Republicans welcome Wilders to Tennessee

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anti-Wilders protest TennesseeDutch politician Geert Wilders sees a kindred spirit in Tennessee – a state where new mosques draw protests and the legislature is considering a bill that once targeted adherents of Islamic law.

On trial for hate speech in his home country, Wilders brought his headline-grabbing views on Islam to Middle Tennessee on Thursday. He came to town as the invited guest of the Tennessee Freedom Coalition, a 2-week-old political coalition founded by Republican former congressional candidate Lou Ann Zelenik.

“I come with a warning for America,” said Wilders, a filmmaker and member of the Dutch parliament, and something of a cult celebrity in some conservative circles. Close Islamic schools, he warned America. Halt construction of mosques – or “hate palaces”, as he calls them. Cut off immigration from “non-Western and especially Islamic countries”, and expel any immigrants who do not “assimilate”.

“I was happy to visit the state of Tennessee, where I know a lot of people – certainly a lot of Christians – feel the same threat as we do, and know when you talk about values, when you talk about who you are and who you are not, and that Christianity is for certain not the same as Islam,” said Wilders, who is not himself a Christian. “I compare Islam not with Christianity and Judaism. I compare Islam with fascism and communism.”

His first stop of the day was talk show host Steve Gill’s radio show, then a meet-and-greet and news conference at Williamson County Republican Party headquarters in Franklin. The evening ended with a closed-to-the-press speech at Cornerstone Church in Madison about what Wilders sees as the evils of the world’s second-largest religion.

In Franklin, about a dozen protesters stood in the punishing May sunshine across from Republican headquarters, waving signs that said “SHAME” and “Be nice or go away”.

“It’s very inappropriate for an official political party here in Tennessee to bring in someone so notorious,” said Williamson County Democratic Party Chairman Peter Burr. “This guy is sort of the epitome of the outside agitator. That’s not the way we do business here in Tennessee.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement condemning Wilders’ visit to Tennessee and asking state and local Republican officials to repudiate the decision to “honor one of the world’s leading Islam-haters”.

The Tennessean, 13 May 2011

See also Peter Burr, “Outside agitators should not define America’s values”, The Tennessean, 12 May 2011

Update:  Wilders’ speech has been reproduced on a number of right-wing blogs, including Jihad Watch and Atlas Shrugs.

Newt Gingrich: a Catholic running against Islam?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and high-profile conservative intellectual, announced today that he is officially in the running for the Republican nomination for president. Along the way he’s been playing the politics of religion.

In the speeches and media appearances he did in preparation for his run, he has emphasized two things. The first is the importance of God and morality in the public square, referencing his own conversion to Catholicism to give him credibility. The second is to rail against the dangers of Islam in America….

The irony, of course, is that many of the same slanders leveled at the Catholic Church are now leveled at Islam in America. Catholicism was considered incompatible with liberty, democracy and pluralism. Any inroads made by Catholics into the corridors of power was considered a threat to the American way of life. Catholics were considered loyal to the autocratic Pope, not the American flag. Catholic politicians would enact policies to advantage their Church and hurt American values, everything from appointing an Ambassador to the Vatican to sending public funds to parochial schools.

The “No Popery” signs of previous eras feel remarkably like the “No Sharia” signs of today. The view of the Catholic faith as inherently incompatible with American values mimics today’s view of Islam. And the hysteria about the effects of increasing Catholic influence on American culture sound precisely like today’s fears about Muslims.

Eboo Patel, Washington Post blog, 11 May 2011

How the French veil ban is being implemented

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In France, one month after the start of the nation’s burka ban, women wearing face-covering garments are being forced to remove their veil in public to avoid police harassment.

Five women were immediately detained by police for wearing the burka on city streets as they attempted to attend a conference on the effects of the law. The organizer of the conference was forcibly removed after he tried to talk to one of the women, who had become ill during questioning.

The conference was organized by the multicultural association Don’t Touch My Constitution. The group has raised funds to help women pay the 150-euro fine the law calls for, but they say they haven’t spent one cent.

Proponents of the law say the ban protects the country from religious radicalism, as well as France’s principle of secularism, or laicite in French.

Many Muslims have complained that French media coverage consistently ignores the religious convictions of those who wear the burka. Instead, the women are portrayed as mere tools, with domineering men controlling their every move.

The law, which was roundly criticized by police organizations, may not have led to mass arrests, but Muslim groups say they must provide a voice for the many women who have refused to leave the house for fear of embarrassment.

People say the French government is applying the law carefully, but unevenly. It seems they’re largely ignoring the heavily Muslim suburbs, but it also seems that police can still make a big show when they feel it’s necessary.

Press TV, 11 May 2011

See also the New York Times which reports the French Interior Ministry as stating that police have stopped 46 women wearing face-veils in public, 27 of whom have been charged and will be fined about $215 or forced to take an official course on citizenship.

The coordinated attack on multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Open Democracy has published an article by Liz Fekete based on her excellent study for the Institute of Race Relations, Understanding the European-wide assault on multiculturalism. She concludes:

“… the social agenda of Blue Labour (as fashioned by Lord Glasman), the fashionable credo of civic nationalism (articulated by Michael Ignatieff and others), the Searchlight strategy for pulling the rug from under potential extremists, all seek to win back the faith of the white working class at a time of austerity and fragmentation. And all, to one degree or another, are in danger of appealing, if not directly to faith, flag and family, to a latent ethnic nationalism.”

Will Cameron try to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

HizbThe Muslim News and ENGAGE have noted an exchange in the House of Commons yesterday where David Cameron was challenged by Labour’s Alan Johnson over his failure to implement the Conservatives’ manifesto pledge to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir:

Alan Johnson (Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle) (Lab): On the subject of empty opposition, the Prime Minister castigated his predecessor for not proscribing the radical Islamist organisation, Hizb ut-Tahrir, when the previous Prime Minister had been in post for a week. The right hon. Gentleman has now been in post for a year. I would like to give him the opportunity to castigate himself.

The Prime Minister: It is very kind of the right hon. Gentleman to give me that opportunity. We are clear that we must target groups that promote extremism, not just violent extremism. We have proscribed one or two groups. I would like to see action taken against Hizb ut-Tahrir, and that review is under way.

The Muslim News quotes a government spokeswoman as saying that Cameron “has been working hard” to “ban extremist groups, not necessarily violent, like Hizb ut-Tahrir” and that this proposal will be included in the forthcoming review of the Prevent programme.

In earlier exchanges in parliament Cameron fudged the issue of a ban on HT as did Home Office minister Damian Green. The Daily Express reported at the time that “Downing Street insiders” had “admitted that there was a lack of evidence of law-breaking for such a banning”. It would appear that Cameron has now decided that lack of evidence is not an obstacle to illegalising HT.

You can guarantee that there will no equivalent proposal to ban the English Defence League, which unlike HT has a well-established record of political violence. If Cameron set out with the conscious intention of helping extremist groups gain support within Muslim communities he couldn’t come up with a more effective strategy than applying blatant double standards like that.

It will be interesting to see how it impacts on the coalition if Cameron goes ahead and attempts to impose a ban. Given that the Liberal Democrats’ disastrous showing in the recent elections was due to the public perception that they have sold out their principles in government, there will be a lot of pressure on Nick Clegg to uphold the Lib Dems’ traditional defence of civil liberties and oppose such a disgraceful attack on democratic rights.

Al-Qaida not a fringe opinion among Muslims, Shoebat tells South Dakota security conference

Posted on by Bob Pitt

South Dakota emergency personnel who gathered Wednesday in Rapid City for a Homeland Security Conference got a controversial presentation about Muslim theology, culture and terrorism.

Walid Shoebat, who says he was a former terrorist in the Palestine Liberation Organization before converting to Christianity, said that Americans should focus on what he called the “culture of terrorism” among Muslims rather than “only the ones who carry out the explosive act”.

Shoebat said closet supporters of terrorism exist throughout the Muslim community in mosques, community groups and in the U.S. armed forces. “You’ve been infiltrated at all levels,” Shoebat said. “Are all Muslims who interpret for the U.S. military terrorists? Of course not. But that doesn’t mean you play Russian roulette.”

Shoebat’s appearance was paid for by a federal grant from the Department of Homeland Security as part of the second annual South Dakota Homeland Security Conference. He also spoke at the first conference last year in Sioux Falls.

Jim Carpenter, director of homeland security for South Dakota, said Shoebat was invited back this year because last year’s speech was among the most popular among the law enforcement, fire, medical and other personnel at the conference. “The critiques and evaluations that came back highly recommended that he come back again,” Carpenter said. “We acted on those, and that’s why he came back.”

In Wednesday’s presentation, Shoebat cited excerpts from the Quran, which is the Muslim holy book, that justified violence against non-Muslims and particularly Jews. These excerpts, he said, showed that Islam itself was inherently violent. He rejected what he called the “myth” that “the Muslim world is divided in two – moderate Islam and extremist Islam”.

Ex-Sen. Jim Abourezk, who is a Christian of Lebanese ancestry, said Shoebat throws “one blanket over all Muslims, whether good or bad, saying they’re all bad”. Shoebat’s rhetoric, Abourezk said, harms Muslims who “would love to be left alone and to be able to worship in the way they see fit”.

“He’s a scam artist and he’s a liar,” Abourezk said. “He doesn’t have any credibility when he claims he was a PLO terrorist.”

Rapid City Journal, 12 May 2011

Cf. Chris Hedges, “Your taxes fund anti-Muslim hatred”, Truthdig, 9 May 2011

Update:  See Richard Bartholomew’s comments at Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, 13 May 2011

Spiked indignant over ASBO for EDL thug

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SIOE/EDL Protest - 13.12.09
Joel Titus punching a photographer outside Harrow Central Mosque in December 2009

Over at Spiked, website of the ultra-leftists-turned-right-wing-libertarians formerly known as the Revolutionary Communist Party, Patrick Hayes expresses indignation over the imposition of an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) on the EDL’s former youth leader at Uxbridge Magistrates Court last week.

“Over the next three years,” Hayes complains, “19-year-old Joel Titus is forbidden from attending any demonstration that is connected with the English Defence League or being ‘part of a group of 10 or more people whose actions could cause alarm or distress’. His ASBO from Uxbridge Magistrates Court also claims he must not ‘display a sign or placard or use defamatory or insulting language which could cause alarm or distress’…. He is also forbidden from entering mosques, Islamic prayer rooms or a defined area of Whitechapel in London.”

According to Hayes this is a “shocking restriction on someone’s democratic rights”. He demands: “What did Titus do to deserve such a punishment? Absolutely nothing EDL-related.”

Continue reading →

Bruno Gollnisch stripped of parliamentary immunity

Posted on by Bob Pitt

France's far-right National Front political executive director Bruno Gollnisch candidate to succeed Jean Marie Le Pen,attends a news conference in LensThe European Parliament stripped parliamentary immunity from French far-right MEP Bruno Gollnisch on Tuesday, to enable a complaint of “incitement to racial hatred” to be investigated.

French authorities will now interview Mr Gollnisch after asking for the move, following a complaint over an October 2008 press release issued by Rhone-Alpes regional authorities near Lyon, which Mr Gollnisch led, that cited “the invasion of our land and the destruction of our culture and values” by Islam.

The International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism launched the complaint, and the European Parliament decided that, as the case related to Mr Gollnisch’s activities as a regional councillor, “applying parliamentary immunity to such a situation ‘would constitute an undue extension of those rules'”, a statement said. Lawmakers voted 511 in favour, 56 against and 65 abstentions.

First elected to the European Parliament in 1989, Mr Gollnisch had his immunity lifted in 2005 and was given a three-month suspended jail term and a 5,000-euro (S$8,848) fine in 2005, although an appeal court threw that out in 2009.

AFP, 10 May 2011

Muslims in Europe face growing hostility, Council of Europe report finds

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hostility toward Muslims is growing throughout Europe and Islam is perceived as a major threat by many Europeans, according to a new report by a high-level body within the Council of Europe.

The report also suggested ways to prevent discrimination against Muslims, calling on European countries to accept that a person can be a “hyphenated European” – for instance a “Turkish-German” – just like one can be an “African-American”.

Chaired by former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, the Group of Eminent Persons’ report on intolerance and discrimination in Europe drew attention to the “rising intolerance toward immigrants and Muslims throughout Europe”.

“There is a growing hostility to Muslims throughout Europe,” said the report, titled Living Together: Combining Diversity and Freedom in 21st Century Europe.

“Islam is perceived as a major threat to Europe by many Europeans because they feel that the minority is growing and that Islam is incompatible with modern European life,” the report said. “Because increased immigration of Muslims to Europe in recent decades has resulted in more ‘visible’ Muslim communities and coincided with the growth of political Islam, many Europeans have acquired the conviction that Islam per se is radical, militant and incompatible with European values, and that Muslim immigrants and their descendants therefore cannot be integrated into European societies in the way that earlier waves of migrants have been.”

The report described the discrimination against Muslims in Europe as “a serious human-rights problem”, stressing that such prejudices are “combined with racist attitudes” directed against people originating from Turkey, Arab countries and South Asia.

“Muslims with this background are discriminated [against] in the labor market and the education system in a number of European countries. There are reports showing that they tend to be targeted by police in repeated identity controls and intrusive searches,” the report said.

Hürriyet Daily News, 10 May 2011

Download the report here

Police try to maintain order as EDL thugs descend on Hammersmith

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL demonstrate in support of Yaxley Lennon
The massed ranks of the EDL demonstrate in support of ‘Tommy Robinson’

Police are trying to maintain order in and around Hammersmith after thugs from the English Defence League flooded to the area in support of a member who appeared at West London Magistrates Court in Talgarth Road earlier on Wednesday.

A police helicopter is circling, while several police vehicles are lined up in Talgarth Road, as well as near Barons Court. There have been reports of disorder in Margavine Cemetery near Barons Court Tube station and near the court. Police confirmed EDL supporters in their “tens” were in the area.

Hammersmith & Fulham Chronicle, 11 May 2011

The member appearing in court was EDL leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”). According to reports on the EDL’s Facebook page, Lennon was found guilty of a Section 5 public order offence and fined £350 £315.

Update:  See also “Arrests at EDL founder Stephen Lennon’s court case”, BBC News, 11 May 2011

Further update:  Predictably, EDL supporters whipped themselves up into a state of racist hysteria over the report that “Tommy” had been fined more than £300 over his confrontation with Muslims Against Crusades during an EDL counter-protest on Armistice Day last year, whereas MAC supporter Emdadur Choudary received a mere £50 fine for burning a poppy.

Some examples here. You know the sort of thing to expect – “Englishman fined £315 for defending his culture – muslim fined £50 for degrading it”; “if your white and non Muslim you get treat differently that’s discrimination”; “wetha is 350 or 315 its still a fuckin diabolical joke when that mussy goat fucker only got 50 quid fine”; “1 rule for british 1 rule for the fuzzy faced pedophile loving scum”; “British courts r racist to Whites”; “tommy should of painted his face brown this morning wouldnt have spent half as long in a court room never mind a fine like he got”. And so on. Not to mention warm words of congratulation to Lennon for confronting MAC: “well done tommy 4 doing what any true patriot would of done … god i would of cut that cunts head off and his fuckin friends … islam is a big piece of shit fuck mecca and medina … nuke em”.

But it turns out that Lennon was in fact fined just £50, with £250 costs. In other words he received exactly the same fine as Choudary.