now, i haven’t seen the “dispatches” programme yet, it’s on my sky+ box waiting to be viewed. however, i was quite amused to be warned by one naeem darr, who i understand is some sort of spokesman for our old friends the muslim safety forum, to have my complaint ready. helpfully, he then went on to provide me with a set of points to complain about to channel 4 and jim kirkpatrick mp. i reproduce his email in full – and include in bold the bits which he appears to know before broadcast:
Dispatches Islamophobic documentary
Channel 4’s Dispatches is due to broadcast a damaging and misleading programme on Monday 1st March at 8pm. For nearly a year the programme had undercover reporters attending events (including private meetings) of Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) and passing themselves off as Muslims and friends, but acting as agents provocateurs to solicit replies to use against IFE.
A short video of the “Stop the Violence Against Paharis” demo held at Altab Ali Park, yesterday.
This was the statement which was read out at the meeting:
Honourable Prime Minister,
We, the Bengali and Jumma people living in the United Kingdom (UK), express our deepest concern about the recent attacks and acts of violence against the Indigenous peoples in Baghaichari, Rangamati and Khagrachori districts in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), that occurred between 19-23 February 2010.
There is to be a demonstration for calling for protection of the Pahari people and peace in Chittagong Hill Tracts on Sunday 28 February.
On Saturday 20th February, an outbreak of violence against the Jumma people of Khagrachari in Rangamati caused the deaths of 4 people, hundreds of homes torched, destruction of a temple and a church, and many dozens still missing.The random violence against the Pahari people has continued unabated.
The oppression of the Chakma and Pahari peoples has been going on for decades and incidents of this kind form part of a long-standing conflict.
We urge the end to the attacks and violence against the Paharis in Bangladesh.
Please come and show your support and solidarity for the Jumma people in Bangladesh.
as you may know by now, the israeli deputy foreign minister, danny ayalon, was heckled pretty comprehensively at his speech at the oxford union on monday night. the high (or low) point came when, rather like the accusations of murder levelled at the israeli ambassador to the us, michael oren, at the university of california, irvine (which actually resulted in a few arrests) a man rose to his feet and launched into a diatribe which included one key arabic phrase, which has been widely reported as “itbah al-yahud”, or “kill the jews” – this phrase is, of course, familiar to me as the rallying cry for many middle-eastern atrocities, not least the baghdad pogrom of 1941 (that’s pre-state of israel, folks) known as the farhud.
for those of you who aren’t aware of it, this has not been a good couple of years for the orthodox, “strictly-”orthodox and ultra-orthodox communities. corruption around kosher slaughterhouses and conversions, sex scandals, money-laundering, drug smuggling, you name it. all the usual justifications are made, of course, all the usual people accept them and all the usual people sneer at them.
in such an environment, it’s extremely helpful to be able to point to people who can stand up and say in no uncertain terms: this isn’t right. excusing it is even worse. as it says in the Mishnah: where there are no men, at least you should try and act like a man. i am encouraged to see at least some orthodox rabbis swimming against the tide of denial although, of course, not that surprised to see the perennial awkward squad-nik and contrarian (and my own much revered teacher) rabbi jeremy rosen, writing in haaretz:
well, no surprises here – ray hanania, writing in the jerusalem post, finds plenty to criticise about the sort of activist that is perpetuating the sad situation in the gaza strip, in the now-established tradition of leftie imbeciles sucking up to clerical fascists as an act of anti-imperialist egotism.
and, of course there’s none more egotistical that our good friend, saddam-fancying cat-impersonator ”gorgeous george”.
george laps it up
These are strange bedfellows in the Palestinian extremist camps, religious fanatics shoulder-to-shoulder with secular extremists like the Popular Front and the rejectionists led by the activists and fawned on by the Arab media that mistakenly believe “freedom” means embracing the most extremist activists.
you never spoke a truer word, ray. for G!D’s sake, please keep doing this. palestine needs your sanity, rationality and humanity, rather than serving to remind us all of the intransigence and lack of compassion for real human beings – other than as symbols of something-or-other-from-la-la-land-ideology – demonstrated by these smug, self-satisfied self-publicists:
although the mainstreammedia has already picked up the story, we’re sure that the good folk of wootton bassett would nonetheless appreciate a message of support. it appears that they are the latest stop on the publicity circuit for everyone’s favourite islamist nutjobs, the al-muhajigoon squad. predictably, the edl have vowed to picket the mosques frequented by the leader of the group that currently calls itself “islam4uk” and, no doubt, stephen gash of “sioe” has ordered an extra copy of “soldier of fortune” magazine in his excitement.
in the spirit that got these imbeciles to cancel their most recent demo and, naturally, in tribute to the recent foiling of the detroit pants bomber, i humbly propose the following:
let all who wish to show this truly grotesque man up as the nasty, ridiculous bigot he is – FLY THE UNDERPANTS!
The end is nigh for the Iranian regime. The pro-democracy Green Movement has shown itself to be equal to the Islamist regime’s use of extreme force, mass arrests, show trials, torture and rape in prisons with its ever-growing, relentless and peaceful campaign of civil disobedience.
Meanwhile the Baseej are defecting in numbers as shown in this video:
And in this picture:
Baseej Defector
The Green Movement is approaching a critical mass which presents a greater counter force than the government can possibly bear. Nor did the regime help itself by making a martyr of the nephew of the leading opposition leader. Juan Cole sees this adding insult to injury and more trouble ahead for the administration:
although the 