Yesterday the Guardian reported on a poll on public perceptions on Muslims, carried out for the Islamic Education and Research Academy (iEra). The report revealed high levels of bigotry and hostility to Muslims in Britain, as well as antagonism towards Islam as a belief.
George Readings, of the Quilliam Foundation, made some essential observations about the findings made in the report. Firstly he argued that anti Muslim bigotry in Britain has been fuelled by extremists from both the far right as well as the far-left, but also in addition, from the Muslim (Islamist) far-right. He has also identified a root cause of anti Muslim bigotry – perpetrated by the British press, when it makes almost no distinction between ordinary Muslims and extremist Muslims, their political groups and their beliefs.
Unfortunately, neither outlet looked into the people who commissioned the poll – the impressively named ‘Islamic Education and Research Academy’ (iEra) – and whether they might have their own agenda. Just a brief look at their website would have revealed that iEra are not exactly a moderate, impartial voice.
But Readings has looked further into the organisation who have produced the report:
Neither Sky nor the Guardian noticed, for example, that the home secretary has banned two of the eight advisors listed on iEra’s website (Zakir Naik and Bilal Philips) from the UK; Naik has been quotedas calling Americans “pigs” and saying that “every Muslim should be a terrorist” whilst Philips hasadvocated stoning people to death and public lashings, but “only [...] on Fridays”.
Benefitting from Islamophobia
In fact, if you take a look at the people behind iERa from their website, you will recognise a host of ideologues from the Islamist community. Notwithstanding the presence of such illustrious hate preachers as Zakir Naik and Bilal Philips on its board, its Chairman is none other than Abdur Raheem Green, who believes that gays should be stoned to death and has been banned from Australia.
Then there is the author of the report itself, who is Hamza Tzortsis who is linked to Hizb-ut-Tahrir, and who has previously said:
“We as Muslims reject the idea of freedom of speech, and even of freedom.”
Also sitting pretty on the iEra board is Haytham al-Haddad, who is on record for holding all manner of extremist views, but this statement is rather relevant:
Allah has warned us in the Koran, do not befriend the kuffar [unbelievers], do not align yourselves with the kuffar
That is rather curious from an organisation which purports to be concerned with Islamophobia and the welfare of Muslims in Britain! Here is Haddad again discussing “so-called western values”:
Also on board is Hussein Yee who, not to be outdone by his fellows on the iEra board, has advocated wife beating (it’s Qur’anic!).
But it gets worse. The Guardian have picked up on the iEra report and used it to back up an article which seems to have made almost no critical investigation into the organisation behind it. Furthermore, it has even misrepresented and falsified the data, as Sunny Hundal has demonstrated:
You’ll notice that more people disagreed with the view that “Muslims are terrorists” than agreed, while 39% were neutral. The Guardian report lumps the agreed with the neutral to say “63% of people surveyed did not disagree…” which may be strictly true but misrepresents the stats.
The story also says 94% agreed that “Islam oppresses women” but as you can see above that’s actually untrue.
Predictably, Inayat Bunglawala’s iEngage website and Bob Pitt’s pro-Islamist organ Islamophobia-Watch have trumpeted the iEra report. This is not surprising since they are only too willing to champion Islamic extremists and their causes in the name of “grassroots representation” while downplaying the concerns and views of ordinary Muslims.
It is highly ironic that individuals who extol the view that the Western press is dominated by “Zionists” are hugely gratified by the credibility that a glowing Guardian article of their report affords them.
It now remains to be seen if the Guardian will issue a correction of the article and the shoddy and dishonest reportage of its writer Haroon Siddique.
Update: Andrew Gilligan has blogged on this story – The Guardian falls for an extremist lie:
The agenda behind these inflammatory lies can be found in about two minutes on Google. iERA’s advisers include Bilal Philips and Zakir Naik, both banned from the UK by the Home Secretary; Haitham al-Haddad, who believes that music is a “fake and prohibited message of love and peace;” and a number of other people with utterly odious, anti-democratic views. The iERA “researcher” quoted by the Guardian, Hamza Tzortzis, is, as I reported in January, deeply in bed with extremism.
It is not the first time the Guardian has done this. Earlier this year, it publicised a report which claimed to have found a rising tide of anti-Muslim violence in London – something simply not supported by the crime figures (which is presumably why the report coyly neglected to give any figures!) This report was co-compiled by a well-known sympathiser of Islamism, Robert Lambert, and funded by the Islamist Cordoba Foundation.
Nobody should deny, of course, that there is bigotry against Muslims in Britain. But all the indicators – racial attacks in Muslim areas, the BNP’s rout at the recent election – are that it is diminishing. And if some people do think Muslims are a threat to British society, then the views peddled by the likes of iERA are partly to blame.
18 Comments
Good stuff but what’s eating Sunny Hundal?
A few weeks ago he was arguing bitterly against the exclusion of Zakir Naik and Bilal Philips by “neocons” and here he’s blithely quoting George Readings’ report and calling them “dodgy people” and their association with the iERA something to be suspicious of, and altogether damaging to the Muslim community.
The narcissistic weathervane turns again!
These vanes are made for turning, and that’s just what they’ll do
one of these days these vanes are gonna turn all over you!
Gosh they have got notorious Jihadist Saleem Chagtai in there too.
Gilligan reports:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100049624/the-guardian-falls-for-an-extremist-lie/
The IERA bunch are a gallery of rogues, thugs and nutters.
I heard jihadist Saleem Chagtai on Radio 4 last week talking about the un-Islamic nature of music. It’s a good thing he’s in England where media luvvies will have him on for his “controversial” views to shock the middle class listeners. I’m sure he’ll be invited back to Radio 4.
That’s England for you. If he tried passing off that shit about music being un-Islamic in Turkey, let’s say, he’d be on the receiving end of a good kicking.
To rebut your assertions on the “poll”
http://www.iera.org.uk/pdf/Clarifying_iERA_Research_Press_Release.pdf
So saying music is a sin makes someone extremist???! What the hell has happened to your liberalism? You accuse “islamists” of being unbending and yet you don’t accept that people might have alternate views – like music is wrong. Some hasidic Jews also think that, are they extremists too? I hate most of the modern day music…am i an Islamist too.
Gosh, nice to see that Uncle Toms are still live and kicking…
Oh dear, I am now a jihadist after all the work I have done over the years in taking people away from that…I guess some people don’t want truth to get in the way of cowardly commenting behind their screens. Come on guys, scared to use your real names?
Saleem, if that is you, a few questions about your views:
Do you believe in the imposition of Shariah as opposed to the legislation by democratic mandate?
Is it your conviction that Jihad is primarily an offensive struggle/war even if nations are not engaging in hostilities but refuse to pay the Jizya or be ruled by your Caliphate? If and when it arises?
Is your view that most of the western world today is dar ul-kufr or dar ul-harb?
Did you make takfir or imply takfir of Usama Hasan in an open letter?
Just to clarify I am not saying that you are an anti-democratic takfiri Jihadist, just checking with you…
Here is Saleem Chagtai’s open letter to Usama Hassan
yes. it does. music is one of the things that makes life worth living and anyone who thinks it is sinful is not only an extremist but a joyless enemy of every single culture on the planet, including islamic ones. i can’t think of an attitude more likely to drive a wedge between muslims and everyone else than this sort of puritanical moonbattery.
it is my liberalism that allows me to accept that you have this alternative view and to call you a nonsense-peddling miserablist. liberalism will involve people disagreeing with you in the strongest possible terms and if you don’t understand that, you haven’t understood anything.
they don’t think that “music” is sinful, they think music with secular lyrics is sinful. they’re not keen on drums and “sexual beats”, but they concede that all music is “redeemable” with the proper spiritual intention, allowing the “holy sparks” within it to be unified with the One. and i’ve never met a hasid who didn’t dance. and, yes, this too is an extreme view, since you’re asking.
no, you’re just someone with no taste. but that’s just my “alternate” view.
b’shalom
bananabrain
Ah Saleem pops up. Jihadist may be a bit too grand for you, just nutter who doesn’t know his arse from his elbow would be more appropriate. Of course, you’ve never hidden faslse names on the net have you.
I don’t recall Chagtai ever writing under his birth name for the now defunct Salafi-jihadist blog TraditionalIslamism. Whatever happened to that one Chagtai?
“Nobody should deny, of course, that there is bigotry against Muslims in Britain”
Nor the bigotry of some muslims themselves. As this webpage shows.
Concurred- we found that Saleem Chagtai was behind “Traditional Islamism”. Now, Saleem, what is you opinion on Muslim girls revealing their faces? Answer carefully now, as I have a doozy of a transcript sitting here!
I think music with a driving sensual beat is possibly one of the most refreshing things in the world.
On the other hand, I find bearded loonies telling us what we can and cannot like quite offensive.
although driving with a book of psalms balanced on the steering wheel is more their sort of thing. unbelievably, i have seen this a number of times and i struggle to understand why they think such a thing is acceptable. perhaps they’re trying to avoid terrible hasidic pop.
b’shalom
bananabrain
Faisal talks about “ordinary Muslims”. Those ordinary Muslims might want to take a look at their holy books and see what is is their parents have signed them up for. But they can’t leave, can they, if they don’t like the themes they see inside those books? Well, yes they can, but only by risking an awful lot, even their lives.
Curiously, it is coming to the point when non-Muslims, alarmed by Islamic “anti-social” activity and feeling the need to explore this religion, are becoming more informed than many an “ordinary Muslim”. In this they are particularly assisted by accounts of Muslims who left Islam.
“Islamophobia” is not a strong enough word for what I feel about a religion which considers “perfect” a man such as the Prophet Mohammed, who agreed to the murder of anyone who criticised him (and I won’t go into other points about his character.)
I maintain the right to loathe what is loathsome. When did we get to the point in this society where “hatred” was banned? Oh, that’s right, it was when Muslims moved in, and logic went out the window.
Actually, I was never behind Traditional Islamism. The group that seemed to be behind it spent way too much time for my liking on Quilliam et al. Also I don’t use pseudonyms on the net; maybe that isn’t a wise policy but there you go. What makes you think I was behind that?