Islamophobia Watch

Right-wing extremists have manipulated a Downing Street petition to stir up racial hatred over the building of a "megamosque" in east London, an investigation can reveal. More than 270,000 people have signed a petition on the Number 10 website that calls for the scrapping of plans to build Europe's largest mosque close to the main site of the 2012 Olympics.

But the Standard has learned that the anti-mosque campaign has been infiltrated by the British National Party, which has told its members to sign the Downing Street petition. The petition was originally posted on the No 10 site by a Right-wing extremist called Jill Barham.

The BNP today admitted orchestrating a campaign to get its members to sign the petition. An email had been sent out to supporters with links to the petition on the Downing Street website. The party used a similar tactic to try to influence a poll on the Evening Standard's website that had simply asked: "Are you in favour of the £100million mosque?" The poll was withdrawn after the discovery of the extremists' attempts to manipulate the outcome.

BNP leader Nick Griffin said: "We have publicised the petition on our website encouraging people to sign and we have had a small part to play in that [reaching 270,000 signatures]. We also had an email campaign to get our people to sign it."

Asked whether he was aware of the English Rose blog or if Ms Barham was a BNP activist, Mr Griffin said: "Even if I knew who she was I wouldn't tell you. She may be involved in the BNP at a local level but I just don't know. I can neither confirm nor deny." The website of Lancaster Unite Against Fascism says that it believes the BNP's local candidate, Chris Hill, is a friend of Ms Barham. The group said today its inquiries indicated Ms Barham ran two websites English Rose and Cry For Freedom, both of them which it described as "rabidly anti-Islamic".

Evening Standard, 20 July 2007

A leader in the Standard asserts that "the BNP's involvement should not detract from the real public concern about this venture promoted by Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic group with strong links to the fundamentalist Saudi Wahabi [sic] sect. Tablighi has been accused by French intelligence of being an 'antechamber of fundamentalism', while two of the 7/7 bombers allegedly visited its Yorkshire HQ. The police and security services must advise planners on whether extending this group's activities could create a security threat." The leader goes on to warn against "turning part of West Ham into an Islamic monoculture".

See also Reuters, 20 July 2007

For Barham's response to the Standard piece, see English Rose, 21 July 2007

Newham councillor Alan Craig of the Christian Peoples Alliance issues another press release about the Abbey Mills "mega mosque".

Click to read more ...

Seth Freedman responds to an email campaign among the Jewish community calling for a ban on the so-called "mega-mosque" at Abbey Mills in East London:

"... for sections of the Jewish public not only to stay silent on the issue, but actively to jump aboard, is as abhorrent as it is absurd. For my part, I couldn't care less one way or the other whether the mosque is built, since it has absolutely nothing to do with me and its erection wouldn't impact on my world in the slightest. If the Jews campaigning against it can't see that, then they've allowed their paranoid delusions to run away with them. It's a mosque, for heaven's sake, not an al-Qaida training camp. For Jews to cry wolf when a mosque is planned demonstrates how very completely they have tarred the entire Muslim community with the same demonising brush.

"And, if the tables were turned and a super-synagogue was scheduled to be built in the middle of Golders Green, you can bet that those Jews expressing outrage today would be the ones dancing in the streets when the new shul opened its doors. They wouldn't complain for an instant that the money could be better spent on the NHS or London transport. They wouldn't bat an eyelid at how many incoming tourists would notice the complex dominating the London skyline as their plane descended through the clouds. And they certainly wouldn't stand idly by as a barrage of hate-filled emails raced around the country calling for the public to take up their cudgels and derail the project."

Comment is Free, 19 July 2007

BNP leaflets about Muslim extremism have been slammed as an "abominable distortion of Islam" by Croydon Mosque leaders.

The leaflets – claiming that Islam is a "threat to us all" and calling on people to join the party's "crusade against Islamification of Britain" – were sent to residents in South Norwood last week, shortly after the attempted terrorist attacks on London and Glasgow.

After getting one of the leaflets resident Mahmood Tufail said: "There's a lot of lies in the leaflet and I got the impression people are trying to stir up trouble – especially with what's been going on in the past few weeks."

Mr Tufail said people were now feeling "very nervous". "I've spoken among my friends," he added, "We don't know what to do about this. I just hope the leaflets won't inflame non-Muslims against us. With all that is going on, people are very nervous. This leaflet creates the wrong stereotypes. The people who carry out these extremist acts are a tiny, fringe minority. Unfortunately, this backfires on everyone else."

A spokesman for Croydon Mosque called the leaflets "inflammatory" and said: "The vast majority of people will recognise it for the blatant scare tactics that it deploys and which have become the hallmark of the BNP."

A BNP spokesman said: "All we're trying to do is raise the issue that Islam is not compatible with the British way of life. We are a Christian country and Islam is destroying democracy."

Croydon Guardian, 20 July 2007

See also BNP regional voices, 21 July 2007

Joanna Sugden interviews Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain.

Times, 20 July 2007

The Palestinian struggle between Fatah and Hamas is not about religion, argues Azzam Tamimi.

Comment is Free, 20 July 2007

A judge asked a woman to lift her full Muslim veil, three weeks after a Manchester magistrate walked out of her previous hearing because her face was covered. District Judge Diana Baker allowed Zoobia Hussain, aged 32, to give evidence from behind a screen in her trial at Manchester Magistrates' Court on a charge of criminal damage.

Judge Baker said: "I understand the importance to a Muslim woman of being able to wear her veil because that is an important part of her cultural and religious identity. But when I make an assessment of people giving evidence I look at their facial expressions and I can only see Mrs Hussain's eyes. My view is that when giving evidence it is important for me in my judicial decision-making role to be able to see her face."

She said Hussain could sit behind a screen so that the male prosecutor and clerk could not see her face. Prosecutor Nicholas Vitti said he accepted the need for special measures, but made clear he was "not happy" he could not see Hussain's face.

Bolton News, 19 July 2007

Sheila Musaji provides an update of anti-Muslim bigotry in the USA.

The American Muslim, 19 July 2007

In today's lead article the Daily Express tells its readers that the burka (they mean the niqab – but, hey, why bother with accuracy when it comes to "foreign" clothing) "is becoming the Islamic equivalent of the mugger's hooded top or the armed robber's balaclava. Anyone sincerely wishing to integrate into the British way of life would never wear such an alien and threatening outfit.... Make no mistake, the proliferation of burka-wearing is a direct threat to the British way of life and in all too many instances is intended to be just that".

The front page is devoted to whipping up panic over the Al Muhaj demo outside the Old Bailey: "This was the extraordinary scene on the streets of Britain yesterday as burka-clad protestors demanded the release of four extremists. Swarming outside the Old Bailey, the Muslim hate mob poured scorn on the nation that guarantees their freedoms."

Judging by the Express's own photographs, the "mob" that was "swarming" outside the court would appear to have consisted of about six people. And of course the Express fails to inform its readers that Al Muhaj is a tiny and irrelevant group whose supporters these days can probably be numbered in dozens.

Check out the comments following the article for the sort of far-right racists who are encouraged by this disgraceful, irresponsible excuse for journalism.

See also Five Chinese Crackers, 19 July 2007

"If the views of Inayat Bunglawala, its assistant general secretary – as expressed recently on Newsnight – are anything to go by, it still largely blames Western foreign policy for the discontents of the world. By underwriting these attitudes, it contributes mightily to the grievance culture that fuels violent jihadism."

Dean Godson warns the government against re-engaging with the Muslim Council of Britain – and indeed against consulting any organisation representing Muslim communities.

Times, 19 July 2007