“As a Muslim, Ms. Manji has the right to criticize Islam more harshly than the rest of us. Her book, however, dredges up ancient history and events in poverty stricken, underdeveloped dictatorships supposedly to advance the idea that, in order to modernize, Muslims must become more self-critical. The brutal history of Christian European nations is barely mentioned.”
Linda Belanger comments on Irshad Manji’s Book The Trouble With Islam.
Rod Liddle in the Spectator, complaining about the arrest of Nick Griffin, the proposed law against religious hatred and, as the headline on the cover puts it, “kowtowing to Islam”.
“That the Revisionist-Zionist extremist Daniel Pipes has fond visions of rounding up Muslim Americans and putting them in concentration camps isn’t a big surprise. That a mainstream American newspaper would publish this David-Dukeian evil is. Of course, this is also a man that President Bush appointed to a temporary vacancy at the United States Institute of Peace, after the Senate understandably balked at a regular appointment for him.”
Juan Cole on Pipes’ plans for incarcerating Muslims.
Informed Comment, 31 December 2004
Read Pipes’ article here.
In October 2004, Alliance for Workers’ Liberty supporter Alan Clarke persuaded the national executive committee of the National Union of Students to adopt a resolution calling for leading Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan to be banned from speaking at the European Social Forum, which was to be held in London later that month. It quickly became clear that the motion had been based on an entirely false account of Professor Ramadan’s views.
“Ever since Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi was welcomed to London’s City Hall by Ken Livingstone last July, Peter Tatchell and the gay rights organisation Outrage! have waged an obsessive campaign against this respected Muslim scholar. Unfortunately, their obsession is not matched by an equivalent concern for accuracy. The picture of Dr al-Qaradawi presented by Tatchell in the November issue of Labour Left Briefing (‘‘Qaradawi Not Welcome’) is nothing but an Islamophobic caricature which he uses as the basis for a more general attack on Muslims, their beliefs and their organisations.”
SOMERVILLE, Tenn. — Muslims planned to turn an old sod farm near Memphis into a cemetery, but angry neighbors protested, complaining that the burial ground could become a staging ground for terrorists or spread disease from unembalmed bodies.
It was not the first time a group faced opposition when trying to build a cemetery or a mosque, but the dispute stood out for the clarity of its anti-Muslim rhetoric.
“We know for a fact that Muslim mosques have been used as terrorist hideouts and centers for terrorist activities,” farmer John Wilson told members of a planning commission last month.
Similar disputes have arisen elsewhere when Muslim groups sought to develop mosques or cemeteries, which are often the first Islamic institutions in some communities.
Rabiah Ahmed of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said she noticed more protests of Muslim building proposals after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, so she was not surprised by the cemetery critics near Memphis. “It’s not shocking, but it is discouraging,” Ahmed said from the council’s headquarters in Washington.
Opponents told the Fayette County planning commission in November that power lines would be prime targets for terrorists in the region about 20 miles east of Memphis.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you may think this is far-fetched, but that is what the Jewish people thought when the Nazis started taking a small foothold, a little at a time, in their community,” Wilson said.
Belinda Ghosheh, owner of the five-acre plot being considered for the cemetery, said a meeting of planning officials drew such a hostile crowd she feared for her safety. One woman yelled, “We don’t need bin Laden’s cousins in our neighborhood.”
“Over the last four years, I have visited the United States more than 20 times. I have lectured on philosophy and Islam at numerous academic institutions from Dartmouth to Stanford and at organizations from the Brookings Institution to the United States Institute of Peace. I was invited to a meeting organized by former President Clinton, and I spoke before officials of the CIA.”
Tariq Ramadan in the Los Angeles Times, 21 December 2004
A leading Islamic spokes man has urged Muslims in Scotland to use their vote “like a weapon” and support the SNP in the forthcoming general elections. Dr Azzam Tamimi, director of The Institute of Islamic Political Thought (IIPT), told a conference in Glasgow yesterday that it would be a sin against Islam to vote for a pro-war candidate. He said the SNP was the best party in Scotland to represent Muslim interests and that its line on Iraq, Palestine and on the war on terror was the most acceptable of all the major Scottish parties.
Sunday Herald, 19 December 2004
Reported on Islam Online, 20 December 2004
“Perhaps Ridley should consider the possibility that some of those ‘glaring passengers’ might have lost relatives to the terrorist organisations whose fashion sense she shares.”
Letter writers to the Observer give their opinions on Yvonne Ridley’s article recounting the prejudice she experienced as a result of wearing the Islamic headscarf.
For Ridley’s original article, see here.