Islamophobia Watch

Daniel Pipes poses the question. His conclusion:

"... indigenous Europeans could yet rediscover their Christian faith, make more babies and again cherish their heritage. Yes, they could encourage non-Muslim immigration and acculturate Muslims already living in Europe. Yes, Muslims could accept historic Europe. But not only are such developments not under way, their prospects are dim. In particular, young Muslims are cultivating grievances and nursing ambitions at odds with their neighbours.

"One can virtually dismiss from consideration the prospect of Muslims accepting historic Europe and integrating within it. American columnist Dennis Prager agrees: 'It is difficult to imagine any other future scenario for western Europe than its becoming Islamicised or having a civil war.' But which of those two remaining paths will the continent take? Forecasting is difficult because the crisis has not yet struck. But it may not be far off. Within a decade, perhaps, the continent's evolution will become clear as the Europe-Muslim relationship takes shape."

The Australian, 15 April 2008

See also Pipes' article at Front Page Magazine, where he tells us that "Islamism represents the world's leading anti-democratic force" and that "Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Al-Jazeera television's imam, argues that elections are heretical".

"Fourest has rendered an invaluable service. She demonstrates with great skill that Ramadan is a dangerous radical who, far from modernizing Islam, is in fact attempting to Islamize modernity."

Ibn Warraq reviews Caroline Fourest's book Brother Tariq: The Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan.

City Journal, 29 February 2008

Note that this English language edition of Fourest's Frère Tariq is published in the UK by the right-wing think-tank the Social Affairs Unit and features an introduction by Denis MacShane.

See also The Australian for the controversy over Tariq Ramadan's current visit to Australia.

Update: The Australian has commissioned Mad Melanie Phillips to deliver a characteristic rant under the headline "Master of Islamist doublespeak", which warns the people of Australia that Professor Ramadan is "probably the most dangerous Islamist in the Western world"!

See also "MP warns scholar on racist messages".

Security at Brisbane Airport has gone into a spin after an unprecedented crackdown on turbans and other culturally-sensitive headgear worn by passengers. A federal investigation has been launched into an edict by the company in charge of the airport's security to demand passengers remove for security checks religious headwear, including turbans, veils and Jewish skull caps.

At least one international flight was delayed at the weekend when staff from the company, ISS Security, demanded 13 people of the Sikh religion remove their turbans and a Muslim woman to take off her face veil. The Department of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development is investigating whether the clampdown by ISS breached federal airport policy.

It is standard airport practice around the world that religious headwear is only removed after conventional screening methods raise an alarm. But ISS employees yesterday said a directive was issued on Saturday demanding all passengers remove their religious headwear for security checks, regardless of whether there was any cause for suspicion. "We were told you have to take them off, or you'll be stood down," one worker said.

NEWS.com.au, 26 February 2008

Two Muslim women say their participation in an ABC documentary pitched as a "bridge-building" exercise between Islam and the wider community has left them fearful for their safety.

Raisah bint Alan Douglas and 54-year-old Rabiah Hutchinson, the so-called "matriarch" of radical Islam in Australia, have accused the makers of an ABC documentary, Jihadi Sheilas, of deceitful and unethical conduct, saying they were tricked into participating in what they fear will be a misleading documentary. Yesterday, the women delivered a formal letter of protest to the ABC's Sydney headquarters.

The Australian, 5 February 2008

"The Islamic group accused of trying to seize control of Sydney's Sefton mosque is part of a movement described as a recruiting ground for al-Qa'ida in a new terrorism intelligence report. The group attempting the takeover has members who follow the Tablighi Jamaat stream of Islam, described this week bythe private US intelligence group Stratfor as an 'indirect line to terrorism'. Members of the Tablighi movement have recently been linked to a terrorist cell in Spain that was planning a bomb attack in Barcelona."

The Australian, 31 January 2008

For an example of Tablighi Jamaat's current terrorist activities see here

At his Holy Smoke blog, Telegraph leader writer and Catholic Herald editor Damian Thompson recycles a story from Robert Spencer's Dhimmi Watch site:

"After the death of a young Muslim man in a car crash in Sydney last month," Thompson writes, "an Islamic crowd invaded a hospital in order to stop medical tests being carried out on the body in contravention of Sharia law, according to the Dhimmi Watch website. If the report is true, then this is another example of a global campaign by fundamentalist Muslims to replace civil law by Sharia – a process that has already taken root in British cities."

Thompson goes on to quote the report from Spencer's site: "The antecedent to the Muslim incursion on the Hospital came about on Monday the 17 December last, when a young Muslim male was airlifted to the Liverpool Hospital's emergency ward by helicopter. The 19-year-old had been in a serious car accident, his car left the road and crashed into a tree ... he died of his injuries, and it seems he and his hijab-wearing girl friend had been celebrating the end of Ramadan."

The Australian blog Austrolabe comments: "If the victim and his 'hijab-wearing girl friend' were, as the anonymous author claims, celebrating the end of Ramadan when they had a serious car accident, why did this obviously critically injured young man wait two months before he was admitted into a hospital? In 2007, Eid ul-Fitr (the celebration marking the end of Ramadan) was on the 11th of October. This man was supposedly admitted into Liverpool Hospital on 17th December, 2007. We know that waiting lists at Liverpool Hospital are long, but that long?"

Update:  Thompson has recanted. See Austrolabe, 31 January 2008

A group of white supremacists is planning to hijack Australia Day celebrations in Camden – as part of a protest against a proposed new mosque in the area. The far-right Australia First Party, whose Sydney secretary is convicted race hate criminal Jim Saleam, is organising the rally. The white nationalist party this week issued a call to supporters to attend the rally and distribute anti-Islamic material.

Daily Telegraph, 9 January 2008

Two New South Wales Members of Parliament have called for the scrapping of a 1,200-student Islamic school in Sydney's southwest. Joining hundreds of residents outside the Camden Civic Centre, Upper house Christian Democrat MP Fred Nile and Liberal Party MP Charlie Lynn highlighted Islam's opposition to Christianity, as a good enough reason to stop the building of the school.

Nile told ABC Radio after the meeting: "... all the Aussies that are celebrating carols by candlelight this week all over Australia, millions of Australians, are condemned by the Koran. And sincere Muslims are supposed to believe this book – the Koran is the word of God, the word of their god, Allah." Lynn said only 100 Muslim families lived in Camden, and added, "This is an attempt by social engineers to inflict culture shock, if you like on Camden."

Daily India, 20 December 2007

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SYDNEY — Two pigs' heads were found at the site of a proposed Islamic school on Sydney's outskirts Wednesday, the school's backers said. An Australian flag was draped between the two heads, said Jeremy Bingham, spokesman for the Quranic Society.

"Someone has put a couple of stakes in the ground with a pig's head on the top of each stake and an Australian flag inside," Bingham told AFP. "The police are treating it as a crime scene and making investigations."

Earlier this month about 1,000 people attended a meeting to protest against the proposed school in Camden, in Sydney's far southwest, while a cross was previously found on the grounds.

The state government's Community Relations Commission condemned the latest protest as "a mindless act". "This insult and display of hatred is not something any fair-minded Australian would approve of," said commission head Stepan Kerkyasharian in a statement.

Muslim leaders condemned the incident, not the first in Sydney. "It's just quite sad really, we don't need this rubbish in Australia," Australian Federation of Islamic Councils spokesman Haset Sali said.

In 2005 anti-Muslim sentiment boiled over into ugly riots on the Sydney beach of Cronulla, where rioters targeted people of Middle Eastern appearance. And in 2004, a severed pig's head was similarly impaled in front of a Muslim prayer centre under construction in Sydney's northwest.

AFP, 28 November 2007

The Liberal Party has been hugely embarrassed over a campaign team caught delivering fake letters linking Labor with the Bali bombers. The grubby night-time operation in St Marys, in the seat of Lindsay, was busted by a squad of ALP sleuths who conducted a stake-out.

The letter appeared to be from a Muslim organisation, the Islamic Australia Federation. But the organisation does not exist.

The fictitious group was said to be backing Kevin Rudd because Labor supported forgiveness for "our Muslim brothers who have been unjustly sentenced to death for the Bali bombings". It also said Labor endorsed construction of a mosque in St Marys. "In the upcoming federal election we strongly support the ALP as our preferred party to govern this country and urge all other Muslims to do the same," the letter read.

It was clumsily worded and ended with "Ala Akba", a dismal attempt at the traditional Islamic salute of "God is Great" – "Allah Akbar".

Daily Telegraph, 21 November 2007

See also ABC News

Text of forged letter here  pdf of leaflet here