Jonathan Freedland defends dialogue with representatives of East London Mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Writing in this week’s Jewish Chronicle, Jonathan Freedland defends Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg against Martin Bright’s recent attack on him over his failure to boycott representatives of the East London Mosque:

Wittenberg is not the only rabbi to have had dealings with the ELM. Just weeks ago, four rabbis – including the Orthodox Dayan Binstock – spoke at the mosque’s community centre. Yet the JC has not denounced Binstock as a “useful idiot”, nor has it railed against the Orthodox Fieldgate Street Great Synagogue, whose president tells me they have a “wonderful relationship” with the nextdoor ELM. In fact, I’ve separately learned the shul was delighted to accept a £5,000 contribution from the mosque towards a new roof – made with no publicity – and was touched when the mosque halted building work to ensure they could daven undisturbed on Yom Kippur. Are the Fieldgate Street congregants “useful idiots” too?

Continue reading →

University of East Anglia launches UK’s first course in women, Islam and the media

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Women, Islam and the media are topics often found in close conjunction, and not always in the happiest of circumstances. So in a canny move, the University of East Anglia (UEA), which often gives better-known institutions a run for their money in terms of column inches, has developed a course entitled exactly that.

The 12-week module, which the university claims is the first of its kind in the UK, will cover the often inflammatory topics of veil wearing, arranged marriage and “honour” crimes – looking at how they are portrayed in contemporary film, TV and other media, and how this reflects cultural biases in both the east and west. It launches this week and 18 third-year students have enrolled. Roughly equal numbers of men and women have signed up.

Continue reading →

Posted in UK

CAIR asks FBI to aid probe of fire at Ohio Muslims’ home

Posted on by Bob Pitt

HILLIARD — Police and Norwich Township Fire investigators are working to determine the cause of a house fire on Britton Farms Drive.

An Ohio State student lives in the house with his roommate. That student says the garage has previously been painted with anti-Muslim slurs. The student’s mother owns the house, and his father is Dr. Salah Sultan, a controversial Islamic scholar who lives outside the U.S. No one was hurt in the fire.

The Council on American Islamic Relations is working with investigators to determine whether the fire was intentionally set, and whether that would constitute a hate crime.

ABC6OnYourSide.com‎, 18 January 2012

See also CAIR press release, 18 January 2012

Unite Against Fascism bids to counter proposed EDL march in Leicester

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Leicester October 2010
‘Not extreme right wing’ – EDL demonstration in Leicester, October 2010

Leicester Unite Against Fascism has applied to stage a counter protest to a proposed march by the English Defence League. The group wants to stage a march and rally at the same time as the EDL on Saturday, February 4.

City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby and senior police officers are now considering their response to the two applications, both of which could draw hundreds, possibly thousands, of people to the city centre.

The last time the EDL held a national protest in Leicester, on October 9, 2010, it turned violent. Protesters in a cordoned area reserved for the EDL pelted police with bottles, bricks, coins and smoke bombs. Several hundred also broke through police lines and were involved in scuffles with local youths.

A spokesman for Leicester UAF said the group was recruiting local musicians to perform on stage at the conclusion of the march, adding: “We want people to be able to show they are not scared to come to their city centre on that day. We are looking to create a peaceful and safe way for people to demonstrate their opposition to the EDL.”

Continue reading →

Geller goes global (again)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SION logoThe forces of counterjihad have apparently made another historically decisive advance with the launch of a new international organisation, Stop Islamization of Nations (SION).

To quote the characteristically pompous press release announcing this new development:

Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) and Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) are joining together to create a new global force determined to defend free societies globally: Stop Islamization of Nations (SION)….

SIOA and SIOE are the foremost organizations in America and Europe dedicated to defending human rights, religious liberty, freedom of conscience and the freedom of speech against Islamic supremacist intimidation and attempts to bring elements of Sharia to the West.

At the helm of SION as its founding President is the internationally renowned human rights activist and Executive Director of SIOA, Pamela Geller…. Vice President is the acclaimed bestselling author and Islam expert, Robert Spencer

Continue reading →

Newt Gingrich: I’d support a Muslim running for president only if they’d commit to ‘give up sharia’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Newt Gingrich told a South Carolina town hall audience on Tuesday that he would be open to seeing a Muslim-American run for president, as long as the candidate denounced Sharia law and didn’t seek to impose his or her views on others.

At a town hall meeting in West Columbia, S.C., a man asked Gingrich if he would ever “support a Muslim-American running for president.”

“Would you endorse…a Muslim-American, [who] could possibly be running for president, given that we had a woman running for president in Hillary Clinton, and we had a Jewish-American, in Joe Lieberman, running for vice president?” he asked.

“A truly modern person who happened to worship Allah would not be a threat,” Gingrich replied. “A person who belonged to any kind of belief in Sharia, any kind of effort to impose that on the rest of us, would be a mortal threat.”

Continue reading →

EDL thugs’ appeal against prison sentences dismissed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A South Tyneside man who was jailed after English Defence League supporters stormed a Newcastle club has lost an appeal against his prison sentence.

Colin Burton, 28, was part of a gang which surged into the Tyneside Irish Centre, believing a Socialist Workers Party meeting was taking place. Last month, Burton, of Wouldhave Road, Court, South Shields, was jailed for seven months, and Peter John Duffy, 44, of Elgin Avenue, Seaham, County Durham, was jailed for 10 months after admitting affray.

Yesterday, they appealed to the country’s senior judge, Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, but were told that there was nothing wrong with the sentences. “We are looking at a mob piling into someone’s premises, and intending to pile in because they happened to disagree with a perfectly lawful meeting, which they thought was taking place,” Lord Judge told London’s Court of Appeal.

Continue reading →

Norwegian police chief criticised for downplaying far-right terror threat

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Activists have reacted against recent statements by a Norwegian police chief who said radical Islam remains the main threat in Norway and played down the threat of far-right terrorism, despite the attacks by a right-wing extremist that killed 77 people last summer.

The director of Norway’s Police Security Service, Janne Kristiansen, told a news conference on Tuesday that her agency would focus on dangers from home-grown Islamic extremism, even though attacks targeting Norway’s left wing have increased since the July massacre, Reuters reported.

“In recent years we have seen a development in which (Muslim) people raised in Norway become radicalized and for whom Norway and Norwegian society are the enemy,” Reuters quoted Kristiansen as saying.

Continue reading →

Turkey is governed by ‘Islamic terrorists’, says Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rick Perry presidential debateDuring Fox News’ South Carolina debate, Texas Governor Rick Perry suggested it might be time for Turkey to be kicked out of NATO, saying the country was being ruled by what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists.

Perry’s response might surprise many, as Turkey is a longstanding US ally in NATO, and a critical diplomatic partner engaged in “a working relationship that is one of the most important but least discussed developments shaping (2011)’s change in the Arab world.”

Continue reading →