NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s Defence of Ground Zero Islamic Centre

New York’s Mayor Bloomberg gets it right. The freedom to worship is a fundamental principle of secularism, the separation of church/mosque/synagogue/temple from state, and to infringe that principle is to capitulate to the extremists and the terrorists.

From the Huff Po:

Speaking on Governor’s Island, misty-eyed New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised a decision to allow an Islamic center to be built near Ground Zero.

Bloomberg choked up during his delivery, which highlighted the spirit of religious tolerance and freedoms once sought by New York’s earliest settlers.

“We may not always agree with every one of our neighbors. That’s life and it’s part of living in such a diverse and dense city. But we also recognize that part of being a New Yorker is living with your neighbors in mutual respect and tolerance. It was exactly that spirit of openness and acceptance that was attacked on 9/11,” he said.

Posted in Anti Muslim bigotry, Secularism | 1 Comment

Those who benefit from Islamophobia

Yesterday the Guardian reported on a poll on public perceptions on Muslims, carried out for the Islamic Education and Research Academy (iEra). The report revealed high levels of bigotry and hostility to Muslims in Britain, as well as antagonism towards Islam as a belief.

George Readings, of the Quilliam Foundation, made some essential observations about the findings made in the report. Firstly he argued that anti Muslim bigotry in Britain has been fuelled by extremists from both the far right as well as the far-left, but also in addition, from the Muslim (Islamist) far-right. He has also identified a root cause of anti Muslim bigotry – perpetrated by the British press, when it makes almost no distinction between ordinary Muslims and extremist Muslims, their political groups and their beliefs.

Posted in Anti Muslim bigotry, Islamism | 18 Comments

Bangladesh Restores Secular Constitution

The Bangladesh Supreme Court has restored the Constitution to the spirit of the original secular version of 1972, prior to its “tampering” by a series of military dictatorships.

The Supreme Court of Bangladesh has reinstated the measure banning Islamic parties. In a document of 184 pages presented July 26 last, the Court has demolished the Fifth Amendment of the 1979Constitution, including provisions that allowed the rise of Islamic parties in parliament during military regimes (1975 – 1979, 1982 – 1990). The measure, introduced for the first time in January, has been blocked for six months because of an appeal process demanded by Islamic leaders.

Using the Supreme Court ruling as its initiative, the Bangladesh government has banned religious political parties:

Shafiq Ahmed, Minister of Justice, said the measure will be a blow to the extremist parties that can no longer use religion to political ends.

Posted in Secularism | 15 Comments

Hey Music Hater

Bad news for Iran’s music lovers:

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said today that music is “not compatible” with the values of the Islamic republic, and should not be practised or taught in the country.

In some of the most extreme comments by a senior regime figure since the 1979 revolution, Khamenei said: “Although music is halal, promoting and teaching it is not compatible with the highest values of the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic.”

This makes it an opportune moment to cue up ‘Rock the Casbah’ by the Clash, which was about the Ayatollah Khomeini’s ban on music in 1979 soon after the Islamic Revolution.

But perhaps both these Islamist leaders should have reflected on the words of the 12th century sufi master Ali Al-Hujwiri, who wrote in Kashf Al-Mahjub (The Revelation of the Veiled – the first treatise on sufism in Persian) a passage which, translated, goes like this:

Posted in Islamism, Sharia, Sufism | Leave a comment

A Depressing Little Story in the Sunday Times

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


The Sunday Times today (behind a paywall) breaks the news that Home Office adviser, Sabin Khan, has been suspended.

You will remember that the Home Secretary, Theresa May, excluded the Indian hate preacher, Zakir Naik, from the United Kingdom in May. This is what happened behind the scenes:

Papers he is filing in the High Court allege that Khan told Naik’s team that she and Farr — who view the preacher as a moderate — both opposed the ban. She purportedly said they would do “all they could to enable and encourage Dr Naik’s entry to the UK”.

Farr asked the preacher to provide a rebuttal to claims that he had said “every Muslim should be a terrorist” and that Osama Bin Laden was not behind the 9/11 attacks. In an email, Farr described the reply as “a good strong statement”.

Posted in Anti Muslim bigotry, Democracy, Islamism | 13 Comments

Let’s Think Again

This is a guest-post by Chris Blackburn


With the current impetuous on finding some sort of anti-thesis to war in Afghanistan and elsewhere. There has been a whole host of buzzwords and maxims coming from the media and international community of talking heads.

We all agree that since 9/11 there has been one strategic blunder after the other: from the war in Iraq to illegal renditions of terrorist suspects to Guantanamo Bay. It is clear that war is failing to help meet our strategic objectives, people are growing disillusioned, but there is an alternative answer to what is becoming the fashionable in-phrase within the conflict averse diplomatic community and apologists of radical Islamism which is less war war, more jaw jaw.

Posted in Your View | 1 Comment

White Liberals and Politically Correct Racism

This is a cross-post by Edmund Standing


The white liberal is an unhealthy type of creature that you will undoubtedly have encountered, if not in real life, certainly via the media. By ‘liberal’, I do not mean simply someone who has a generally liberal outlook, in the sense of a ‘live and let live’ philosophy, nor do I mean liberals in the sense of the classical liberals of the conservative tradition. By ‘white liberal’, I mean a white Western individual who is likely to come from a middle class background and have a university education, considers him or herself to be both ‘left-wing’ and socially ‘liberal’, and almost certainly reads The Guardian or The Independent. White liberals espouse an artificial and pretentious form of ‘egalitarianism’, a patronising and hypocritical approach to ethnic minorities and non-Western cultures, and – in a re-hash of the notion of the ‘white man’s burden’ – devote themselves to a delusional Messianism in which they seek to ‘save the world’ through protesting against war (in real terms, protesting against non-white people having a chance at freedom and democracy), Israel (the one truly liberal society in the Middle East), globalisation (thereby opposing the one great vehicle by which poorer nations can develop), and so on, while making themselves feel and look ‘good’ by flaunting their pious support for campaigns to end poverty in the Third World (which will do no such thing, as Dambisa Moyo, Stephen Pollard, Marian L. Tupy, and others rightly point out ), and boasting about how ‘progressive’ they are by showing ‘solidarity’ with genocidal Islamists in Gaza.

Posted in Anti Muslim bigotry, Moral relativism, Racism, The Regressive Left | 8 Comments

Jamaat Leaders Arrested For Genocide

This is a cross-post by Tendance Coatesy


Bangladesh 1971: One of the Worst Genocides of the 20th Century

The International Crimes Tribunal yesterday issued arrest warrants against already detained four Jamaat-e-Islami leaders on charges of committing genocide and crimes against humanity and peace during the Liberation War.

“Warrants of arrest should be issued against these four people to ensure effective and proper investigation,” Tribunal Chairman Justice Nizamul Huq said allowing the prosecution prayer after submission of Chief Prosecutor Golam Arif Tipu.

The four Jamaat leaders are Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojahid and senior assistant secretaries general Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla.

More Here. Hat-Tip to Enty.

Jamaat Leaders Arrested for War Crimes

By Faheem Haider

Posted in Human Rights, Islamism | 51 Comments

Pakistan leads the War on WikiLeaks

The Pakistan government has gone into damage control mode after the evidence of the ISI’s involvement in Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan was exposed and confirmed on WikiLeaks. The Pakistan ambassador to USA, Husain Haqqani has penned an article in the WSJ, to undermine the veracity of the reports.

Ambassador Husain Haqqani and the ear of US envoy Richard Holbrooke

The documents circulated by WikiLeaks do not even remotely reflect the current realities on the ground. For example, a retired Pakistani general is named as the master planner of the Afghan Taliban’s strategy. But this is a man who hasn’t held any position within Pakistani intelligence or the military for more than 20 years. For its part, Pakistan’s current leadership will not be distracted by something like these leaks. We have paid an unprecedented price in blood and treasure over the last two years. We will not succumb to the terrorists.

Posted in Afghan war, International Affairs | 15 Comments

The EDL in Bradford

This is a message by Nick Lowles from Hope Not Hate
****

Day by day the violent and racist English Defence League are becoming more dangerous. This shocking video exposes the truth behind this self professed “peaceful” group. Watch this video and then share it with everyone you know:

The EDL exists for one simple reason: they want to spread fear and hatred throughout the UK – and it’s only going to get worse.

In a few weeks the EDL will be invading Bradford for what they’re calling “The Big One.” Once again they plan on attacking the Muslim population.

We’ve been down this route before – the riots in Bradford in Oldham were sparked by small groups of violent racists attacking the local community.

Posted in Activism, Anti Muslim bigotry, Racism | Leave a comment
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