By Mutazil | Published:
November 27, 2009
The struggle against Islamism in this country is a long war, with all that entails. It unfolds in a world of skirmishes, false-starts and minutely shifting power balances.
Every now and then, however, comes a set-piece moment:
“The Trustees of Policy Exchange are delighted to report that Mr Justice Eady yesterday struck out the claim brought against us by the North London Central Mosque.
North London Central Mosque commenced an action against Policy Exchange and Dr Denis MacEoin for libel, following publication of our study “The Hijacking of British Islam” in October 2007.
Six trustees who had advanced the claim on behalf of the North London Central Mosque were ordered to pay Policy Exchange’s costs of defending this action.
The High Court made a further Order that £75,000 of those costs be paid by North London Central Mosque within 28 days.”
Also posted in Islamism | Tagged Muslim Brotherhood |
By Guest | Published:
November 13, 2009
This is a guest post by Khalid Richards
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Hello Spittoonland.
I am writing to let you know that when I heard that the Quilliam Foundation threatened Craig Murray with libel action, I was disappointed.
This is Murray’s account of a hilarious phonecall conversation he had with a QF person by the name of Ed Jagger.
The question we would like to put to Quilliam Foundation has to be this: If it considers itself to be an anti-Islamist organisation which is willing to take libel action against its detractors for suggesting that it “has never filed a set of accounts”, why didn’t it go after these guys for posting this?
UPDATE: This post has been edited to remove inaccuracies.
This morning I turned on my computer and was immediately confronted by a bizarre article from Bob Pitt of Islamophobia Watch. Quilliam accuses anti-BNP protestors of ‘thuggery and hooliganism’ is an amateurish bit of slime aimed at Lucy James (who has kindly written one guest post for the Spittoon in the past) for comments she made about anti-fascist protesters in a piece for Progress Magazine.
She wrote,
Last weekend the BNP’s annual shindig ‘Red, White and Blue’ took place in a small town in Derbyshire. Reports said that the number of attendees was only marginally more than the number of anti-fascist protesters who congregated outside the gate. Unfortunately, these anti-BNP protesters soon became violent – leading to a total of 19 protesters being arrested. Although it is good to see ordinary people protesting against the BNP, such protests become ineffective when they descend into thuggery and hooliganism. Just a week earlier, for example, violent clashes erupted between the English Defence League and Unite Against Fascism in Birmingham, leading to bottles, sticks and banners thrown, and brought police in riot gear onto the streets.
By Shikwa | Published:
July 19, 2009
Earlier this week, Inayat “Mr Bean” Bunglawala’s Engage wrote a characteristically stupid piece libelling Martin Bright under the headline:
“Veteran Islamophobe Martin Bright criticises MCB libel win”.
Martin was rightly upset with that slur observing:
“I object in the strongest terms to the way the insult “Islamophobe” is thrown around so casually. It is essentially a charge of racism: the cheapest of shots and utterly without foundation”.
He was much too kind. The charge was not just without foundation – it was an outright lie. At the Observer, Martin mentored the headscarf wearing Fareen Alam. And, while he was Political Editor at the New Statesman regularly gave a voice to newly emerging Muslim voices including: Ed Husain, Shiraz Maher, and ‘Umm Mustafa’ (a pseudonym).
The Engage article nonetheless made a number of lazy accusations, one of which said:
By Retired | Published:
June 18, 2009
A while ago I blogged about the handsomely named Islamic Human Rights Commission and a briefing they had put out accusing the Community Security Trust of “demonising Muslims”.
The briefing was poorly researched, wilfully inaccurate rubbish. This didn’t stop Islamophobia Watch and Bungles from giving it a ringing endorsement.
Now the CST have responded.
CST wholly denies the entirely unfounded allegations made by IHRC. The IHRC briefing is full of basic errors, distortions and misrepresentations that completely alter the meaning of the articles that it claims to analyse. It contains supposed quotes and arguments in CST articles that do not exist; and omits relevant context from the quotes and articles that it claims to analyse. Worst of all, however, the IHRC makes these claims in order to accuse CST and its staff of propagating Islamophobia, when nothing could be further from the truth.
Also posted in Islamism | Tagged IHRC, Islamophobia, The CST |
By Guest | Published:
June 16, 2009
This is an open letter by Usman Raja refuting the forgery [HTTP Link removed] which has been published in his name by the website “Traditional Islamism”.
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Salam! Peace!
I would like to take this opportunity to clarify a few distortions and lies that are being circulated by certain factions. Namely:
1. The alleged “resignation letter” to the Quilliam Foundation. This letter is a fabrication and none of its content is true in any way or form. I did not send this letter to Quilliam at all.
2. I have no connection at all, philosophically or in practise with the Islamists and Jihadists at the loathed website “Traditional Islamism”. I do not advocate their message, and am deeply distressed that these people should abuse my name on that forum.