“The most famous opinions about Jews ascribed to Hizbullah’s leader are: ‘If they [the Jews] all gather in Israel it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide’ and ‘They [Jews] are a cancer which is liable to spread at any moment’. Charles Glass, the journalist who specialises on Lebanon and was once held hostage by Hizbullah, says both are likely fabrications.”
Category Archives: Scotland
Muslim family values produced 7/7 bombers – Muriel Gray
“John Reid telling devout Muslims to watch out in case their children become, oops, even more devout Muslims was bordering on the ridiculous….
“These brainwashed young men threatening us are not coming from liberal, Westernised homes full of moral relativism and then suddenly turning psycho. If they come from observant Muslim families – which the 7/7 bombers all did despite all the nonsense about them being ‘ordinary Westernised boys’ – then the priming started long ago. They would have been brought up to genuinely believe that Allah intended women to have a single purpose in life as subservient wives and mothers; gay people are perverts; freedom of speech does not apply to any kind of criticism of their belief; democracy is a man-made sham; and the values of the West are inferior….
“The leap to ‘radicalism’ from such a narrow background is not exactly over a chasm…. since many devout, law-abiding Muslims have publicly expressed agreement with a great deal of the bombers’ philosophy – except the killing part – what possible help can they be in this war? It would be of more practical help to try and reasonably persuade devout Muslim parents to let their children absorb a far wider cultural agenda….”
Muriel Gray does her Melanie Phillips impression in the Sunday Herald, 24 September 2006
See Osama Saeed’s reply at Rolled Up Trousers, 26 September 2006
Molly case reveals hidden prejudice
“Against the background of shame and anger at what’s being done in our name in Iraq, and the consequent reprisals, many of those who hoped against hope that the degree of difference in the Scots’ attitude to Islam, and Muslims who’ve chosen to live in Scotland, would withstand the pressures dividing communities in England. But the reaction to the story of Misbah Iram Ahmed Rana, or Molly Campbell to us, sweeps away much of our proud claim to be more tolerant and understanding than is often the case in many English cities. Probably quite unwittingly, a 12-year-old Asian Scot has shown many of us to be suspicious and mistrustful of Muslims.”
Margo MacDonald in the Scotsman, 6 September 2006
Media stereotyping in the ‘Molly Campbell’ case
Molly’s case holds lessons for us all
By Sarfraz Manzoor
Guardian, 4 September 2006
When the news first broke that a 13 year old girl called Molly Campbell – also known as Misbah Iram Ahmed Rana – had been “abducted” by her Pakistani father and taken to Lahore the media appeared certain what kind of story this was: a vulnerable Asian girl is plucked from her Scottish home and forced into an arranged marriage.
The Independent quoted Molly’s grandmother claiming the schoolgirl had been taken to Pakistan and forced to marry a 25 year old man. Meanwhile, in the Times, Mary Ann Sieghart was bemoaning how “even the Outer Hebrides failed to provide sanctuary for Molly Campbell against a father determined to take her off to Pakistan”. Fellow columnist Camilla Cavendish waded in, noting that Molly’s “abduction” raises “fundamental issues of equality that cannot be swept under the carpet to protect ‘cultural sensitivities’.”
Cavendish was right that the alleged abduction raised fundamental issues, but wrong about everything else. On Friday afternoon Molly appeared on television with her father to announce she had left Scotland of her own free will and that she wanted to stay in Pakistan because she wanted to remain with her father. When the reporters continued referring to her as Molly she told them: “My name isn’t Molly, it’s Misbah.”
What I find particularly powerful about the case of Molly/Misbah is that it illustrates the dangers of racial profiling as practised by some of the media. No sooner had the story emerged than the news editors were preparing special reports on abductions and child brides, and the white middle-class columnists were busy revealing their lack of insight.
More Muslims singled out by airport passengers
Osama Saeed draws our attention to two more incidents – at Edinburgh Airport – of passengers objecting to flying with Muslims on board.
‘I know who I’d rather sit beside on a flight’
“Two young men flying from Malaga to Manchester last week were not quite up to speed with our new, unwritten laws…. They found themselves being removed from Monarch Airlines flight ZB613 because other travellers, very possibly white travellers, developed suspicions. A three-hour delay developed because the fearful refused to fly unless the pair were taken from the aircraft.
“They were ‘possibly’ in their 20s, after all, and ‘possibly’ of Middle Eastern – or was it ‘Asian’? – appearance. Someone said they looked constantly at their watches. Someone else thought they heard a language that may have been Arabic. Even holidaymakers are profilers these days, but only the white ones have legitimate reasons, apparently, for checking the time impatiently on a holiday flight.
“Monarch, at the time of writing, has been unable to confirm the grounds for these deep suspicions. The two men were removed, nevertheless, and charged with no crime whatever. They merely faced public humiliation, questioning and severe disruption to their own travel plans….
“What does the low-grade hysteria of those Monarch passengers achieve if not another small, useful publicity coup for extremism? What message does a lynch-mob mentality convey to a young Muslim who fears even to board a flight? How many more ‘mistakes’ can John Reid’s department afford? And where does any of it leave our fragile, assailed multi-culturalism? … The real risk now is that Britain, never a model of unity, will be deeply and permanently divided for reasons of race and faith.
“Mr Blair has said recently that there is an argument to be won, and that military means alone will not secure a victory for his ‘values’. I agree with the statement, but doubt his intentions. He can lecture Britain’s Muslims, by all means, on the subject of rights and responsibilities, but it is time that he also began to lecture the non-Muslim majority, and some of his own Ministers, on the meaning of civilised values.
“The concept is being eroded with each passing month. Who would you rather sit beside on a flight from Malaga? An obnoxious Mancunian drunk, or a pacific, and perfectly innocent, young Muslim? One might deserve the attentions of suburban vigilantes; the other certainly does not.”
Ian Bell in The Herald, 22 August 2006
Some good points, though it’s probably just as well the Herald doesn’t have a wide circulation among the people of Manchester.
British Jews go to fight jihad for Israel
“I’d hate to witness the fallout if a British Muslim was caught fighting for Hizbullah just now. However, the Times carries a report of a British Jew who has gone over to fight for Israel – and the paper actually glorifies it. No questions about killing civilians here, never mind split loyalties.”
Osama Saeed exposes double standards over the Middle East.
Rolled Up Trousers, 9 August 2006
See “British volunteers answer army’s call”, Times, 7 August 2006
I recall the Mayor of London making a similar point just over a year ago. “If a young Jewish boy in this country goes and joins the Israeli army, and ends up killing many Palestinians in operations and can come back, that is wholly legitimate”, he was quoted as saying. “But for a young Muslim boy in this country, who might think: I want to defend my Palestinian brothers and sisters and gets involved, he is branded as a terrorist.”
For this the Mayor was denounced by Jon Benjamin, director general of the Board of Deputies, as “a lackey of the Muslim agenda” in Britain. See YNetNews, 19 July 2005
Anti-racism chief warns of ‘tinderbox Scotland’ after being racially attacked
The deputy chair of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) was racially attacked in a Scottish shopping centre – and she has claimed it was directly linked to the crisis in the Middle East.
Kay Hampton, who is also the Scottish commissioner of the CRE, was verbally assaulted in The Avenue shopping centre in Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire, last Friday. She believes she was mistaken for a Muslim, and the attack was directly linked with the conflict in Lebanon.
Hampton told the Sunday Herald she was shopping with her daughter when she heard a man call them “pigs”. After she challenged him, the man became loud and aggressive, and followed her into a greengrocer’s. When onlookers and two security guards intervened, her attacker backed off and left the centre.
Hampton, one of the UK’s most senior race relations experts, rarely gives interviews and was initially keen to play down the incident, but she has decided to go public because she fears Scotland could become a racial and religious tinderbox.
“It was my first experience of a racial attack in 15 years of living in Glasgow, ” she said. “I was so distressed. You never know how you will respond to these things until it happens to you personally.
“I had a strong feeling it was international issues impacting on a local community – you saw it after 9/11. I think I was mistaken for a Muslim. I am concerned the crisis in the Middle East is going to have an effect on local areas.”
She added: “The face of racism is changing – it is not about black and white any more, it is much more complex than that. We assume racism happens in poor areas and is associated with young people, but this was a man in his 50s with his wife, in an affluent shopping centre. If it happened to me it can happen to anyone.”
She said she decided not to report the attack to police because she considered it more important to use the incident to raise public awareness of the pressure building on local race relations.
Hitting back at Bright
Osama Saeed replies to Martin Bright.
Muslims ‘boycott’ Glasgow airport
Muslim business travellers are boycotting Glasgow airport, according to a leading Scottish figure. Bashir Mann, from the Muslim Council of Great Britan, complained of heavy-handed and humiliating searches by anti-terrorist police officers.
Strathclyde Police said it was looking at training to raise awareness of cultural and religious sensitivities. Mr Mann said: “I’d never experienced anything like that before in Scotland. This was a show of sheer discrimination, victimisation of certain sections of the community in Scotland.”