Category Archives: Scotland

Sweep aside stereotypes and ask what really matters

Posted on by Bob Pitt

exhibition catalogue“Islam. When you hear that word, what immediately comes to your mind? A masked terrorist? Osama bin Laden? Fanatical young men with explosives strapped round their waists? These are certainly the images that leap from the newspapers and the television screens. The notion that Islam had a high culture when Britain was living in dark times seems to be off our radar screens. Islam is a religion with great richness at its heart. Terrorists and suicide bombers have hogged the headlines, but they no more represent Islam than football ‘casuals’ represent the clubs they claim to support. Yet in today’s global media village, Islam is almost exclusively associated in the western public mind with lethal fanaticism.”

Ron Ferguson on the exhibition of Islamic art which has opened at the Royal Museum in Edinburgh.

The Herald, 17 July 2006

Shahid Malik backs Blair, blames Muslim communities

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Shahid MalikIn today’s Daily Mail, Labour MP Shahid Malik expresses his concerns about “those Muslim leaders, many of whom, I am sorry to say, have lost the stomach for the fight. I am fed up with their constant sniping about the Government’s failure to follow up on all the recommendations of the Task Force, set up in the aftermath of the bombing .. it is easier for organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain to criticise the Government, the police or the media, rather than take a long hard look at our own communities. It is easier for them to encourage a victim culture that sees Islamophobia around every corner, rather than challenge within. But that is not leadership. It is abdication. That is why I almost wept when I saw the results of a poll showing that 13 per cent of British Muslims think that the July 7 terrorists should be regarded as ‘martyrs’. How sick and deluded can you get?”

Yes, thanks Shahid. That’s really helpful.

Update:  See Osama Saeed’s comments at Rolled Up Trousers, 8 July 2006

Anger and suspicion against Muslims in Scotland

Posted on by Bob Pitt

It has been a difficult year for young Muslim men in Britain since four of their co-religionists – Hasib Hussain, Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer and Germaine Lindsay – carried out the bombings that killed 52 people in London. As the anniversary of the 7/7 attacks approaches, there is a nervous feeling among those living in Scotland. Some argue that their repeated condemnations of the bombings are forgotten; others feel they have been forced to condemn too much while receiving little in return. Many react with annoyance to the suggestion that they are linked to the actions of men they view as misguided extremists and undeserving of the term Muslim. There is the frequent reminder that Muslims, too, were victims of the London bombers, while others are critical of the media for “drumming up” an Islam versus the West conflict.

Scotland on Sunday, 2 July 2006

Anti-terror police target schools and youth groups

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Politicians, human rights lawyers, Muslim organisations and teachers have expressed dismay at a Scottish Special Branch initiative that sends officers to schools to encourage teachers to inform on pupils who are suspected of flirting with Islamic extremism.

Special Branch (SB) in Tayside is also operating in youth groups at Dundee’s universities and using everything from Asian corner shops and supermarkets to mosques and restaurants to gather intelligence on potential terrorist threats.

Sunday Herald, 11 June 2006

‘Islamofascist’ backs Brett

Posted on by Bob Pitt

I see that Osama Saeed of the Muslim Association of Britain has welcomed a post at Harry’s Place by Brett Lock of OutRage!, attacking the hysteria over “foreign criminals”. No doubt Lock will soon reciprocate with a favourable comment about Osama’s blog. Or perhaps not. Last year Osama posted a piece applauding a New Statesman article by Peter Tatchell on asylum rights, and as yet there hasn’t been any noticeable warming of Tatchell’s attitude towards the “Islamic fundamentalists” of MAB.

500 pack meeting over plan to build mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hundreds of people opposed to an application to build an Islamic community centre and mosque on greenbelt land packed out a public meeting last night.

More than 500 people turned up for a community council meeting which would normally attract about 20 residents to discuss the proposals for the new mosque in Newton Mearns, near Glasgow.

One resident said: “Plans have been lodged for a huge floodlit building that would be more at home in Mecca than Newton Mearns. Obviously the local residents are up in arms about this.”

The Herald, 23 May 2006

Osama Saeed was at the meeting and reports: “Speaking to Muslims in attendance afterwards, there was a feeling of intimidation from an almost baying crowd. Time after time, mosque opposers claimed they favoured the building of a mosque in the local authority area – just not in their back yard. They would have been as well saying that ‘We are in favour of Asians, just not in this country’.”

Rolled Up Trousers, 23 May 2006

Scotland: Harassment of the Siddique family

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Asif SiddiqueOn April 12th Mohammed Atif Siddique and his uncle were prevented from boarding a flight to Pakistan from Glasgow airport (see more on situation at Glasgow airport here). They were briefly detained and allowed to return to the family home in Alva, Scotland. The next morning the house was raided by dozens of MI5, Special Branch and uniformed police officers using the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2000.

Two uncles of Atif arrested at the same time were released from Govan top security police station at 2.30am in the morning without charge after 13 days in custody. Atif’s brother Asif was held for a further period but then released without charge.

Mohammed Rafiq, a farmer from the Punjab and the paternal uncle of Atif and Asif Siddique, said he was “deeply upset” at what had happened. “My wife and five children are both utterly shocked at this as well,” he said. “I had never heard of the word terrorism until I came to this country. I came to visit my family and all I want to do now is to go home. I will never come back to Scotland.”  (The Herald)

Asif later revealed that police had questioned him about postcards found in the Siddique house from New York: “They found postcards I had got from friends who went on holiday to New York a few years ago. They asked me about who they were from and why I had them, which I found ridiculous because it was a holiday postcard. They also kept asking me what I thought about September 11 and I kept telling them that I condemned the attacks. We were shocked innocent lives should be taken like this.”  (Sunday Mail)

On Thursday 27th April Atif Siddique was charged with offences under Section 58(1b) of the Terrorism Act at a specially convened court in Falkirk. The offences relate to the possession of documents or records containing information “likely to be useful” to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. Atif was remanded in custody and will appear in court again this week.

Concerns raised as innocent Muslims detained

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Senior members of Scotland’s Pakistani community last night revealed that they had approached the chief constable of Strathclyde Police to complain about the number of innocent Muslims being detained at Glasgow Airport. Ashraf Anjum, president of the Glasgow Central Mosque, the largest in Scotland, said he had personally raised the issue with Sir Willie Rae last month in response to a growing number of incidents being reported to him.

Sunday Herald, 30 April 2006

‘How can we have respect for Islam?’ Muriel Gray asks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muriel Gray writes: “… what of moderate Islam? British Muslims are represented by the unelected Sir Iqbal Sacranie, a man at the forefront of the book-burning mob who threatened Rushdie’s life, when Sacranie declared: ‘Death, I think, is too easy for him.’ For this part in incitement to murder, Sacranie was awarded not the stiff custodial sentence one might expect, but a knighthood.”

Sunday Herald, 5 February 2006

I particularly liked Gray’s reference to “the Western values so vigorously and courageously fought for over two bloody world wars”. So World War I was fought in defence of “western values”, was it? Although, on reflection, she does have a point here. “Western values” do indeed include a tendency to heap up vast piles of corpses as imperialist powers pursue their interests through military aggression without the slightest concern for the human consequences.

Elsewhere in the same paper, Torcuil Crichton writes: “Yesterday Hizb ut-Tahrir, an extremist organisation that believes in a Muslim Caliphate, demanded that European governments exert pressure on their media outlets to retract the offensive caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad, apologise for the offence caused and guarantee no further repetition of such abuse. The demands reflect those of the gunmen in Gaza who threatened to bomb the EU presence in Palestinian Authority.” Which of course omits to mention the minor difference that Hizb didn’t threaten to bomb anyone.

Sunday Herald, 5 February 2006