Category Archives: Left Wing

Incitement to violence

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Daud Abdullah“Where is this political opportunism taking us? Into the dark tunnel of national strife. The corrosive effect of the political and media onslaught against British Muslims is having its impact on all sections of society. What is claimed to be an assertion of free speech and democratic rights is rapidly becoming the demonisation of a community. Once they are dehumanised, who cares for their democratic, civil or human rights?

“Since John Reid demanded that Muslim ‘bullies’ must be faced down and Jack Straw declared the veil a ‘statement of separation’, ministers have fallen over themselves to make increasingly unbridled attacks on Muslims. The shadow home secretary, David Davis, has accused our communities of creating a ‘voluntary apartheid’ and colleges have taken action against veiled teachers and students. The tabloid press has declared open season on Muslims with one hostile front-page story after another.

“In practice this has amounted to incitement to violence. In recent weeks verbal and physical attacks on Muslims have surged alarmingly. Women have had their scarves ripped off. Mosques and Islamic centres in Preston and Falkirk have been attacked by mobs and firebombed.”

Daud Abdullah, deputy secretary general of the MCB, in the Guardian, 17 October 2006

‘Our failure to confront radical Islam is there for all to see’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“At long last, the debate on Islamism as politics, not Islam as religion, is out in the open. Two weeks ago, Jack Straw might have felt he was taking a risk when publishing his now notorious article on the Muslim veil. However, he was pushing at an open door. From across the political spectrum there is now common consent that the old multicultural emperor, before whom generation of politicians have made obeisance, is now a pitiful, naked sight.”

Daily Telegraph, 17 October 2006

Melanie Phillips, perhaps? No, the appalling Denis MacShane – the man who chaired the All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Anti-Semitism that issued the ludicrous report claiming that Islamists in Britain are in an alliance with the BNP.

In 2003 MacShane delivered a speech in which he said: “It is time for the elected and community leaders of the British Muslims to make a choice – the British way, based on political dialogue and non-violent protests, or the way of the terrorists, against which the whole democratic world is uniting.” In response, his constituency party passed a resolution stating: “Denis MacShane is inciting racial and religious hatred, by publicly implying in the press that the Muslim community elected members and leaders are in favour of terrorism and being anti-British.”

Guardian, 28 November 2003

PM backs veil-teacher suspension

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tony Blair has backed the local education authority which suspended a Muslim classroom assistant for refusing to remove her full face veil at school. He said he “fully supported” the way the authority dealt with Aishah Azmi at Headfield Church of England Junior School, in Dewsbury.

Mr Blair told reporters at his first news conference since MPs returned from their long summer break that a debate was needed on how the Muslim community integrates with British society. “Difficult though these issues are, I think they have to be raised and confronted and dealt with,” he said. “And then, there’s a second issue, which is about Islam itself and how Islam comes to terms with – and is comfortable with – the modern world.”

BBC News, 17 October 2006

Europe raising its voice over radical Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The newspapers are wrinkled as always, the conversations still veer toward the abstract, but tempers are riled these days in Europe’s cafes. Artists and influential leftists are warning that the rise of radical Islam is threatening the hallowed tradition of European liberalism. Theater directors, cartoonists and writers say the continent is betraying its identity with self-censorship aimed at appeasing a fundamentalist Islam they believe is determined to impose its will on free speech and provocative creativity.”

Los Angeles Times, 16 October 2006

Another week, another racist onslaught against Muslims

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Another week, another racist onslaught against Muslims

By Eddie Truman

“Ban The Veil” screamed the Daily Express, in Glasgow Imam Shamsuddin is subject to a violent assault, in Liverpool a Muslim woman has a veil ripped from her face by a man shouting racist abuse, in Falkirk a mosque was deliberately set ablaze.

The cause of this renewed wave of attacks on the Muslim community?

Home Secretary Jack Straw’s political ambitions. Such is the all pervading climate of Islamophobia, it is now regarded as a political badge of honour to outbid your political rivals in being seen to be racist towards Muslims.

So now we have a situation in which Labour Party, yes Labour Party, ministers are falling over themselves to match the rhetoric of the British National Party. Incredibly, Race Relations minister, yes you read that right, Phil Woolas, joined the row over the teaching assistant suspended for wearing a veil by demanding that she be sacked.

Continue reading →

Labour demonising Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Labour peer, Lord Nazir Ahmed, has accused the Government of sustaining “a constant theme of demonising” the Muslim community. Lord Ahmed told BBC Radio 4’s ‘Sunday’ programme that it had become fashionable amongst ministers to “have a go at the Muslims”.

Criticising the way the Government treats Muslims in the UK, Lord Ahmed argued: “If you look at every bit of rhetoric that has been coming out of the Government departments and very senior people it has been sort of targeting at the Muslim community leadership. That has opened up a way for the neocons, the right wing people who have been attacking the Muslims. Islamophobia has become a contemporary form of racism.”

Asked whether he was accusing the Government of putting out a coordinated plan to demonise Muslims, Lord Ahmed responded: “Well it seems like that. The Prime Minister talked about the Muslim leadership not doing enough when 100 of us were working throughout the whole year – those of us involved with the 7/7 inquiries – all of us together worked with the Government. That is why we made 64 recommendations and how many did the Government implement? Well I think there is only probably one, or one and a half.”

Lord Nazir insisted the Muslim community was working hard to stem the fermentation of extremism within localities.

Yet he was less complimentary of governmental efforts, as he rhetorically stated: “What has the Government done in terms of parallel communities, deprivation, ghettos that exist with the Muslim communities? There is a desperate need for economic regeneration and also economic and financial help in those communities so they can also enjoy the wealth of our nation.”

His comments come on the back of the row sparked by Jack Straw who last week revealed he asks Muslim women attending his surgery to remove the full-face veil.

Continue reading →

Fascists back ministers over Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP demonstration“New Labour ministers are scrambling over one another to become number one hate figure amongst the Muslim community, leaving BNP spokesmen trailing, by a series of statements which show that some of our rulers are capable of speaking the truth and acknowledging commonsense after all.

“For years the BNP has been warning of the threat of militant Islam to the British way of life and the rapid pace of Islamification following concession after concession from public bodies, government agencies and private businesses, these concessions being made all in the name of ‘tolerance’ and ‘understanding’ in a multicultural society. For those warnings BNP spokesmen and women were condemned as ‘racist’, ‘Islamophobic’, ‘bigoted’, ‘intolerant’ and any epithet media pundits chose to use in order to end the debate about the presence of Islam in this country.

“The Crown Prosecution Service went one further and in a stitch up involving the BBC and West Yorkshire Police BNP leader Nick Griffin was arrested in December 2004 and charged with several counts of using language which might be likely to incite racial hatred. His ‘crime’; at two private BNP meetings in West Yorkshire he called Islam ‘a vicious wicked faith’…. Mr. Griffin’s warning now seems a distant echo compared to the repeated calls in recent days from government ministers for Muslims to start adapting to our British way of life.”

BNP news article, 15 October 2006

Let’s ban difference

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Jack Straw has taken a bit of a pounding lately after calling on Muslim women to scrap the veil on the grounds that it is a ‘visible sign of separation and difference’. I think that this criticism is unfair. It’s not as though he whipped up anti-Muslim hysteria or anyone got hurt.”

“Harry Perkins” sarcastically demolishes Straw.

Reclaim Labour, 16 October 2006

Woolas comments have only achieved greater demonisation of Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Government minister Phil Woolas’s call to sack a Muslim teacher for wearing the veil has made race relations worse by adding to the current demonisation of Muslims, according to anti-racist organisation The 1990 Trust.The minister’s tactless and opportunistic intervention merely whips up Islamophobia and contributes to a climate of racism against an increasingly marginalised community.

The 1990 Trust are today calling for a code of conduct on dealing with “Muslim issues” to halt the overly-simplistic approach which is contributing to the demonisation of all Muslims. Politicians have a responsibility not to worsen race relations for political gain, and every party must have a duty crack down on Islamophobia within their ranks.

BLINK press release, 16 October 2006

See also Osama Saeed’s comments at Rolled Up Trousers, 15 October 2006

Veil teacher ‘should be sacked’, says Phil Woolas

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim teaching assistant suspended for refusing to remove her veil in class should be sacked, a local government minister has said.

Phil Woolas told the Sunday Mirror that Aishah Azmi, 23, had “put herself in a position where she can’t do her job”. Mr Woolas, whose brief covers race relations, stopped short of repeating the demand on the BBC’s Politics Show. But he said if the head teacher at the school in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, chose to sack Ms Azmi “so be it”.

Ms Azmi, who is originally from Cardiff, said pupils at Headfield Church of England Junior School had never complained about her wearing a veil. She said she would remove the garment, but not in front of male colleagues.

Ms Azmi’s lawyer called for Mr Woolas to withdraw his comments, which he warned might influence the classroom assistant’s employment tribunal.

“Mrs Azmi is very well able to carry out her role as a teaching assistant providing support to pupils who speak English as a second language,” said Nick Whittingham, of Kirklees Law Centre. “She is able to do this effectively while wearing the veil. She has demonstrated in a number of interviews that she can communicate effectively while wearing the veil.”

Mr Whittingham described Mr Woolas’s comments to the Sunday Mirror as “ill-advised” and called for him to withdraw his demands.

BBC News, 15 October 2006

Update:  See “Minister calls for veil-wearing teaching assistant to be sacked”, Independent, 16 October 2006