BBC reporters highlight racism on Bristol estate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

PanoramaTwo BBC reporters of South Asian origin who lived for eight weeks on a housing estate in Bristol, posing as a married Muslim couple with limited English, were racially abused more than 50 times, a documentary will show tonight. The edition of Panorama, titled Hate on the Doorstep, also features the pair suffering physical assault.

Reporter Amil Khan, who was pretending to be a part-time painter and decorator, was punched in the head by a local man. Tamanna Rahman, who wore a hijab headscarf and acted as if she spoke very little English, was pelted with stones and glass and on one occasion an 11-year-old boy tried to steal her purse, threatening to kill her.

Using secret cameras, Rahman and Khan filmed themselves being abused regularly, both for their race – “Paki” was a common term of abuse – and over their religion, with a number of jibes used related to terrorism, including “Taliban” and “jihad”. A good deal of the abuse on the estate is shown to come from children and teenagers, although adults are also involved.

BBC News, 19 October 2009

Watch programme here

‘Spying on Muslims’ – discussion on the Islam Channel

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The topic for this evening’s Politics and Media slot on the Islam Channel (Sky 813) at 7pm is ‘Spying on Muslims’. The programme is presented by Salma Yaqoob and the studio guests are:

Arun Kundnani – author of Spooked: how not to prevent violent extremism, published by the Institute of Race Relations; Vikram Dodd – Crime Reporter, Guardian; and Dr Daud Abdullah – Deputy Secretary General, Muslim Council of Britain and Chair, Middle East Monitor (MEMO).

Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer – Senior lecturer in politics, University of Exeter, currently researching political mobilisation amongst British Muslims – will join the discussion by phone.

The Home Office has been invited to send a spokesperson.

Wilders not welcome in Philadelphia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The David Horowitz Freedom Center (which would probably outpoint the Centre for Social Cohesion in a competition for the most inappropriate name) has invited the Dutch far-right racist Geert Wilders to speak at Philadelphia’s Temple University on 20 October as part of its Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week and its Stop the Campus War Against Israel and the Jews campaign.

Alas for Horowitz and his supporters, it appears that following a letter from the Muslim Students Association the Temple administration will probably withdraw permission to hold the event. (Or, as the inimitable Pamela Geller puts it: “In a stunning act of cowardice and dhimmitude, Temple University may be caving to the demands of the student jihad.”)

LoonWatch comments that, contrary to Horowitz’s claims, “Geert Wilders was not planning to travel to Philadelphia from the Netherlands solely for the purpose of informing Americans about terrorism….  Based on Wilders’ record, it is clear that the purpose behind the speech was to convince Americans that Islam as a religion is the root cause of terror and that the United States must seriously consider curtailing the civil liberties of its Muslim population if it wishes to survive as a free nation.”

Unfortunately, it appears that another speaking engagement for Wilders, at Columbia University on 21 October, is still going ahead. As LoonWatch states: “Temple University was right to rescind their offer to have Wilders speak and Columbia should follow suit. Slander has no place in a free and just society; especially slander that utilizes hate speech to promote discrimination.”

Nazi-saluting Islamophobes take to the streets of Swansea

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Welsh Defence League Nazi salute

They denied being fascists ahead of their first Welsh march – but at yesterday’s Welsh Defence League protest against Islamic extremism onlookers were confronted with scenes of jeering men giving Nazi salutes. It was the first time the newly-formed group have been out on the streets in Wales.

The controversial march had sparked a counter-demonstration, with about 200 protesters occupying the city centre. A heavy police cordon on either side of Castle Street in Swansea city centre kept the two groups apart.

Speaking before its demonstration, the Welsh Defence League (WDL) said the event would be peaceful, and consistently denied allegations of fascist tendencies. But the ugly scenes, in which grown men among the group of around 60 were seen making Nazi salutes in front of small children, seemed to prove otherwise.

Keith Ross, one of the organisers of the counter demonstration by groups including Swansea City of Sanctuary and Searchlight Cymru, said: “My first reaction to the WDL is who are they defending us against? I don’t need to be defended against Muslims and I’m sad that the WDL has made a public call for no more mosques, which is a breach of human rights. Yet they have been given the right of freedom of speech.”

Plaid Cymru Assembly Member Leanne Woods was among those who had turned out to oppose the Welsh Defence League. She said: “This is the first time they have come to Wales and a lot of people from different organisations have come out to say far-right extremism isn’t acceptable on the streets of Swansea. We are happy to live together with the Muslim community and we are not prepared to accept divisive and hate-based politics on our streets.”

Dr Mohammed Rahman, who attends Swansea Mosque, said Muslims in Swansea were very much an accepted part of the community.

Wales Online, 18 October 2009

See also “WDL humiliated in Swansea”, Hope not Hate blog, 18 October 2009

All in all, a total disaster for the few dozen WDL supporters, who were heavily outumbered by anti-fascists.

Anti-WDL protest

Muslims: ‘give them an inch and they will take a mile’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“If people were convinced that Islamic extremists had little support among British Muslims it would be easy to write the off as an eccentric fringe element. In such a context, plans for rallies by fundamentalists to press claims for a wholesale switch to sharia law in Britain could be regarded with equanimity rather than alarm.

“Unfortunately, that is not the case. With the threat of Islamist terrorism a major factor in our national life and with a bewildering array of Muslim pressure groups always ready to press for new cultural concessions, the British public has come to a depressing conclusion: give them an inch and they will take a mile.”

The Daily Express tries to defend yesterday’s hysterical and entirely misleading front-page coverage of the planned al-Muhajiroun demonstration in London. Predictably, the leader goes on to attack “moderate Muslims” for failing to “marginalise extremists”, which of course entirely ignores the direct action taken against al-Muhajiroun by Muslims in Luton.

Update:  See also ENGAGE, 16 October 2009

Further update:  The Express editorial has been reproduced word for word in the latest issue of National Front News.

Anti-terrorism strategy ‘spies on innocent Muslims’ – with the support of Ed Husain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The government programme aimed at preventing Muslims from being lured into violent extremism is being used to gather intelligence about innocent people who are not suspected of involvement in terrorism, the Guardian has learned.

The information the authorities are trying to find out includes political and religious views, information on mental health, sexual activity and associates, and other sensitive information, according to documents seen by the Guardian. Other documents reveal that the intelligence and information can be stored until the people concerned reach the age of 100.

Tonight Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, branded it the biggest spying programme in Britain in modern times and an affront to civil liberties.

The intelligence is being gathered as part of the strategy Preventing Violent Extremism – Prevent for short. It was launched three years ago to stop people being lured to al-Qaida ideology and committing acts of terrorism.

The government and police have repeatedly denied that the £140m programme is a cover for spying on Muslims in Britain. But sources directly involved in running Prevent schemes say it involves gathering intelligence about the thoughts and beliefs of Muslims who are not involved in criminal activity.

Guardian, 17 October 2009

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How not to prevent violent extremism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SpookedA report published today by the Institute of Race Relations finds that the government’s Prevent programme for tackling extremism fosters division, mistrust and alienation.

Entitled Spooked: how not to prevent violent extremism, the report suggests that the Prevent programme has been used to establish one of the most elaborate systems of surveillance ever seen in Britain.

Moreover, there are strong reasons for thinking that the Prevent progamme, in effect, constructs the Muslim population as a “suspect community”, fosters social divisions among Muslims themselves and between Muslims and others, encourages tokenism, facilitates violations of privacy and professional norms of confidentiality, discourages local democracy and is counter-productive in reducing the risk of political violence.

IRR press release 17 October 2009

Download report (pdf) here.

The report also notes the influence of Ed Husain and his mates on the Prevent programme. It points out that Learning Together To Be Safe: a toolkit to help schools contribute to the prevention of violent extremism (pdf here), produced by the Department for Children, Schools and Families:

“endorses advice from the Quilliam Foundation thinktank about behaviours that ‘could indicate a young person is being influenced by extremists and developing a mindset that could lead them to accept and undertake violent acts’. The indicators listed include: expressions of political ideology such as support for ‘the Islamic political system’, a focus on scripture as an exclusive moral source, a ‘conspiratorial mindset’, seeing the West as a source of evil in the world and literalism in the reading of Muslim texts.

“The Quilliam Foundation is also backing up this advice with its Radicalisation Awareness Programme training for teachers and other local authority workers on how to spot the signs of extremism. The danger with this is that radical religious and political opinions become mistaken for terrorist indoctrination – especially given the potential problems with the Quilliam Foundation’s definition of ‘extremism’.”

Thilo Sarrazin – racist hero

Posted on by Bob Pitt

This summer we saw the ugly face of racism in the US with the rise of the “tea-baggers”.  Now racism is being mainstreamed in Germany after a member of the Bundesbank – Thilo Sarrazin – let loose against “Arabs” and Turks living in Germany in an interview with the culture magazine Lettre International:

“A large number of Arabs and Turks in this city, whose number has grown through bad policies, have no productive function other than as fruit and vegetable vendors,” he said.

“Forty per cent of all births occur in the underclasses. Our educated population is becoming stupider from generation to generation. What’s more, they cultivate an aggressive and atavistic mentality. It’s a scandal that Turkish boys won’t listen to female teachers because that is what their culture tells them”, he said. “I’d rather have East European Jews with an IQ that is 15pc higher than the German population,” he said.

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Wilders heads for UK

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Controversial right-wing Dutch MP Geert Wilders is due to arrive in the UK later after the home secretary said he would not try to block his entry. Mr Wilders was turned away from the UK in February on the grounds that his allegedly anti-Islamic views posed a threat to public security. But the Freedom Party leader is now due to visit London on Friday after that ban was overturned by a tribunal. The Home Office says it is considering whether to challenge the decision.

A spokesman for Home Secretary Alan Johnson said on Thursday: “Any European visitor’s right to enter the UK will be considered on its merits by an immigration officer. On this occasion the home secretary is not minded to recommend that Wilders is denied admission to the UK. Clearly Mr Wilders’ statements and behaviour during a visit will inevitably impact on any future decisions to admit him.”

BBC News, 16 October 2009