test is shaped by stereotypes and damages integration.”

Daily Telegraph, 31 December 2005

See also “German ‘culture test’ for would-be Muslim immigrants”, Islam Online, 31 December 2005

Police watchdog to examine all terror arrest complaints

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Muslims feel so victimised by police use of anti-terror powers that the independent police watchdog is to examine all complaints regarding arrests under the legislation.

Serious grievances, involving death, severe injury, alleged racism or large-scale corruption automatically go straight to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. But in other cases, it is up to the relevant police service or the individuals concerned to bring the matter to the attention of the IPCC, which then decides whether to pursue it.

However, the commission thinks the practical application of counter-terrorist measures has so damaged Muslim confidence in the police that it is actively calling in every terrorism-related complaint.

The IPCC will tell the home affairs committee inquiry into terrorism and community relations today that it has requested all 43 English and Welsh police forces to refer complaints or conduct matters arising from anti-terrorist arrests and stop and search.

The IPCC is urging Muslims to come directly to commissioners with grievances, or to go through their mosques or community leaders.

Nick Hardwick, the IPCC chairman, said that Islamic representatives thought their community was being “disproportionately targeted” by the police and had raised “some very significant issues” with the commission regarding arrests and stop and search.

Since the September 11 2001 attacks, British anti-terrorist officers have arrested 701 people, of whom more than two-thirds are thought to be Muslim. But only 119 have been charged with terrorist offences and 17 convicted.

Guardian, 25 January 2005