Category Archives: Left Wing

‘I am no Islamophobe’ claims Bright

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Martin Bright complains: “It seems I have been labelled an Islamophobe by the Muslim Council of Britain. This stock response to any criticism of MCB leadership is becoming as tiresome as Zionist cries of anti-Semitism when the state of Israel is put under any kind of scrutiny.”

Comment is Free, 14 July 2006

As we have already pointed out, Bright told a FOSIS conference last year that he had no problem describing himself as an Islamophobe. Now he gets all indignant when the MCB applies that term to him.

For right-wing support for Bright’s programme, see the Daily Ablution and Jihad Watch.

Geras and Cohen at Front Page Magazine

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Over at the right-wing Islamophobic US website Front Page Magazine, Jamie Glazov and David Horowitz interview Norman Geras and Nick Cohen. Hardly surprising – they all have so much in common. Glazov congratulates his interviewees: “Overall, it is highly admirable to see members of the Left such as yourselves standing up for a moral and decent position in our current terror war.”

Front Page Magazine, 14 July 2006

How long, I wonder, before Geras and Cohen follow Horowitz’s example, ditch the pretence of being in any sense left wing and openly embrace the Right.

Shahid Malik backs Blair, blames Muslim communities

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Shahid MalikIn today’s Daily Mail, Labour MP Shahid Malik expresses his concerns about “those Muslim leaders, many of whom, I am sorry to say, have lost the stomach for the fight. I am fed up with their constant sniping about the Government’s failure to follow up on all the recommendations of the Task Force, set up in the aftermath of the bombing .. it is easier for organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain to criticise the Government, the police or the media, rather than take a long hard look at our own communities. It is easier for them to encourage a victim culture that sees Islamophobia around every corner, rather than challenge within. But that is not leadership. It is abdication. That is why I almost wept when I saw the results of a poll showing that 13 per cent of British Muslims think that the July 7 terrorists should be regarded as ‘martyrs’. How sick and deluded can you get?”

Yes, thanks Shahid. That’s really helpful.

Update:  See Osama Saeed’s comments at Rolled Up Trousers, 8 July 2006

Another anti-Muslim slander from OutRage!

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dr BariThere is a particularly stupid post by Brett Lock of the Islamophobic gay rights group OutRage! today on the neocon blog, Harry’s Place. In all seriousness, Lock suggests that Mohammed Abdul Bari, the newly elected general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, has threatened a violent response to the police raid on the house in Forest Gate, East London, where chemical weapons were supposedly being manufactured for use in a terrorist attack.

Regarding Dr Bari’s role, Lock writes that “nothing in his statements to the press so far appear to concede that the police have a legitimate cause to act on tip-offs. Nothing he’s said (correct me if I’m wrong) has given the impression that he’s taken a leadership role in reassuring the Muslim community of the police’s bona fides and difficult task. Rather he has been a foghorn for grievances an increasingly skittish public is tired of hearing.”

In fact, as anyone not entirely blinded by ignorance and prejudice would know, the MCB has consistently supported police action against terrorism and has repeatedly urged Muslim communities to co-operate with and provide information to the police. Interviewed on the Radio 4 “Today” programme yesterday (listen here), Dr Bari stated:

“Since 7/7 the police have done a wonderful job. After 7/7 we had police officers making very positive comments and they were criticised by the right-wing media. So nobody is talking against the police. It is about the quality of intelligence … the community has to be taken on board to counter this scourge in society … The police have to do their job … if the community is worried … they will not get that mass co-operation. It is important to all of us to get the community on board. So information should come as quick as possible and that has to be disseminated within the community so that the community is assured.”

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Muslim homophobia the main threat in Moscow, Tatchell claims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Russian ‘nationalists’ managed to draw first blood at Moscow Gay Pride last night when they disrupted a lecture on Oscar Wilde given by the author and playwright’s grandson Merlin Holland. The lecture was at the State Library of Foreign Literature where the nationalists managed to breach security to gain access to the lecture theatre. Merlin Holland was minutes into his talk when he was heckled in Russian. Others in the audience then joined in as police and stewards rushed to restore calm. ‘No faggots in Russia’, was the cry of the nationalists, who also called for gays to be removed from the country. As they were being removed, the nationalists threw vials of an irritant gas in the auditorium, which then had to be evacuated.”

UK Gay News, 26 May 2006

It’s probably the same rightwingers who attacked a gay and lesbian party at a Moscow nightclub earlier this month, shouting “Down with pederasts” and “No perverts here”. See Gay.com, 1 May 2006

Note that the religious component to this upsurge of violent right-wing homophobia derives, as you would expect, from Orthodox Christianity. This hasn’t prevented Peter Tatchell from attributing to Islam the primary place in the anti-Pride campaign in Moscow and suggesting that Russian Orthodox Church is merely following the lead of the chief mufti! He writes:

“Much of the anti-gay sentiment that is sweeping Russia has been whipped up by religious leaders. Threatening violence against Moscow Gay Pride, the chief mufti of Russia’s Central Spiritual Governance for Muslims, Talgat Tajuddin, said: ‘Muslim protests can be even worse than these notorious rallies abroad over the scandalous cartoons. The parade should not be allowed, and if they still come out into the streets, then they should be bashed. Sexual minorities have no rights, because they have crossed the line. Alternative sexuality is a crime against God,’ he said, calling on members of the Russian Orthodox Church to join Muslims in mounting a violent response to Moscow Gay Pride. Russian Orthodox leaders responded by lobbying Mayor Luzhkov to ban the parade….”

Guardian Comment is Free, 24 May 2006

Report on GALHA meeting

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yusuf Smith has posted a report of a public meeting on Friday evening organised by the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association on the subject of “Gays, Women and Secularists in Post-War Iraq”. The platform consisted of Peter Tatchell and Ali Hilli of OutRage! and Houzan Mahmoud of the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq.

Yusuf reports that the first question from the floor was whether the speakers considered that Islam itself was to blame for the situation they were facing in Iraq. Ali Hilli replied that he did not accept this, that Islam was a religion of peace and love – at which point Houzan Mahmoud “interjected that this was not true” – but people use it for whatever purposes they want, as with other religions.

So it would appear that at least some members of OutRage! are capable of a rather more nuanced approach to Islam than the group’s most prominent figures.

Yet more self-justifying nonsense from Tatchell

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Outrage Protest (2)Peter Tatchell has a letter in the latest issue of Tribune, replying to Kirsten Hearn’s criticism of OutRage!’s call for Unite Against Fascism to exclude the Muslim Council of Britain and its general secretary Sir Iqbal Sacranie from the platform of February’s UAF conference. Tatchell says that Hearn’s article “symbolises the political dishonesty and opportunism of the pro-Islamist left”.

Kirsten Hearn wrote, in opposition to OutRage!’s position on the UAF conference: “To suggest we jettison the Muslim community from the anti-fascist movement at a time when the fascists are advancing by attacking Muslims is obscene…. Specifically, the MCB is an umbrella and mainstream body representing more than 450 Muslim organisations and therefore must be central to anti-fascist unity in this country.”

In reply, Tatchell claims that he merely criticised UAF for inviting Sacranie as an individual, on the grounds that he had made homophobic comments: “My objection was to Sir Iqbal Sacranie. I suggested replacing him with a liberal, progressive Muslim speaker. To me, that does not sound like ‘jettisoning’ the Muslim community.”

But the Outrage! press release called for a ban not just on Sacranie but on the MCB as a whole. OutRage! urged UAF to “withdraw your invitation to Sir Iqbal and the MCB”, on the basis that “the MCB is not a liberal, progressive organisation. It represents only conservative, reactionary opinion. It is not a suitable partner organisation for the movement against fascism”. Tatchell cannot claim that he is unaware of the representative character of the MCB. He himself has described the MCB as “a mainstream organisation … which is the umbrella organisation of all Muslim groups in this country”. Yet this was the organisation that he wanted excluded from the UAF conference platform, to be replaced by one of several suggested individuals none of whom represents any significant force at all among Muslims in Britain. What does that amount to, other than “jettisoning the Muslim community”?

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Tatchell ‘defends the Muslim community against Islamophobic discrimination’!

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Peter Tatchell continues his campaign against the Muslim Council of Britain. He writes: “I defend the Muslim community against Islamophobic discrimination” and adds: “we still hold out our hands in friendship and solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters”. Clearly, Tatchell’s brain is an irony-free zone.

Comment is Free, 4 May 2006

Drink-soaked popinjay may initial Euston Manifesto

Posted on by Eddie Truman

HitchDrink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay (not our description) Christopher Hitchens today teased the 977 lonely hearts the Euston Manifesto has brought together with a suggestion he may consider initialing the document. “So call me a neo-conservative if you must: anything is preferable to the rotten unprincipled alliance between the former fans of the one-party state and the hysterical zealots of the one-god one.” Hitch reveals that he has “been flattered by an invitation to sign it, and I probably will”.

There will be sighs of relief amongst many on the left who were likewise flattered to be asked to sign an attempt to establish a left neo-conservative grouping in the UK but read the manifesto and instantly realised what was going on.

See Christopher Hitchens, “At last our lefties see the light”, Sunday Times, 30 April 2006

Martin Sullivan adds:  And now Mad Mel has declared herself “delighted” by the Euston Manifesto – “it’s great to see such a brave statement of decent principles and an open denunciation of the left for being on the wrong side of history. Such a challenge from within its own ranks is essential if the left is ever to stop causing so much lethal damage to the west”.

Meanwhile, online signatories to the Euston Manifesto have been outlining their motives for signing. Harriet Baber explains that “we liberals need to take back the Enlightenment” – which apparently means supporting human rights, “not peace, non-interference in the business of sovereign nations or respect for other cultures”. Neil Denny has signed in protest at a situation in which “to declare a support for Enlightenment values is to seemingly out oneself as an Islamophobe and a racist”. And Aidan Fleming adds: “The curse of democracy is the Qur’an. All supporters of the Euston Manifesto Group should read, The Sword Of The Prophet by Serge Trifovic. It should be declared that ISLAM is not a religion but a non-democratic political organisation.”