Author Archives: Retired

Daily Express – With extremists, against law and order.

By Retired | Published: May 20, 2009

Why is it that the media keep paying so much attention to the tiny group of extremists al-Muhajiroun/whatever name they’re going by this week? It is very clear that the only beneficiaries are Anjem Choudary and his chums, who get free publicity for their views, and an array of other people of varying degrees of unpleasantness who can use events like the Luton protest to advance their own agenda.

First it was the BNP. I’m not going to link to their website to avoid helping its google ranking, but coverage of this story is unsurprisingly unpleasant. It is replete with lines like:

The shocking anti-British army protest by a group of Muslims in central Luton is a portent of what is to come unless the Islamification of this country is halted

This is in addition to references to “the colonisation of this country by Third Worlders” and “Luton is well known as a heavily Muslim colonised town” as well as dark warnings from their defence spokesman.

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Posted in Anti Fascism, Anti Muslim bigotry, Islamism | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

BBC “out of touch” about Aaqil Ahmed?

By Retired | Published: May 15, 2009

There are some people out there rather peeved by the BBC’s decision to appoint Aaqil Ahmed as head of religion and ethics. The Daily Mail’s Steven Glover is a case in point. He asks:

Why can’t the BBC understand we are STILL a Christian country?

He concludes his (rather rambling) rant saying:

In all kinds of ways the publicly funded BBC does not reflect the views of the public it is supposed to serve.

No doubt its secular suits assume that Britain is as anti-Christian as they are. They’re out of touch again. In appointing Aaqil Ahmed they do not simply offend against this country’s Christian heritage and traditions. They also further weaken the hold and authority of the BBC.

So, if Mr Glover is to be believed, the whole country should be in uproar that a Muslim chap has been appointed to this positition. Indeed, the Guardian tries to give the impression it already is:

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Posted in Anti Muslim bigotry | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Al-Qa’ida Cool

By Retired | Published: May 14, 2009

Jamie Bartlett, leader of Demos’s violent radicalism project “From Threat To Opportunity”, has a piece in Prospect Magazine this month. In it he makes some interesting observations:

[M]embers of terrorist cells tend to be young men with little religious knowledge other than a few cut-and-paste lines from the rockstars of jihadi literature, like radical Egyptian cleric Sayed Qutb. In comparison to such founding fathers of modern Islamic terrorism, this generation has suffered no serious repression.

He also argues, on the back of research from McGill University, that:

Ultimately it is not the ideas of al Qaeda that need dismantling; it is the idea of al Qaeda. This is tough. As has been proved by counterproductive anti-drug warnings, anything government proscribes can become more exciting for young people. The key is to strip al Qaeda of its mystique, and show that the average day of an Islamic extremist is more like that of a petty criminal than a secret agent. (This happens to be true: seven out of ten European militants in al Qaeda training camps return home because of tough training and being treated like skivvies.)

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Posted in Terrorism | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

FOSIS’s Annual Conference

By Retired | Published: May 14, 2009

I recently blogged about the individuals Queen Mary’s Islamic Society has been inviting to address its members. At the end of the piece, I suggested that the NUS or FOSIS, the Federation Of Student Islamic Societies, should encourage the Islamic Society to invite speakers who condemned all forms of terrorism, did not spread outlandish conspiracy theories and promote community cohesion.

David T, of Harry’s Place, responded in sceptical terms:

But FOSIS is hardly going to lay down the law to QMUL’s ISOC, considering they lay on events with similarly vicious speakers.

Now, there are people who condemn FOSIS for its close links to the Muslim Brotherhood and because it is affiliated to the MCB, who don’t exactly have the best reputation at the moment.

And there are those who point to FOSIS’s support for overturning the NUS ban on Hizb ut-Tahrir.

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Posted in Anti Fascism, Antisemitism | Tagged | Comments closed

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