Anas Altikriti draws the lessons from the brutal murder of Marwa Al-Sherbini.
Monthly Archives: July 2009
‘How would liberals like it if 10,000 Muslims moved into the area?’ fascist asks
Community leaders have lashed out against British National Party leader Nick Griffin after he suggested putting immigrants in Hampstead to see how the “liberal elite” liked it.
The comments were made in an interview on the Andrew Marr Show last Sunday when the BBC One show host asked him what should be done about people who want to come to Britain. Mr Griffin said: “If we’re going to allow them to come, for a start, I’d say, Well, let’s start sticking them in Hampstead in the places where the liberal elite live instead of poor places like Barking and Barnsley and Manchester and see how you people like it.”
Rather than backtracking on Mr Griffin’s inflammatory comments, BNP press officer Simon Darby went further by preaching the party’s anti-immigrant sentiments. He said how “would they like it if 10,000 Muslims moved into the area”.
He said: “I suppose these people would have no objection to Hampstead becoming Islamified – if they had Muslim fundamentalists living next door. It all depends what kind of immigrants we are dealing with. If all of a sudden there were plans to turn Hampstead into east London, I’m sure it wouldn’t go down very well. Millions of white Londoners have moved out of the capital because of what’s happened.”
BBC pays damages to MCB secretary-general
The BBC has agreed to pay £45,000 in damages to the head of the Muslim Council of Britain over a libellous claim in the Question Time programme. The claim was made by a panellist on the programme, who accused Muhammad Abdul Bari of implicitly condoning the kidnap and killing of British soldiers.
Mr Bari argued this was untrue, citing his public condemnation of the killing of British troops in Iraq in 2007. The BBC accepted the argument and apologised unreservedly.
The libellous claim – made on the 12 March 2009 edition of Question Time – came in response to a question from an audience member concerning controversial protests in March by a group of Muslim men against a regiment of British troops on parade in Luton on their return from duty in Iraq. The audience member asked: “Should these protests we saw last week when the Royal Anglia Regiment came to Luton be banned?”
In response to the question, one of the Question Time panellists suggested that despite having been asked many times to condemn the kidnapping and killing of British soldiers, Mr Bari had failed to do so and thereby implicitly condoned such acts. The panellist also suggested that Mr Bari believed the kidnapping and killing of British soldiers was a good and Islamic thing. Mr Bari was not mentioned by name, but was implied in the panellist’s reference to the “leadership” of the Muslim Council of Britain.
The BBC is paying £45,000 in damages to Mr Bari – which he will donate to charity – as well as his legal costs.
See also Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari – an apology.
CSC report fails to address BNP’s anti-Muslim racism
“What’s glaringly omitted from the report is an analysis of how the BNP has in recent years shifted its strategy from outright racism and anti-semitism to attacking Muslims and Islam generally. The report briefly mentions Muslims in the intro and lists some comments that include the word Muslim, but its conclusion doesn’t even mention anti-Muslim bigotry. It avoids the topic despite the fact Nick Griffin went on the record to say it was politically better for the BNP to focus on Muslims rather than Jews or racism.
“Now, why would a report by the CSC avoid talking about the one subject that the BNP constantly campaigns on now? Why ignore it when it is repeatedly mentioned in its literature and by its supporters online (much more than other enemies)?
“Is that because much of the anti-Muslim bigotry directed by BNP members sounds suspiciously like what the Dutch politician Geert Wilders would say ‘to save the west‘? Oh look – the BNP website has written approvingly about Geert Wilders repeatedly! Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, is a huge fan and defender of Geert Wilders. I think we should be told.”
Sunny Hundal at Pickled Politics, 15 July 2009
It might be added that the anti-Muslim bigotry of BNP members bears more than a passing similarity to the views expressed by Douglas Murray himself. (“Europe still has time to turn around the demographic time-bomb which will soon see a number of our largest cities fall to Muslim majorities. It has to. All immigration into Europe from Muslim countries must stop…. Conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board: Europe must look like a less attractive proposition.”)
It’s also worth noting that the author of the CSC pamphlet is one Edmund Standing, a regular contributor to the notoriously Islamophobic website Harry’s Place. Standing helpfully provided a list of his own articles supposedly exposing “what the BNP and its members and supporters stand for” here. Check through them, and you’ll find that there’s plenty of stuff attacking fascist antisemitism (which has now disappeared almost entirely from the BNP’s public propaganda) and anti-Black racism, but not a peep about the BNP’s anti-Muslim racism. Indeed, Standing has dismissed “Griffin’s turn away from anti-Semitism and towards anti-Muslim vitriol” as “little more than a superficial political trick” – rather than recognising it as a fundamental change in fascist strategy that poses a major threat to Muslim communities.
Standing’s views on the Qur’an (“I hope to demonstrate to the reader quite what a divisive, primitive, and insulting book it actually is”) can be consulted here, by the way. He condemns “the hateful attitude it takes towards those who do not accept Islam”, and demands: “how can texts like those I have just cited do anything but instill a negative or contemptuous attitude towards non-Muslims?”
Standing would no doubt claim that, as an atheist, he is against all holy books. However, in a post at Harry’s Place addressing press reports that the IDF rabbinate had issued a publication entitled “Daily Torah studies for the soldier and the commander in Operation Cast Lead”, which claimed to provide religious justification for Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, Standing’s response was not to denounce Jewish religious texts for giving scriptural authority to hostility towards non-Jews. He merely appealed to the IDF to “keep religion out of it“.
Tory council leader fails to block debate
A controversial school debate which Hounslow Council claimed would incite violence passed without incident.
Council leader Peter Thompson wrote to Lampton School headteacher Sue John after he heard the “extremist” group Hizb Ut-Tahrir would be speaking at the event on Saturday. Despite the group pulling out of the event, the council pushed the school and organisers to cancel the Putting Contest 2 in Context debate – a move which incensed the Muslim community.
Mohammed Chaudhry, of Hounslow Muslim Forum, said more than 200 people attended to hear speakers and join in the debate. He said:
“There were a mixture of people, young and old, Muslim and not Muslim. People were fascinated and wanted to know more about the community and have a healthy debate.
“It is important to realise if we stop debate the radical groups can flourish, a good balanced argument is healthy. There was no violence and it was a calm and civilised debate.”
Mr Thompson wrote in his letter prior to the meeting: “The event organisers, unwilling to properly engage in constructive debate, have not sought to ensure a balanced discussion or debate around the content of this Central Government document.
“We have real concerns that the lack of balanced debate could inflame perceived grievances and lead to a breakdown in community cohesion. In truth the only purpose of the event appears to be an attempt to increase fear and mistrust among Muslims in the UK, and in our borough.
“I am writing to ask that you give serious consideration to cancelling this booking before it is too late.”
A Hounslow police spokesman confirmed there were no incidents on the day.
‘It’s a white country, not a Muslim state’, BNP supporter told Asian neighbours
A man who made his Asian next door neighbours’ lives a misery with his anti-social and racist conduct was spared immediate jail.
Burnley Crown Court heard how Nigel Hesmondhalgh, 36, who had a British National Party sticker in the window of his Accrington home, was abusive and insulting to the couple, repeatedly picking on the wife. He piled dog dirt up in the alley outside their home and told them: “It’s a white country, not a Muslim state.”
Hesmondhalgh, said to be the carer for his brother, who has learning difficulties, told the husband of the couple he should be scared and shouted support for the BNP. The couple had lived in their home for 14 years before he moved in.
The defendant, of Stanley Street, Accrington, was given 36 weeks in custody, suspended for two years, with 18 months supervision and the Thinking Skills programme. Martin Hackett, defending, said Hesmondhalgh had been very close to his mother who died last July and he may have been adjusting.
Lancashire Telegraph, 13 July 2009
Consulting Hesmondhalgh’s Bebo profile, we find him indignantly denying that any racist language was directed against his neighbours – a claim rather undermined by the accompanying messages Nigel Hesmondhalgh says:”Kill All The Fuckin Pakkis”and What Is The Difference Between A Tea Towel And A Baseball Bat? FUCK ALL The Both Wrap Nicely Round A Pakkis Head.
And this thug has escaped a prison sentence.
Media double standards on terrorism
Why isn’t the trial of a man charged with preparing for terror attacks using tennis-ball bombs being reported? He’s not a bearded Muslim.
Mehdi Hasan in the New Statesman, 9 July 2009
Belgian court overturns headscarf sacking of teacher
Belgium’s highest administrative court has overturned the sacking of a Muslim woman teacher by two schools because she wore a headscarf, national press reported Friday.
The State Council found that the two schools had abused their powers by firing the woman, who wore the headscarf in the school grounds but not in the classroom, reported the dailies De Standaard and Het Laatste Nieuws.
The woman was teaching Islam temporarily at two suburban Dutch-language schools in the capital Brussels in 2005 and 2006, but she refused to take off her headscarf after the schools’ management asked her to do so.
The tribunal said the schools had not shown “that wearing the headscarf outside of the classroom would have a negative effect on the way the teacher was doing her work,” the newspapers said.
Church accuses Government of favouring Muslims
Church leaders have accused the Government of giving preferential treatment to the Muslim community because of “political correctness”, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
Update: And the Daily Express. See the response by ENGAGE.
Islam-basher will not speak at American Library Association conference
The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) announced that Robert Spencer, one of the nation’s leading Islam-bashers, will not speak today at the annual conference of the American Library Association (ALA) following intervention by CAIR and concerned librarians, and the withdrawal of the other scheduled panelists who protested Spencer’s participation.
Librarians from across the country contacted the ALA questioning the appropriateness of inviting Spencer to speak on a panel titled “Perspectives on Islam: Beyond the Stereotyping” because of his history of intolerant views. The other speakers invited to join the panel withdrew after hearing of Spencer’s scheduled participation.
“We thank all those who stood up for tolerance and mutual understanding to challenge Robert Spencer’s Islamophobic views,” said CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab, who had written to the ALA questioning why an anti-Islam bigot was invited to a panel on dispelling stereotypes about Islam.
“Because stereotyping of Islam is such an important issue, we hope a future panel on this topic can be arranged with credible scholars and representatives of the American Muslim community,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. “We strongly support open and honest discussion of difficult issues, but Mr. Spencer’s agenda-driven polemics promote the very stereotypes that the ALA event sought to dispel.”