Author Archives: Guest

Allies Not Enemies

By Guest | Published: February 18, 2012

This is a guest post by Hugo Schmidt

Everyone remembers the scene in Life of Brian where the Campaign for a free Gallilee and the People’s front of Judea are locked in a fistfight.  One speaker stands up and appeals “We mustn’t fight each other.  Sureley we should be united against the common enemy!” and everyone replies “The Judean People’s Front!”.  In what might be called the islamocritical or islamorealist scene, I have been noticing something similar.   I have lost count of the number of conversations I have had that go like this: Rightist: “Oh the Left are just a bunch of cowardly milquetoast nihilists.  They don’t really believe in women’s rights/freedom of expression, they just use these as a way of attacking civilization and they’ll drop them at the first sign of a real struggle”.  Leftist:  “Oh the Right are just a bunch of racist, knuckledragging Neanderthalers.  They don’t really believe in women’s rights/freedom of expression, they just use these as a way to attack the left, and they’ll drop them the instant they’ve got what they want.”   There’s a certain element of truth in both stereotypes, as there is in all stereotypes, but there is also a great deal of falsity. And I am getting well and truly sick of it.

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Posted in UK Politics | 58 Comments

The Guardian and David Miller

By Guest | Published: January 28, 2012

This is a guest post by Khalid Richards

Has anti-semitism become normative in the editorial policy at the Guardian? Here’s a story that suggests that it is certainly getting there.

Yesterday the Graun reported that Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, had awarded a £2M grant to the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity which provides security for Jewish schools. For the Guardian this was a “scoop” because Gove had sat on the CST board since 2007.

Unfortunately the Guardian failed to explain that CST is not the recipient of any of the donations it receives. It simply distributes funds to various security companies which provide services to Jewish schools, none of which Gove sits on the boards of. Even Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, tweeted this:

“I’ve had many disagreements with Michael Gove, but on this one he’s right: CST do a great job on security for Jewish schools.”

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Posted in Antisemitism | 2 Comments

Profile: Øyvind Strømmen

By Guest | Published: January 27, 2012

This is a guest post by Hugo Schmidt

Following the Breivik atrocity, the ‘counterjihad’ blogosphere had a certain amount of shuffled feet and shifty glances. One common refrain is that there is a fire of condemnation heard about the grisly acts from groups who were in the process of excusing it when it appeared to be a Jihad atrocity. That’s true, but it’s a truth that cuts both ways. Another line is that Breivik can’t be inspired by a given person because he also cites a large list of other figures including Churchill, Ghandi etc. Well, I know bad faith and casuistry when I see it. One cannot insist that various jihadist should be taken at face value when they say their religion is their inspiration and then demand that Brevik be taken at something other than his face value.

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Posted in Anti Fascism | 9 Comments

Allah and the Big Questions

By Guest | Published: January 16, 2012

This is a guest post by J J Muhammed

Last Sunday, the BBC hosted an edition of The Big Questions that examined arguments for and against the existence of God. Being an agnostic myself, I found the arguments presented by the ‘for’ side extremely weak and self-contradictory. Even more off-putting was the arrogant and smug manner in which certain individuals presented their arguments, especially the Middle Eastern sounding Muslim chap and Adam Deen. Both of these individuals touched upon the oft-repeated fallacy that the Quran must be the word of God since it contains no errors.

This is a very popular argument used by Muslim preachers who generally rely on audience’s ignorance of the Quran to win the argument. They also have a natural advantage in that people are fearful of criticising Islam and are therefore often reluctant to enter into the debate. It is also an argument that I often made when I was a young Muslim and am therefore very familiar with it.

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Posted in Hermeneutics | 34 Comments

The cynical stupidity of Bob Pitt

By Guest | Published: December 7, 2011

This is a guest post by Amjad Khan

In a recent piece for the New Statesman, Quilliam’s Maajid Nawaz made the point that government should bypass Islamist front groups such as MAB, IFE and the MCB when engaging with Muslims. Rather Muslims should seek representation through their elected politicians, just like all other citizens, and Islamist inspired organisations should not be allowed to monopolise Muslim representation. Quite a straight forward argument you may think, who could possibly be upset with a challenge to anti-democratic means to representation and extremism?

Welcome to the world of Bob Pitt. Bob is an ageing and outmoded far-left blogger who has developed a reputation for making mind-bending and logic-stretching arguments in order to contort reality to his fit his cynical far-left worldview. In Bob’s world, Islamophobia is not a societal scourge to be challenged, but rather something to be exploited and manipulated for short-term political point scoring. His website www.Islamaphobiawatch.com’ is less about Islamophobia and more about attacking his political opponents, many of whom are Muslim.

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Posted in Islamism, The Far Left | 3 Comments

Another Depressing Piece from Mehdi Hassan

By Guest | Published: December 3, 2011

This is a guest post by Ahmed Dinnerjacket

It is becoming increasingly difficult to takes some of the more dogmatic left-wing commentators seriously these days, especially when it comes to foreign policy. Whether it be Seamus Milne at the Guardian, Robert Fisk at the Independent or Mehdi Hassan at the New Statesman, their op-ed pieces tend to follow the same predictable rules, which are:

a) The West is always wrong
b) Outspoken enemies of the west always deserve our sympathy
c) The vast majority are on our side

Take this latest piece from Mehdi states:

“The easiest and quickest way to expose the hypocrisy of our government’s, and the wider western world’s, professed support for democracy and freedom in the Arab world is to say just two words: Saudi Arabia.”

Then, after pasting an extract from the BBC’s website about the Saudi crackdown on internal protestors, Mehdi states:

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Posted in UK Politics | 8 Comments

Invading Londonistan

By Guest | Published: November 15, 2011

This is a guest post by Chris Blackburn

As Bob Lambert’s credibility in Londonistan is sinking faster than Euro, it would be wise for anyone commenting on identity politics, foreign affairs and counter-terrorism to try to dissect his motives and background in dealing with the Islamists. We are, by admission, an esoteric group of political scientists and hacks who are trying to understand the complex implications of Bob’s demise. But, are we blinding ourselves to the obvious.

I believe there are a few questions which we need to urgently grapple with before we understand the nature of the beast. We also need to understand that Bob was the figurehead for a greater movement within Whitehall and the British Establishment. The first question being: Is Bob Lambert a liberal or a realist? Also: Does British neoliberal foreign and economic policy rely on having Islamists as union busters, left-wing bashers and regime destablisers abroad?; Was Londonistan build on realist foreign policy or was it developed by multiculturalism?

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Posted in Islamism, Police Spying | Leave a comment

The Wrath of Plod (or ex-plod Bob Lambert)

By Guest | Published: October 5, 2011

This is a guest post by Chris Blackburn

On Monday, British Islamists and their supporters under the banner of the Bangladesh Crisis Group gathered at the London Muslim Centre to preach to their flock that Bangladesh was committing serious human rights abuses in their desire to finally try the perpetrators of the genocide of 1971.

This group of supporters of radical Islamism have finally crossed the Rubicon and they have potentially shot themselves in the foot by amassing Jamaat and Muslim Brotherhood leaders together. Strategically, for them, it is bad to inject them into the highly contentious issue of their fellow Islamists committing genocide in Bangladesh. The genocide happened. It’s been well documented. Arguing against it is like trying to push the tide back. It’s irrational. It obviously has Islamist leaders worried. They are claiming there are mass human rights abuses by the Bangladesh government and that there is massive US counter-terrorism involvement in the tribunals as a way of gathering support from useful idiots in Britain’s academia.

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Posted in 1971 War, Islamism | 3 Comments

Qadri, Taseer and Ilm-ud-din – History in Circles

By Guest | Published: October 5, 2011

This is a guest post by Kisan

As an illiterate and  impoverished Christian woman faced the sentence of death for blasphemy, a secular leaning Governor of Punjab tried to intervene to get her freed, describing the blasphemy law as a ‘black law’ and was killed by his own guard after being named by clerics as ‘wajib ul qatl’, or necessary to be slaughtered.

The history of the law mandating the death penalty for blasphemy can be traced back to an earlier chapter in the history of Pakistan. In the British times a law was enacted in the then undivided Indian penal code, article 295A, which makes it a criminal offence to: “insult the religion or the religious beliefs of any citizen with deliberate and malicious intention to outrage their religious feelings.” This law, still current in India, has in Pakistan been further modified to include article 295B which mandates life imprisonment for defilement of the Quran and article 295C which prescribes the death penalty for the “use of derogatory remarks in respect of the Holy Prophet.”

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Posted in Sharia | 1 Comment

Jamaat-e-Islam’s “Bangladesh in Crisis” Rally

By Guest | Published: October 4, 2011

This is a guest post by Ashik

Last night I went along to a political rally organised by the Bangladesh Crisis Group which is an offshoot of the British Jamaat-e-Islam front, Islamic Forum Europe. I arrived at the Water Lily Centre which was the advertised venue to be told that the event had been moved to the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel. It was later expressed in the rally that the meeting had been moved because of “political pressure”. My guess is that the Water Lily Centre, which is controlled by Awami League supporters, decided not to host any political lobby involving Toby Cadman in case it irritated their leaders in Awami League HQ in Dhaka.

I thought that it was fitting that the rally had been moved back to London Muslim Centre, the nerve centre of the Jamaat-e-Islam in the UK. After all, it was the DCLG which correctly observed that the ELM/LMC is the base for Jamaat-e-Islami in the UK.

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Posted in 1971 War, Human Rights, Islamism | 22 Comments

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