Preventing Needless Hysteria

By Guest | Published: October 19, 2009

This is a guest post by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens
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For the past couple of days, the Guardian has been running scare stories about the Government’s Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) programme. Gleefully feeding Islamist propaganda about the government’s supposed demonisation of Muslims, it is an irresponsible and potentially dangerous attack.

PVE is a strand of the CONTEST strategy designed to fight terrorism, and a large part of the PVE strand is the Pathfinder Fund which, through local authorities, allocates funds to local organisations that they assess can help prevent people from becoming radicalised.

The main Guardian report focuses primarily on the use of information sharing agreements (ISA) which have been drawn up between the Metropolitan Police and two councils that receive PVE funding for certain projects. These ISAs specify that PVE funded projects can share with the police detailed personal information about innocent Muslims, including details about their sex life. Having got hold of two ISAs, one from Islington and one from Waltham Forest, the Guardian has presented the Prevent strategy as nothing more than a covert dirty tricks programme designed to create a police state for innocent Muslims.

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Posted in Islamism, PVE, Your View | 21 Comments

Muslim Brotherhood front-group declares war on ‘ZINC’

By Guest | Published: October 19, 2009

This is a guest-post by Al-Qanaas Al-Masri

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The Enemy (according to the BMI)

The Enemy (according to the BMI)

At the risk of sounding like Richard Littlejohn, sometimes you just can’t make it up. In response to the Guardian’s report on Saturday on how the government’s ‘Prevent’ counter-extremism programme is allegedly being used to spy on British Muslims, the British Muslim Initiative, a moribund Muslim Brotherhood front-group run by former Muslim Association of Britain spokesman Anas Al-Tikriti, briefly stirred into life in order to issue a single crazed press-release:

BMI president Muhammad Sawalha said, “This campaign of espionage is a hallmark of totalitarian societies. It is an unfortunate throw back to the Cold War years when spying was the order of the day.”

“We are deeply aggrieved that such measures should be adopted to target law-abiding citizens in a modern democracy”, he added.

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Posted in Islamism, PVE | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Accusations Of Spying Do Not Help Our Fight Against Extremism

By Guest | Published: October 19, 2009

This is a guest post by Khuram

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On Saturday the Guardian published a front page article by Vikram Dodd on the Governments PREVENT strategy. This article claimed there were concerns that the agenda was being used to spy and to gather information.   On Sunday another article by Dodd stated that influential MPs were going to investigate these allegations.  Interestingly, Dodd was also behind what was claimed to be a leak of the new Contest 2 strategy back in February 09, the actual strategy did not include anything of what was alleged.  Two important questions need to be asked then: is PREVENT really about spying and is it effective?

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Posted in Islamism, PVE, The Far Left, Your View | Tagged , , , | 15 Comments

At last…A counter-demonstration to Andy’s Army

By Effendi | Published: October 18, 2009

News is emerging of a planned counter-demonstration to Anjum ‘Andy’ Chaudhry’s “Islam4UK” outfit which plans to hold a rally in Central London later this month.

There is a Facebook group called ‘Say No To Andy’s Fanatics’ which has some details. It reads:

The extremist AND UNREPRESENTATIVE cult group al-Muhajiroun intends to provoke hatred and division in both Muslims and British people of all backgrounds with a demonstration in Central London….

I AM ASKING ALL TO STAND WITH LONDONERS AGAINST THESE EXTREMISTS ON OCTOBER 31st 2009….

The way we have stood together against the EDL we now need to stand together against those who want to harm the UK and its people.

Publicise this far and wide – and make sure you get down there. A big attendance is vital.

Afterwards, we’ll all go for a swift half.

andy

Andy in happier times...

Posted in Activism, Anti Fascism, Politics, PVE | 13 Comments

Happy Diwali and Puja

By Faisal | Published: October 18, 2009

DiwaliDurga Puja

The Spittoon team wishes a happy Diwali and Puja to our Sikh and Hindu readers.

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

The Muslim Council of Britain weighs into the Geert Wilders debate

By Guest | Published: October 17, 2009

This is a guest post by Al-Qanaas Al-Masri

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The Muslim Council of Britain, the UK’s pre-eminent Jamaat-e-Islami front-group, has issued an incisive press-release on the much-debated question of whether or not Geert Wilders should be allowed into the UK:

The Muslim Council of Britain today re-iterated the widely held view that the far right Dutch politician Geert Wilders is a relentless preacher of hate. The MCB neither condones nor condemns the decision to allow him into the United Kingdom, but it objects to the rapturous welcome he is receiving in the name of free speech.

It neither “condones nor condemns” the decision to let Wilders into the UK? What sort of nonsense is this?

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Posted in Islamism | Tagged , | 10 Comments

“This article has been removed”

By Effendi | Published: October 16, 2009

Back in December 2007, the Economist published ‘Guilty at Birth’, an article dealing with Jamaat-e-Islam’s stake in the elections (January 2008) in view of its legacy and culpability in war crimes that took place in the 1971 Bangladesh genocide. Soon after, the editor of the Economist received a letter before action from the representatives of the Jamaat’s leader Motiur Rahman Nizami, demanding the withdrawal of the article backed up by a threat to sue the magazine.

Soon after receiving the letter from Nizami, the Economist retracted the article from its online archives. So if you have a pass into the subscription-only Economist website, you are able to see that the article no longer exists at this address, as it previously did, and is instead replaced with this cryptic message:

“This article has been removed”

Luckily however, the journalist Saleem Samad, who runs the ‘Bangladesh Watchdog’ blog published the article in its entirety prior to it being pulled, which you can read here.

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Posted in Anti Fascism, Democracy, Freedom of Expression | 7 Comments

Stop calling us terrorists, or we’ll blow you up

By Yossarian | Published: October 16, 2009

News reaches us of a serious irony deficiency afflicting the Taliban in Pakistan. The Daily Times reports that the offices of private TV channels, press clubs around the country and offices of the print media have all been warned that they may be the next target of terrorists.

What had they done wrong?

a Taliban group also sent two letters to the Lahore Press Club – one on October 12 and the other on October 14 – warning that if the media “does not stop portraying us as terrorists … we will blow up offices of journalists and media organisations” [...] The group said that Taliban should be referred to as mujahideen.

This is a clear demonstration of the fallacy of the argument that demonisation of Muslims in the press (which does occur) causes terrorism. Demonising Muslims is intrinsically wrong, but it does not cause terrorism. Extremist ideologies cause terrorism.

Posted in International Affairs, Islamism | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Rucking Hell

By Yossarian | Published: October 16, 2009

Carter-Ruck do not give up.

The law firm Carter-Ruck has made a fresh move that could stop an MPs’ debate next week by claiming a controversial injunction it has obtained is “sub judice”.

The move follows the revelation of the existence of a secret “super-injunction” obtained by the firm on behalf of the London-based oil traders Trafigura.

The injunction not only bans disclosure of a confidential report on Trafigura and toxic waste, but also banned disclosure of the injunction’s very existence, until it was revealed by an MP this week under parliamentary privilege.

Carter-Ruck partner Adam Tudor today sent a letter to the Speaker, John Bercow, and also circulated it to every single MP and peer, saying they believed the case was “sub judice”.

If correct, it would mean that, under Westminster rules to prevent clashes between parliament and the courts, a debate planned for next Wednesday could not go ahead.

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Posted in Freedom of Expression | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Friday Caption Competition 16/10/2009

By Effendi | Published: October 16, 2009

Yes, it’s that time of the week again. Today we’re featuring Abu Qatada who, despite hating Britain, is currently being treated to free food and board courtesy of Her Majesty, the Queen. God bless you Ma’am!

As ever, captions in the comments section below.

Qatada

Posted in Caption Competition | 20 Comments

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