The attempt to drive Islamists and young Asian activists out of the political mainstream is a dangerous folly, says Seumas Milne.
Did the ‘war on terror’ damage Muslims’ support for Labour?
Yesterday’s Comment is Free featured a piece by Nick Spencer on “Muslim voters’ loyalty to Labour” which made the following bizarre claim:
“The Iraq war was supposed to have poisoned Labour’s relations with British Muslims. Tony Blair’s apparently unqualified support for a bellicose Republican administration despised around the Muslim world was deeply unpalatable. Years of anti-terror legislation were judged by some to have stigmatised Muslims and fanned Islamophobic flames. The government’s attempt to outlaw religious hate speech was seen, by sceptics at least, as simply a desperate, ill-thought through peace offering with which they might woo disaffected Muslim supporters.
“According to new Theos/ComRes research, however, no wooing is necessary. If there were a general election tomorrow, 35% of voting Muslims (meaning those Muslims who claim they are more likely than not to vote) would vote Labour.”
Spencer does not provide earlier figures that would allow us to determine whether Muslims’ support for Labour has risen or fallen. He would have been advised to consult a Guardian/ICM poll from November 2004 which showed a dramatic decline in the number of Muslims who said they would vote Labour compared with the period before the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The Guardian reported at the time:
“The Guardian/ICM poll confirms that political support for Labour has halved since the 2001 general election and the Liberal Democrats have emerged as the leading political party within the Muslim community.
“The role of Britain in the Iraq war and Tony Blair’s strong support for the war on terror which is widely seen by the Muslim community to be an attack on Islam, has undoubtedly played a part in eroding Labour’s support among British Muslims. In the 2001 general election it is believed that 75% of those who voted backed Labour.
“The voting intention figures in this poll show that support in the Muslim community for the government is slipping away fast. In March, ICM recorded Labour support at 38% and it has now fallen a further six points to 32% of Muslim voters.”
And now the Theos/ComRes poll shows that 35% of Muslims would vote Labour. What that statistic quite clearly demonstrates is that Labour has failed to win back most of those Muslim voters who abandoned it in response to the government’s support for the “war on terror”.
A parliamentary inquiry into Islamophobia is needed
Osama Saeed, SNP parliamentary candidate for Glasgow Central makes the following commitment:
“I will … if elected this year, work across the House of Commons to establish an all-party inquiry into Islamophobia. We have precedent in this from the similar committee looking into anti-semitism which examined the causes and made recommendations on the way forward. Rigourous investigation needs to be brought to the phenomenon of Islamophobia to stop the hate spiralling further in the tough years to come.”
Double standards on terror counterproductive says CAIR
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), along with other national Muslim organizations, today held a news conference in Washington, D.C., to express concerns over a perceived double standard on the use of the label “terrorism” as it relates to acts of political violence committed by people who are not Muslims.
CAIR’s news conference was prompted by coverage of last week’s politically-motivated airborne suicide attack on an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) office in Austin, Texas, which the Muslim civil rights and advocacy group called an act of “terror.”
In a statement read at today’s Capitol Hill event, CAIR Legal Counsel Nadhira Al-Khalili said:
“American law defines ‘terrorism’ as ‘premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets’ or as ‘the unlawful use of force against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.’
“When an act that fits these definitions is carried out by a Muslim individual or group, there is and should be no hesitation in labeling that act ‘terrorism.’
“Regrettably, when an act fitting the legal definitions of terrorism is carried out by someone who is not Muslim, there seems to be a general reluctance on the part of commentators, public officials and law enforcement agencies to use the term.
“Last week’s attack on the IRS office in Texas perfectly fits either legal definition of terrorism, yet it has not been labeled as such. This apparent double standard only serves to render the term ‘terrorism’ meaningless and imbues it with a sense of religious and ethnic bias that is both counterproductive and offensive.”
‘Gigantic mosque’ poses threat to Sandhurst cadets
Generals are trying to block plans to build a mosque with two 100ft minarets next to Sandhurst. The £3million building would have a clear view over the military academy and is just 400 yards from its parade ground.
Senior officers oppose the project saying it could pose a security threat to cadets. Yesterday an Army source said: ‘This has gone right to the top of the chain of command. There is very real concern that if this thing gets built then soldiers could be put at risk. It is outrageous to even think that the officers of the future would have to watch their backs while they are still in training.”
French politicians claim halal menu discriminates against non-Muslims, poses threat of ‘Islamisation’
A French council has lodged a complaint against a fast food chain that serves only meat that conforms with Islamic dietary laws at a local branch. The mayor of Roubaix, in northern France, said the halal menu constituted “discrimination” against non-Muslims.
The Roubaix branch is one of several restaurants at which the chain, Quick, took non-halal products and pork off the menu in November. The move has triggered the latest row over France’s Muslim minority.
Several deputies from French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party have condemned the move, while Marine Le Pen, a vice-president of the far-right National Front, warned of “Islamisation”.
In Roubaix, Mayor Rene Vandierendonck, a socialist, called for a boycott of the Quick branch, and the town council has filed a complaint for discrimination with a regional court in Lille.
“I’m not bothered by the fact that there is a halal menu,” Mr Vandierendonck said. “But this is going too far because it is the only menu on offer and it has become discrimination.”
Quick decided to take a bacon hamburger off the menu at eight of its 350 branches, replacing it with a halal version that comes with smoked turkey. It said the move was designed to test the “commercial interest and technical feasibility” of introducing halal menus.
The Quick manager responsible for the Roubaix branch said there had been a slight increase in business after the introduction of halal menus and that he had not received complaints from customers, AFP news agency reported.
Scottish Defence League flop in Edinburgh
The Royal Mile was closed yesterday by a huge police operation to prevent a violent confrontation between the far-right Scottish Defence League and anti-fascist protestors.
Hundreds of police took to the streets of Edinburgh amid concerns that large numbers of SDL supporters would converge on the city at the same time as a rally by Scotland United, a loose coalition of politicians, Christian and Islamic faith groups, and trade unionists.
But only about 40 supporters of the SDL turned up, and they found themselves corralled into a pub at the bottom of the Royal Mile for several hours. There were five arrests for public order offences but the Scotland United rally, attended by about 2,000 people, passed off peacefully in Princes Street Gardens, about half a mile away.
The SDL members congregated in Jenny Ha’s opposite the Scottish Parliament at about 11am yesterday, forcing police to erect two cordons on the Royal Mile, separating them from members of the Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliance.
While the majority of those in attendance – among them teenagers and women – said they refused to speak to the press for fear of being misquoted, others said they expected a considerable turnout from SDL supporters. “There’s people up from Leeds, Stockport, Wolverhampton, London, all over. We’re getting 3,000 bodies here,” said a member of the English Defence League. We’re coming in from everywhere – Spain, Gilbraltar, Bulgaria.”
The group unfurled banners with slogans such as “Say no to fundamentalist Muslims” and sporadically raised chants, including “We want our country back” and “Muslim bombers off our streets”. Despite attempts to break through the police cordon, they were contained in the pub, until two double-decker buses took them out of the city centre at about 4pm.
At the formal Scotland United rally, which included a march from Princes Street Gardens to the Meadows, speakers said the SDL had failed to gain support, but warned against complacency. Justice secretary Kenny MacAskill said: “Today is about making a stand against those who would seek to divide and saying to them that their views are not welcome.”
Osama Saeed, of the Scottish Islamic Foundation and an SNP candidate for Glasgow Central, said it was a “further humiliation” for the SDL. “They only got ten minutes in the rain last November in Glasgow. They didn’t even get that today.”
Scotland on Sunday, 21 February 2010
Update: The EDL reports that its “leadership team” were arrested on their way to the Edinburgh demonstration and their homes have been raided by the police. As a result, the planned EDL demonstration in Bradford on 30 May has been cancelled.
Further update: See Richard Bartholomew’s coverage of the EDL arrests at Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, 22 February 2010
Veil is ‘not a religious expression’ claims Dati
The former French justice minister, Rachida Dati, has condemned the wearing of the burka, saying that it “does not correspond” to European values.
Ms Dati, the first person of North African descent to serve in the French cabinet, is in the UK to visit the Justice Secretary Jack Straw’s Blackburn constituency.
In a rare interview, she told Today programme reporter Zubeida Malik that “it’s important to remind what helps citizens live together and have a common destiny and living together and having a common destiny means having principles and values in common.
“And it’s true that the burka does not correspond neither to our values nor to our principles whether French or British and not even European. So it is important to say no to this expression that is not a religious expression.”
Ms Dati rejected suggestions that banning the burka and other face veils would make them more popular. “We have to remember that often women who wear the burka are either doing it out of ignorance or others are motivated by an activism linked to the creation of a new identity,” she said.
“And to those for whom it represents the expression of an identity, it is important to say that in our countries there can’t be any confrontation of identities. There is one single identity based upon common values and principles shared by our countries.”
See also “French politician defends veil ban call on trip to Blackburn”, Lancashire Telegraph, 19 February 2010
US conservervatives told ‘Islam itself is the threat’
The speakers participating in “Jihad: America’s Third Rail,” an “unofficial” panel at today’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) wanted their standing-room only audience to know that there’s more to fear than jihad – it’s Islam itself that is the threat.
Sentiments like that are what has made this panel – which just ended here at the Marriott Wardman Hotel in D.C – one of the more controversial at the three-day conservative confab.
“Everyone knows Islam is a religion of peace that has been hijacked by a tiny minority,” said Robert Spencer, sarcastically and to a great amount of applause and guffaws. Spencer, executive director of Jihad Watch and associate director of the Freedom Defense Initiative, which he recently founded with Atlas Shrugged blogger Pamela Geller, told his audience everyone believes that “like they believe in Santa Claus though no one has ever seen it.”
He declared that “conservative media leaders even parrot this line” that Islam is a peaceful religion at its core.
So defined the event, which repeated the group’s message, that political correctness was preventing the American people – elected officials and the government included – from acknowledging – in Geller’s words – that Islamists “have infiltrated at every level of society and all levels of government.”
Hundreds join Facebook protest against Valleys anti-Muslim march
More than 700 people have joined a Facebook group to oppose a proposed anti-Muslim march through the Rhondda, which five men have been arrested and bailed in connection with.
“We Say No To The Planned Rhondda Valleys Racist March” is described on Facebook as “a group for intelligent, informed, peace-loving residents of the Rhondda Valleys, who are opposed to the planned anti-Muslim march from Treherbert to Pontypridd on February 28”.
Police arrested five men for religiously aggravated public order offences two weeks ago, after Wales MEP Jill Evans alerted them to some of the comments being made on the social networking site in relation to the Rhondda March, a group set up to organise a protest in favour of moving Muslim people out of Wales.
Teacher Kelly Robson, who formerly taught French at Porth County Comprehensive School, explained that she decided to set up the opposition group after reading about the Rhondda March on the Rhondda Leader page of WalesOnline website.
The former Treorchy Comprehensive School student said: “I was disgusted by the kind of comments that had been posted on the original Facebook group. I know a lot of people who live in the Valleys and I know the majority of them don’t share these views. So I decided to set up this group so that these people could make their views heard as well.”
Within three days of setting up the group, the 33-year-old received positive messages from anti-racism groups from as far away as Canada, as well as backing from hundreds of supporters, such as Rhondda AM Leighton Andrews and South Wales Central AM Leanne Wood.
“The first group had 150 members but hundreds more people joined this group within a week, which just goes to show how strongly people feel about this,” she said.
Some members of the opposition group have suggested marching on February 28, which was the intended day of the original march. But Mrs Robson has stressed that if anyone decides to organise a protest it should be peaceful.
“I set up this group as a peaceful outlet for residents of the Rhondda Valleys who wish to declare their opposition to an anti-Muslim march,” she said. “I do not wish to antagonise the situation.”
Police have confirmed that they do not believe the Rhondda March will take place but will be monitoring the situation.
The five arrested men have been bailed pending further inquiries until February 28.
No one from the Rhondda March would comment when contacted by the Leader.