Category Archives: Analysis & comment

Is Jesus Christ reaching out to Muslims through their dreams?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

More Than DreamsWell, according to a report posted at Glenn Beck’s The Blaze he is. Apparently there’s even a book about it – Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World? by Pastor Tom Doyle – and a DVD entitled More Than Dreams.

The Blaze reveals that one Muslim had set out for Mecca to perform Hajj when Christ appeared in a dream and persuaded him of the error of his ways. Happily, he has now converted to Christianity. And there is the case of a “radical Egyptian terrorist” who also accepted Jesus as his saviour after a similar visitation. Indeed The Blaze directs us to “a number of other examples” that are featured in the More Than Dreams DVD.

I have to say, I don’t find this entirely convincing as a weapon in the struggle against Islamisation. According to a Pew report, the world Muslim population stood at 1.6 billion in 2010 and the number is expected to rise to 2.2 billion in 2030. If Christ is going to make a serious dent into those figures he needs to put a bit more effort into this.

Observer publishes partial correction to its inaccurate report of Rowan Williams’ views on Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ENGAGE draws our attention to a short notice that appeared in Sunday’s Observer:

Our coverage last week of Faith in the Public Square, a forthcoming book by the archbishop of Canterbury (News), contained this quote, supplied to us by the publishers: “To suggest that the Muslim owes an overriding loyalty to the international Muslim community (the Umma) is extremely worrying. Muslims must make clear that their loyalty is straightforward modern political loyalty to the nation state.” This is a representation of a view that the archbishop does not hold. It was drawn from a lecture he gave in October 2004 in which he went on to deconstruct the argument, maintaining that religious loyalty and political loyalty should not be seen as being in direct competition.

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EDL attempts to build links with extremists in Sikh community

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sikhs Against EDL
Luton, February 2011: Sikhs demonstrate against the EDL

The national press has belatedly latched on to the English Defence League’s attempt to exploit a Sikh protest that took place in Luton over a month ago. The Mail on Sunday has published an extended piece on the issue (“The far-Right leader in a Sikh headscarf and a very disturbing anti-Muslim alliance: EDL joins protesters angry at ‘grooming of girls'”) and the story has also been taken up by the Daily Mirror.

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Labour lifts Lord Ahmed’s suspension

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lord Ahmed at Palestine demoA peer suspended by the Labour Party for allegedly offering a £10m bounty on the head of US President Barack Obama has had the suspension lifted.

Lord Ahmed, who denied the accusations published in a Pakistani newspaper the Express Tribune, thanked Chief Whip Lord Bassam for a “fair” investigation. Lord Ahmed said he was “delighted” the suspension had been lifted as he had been a member of the Labour Party for 34 years.

He told BBC Asian Network said his colleagues in the Lords had been “very sympathetic” while the suspension was in place. The story was “lies” and he said he was considering taking legal action against the Express Tribune newspaper, he added.

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Case against Warsi’s Pakistan trip collapses – but Cameron may still remove her as Tory party chairman

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The vicious campaign against Tory Party co-chairman Sayeeda Warsi, led by the Sunday Telegraph and backed by the Labour Party (see here, here and here), has suffered a setback.

The BBC reports that Warsi has been cleared of any serious breach of the ministerial code over an official trip to Pakistan. The prime minister’s adviser Sir Alex Allan found she had committed only a “minor” breach for failing to declare she had been accompanied on the trip by her business partner Abid Hussain, with whom she had set up a restaurant supply company called Rupert’s Recipes.

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Harry’s Place inspires racist thugs to threaten Muslim conference

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Harry's Place Month of Mercy conference cancelled

Over at Harry’s Place Hasan Afzal of British Muslims for Israel is crowing over the success of their campaign to secure the cancellation of next month’s “Month of Mercy” conference at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London organised by the Al Muntada Trust.

As we have previously noted, the “call to action” issued by Harry’s Place received an enthusiastic response from the racist thugs of the English Defence League and the associated hooligan group Casuals United.

Unsurprisingly, both the EDL and Casuals United share HP’s glee over the cancellation.

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Observer misrepresents Rowan Williams on Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sunday’s Observer had a piece about a forthcoming book by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, entitled Faith in the Public Square. The main subject of the article is Williams’ criticisms of David Cameron’s “big society” policy. However, the authors also attribute to Williams some highly controversial views about the Muslim community:

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BNP finds a new cause célèbre – a racist crank’s right to free speech

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Margaret Walker leaflet1

The British National Party has found a new heroine in the battle to defend free speech. Her name is Margaret Walker, and she was up in front of Fareham magistrates last week following complaints about a homemade leaflet she had circulated based on the cases of missing Blackpool teenagers Charlene Downes and Paige Chivers (who the far right claim were murdered by Muslims). Walker was given an interim ASBO preventing her from distributing any further copies of her leaflet before she returns to court on 20 July.

Despite the fact that she is clearly a crank of questionable mental stability (as can be seen from her leaflet here and here), the BNP organised a demonstration in solidarity with Walker outside Fareham Magistrates Court on Friday. Evidently it wasn’t very well attended. A BNP report carrying the rather plaintive headline “Were you in Fareham today?” stated that that Charlene’s mother, BNP supporter Karen Downes, came all the way from Blackpool for the protest “but many locals couldn’t be troubled”. However, the case does shed some light on current developments in the BNP.

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‘My testimony to Peter King’s hearing on American Muslim radicalization’ – an astroturf Muslim writes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Asra Nomani explains why she decided to testify at the latest in Republican Congressman Peter King’s series of hearings on the supposed radicalisation of American Muslims: “To me, the hearings do not represent a witchhunt and Congressman King is no Joe McCarthy.”

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Sunday Telegraph resumes witch-hunt of Baroness Warsi

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Baroness Warsi extremist business partner

The latest episode in the Sunday Telegraph‘s attempt to frame Sayeeda Warsi is headlined “Baroness Warsi, her extremist business partner and the lunch with the Prime Minister”. You’ll note that, in contrast to last week’s instalment, Abid Hussain is referred to straightforwardly as an extremist without bothering with the quotation marks. Last week his extremism was an allegation, now apparently it’s an established fact.

What additional information, you might ask, has the Sunday Telegraph‘s investigations editor Jason Lewis discovered about Warsi’s business partner over the past seven days that could justify this change? Well, none actually. The main scandalous revelation about Abid Hussain in the latest article is that he has been convicted of assault – nearly a quarter of a century ago, when he was a teenager. The conviction is of course long spent. This really is scraping the barrel.

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