Interesting article in The Jewish Week on divisions within New York’s Jewish community over the Park51 development.
BNP endorses Quilliam Foundation report
Under the headline “Muslim organisations squeal after government-funded report reveals true extent of Islamic colonisation: a caliphate in Britain”, the BNP has latched onto the leaked Quilliam Foundation report.
The mainstream media covered this issue in early August, so the BNP has been a bit slow on the uptake here. But then, when you’re grappling with a situation where your organisation is imploding, heading for bankruptcy and generally in total chaos, which is the state to which Nick Griffin’s leadership has brought the BNP, I suppose it’s difficult to keep on top of developments in the outside world.
However, you can understand why the BNP is so enthusiastic about the Quilliam report – because it takes an almost identical line to that long promoted by the BNP itself, namely that peaceful mass organisations like the MCB are motivated by the same ideology as al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist groupuscules. How pleased the fascists are that the Quilliam Foundation has given credibility to their hysterical, lying attacks on mainstream Muslim organisations. Ed Husain and Maajid Nawaz must be really proud of themselves.
Media coverage of SIOA anti-Park51 rally ‘worse than Pravda’
Well, so mad Pamela Geller believes. Geller’s basic gripe is that the media failed to buy her ludicrous claim that 40,000 people attended the hate-fest she and Robert Spencer organised in New York last Saturday – a claim that most of us would take as evidence that the most paranoid 9/11 truther has a better grip on reality than Geller does.
As proof of the “tens of thousands” who supported the Stop Islamization of America protest Geller posts the following photo, which to any neutral observer would appear to confirm media reports that the event drew a couple of thousand participants.
Geller is particularly indignant that the media gave coverage to what she calls “the anti-America, commie, leftist counter protest”, which she insists was a fraction of the size of her own mass rally. Evidently Pravda-style misreporting is fine when it’s Geller who’s doing it. In the interests of accuracy, therefore, here is a photo of the pro-Park51 demonstration.
Soccer hooligans at Ground Zero
Over at his New York Times blog, Robert Mackey has posted an analysis of the English Defence League, who sent a delegation to New York last weekend to support the anti-Park51 rally. Hopefully this will be taken up more widely by the US media because, on the “by their friends ye shall know them” principle, it does shed some revealing light on the political character of Geller and Spencer’s campaign.
So farewell then, Stephen Gash
Anders Gravers of Stop Islamisation of Europe brings us the news that Stephen Gash, SIOE’s organiser in England, will be retiring from that post.
I think it’s unlikely that anyone will notice. While Gash would no doubt like to look back on the successes registered by SIOE England during his period of leadership, his actual record in the struggle against the Muslim hordes has amounted to a series of embarrassing flops.
Gash first came to prominence in what is now called the counter-jihad movement in October 2007 when he organised an SIOE “Stop Kuffarphobia” protest in central London. Gash told the police he was expecting a thousand demonstrators, but in the event only thirty turned up. Unwilling to stop the traffic for such small numbers the police wouldn’t let them march along the road and insisted that they use the pavement instead.
Gash then announced an SIOE protest against Harrow Central Mosque in August 2009. On the day, faced with hundreds of anti-racist counter-protestors, the police refused to allow SIOE to hold its demonstration outside the mosque and Gash himself was arrested when he resisted instructions to turn back. A couple of dozen football hooligans from the English Defence League who came to support Gash were chased away by local youth and reduced to cowering behind police lines. All in all, a complete disaster for SIOE.
Not a man to be deterred by failure, Gash announced a further SIOE protest in Harrow in December 2009, which he confidently predicted would draw a crowd of 2,000. In the outcome, only about fifteen people responded to Gash’s call.
Perhaps disappointment and humiliation have finally proved too much for Gash. While SIOE England has got nowhere, the EDL have at least been able to mobilise hundreds of brain-dead Islamophobes behind their own anti-Muslim provocations. A would-be general of the counter-jihad movement, Gash’s ambition was fatally undermined by an unfortunate lack of troops. You’d need a heart of stone not to laugh.
The lesson of 9/11: Don’t dare upset the Muslims
Hardly a day goes by without us witnessing appalling atrocities and provocations in the supposed name of Islam: suicide bombings, fatwas, stonings, burnings of effigies and flags, Holocaust denial, and other crude forms of anti-Semitism. Women in Gaza and Muslim countries daren’t even have an orgasm without first obtaining the permission of their Islamofascist rulers. And who in the West dares to utter a word in protest?
A loony pastor in Florida, however, with no more than fifty followers, threatens to burn a few Korans and the Western media descends into a state of frenzy, the story leading all the major networks for days.
Such disproportionate oversensitivity to and appeasement of Muslims constitutes a worrying sign that the West may already have given up the fight against the evil of Islamofascism….
I am under no illusion about individuals such as Pastor Jones or, for example, elements of the English Defence League. What I do admire, however, is their refusal to lie down while their world and way of life – and in their own countries – is being transformed in front of their very eyes.
Anyone who is more concerned about a few books being burned by some deranged pastor – and we are not talking state-sponsored, 1933-style destruction here – than about the creeping Islamization of our planet is no less irrational than the mook with the handlebar moustache.
Melchett Mike at the JC Blog, 11 September 2010
Note the appearance of Zionist Federation vice-chair Jonathan Hoffman in the comments to this post, expressing his support.
Leaders of 14 unions back November demo against racism and Islamophobia
The general secretaries of the GMB general union and the UCU lecturers’ union have both signed up to support the national demo against racism, fascism and Islamophobia on Saturday 6 November.
Backing from Paul Kenny and Sally Hunt means that the leaders of 14 trade unions, representing millions of workers, have now signed up to support the demo called by UAF and backed by the TUC, the Muslim Council of Britain and Love Music Hate Racism.
Labour leadership rivals Ed Balls and Diane Abbott are also among those who have signed the statement backing the march and carnival, which will take place in central London.
Statement supporting the 6 November demo
We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned by the rise in fascism, Islamophobia, antisemitism and racism. The English Defence League has organised events across the country, stirring up hatred, Islamophobia and racism – running riot in some cases and provoking violent attacks on Muslim, black and Asian communities and on Mosques and Mandirs (Hindu temples).
Alongside this the British National Party has received unprecedented electoral support for a fascist organisation in Britain.
Despite losing many council seats in the elections this year, the BNP’s share of the vote overall continued to rise and it has two elected members of the European Parliament.
This is in the context of a wave of Islamaphobia and racism in Europe and the USA, including threats to burn copies of the Qur’an, attacks on Mosques and Islamic cultural centres, bans on Muslim women’s full-face veils and the construction of minarets. In France, the Roma people have been singled out and subjected to mass expulsions.
Now, more than ever, we must unite to turn back this tide of hatred.
We stand against the rise of racism, fascism, Islamophobia and antisemitism and support the demonstration on Saturday 6 November.
Signed:
Derek Simpson joint general secretary, Unite the union, Tony Woodley joint general secretary, Unite the union, Keith Sonnetdeputy general secretary Unison, Paul Kenny general secretary GMB Ed Balls MP, Diane Abbott MP, Billy Hayes general secretary, CWU, Tony Kearns deputy general secretary, CWU,Chris Keates general secretary, NASUWT, Christine Blowergeneral secretary NUT, Kevin Courtney deputy general secretary, NUT, Sally Hunt general secretary UCU, Mark Serwotkageneral secretary PCS, Hugh Lanning deputy general secretary PCS, Matt Wrack general secretary FBU, Bob Crow general secretary, RMT, Jeremy Dear general secretary NUJ, Pete Murray president NUJ, Gerry Conlon Guildford Four, Paddy Hill Birmingham Six, Runnymede Trust, Napo, POA, Musicians Union
>> Add your support to the statement
>> Download leaflets here
>> Model motion for trade union branches and community organisations
Update: See also “Major Muslim organisations throw weight behind demo”, UAF news release, 17 September 2010
Paper to readers: Sorry for portraying Muslims as human
James Poniewozic writes on his Time blog on the Portland Press Herald apology for publishing images of Muslims celebrating the end of Ramadan.
Support for extremist groups low among European Muslims, mainstream Islamist organisations encourage political engagement and combat terrorism, Pew report finds
Support for radical Islamist groups is low among European Muslims and some leading groups with overseas roots are now cooperating with local governments and encouraging Muslims to vote, according to a new report.
European groups linked to wider Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-i-Islami now focus more on conditions for Muslims in Europe than their original ideologies from Egypt and Pakistan, according to the report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
The report also cited tensions between “jihadists” and peaceful Islamists in Europe, saying some groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood were working with police to counter militants.
“By most accounts, support for radical extremist groups is relatively low among Muslims in Europe,” it said. “Nevertheless, such groups have been central to the public discussion of Islam in Europe, especially in recent years.”
Download the Pew report here
Ohio: Muslim storeowner victim of hate crime
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Police were searching for the person or people who broke inside a north side market late Saturday night. Cash from the register and a laptop computer were stolen, and several display cases were vandalized, 10TV’s Glenn McEntyre reported. Also, “9/11” was spray-painted on countertops and windows.
The owner of Jaffa Market, located in the 5200 block of Godown Road, said that he received a call from his alarm company on Saturday at about 11:15 p.m., notifying him of the break-in. “When I did come inside, I (saw) the glass everywhere,” said the storeowner, who requested anonymity.
The storeowner, who is Muslim, said it was clear he was targeted because of his religion.
A man who said he is a close family friend of the storeowner said that recent controversies about a mosque proposed near ground zero in New York and a Florida pastor who threatened to burn the Quran increased tensions.