Author Archives: Eddie Truman

Mayor responds to ‘dossier’ on al-Qaradawi

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, today released a dossier comprehensively answering claims that he should not have met the Muslim scholar Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi in July last year. The dossier demonstrated that the allegations made against Dr al-Qaradawi were almost entirely inaccurate.

“As Mayor of London, I have a responsibility to support the rights of all of London’s diverse communities and to maintain a dialogue with their political and religious leaders, irrespective of the fact that there will always be different views on many issues.”

The dossier launched today demonstrates that Dr al-Qaradawi is, as the moderate main umbrella group of Muslim organisations, the Muslim Council of Britain has argued, “the most authoritative Muslim scholars in the world today”.

The document comprehensively rebuts the charges against Dr al-Qaradawi made in a dossier circulated to London Assembly members in November last year. The authors called for the Assembly to conduct an inquiry into Dr al-Qaradawi’s visit to London.

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The AWL and Tariq Ramadan: A case history in left-wing Islamophobia

Posted on by Eddie Truman

In October 2004, Alliance for Workers’ Liberty supporter Alan Clarke persuaded the national executive committee of the National Union of Students to adopt a resolution calling for leading Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan to be banned from speaking at the European Social Forum, which was to be held in London later that month. It quickly became clear that the motion had been based on an entirely false account of Professor Ramadan’s views.

Documented by Bob Pitt on the What Next? journal website

Qaradawi is welcome

Posted on by Eddie Truman

“Ever since Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi was welcomed to London’s City Hall by Ken Livingstone last July, Peter Tatchell and the gay rights organisation Outrage! have waged an obsessive campaign against this respected Muslim scholar. Unfortunately, their obsession is not matched by an equivalent concern for accuracy. The picture of Dr al-Qaradawi presented by Tatchell in the November issue of Labour Left Briefing (‘‘Qaradawi Not Welcome’) is nothing but an Islamophobic caricature which he uses as the basis for a more general attack on Muslims, their beliefs and their organisations.”

Peter Roberts on the What Next? journal website

Muslims urged to ‘use vote as weapon’ for SNP

Posted on by Eddie Truman

A leading Islamic spokes man has urged Muslims in Scotland to use their vote “like a weapon” and support the SNP in the forthcoming general elections. Dr Azzam Tamimi, director of The Institute of Islamic Political Thought (IIPT), told a conference in Glasgow yesterday that it would be a sin against Islam to vote for a pro-war candidate. He said the SNP was the best party in Scotland to represent Muslim interests and that its line on Iraq, Palestine and on the war on terror was the most acceptable of all the major Scottish parties.

Sunday Herald, 19 December 2004

Reported on Islam Online, 20 December 2004

More Daily Telegraph Islamophobia by Charles Moore

Posted on by Eddie Truman

“It will be said, and it is true, that the MAB does not represent moderate Muslims. But one has to wonder, different though their tone undoubtedly is and personally decent though most of them clearly are, whether moderate Muslims really disagree with the extremist doctrines. I have not been able, for example, to get the MCB (the main moderate organisation) unequivocally to condemn the killing or kidnapping of British soldiers in Iraq.”

Charles Moore in the Daily Telegraph, 18 December 2004

Seumas Milne takes on the militant secularists

Posted on by Eddie Truman

“For the left not to have stood with Muslims would have been a real betrayal. But for showing solidarity and working with Muslim organisations – whether in the anti-war movement or in campaigns against Islamophobia – leftwing groups and politicians such as the London mayor, Ken Livingstone, are now routinely damned by liberal secularists (many of whom have been keen supporters of the war in Iraq) for ‘betraying the enlightenment’ and making common cause with ‘Islamofascists’, homophobes and misogynists.”

Seumas Milne in Guardian, 16 December 2004

Neo-Nazi gang arrested for mosque attacks

Posted on by Eddie Truman

BARCELONA — Police have arrested a neo-Nazi gang which had carried out attacks on mosques and businesses owned by Muslims.

Seven people, including three teenagers, were arrested in towns near Girona, in Catalonia in north-east Spain. Those arrested were partially identified as Gerard B.A., 18, Jessica P.C, 24,  Josep V.V., 20, Francisco A.G., 20, who were all from Palafrugell, Salt or Girona. Three other teenagers who are under age were not named by police.

The group, called The Black Front, was said to espouse Nazi philosophy. The group carried out attacks on mosques, businesses owned by Muslims and other people whose ideologies were opposed to their own.

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Racists in vicious anti-mosque fight

Posted on by Eddie Truman

BNP anti-mosque leaflet SwanseaRacists have launched a vicious hate campaign in Swansea to protest against the opening of a new mosque. Thousands of leaflets have been pushed through letter boxes in the Sandfields area of the city to whip up anti-Muslim sentiment, it is claimed.

The area has been targeted by doorstep campaigners from the British National Party because of plans to open a new mosque in St Helen’s Road. Activists from the party found out about the plan to convert the old St Andrews United Reformed Church from a leading Islamic website.

The building is currently derelict after it was gutted by arsonists two years ago. Conversion into a mosque would save it from being pulled down. Planning permission from the council would not be needed because the building would be retained as a place of worship.

According to the BNP website more than 70 far right extremists have already met in the city to discuss their plan of action. The Post can reveal that only last month party chairman Nick Griffin and the national treasurer John Walker visited the city to canvass the area.

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Telegraph: No such thing as Islamophobia

Posted on by Eddie Truman

“In reality, evidence for ‘Islamophobia’ – as distinct from a justified fear of radical Islamist terrorism or a desire to protect our freedoms, institutions and values from those who hold them in contempt – is anecdotal and slight. I have met one ‘Islamophobe’ – the gay gentleman who cuts my hair, which is hardly a firm basis to jettison centuries of hard-won religious give and take.”

Michael Burleigh in the Daily Telegraph, 9 December 2004