Tag Archives: Islamophobia

Islamophobia Watch – Dimwit Unlimited

Islamophobia Watch have found another less-than-worthwhile cause to throw their “might” behind – defending global Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir from their critics.

In reality, Hizb ut-Tahrir is a peaceful if highly sectarian organisation that poses no threat whatsoever to the people of East London. But what can you expect from the Tories, given that David Cameron is on record as calling for HT to be made illegal?

Needless to say, Cameron isn’t calling for a ban on the far-right British National Party, even though no HT members have been convicted of the sort of violent crimes that BNP members have. Clearly the Tories apply different standards to white fascists than they do to brown Islamists.

Posted in Anti Muslim bigotry, Islamism, The Far Left | Also tagged , , | Leave a comment

CST Blow IHRC Out Of The Water

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.

Posted in Defamation, Islamism | Also tagged , | 1 Comment

Unhelpful and Trivialising Accusations of Islamophobia

The IHRC (Islamic Human Rights Commission), who organise pro-Hezbollah “Al-Quds Day” demonstrations with Azzam “Kaboom” Tamimi, and criticised the conviction of Abu Hamza as “creating an environment that can only further alienate the Muslim community”, have accused the Community Security Trust of demonising Islam and Muslims.

Many of the articles published on the CST website explore issues related to Islam and Muslims. These articles express Islamophobic views both against Muslims and against Islam itself. CST writers such as Michael Whine, Mark Gardener and Dave Rich centre their arguments upon an Orientalist reading of Islam and its history to fill out stereotypes about Islam and Muslims. Although the CST articles attempt to deal with contemporary issues, the arguments presented throughout the website are fixed in a skewed historical discourse about Islam. Their writings serve to demonize Islam and depict its adherents as being an intolerant and violent ‘other’.

Posted in Antisemitism, Islamism | Also tagged , | 10 Comments

Knifey Spoony with Islamophobia

In a recent article on Harry’s Place, Edmund Standing quoted approvingly from this attack by Paul Sikander on the term “Islamophobia”:

‘Islamophobia’ is a constructed model designed to protect Islam and Islamic politics from criticism. It has little or nothing to do with protecting individual Muslims from discrimination. [...]

Anti-Semitism when it was expressed, the earlier racism of Europe, that had been present before the post war migration of black and Asian people to the UK, was simultaneously a similar and different mode of prejudice. But crucially, anti-Semitism when expressed and countered was not about defending the theology of Judaism.

The construction of the concept of ‘Islamophobia’ began in the aftermath of the Rushdie affair. The impetus for it was to stigmatise an entire range of individuals and opinions, from those who took issue with religious precepts of Islam, to those who questioned certain values of the religion, certain cultural practices recurrent inside the sub-culture of some British Muslim groups, all the way through to those who critically analysed Islamist politics.

Posted in Anti Muslim bigotry | Also tagged , , | 3 Comments
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