Atkinson joins Evangelical Coalition

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Television star, Rowan Atkinson, from the celebrated comedy series “Blackadder” has joined conservative Christian groups in opposing the proposed religious hatred Bill. The celebrity will lead a coalition of comedians, writers and religious groups to oppose the Government’s plans to control extremists who incite religious hatred.

The force will now launch a campaign against some of the components of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill.

Opposition to the religious hatred Bill has been clearly voiced by many conservative groups including the Barnabas Fund, the Evangelical Alliance, and the Lawyer Christian Fellowship. The Bill is due to receive its second reading this week, and will look to create a new offence of incitement to religious hatred, which has the aim of protecting faith groups, in particular Muslims.

Christian Today, 6 December 2004

Stoned to death… why Europe is starting to lose its faith in Islam

Posted on by Eddie Truman

“From Norway to Sicily, governments, politicians and the media are laying aside their doctrines of diversity and insisting that ‘Islamism’, as the French call the fundamentalist form that pervades the housing estates, is incompatible with Europe’s liberal values.

“The shift is not just a reaction to exceptional violence such as the Madrid train bombings, or the murder of Theo van Gogh, the anti-Islamic Dutch film-maker, by a Dutch-Moroccan. It stems from a belief that more muscular methods are needed to integrate Europe’s 13-million strong Muslim community and to combat creeds that breed extremists and ultimately, terrorism. With mixed results, governments are trying to quell the scourge by co-opting Muslim leaders to promote a moderate European Islam.”

Charles Bremner in The Times, 4 December 2004

‘Mired in a religious war’

Posted on by Eddie Truman

“The truth that we must finally confront is that Islam contains specific doctrines about martyrdom and jihad that directly inspire Muslim terrorism. Unless the world’s Muslims can find some way of expunging the metaphysics that is fast turning their religion into a cult of death, we will ultimately face the same perversely destructive behavior throughout much of the world. Wherever these events occur, we will find Muslims tending to side with other Muslims, no matter how sociopathic their behavior. It is time we admitted that we are not at war with ‘terrorism’. We are at war with Islam.”

Sam Harris in the Washington Times, 1 December 2004

Imaan discusses Qaradawi

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Muslim lesbian and gay group Imaan was initially listed as a supporter of the anti-Qaradawi “Community Coalition”. However, it turned out that one of Imaan’s officers had signed up to the coalition without consulting the rest of the group. As a result of protests by the membership, Imaan withdrew from the coalition.

A serious and thoughtful discussion of the issues arising from the anti-Qaradawi campaign took place on the discussion board of Imaan’s website. Not a single contributor to the discussion argued favour of supporting the Community Coalition.

“If Qaradawi comes to London again and Outrage and the other racists form a campaign against him, I will be out there standing against them and I will defend him”, one Imaan member wrote. Another contributor agreed: “I add to the objections of aligning ourselves as Queer Muslims with the racists in Outrage and other such organisations.”

The prevailing view was that Outrage! and the other supporters of the anti-Qaradawi campaign were making things worse for lesbian and gay Muslims in particular and adding to the general atmosphere of Islamophobia.

See here.

Tariq Ramadan rejects ‘clash of civilizations’ idea

Posted on by Bob Pitt

At an interfaith conference in Prague sponsored by former Czech president Vaclav Havel, a prominent Muslim intellectual rejected the notion that the world is on the verge of a clash of civilizations between Islam and the West. Tariq Ramadan describes himself as a “Western Muslim.” He says the “clash of civilizations” idea fails to consider the large and growing Muslim presence in the West.

Radio Free Europe, 2 December 2004

Jilbab: AWL defends ‘those who insist on oppressing themselves’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The ironic thing is that the increased wearing of overtly Islamic dress is due to the increase of fundamentalist influences, some of which pay no attention to democracy at all, especially when it comes to the rights of women. The language of those who demand the right to cover themselves in order to establish themselves as the property of men is that of the feminist movement of 1970s Britain. They call for ‘a woman’s right to choose’. This is quite bizarre.”

The Alliance for Workers Liberty on the jilbab ban in Tower Hamlets. But, let’s be fair, the AWL does argue that “those who insist on oppressing themselves” should have the right to wear Islamic dress.

Solidarity, 2 December 2004

Boy, 14, beat Muslim student in racist attack

Posted on by Eddie Truman

It did not occur to Yasir Abdelmouttalib to be afraid. And he paid little heed to friends warning him against wearing Islamic white robes to prayers. That decision seems to have cost him his health and his future. It almost cost him his life.

Yesterday the trial ended of three 14-year-old boys accused of a vicious attack on the 22-year-old university graduate as he waited for a bus in Willesden, north-west London, one Friday afternoon in June.

The jury heard how three boys taunted and spat at Mr Abdelmouttalib through the bus window and how, when he remonstrated, one boy took ferocious revenge. Mr Abdelmouttalib, a tall, slight figure, was repeatedly punched and kicked and struck in the head with a heavy roadsweepers’ broom.

One teenager was convicted at Harrow crown court of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and will be sentenced on December 20. Two others, who denied taking part in the attack, were acquitted.

Mr Abdelmouttalib was unable to give evidence. He remains in hospital, brain damaged and paralysed. He has lost most of his sight.

He told the Guardian that he still retained his spirit: “Everything has changed, but they will not defeat me … I was an active man. Now I can’t do anything. I can’t read, my memory is failing. I had to stop my studies.” He hopes to do a PhD one day. “But who can tell? My life is in the hands of Allah.”

His speech is slow and slurred, but his anger is palpable. “I would sentence him to death because as far as I am concerned, he wanted to kill me. He hit me as if I had sworn at him or killed someone he loved.”

He believes his tunic and beard may have singled him out. “All the time television talks about Osama bin Laden and I think they thought, ‘Let’s take revenge.’ They are not human beings. No human would attack someone like this.”

Guardian, 30 November 2004

‘The sleeping world is awakening to the dangers of Islam’

Posted on by Eddie Truman

“In France, which has the largest Muslim population in Europe, Islamic clerics openly troll the streets seeking restless young men to indoctrinate and send out to kill for Islam. They weed out the weaklings by having them view videos of the actual torture and beheadings of human beings complete with the screams of pain and all blood and gore of a nightmare. They watch Islamic ‘snuff films’. This is what will be expected of them as ‘warriors’ of Allah.”

Barbara J. Stock writing for ChronWatch, 28 November 2004