Bob Pitt – Incorrigibly Irrational

Not one to quit while not-that-far-behind, Bob Pitt has decided to further discredit himself by reentering the fray over a recent articled penned by sometime guest contributor to Spittoon, Lucy James. The Spittoon has clearly got to him.

Our criticisms provoked a hostile reaction from one of the Harry’s Place wannabees who run a blog rejoicing in the name of the Spittoon, where we were accused of producing “an amateurish bit of slime” against Lucy James. I hadn’t intended to post on it here, but as the Spittoon piece is being punted around as a “comprehensive rebuttal” of our article, I think it’s necessary to place an answer on record.

That’s fine Bob. You write a response to my response to your response to Lucy’s response to protesters getting violent and I’ll happily write a response. Most of it is a rambling continuation of his tired argument that Lucy shouldn’t have criticised the anti-fascists for the violence that broke out in Birmingham and Codnor. Does he, therefore, think that this should not be condemned? Of course it should. He knows it should. He just really wants to have a go at Lucy because she works for the Quilliam Foundation.

It is clear that James’s intention is to smear UAF, without any concern for honesty or accuracy, as a violent organisation. This is a disgraceful attack on a mainstream anti-fascist campaign which receives substantial support from the trade unions – support that would undoubtedly be withdrawn if James’s false accusations were to be given any credence.

But then, UAF has a record of doing joint anti-fascist work with the Muslim Council of Britain, who have been denounced by Quilliam’s Ed Husain for supposedly “masquerading as moderate Muslims” while promoting the writings of “the godfathers of al-Qaeda ideology”. So you can understand why Quilliam would be keen to discredit UAF, even at the expense of undermining organised resistance to the BNP.

Despite having had several more days to read the rest of Lucy’s brief article, he clearly hasn’t. Bob entirely ignores the crucial point that the main focus of Lucy’s article was her paper dismantling the BNP’s attacks on Islam and Muslims. She is aiding resistance to the BNP, not undermining it.

Anyway, this time Bob lets us know what he thinks is going on. He thinks it’s all a conspiracy to get at the Muslim Council of Britain. Well, if there is a conspiracy then it must be a very widespread one – even Bob’s boss at the Greater London Authority, Murad Qureshi, has concerns about the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) links of “those supposedly representing the community”. As he wrote celebrating the defeat of JI in the 2008 Bangladeshi elections:

The shift towards secularism will clearly have some impact on politics within the Bangladeshi community in the UK, which have for some years taken a predominantly conservative-religious form. This is now badly out of kilter with politics “back home”, which are represented by those of us from a secular-progressive background. Policy wonks in government at local, regional and central level should take note of this development urgently and not be taken for a ride by those supposedly representing the community.

If you’re still unconvinced that we should be concerned by “moderates” having links to JI and its founder, Mawlana Mawdudi, then read Raziq’s recent (excellent) piece for the Spittoon Mawdudi: The Godfather of Islamism showing that Mawdudi’s writings are far from benign. Unfortunately for Bob, there can be no doubt that there are such links.

The MCB’s Inayat Bunglawala said he had a deep respect for Maududi and defended the MCB’s affiliation to Khurshid Ahmad’s Islamic Foundation. He said: ‘Maududi is a very important Muslim thinker. The book that brought me to practise Islam was Now Let Us Be Muslims by Maududi. As for Jamaat-i-Islami, it is a perfectly legal body in Pakistan. There is no suggestion that the Islamic Foundation has done anything wrong. They have done fantastic work in publishing literature on Islam, including works for children.’

A spokesman for the Islamic Foundation confirmed that Khurshid Ahmad was chairman of its board of trustees. ‘The Islamic Foundation does not have links with the Jamaat-i-Islami. We promote assimilation, integration and encourage community cohesion. We do publish books by Maududi, but we feel these are books of merit to British Muslims.’

Sacranie said he believed that recent attacks on the Muslim Council of Britain were inspired by a pro-Israeli lobby in the British media. ‘The MCB carries out its activities through its affiliates. There are more than 400 organisations involved, representing 56 nationalities. Yes there is a following for Maududi in the UK. I am not a scholar, but in many areas I am inspired by what he has to say and in others I am not.’

Fundamentally, Bob’s boss agrees with Ed Husain’s criticisms of “those who claim to represent the community” but has Mr Pitt written an article alleging that Murad Qureshi smears innocents? No. Did he base that article on a premise as bizarre as a refusal to acknowledge that violence should be condemned? No. And, if he had written a blog entry about his own boss’s article, then do you think he would’ve ignored the majority of its content because it flatly contradicted his argument? Again, no.

Bob, it’s time to acknowledge that Lucy was attacking the BNP and defending Muslims and that her views on anti-fascist tactics (which she shares with Searchlight) are not smears, they’re part of a debate which the leading anti-fascist organisations are having themselves.