Category Archives: Left Wing

McGuinty government rules out use of sharia law

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Seeking to end months of debate, Premier Dalton McGuinty now says ‘there will be no sharia law in Ontario’ – an announcement that should quell a growing public-relations crisis concerning the use of Islamic law, but which also exposes Queen’s Park to attacks from other religions. Following widespread condemnation of a plan that would formally allow the tenets of sharia to be used in resolving family disputes, the Premier said he’ll make the boundaries between church and state clearer by banning faith-based arbitrations…. Many moderate Muslims say they are overjoyed by the Premier’s announcement. ‘I’m so happy today. It’s a victory for the women’s rights movement’, said Homa Arjomand, an Iranian immigrant who has launched a campaign to stop sharia in Ontario.”

Globe & Mail, 12 September 2005

Homa Arjomand a “moderate Muslim”! But that is of course how she has dishonestly presented herself in the course of her inflammatory campaign.

Robert Spencer, too, is dead chuffed at this “hard-won victory for human rights”, although he thinks the ban should be restricted to Islamic arbitration.

Dhimmi Watch, 12 September 2005

For Yusuf Smith’s response to Spencer, see Indigo Jo Blogs, 12 September 2005

This is ‘tackling extremism’?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Andrew C. McCarthy asserts that the Blair government cannot fight terrorism by co-operating with Inayat Bunglawala, Tariq Ramadan, Yusuf Islam … or indeed any other influential Muslim figure who is, in fact, opposed to terrorism. Note, too, that this US right-winger uses Nick Cohen as the source for his accusation that the government is “hell-bent on a strategy of ‘engagement’ with militant Islam”.

National Review Online, 12 September 2005

Jihad Watch backs WPI

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Robert Spencer returns to the protest against the establishment of Islamic family arbitration bodies in Ontario. He approvingly quotes Homa Armojand of the Worker Communist Party of Iran, the co-ordinator of the protest, who claims that the lobby to allow faith-based arbitration for Muslims is “not a coincidence, but part of a global move pushed by leaders of political Islam who need validation from the government of the West”. Spencer also endorses Arjomand’s attack on Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty: “McGuinty flirting with political Islam is playing a dangerous game. He is putting the lives of women and children in jeopardy. Shame.”

Dhimmi Watch, 11 September 2005

This is not the first time that the WPI has received Spencer’s backing. A couple of months ago, he gave his seal of approval to a speech by Maryam Namazie. It is clear that the hysterical Islamophobia of the WPI, just like that of Outrage! in Britain, dovetails neatly with the right-wing anti-Muslim bigotry of Jihad Watch.

Double standards against Muslims and Islam in Canada

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The polemic on the possible introduction of the so-called sharia law in Ontario … highlights the double standards against Muslims and Islam. It exposes the polarizing methodologies of our media. It tests the Dalton McGuinty government’s commitment to the core liberal-democratic principle of the equality of all citizens. The dominant theme of the news coverage is clear: Medieval Muslims want to import the misogynistic Islamic penal code to Canada. And Queen’s Park is crazy to even consider it. There are sub-themes: Muslims have been plotting for long to supplant our secular laws with Allah’s. They are using multiculturalism to undermine it. Why would we let them, given what they do to women in Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, etc.?”

Haroon Siddiqui in the Toronto Star, 11 September 2005

Siddiqui asks: “why are journalists drawn to the same handful of critics? … Is it that the critics are media savvy? If so, it only confirms our vulnerability to manipulation. Or, is it that the critics are saying what the journalists want to hear? It seems so. Is it an accident that the only Muslims the media idolize are those who attack Islam or the broader Muslim community?”

Of course, some of the most prominent “Muslim” opponents of the Ontario proposal, who have been boosted by the Canadian media, are not Muslims at all, but members of the Islamophobic sect, the Worker Communist Party of Iran.

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Jihad Watch applauds Peter Tatchell

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A UK supporter of Jihad Watch reports on a protest in London against the proposed introduction of Islamic arbitration bodies in Ontario: “there were only about 15-16 people, mostly men, including a reporter from Canadian television”.

Dhimmi Watch, 10 September 2005

Not to worry, though – they took turns to address each other on the iniquities of the Ontario proposal: “representatives from Sharia.com, the International Committee against Stoning, the British Humanist Association, the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and Peter Tatchell made speeches. There was also a guy from a gay and lesbian association there. They basically made the same objections to Sharia law that we’ve all seen here at Jihad Watch/Dhimmi Watch”.

Perhaps Outrage, GALHA and their co-thinkers might consider organising a UK visit for Robert Spencer? After all, they have so much in common.

Iran hangings: chronicle of a manipulation

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Outrage Iran Hanging ProtestPedro Carmona writes: “Faisal Alam, a US queer activist of Pakistani origins and the founder of the group Al-Fatiha (made up of US queer Muslims), argues in the magazine Queer that the campaign to condemn Iran was organized without any effort to confirm the veracity of the information on the part of the groups which called for it, in contrast with the three major human rights organizations which advised of the imprecision of the information upon which the protests were based…. Alam frames his discussion of this manipulation in the context of increasing Islamophobia in Europe and North America, and of the ‘Axis of Evil’ campaign of the Washington government….”

Carmona continues: “The anti-Iranian campaign which has been promoted by certain gay and lesbian groups has been based upon strongly biased information, incomplete and on occasions openly untrue. It certainly appears to be a premeditated exercise in misinformation. Likewise suspicious is the warm reception of these mobilizations on the part of conservative groups and parties which have never defended gay and lesbian rights, or which have even promoted openly homophobic initiatives, as is the case of the Republican Party in the US. Unfortunately, the protest campaign, which we should acknowledge at least to be ill-informed and misguided, is now unstoppable despite new data and clarifications. The petitions continue to circulate, maintaining the version that Mahmud and Ayaz were hanged ‘for the mere fact of being gay’. It is comprehensible that our rage at the continued homophobic abuses we see lead us to react immediately and without too much consideration; but these reactions might convert us, while we believe ourselves to be struggling for the liberation of gays and lesbians, into mere puppets of greater interests.”

Another useful exposure of Outrage’s campaign over the execution of two youths in Mashhad, Iran, in July.

Indymedia, 8 September 2005

For earlier coverage, see here.

Ultra-left sectarians against sharia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sharia protestMore than 300 demonstrators converged in front of the Ontario legislature Thursday in a protest against the allowance of Islamic Shariah law in the province. “Shame! Shame!” chanted members of the crowd, angry at the prospect of Ontario becoming the first Western jurisdiction to allow the use of Shariah law to settle family disputes.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said his Liberal government will decide “shortly” on whether to permit Islamic law to be used in the province’s family arbitration cases. He has insisted that the rights of women will not be compromised if Shariah tribunals get the go-ahead to settle marital disputes for Muslims in the province. “Whatever we do, it will be in keeping with the values of Canadians and Ontarians,” he told reporters Wednesday.

But critics consider the religious rules an affront to human rights. “What Mr. McGuinty is doing is simply flirting with political Islam,” said Homa Arjomand, co-ordinator of the International Campaign Against Shariah Court on Thursday. “And that dangerous game is putting the lives and safety of women and children in danger. Shame.”

Billed as a global campaign against Shariah law, demonstrations took place in 11 cities across Canada and Europe — including one in London, England in front of the Canadian High Commission.

“The leader of Ontario’s government – shame on you!” said Mahmoud Ahmadi, spokesperson for the Federation of Iranian Refugees. “Shame on you!”

CTV, 9 September 2005

It would be interesting to know what the political composition of the demonstration was. I note that of the three anti-sharia demonstrators interviewed by CTV, two – Homa Arjomand and Shiva Mahbobi – are central committee members of that bizarre ultra-left sect, the Worker Communist Party of Iran. The third interviewee, Mahmoud Ahmadi, is a leading figure in the International Federation of Iranian Refugees, whose director Mina Ahadi is – yes, you guessed it – a central committee member of the WPI.

Outrage! in ignorant attack on Islam shock

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Human rights campaigners and refugees from Islamist persecution will protest against the introduction of Sharia law in Canada, outside the Canadian High Commission, in London on Thursday 8 September 2005 from 12 noon – 2 PM. The protest is being supported by gay human rights group OutRage! and one of the keynote speakers will be OutRage! organiser, Peter Tatchell.”

Outrage! press release, 7 September 2005

Outrage! appends articles by Maryam Namazie, Azar Majedi and Homa Arjomand – all central committee members of the Worker Communist Party of Iran. Namazie attributes the Canadian proposal to “the racist concepts of multi-culturalism and cultural relativism. It promotes tolerance and respect for so-called minority opinions and beliefs”. And we can’t be having that, can we?

In fact, as anyone who has studied the subject will be aware, the proposal is not to introduce Sharia law but to amend Ontario’s Arbitration Act, which already allows Jews and Christians to choose religious arbitration if they like, in order to extend the same opportunity to Muslims. Oddly enough, I can’t remember Tatchell protesting outside the Canadian High Commission when Jews and Christians in Ontario were accorded that right. But then, I was forgetting, for Tatchell and Outrage! Islam is a uniquely evil religion.

Opposition to Sharia courts goes global

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An upcoming international demonstration designed to pressure Queen’s Park [home of the Ontario Legislature] into rejecting shariah courts continued to grow yesterday, even as the premier promised any decision on a faith-based court system will not jeopardize women’s rights.

They [women’s rights] will not be compromised,” Premier Dalton McGuinty told reporters at a news conference in Toronto yesterday.

So far, Amsterdam, Stockholm, London, Paris and Los Angeles are among the confirmed participants in tomorrow’s protests. They will join similar demonstrations in Toronto, Ottawa, Waterloo, Montreal and Victoria.

Ontario Attorney-General Michael Bryant delayed a highly anticipated decision on the future of faith-based arbitration this summer, choosing to wait before making changes to a law that allows any set of principles – including religious ones – to be used to privately settle family disputes.

Critics say Ontario has become the target of an international political movement by extremists to entrench Islamic law in Western democracies.

“This has nothing to do with the faith of Islam. It’s political Islam,” said Homa Arjomand, founder of the International Campaign against Shariah Court in Canada [and central committee member of the Worker Communist Party of Iran]. “Ontario is an easy target because we have multiculturalism.”

National Post, 7 September 2005

‘I am very pleased to be here next to Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Irshad Manji’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Campaign Against Sharia CourtSpeech by Homa Arjomand, central committee member of the Worker Communist Party of Iran, at the Toronto conference against sharia law.

Comrade Arjomand declares: “I need to emphasize that I am talking about political Islam as a movement…. Their conduct is primarily in the form of opposition to the freedom of women, women’s civil liberties, and freedom of expression. It is misogynistic and goes against modernism…. Islamic terrorism is a military section of Political Islam…. Political Islam with its terrorist action clearly says that if you don’t recognize Islamic states, terrorism is what people in the West will face.”

Butterflies and Wheels, 23 August 2005

Yeah, the usual Islamism=terrorism nonsense that you get from the WPI (and from Nick Cohen, Searchlight magazine and the BNP, for that matter). The idea that Islamism contains reformist tendencies, who oppose terrorism and pursue democratic change, is of course completely absent from this hysterical Islamophobic discourse.