Radicalisation from the Left and Right

By Guest | Published: September 2, 2011

This is a guest post by Amjad Khan

From a leftist point of view, western capitalism is deeply flawed; everything that is wrong with the world today is down the western capitalism and the greed it promotes. The world is in need of revolutionary change and therefore foreign leaders and developing world revolutionaries who stand up to the west are heroes. This perspective is also underpinned by a soft racism of lower expectation; they don’t view developing world revolutionaries as being capable of formulating complex political ideology, rather they construe their actions as entirely defensive.

The right, in contrast, views the western enlightenment as being the ultimate high point in human civilisation. Therefore, all attempts to create orderly societies should be rooted in enlightenment principles and there is very little to be learnt from others. The developing world is viewed as an exotic place that one must understood and navigated through whilst holding onto and preaching western enlightenment values.

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Posted in Far Right Extremism, The Regressive Left | 7 Comments

On the Geneology of Fascism

By Guest | Published: September 2, 2011

This is a guest post by Hugo Schmidt

The scene is a number of shaven-headed types protesting against an immigrant group. Except that in this case, the shaven headed chaps are brandishing signs proclaiming their defense of gay right and womens rights and their hatred of the BNP and “Black and White, Unite!”.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the English Defence League.

The EDL is a very peculiar organization. Denounced on the one hand by the establishment as another far-right group, and on the other hand, by Nick Griffin as a neocon Zionist front organization, it sometimes seems that there’s a different EDL for everyone you talk to. To untangle this, I thought it useful to take a look into the EDL’s beginnings.

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Posted in Far Right Extremism | 13 Comments

The Lefty Tribalism of Mehdi Hasan

By Guest | Published: September 1, 2011

This is a guest post by Amjad Khan

It’s not unusual to see political commentators from across the spectrum using high profile events to score cheap points and take a pop at the opposition. But the frequency and manner in which New Statesman’s political editor, Mehdi Hassan, does it is both shocking and appalling. Mehdi seems to use almost every single opportunity he ever gets to bash the right’s policies without really offered alternatives. Whether it is an appearance on Question Time or an article in a paper, as sure as night follows day, Mehdi will be on the attack.

Shortly after the riots, Mehdi interviewed the father of one of the victims of the riots in Birmingham, a brave and outspoken man called Tariq Jahan. One would think that the interview was an opportunity to explore the tensions in the city, the impact of Tariq’s brave intervention, the grief of his family, the future for his community. But no, in characteristic fashion Mehdi Hasan used the opportunity to, yes you’ve guessed it, bash the right and little esle. Mehdi spends the first half of the interview using quotes from Tariq to justify his attack on the PMs proposed tougher sentencing for rioters and statement about ‘broken society’. The pathetic wasted opportunity of an interview can be seen in full here.

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Posted in The Regressive Left | 1 Comment

apparently we’re all robert spencer now, according to the weasels at “spinwatch”

By bananabrain | Published: August 24, 2011

we at the spittoon have for some time been a target for the not-very-impressive “spinwatch” site, which appears to be the hobby-horse of strathclyde university’s answer to bob pitt, dr david miller. dr miller, we hardly need remind you, appears to think that spittoon authors are without exception rabid “neo-cons”, by which he appears to mean some sort of catch-all imperialism of liberal democracy imposed by force of arms on the bucolic, picaresque and entirely pacifist natives of the middle-east and south asia. as if this wasn’t bad (or inaccurate) enough, we are also supposed to be apostles of islamophobia; apparently it isn’t clear enough to someone who is supposed to be an academic that what we oppose is the virulent political ideology known as islamism – as well as other forms of religious and political extremism; jewish, christian, atheist, muslim, ethnicity-based – we are equal-opportunity anti-extremists, or we certainly try to be.

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Posted in Activism, Anti Muslim bigotry, Blogosphere, Dodgy Policy Wonks, Education, European Fascism, Far Right Extremism, Homophobia, Identity Politics, Islamism, Moral relativism, Nutters, Racism, The Far Left, The Left, The Regressive Left | 20 Comments

David Miller and the case of the missing comment on CiF

By avicenna | Published: August 24, 2011

David Miller of the University of Strathclyde is a man of dubious intention and reprehensible politics. Miller has a piece up on CiF which reflect his entire thesis. It shows the Guardian once again using its formidable powers of influence to celebrate his kind of politics.

Miller writes:

In our report we examine two of the most prominent British thinktanks engaged in work on the role of Islam in UK politics. The Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC) is the smaller of the two, focusing mainly on Islam, while Policy Exchange has a wider remit. Nevertheless, their work has followed quite similar lines. They have both rejected counter-terrorism policies based on public safety and have instead sought to revive discredited counter-subversion policies from the cold war era – policies that targeted a generation of trade union leaders and peace activists, including future Labour ministers.

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Posted in Conspiracy Theory Madness, The Regressive Left | 1 Comment

Two rights don’t make a right

By Guest | Published: August 19, 2011

This is a guest post by Hugo Schmidt

On reading of the events in Norway, my first thoughts were, as I am sure they were of many of my readers, what has Norway done to inflame such hatred against itself? What are the root causes? How should the Labour party adjust its policies to prevent such a thing happening again? We must, of course, hope that tolerance prevails and not prefer vengeance to justice.

Okay, that was slightly harder to type than I expected. Lest anyone think I am being flippant about this disgusting atrocity (I refuse to use the word tragedy, which carries connotations of either self caused or non caused), let me point out that the above drivel has been mobilized following every atrocity by the Islamic ultra right for the last ten years. It was heard last weekend too, when Islamic fascists initially claimed responsibility for the horrifying events on that Norwegian island and in Oslo.

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Posted in Anti Fascism | 3 Comments

unfortunately, this is not haredi satire….

By bananabrain | Published: August 17, 2011

i came upon this notice in synagogue this morning. it makes interesting reading – as a piece of satire, of course, which i hoped and prayed it is, but unfortunately, on investigation, it isn’t, although it was, due to its over-the-topness, taken as such by the regulars, which was a relief. i know there are synagogues where it would not occur to anyone to think it might be satire – there is at least one commentator who sympathises, but nevertheless thinks it’s “overstated”!

the state of "yiddishkeit" yesterday

the state of "yiddishkeit" yesterday

anyway, it appears to be (you can download it from here) from one of the increasingly odd sub-groups of the breslover sect of hasidim, who you may have seen in the recent tv documentary partying at their annual jamboree at the sect founder’s tomb in the town of uman in the ukraine. they are regarded as somewhat odd even by other hasidim (in a kind of sufi high-on-G!D hippy kind of way) but they are rather obsessed with the kabbalistic aspects of correct sexual activity, the piece itself being extremely revealing of the attitudes that filter through in much of the discourse from the haredi world, particularly the hasidic bits, so i thought i’d share it, with some translation and commentary:

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Posted in Activism, Esoterica, Exegesis, Farce, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Religion, Hermeneutics, Jewish Extremism, Laughs, Nutters, Obscurantism, Sectarianism, Sexuality | Leave a comment

Indonesia: Ahmadiyya Murdered By Sunnis For Defending Themselves

By Guest | Published: August 16, 2011

This is a guest post by Kisan

Ahmeddiya Muslims, a group viewed as heretical by mainstream Sunni Muslims have been suffering a campaign of terror, murder, intimidation and genocide by Sunni Muslims.

In this video (warning extremely graphic) you can see three men beaten to death by a mob of Muslims and having their heads repeatedly smashed in by poles and sticks even after they are long dead. It is sickening and a terrible crime against humanity for the mere crime of having a belief that mainstream Sunni Muslims find blasphemous to their dogma.

Now this issue has reached the courts and judgment has been handed down as per the following news story:

DENPASAR, Indonesia — An Indonesian man who survived a deadly mob attack by Muslim hard-liners was sentenced Monday to six months in prison, prompting outrage from rights groups over a sentence that was harsher than what some of his assailants received.

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Posted in Sectarianism | 1 Comment

Adam Barnett’s response to Robert Spencer

By Cross Post | Published: August 16, 2011

This is a cross-post of Adam Barnett’s (‘One Law for All’) response to Robert Spencer’s statement on the report

Following the publication of ‘Enemies Not Allies: The Far-Right’, our new report which investigates his and similar organisations, Stop Islamization of America director Robert Spencer has invited One Law for All to ‘substantiate [our] charges, or withdraw them and issue a public apology.’ One could simply recommend that Mr. Spencer read our report. Indeed, in his ‘rebuttal’, he writes as if he has answered all of these charges before. It’s therefore strange that he felt the need to reply to them at ‘11:53pm’ on a Sunday night, and to attempt to smear his critics as ‘racist anti-Semites’ and ‘supporters of Jihad’. One could be forgiven for thinking that Mr. Spencer hoped to prevent people from reading the report for themselves.

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Posted in Anti Fascism, Anti Muslim bigotry, Far Right Extremism | 3 Comments

Hassan Radwan’s Response to Robert Spencer

By Cross Post | Published: August 16, 2011

This is a cross-post of a comment by Hassan Radwan of the Council of Ex-Muslims on the execrable Jihadwatch bigot-site:

My name is Hassan and I am an Ex-Muslim and an Executive member of the Council of Ex-Muslims. I congratulate Maryam for making a clear distinction between our stand against the Islamists on the one hand and your position and that of Pam Geller and groups like SIOE/A on the other.

I find it amusing how you throw “Anti-Semite” at her much like some Muslims throw “Islamophobe” at anyone who dares criticise Islam, simply because she criticised Israel’s tactics during the invasion of Gaza. It seems you have the attitude of anyone criticising Israel’s political and military policies is an anti-semite. Just as some Muslims have the attitude that anyone criticising Islam hates Muslims.

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Posted in Anti Muslim bigotry, Antisemitism, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

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