An interesting feature of the recent controversy over the so-called “Muslim patrol” in Tower Hamlets was that some of those you might have expected to seize on the case as an excuse for a bit of anti-Muslim scaremongering balked at resuming their campaign against the Islamist menace on the basis of such flimsy evidence.
Category Archives: Analysis & comment
How to spot a (Muslim) terrorist
In an interview with the Guardian, DCS Tony Mole, who has just taken over as head of the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, appeals to members of the public to report any suspicious activity. This includes the following behaviour:
“People going off to training camps and getting very fit and becoming very insular. People who were previously quite outward forming very small groups, not letting anyone else in, doing a lot of fitness training, disappearing, travelling and being very vague about it. You might think: ‘That’s strange.’ Now, there might be a legitimate reason for that. They might have decided to form their own fitness club. We’ll assess that. But it could be that they have been exposed to some kind of rhetoric.”
It seems clear that Mole is referring here primarily to Muslims, as this is not generally the sort of activity associated with far-right terrorism. What signs you should look out for that could identify a potential non-Muslim terrorist, so you can report them to the police, he doesn’t explain. Becoming an active member of the English Defence League or one of its offshoots, perhaps? Regularly visiting the Atlas Shrugs or Jihad Watch websites? We’re not told.
Mole refers to the “self-radicalisation” of Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Breivik – which is the part of the interview that the Guardian highlights – but as to how you might spot a budding British Breivik, he really has nothing to say.
If you’re a Muslim, however, you would be well advised to avoid travelling widely or setting up a fitness club.
Sharia patrols snatch drinks from passers-by
That’s how the Sunday Times reports the “Muslim patrol” story covered by the Mail last week. So far, nobody has produced any evidence that there are “Sharia patrols” operating in east London, suppressing the consumption of alcohol on the streets, as the Sunday Times claims. What we have is a video from Tower Hamlets of two individuals harassing non-Muslims. That’s all. There’s no indication yet that this was anything more than a couple of pillocks staging an offensive stunt.
Hooded ‘Muslim Patrol’ vigilantes remove alcohol from drinkers and tell women to cover up as they stalk London suburb
That’s the headline to a report in the Daily Mail. Ever eager to alert its readers to the encroaching Muslim menace, the paper claims that “a gang claiming to be Islamic vigilantes have been confronting members of the public and demanding they give up alcohol and women cover their flesh in their ‘Muslim area'”. This is accompanied by a video, originally posted by its creators on YouTube, in which a self-styled “Muslim patrol” harasses passers-by over their un-Islamic behaviour. According to the Mail, the events took place in Waltham Forest.
The report is taken from a piece on The Commentator website, titled “‘Muslim Patrol’ vigilantes attempt to control London streets”, which states that the video is “likely to have come from East London, where ‘Shariah zones’ were set up last year”. It provides a link to a 2011 report in the Mail headlined “‘No porn or prostitution’: Islamic extremists set up Sharia law controlled zones in British cities”, which was illustrated with photographs of one of Anjem Choudary’s idiot supporters putting up stickers in Waltham Forest announcing that the borough was a “Shariah controlled zone”. The Commentator adds that the individuals featured in the “Muslim patrol” video “are thought to be a part of an extremist network in East London”, the implication being that they are members of Choudary’s group.
In reality, it is clear that the video was shot in Tower Hamlets, near to the East London Mosque (which has issued a statement condemning the actions of the “Muslim patrol” and calling on anyone with information on the individuals involved to contact the police). There have in any case never been any sharia zones “set up” in Waltham Forest or anywhere else in East London. One dickhead putting stickers on lampposts doesn’t bring a “Shariah controlled zone” into existence.
Nor is there a “gang” harassing the citizens of Tower Hamlets over their alcohol drinking or way of dressing. As Richard Bartholomew has pointed out, the “patrol” appears to consist of just two individuals, one of whom is holding the mobile phone with which the video is taken. There is moreover no evidence that they are connected to Choudary’s minuscule band of nutters or indeed that they are part of any “extremist network” at all. Their behaviour was no doubt upsetting for the people they targeted, and hopefully they will be identified and charged with harassment, but if a couple of prats pulling a single Candid Camera type stunt constitutes a serious attempt by Islamist extremists to “control London streets” then words have lost all meaning.
This irresponsible reporting has of course had the predictable result of inflaming the far right, as it plays directly to their paranoid racist fantasies about the Islamification of Britain and the imposition of sharia law on non-Muslims. The English Defence posted a link to the Mail report on their Facebook page, provoking the usual outpouring of anti-Muslim hatred, threats of violence and calls for civil war. Not to be outdone, the EDL breakaway group Combined Ex Forces has announced that “members of CxF and other Patriots/Nationalists will be descending on London in the very near future to reclaim our streets”.
Harry’s Place contributor says rape isn’t that bad
Last year we ran a piece on former English Defence League activist Andy Hughes, proprietor of the Islamic Far-Right in Britain blog, whose articles denouncing the Islamist threat to western civilisation are regularly crossposted at the notorious Islamophobic blog Harry’s Place.
We pointed out that, in addition to declaring his admiration for convicted thug Joel Titus, the ex-leader of the EDL’s youth section, Hughes had made antisemitic comments on the Expose Facebook page under the pseudonym of Arry Bo. Expressing his dislike of “Yids” who “think they are superior beings and the rest of us are scum”, Hughes wrote that this explained “why Jews have been kicked out of so many countries” .
Given HP’s readiness to denounce opponents of the state of Israel as antisemites, you might have thought they would be quick to dissociate themselves from Hughes and his vile remarks. But no. Sarah Annes Brown, who presents herself as the voice of reason at Harry’s Place (competition isn’t exactly fierce), happily accepted Hughes’ laughable explanation that in posting these antisemitic comments he was simply trying to wind people up. She attributed this to the fact that Hughes is “a bit – skittish”!
On the unreliability of think tanks
Australia, in common with other “Western” countries, has something of a track record when it comes to scaremongering over the Islamist organisation Hizb-ut-Tahrir and the threat to civilised society it supposedly represents.
Geller and Spencer OK with passport fraud
Illegal immigrant Stephen Lennon speaking at Geller and Spencer’s New York conference
Over at Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, Richard Bartholomew examines the responses by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer to the conviction of English Defence League leader Stephen Lennon on a charge of passport fraud.
It seems that these self-styled defenders of the western legal system against the supposed encroachments of Sharia law can’t even bring themselves to condemn the commission of this serious criminal offence by the man they have hailed as the leader of the British counterjihadist movement.
In addition, of course, Geller and Spencer still haven’t provided us with an explanation of how Lennon could have arrived in New York on a false passport them knowing. Until they do so, the suspicion will remain that they actively co-operated with him in securing his illegal entry to the US so he could attend their conference.
Which, if I understand US law correctly, is a criminal offence there too.
The end of the British Freedom party?
It was only last May that the tiny British Freedom party announced with a loud fanfare that English Defence League leaders Stephen Lennon and Kevin Carroll had become its joint vice-chairmen. The BFP declared that this was a “historic development” which established the party as “a new force in British politics”.
Since then things haven’t been going too well for the BFP. In October, Lennon tweeted that he had resigned from the organisation in order to concentrate on building the EDL, and he told the Independent that he was intending to stand for election under the banner of the EDL rather than the BFP. Even Carroll’s 10.6% of the poll as the British Freedom candidate for Bedfordshire police commissioner in November failed to provide a boost for the party. Although this was in fact a worryingly high vote for such a notorious figure on the far right, the result inevitably had a demoralising effect after the BFP led its supporters to believe that Carroll had a serious chance of winning, only for him to finish a distant fourth behind the successful Labour candidate.
Hope Not Hate now reports that on 11 December the electoral commission de-registered British Freedom because the BFP leaders failed to complete the necessary paperwork or pay the fee required to renew its registration as a political party, despite repeated reminders. Acording to HNH, this development “spells the end for the short-lived religious and racial extremists”. Well, maybe.
Controversy at London seminar on antisemitism
Gisèle Littman and friend
The Jewish Chronicle has published a report on conflicts that arose during a one-day symposium sponsored by the Journal for the Study of Antisemitism which was held at the Wiener Library in London last weekend.
The controversy was prompted by contributions from two of the speakers. One was Bat Ye’or (the pen name of Gisèle Littman) who informed her audience that the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation is “the source of antisemitism” and that “Islam is denying the root of Judaism and Christianity with a profound belief in Jihad”. Another speaker, Manfred Gerstenfeld, asserted that Muslim culture is inferior to Western culture.
Germans polled on views about Islam
Two weeks ago the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported the results of an Allensbach Institute survey of German attitudes towards Islam (a rather clunky and not entirely reliable English translation of the article has been provided by the Russian journal Vestnik Kavkaza).