In defence of militant secularism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“A strange alliance has arisen: from conservative members of the Muslim Association of Britain, the SWP, to London’s Mayor, all are in an uproar about ‘Islamophobia’. Ken Livingstone has taken it upon himself to criticise the French move to ban wearing ostentatious religious symbols in schools. He has also given lessons on religious freedom by defending a cleric, al-Qaradawi, who supports female genital mutilation. This bloc draws support from the mainstream of the Anglican Church and Prince Charles to, with rare exceptions, the bien-pensant pages of the Guardian.”

Andrew Coates in What Next? No.29

In the grip of panic

Posted on by Eddie Truman

“The rightwing press is in the grip of a moral panic, constantly serving up new theories to shore up the now familiar thesis that the west and Islam are locked in a clash of civilisations. Admittedly events in the world don’t help. Palestinian suicide bombing, the school siege at Beslan and beheadings in Iraq all fuel the image of an Islamism that shows no mercy.

“British Muslims have got caught up in this and it is affecting their lives, here in this country. For they stand accused – explicitly by the British National party, tacitly by more respectable others – of being a fifth column, a homegrown wing of a global movement bent on terrorising the west.”

Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian, 22 January 2005

Dialogue with a man of peace

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Dialogue with a man of peace

Ken Livingstone

Tribune, 21 January 2005

PETER TATCHELL has spent six months denouncing me for meeting a person, Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is described by the Muslim Council of Britain, the main Muslim umbrella group in this country, as “the most authoritative Islamic scholar in the world”.

The fact that he has been so been vigorously supported in his campaign by newspapers like the Sun, the Star and the Daily Mail – which have never distinguished themselves by anything other than bigotry in relation to lesbian and gay rights – should have given Tatchell pause for thought.

As Mayor of London, I have a responsibility to meet the leaders of all of London’s many faiths and communities, irrespective of the fact that I disagree with them on particular issues.

Tatchell wages an unrelenting campaign, most recently in the 7 January Tribune, to paint Islam as a uniquely homophobic and reactionary religion. Yet I find that I disagree not only with Muslim leaders, with whom Tatchell seems to be obsessed, but also with Jewish, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Evangelical and other religious leaders on this issue.

Continue reading →

Making Hussein safe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“How can it be right to stir up hatred against people simply because they belong to a particular religious group, or because they don’t share your religious beliefs? How can it be right that this remains unchallenged, particularly when it can lead to violence? Some of the most vocal criticisms against our proposal come from the left – the very people you might have thought would be the most ardent supporters. They deride it as an attack on free speech …”

Fiona MacTaggart argues that religious hatred laws are needed.

Guardian, 21 January 2005

Rise in race crimes ‘due to war on terror’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rise in race crimes ‘due to war on terror’

Robert Verkaik

Independent, 18 January 2005

Racist crime in England and Wales reached record levels last year, prompting fears of an outbreak of Islamophobia sparked by the war on terror.

Figures published by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) today show prosecutions of racially aggravated offences have increased by 2,500 since race-hate laws were introduced in 1999. In the past two years, those prosecutions have jumped by more than 20 per cent.

Today’s report confirms fears raised by Muslim and Asian leaders that there is a link between the war on terror and a rise in racist incidents.

Last year, the Director of Public Prosecutions warned that a growth in race-hate crime and a sharp rise in the number of young Asian men being stopped by the police threatened to alienate Britain’s Muslim communities.

That picture is supported by prosecutions of religiously aggravated crime, which has more than doubled in the past year with Muslims identified as the victims in half of all cases.

One of the 49 cases involved a passenger in a minicab who subjected the Muslim driver to racially and religiously abusive language. After pleading guilty to religiously aggravated common assault, he received four months imprisonment. Ken Macdonald QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, told The Independent last year that the typical race-hate element of a crime involved white youths calling Asians “mullahs, Bin Ladens or Taliban”.

Continue reading →

Rise of racism and its perpetrators escaping justice unacceptable

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Today’s figures on conviction rates of perpetrators of racism show an small increase in the rate of prosecutions (2%), but in the context of a 13% rise of the number of racist crimes referred to the CPS. The figures also show a rise in cases of religious hatred, with half the cases affecting Muslims or people who were perceived as being Muslims.

Continue reading →

The Islamists’ favourite Brits

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Tony Blair’s staunch support for President Bush over Iraq has done the Labour Prime Minister great electoral damage in Britain, not least among the country’s 1.8 million Muslims. Despite being traditional Labour voters, many are now threatening at the forthcoming general election to support either the Liberal Democrats, who have taken a strong line against the war, or Respect, an alliance between the far-left MP George Galloway and Islamic fundamentalists. The British government’s reaction has been a panicky attempt to appease the Muslim community.”

Melanie Phillips opposes the new law against inciting religious hatred and attacks Mike O’Brien’s article in the Muslim Weekly.

Front Page Magazine, 18 January 2005

Ofsted head accused of Islamophobia over attack on Muslim schools

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The head of Ofsted was today labelled “highly irresponsible” and accused of Islamophobia by prominent Muslim figures after he accused independent faith schools of threatening to undermine social cohesion.

David Bell’s speech on citizenship at the Hansard Society today was met with a flurry of complaints after he warned that religious segregation in schools “must not put our coherence at risk”.

He pinpointed independent Muslim schools, which are growing in number most rapidly, and revealed excerpts from his forthcoming annual report which says that many Muslim schools must adapt their curriculum to help pupils “acquire an appreciation of and respect for other culture in a way that promotes tolerance and harmony”.

Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said Mr Bell’s remarks were “highly irresponsible”.

“The issue of community cohesion and coherence is of paramount importance for the whole nation,” he said. “But we consider it highly irresponsible to suggest that the growth of Muslim faith schools poses a threat to ‘our coherence as a nation’. The issue around schools not adequately fulfilling their responsibility in preparing children for ‘their wider responsibility and obligations’ is a generic issue affecting all poorly-resourced schools.”

Dr Mohamed Mukadam, chairman of the Association of Muslim Schools, accused Mr Bell of Islamophobia and challenged him to a public debate on the issue.

Guardian, 17 January 2005

See also BBC News, 18 January 2005

Bush fails to renominate Pipes to Institute of Peace

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In an apparent victory for radical Muslims and the left wing of the American foreign policy establishment, President Bush has failed to take any action to renominate Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes to the board of the United States Institute of Peace.

Bush appointed Pipes, a conservative Middle East analyst and syndicated columnist who has drawn the ire of some Muslims, to the publicly funded institution on August 23, 2003, after a Senate hearing on the matter ended without the presence of a quorum necessary for a confirmation vote. The controversial recess appointment ended in early December with the closing of the previous Congress. The institute has removed Pipes’s name from the list of board of directors posted on its Web site.

Pipes told the Forward that he has not asked to be renominated by the president and that he had not queried the White House about its intentions. “My time there is finished,” he said of the institute.

The White House had nothing to add on the matter. “When there’s an announcement, we’ll go ahead and make one,” spokeswoman Maria Tamburri said.

Pipes said that he “tried to be helpful to the USIP,” but he acknowledged that “at certain times I was frustrated.”

The nomination of Pipes, who has made a career out of identifying and denouncing what he sees as radical Muslim penetration of American institutions, was opposed by senators Edward Kennedy, Tom Harkin and Christopher Dodd, all Democrats; Arab and Muslim groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations as well as the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and Middle East analysts Judith Kipper of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and William Quandt of the University of Virginia.

Many conservative-leaning newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and The New York Sun, supported it. Several Jewish communal agencies, including the American Jewish Committee and the Zionist Organization of America, supported Pipes.

David Harris, executive director of AJCommittee, said he still holds out hope that Bush will renominate Pipes. “We’re looking into it,” Harris said. “We’re eager to see him remain.”

Forward, 14 January 2005