BNP leader held by police over racist remarks

Posted on December 14, 2004 by Bob Pitt

Police have arrested the leader of the far-right British National Party after he was secretly filmed calling Islam “a wicked, vicious faith”. The arrest of Nick Griffin, one-time host of French National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, was warmly welcomed by Muslims, some of whom said the government should ban the BNP altogether.

Police arrested Griffin, 45, at his family farmhouse in Wales and took him to West Yorkshire, where officers are conducting a major probe into the activities of BNP members. Griffin, later released on bail until next March, told reporters on Tuesday: “This is an electoral scam to get the Muslim block vote back for the Labour Party.”

Griffin’s arrest came two days after police detained the party’s 70-year-old founding chairman John Tyndall. They have now arrested 12 people on suspicion of incitement to commit racial hatred since the investigation began five months ago. None has been charged.

The police probe was triggered by a BBC documentary, broadcast in July, which included footage of Griffin giving a speech in the northern town of Keighley in which he railed against Islam and its holy book, the Koran. “This wicked, vicious faith has expanded through a handful of cranky lunatics about 1,300 years ago until it’s now sweeping country after country,” he said.

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Turn again, Dick Warrington

Posted on December 13, 2004 by Bob Pitt

Daniel at Crooked Timber has a thoughtful article on the proposed religious hatred law, even if he comes down against it:

“This is a bad and illiberal Bill, but most of the opposition to it is pretty ill-informed and quite ill-conceived. It’s got nothing to do with giving Abu Hamza the right to censor your every weblog post and everything to do with preserving public order in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, ‘Islamophobia’ is not a fictitious problem in as much as there are quite clearly ‘critiques’ of Islam which are being used as a fig leaf for outright racism and the self-styled defenders of ‘Enlightenment values’ don’t seem to regard this as any problem at all of theirs. In fact, an awful lot of people commenting on this issue don’t appear to be able to keep a decent degree of separation in their own minds between genuine civil liberties issues and just randomly having a go at Muslims for being backward and uncivilised. And if I was a Muslim, I daresay I’d be pretty hacked off at that.”

Crooked Timber, 13 December 2004

Moore in the Telegraph writes ‘Mohammed’ & ‘paedophile’ in one sentence

Posted on December 11, 2004 by Eddie Truman

“Was the prophet Mohammed a paedophile? The question is sometimes asked because one of his wives, Aisha, was a child when he married her.”

Charles Moore in the Daily Telegraph, 11 December 2004

Telegraph: No such thing as Islamophobia

Posted on December 9, 2004 by Eddie Truman

“In reality, evidence for ‘Islamophobia’ – as distinct from a justified fear of radical Islamist terrorism or a desire to protect our freedoms, institutions and values from those who hold them in contempt – is anecdotal and slight. I have met one ‘Islamophobe’ – the gay gentleman who cuts my hair, which is hardly a firm basis to jettison centuries of hard-won religious give and take.”

Michael Burleigh in the Daily Telegraph, 9 December 2004

Anti-terror measures ‘alienate Muslims’

Posted on September 21, 2004 by Bob Pitt

The Church of England said yesterday that police counter-terrorism operations were directed disproportionately against Muslims and risked alienating them. In a submission to the Commons home affairs committee, the church’s mission and public affairs council supported a proposed law against incitement to religious hatred, including towards Muslims, to preserve community relations.

Guardian, 21 September 2004

‘We must be free to criticise without being called racist’ says Polly Toynbee

Posted on August 18, 2004 by Eddie Truman

“It is bizarre how the left has espoused the extreme Islamist cause: as ‘my enemy’s enemy’, Muslims are the best America-haters around. The hard left relishes terrorism: a fondness for explosions and the smell of martyrs’ blood excites their revolutionary zeal, without sharing a jot of religious belief.”

Polly Toynbee in the Guardian, 18 August 2004

Blunkett’s ban will fan the flames – Mark Steyn

Posted on July 13, 2004 by Bob Pitt

“Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the Western world, but Blunkett wants us to pretend that it’s a wee delicate bloom which has to be sheltered from anything unpleasant. The other week, the governor of one of those Nigerian states that now lives under sharia called for the burning of all Christian churches within his jurisdiction. Every Friday, on state TV and radio throughout the Arab world and in mosques somewhat closer to home, the A-list imams call for the killing of Jews and infidels. Well, good luck to them. But, if they can dish it out so enthusiastically, couldn’t they learn to take it just an eensy-teensy-weensy bit?”

Mark Steyn responds to the proposed reform of existing race relations law to ban incitement of religious hatred.

Daily Telegraph, 13 July 2004

Tories call on Blair to bar Muslim ‘extremist’

Posted on July 8, 2004 by Eddie Truman

A government drive against religious extremism was mired in controversy last night over the presence in Britain of a fundamentalist Muslim cleric who allegedly supports suicide bombings and beating women.

On the day that David Blunkett proposed tougher laws against Islamists – and far-Right evangelical Christians – who preached hatred of other religions, the Home Office said it was not right to keep Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Qatar-based imam, out of the country on the grounds of his views alone.

However, Tory and Labour MPs said Mr Blunkett should reconsider his position and exclude the cleric.

The row overshadowed a wide-ranging speech on race and integration by the Home Secretary, in which he said extremist religious leaders undermined efforts to establish better community relations in Britain.

Daily Telegraph, 8 July 2004

Daily Star: Welcome to get-tough Britain, Your Evilness!

Posted on July 8, 2004 by Eddie Truman

Welcome to get-tough Britain, Your Evilness!

By Macer Hall, Political Editor

Daily Star, 8 July 2004

JUST AS David Blunkett was pledging a crackdown on religious hatred yesterday a fanatical Muslim cleric was welcomed into Britain.

The Home Secretary promised a new law to jail extremists who incite hate and violence against other faiths. The new offence is likely to be closely modelled on the existing crime of inciting racial hatred, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment. But his crackdown was branded a “nonsense” as rabble-rouser Yusuf al-Qaradawi waltzed into Britain.

The Qatar-based sheik – who supports attacks on Jews and backs suicide bombers – is banned from the US but allowed to speak at Muslim conferences here. Al-Qaradawi was born in Egypt, like hook-handed fanatic Abu Hamza, the Finsbury Park preacher the Home Office has been trying to kick out of the country.

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