Assed Baig exposes the “Trojan Horse” fraud.
Category Archives: UK
Sharia wills: the facts
It is not the aim of the Law Society or Muslims to promote a dual legal system, says Ismaeel Waseem.
‘There’s no Muslim plot to radicalise Birmingham schoolchildren’, insists city council chief executive
Birmingham schools are not at the centre of a Muslim extremist stealth plot to radicalise pupils and claims of a Trojan Horse-type takeover are without foundation, city council chief executive Mark Rogers has insisted.
Mr Rogers attempted to defuse critical media coverage over the issue by insisting investigations have failed to uncover any conspiracy by hardline Islamists to infiltrate classrooms.
In his first major interview since starting the top council job, Mr Rogers told Chamberlain Files that there were issues in some schools, but this did not involve radicalisation. He believed “new communities” in Birmingham were simply looking for the same educational environment for their children that they would get in the country they came from.
There were certain “customs and practices” these communities wanted to see that did not always fit in with the national curriculum that exists in Britain. They were asking “legitimate questions” about the type of schooling they wanted for their children and how that could fit in with the “liberal education system” we have in this country.
David Cameron’s religious adviser is descended from founders of the ‘terrorist’ Muslim Brotherhood
That’s the headline to a report in the Daily Mail. The adviser with the supposed terrorist links is none other than Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University, who the Mail’s reporter Martin Beckford indignantly informs his readers “is one of 14 members of the Foreign Office’s Advisory Group on Freedom of Religion or Belief, chaired by Tory peer Baroness Warsi”.
Any informed commentator would have told the Mail that Professor Ramadan is the epitome of a liberal and progressive interpretation of Islam, and has no organisational or even ideological links to the Muslim Brotherhood, never mind to terrorism. So, instead, Beckford turned to Douglas Murray, associate director of the Henry Jackson Society, who provided him with a predictably ignorant and scaremongering quote: “David Cameron should be deeply embarrassed by this. Tariq Ramadan is extremely loyal to his father and grandfather and he does not, by any means, speak out against the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Birmingham faith leaders’ concern over ‘Operation Trojan Horse’ scaremongering
A group of faith leaders in Birmingham has released a joint statement in response to “sensational” media headlines over an alleged “Islamic plot” to infiltrate Birmingham schools.
The alleged plot – known as “Operation Trojan Horse” after a letter was supposedly found detailing the plans – has been covered extensively in the mainstream media which has accused a group of Birmingham Muslims of trying to Islamize education in the city.
But Muslims are increasingly showing concern over what they see as media scaremongering. A Twitter hashtag #islamicplot is being circulated ridiculing the accusations, saying that when a group of non-Muslims try to achieve something it is simply considered a “plan” but when Muslims do the same it is a “sinister plot.”
The faith leaders include Dr Mohammed Naseem, Mr Abdul Rashid, Bhai Sahib Mohinder Singh, Rabbi Margaret Jacobi, Mr Guy Hordern, Bishop David Urquhart, Dr Andrew Smith, Mr Mohammad Talha Bokhari.
Islamophobia, extremism, and the domestic war on terror
“Arun Kundnani’s book, vastly more intelligent than the usual ‘war on terror’ verbiage, focuses on the war’s domestic edge in Britain and America. His starting point is this: ‘Terrorism is not the product of radical politics but a symptom of political impotence.’ The antidote therefore seems self-evident: ‘A strong, active and confident Muslim community enjoying its civic rights to the full.’ Yet policy on both sides of the Atlantic has ended by criminalising Muslim opinion, silencing speech and increasing social division. These results may make political violence more, not less, likely.”
Robin Yassin-Kassab reviews Arun Kundnani’s The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, Extremism and the Domestic War on Terror.
See also Syed Hamad Ali, “‘The Muslims are Coming!’: Arun Kundnani explains terrorism”, Gulf News, 3 March 2014
FT condemns Cameron over Muslim Brotherhood inquiry
Cameron and the Muslim Brothers
Sudden UK inquiry smacks of pandering to Saudi Arabia
Since the September 11 attacks on the US in 2001, Britain, like other western governments, has from time to time banned Islamist movements that incite violence or sponsor terrorism. The announcement by David Cameron that his government is conducting an inquiry into the Muslim Brotherhood is highly unusual – and has raised suspicions over the prime minister’s motives.
The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, is the most important pan-Islamic political organisation in the world. It has millions of followers in the Middle East and beyond. In the past three years, of course, its branch in Egypt has occupied centre stage. After the fall of the Mubarak regime, the Brotherhood enjoyed a brief stint in power marked by chaos and incompetence. In 2012 the military overthrew the government and the movement is now being hounded. Last week an Egyptian court sentenced 529 of its members to death.
Given the widespread disquiet in the west at those sentences, Mr Cameron’s announcement of an investigation into the Brotherhood looks somewhat ill-timed. It also has triggered unease in Whitehall. The prime minister’s office said Sir John Jenkins, the British ambassador to Riyadh, will head the inquiry into the “group’s philosophy and values and alleged connections with extremism and violence”. Yet Foreign Office officials have expressed concern privately that this cuts against its efforts to engage with the organisation inside and outside Britain.
Ken Livingstone throws backing behind Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman
Ken Livingstone today threw his support behind the controversial Mayor of Tower Hamlets after a BBC Panorama investigation into his administration. The former Labour Mayor of London defended Lutfur Rahman’s record since he became the borough’s first directly-elected Mayor after beating a Labour rival in 2010.
Mr Livingstone said his close friend and ally had been “forced out of the Labour Party quite unfairly” just months before the election in 2010 amid allegations of links to the Islamic Forum of Europe, and called for his re-admittance. Mr Rahman denied the alleged links.
Asked if he was a supporter of Mr Rahman, who is standing against Labour Assembly Member John Biggs for the Mayoral nomination, Mr Livingstone – a current Labour Party member – replied: “I am, I think he has done very well.”
Cameron orders inquiry into Muslim Brotherhood’s (non‑existent) ‘terror links’
This is the front page of today’s Times. My first thought was that it must be an April Fool’s Day spoof. I mean, the Muslim Brotherhood’s terror links? What kind of nonsense is that? But apparently it’s quite serious. You can read the report here.
Anti-Muslim backlash after Woolwich (updated)
A list of press reports of Islamophobic crimes following the murder of Lee Rigby in Woolwich on Wednesday 22 May 2013 (updated)