‘Devastating’ attack on Muslim graves

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Mayor of North Lincolnshire today branded the desecration of more than 20 Muslim graves as devastating. The gravestones have been vandalised in two separate areas of Brumby cemetery, and nearly 10 of the damaged graves were of children and babies.

Coun Jawaid Ishaq said the vandalised gravestones included that of a very close friend, Mohammed Abdullah, the first person he met when he moved to Scunthorpe. “This attack is devastating,” he said. “I know 70 per cent of the people buried here, including all the children’s graves. It is heart-breaking that all of a sudden some thugs have done this.”

Twenty-four Muslim headstones were knocked over or damaged in the Cemetery, on Cemetery Road, Scunthorpe.

Coun Ishaq said: “This is purely a racist attack as it has just been Muslim graves. It is a clear-cut situation. I have lived in North Lincolnshire for 45 years and I have never seen anything like this. This morning, when I found out, I felt so low as to what can happen in your own town.”

Coun Mashook Ali has also condemned the attacks. He said: “I am appalled after hearing about this incident. We all need to be respected and especially our dead, regardless of religious denomination. I hope this never happens again.”

Scunthorpe Telegraph, 14 August 2008  (Via MPACUK)

See also Scunthorpe Telegraph, 15 August 2008

Posted in UK

Julie Burchill on the superiority of Christianity over Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“When one considers the shocking plight of British Muslims who seek to convert to Christianity, it seems to me quite offensive that Christianity should be dismissed by Dawkins and his like in the same breath as Islam.”

Julie Burchill in the Guardian, 14 August 2008

In fact, Dawkins shares Burchill’s views on the superiority of Christianity over Islam. Still, why let facts get in the way of anti-Muslim bigotry, eh Julie?

Jim Fitzpatrick calls for ban on Hizb ut-Tahrir

Posted on by Bob Pitt

KhilafahA government minister has condemned a decision by radical Muslims to stage their annual party conference in London’s East End on Saturday.

Labour’s Transport Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said the Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, which wants Britain to be an “Islamic” state, was being deliberately divisive choosing Stepney for its conference.

The Poplar & Canning Town MP’s comments were backed by Tower Hamlets Tory Opposition councillor Tim Archer, who described Hizb ut-Tahrir’s decision as “disgusting.”

Their conference, Khilafah, The Need for Political Unity, comes a week after Tower Hamlets’ new borough police commander Paul Rickett warned that extremists could be targeting “vulnerable” members of the East End’s large Bengali population.

MP Mr Fitzpatrick told the Advertiser that he had “no time” for Hizb ut-Tahrir, an outfit former Prime Minister Tony Blair considered banning. “There’s a strong feeling they should be banned,” said Mr Fitzpatrick. “It’s an organisation that preaches intolerance and division and there should be no place for it.”

East London Advertiser, 14 August 2008

Policy Exchange faces legal action over ‘Hijacking of British Islam’ documentary

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Policy Exchange, the right-wing think-tank with close links to Conservative leader David Cameron’s inner circle, is facing legal action for accusing British mosques of distributing extremist literature.

The Independent has learnt that the Al-Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in west London has hired the law firm Carter Ruck to sue the think-tank for defamation. An initial complaint will be made “very soon”, a source close to the case said.

Al-Manaar claims that Policy Exchange fabricated several receipts used as evidence of purchase. The North London Central Mosque in Finsbury Park is also understood to be pursuing libel action against the think-tank through the solicitors’ firm Dean and Dean.

Last October the BBC’s Newsnight had been due to run an exclusive report on the findings of an article written for Policy Exchange by Denis MacEoin entitled The Hijacking of British Islam.

Mr MacEoin argued that extremist literature was widely available in British mosques and shops adjoining them, that much of it was funded by the Saudi Arabian government, and that the Finsbury Park mosque was a major perpetrator of such distribution.

But when Richard Watson, the reporter covering the story, and Peter Barron, then editor of Newsnight, examined the report in detail, they found that five receipts used as incriminating evidence looked fake.

The director of the Al-Manaar Centre, Abdulkarim Khalil said last night: “This report is still in circulation and has been very widely read. We are determined to clear our name.” Nobody from Policy Exchange was available for comment.

The news follows the publication earlier this week of another controversial report by the think-tank which recommended migration from some northern cities to the south of England.

David Cameron, on a tour of the North-west at the time, distanced himself from its conclusions, branding the report “insane”.

Independent, 15 August 2008

Hijab-wearing woman kidnapped Madeleine McCann, says Sun

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Is It HerA little girl who cops suspect could be Madeleine McCann asked a woman she was seen walking with, “Can we go back now?” it emerged last night.

The poignant plea in English was overheard by a bank security guard in Brussels, Belgium – and he is convinced the kiddie was missing Maddie.

The guard told detectives the blonde blue-eyed girl looked just like Maddie, who was nearly four when she vanished from her family’s holiday apartment in Portugal on May 3 last year.

She was with a woman the man did not believe was her mother because they were very unalike. The dark-skinned woman, wearing a hijab headdress, spoke in a different language, possibly broken French.

Sun, 11 August 2008

‘Nothing but respect’ for women athletes who are wearing the hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hijab Olympics“The Greeks, as we all know, used to compete in the original Olympic games stark naked and smothered in olive oil. That’s no longer the fashion – because we have different cultural ideas about what parts of the body are suitable for public display – and, in fact, some women have taken the trend for Olympic modesty one stage further.

“This year, several women, including Egyptian fencer Shaimaa El Gammal and Bahraini sprinter Rakia Al Gassra, will be competing wearing the hijab.

“I suppose that as a good liberal feminist I ought to be appalled by this, seeing it as a symbol of patriarchal oppression. In fact, I find I rather admire these women.

“I am appalled by the fact that some countries, including Saudi Arabia, have sent male-only teams to the games. But for these women, combining their religious beliefs with their athletic ambitions, I have nothing but respect.

“A lot of rubbish is talked about the hijab. Since France banned girls from wearing them in schools in 2004, there has been a steady stream of media stories and comment suggesting that Britain should do the same. Feminist friends tell me that the headscarves are a symbol of female subjugation, a way to deal with male lust by forcing women to cover up, and that as such, they should not be tolerated in a gender-equal society. The women who wear them, they say, have been pressured into it by their communities.

“Well, yes and no. We all wear the kind of clothes we wear partly because of social pressure – and our own culture still says, for example, that it is more acceptable, and less sexual, for men to walk down the street topless than it is for women. Many patriarchal religions do indeed hold highly disturbing views about women, which should be challenged, but we should confront those ideas via education and debate, not by forcing young women to reveal parts of their bodies they would rather keep covered. If women say that they want to wear a headscarf, I’m afraid we have to take them at their word. What could be more anti-feminist than telling women that they don’t really know what they think?

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Growth of Islam at expense of Christianity would be ‘poor exchange’ – Dawkins

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Imagine no religionThe scientist and secular campaigner Professor Richard Dawkins yesterday said that Europe was a “haven of civilisation” trapped between the Islamic world and the US.

The writer of The God Delusion, speaking at a packed session of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, said that in his view religious belief was not on the wane, even if attendance at churches in the UK was declining.

He said that organised religion in the US – in particular the “mega-churches” of the evangelical denominations – and the world of Islam are having increasing influence.

After saying there was an “increasing Islamic element in this society” in Britain, he added: “It is possible to see Europe as a haven of civilisation, with the pincer movement of Islam on one side and the US on the other.”

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Alan Craig resumes campaign against ‘mega-mosque’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Alan Craig in churchNewham councillor Alan Craig last night accused Tablighi Jamaat, the controversial Islamic sect behind plans for a giant mosque near the site of the 2012 Olympics, of breaking its promises about keeping local people informed.

He called on them to “immediately come clean with their plans”.

Tablighi Jamaat has also come under fire from moderate Muslims. Dr Taj Hargey, of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford, accused the group of espousing a virulent intolerant form of Islam that will “generate social friction rather than community cohesion”, whilst Dr Irfan al-Alawi, of the Centre for Islamic Pluralism, accused the group of being linked to terrorist activities in Pakistan and Britain.

“Tablighi Jamaat is a secretive global missionary sect from South Asia that wants to build its international headquarters mosque here in London,” said Cllr Craig. “Yet they will not enter into discussions or explanation of their plans. This silence is not golden. It represents yet another false claim and broken promise by Tablighi Jamaat.”

Christian Today, 12 August 2008

Craig has evidently decided that direct personal association with the promotion of hysterical nonsense about Tablighi Jamaat’s non-existent association with terrorism – which has been a central plank in his campaign against the Abbey Mills mosque – is likely to discredit him. He now leaves that irresponsible scaremongering to a so-called “moderate Muslim” like Irfan al-Alawi.

Scottish Islamic Foundation hits back at critics

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scottish Islamic FoundationThe Scottish Islamic Foundation (SIF) has hit back at criticism about the support the organisation has received from the Scottish Government.

Osama Saeed, the interim chief executive of SIF, is an SNP candidate for the next Westminster election and believes this has been at the root of press attacks on its funding arrangements.

The government insisted the £210,000 grant given to constitute the group in March and further aid of £190,000 under the Race, Religion and Refugee Integration Fund had been recommended by independent assessors under proper procedures.

Mr Saeed said accusations of favouritism were inaccurate given that other organisations working with Muslims also received grants from the fund, including some groups with strong Labour Party links.

The SIF had no permanent staff yet but strict appointment procedures would be followed, said Mr Saeed, pointing out at board level and among volunteers there was cross-party representation.

A statement from SIF cited public support from a range of individuals and groups, and added:

“There are a tiny handful of people who have been engaged in what others in the wider community are seeing as misinformed or jealous sniping. However, as has been demonstrated, we have the support and backing of imams and mosques around the country; the umbrella bodies of Muslim organisations in Scotland and the UK; Muslim students and many others.”

Among those quoted in support of SIF was Amar Shakoor of the Strathclyde Police Muslim Association, who said: “I would like to congratulate SIF and their team and wish them every success in the future to promote Islam and work with the Muslim community in an effort to foster better understanding of all faiths in Scotland.”

The Herald, 11 August 2008