The forces of unreason descend on Ground Zero

This is a cross-post by Edmund Standing from Harry’s Place


The Daily Mail reports on ‘The moment an angry crowd protesting against Ground Zero mosque turns on man in a skullcap… because they think he is a Muslim’.

I hope Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller are suitably ashamed. The so-called ‘anti-jihad’ movement spearheaded by these two characters has spawned this kind of mindless bigotry and thuggery by continually blurring the line between ordinary Muslims and Islamists.

I am opposed to Islamism, and I am also opposed to Islam. However, I am not opposed to people having the right to practise Islam or any other religion. The hysteria against human beings who identify as Muslims increasingly seen at events organised by groups such as the worthless ‘Stop Islamization of America’ is an utter disgrace and undermines the principles that lie at the heart of the liberal, democratic West.

Posted in Anti Muslim bigotry | Leave a comment

It happened on the way to Ground Zero

Watch the video, it is astonishing.

Warning: Social cohesion it is not. But don’t worry, no ‘black Muslim Puerto Rican types’ were physically hurt in the making of this video.

This is a take of it from gawker.com :

Both supporters and opponents of the “Ground Zero” “Mosque”—a proposed community center—held rallies in lower Manhattan today. Can you guess which side started chanting “no mosque here” at a black guy wandering through the crowd?

While you spent your Sunday trying to teach your cat to go to the bathroom on a human toilet, a group of brave, freedom-loving Americans gathered in New York City to express their extreme disapproval with the Park 51 project, an al-Qaeda plot to build a community center featuring a swimming pool and auditorium on the very site where a Burlington Coat Factory once stood.

Posted in Obscurantism | 9 Comments

religious people need to recommit to and engage with critical thinking

following an unusually thoughtful broadcast last week by richard dawkins (he’s obviously trying to take on board how much his militancy turns people off by some of the pleas he made on behalf of sacred texts as fine language, cultural literacy and so on) i am grappling again with some of the issues raised by faith schools in the critical thinking debate. dawkins, as per usual, lumped all faith schools together as a) proponents of segregation (for which there is some justification) and b) closers, rather than openers of young minds – the segment in which he, somewhat exasperatedly, grappled with the islamic school science class with an apparent 100% rejection of evolution was a powerful statement. however, also as per usual, he implied (by saying that he “worried that”) this was inevitable in a situation where the parents’ wishes about what they wanted their children exposed to overruled the presumed human rights of children to make up their own mind about what they thought was interesting or worthwhile. this argument was given short shrift by a catholic educationalist from northern ireland, who told him he was simply imposing his own expectations over those of the parents concerned; i personally thought they struggled with the editing a little if they were seeking to show that the wishes of parents were unreasonable; this wasn’t the strongest argument i’ve ever seen against faith schools. in my opinion, they’d have done better to concentrate on the ethos of these schools as exclusivist and contrary to “community cohesion”, but then again, what do i know?

Posted in Anti Muslim bigotry, Antisemitism, Blogosphere, Christian Evangelical Nutters, Democracy, Exegesis, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Religion, Hate Speech, Hermeneutics, Human Rights, Interfaith, Islamism, Jewish Extremism | 16 Comments

Bangladesh bars enforced Islamic dress code

The BBC reports:

A Bangladesh court has ruled that people cannot be forced to wear skull caps, veils or other religious clothing in workplaces, schools and colleges.

This ruling comes after reports emerged that a college in the north of Bangladesh forced women to wear veils.

The high court also ruled that women cannot be prevented from taking part in sports or cultural activities.

The court said that wearing any form of religious clothing, for students and employees, should be a personal choice.

It has also asked the authorities to explain why it should not be made illegal to prevent girls from taking part in sports and cultural activities.

In April this year, the court ordered schools and colleges not to force women to wear the burqa, a garment that covers the entire body except the eyes and hands.

Posted in Secularism | 13 Comments

The David Kelly conspiracy

This is a cross-post from Harry’s Place

According to the Daily Mail (ho, ho ho), only one in five of you believe David Kelly committed suicide.

According to an exclusive Mail opinion poll, only one in five people accepts the Hutton Inquiry’s finding that the government weapons inspector took his own life.

The survey also reveals that eight out of ten people want a full inquest. With senior MPs making the same demand, the Coalition is under strong pressure to act.

It comes as a medical report says it was ‘impossible’ that Dr Kelly bled to death in the way described by the inquiry.

The “impossible circumstances” of Kelly’s death are described by the pathologist who examined Kelly in today’s Sunday Times (paywall) as:

“an absolute classic case of self-inflicted injury. You could illustrate a textbook with it. If it were anyone else and you were to suggest there’s something foul about it, you would be referred for additional training.”

Posted in Media, Politics, UK Politics | 1 Comment

On being a Muslim Jew

This is cross-post by Shiraz Maher from Focus on Islamism


I have long maintained that I don’t ‘do’ theology. It really is not my game and, given the mess modern Islam finds itself in, there is very little to be gained from my entering the fray. Those who know me or follow my writing will know that from 2001-2005, I was a member of the radical Islamist party, Hizb ut Tahrir. I can’t profess to having known much about Islamic theology then either – joining was a political move, the Militant Tendency of my day – and I don’t claim to be an expert on Islamic theology today either.

I have been content to have left the party on my own terms and in my own way after researching Islamic political thought for myself. Until now, I have never sought to comment on that further but the ongoing mosque controversy in New York – fuelled by some of the very worst elements of the American Right – and, this silly post by Edmund Standing on Harry’s Place (from which he nominally retired as a blogger at one point) has forced me to review that.

Posted in Your View | 9 Comments

“So, you’re offended? So fucking what?”

I am amazed that the Park 51 Community Centre or the so called “Ground Zero Mosque” debate in still chundering on, with no end in sight, despite the paucity of cogent arguments on why it should be opposed by those who oppose it.

Alex Massie’s comment on the “Ground Zero Mosque” is spot on:

One of the recurring arguments against the plan is that, however well-intentioned its backers may be, it represents an unfortunate and unnecessary “provocation”. Even if those involved mean no harm and don’t mean to “provoke” they should have been wise enough to appreciate that their proposal was bound to provoke a hostile reaction. Which means they should think again.

Posted in Anti Muslim bigotry, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Religion | 76 Comments

Andy Hull Writes to the Papers

This is a cross-post by Lucy Lips from Harry’s Place


Jews and Muslims are familiar with it. The pig’s head desecrating the place of worship.

That’s what happened at the Finsbury Park Mosque, last month. The perpetrators of this criminal and disgusting act have yet to be caught. However, the mosque has a very good idea of who is to blame. Not neo Nazis: but rather their former trustee, the Labour MP Khalid Mahmood: abetted by Hansard, James Forsyth of the Spectator, and me.

That conclusion may surprise you. It certainly surprised me. However, as Andrew Gilligan points out, this does appear to be their explanation.

The slur against the MP is repeated in the Islington Gazette:

The current trustees, who took over in 2005, believe the pig’s head incident happened because Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood, himself a former trustee, recently cast fresh aspersions on the mosque.

Posted in Islamism | Leave a comment

Activism killed the radio star

Abjol Miah, a leading activist in the Respect Party and in the Jamaat-e-Islam front Islamic Forum Europe (IFE), has lost his appeal to the Press Complaints Commission after he complained about an article in the Telegraph, which identified him as…an activist in the IFE.

Mr Miah, Respect’s leader on Tower Hamlets council, is no longer a councillor, and his party was all but wiped out, after he was exposed as an IFE activist by the Telegraph and Channel 4’s Dispatches. We also played the viewers a secretly-recorded tape of Mr Galloway, you might remember, saying that his election to Parliament in 2005 owed “more than I can say, more than it would be wise for me to say, to the IFE.”

Posted in Islamism | 2 Comments

Lessons Learnt?

This is a guest-post by Chris Blackburn


The recent deluge of sensitive information by Wikileaks on the US in AfPak has made me really mad. I don’t care about the breach of security, although, the naming of Afghan informants was highly cavalier and Julian Assange should have blanked out assets names. Intelligence and the suppression of strategic information should become more open in some respects, but what Wikileaks have done is just simply reckless. The Afghan people have been risking their lives to give us information and intelligence which they hoped would help defeat the Taliban and its allies. But, what really annoys me the most is the fact that Pakistan has been complicit in sponsoring militants and playing us for fools, or have they? That position is certainly conventional wisdom at the moment, but is it strictly accurate?

Posted in Your View | 6 Comments