Islamophobia Watch

Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith, rallies to the defence of a far-right racist:

"Geert Wilders, conservative Dutch politician and provocateur, has become the latest projectile in the world's most important culture war: the zero-sum conflict between civil society and traditional Islam. Wilders, who lives under perpetual armed guard due to death threats, recently released a 15 minute film entitled Fitna ('strife' in Arabic) over the internet. The film has been deemed offensive because it juxtaposes images of Muslim violence with passages from the Qur'an. Given that the perpetrators of such violence regularly cite these same passages as justification for their actions, merely depicting this connection in a film would seem uncontroversial.

"Controversial or not, one surely would expect politicians and journalists in every free society to strenuously defend Wilders' right to make such a film. But then one would be living on another planet, a planet where people do not happily repudiate their most basic freedoms in the name of 'religious sensitivity'....

"The position of the Muslim community in the face of all provocations seems to be: Islam is a religion of peace, and if you say that it isn't, we will kill you. Of course, the truth is often more nuanced, but this is about as nuanced as it ever gets: Islam is a religion of peace, and if you say that it isn't, we peaceful Muslims cannot be held responsible for what our less peaceful brothers and sisters do. When they burn your embassies or kidnap and slaughter your journalists, know that we will hold you primarily responsible and will spend the bulk of our energies criticizing you for 'racism' and 'Islamophobia'....

"The connection between the doctrine of Islam and Islamist violence is simply not open to dispute. It's not that critics of religion like myself speculate that such a connection might exist: the point is that Islamists themselves acknowledge and demonstrate this connection at every opportunity and to deny it is to retreat within a fantasy world of political correctness and religious apology. Many western scholars, like the much admired Karen Armstrong, appear to live in just such a place. All of their talk about how benign Islam 'really' is, and about how the problem of fundamentalism exists in all religions, only obfuscates what may be the most pressing issue of our time: Islam, as it is currently understood and practiced by vast numbers of the world's Muslims, is antithetical to civil society....

"And if anyone in this debate can be credibly accused of racism, it is the western apologists and 'multiculturalists' who deem Arabs and Muslims too immature to shoulder the responsibilities of civil discourse. As Ayaan Hirsi Ali has pointed out, there is a calamitous form of 'affirmative action' at work, especially in western Europe, where Muslim immigrants are systematically exempted from western standards of moral order in the name of paying 'respect' to the glaring pathologies in their culture."

Huffington Post, 5 May 2008

Chris Sullivan interviews Martin Freeman:

Politely, I comment on his lovely house and the tranquillity that surrounds it. "When I moved up here this woman I know said, 'Ooh! There are a lot of whiteys up there', and I said, 'I love white people; I've no problem with them at all'. The idea was that I was going to complain because there weren't enough blues dances out here; not enough ragga around. But I'm not bothered by it.

"Multiculturalism hasn't and doesn't help, because rightly or wrongly it polarises people so much," he continues. "Racism is one thing – and I don't agree with that in any form – but noticing that there are differences is normal and fine and to be encouraged. We've reached a state now where it's, 'You shouldn't notice. Why are you noticing he's got a bomb and has a beard and is Muslim and wants to kill your family'?" 

Mail on Sunday, 4 May 2008

A father and his five-year-old son were turned away from their local swimming pool because they were the wrong religion. David Toube, 39, and his son Harry were told that the Sunday morning session was reserved for Muslim men only.

Mr Toube, a corporate lawyer, described his experiences on a blog. "I arrived at the pool to discover that they were holding what staff described to me as 'Muslim men only swimming'," he wrote. "I asked whether my son and I could go as we were both male. I was told that the session was for Muslims only and that we could not be admitted."

Daily Mail, 18 April 2008

Yes, it's our friend David T from the "left-wing" blog Harry's Place, finding his true political home in a right-wing Tory rag.

See also "Banned from swimming pool for not being Muslim" in the Daily Express, "Multiculturalism gone wild: UK father and son banned from public swimming pool for not being Muslims" at Dhimmi Watch and "No swimming for dhimmis: how will the Left excuse this latest Western Muslim 'tolerance'?" by Debbie Schlussel.

Update:  Read the excellent post by D.B. at The People's Republic of Teeside, 19 April 2008

A report published today (19 March) found that nearly half of minority ethnic residents, including Muslims, said they had experienced race discrimination and 30 per cent of recent Muslim migrants had experienced religious discrimination. This was cited as a key barrier to a sense of belonging in Britain.

The report – Immigration, faith and cohesion – published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, was written by a team at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at Oxford University. It looked at what factors contribute to, or undermine, community cohesion in three urban areas in England with large migrant and Muslim populations.

Most migrants felt there was no conflict in having a sense of belonging to both Britain and their country of origin. Sixty per cent of long-term Muslim residents born outside the UK said the people most important to them were in Britain.

Co-author Hiranthi Jayaweera from COMPAS said: "Evidence suggests that it is discrimination and the perception of being unwelcome, rather than attachment to their country of origin, that reduces migrants’ sense of belonging in Britain."

Joseph Rowntree Foundation press release, 19 March 2008

See also Daily Mail, 19 March 2008

The BBC was last night dragged into a race row after it broadcast claims by the British National Party blaming Muslim immigrants for the country's hard drugs problems. The comments were made during a debate on multiculturalism on BBC2's Newsnight, which examined the results of a survey for the channel's White season – a series of documentaries on what it means to be white and working class in Britain today.

 When informed the poll showed that white working class Britons were more concerned about drug and drink culture than immigration, the BNP leader Nick Griffin responded with an attack on Pakistani immigrants. He said: "You can't possibly separate the hard drugs trade from the question of Islam and particularly Pakistani immigration. Any working class area of Britain – in a multiracial area – the hard drugs problem is related to Islam and Pakistan."

Daily Mail, 7 March 2008

White Brits are set to reveal what they really think about immigration in a series of bombshell telly shows. Members of the UK's "forgotten" working class say they are drowning in a rising tide of immigrants. And they blast Labour politicians for abandoning them in the name of "multi-culturalism".

They speak openly and honestly in a series of shows for the BBC's White Season, but their controversial views are sure to spark outrage. Tomorrow night's Last Orders features members of struggling Wibsey Working Men's Club in Bradford, West Yorks. They say they are being driven into the arms of the extremist BNP by a Labour Party that no longer cares about them.

They say the heart has been ripped from their communities as mass immigration has seen them lose their traditions and their jobs. And they warn of a bloody race war. Scaffolder Paul, 21, said: "It isn't our area any more, it is theirs. The Asians hate us and we hate them. The Muslims get all the new houses and the whites all the sh*te houses. There will be one big mass battle start in Bradford. I give it five years and it will explode."

Daily Star, 6 March 2008

"The man who co-founded the separatist Muslim Parliament has denounced plans for a huge mosque next to the Olympic site. The Tablighi Jamaat's PR company, Indigo, today launched its 'charm offensive' in the run-up to submitting proposals for a massive 12,000-seater mosque on contaminated land in Newham, East London. But Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, Indian-born elder-statesman of political Islam in Britain told Lapido Media:  'We have too many mosques. I think it should not be built.' ...

"Siddiqui's views are in line with other prominent Muslims like Irfan Al-Alawi, Europe director of the Centre for Islamic Pluralism, who has expressed 'extreme concern' about the spread of Tablighi Jamaat. They have dared to speak out against the proposals despite pressure from the Muslim Police Association, the London Mayor Ken Livingstone – and now Indigo PR who are handling their propaganda. The mosque build is being seen as a test of strength by many observers around the world who are concerned it will tip a diverse city at ease with its multi-culturalism into an increasingly tense, religious politicisation....

"Councillor Alan Craig ... in whose ward the mosque would be built, believes that it is 'ludicrous' for Indigo to describe the proposal by a massive, secretive sect hailing from South Asia as a 'community project'. 'What we seem to have now is the bizarre spectacle of the British "posh" who should know better, joining forces with newt-loving Red Ken against Pakistani and Indian Muslim elders in a sort of post-colonial guilt trip showdown which is just mind-boggling' said Craig."

Anglican Mainstream, 3 March 2008

For details of the consultation with local residents, see the Abbey Mills Mosque website

Download their leaflet (pdf) here

A Muslim leader has opposed comments by Tory leader David Cameron in a speech in which he said the introduction of Sharia law would undermine British society. Speaking on the issue for the first time since the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, made his controversial comments, Mr Cameron said adopting elements of Sharia law would lead to a "legal apartheid" and "state multiculturalism". Ishtiaq Ahmed also criticised Mr Cameron's understanding of multiculturalism.

Mr Ahmed, of the Bradford Council of Mosques, said: "In a country where people feel free to be able to live according to their ways of life while sharing certain basic values, then I think that enables people to contribute to – and take ownership of – their community. If society respects people's cultural identities, values and heritage, it brings people together and creates an atmosphere of co-operation and support."

Councillor Martin Smith, Bradford Council's executive member for community safety, said: "Mr Cameron may feel like that if he is not in day-to-day contact with the situation, but those of us in Bradford who are in day-to-day contact with the Asian community feel there is a great understanding of where the situation needs to go. It's not possible to say multiculturalism is not working in Bradford."

Bradford Telegraph & Argus, 27 February 2008

Muslim Sharia law would undermine society if it was introduced in Britain, Conservative leader David Cameron said today. Mr Cameron said it would in fact lead to a "legal apartheid". He added that "state multiculturalism" was also the wrong way to tackle integration.

He said: "I don't believe that by introducing Sharia law, we will make Muslims somehow feel more British – more content with life here and more happy to work for a common good.

"In my view the opposite is the case: I think it would be to head in the wrong direction. The reality is that the introduction of Sharia law for Muslims is actually the logical endpoint of the now discredited doctrine of state multiculturalism instituting, quite literally, a legal apartheid to entrench what is the cultural apartheid in too many parts of our country.

"This wouldn't strengthen society – it would undermine it. It would alienate other communities who would resent this preferential treatment. It would provide succour to the separatists who want to isolate and divide communities from the mainstream. And it would – crucially – weaken, destabilise and demoralise those Muslims who embrace liberal values and desperately want to integrate fully in British society."

Speaking alongside Trevor Phillips, the chairman of Equality and Human Rights Commission, Mr Cameron attacked the Government's idea of multiculturalism. He said:

"I believe that state multiculturalism is a wrong-headed doctrine that has had disastrous results. It has fostered difference between communities. And it has stopped us from strengthening our collective identity. Indeed, it has deliberately weakened it. By concentrating on defining the various cultures that have come to call Britain home, we have forgotten to define the most important one: our own. So we now have a situation where the children of first-generation immigrants – children, let us remember, who have been born and raised here – feel more divorced from life in Britain than their parents."

Daily Telegraph, 26 February 2008

See also the Guardian, 26 February 2008

Full text of Cameron's speech here

The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, who received death threats for airing his views on Islamic issues, has vowed that he will continue to speak out. His claim that Islamic extremism has turned some parts of Britain into "no-go" areas for non-Muslims led to fierce rows between political and religious leaders over the impact of multiculturalism on this country.

Yet, in his first interview since the sinister calls were made to his home, the Bishop of Rochester remains steadfastly defiant. He will not be silenced. "I believe people should not be prevented from speaking out," he says. "The issue had to be raised. There are times when Christian leaders have to speak out."

He wishes the Church would be more vocal on issues of multiculturalism and sharia law. He agrees with Dr Williams in supporting the right of Muslims to observe their religious freedom, but is strongly opposed to any idea of Islamic law being recognised within the British legal system.

"People of every faith should be free within the law to follow what their spiritual leaders direct them to, but that's very different from saying their structures should replace that of the English legal system because there would be huge conflicts." In particular, he points to polygamy, women's rights and freedom of belief as areas in sharia law that would undermine equality.

There is a danger that the archbishop's remarks could become a reality unless Britain quickly regains a sense of its Christian heritage. "Do the British people really want to lose that rooting in the Christian faith that has given them everything they cherish – art, literature, architecture, institutions, the monarchy, their value system, their laws?"

Sunday Telegraph, 24 February 2008