Tories’ assault on multiculturalism gathers pace

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sayeeda Warsi and CameronThe creation of a group of young Muslims to advise ministers on extremism and discrimination has been condemned as divisive and patronising by a leading Muslim peer.

Baroness Warsi, the shadow minister for community cohesion, claimed the move was another example of Labour’s discredited policy of state multiculturalism and would just drive communities in Britain further apart. She pointed out that Muslims face the same issues as young people from other backgrounds, and said it is wrong to chose advisory groups purely on the basis of faith.

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DCLG announces PVE funding

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Department of Communities and Local Government has published a list of organisations that will receive financial support from the Community Leadership Fund, under DCLG’s Preventing Violent Extremism initiative. No funding for the Muslim Council of Britain, of course, but £125,000 over the next two years for much smaller and far less representative British Muslim Forum. Which only serves to underline the accuracy of Salma Yaqoob’s criticisms of PVE.

Vicar could be disciplined for blog slurs against gays and Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Peter MullenA Church of England vicar could face disciplinary action for saying gay men should have “sodomy” warnings tattooed on their bodies. The Rev Peter Mullen, who is a parish priest and rector in the City of London, made the remarks on his blog, which has since been removed from the web under an agreement with diocesan officials.

Mullen, 66, wrote it was time for religious believers to recommend the discouragement of homosexual practices in the style of cigarette packet warnings. “Let us make it obligatory for homosexuals to have their backsides tattooed with the slogan sodomy can seriously damage your health and their chins with fellatio kills.”

In a previous posting Mullen anticipated an “agreeable carnage” at the start of the annual Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. “They usually manage to stampede and slaughter quite a few hundred of their co-religionists. Just imagine for a moment what a field day the BBC and the leftwing press in England would have if anything even remotely as bad as that happened in Vatican Square at Christmas or Easter.”

Mullen criticised the lack of jokes about Islam in the media, remarking that adherents “certainly lend themselves to ridicule: sticking their arses in the air five times a day. How about a few little choruses, ‘Randy Muslims when they die/Find 70 virgins in the sky’?”

Guardian, 6 October 2008

Reading religious books, growing a beard – how to spot a potential terrorist

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Look for inmates growing beards, reading religious books and not wanting to share showers with non-Muslims. That is the advice given by security officials from several European countries in a manual to help prison authorities spot potential terrorists.

The manual, developed by France, Germany and Austria, was released to help prevent prisons from becoming breeding grounds for Muslim extremists. The document was distributed at a two-day closed-door conference of European security experts this week. It will also be given to prison personnel.

Daily Mail, 3 October 2008

Ban Muslim headscarves, say [some] teachers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Teachers TVForty-six percent of primary and secondary school teachers suggested that allowing pupils to wear religious symbols went against British values. They also feared it would undermine the drive to promote religious and racial harmony in schools.

The findings, in a poll carried out by YouGov, will fuel the controversial debate about the wearing of religious symbols in schools.

Currently, individual schools are free to make their own decisions, but a string of recent court ruling said some policies amounted to “unlawful discrimination”. In July, a Sikh schoolgirl, won a discrimination case against her school after she was banned from wearing a religious bangle.

The poll, commissioned by Teachers TV, found that more than 70 per cent of teachers agreed that the promotion of British values was part of a teacher’s role.

Andrew Bethell, chief executive of Teachers TV, said that the results marked a “shift away from multiculturalism” in the “post 7/7 Britain”. He added: “There seems to be an increasing feeling among teachers that simply embracing difference is no longer enough. Pupils need a sense of common identity and ‘Britishness’ is a big part of this.”

Daily Telegraph, 3 October 2008

UK police accused of misusing terror laws against Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain’s police were accused Friday of misusing the country’s terrorism laws against Muslims after three men were charged under criminal law for firebombing a publisher in north London.

“What is surprising is that they were held under anti-terror legislation for almost a week and then charged under fire arm offences,” Muslim News editor Ahmed Versi said. “It seems anti-terror laws are being used as fishing expedition,” he said.

Ali Beheshti, Abrar Mirza and Abbas Taj, all from London, were due to appear in court Friday after being charged with conspiring to damage the home of a man publishing a controversial American novel about the Holy Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).

The men, charged with conspiring without lawful excuse to damage the premises between September 8 and 27, could have only been held by police for a maximum of three days under criminal law.

Versi condemned the petrol bomb attack carried out last Saturday but said that the case was “another evidence that the police are misusing the anti terror legislation whenever Muslims are involved in committing criminal offences.” “When it is extremist white criminals who may have bombs and all kinds of weapons, they are still arrested under normal fire arm offences,” he said.

The police told the Muslim News that the arrests were the “culmination of investigation of the three trying to set fire to the property and other information received deemed to be suitable under Terrorism Act 2000 and it was intelligence led.” The police also confirmed that they wanted to catch the culprits “red-handed” following reports that they asked the publisher to leave the premises before the petrol bomb attack.

But Versi said it was “also of concern is that the police allowed the attack to take place before apprehending them thus putting the neighbours and other public under danger.” “Surely they could have been arrested with the bomb making equipment?” he asked.

IRNA, 3 October 2008

MPACUK criticises Woolas appointment

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Phil WoolasMuslim groups expressed anger last night after a Labour politician who has been at the centre of a series of race controversies was made Immigration Minister.

Phil Woolas, previously an Environment Minister, was handed the brief despite infuriating the Pakistani community earlier this year by warning they were fuelling birth defects by inter-marrying. He also caused anger following the Oldham race riots by calling for “the reality of anti-white racism” to be acknowledged.

Last night, the Muslim Public Affairs Committee condemned his appointment. A spokesman said: “Phil Woolas has a track record of insensitive, inappropriate outbursts that have verged on Islamophobia. He is a Minister clearly out of his depth. We will monitor his work for any more signs of his all too obvious antipathy towards British Muslims.”

Mail on Sunday, 5 September 2008

Another ‘free speech’ controversy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lenin’s Tomb on the Jewel of Medina controversy:

“The mundane truth is that one publisher protected its reputation by postponing and then cancelling publication of a putatively offensive anti-Muslim novel, while another intends to build on its reputation by publishing said material…. Despite the energetic efforts of polemicists and hacks to produce a dense collage of imagery and associations whose total effect is to incriminate Muslims in particular as an egregious threat to free expression, this is not about courage or Enlightenment or ethics, but about strategies for conquering market share. As far as I know, neither publisher has been the recipient of a legal threat, and the current publisher is protected by the state in the unlikely event that a handful of sad young arsonists tries to burn his house down again.

“There has not been any censorship worth the name. If there were to be censorship, perhaps in the form of a legal challenge to prevent publication, then there would be an argument. And if a court decided that the book was actually in violation of the law – unlikely given the law’s bias against Muslims – one could then talk about whether censorship was justified, what the limits on free speech should be, etc. As it is, 99% of this melodrama has been concocted by overheated imaginations.”

Proof that vilification leads to violence?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“My contention has been that media vilifications of ethnic or religious groups can lead to violence, and said as much in my letter two months ago to Standpoint, which they finally got round to printing in the most recent edition. While they printed most of the letter, they omitted that bit, despite the low hum of violence which has sounded for the last few years: an imam blinded in London, another suffering brain damage, a mosque being destroyed in Basildon, a man threatened with a chainsaw in Bolton, and this past weekend, a Muslim cemetery vandalised in Southall, west London….

“Recently, a pro-Israeli group paid various newspapers in ‘swing’ states in the upcoming American Presidential election, including Ohio, to distribute a propaganda DVD called Obsession, which features interviews with one anti-Muslim ‘expert’ after another and essentially portrays Muslims as Nazis. Some editors have refused to distribute it, and have faced accusations of ‘censorship’, as if newspapers did not have to make judgements from day to day (or week to week) on what to publish and what to hold, and as if the film cannot be downloaded for free off YouTube. It’s such a coincidence that last Friday night, a mosque was attacked in Dayton, Ohio. The thugs – terrorists, to some minds – who did this did not just pour petrol through the letterbox at night and set fire to the place; oh no, they sprayed a ‘chemical irritant’ into the building while people were praying their taraweeh.”

Yusuf Smith at Indigo Jo Blogs, 30 September 2008