Category Archives: UK Politics

Bob and Bungle – Forget the BNP, let’s attack Quilliam

By Yossarian | Published: August 20, 2009

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.

Also posted in Anti Fascism, Blogosphere, Defamation, The Far Left | Tagged iEngage, Inayat Bunglawala, Islamophobia Watch, Quilliam Foundation | 4 Comments

Fun With Numbers (and the Muslim Council of Britain)

By Yossarian | Published: August 13, 2009

The Muslim Council of Britain likes to present itself as the voice of British Muslims. If you tuned in to Kenan Malik’s excellent programme on Radio 4 this morning, Are All Muslims the Same? then you will have heard MCB spokesman Inayat Bunglawala boasting that organisations like the MCB have never been out of step with what “the silent majority” of British Muslims are saying.

Quite apart from this making no sense at all (How does he know what the silent majority are saying if they are silent?), it is a portentous claim. If the MCB know what all Muslims are thinking then, as discussed yesterday, it makes sense for the government to treat them as gatekeepers to British Muslims. Bunglawala clearly knows better than British Muslims themselves, only six percent of whom actually believe the MCB represents them.

Also posted in Islamism, PVE | Tagged Inayat Bunglawala, Muslim Council of Britain | 14 Comments

MCB Get Ahead Of Themselves

By Yossarian | Published: August 12, 2009

John Denham, new Secretary of State for Communitites and Local Government, recently stated his desire that the government’s Prevent strategy shift its focus from being on “al-Qaida-influenced terrorism” to looking at extremism of all varieties. As outlined by David T earlier this week, there are many reasons for this being A Good Idea.

Here at the Spittoon we have been horrified by the rise of the viciously anti-Muslim BNP; a government policy to address the rise of far right politics must surely be welcomed. But then this was accompanied by the news that the Muslim Council of Britain’s banishment from Westminster may be coming to an end.

The official attempt to mend fences follows a controversial phase in the history of the programme, which culminated in an acrimonious dispute between Hazel Blears, Denham’s predecessor, and the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB).

Also posted in Islamism, PVE | Tagged John Denham, MCB, Muhammad Abdul Bari | Leave a comment

The rise of the far-right and anti-Muslim bigotry

By Shikwa | Published: August 11, 2009

Last weekend saw some ugly scenes in Birmingham when a group calling itself Casuals United held a protest in the City Centre. There was a similar protest held in Birmingham last month well.

Casuals United say they are only opposed to Islamist extremism but that is not the case. The group is little more than a fascist front, opposed to all Muslims in Britain as this clip of their protest last month demonstrates:

Notable chants in the video come at:

6:26 – I just want Muslim scum to go (a person off camera says this to whoever is filming)
6:48 – We want Muslims out
7:42 – Who are you? Who are you? (The implication being that Muslims are not British)
9:08 – Muslims out

Also posted in Anti Fascism, Anti Muslim bigotry, Democracy, Politics | 8 Comments

We are all Neocons now!

By Guest | Published: August 10, 2009

This is a guest post by The Arabian Neocon and is part 1 of a 2 part report.

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

Where to begin with all this? While I unravel the issues here I implore you, gentle reader, to persevere. It gets good. Trust me.

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad is a snotty paranoiac doing a PhD at the University of Strathclyde. In his own words he is currently ‘researching the role of lobbies, think tanks and foundations in furnishing the propaganda for the war in Iraq’.

Now then, the crackpot theories of an overworked and undersexed postgrad do not usually merit much attention. But then, I discovered that Idrees has been going around compiling ‘wiki’ pages on all my friends for his new website ‘Neocon Europe’. It is the invasive nature in which he sought out that information that first brought him to my attention. The website supposedly aims to:

Also posted in Antisemitism, Blogosphere, Israel/Palestine, Politics, Your View | 112 Comments

Yahya Birt hits the nail on the head

By Shikwa | Published: August 8, 2009

Last month the Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC) published a report on the BNP authored by Edmund Standing which caused quite a stir. The controversy stemmed from a baseless and, frankly, absurd allegation that CSC was deliberately seeking out to minimise and downplay anti-Muslim bigotry. The insinuation behind that charge is pretty clear and you don’t need me to spell it out.

Two things need to be said about Standing’s report. The first is that it does cite examples of the BNP’s anti-Muslim bigotry and these are mentioned throughout the report. The second is that the report itself never set out to provide a conclusive study on the BNP’s ideology – it was instead an investigation of their ‘online fascist network’ exploring the views of BNP members, sympathisers and supporters on places like YouTube and the blogosphere.

Also posted in Anti Muslim bigotry, Democracy, Politics | 22 Comments

Osama Saeed – Against Prejudice, Discrimination and Homosexuality

By Yossarian | Published: August 6, 2009

Brett on Harry’s Place has noticed yet another scandal from Osama Saeed – on his blog back in 2006 he recommended the unpleasant anti-gay site Eye on ‘Gay Muslims’ as a blog “[w]ell worth checking out”.

Eye on ‘Gay Muslims’ (I am repelled as I type those scare quotes) is a site written by a chap called Rashid Eldin who tells gay Muslims that there is no place for them in Islam, calls the estimable organisation Imaan‘s ‘Europride‘ event a “parade of perversion” and also recomends lectures by Yasir Qadhi.

Here is Qadhi talking about homosexuality.

It’s a long video and mainly it is concerned with Qadhi’s backwards views on women, but scroll through to 32 minutes where Qadhi starts to reminisce about the good old 80s when it was OK to abuse gays – and how society has “regressed” since then as you can’t attack homosexuality without being thought a homophobe. Funny that.

Also posted in Islamism | Tagged Osama Saeed, Scottish Islamic Foundation | 63 Comments

The Sex Education Issue

By Guest | Published: August 5, 2009

This is a guest post by Ibn Khaldun

****

A lot has recently been made (particularly in Muslim circles) of the idea that the government is attempting to introduce sex education to 5 year olds. Some Muslim parents are up in arms at the idea of their children being taught about sex at the age of five. Islamist groups have also jumped on the bandwagon, spotting an opportunity to spread their propaganda to unwitting Muslim parents. But what is the truth?

Firstly, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has yet to approve any plans, i.e. it is merely being discussed.

Secondly, it is not about ‘sex education’ but rather ‘relationship lessons’, which are a part of a wider initiative to promote Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE).

Also posted in Islamism, Politics, Your View | Tagged Hizb ut-Tahrir, SRE | 16 Comments

You read it here first

By Yossarian | Published: July 24, 2009

Several weeks after we at the Spittoon first broke the story, the Independent has now published an article on Hizb ut-Tahrir’s links with the SRE Islamic Campaign to end sex and relationship education for children.

Patel’s organisation, SREIslamic, was established eight months ago to encourage Muslims to respond to the Government’s consultation about whether to make SRE compulsory and extend it to five-year-olds. Since then, the organisation claims, it has held 40 workshops across the country and collected tens of thousands of signatures from Muslims opposed to the measures.

But Patel is not only a concerned parent and campaigner. According to his website, he is also a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist organisation that Tony Blair considered banning in 2005. Patel’s brother, Jalaluddin, is the former UK head of the political party, which is barred in countries including Germany, Russia and Egypt. Should we be concerned that, like other far-right or religious groups in Britain, SREIslamic might be using a sensitive community grievance to pursue a wider political agenda?0

Also posted in Islamism | Tagged Hizb ut-Tahrir, SREIslamic | 11 Comments

What Muslim Women Want

By Guest | Published: July 17, 2009

This is a guest post by Lucy James, a research fellow at Quilliam

****

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.

Also posted in Feature, Identity Politics, Your View | Tagged Quilliam, Women | 10 Comments

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