Author Archives: Effendi

No Room For Islamists In The Tunisian Revolution

By Effendi | Published: January 14, 2011

There is revolutionary unrest on the streets of Tunisia:

The announcement came after students marched in the capital, Tunis, to protest against police violence.

At least 14 people were killed over the weekend in the protests. They have been linked to anger over unemployment and frustrations with the ruling elite.

The president said protesters were responsible for “terrorist acts”.

President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali also defended his government’s record in the face of continuing protests over unemployment, and promised to create more jobs.

The unrest has also been linked to frustrations with the president and the ruling elite.

Mr Ben Ali says an extremist minority has been misleading the young.

An “extremist minority” sounds like overstating the issue, as if to suggest that the violence is being spearheaded by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

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Posted in Islamism | 9 Comments

Pakistan’s Islamist Consensus

By Effendi | Published: January 9, 2011

The business writer Khurram Husain delivers a fine piece called ‘Cheer the Assassin’, a fierce polemic criticising Pakistan’s popular support for the assassination of Salman Taseer and canonisation of his killer Malik Qadri:

Kiss the pages of the document where the ‘holy’ laws are written. Don’t read them, don’t think about what they say. Don’t ask questions about them, such as what the rules of evidence are under these laws or how the court is supposed to tell the difference between a true and false allegation. No, don’t do any of that, because soon these will be the only laws left in your life.

Do it, my friends! Because there is no ‘silent majority’ any more, only a frightened and confused flock hemmed in by the darkness, trembling at the howling of the hyenas around, huddled together under a vanishing light, barely enduring the great dark absence beyond.

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Posted in Freedom of Religion, Islamism | 13 Comments

Murder Money Maulana

By Effendi | Published: January 7, 2011

News of a cleric who puts a cash-incentive on the murder of Aasiya Bibi comes via Pakistaniat (by Adil Najam). This man is not an exponent of radical political Islam or Islamist, he is a traditional Barelvi cleric and a prominent and highly respected khateeb of a historic mosque in Peshawar:

Maulana Yousaf Qureshi

This man is Yousaf Qureshi of Peshawar and he has publicly offered a reward of Rs. 500,000 (Rs. 5 Lacs; US$5880) to anyone who murders Aasiya Bibi of Nankana.

Yousuf Qureshi has never met or seen Aasiya. Yet, his heart is so full of hatred that he is willing to give anyone, even you, Rs. 500,000 to kill her. By the way, he does not seem to hold you in very high esteem either; he believes that you will be willing to commit murder for him for less than US$6,000. And if you will not, he calls upon the Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) to do the killing for him. For around the price of a new Suzuki Mehran VX he wants you to commit murder, make three children orphans, and take a human life. All reports suggest that he is mighty proud of what he is trying to do!

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Posted in Crime, Freedom of Religion, Nutters | 5 Comments

On The Uselessness of Islamic Conferences

By Effendi | Published: December 27, 2010

Idol of the Conference Worshippers


Nazim Baksh on the utter uselessness of Islamic conferences. They are, as Nazim says, “a costly experiment aimed at dumbing down knowledge for the masses”, and his essay is an unsentimental deconstruction of the entire phenomenon of the Islamic Conference as glorification of mediocrity.

At the risk of sounding redundant let me say I have an allergic reaction to conferences whether Muslim in character or not. I don’t believe they will or have ever accomplished anything. That’s not to say the vendors at GPU’s bazaar who paid £900 for the privilege of selling a few trinkets and some colorful hijabs didn’t recover their cost and then some. The food vendors too may have turned a handsome profit leaving behind a heap of garbage and some messy restrooms for low paying unionized workers to clean up.

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Posted in Farce, Islamism | 3 Comments

The Hounding of M F Husain

By Effendi | Published: December 22, 2010

India's grand master: forced to flee his homeland due to Hindu extremism and state censorship

Nick Cohen has a remarkable piece on the continuing suppression of freedom of speech and the glorification of “offence taking” by the far-right Hindu extremists in India, led by Bal Thackeray and the army of thugs from the Shiv Sena:

Why pick on Husain for sketches no one found disturbing when he first released them? Read his accusers, and they cannot justify their charges of blasphemy or obscenity. How can they when Husain’s paintings are not remotely pornographic but part of a deliberate attempt by the artist and his contemporaries to continue Indian traditions?

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Posted in Freedom of Expression, Hate Speech, Hindu Fundamentalism | 1 Comment

Apartheid in the Hajj

By Effendi | Published: December 12, 2010

In Islamic doctrine the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to the holy sites of Mecca and Medinah, represents the highest point of Islamic liturgy. It is believed to be an obligatory experience when men and women of every race, colour and creed stands before God as equals, stripped of their wealth, their worldly possessions and their social status, just as in death.

This is how Ahmad al-Akhras describes the Hajj:

This great annual convention of faith demonstrates the concept of equality of mankind, the most profound message of Islam, which allows no superiority on the basis of race, gender or social status. The only preference in the eyes of God is piety as stated in the Quran: “The best amongst you in the eyes of God is most righteous.”

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Posted in Racism | 11 Comments

Why Arabic Racism Is Acceptable For Some Liberals

By Effendi | Published: December 11, 2010

Arabic racism against black and South Asian people is widespread and endemic. To this day, the universal term for black people in the Arab world is abd which means slave. The derogatory term for South Asian migrant labourers, who are employed in many gulf Arab states to do their menial work, is miskeen or beggar.

This shocking little video shows how apartheid is still alive and kicking in Doha, Qatar.

It is curious how a certain section of the liberal left and Islamists in the UK who have made it their remit to mobilise campaigns against Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry in the UK, have stayed completely silent about Arabic racism against South Asians and black Muslims. These groups never mention it and it never comes up in their documentation, let alone protested. Why?

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Posted in Racism | 7 Comments

APPG drops iEngage

By Effendi | Published: December 9, 2010

Martin Bright brings news that the All Party Parliamentary Group have decided that iEngage are unsuited to the role of secretariat.

This encouraging development was initiated by a scathing and forensic critique of the iEngage agenda by Paul Goodman MP, on ConservativeHome. Goodman clearly has a solid grasp of  the agents of Islamic extremism, their politics and their rhetoric. He writes, with precision, how the Jamaat and Muslim Brotherhood brands of Islamism have been rigorously cultivated, sometimes with the tacit cooperation of officials of the previous Labour government.

Goodman is one of those rare politicians who understands very clearly that Islamist groups are motivated by the need to advance the exclusivist cause of a clique of Islamic extremist groups and organisations whose interests are distinctly detached from the interests of the majority of Muslims. Most British Muslims are not extremist, yet Islamists pretend to represent them without mandate. The majority of British Muslims take a dim view of Islamic fundamentalists and the messianical ideology which underpins it. But Goodman has the wherewithal to see past this façade and understands how to differentiate between genuine bigotry against Muslims and the term “Islamophobia” when it is used by groups like iEngage to silence criticism of religious extremism.

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Posted in Islamism, UK Politics | 1 Comment

On Being Against Hierarchical Human Rights

By Effendi | Published: November 21, 2010

BenSix, of Liberal Conspiracy, has produced an article criticising the stance taken by Gita Sahgal and Meredith Tax in defence of Karima Bennoune’s decision to challenge the CCR (and ACLU) litigation of the US government in favour of Anwar al-Awlaki.

BenSix begins, rather badly and rather characteristically, with a slander:

Blogger Meredith Tax and activist Gita Saghal appear to believe that one shouldn’t defend a person’s rights if they’re a bastard.

Which is, of course, a misrepresentation and a cheap smear of the position taken by Sahgal, Tax and Bennoune. And if BenSix had actually taken the time to understand their arguments, he might have known that they have not any point suggested that “bad people” be denied their human rights or be subjected to extra-judicial imprisonment. But what to expect from a LiberalConspiracy blogger, where smears come thick and fast against people who campaign against extremism?

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Posted in Human Rights, Islamism, Terrorism, The Regressive Left | 18 Comments

Moazzam Begg and the poppy burners

By Effendi | Published: November 13, 2010

This is a video of the abhorrent and despicable spectacle of the Muslims Against Crusdades (MAC) demonstration burning a poppy during the 2 minute silence on Remembrance Day.

The MAC are a splinter group of a splinter group of a splinter group of the supposedly banned Islam4UK group, headed up by Anjem Choudry, which was itself a splinter of a faction of the Hizb ut Tahrir UK.

There has been little or no coverage of these fuckwits on the BBC. That space has been dominated by another bunch of fuckwits who decided to smash up Conservative HQ.

In an interview with the Irish Times, Moazzam Begg makes the same point as Muslims Against Crusades, regarding the ethics of a British military presence in Afghanistan:

“If you are asking me what are my feelings towards people fighting occupation, the answer is I completely support them. I believe in the inalienable right to defend yourself against foreign occupation.

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Posted in Islamism | 6 Comments

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