Category Archives: Liberal

Mangera Yvars interviewed by Guardian

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Abbey Mills Islamic CentreJonathan Glancey interviews Ali Mangera and Ada Yvars Bravo, the architects responsible for designing the proposed Markaz at West Ham.

The piece is informative, and broadly sympathetic. “We’re trying to design a welcoming and beautiful building,” Mangera is quoted as saying, “yet at times I feel I’m being accused of designing a bomb factory.”

But you do despair of ever reading an article on this issue which avoids recycling the stuff about the FBI claiming that Tablighi Jamaat is a recruiting ground for al-Qaida, or how 7/7 bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan reportedly attended the Dewsbury Markaz.

Guardian, 30 October 2006

Muriel Grey on ‘Enlightenism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muriel Grey joins the massed ranks of those defending the Enlightenment against religious belief in general and Islam in particular. Apparently, Enlightenment values are compatible with describing the Aishah Azmi case in the following terms: “some woman (we think – for all we know it could have been Paul Gascoigne under that niquab [sic]) was claiming her right to mumble lessons at children while wearing a bag over her head.”

Sunday Herald, 29 October 2006

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Ian Buruma and Muslims – what a liberal wimp

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nick Cohen 2Reviewing Ian Buruma’s book Murder in Amsterdam Nick Cohen takes exception to Buruma’s willingness to appease the Muslim hordes:

“Buruma shows that Muslim immigration pushed the fantastically vituperative van Gogh and at least a part of the Dutch left into the appalled realisation that they were going to have to fight the old battles for free speech and the emancipation of women and homosexuals all over again. Interestingly, given his anti-fascist pedigree, Buruma won’t go along with them.

“He doesn’t quite say it, but he implies that it is one thing to make a stand against the ayatollahs’ Iran or al-Qaeda in the Middle East, and quite another to take on the same ideas at home when they are found in a minority community that is already vulnerable and often powerless….

“Murder in Amsterdam is well written, well researched and often wise, but a faint whiff of intellectual cowardice rises from its pages none the less.”

New Statesman, 30 October 2006

It’s reassuring to know that, unlike the cowardly Buruma, Cohen has the courage to wage a battle against the vulnerable and powerless.

Martin Bright backs Kelly

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“When, in last May’s reshuffle, Tony Blair appointed Ruth Kelly to deal with Islamism, I was sceptical, I admit…. I have been forced to reconsider. Kelly’s recent statements show a sea change in government policy, driven by her determination to tackle the ideology of radical Islam head-on. Her speech on 11 October to groups representing British Muslims was a wake-up call not just to them, but to Britain at large….

“The MCB will receive no more state funding, she says, until it can show that it shares the common values of a democratic society: freedom of speech, equality of opportunity, tolerance, and respect for the rule of law…. Kelly has made a bold decision to take the ideological battle to radical Islam…. I am told that she spent recent months reading widely on the history of modern political Islam and that she has become fascinated by the subject. One publication she has read is a short pamphlet I wrote for the think-tank Policy Exchange, When Progressives Treat With Reactionaries.”

Martin Bright in the New Statesman, 23 October 2006

Bright must be really pleased with himself. He has helped persuade Kelly to sideline the most representative Muslim organisation in Britain and turn instead to the fraudulent pro-government Sufi Muslim Council.

Warning over UK race riot danger

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Trevor PhillipsThe polarised debate over full-face veils could spark race riots in the UK, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality has warned. The debate surrounding the issue “seems to have turned into something really quite ugly”, Trevor Phillips said. “This could be the trigger for the grim spiral that produced riots in the north of England five years ago,” he told the Sunday Times.

Mr Phillips said a “gentle, nuanced” debate was needed. On Mr Straw’s comments, Mr Phillips told the Sunday Times Muslim leaders had been “overly defensive” in attacking the Blackburn MP.

Massoud Shadjareh, from the lobby group the Islamic Human Rights Commission, told BBC News 24 that “ministers after ministers after ministers” had been attacking the Muslim community recently, which was unfair and “not a means of respectable dialogue”.”I have to say the Muslim community really has been extremely calm, and extremely responsible,” he said.

The Muslim Council of Britain’s Secretary General, Muhammad Abdul Bari, said the integration debate had become “increasingly shrill and ugly”. He accused Mr Phillips of having a “poor track record” on this issue and criticised him for not mentioning recent attacks against Muslims which “accompanied this so-called debate”. Mr Abdul Bari said: “We have seen veils being forcefully pulled off Muslim women, a number of mosques subjected to arson attacks, and Muslim individuals, including an Imam in Glasgow, badly beaten up by thugs.”

BBC News, 22 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

The veil – a woman has no right to choose

Posted on by Bob Pitt

P. Toynbee“This has been a real test of Labour politicians. It is the first time in years that there has been a hard choice about women’s rights – and many failed miserably. Here is a conflict between two principles – respect for a religious minority and respect for women’s equality…. When it comes to something as basic as women hidden from view behind religious veils, is it really so hard to say this is a bad practice? Because some racists may jump on the bandwagon to attack Muslims, that’s no reason to pretend veils are OK….

“The veil turns women into things. It was shocking to find on the streets of Kabul that invisible women behind burkas are not treated with special respect. On the contrary, they are pushed and shoved off pavements by men, jostled aside as if almost subhuman without the face-to-face contact that recognises common humanity.

“The classroom assistant in a Church of England school in Kirklees removed her veil for a job interview, but now expects to go veiled in corridors or whenever she might meet a man. What does that say to children about the role of women as victims and men as aggressors? Of course it should be banned in all places of education, and the community cohesion minister is the right person to say so. The veil is profoundly divisive – and deliberately designed to be….

“Prescott, Hewitt, Kelly, Hain and others failed the test, saying it was women’s ‘choice’: can they really believe that’s the whole story? Here is an uneasy blend of nervousness about racism and fear of already angry Muslims. It was left to Harriet Harman to make the unequivocal case for women’s rights: ‘If you want equality, you have to be in society, not hidden away from it,’ she said. ‘The veil is an obstacle to women’s participation on equal terms in society.’ No nonsense about choice.”

Polly Toynbee in the Guardian, 17 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.

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If veiled women suffer hostility, they only have themselves to blame

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Deborah Orr“People wear veils voluntarily in this country, or seek out wives who wear them, because they want to advertise very strongly that they subscribe to an alternative value system to the mainstream.

“That value system often involves such unacceptable notions as a liking for sharia law and the anti-women brutalities it entails.

“Why take such a hostile stance, then act all oppressed when people register their distaste for it? … Women can wear veils if they want to, I guess. But they should bear in mind that many fellow citizens think them a total abomination – and for sound reasons.”

Deborah Orr in the Independent, 14 October 2006

Cf. “Attacks on Muslims rise after veils row” in the same issue.