It is time that Europeans and North Americans active in human rights movements understood this and told their leaders so.”

– Gita Sahgal

Nick says:

Well, given the contortions in modern liberalism, Amnesty’s abandonment of universal human rights was always likely. In the 2000s I wrote that Amnesty was becoming equivocal about political violence, torture, racism and the hatred of women and gays if abuse could not be blamed on the West. (Here scroll down.) Still, its final collapse remains a melancholy spectacle and a shocking one.

Gita Sahgal, its women’s officer, has finally decided to resign. In her resignation statement she says that Amnesty remains unconcerned that its poster boy Moazzam Begg, a former Guantanamo detainee, is now involved with an organisation called Cageprisoners which has championed the views of jihadists. “They have stated that the idea of jihad in self defence is not antithetical to human rights; and have explained that they meant only the specific form of violent jihad that Moazzam Begg and others in Cageprisoners assert is the individual obligation of every Muslim.” This is the sly liberal’s get-out-of-jail card: a one-sided cultural determinism. Jihadism is a part of “Muslim” culture, says Amnesty, so we cannot criticise it, indeed we must promote it. Yet if the head of a pro western intelligence agency were to say that colonialism was part of his cultural inheritance, Amnesty would condemn him as a racist.

Support for religious reaction and support for the rights of women are, of course, incompatible. Amnesty has made its choice, and as Gita announces, its Stop Violence Against Women campaign is over.

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.

A chronology of events that have occurred has been maintained here:
http://unheardvoice.net/blog/category/human-rights/cht/

More details on facebook.

According to the source, Abdulmutallab told investigators he obtained the powerful explosives PETN and TATP in Yemen and was left on his own to decide when and how to bring down a plane, Milton reports. Abdulmutallab has apparently disclosed to investigators he picked Northwest Flight 253 because of its availability.

The source said Abdulmutallab told investigators he was guided by al-Awalki to detonate the bomb over U.S. soil, unlike the failed British bomber plot in 2006 when the bombers were instructed to detonate bombs on airliners over the ocean on the way to the U.S. so that there would be no evidence left behind.

Al-Awlaki himself said in a recent interview that he and Abdulmutallab had kept in contact. A senior U.S. intelligence official said al-Awlaki represented the biggest name on the list of people Abdulmutallab might have information against. Both spoke on condition anonymity to discuss the sensitive ongoing investigation.

********************

Peter Neumann from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King’s College, provides some instant analysis of the attempted bombing of a Delta Airlines flight travelling from Amsterdam to Detroit. He’s got all the main bases covered, so I’ll only provide some footnotes to a few his points:

Similarities with the ‘shoe bomber’. Richard Reid, the so-called ‘shoe bomber’ tried to blow himself up onboard an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami shortly before Christmas in 2001. As with today’s incident, Reid was caught fiddling with the explosive device, which failed to set off properly. Interestingly, it later turned out that Reid had an accomplice, Saajid Badat, who was hoping to bomb a different plane.

Flashpoint Yemen. US government sources claim that the suspected perpetrator received the explosives and his instructions in Yemen. This makes a connection with Al Qaeda highly likely. Yemen is one of the hotspots for Al Qaeda activity about which Western security services have been warning for years. Only yesterday, Yemen launched a strike against an Al Qaeda training camp in the south of the country and killed eight aspiring suicide bombers in the north. Among the people who died were two top leaders and (possibly) Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born extremist cleric who is said to have inspired the Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan.

This last point about Yemen is highly significant. I think it’s unlikely that the abortive attempt yesterday was a ‘revenge’ attack for the drone attacks carried out in Yemen a few days ago, but it does underscore just how much of a battleground Yemen is becoming. While al-Qaeda has effectively been eliminated in Iraq, its fighters are now regrouping in the horn of Africa and Yemen. It confirms our worst fears of the global jihad movement: an almost ubiquitous force with broad and piercing tentacles giving it unparalleled reach.

The last time al-Qaeda inspired this kind of global network was in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 when terror attacks carried out by its regional affiliates rocked Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and North Africa. From 2003 their efforts seemed to concentrate on Iraq, with the conflict becoming a focal point for jihadists everywhere. We now appear to be re-entering a phase of renewed and revived ‘global jihad’ with al-Qaeda doing what it does best – spreading chaos through localised branches and affiliates, rather than operating a concentrated campaign through a centralised command and control structure.

Al Qaeda still obsessed with blowing up planes. More than eight years since the 9/11 attacks, Al Qaeda doesn’t seem to have any new ideas. Most Al Qaeda-linked plots in the West have been directed at transport, especially airliners and urban public transportation.  Also, they still seem to prefer traditional explosives – none of the more adventurous scenarios about chemical, nuclear, or radiological attacks have yet become reality.

This is an interesting point that was brought up recently in court during the trials of the British airline plotters – some of whom were convicted earlier this year of planning to blow up several transatlantic airliners midflight. Of course, al-Qaeda’s obsession with bombing aircraft did not start with 9/11. That attack was, after all, merely an adaptation of an earlier plot hatched in the mid-1990s known as the ‘Bojinka plot’. The plan then had been to simultaneously blow up a series of aircraft midflight over the Pacific as they travelled from South-East Asia to the United States.

Nigerian Al Qaeda operatives. The involvement of a Nigerian in an Al Qaeda operation is a novelty. Few, if any, Nigerians have played prominent roles in the organisation, and there remains little concrete evidence of significant Al Qaeda activity in Nigeria. At the same time, the country is deeply involved in a civil war between the Christian North and the Muslim South, and there are several other, sometimes violent Islamist groups who are active in Nigeria, including Boko Haram, the Hisbah, the Zamfara State Vigilante Service, and Al-Sunna Wal Jamma (also known as the Nigerian Taliban).

Terrorism going global. The incident is a good illustration of how Al Qaeda inspired terrorism has become more and more transnational – a Nigerian national, who seems to have received training and instructions in Yemen, boards a plane in Holland, and nearly blows it up in the United States. Four continents – and that’s only the main suspect!

As I said above, I think we are re-entering a much more dangerous phase of renewed global capacity for al-Qaeda, particularly as it strengthens its foothold in the horn of Africa and Yemen. Finding a way to stop this renewal of capacity by the global jihadist movement will be something Western leaders will need to think about very carefully.

Why did airport security fail? Amsterdam Schiphol – where the suspected terrorist got onboard the plane – is one of Europe’s largest airports, and has a good reputation for its security. Why weren’t the explosive materials detected? What were they, and how did they get on the plane?

This requires urgent investigation. The fact someone could so brazenly smuggle any kind of explosive device – however small – on board an aircraft from a major European airport is alarming. To make it worse, Amsterdam Schipol is one of the few airports currently trialling the latest body-scanning machines on passengers, raising further questions about the failure of their pre-flight screening procedures. There are also some reports that the alleged terrorist was also on a US Government ‘watch list’ list. Establishing exactly what went wrong must now be a major priority.

We will keep following this story as it develops.

Remember not to eat too many mince pies!

Asim Siddiqui sees at least one encouraging sign in the rise of white-race supremacist movements of the far-right resurgent all over Europe and now getting its freak on in Britain:

“However, this kind of anti-Muslim bigotry has resulted in some interesting new dynamics. An attack on a mosque is an attack on a very sacred institution – as an attack on any place of worship would be. Muslim professionals who would otherwise not have been involved in mosque activities came forward to assist the mosque. In the past professionals have often been so disappointed with the competence of those managing the mosques that they have tended not to invest their time and expertise in them. Some mosque managers have also been quite content with this arrangement, running them on tribal lines, more suited to Pakistani villages than British cities. Given the external threat now directed at mosques and the need for them to raise their game in the public domain, there might now be a greater convergence between these two groups.

Sunday also saw a much welcome boost to interfaith relations with Christian, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu and non-faith leaders pledging support to the mosque. One journalist at the mosque on Sunday joked that he thought he’d turned up at the local synagogue given the numbers of Rabbis present. Some Jews, in particular, feel a wary sense of the risk that darker chapters of Europe’s history might be repeated. This provided a powerful response to the SIOE who had come waving Israeli flags in order to provoke a response.

Will the anti-Muslim bigots come down to Harrow again? Possibly. They are part of a Europe-wide trend against its own minorities. However, so long as communities remain firm in their opposition to all forms of bigotry and extremism then, in the long run, it may make us all a bit stronger.”

And that is a positive outcome we can all celebrate.

England 1, SIOE 0

Many analysts are unconvinced. If it turns out the C18 claim is false, this is nonetheless a worrying development insofar as C18 Russia is clearly seeking to position itself as an active terrorist organisation.

According to this report, the C18 statement reads:

We, the militant autonomous group Combat 18, claim the responsibility for the attack against Nevsky Express. We will continue! The time has come. We say that the war will affect everyone. There are no indifferent people and no innocent victims in this war. There are only our supporters and enemies.

The group has also claimed responsibility for an explosive device found in the subway in Saint Petersburg on November 14.

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Read the full article by Edmund Standing

The list is extensive. Not least because Al-Awlaki, who is based in Yemen, is regarded as the pre-eminent English language demagogue and theoretician of violent jihadism. We intend to publish more material on the UK-based followers of Anwar Al-Awlaki over the next few weeks.

So stay tuned…

1. Azad Ali: Civil Servant, the head of the Civil Service Islamic Society and a leading activist with the Islamic Forum Europe and the Muslim Security Forum.
2. Cage Prisoners:  Islamist outfit masquerading as a human rights organisation. Has a long and extensive relationship with Anwar al-Awlaki.
3. Abu Usamah ath-Thahabi, Imam at Green Lane Masjid, Birmingham, reputedly advised in one of his lectures for people to listen to the lectures of Anwar al-Awlaki. Previously known for his comments (reported in C4’s “Undercover Mosque”) praising Islamist terrorists and disparaging non-Muslims. Claimed then comments were taken “out of context”. [Thank you Abu Faris - from the comments]
4. Osama Saeed: Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Glasgow Central.

This website was set up by a collection of groups and individuals – both Muslim and non-Muslim – to organise a counter-demonstration against those who seek to undermine and challenge our values. We come from diverse social and religious backgrounds but share a common belief in secular democracy and the values of the British liberal state such as legal and constitutional equality for all, equal rights for women and minorities, and the right to religious freedom (including freedom from religion).

British Muslims for Secular Democracy (BMSD), is organising and coordinating a broad based counter-demonstration of those of all faiths and none who are determined to stand together, in defence of liberal secular democracy.

In the meantime, to stay abreast of developments please sign up to our mailing listfor the very latest information. You can also follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook group

NOTE:

If you are planning to attend this demonstration, it is crucial that you do sign up to the list so we can keep you up to date with all the latest news about this campaign and any organisational details. We will not share your details with any third party or make them public.

No Capitulation

****

The Home Office has another key responsibility.

The security of our people and of our nation.

To take the lead in the battle against terrorism.

And the fight against an ideology of hate and violence.

An ideology that damages the reputation of decent, law abiding British Muslims as well as threatening life and limb.

And let’s be clear. That ideology wants to destroy the civil liberties that make this country what it is. No Government should allow them to do so, and the way this Government has eroded those liberties is shameful and must be reversed.

Our police and security services have done a magnificent job in protecting us against the terrorist threat.

We owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

But we are still not tough enough on those who spread a doctrine of hate in Britain.

So I will immediately ban Hiz b’ut Tahrir, and any other group that actively incites hatred and violence.

We also have extremists using video links to hold meetings with banned preachers of hate from overseas who urge violence against our society.

If I am Home Secretary the people who organise those meetings will be arrested and prosecuted.

Under this Government the extremists have been free to protest on our streets and incite violence and hatred in the most blatant ways.

We cannot and we will not allow this to continue.

We at the Spittoon would like to wish you a very blessed Ramadan.

You may not all agree with our views and you may not all agree with how we choose to express them, but we hope that you will accept our avowal that this is a blog written out of sincerity, not bitterness, and with a genuine concern to make things better.

At least, we trust, there can be agreement on this being a time of the year to remember the pettiness of any differences we may have and to prioritise those things in life which matter much more.

كل عام وانتم بخير
(Kullu ‘aam wa antum bikhair)

In the context of my academic research and practical work I have been able to provide an important set of motion in the stagnant Egyptian situation. I have attempted to make reforms from the inside and worked on the disarmament of those who exploit Islam politically and make it a source of livelihood at the expense of the simple, good people of Egypt. I have therefore created a secular movement that has imposed its presence, although still at a formative stage.

In a free ballot of Egyptian thinkers, I was granted the State Award for Social
Sciences, on June 25th 2009. The hard-line radical militant groups considered that the state has adopted this intellectual secular trend officially, infuriating the mentioned group which called on the State to withdraw the prize with the declaration of my defection from Islam and excommunication which means in our country, I could be slain; any citizen is allowed to kill me and be awarded by God in Paradise.

The following parties have participated in the statements of excommunication (takfir), noting that none of them have read a single word of what I wrote, and have not been able to hold a dialogue to discuss my ideas:

1 – Al-Azhar Scholars Front headed by Yahya Ismail Habloush, which
issued the first statement of excommunication on July 10, 2009.

2 – The Islamic Group (condemned terrorist group) issued a statement of excommunication on July 10, 2009.

3 – The Muslim Brotherhood hailed the excommunication, and were represented at the parliament by Hamdi Hassan requesting the withdrawal of the award and the declaration of religious-defection and excommunication on July 7, 2009. The Muslim Brotherhood also declared my excommunication on Mohwar Channel on July 11, 2009 and on Al Faraeen Channel on July 13, 2009.

4 – The Salafi (Fundamentalist) Group (condemned terrorist group) dedicated its Internet site named “The Egyptians” for excommunicating me and incitements to kill me, since the date of obtaining the prize until today.

5 – Al Nas channel, which represents the theoretical side of bloody terrorism which declared excommunication and demanded “all citizens who can” to kill me immediately, on July 24 and 25, 2009.

6 – The Hisbah Sheikh Youssef Al Badri in Egypt declared on the channel “ON TV” on July 3, 2009 that I have cursed God and the Prophet Mohammad in my books even though I have challenged him and others to refer to a single text written by me where such claims were made. Due to this proclamation, he has issued an incitement to kill me.

7 – A member of the Al-Azhar scholars, Sheikh Mohammed El Berry, on Mihwar TV Channel on July 11, 2009 announced my excommunication as he also said that he did not read any of my writings since he does not read “garbage”. He repeated the same words on the channel “ON TV” on July 22, 2009

8 – Sheikh Ali Gomaa, the former Chairman of the “State Religious Affairs Advisory Board”, issued a statement declaring my infidelity and calling for slaying me for “insulting the Prophet of Islam, the God of Islam” on July 24, 2009.

9 – The Sheiks of more than 5,000 mosques on Friday prayers on July 24, 2009 declared the incitement to kill me, especially in my hometown, which led to the rampage against my family and relatives, and that could possibly evolve to some serious consequences in the coming weeks.

Due to the above, I call upon the conscience of all humanity in the free world
to come to me and my children’s rescue by providing moral support and the
condemnation and denunciation of the radical thinking with quick solutions to save us from the danger that is luring around us.  This is a distress call to all bodies and individuals. A call to the consciences of every free individual in the world.

Signed

Sayed Mahmoud El Qemany- Researcher

****

South Asian Muslim women are the most economically disadvantaged group in terms of religion, ethnicity and gender in the UK today. A recent poll of unemployed South Asian Muslim women showed that not only are they disadvantaged, but that they are misunderstood and not being given sufficient support in order to break a cycle that, given the chance, will transmit similar attitudes on to future generations. The poll— published in Quilliam’s latest report Immigrant, Muslim, Female: Triple Paralysis [pdf]— established what these Muslim women want: they want to work. Over 600 women were interviewed, 57% of which said that they wanted a paid job. This figure is really positive. Although 39% said that they didn’t want to work, many of these women may have said so because of a lack of confidence rather than as a downright refusal to work.

The women interviewed in this survey were overwhelmingly (84%) not born in this country, i.e. they were immigrants to the UK. Contrary to expectation, perhaps, the numbers of immigrant women arriving from the subcontinent is unlikely to die out over the generations. A 2008 study by Dale and Ahmed [pdf] of transnational marriages between 1998 and 2005 revealed that 40% of Pakistani and Bangladeshi men living in this country married women from abroad. Together with the high rates of immigration from the subcontinent as a whole (in 2006/7, South Asians accounted for the highest rates of applications for settlement visas), the issues surrounding first generation immigrants are going to be ones that are perpetuated down the generations. These women have to stop being sidelined within South Asian/ Muslim communities; they have to be specifically recognised and targeted in government policy.

Not one respondent said that Islam was behind their reason for remaining without work. Only 2% said that it was to do with izzat (a South Asian cultural notion of honour). Instead, 65% of the respondents gave practical reasons as the inhibitors to gaining employment. The most popular of these was their domestic responsibilities—particularly looking after children—at 49%. The second highest was insufficient language skills at 20%. However, just because religion and culture were not articulated to be of concern, is not to say that they do not have direct repercussions on the employment status of these women. That 49% said that domestic responsibilities were holding them back, for example, can only be testimony to the strong patriarchal nature of traditional South Asian culture. Given the right practical support, this report believes that these women will build their confidence and determination, as well as gain the requisite practical ability, to be able to stand up to the traditional expectations of some conservative elements in their communities.

Providing sufficient childcare (in terms of these women, this is particularly providing sufficient access to and awareness of available childcare), as well as supplying enough English language courses (which are also sensitive to cultural requirements and levels of ability), are provisions which fall primarily within the government’s remit. At the moment, the government is failing these women. The most blatant example of this is the ‘redirecting’ of English language (ESOL) class funding towards priority learners which has, in turn, led to drastic funding cuts for beginners’ classes (those most needed by immigrants) in East London. Blame cannot just be ascribed to the government, however. It also lies with Muslim communities themselves. As evidenced in Quilliam’s Mosques Made in Britain [pdf] report, women have limited access to the religious and lay leadership in mosques to shape debates about a woman’s role in family and community life. This inclination towards patriarchal culture is also all too frequently reflected in the communities at large as well. One in four of our respondents said that they needed more support from their family to work. Whether this meant practical or emotional support was unclear, but anecdotal evidence in the report highlighted that in some instances these women are not encouraged to work by their families for fear of disrupting the domestic balance in the home.

The majority of immigrant South Asian Muslim women without a job want to work. Reasons for this varied—perhaps somewhat expectedly the majority (43%) said it was to financially support their family. Encouragingly, 30% of respondents said that they wanted to work so that they could be more independent. These statistics are very positive and go a considerable way towards undermining the far-right stereotype of these women as ‘lazy immigrants’ who aren’t working because they are held under lock and key by their family, their culture and their religion. The majority of these women suffer from a major lack of confidence in their ability to be able to enter the job market. What they require is a nudge in the right direction— from Government, from communities, from their families. These women will then be able to give back to their families and communities: both financially in terms of earnings, and as role models and ambassadors for their communities in the struggle against all forms of extremism. The government have already realised the potential of Muslim women in the fight against extremism; it is now time they directly addressed this sidelined group.

These women can and should reach their potential; they just need to be given the practical support in order to do so. As South Asian immigrants they are a ‘hard-to-reach’ group that are often overlooked; as mothers, wives and daughters-in-law they have a lot of responsibilities; but as women they are also individuals in their own right who deserve to be able to achieve.

Bosnian families laid to rest the remains of 534 newly identified victims. The US ambassador to the country said in the latest burial ceremony: “The world failed to act, failed to protect the innocent of Srebrenica.”

That’s why we must remember and never forget.

This is not the case with Lampton School.

It is still planning on giving a platform to Daud Abdullah and Moazzem Begg. For more information about these two men see my original post about this event. Indeed, the fact that the police have refused to go along with this charade could be argued to have made the situation worse. Now there will be no voice to challenge the views of two men who are far from moderate and a state comprehensive is playing host.

Let’s be clear about this. So long as these two men stop short of inciting hatred and/or violence then they should be allowed to espouse them. However, it is an entirely different question whether a school funded by our taxes should be helping these extremists in doing so by providing them with a platform for their views. If they want to talk then they can rent a backroom in a mosque or anywhere – just not in a state school where our taxes will be facilitating the propagation of their views.

We expect this for other non-violent extremists – imagine the furore if Lampton School had agreed to host a BNP rally – and yet, when an Islamist who advocated attacks on the Royal Navy (if they were deployed to Gaza) is invited to speak on their premises, the school is au fait with that idea. Scandalous.

Today a new round of repression is underway in Iran.

Here is something you can do about it. An anniversary demonstration at the Iranian embassy in London is scheduled for this Thursday, starting at 6 PM. Please wear green and come along to 16 Prince’s Gate, SW7. The nearest Tube station is South Kensington.

The only point – and I hope this leads other British bloggers to echo this call – is to show solidarity with the Iranian people.

In fact, as one Iranian exile tells me, people who “come selling newspapers and lecturing the people on what they should do” are not wanted. “Just join and express solidarity”, the exile says.

Please come.

****

Post by habibi

The Telegraph is reporting that Lisa Greenwood, an administrator in the Department of Children, Schools and Families, has lost her job for writing an anonymous message on an internet site at the height of the expenses scandal.

After learning that Hazel Blears had allegedly ‘flipped’ her second home to avoid capital gains taxes, Lisa Greenwood wrote:

“How dare you wave a cheque about on national TV, saying that you are sorry.

You are only sorry that you have been caught. You are a disgrace (including all the other honourable members). Why haven’t you been sacked?”

The message was written anonymously on the “They Work for You” website, but was still traced back to her work computer. She was promptly suspended and then sacked.

The Department of Children, Schools and Families said that it sacked her because:

The civil service has a clear code of conduct for its employees, which states that civil servants should be politically impartial and not act in a way that could damage the reputation of their department.

Now, why is this so outrageous you might ask?

Well, just last week we heard that the jihad loving civil servant, Azad Ali, who peddles the worst kind of sectarian and reactionary politics has been reinstated to his post at the Treasury. I wonder how any of these utterances were deemed to be ‘politically impartial’:

Hamas is a true resistance movement that is standing up for the rights of the Palestinians, whereas Fatah and specifically Abu Mazen have capitulated to the colonial mindset.

Or when he called Muslims seeking a ceasefire with Israel during the Gaza War in January:

…nothing but self-serving vultures, feeding on the dead flesh of the Palestinians.

Or this:

So what is the aim of this mass murder? Well it’s ideological. How you may ask? The stated aim of the Zionist terrorist state is to destroy Hamas and what it stands for, i.e. Freedom. You may notice that Fatah are not being targeted nor are they bleeding for the Muslims in Gaza, but hopefully they will once they return to their humanity.

We have seen this before in 2006 when the same Zionist terrorist state attacked Muslims in Lebanon, with the usual amount of fuel being supplied by America and the UK, so let us not be surprised by it – though we should be completely outraged.

There’s many more examples I could give you, but you get the point.

So, on the one hand we have Lisa Greenwood getting sacked for anonymously expressing her outrage over the MP expenses scandal. On the other we have Azad Ali openly glorifying jihad.

Both are Civil Servants governed by the same code of conduct, but only one gets sacked – and it’s not the one lambasting the British state or promoting violence against Israel.

What a disgrace.

UPDATE:

The good people at “They work for you” have written to us (see comments section below) making the point that the Telegraph has now removed all reference to their website in the original story. I’m happy to update the story here too; It seems like the Telegraph reporter named the wrong website.

For the record, they work for you is an excellent website. I use it all the time – although I’ve never left comments on it!