The BNP, anti-semitism and Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Do not be fooled, the BNP is a fascist organization and racist to the core

By David Landau

“Of course we must teach the truth to the hardcore…. when it comes to influencing the public, forget about racial differences, genetics, Zionism, historical revisionism and so on…. we must at all times present them with an image of moderate reasonableness.”  Nick Griffin, Chairman of the BNP, writing in the Patriot, Spring 1999.

LAST WEEK the Argent newspaper group, who produce local newspapers across London and the South East, took an advertisement from the BNP with a picture of a white nuclear family saying “People Like You Vote BNP – British National Party Putting Londoners First”. We know that they are very selective about which Londoners they want to “put first”.  But the it seems that the Argent Group were not simply seduced by the money, but fooled into thinking that the BNP is just another party participating in the political process.

The fact that the BNP is just a newish manifestation of an old party going back to the British Brothers League through the British Union of Fascists through the National Front was completely lost on them. They now seem to have seen the error of their ways and have agreed to put the money made on this advertisement to charity. Part of this rumour of respectability is the suggestion that the BNP isn’t anti-Semitic any more. The fact that their leader Nick Griffin used to be an outspoken Holocaust denier, who compared believing that 6 million were murdered with believing that the earth is flat can be put aside as a youthful indiscretion. They have apparently changed their ways.

They even have a Jewish councillor in the person of Pat Richardson (nee Feldman) in Epping Forest. To understand this we need to recognize that anti-Semitism plays a different role in fascist thinking than other forms of racism. Anti-Semitism has been an organizing principle of most fascists. Jews are the Bankers and the Bolsheviks who conspire together to control the world in which the rest of us are pawns and victims of their evil plans. These ideas borrow heavily from medieval Christian ideas about Jews as Christ Killers and Usurers.

This conspiracy theory has been upset by the rise of Islamaphobia. For many fascists, and Nick Griffin and other leaders of the BNP are part of this wing, the central organizing principle is now Islamaphobia. It is the Oil Sheikhs and the Terrorists who are calling the shots, dividing the world against itself and threatening ‘our’ Christian way of life. Leaflets and papers by the BNP portray Muslims praying outside a church on the village green and bombed buses.

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What turns some Islamists to terror

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“We represent a cross section of the Muslim community, and reject the simplistic narrative about the dangers of Islamism espoused by the Quilliam Foundation. We believe this is just another establishment-backed attempt to divert attention from the main cause of radicalisation and extremism in Britain: the UK’s disastrous foreign policy in the Muslim world, including its occupation of Muslim lands and its support for pro-western Muslim dictators. The foundation has no proven grassroots support within the Muslim community, although it does seem to have the ear of the powers that be, probably because it is telling them what they want to hear.”

Letter from Anas al-Tikriti, Yvonne Ridley, Ihtisham Hibatullah, Ismail Patel and Roshan Muhammed Salih.

Guardian, 26 April 2008

Alan Craig takes BBC and ITV to court over election broadcast

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Alan Craig in churchA London mayoral candidate is taking the BBC and ITV to the High Court for “censoring” his party Election Broadcasts in the run up to the May 1 elections. The Christian Choice candidate, Alan Craig, has instructed the Christian Legal Centre to file papers this morning at the Royal Courts of Justice after BBC and ITV officials instructed him to remove parts of his Party Election Broadcast which was aired on Wednesday evening.

Cllr Craig, a long-standing campaigner against the “mega-mosque”, due to be built in Newham close to the site of the Olympic Games, originally described the organisation behind it, Tablighi Jamaat, as “separatist”. However, BBC and ITV officials responsible for supervising the Broadcasts instructed him to moderate his views and change this description of the Islamic organisation if he wanted it aired.

Cllr Craig claims not only “political interference” by the broadcasters, but says such action breeches his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects freedom of speech.

According to the Christian Legal Centre, Cllr Craig changed the word to “controversial” under duress. Late in the day ITV insisted that the agreed word “controversial” should be applied to the mosque plans not to the Islamic group. Cllr Craig’s objections to the mega-mosque, however, have consistently been related to the nature of the Islamic group behind the project – the plans have not yet been published.

Christian Today, 25 April 2008

And good for BBC and ITV, we say. Mind you, “separatist” and “controversial” represent quite restrained language as far as Alan Craig is concerned. This is the man whose press releases feature headlines such as “Olympics mega-mosque linked to London and Glasgow car bomb plots“.

Muslim BBC journalist held down by six officers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim journalist was held to the ground by police officers after his radio equipment was mistaken for an explosive device. Max Khan, 39, was covering a story for BBC Radio Stoke when six officers held him down and searched his backpack. Staffordshire Police said it had received reports that a man with a large backpack with wires or aerials coming from it was acting suspiciously outside the Potteries Shopping Centre in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent on April 7.

In a statement to The Muslim News Chief Superintendent Jane Sawyers, of Staffordshire Police, said, “Our first duty in cases like this is the safety of the public. The person and our officers, and presented with this limited information, local officers immediately responded and positively acted to ensure everyone’s safety. I want to apologise for any distress caused but the action taken was necessary. I am pleased with the positive and professional way the officers dealt with the incident. Bearing in mind the current national terrorism alert level we were able to resolve this incident quickly and safely.”

A spokesperson for the BBC told The Muslim News, “Police have apologised for this incident and as far as the BBC is concerned the matter is now closed.”

However, speaking on behalf of her husband who has been gagged by the BBC, Saadia Khan told The Muslim News, “I want to see how the BBC reacts if the same happens to one of its white reporters in China during the Olympics this summer. Will it accept an apology from the police there and call it an end to the matter?” She also challenged the rationale of the police, asking, “What’s so special about Stoke that Al Qa’ida would make it a target? Why should terrorists stick to rucksacks to carry their bombs and after months of planning why leave wires hanging out of it?”

Muslim News, 25 April 2008

Nazir Ali tells Muslims ‘you’re in denial’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nazir AliMuslims were accused of being “in denial” by the senior Christian bishop accused of inflaming anti-Islamic feeling by declaring extremists have made parts of Britain “no go areas” for non-Muslims.

Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir Ali, defended himself against a barrage of criticism at an inter-faith meeting at Ilford Islamic Centre on Friday. Organised by the East London Three Faiths Forum, about 200 people packed into the Albert Road, Ilford, centre.

One Muslim man said after the “no go” comments hit the news his family was targeted. He said: “Surely you must have known there would be this tremendous backlash, our windows broken, our sisters and wives spat at?”

Assistant imam of the South Woodford Muslim Community Centre and Mosque, Abdulrahman Tejan Bangura, fumed: “How many times do the wider community need to be educated about the fact that extremism is un-Islamic? Anyone that’s practising extremism is not a Muslim.”

Dr Nazir Ali said: “The fact of the matter is that extremists who call themselves Islamic extremists, whether they should attach themselves to that name or not is not for me to judge, have made it so difficult for Christian workers in particular places even to live. Christian clergy have been prevented from distributing literature in people’s homes, Christian workers have been attacked or intimidated. I think the Muslim community and wider community both, need to attend to this situation and address it, rather than being in denial.”

Ilford Recorder, 24 April 2008

Revered New Jersey imam, facing deportation, has interfaith support

Posted on by Bob Pitt

PATERSON, N.J. — For a dozen years, Mohammad Qatanani has supported the members of the Islamic Center of Passaic County by speaking at funerals, hashing out ethical dilemmas and sometimes opening his home to domestic-violence victims at a moment’s notice.

But now Dr. Qatanani, 44, the imam of the mosque here, requires the support of the members: he has been barred by federal immigration authorities from renewing his driver’s license, and must call on friends to ferry him to hospitals for visits with the sick among his flock. There are fund-raisers for him at the mosque. And after Friday prayers, the hugs the men give him seem to last extra long.

The imam, who is Palestinian, and most of his family face deportation because of his detention in Israel decades ago and questions about whether he lied about it on his application for permanent residency, which he made in 1999 and which was recently denied.

Immigrant advocate groups said that other imams, in Pittsburgh, Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles and Dearborn, Mich., are also facing possible deportation, which Kareem W. Shora, executive director of the Washington-based American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, called a major concern. “We don’t know if it’s policy-driven or not,” he said. “Is there a pattern? Is it very prevalent? Yes.”

Aref Assaf, president of the American Arab Forum, an advocacy group based in Denville, N.J., said of Imam Qatanani: “If you want to deport him, what sort of person do you want to keep in this country?”

Rabbi David Senter of Congregation Beth Shalom in Pompton Lakes called the imam “the most moderate individual you could imagine.” Rabbi Senter, who has publicly praised Imam Qatanani’s work on behalf of interfaith understanding, said he deserves due process. “My fear is, because of Sept. 11 and the wide brush we’ve been willing to paint Muslims with, he will not get that.”

New York Times, 24 April 2008

BNP replies to the BoD

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Loyal British Jews are our natural allies in the fight against the Islamic fundamentalists who want to destroy the Western civilisation so many of whose core values we hold in common. That is just one reason why many Jews will be voting for the BNP. Let’s remember also, however, that this is only one reason. Jews will be voting British National Party for other reasons too: because they are concerned about crime, because they are worried about the economic decline of our country, because they are concerned about the disintegration of community spirit and decent values. In other words for the same reasons as so many other British voters, including many Sikhs and Christian West Indians. As Martin Wingfield commented in our paper Freedom recently:  ‘today there are an increasing number of Jews campaigning for the BNP and feeling very comfortable with their political choice.’

“When the Chief Rabbi a few years ago wrote a book entitled ‘Will Our Grandchildren Be Jewish?’ he articulated precisely the same concern that we have for the future of our people in the same overcrowded multi-cult nightmare that threatens traditional Jewish and British identities alike.  Just because a Jew wants to preserve and celebrate his ancestral culture and identity doesn’t make him a ‘hater’ of Gentiles, and nor does our wanting to preserve and celebrate our ancestral culture and identity make us ‘haters’ of Jews, or any other ethnic group for that matter.”

The fascist British National Party continues its campaign to win support in the Jewish community on an anti-Muslim programme.

BNP website, 23 April 2008

See earlier comments by Henry Grunwald of the Board of Deputies here.

Of course, the idea that significant numbers of British Jews will be voting for a party whose leader Nick Griffin was convicted only a decade ago of inciting racial hatred, in an article that dismissed the Holocaust as the “Holohoax”, is laughable. What the BNP hopes to do is to attract a few disoriented right-wing individuals from the Jewish community, just as it has attracted the odd individual Sikh sympathiser, and publicise their support in an attempt to cover up its Nazi origins and continue the pretence that it is a mainstream political party.

Welsh anti-fascists challenge ‘extraordinary’ BNP claims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Welsh anti-fascist campaigners challenged a Carmarthenshire BNP candidate to justify the “extraordinary” claims in his election propaganda or resign on Wednesday.

Far-right fantasist Carmarthenshire County Council Penygroes ward British National Party candidate Kevin Edwards claimed in his election leaflets that soldiers at Birmingham hospitals had had to remove their uniforms to avoid offending Muslim staff and visitors. The leaflet also stated that homosexuality was being taught to schoolchildren as young as four.

Anti-fascist campaign Searchlight Cymru secretary Darron Dupre said: “We were a bit bemused by such claims, but were happy to give Mr Edwards the benefit of the doubt, so we checked. We can find no evidence of his claims anywhere. We know of an unsubstantiated newspaper report on Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, but that was disproved some time ago. We also asked the NUT about the subjects taught to four-year-olds. They were most bemused about Mr Edwards’s claims.”

Mr Edwards’s leaflet argued that British people should get priority in housing over asylum-seekers, even though – as Mr Dupre pointed out – asylum-seekers are not entitled to council housing. “He further states that asylum-seekers get free cars and TVs,” said Mr Dupre.

“Everyone at Searchlight Cymru is intrigued to learn exactly where this is happening. As Mr Edwards obviously knows something that no-one else knows, then we ask that he backs up claims with some facts. If he cannot substantiate such inflammatory claims, then we would expect him to do the honourable thing and resign his candidacy.”

Morning Star, 24 April 2008

To lionise former extremists feeds anti-Muslim prejudice

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ziauddin Sardar“When one sinner repents, says the biblical adage, there is much joy in heaven. So the angels, along with the government, must be rejoicing at the launch of the Quilliam Foundation. The thinktank has been established by not one but two repentant sinners: Ed Husain and Maajid Nawaz, ex-members of the extremist Islamic cult Hizb ut-Tahrir.

“On earth, however, I would suggest a greater degree of caution. In the here and now, it’s not the repentant sinners we should celebrate but ‘the 99 righteous persons who need no repentance’, those unmentioned Muslims who refused to be seduced by the dark side….

“The embrace of former extremists is a slap in the face for Muslims who have worked tirelessly to build a British Muslim identity and foster inclusion by constructive community activity. It’s another attempt at the marginalisation of the overwhelming majority who never had a moment’s doubt that Islam gives no sanction for such murderous and misguided perversion of belief.

“… we don’t need neocon ex-extremists to tell us what extremism is about. They are part of the problem, not the solution. But we do need a viable politics that tackles the root cause of extremism.”

Ziauddin Sardar in the Guardian, 24 April 2008

See also Yusuf Smith’s post on Ed Husain at Indigo Jo Blogs, 23 April 2008