Category Archives: Scotland

Call for unity after Muslim talks

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, tonight met with leaders of the Muslim community in Scotland. He said: “Events last month show the importance of not being divided as a society. Our response is about how you ensure Scotland is held together as a community and as a society. One of the clear objectives of terrorists is to divide communities from each other – to divide them from within.”

Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, believed Scotland could be “a beacon to the world” in Muslim and non-Muslim relations. He said: “I’m sure this meeting would have been taking place anyway, but obviously it has taken on a new light given the events at Glasgow Airport last month. Good community relations do not happen by accident and need to be striven for. We’ll be presenting the work that we’re doing, the executive have their ideas and initiatives, and I’m sure there are many areas where we will work together.”

BBC News, 31 July 2007

Statement by Alex Salmond and Ken Livingstone

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Alex Salmond MP MSP, First Minister of Scotland, and Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London after meeting today said:

“We stand united in our condemnation of the recent attempted attacks in Glasgow and London and applaud the swift and courageous response of the emergency services and members of the public, which prevented any loss of life. The safety of all the inhabitants of Scotland and London rests on the professionalism of the police and security service and information supplied to these by all communities.

“We reiterate that actions like these are carried out by criminals, not by communities, and welcome as very important the clear and unambiguous statements by Muslim organisations, and all other communities, denouncing the killing of innocent people. Those who seek to use recent events to create divisions, foster prejudice and excuse mindless attacks on minority communities are contemptible.

“We are one Scotland and one London; places of rich history and diversity which welcome all those who seek to contribute to our society and abide by our laws, whatever their race, religion, creed or colour.”

GLA press release, 26 July 2007

Salmond response to airport attack ‘boost for radical Islam’ says academic

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scotland UnitedAlex Salmond has boosted the cause of radical Islam in Scotland in his response to the Glasgow Airport attack, a leading Scots academic on religious affairs has claimed.

In a fiercely controversial commentary, Tom Gallagher, the chair of Peace Studies at Bradford University, said that Salmond had courted “radical voices” in the Muslim community following the attempted bombings, lending them a false layer of legitimacy. He also accuses Salmond of deliberately setting out to exploit the attack to win favour with Muslims in Scotland, comparing the First Minister’s style at one point to former Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser.

The comments triggered a furious backlash last night, with claims they amounted to Islamophobia. Salmond’s aides meanwhile described them as “ridiculous”.

Gallagher’s attack, published on the website Open Democracy, was aimed primarily at the Scottish leader of the Muslim Association of Britain, Osama Saeed, who was also an SNP candidate in this year’s Scottish elections. Saeed was among the most prominent figures to speak for the Muslim community following the bombings, which he unreservedly condemned. However, Gallagher accuses Saeed of being an “unapologetic advocate of the hardline Islamism” and accuses him of deceiving Scots following the attack by hiding his real agenda. He attacks Salmond for giving Saeed a platform.

He said: “The Muslim community has been done a great disservice by the SNP which has courted the more radical voices in the community and the result is that it will alter the balance of power in the Muslim community. I’m all for Muslims playing a full role in Scottish life but I think we need to do all we can to question those who just want Muslims to be oppositional and to have international loyalties.”

Saeed has now accused Gallagher of Islamophobia, saying there was no basis for the academic’s attack. He added: “What he is arguing is that everyone who believes in Islam needs to have some kind of witch-hunt placed over them.”

Scotland on Sunday, 22 July 2007

Predictably, Gallagher finds support at the virulently anti-Muslim US website Jihad Watch.

For Osama Saeed’s comments, see Rolled Up Trousers, 22 July 2007

Terror strikes provoke spate of racist attacks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Glasgow shop fireSince the failed terrorist attack on Glasgow airport, Strathclyde police have had to deal with more than 200 racial incidents, many of them carried out as reprisals on innocent members of the Muslim community.

Verbal and physical assaults, along with damage to property ranging from graffiti to a vehicle being driven into a shop belonging to Asians and set on fire, have been reported across the city.

Just over 10 racially motivated crimes per day, on average, have been recorded since the airport bomb attack compared with a daily average of less than seven racist incidents during April, May and June.

‘I am concerned about the rise in the number of racist incidents,’ said John Neilson, Strathclyde’s assistant chief constable. ‘However, I am also encouraged at the number of victims who have come forward and reported their experiences to the police.’

Observer, 22 July 2007

See also “Attacks on Muslims increase in Strathclyde after airport attack”, Independent, 23 July 2007

Another day, another ex-Islamist calling for a ban on HT

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“By focusing almost exclusively on violent extremism, the government has got it wrong. It has failed to appreciate how the general culture of extreme Islamist dissent can, and often does, give rise to terrorism itself. Islamist groups thrive on preaching a separatist message of Islamic supremacy, which concerns itself with reversing the temporal decline of Islam and challenging the ascendancy of the west by reviving a puritanical caliphate….

“Although groups like Hizb insist that their activities are merely intellectual, the movement is no paper tiger. It is an active revolutionary organisation with tentacles spread across the world. And its culpability in inspiring terrorists cannot be denied. Hizb has consistently raised the temperature of Islamist anger across Britain by issuing inflammatory leaflets aimed to agitate and provoke.”

Shiraz Maher in the New Statesman, 13 July 2007

There appears to be an ever-expanding market for former members of HT who are willing to endorse a right-wing agenda about the supposed threat from non-violent Islamism and encourage the state repression of their former associates.

For an alternative view, see Rolled Up Trousers, 12 July 2007

‘Scotland’s nationalist-Muslim embrace’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Well, at least this makes a change from the usual “Left-Islamofascist alliance” nonsense. Tom Gallagher has identified an equally dangerous political bloc in Scotland between the SNP and “unapologetic advocates of hardline Islamism” like Osama Saeed. According to Gallagher, this raises the nightmare prospect of an independent Scotland becoming “a northern version of Ken Livingstone’s left-leaning multicultural metropolis in London”.

Open Democracy, 11 July 2007

Faiths unite in rally against terror

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Scotland UnitedMore than 2000 people gathered yesterday to deliver the message that Scotland says no to terrorism.

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told the mixed race and faith crowd in George Square, Glasgow, Scots had responded “magnificently” to the airport attack last weekend.

Glasgow Central MP Mohammed Sarwar was among the demonstrators. He told the mainly Muslim crowd: “The message from Scotland is loud and clear that we stand united…against the terrorists and criminals who want to kill innocent men, women and children. Whatever colour, faith or background they come from, we condemn them.”

Reported in Sunday Mail

Martin Sullivan adds: See also the report by Osama Saeed, one of the organisers of the rally, at Rolled Up Trousers

Muslim leaders organise anti-terror rally

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims are organising a rally in Glasgow on Saturday to demonstrate a united front against terrorism and to quell fears of a backlash against Scotland’s Islamic community.

Mosques and Islamic organisations hope that the event, which will be held on July 7, the second anniversary of the fatal bombings in London, will demonstrate their resolve against terrorism. They are inviting everyone to take part, including faith leaders, churches, trade unionists and others in civic society under the title “Scotland United Against Terror”.

However, Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, who is helping to organise the rally, said he feared “rising hostility” against Scotland’s generally well-integrated Muslim community.

Times, 4 July 2007

See also the Scotsman, 4 July 2007