Islamophobia Watch

The media has misrepresented the Muslim faith and aggravated the "Islamaphobic" backlash to the July bombings, members of Birmingham's Muslim community have claimed. The accusations were made during the visit of Home Office Minister Paul Goggins to the Victoria Street Mosque in Aston yesterday. Members of the mosque said they felt let down by the negative and extreme image of Muslims portrayed in television and newspapers.

ic Birmingham, 1 September 2005

"The government’s desperation to engage with 'moderate' Islam appears to mean that it is keen to embrace even those who believe in Islamicising the west, as long as they make ritual noises denouncing the terror that flows from such an agenda. At the root of this is its determination to avoid at all costs being thought to have a problem with the current state of Islam itself as opposed to a few 'unrepresentative' terrorists, whose motivation will therefore be ascribed to everything but. Such myopia spells cultural suicide."

Mad Mel condemns the government's decision to appoint Tariq Ramadan to a Home Office task force.

Melanie Phillips's Diary, 31 August 2005

As you might anticipate, she parrots accusations from Daniel Pipes' attack on Professor Ramadan (the same one that provided the basis for the Sun's recent witch-hunt). For Ramadan's demolition of Pipes' slanders, see here

Tariq Ramadan is one Europe's leading progressive Muslim scholars. He talked to Oscar Reyes about integration, multiculturalism and the role of the global justice movement after the London bombings.

Red Pepper, September 2005

Andrew Anthony (G2, August 31) accuses me of inconsistency, even hypocrisy. But that charge rebounds. By his own casuistry, the anti-religious Anthony must surely be inconsistent in celebrating the passing of the atheist Soviet Union. The inconsistency mounts when, in the name of liberal values, he equates all expression of political Islam with fascism. Those Muslim activists who draw on their traditions in the fight against the BNP are, in his eyes, of a piece with Mussolini and Hitler.

Movements against oppression and exploitation have fought under many different banners. For many it has been a version of socialism or radical nationalism. For many others today it is through radical interpretations of religion. Are the Latin American liberation theologists to be considered part of Anthony's fascist menace? Or is he, as seems apparent, slandering Islam as a uniquely evil religion?

The grotesque intolerance of self-appointed "liberal" defenders of tolerance stands bare. They should come clean. Their problem is not with religion over secularism; it is with the increasing numbers of people – religious and non-religious – who are coming together in political movements to challenge corporate power and the Bush/Blair doctrine of permanent war.

George Galloway MP
Respect, Bethnal Green and Bow

Letter in Guardian, 1 September 2005

The so-called "War on Terror" has made our world a more dangerous place. 85 percent of the British people believe that there is a link between the dreadful bombings in London and the illegal invasion of Iraq. This link is acknowledged by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre and the Chatham House think-tank.

The policy is seen by many as a war on Islam with constant rhetoric by Bush and Blair about "fighting evil ideology", "sharing our values" and demonising any organisation or person who speaks out against injustice. As a result, an atmosphere of hate and fear is created, attacks on Muslims have recently increased by 600 percent. Furthermore, the onslaught by right-wing extremists on Islam as a religion has crossed every boundary.

Muslims are not in denial, we are in the forefront of fighting terror against innocent civilians which ever the form or shape it takes. But our government is turning a blind eye to continuous oppression, occupation and state-sponsored terrorism around the world.

The first casualty of the "War on Terror" is our own freedom and liberties. We say "don’t take liberties with our liberties".

MAB press release, 1 September 2005

"Recently, the Mohammedans won a coup getting a conservative talk show host, Michael Graham, fired from WMAL-AM, an ABC Radio affiliate.... The Muslims got Graham for telling the truth. It's going to get a lot worse. More Americans must speak in public with a lot more of the painful truth of Islam. This historical truth is so politically incorrect it shouts down the public pandering from the President down to not dare offend oh-so-sensitive Muslims. Like, Islam is a (or do they insist it is 'the'?) Religion of Peace. If Islam is a Religion of Peace then Aztec Paganism was the Religion of Mercy.... Muslim armies killed, raped, and destroyed more in their conquests against Christians, Pagans and Hindus than all the Crusades put together.... And Islamic Civilization is 800 years behind Western Civilization. By any measure that you mark Islam is as far behind the West as the Germanic Tribes were behind Rome. Islamic Civilization is barbaric compared to West. Truth isn't Islamophobia."

James A. Bowden rallies to the defence of poor victimised Michael Graham. Mind you, on this evidence he probably regards Graham as a bit of a liberal Islamophile.

MichNews.com, 31 August 2005

"A conference of young Muslims played up their victimhood to an audience of political and media luminaries."

Spiked Online, 1 September 2005 

Muslim anger over British foreign policy, particularly the war against Iraq, resurfaced yesterday in a survey of Muslim students. Almost all of the students who took part in the research said that they were unhappy with Tony Blair's policy in the Middle East and two thirds said that they felt it had contributed to the London bombings. Half of the respondents in the poll, which was organised by the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, said they had experienced Islamophobia and nine out of 10 objected to the way they were portrayed in the media.

Daily Telegraph, 1 September 2005

A "rising tide of Islamophobia" in the media must be challenged by Muslim students, the Mayor of London has said. Some newspapers depicted refugees as bringing crime and disease into the UK, Ken Livingstone told a Federation of Student Islamic Societies conference.

BBC News, 31 August 2005

Evening Standard launches witch-hunt of Islamic Human Rights Commission.

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