Daud Abdullah sues Blears

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Daud Abdullah2A leading member of the Muslim Council of Britain is suing cabinet minister Hazel Blears for defamation, following a row over the Israeli bombing of Gaza. Dr Daud Abdullah, who is the MCB deputy secretary-general, is seeking damages.

Ms Blears said a document which Dr Abdullah signed on hostilities in Gaza had advocated attacks on UK military personnel and on Jews around the world. Ms Blears made the claim in a letter to the Guardian last week, but Dr Abdullah has vehemently denied it.

The document is known as the Istanbul Declaration and was signed by 90 Muslim leaders in response to the three-week Israeli offensive in Gaza, in December and January.

The minister said the declaration supported violence against foreign troops, including British naval forces and advocated “attacks on Jewish communities all around the world”. Ms Blears, who is Communities Secretary, said Dr Abdullah needed to make his own position clear.

Dr Abdullah has in turn accused Ms Blears of “crude bullying”. He said the declaration did not represent an attack on Jewish people and that he did not call for or support attacks on British troops anywhere in the world.

After the legal action was launched a spokesperson for the Department for Communities and Local Government confirmed it had received correspondence from Dr Daud Abdullah’s solicitors.

BBC News, 4 April 2009

Mohammed cartoonist accuses BBC of ‘appeasing Muslim fanatics’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The BBC has been accused of appeasement of radical Islam by the artist behind one of the infamous cartoons of Mohammed. Kurt Westergaard claims the corporation’s decision not to air a recent interview with him came because they are petrified of upsetting Muslims extremists.

Mr Westergaard told the Daily Mail last night: “I am disappointed on behalf of the freedom of speech. Every time you are afraid I think you make a step backwards. That is depressing me.” He compared the BBC’s behaviour with the way countries tried to appease Hitler before the Second World War.

Daily Mail, 3 April 2009

When you get to the end of the article you find the following: “A BBC spokesman said last night: ‘No decision has been made yet. As and when one is, it will be based, as always, on editorial merit’.”

Niqab-wearing mother excluded from parents’ evening

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A mother was told she could not attend a school parents evening because she was wearing a veil. The 34-year-old woman who does not wish to be named claims she has taken the issue up with the school but she has been told she must remove her veil whenever she enters the school on “health, safety and security grounds”.

Speaking exclusively to Asian Image she said, “If I had been told this was their intended policy then maybe I would not have considered asking my son to go to the school in the first place. The whole situation has upset me and I don’t like going to the school any more because I always leave crying.”

The woman, who is also a former pupil of the school, said the policy was not in force before she enrolled her son at the school, neither was it in the school prospectus. She said the problem started in 2007 at Our Lady and St John Roman Catholic School in Blackburn. Since then the woman said she has been asked to remove her veil before she can step into the school.

Headteacher Mrs Gillen said, “Although a high percentage of our pupils are of Asian Heritage pupils she was the first lady to come to parents evening wearing a full veil. I have made it quite clear that I will arrange for her to meet with staff on a one to one in my office. The difficulty would be if a number of ladies wearing veils were free to wander corridors or rooms. It would not be feasible to monitor who is who.”

Asian Image, 3 April 2009

See also Lancashire Evening Telegraph and Daily Mail.

Councillor held by Special Branch at Heathrow Airport

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tower Hamlets councilor Oliur Rahman was detained at Heathrow airport today (Wednesday) under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. He has expressed outrage over the incident.

Cllr Rahman was held for more than 30 minutes and quizzed by Special Branch about why he had attended the sixth Cairo international anti-war conference in Egypt. Cllr Rahman told the Advertiser from Heathrow: “A man standing behind the desk at immigration control asked to see my passport and said he was a police officer. He asked why I’d been in Cairo, how long I’d been there, what contacts I’d made and where I lived. I asked what was the purpose of these questions and he said he was from Special Branch and had the right to ask under the Terrorism Act.”

“I’m really shaken about it,” he continued. “They didn’t stop anyone else from that flight and I’m sure it was because of the colour of my skin and because I’m a Muslim.” He is writing a letter of complaint to the Met Police.

East London Advertiser, 2 April 2008

National Secular Society promotes ‘Islamization’ of Britain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Traditional Values CoalitionWhich will no doubt come as a surprise to the deeply Islamophobic NSS. But the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon is convinced:

“A disturbing cultural trend is emerging in Britain – one that could result in the eventual Islamization of this great ally in the war on terrorism. More than 100,000 Brits have downloaded ‘certificates of de-baptism’ from a National Secular Society (NSS) web site. These men and women have decided to openly reject their Christian heritage….

“Last year, the Bishop of Rochester, England, Right Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali warned against the increased secularization of British culture. He noted that Britain’s ascendency in world history could never have been achieved unless it had been based on Christian principles. He noted that Islam poses a major threat to England. In fact, he was so outspoken about Islam last year that he faced death threats. Regrettably, he resigned his post just a few days ago. A prophetic voice is now gone.

“With a Christian vacuum emerging in England, radical Islam will fill the void – and those Britains who so casually rejected their Christian heritage, will eventually be subjugated under Shariah Law…. Christianity not only brought the truth of Jesus Christ to Britain and other nations, but the concept of progress and human freedom. As Britains reject Christianity, the evil totalitarian political system known as Islam waits to fill this vacuum. If Brits thought Nazism was bad, wait until Islam seizes control of this island nation.”

Traditional Values Coalition, 1 April 2009

The CSC’s latest exercise in undermining social cohesion

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Robin Simcox promotes the latest publication by the surreally misnamed Centre for Social Cohesion – foreigners, you’ll be shocked to hear, and worst of Saudi Arabia and Iran, are funding courses at colleges in the UK. David Shariatmadari accuses Simcox of drawing “peculiar conclusions that only really make sense in the context of the CSC’s relentless Islamophobia”.

Quilliam Foundation links up with Harry’s Place

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Well, it had to happen eventually, didn’t it? Today the pro-war, frothing-at-the-mouth, anti-Muslim blog Harry’s Place features a guest post by James Brandon, Senior Research Fellow and Head of Communications at the Quilliam Foundation.

If Ed Husain’s project wasn’t sufficiently discredited already among the UK’s Muslim communities, this surely sets the seal on it. Yet the government pours hundreds of thousands of pounds into the Quilliam Foundation, while severing relations with the genuinely representative Muslim Council of Britain.

David Cameron wants UK to be ‘totally Islamified’, fascists claim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“In yet another example of how the Tory Party has utterly betrayed all British values, its shadow Minister of Community Cohesion has been named as ‘Britain’s most powerful Muslim’ by the ‘equality and Human Rights Commission’. Pakistani-origin Sayeeda Hussain Warsi, promoted to the House of Lords by Tory leader David Cameron and now using the title ‘Baroness’ so that she can pretend to be an elected Tory frontbencher, said she was delighted to be selected…. Mr Cameron’s choice of Ms Warsi as Community Cohesion shadow minister is perfectly in line with his public demand that Britain be totally Islamified.”

BNP news release, 31 March 2009

The demonisation of British Islamism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“British Islamists aren’t the only Muslim political voice in modern Britain, but they don’t deserve the attacks they are enduring, and by the rules of our political system they don’t deserve to be excluded. Let’s hope that the government stops listening to the fringes, and recognises the variety of mainstream Muslim political voices before it’s too late.”

Robert Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer at Comment is Free, 1 April 2009