Another story directly equating Islam as a religion with terrorism. The Spanish government wants to introduce stricter controls over mosques and “democracy lessons” for imams.
Category Archives: Left Wing
In defence of secularism: Religion must be pushed back
“I would like to say that the proposed legislation in France banning conspicuous religious symbols in state schools and institutions is essential and an important step forward in the defence of secularism and women’s and children’s rights, but it is not enough. We have to go further.”
Azar Majedi of the Worker Communist Party of Iran, who evidently understands neither Marxism nor secularism, advocates state repression of religion.
See here.
Nick Cohen’s bloc with the right
In the 20 February issue of the Observer, the paper’s resident Islamophobe Nick Cohen devotes his column to an attack on the dossier produced by the mayor of London in response to the campaign against Yusuf al-Qaradawi (“Ken Has a Lot to Be Sorry For“).
Cohen’s article is merely the latest episode in his long-running – and apparently unending – vendetta against those of us on the left who have retained our old-fashioned sympathies with the victims of imperialism and racism. In Cohen’s view we are all “pseudo-leftists” who have abandoned the gains of the Enlightenment and are “moving to the right, often to the far-right” to form a bloc with “obscurantists, theocrats and fascists”.
It seems to have escaped Cohen’s attention that on this issue he is the one who is in a bloc with the right. It is the extreme right-wingers in the field of Islamic studies such as Daniel Pipes and Robert Spencer with whom Cohen finds common ground over Qaradawi. Those on the liberal, progressive wing of western academia, such as John Esposito, Noah Feldman and Raymond Baker, all recognise Dr al-Qaradawi’s role as a reformer and democrat.
Meanwhile, the excellent Abu Aardvark recounts how Dr al-Qaradawi has been denounced on a jihadist chat room for his corrupting influence in promoting freedom, individual choice and tolerance.
As for the mayor’s dossier, it can be consulted online here, and readers can make up their own minds whether Cohen has answered it effectively.
Mayor’s dossier on al-Qaradawi distorts the truth (it says here)
Tatchell’s Islamic conspiracy theory
“Peter Tatchell’s slander that I seem ‘willing to sacrifice gay rights if it is politically expedient to do so’ (Qaradawi not welcome, LLB, November 2004) shows the depths of the errors to which he has been dragged by his ‘Muslim-fundamentalist-plot-to-take-over-the-world’ conspiracy theory.”
Ken Livingstone writing in Labour Left Briefing, February 2005
Kenan Malik denies Islamophobia exists
“In reality, discrimination against Muslims is not as great as is often claimed.” So says Kenan Malik. See:
‘What hate?’, Kenan Malik in The Guardian
‘Are Muslims Hated?’ Transcript of Kenan Malik’s Channel 4 documentary
‘Islamophobia Myth’, Kenan Malik on Frontpagemag.com
Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain responds to Malik’s views in The Guardian letters page
Waqar Khan comments in Asians in Media magazine
Dead Men Left blog takes on Malik
Roots of Kenan Malik’s position on Islamophobia
See here.
The Lib Dems and the Muslim Council of Britain
Lord Lester writes to the New Statesman (7 February 2005):
“Nick Cohen purports to describe a meeting in my chambers. The meeting, held at the request of the Muslim Council of Great Britain [sic], was to discuss the government’s proposed offence of incitement to religious hatred. The views attributed to me are not what I said.”
For Cohen’s article see here.
But it seems that the only other Lib Dem present at the meeting was leading National Secular Society member Evan Harris (see the MCB’s letter to Charles Kennedy). So who could have provided Cohen with his distorted account of the proceedings? You, as they say, do the maths.
MCB letter to Charles Kennedy
The Muslim Council of Britain writes to Charles Kennedy raising concerns about his party’s attitude to the proposed law banning religious hatred, and complains that details of an MCB meeting with the Lib Dems were leaked to Nick Cohen for his article in the New Statesman (see here).
Now who was responsible for that leak, we wonder. Couldn’t possibly have been leading National Secular Society member Evan Harris, could it? Of course not, and we would never suggest otherwise.
The MCB also complains that Cohen’s account of the meeting was “shamelessly dishonest” and that he failed to contact the MCB to hear their side of the story. Investigative journalism at its best, eh?
See here.
‘Labour’s contemptible election trade-off’
Another rant by Nick Cohen, who accuses the government of being “prepared to sacrifice Britain’s liberties and run the risk of religious riots for the sake of grabbing the votes of fundamentalists” – by which he evidently means the Muslim Council of Britain. What an obnoxious man he is.