Why doesn’t the Iranian cause attract popular support?

By Effendi | Published: October 7, 2011

What makes support for one Muslim cause ethical, politically correct and justified but not another? Why do large segments of the Left find it a moral obligation to support Muslim extremists like Hamas but have no qualms about ignoring the persecution and repression of ordinary, moderate Iranians by the Islamic extremist government?

Ghaffar Hussein attempts to unravel this quandary:

The politically active classes today, led by the liberal-left, take their shopping trolleys and enter the supermarket of political causes. The only causes that attract their attention from the shelves are those in which western governments are complicit or perceived to be complicit.

How else do you explain Palestine becoming a cause de celebre amongst young politically active students who couldn’t even point to Darfur or Kurdistan on a map? How else do you explain anti-globalisation protestors solely focusing on western targets whilst ignoring the excesses and state supported abuses of Chinese and Russian corporations?

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Posted in Activism | 1 Comment

From antisemite to Zionist

By Effendi | Published: October 7, 2011

There is a fascinating article in the JC today by Kasim Hafeez, a British Muslim, who traces his personal journey from antisemite to Zionist. His descriptions of the casual anti-semitism in the Muslim community should not be unfamiliar to anyone within it. The description of his transformation shows that the intellect can be reached even when the heart has been twisted by race hatred and prejudice. Kasim is the founder of the website The Israel Campaign.

My hate for Israel and for the Jews was fuelled by images of death and destruction, set to the backdrop of Arabic melodies about Jihad and speeches of Hizbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah or Osama Bin Laden.

There was also constant, casual antisemitism around me. My father would boast of how Adolf Hitler was a hero, his only failing being that he didn’t kill enough Jews. Even the most moderate clerics I came across refused to condemn terrorism against Israel as unjustified.

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Posted in Antisemitism | Leave a comment

Caption Contest 07/10/2011

By Abdul Hamid al Manchesteri | Published: October 7, 2011

There are no gays in Iran because…

Posted in Caption Competition | 1 Comment

Faith Matters challenges the Islamist narrative

By Cross Post | Published: October 6, 2011

This is a cross-post from Faith Matters website

Faith Matters is launching its paper that offers a brief insight into the Secular reforms of the Ottoman Empire, in order to analyse and debunk claims by extreme groups like Al Qaeda of it being an Islamic Caliphate, strictly governed by Shariah Law. The Ottoman Empire is often presented, by such groups as a model political system upon which to re-build a global Caliphate. Osama bin Laden marked the decline of the Ottoman Empire as the fall of Islam – that the Islamic world “has been tasting this humiliation and this degradation for more than 80 years” and that “the righteous Khilafah will return with the permission of Allah”. Through the implementation of an Islamic legal and political system, extreme groups who mis-use the Islamic faith call for the rejection of liberal values and the current systems in place, which do not fundamentally clash with Islam.

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Posted in History, Islamism, Secularism | 3 Comments

The Wrath of Plod (or ex-plod Bob Lambert)

By Guest | Published: October 5, 2011

This is a guest post by Chris Blackburn

On Monday, British Islamists and their supporters under the banner of the Bangladesh Crisis Group gathered at the London Muslim Centre to preach to their flock that Bangladesh was committing serious human rights abuses in their desire to finally try the perpetrators of the genocide of 1971.

This group of supporters of radical Islamism have finally crossed the Rubicon and they have potentially shot themselves in the foot by amassing Jamaat and Muslim Brotherhood leaders together. Strategically, for them, it is bad to inject them into the highly contentious issue of their fellow Islamists committing genocide in Bangladesh. The genocide happened. It’s been well documented. Arguing against it is like trying to push the tide back. It’s irrational. It obviously has Islamist leaders worried. They are claiming there are mass human rights abuses by the Bangladesh government and that there is massive US counter-terrorism involvement in the tribunals as a way of gathering support from useful idiots in Britain’s academia.

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Posted in 1971 War, Islamism | 3 Comments

Seeking justice that Bangladesh can take pride in

By Effendi | Published: October 5, 2011

David Bergman is a British journalist who has been reporting on the War Crimes Tribunal since it was created in 2010. He also maintains a blog which is full of superb legal insights, advice and observations on the day to day proceedings in the WCT. Here is an excerpt from an op-ed David wrote earlier this year on why it is vital that the Tribunal ensure legitimate and impartial processes and norms:

For too long the government has behaved as though anyone who has questioned aspects of the current process, and suggested changes, are their political enemies or are against accountability of those who committed war crimes in 1971.

This is not the case. While it is true that there are people who want to undermine and de-legitimise the tribunal, many of those who think the process can be improved are deeply committed to accountability for crimes committed in 1971.

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Posted in War Crimes | 6 Comments

Qadri, Taseer and Ilm-ud-din – History in Circles

By Guest | Published: October 5, 2011

This is a guest post by Kisan

As an illiterate and  impoverished Christian woman faced the sentence of death for blasphemy, a secular leaning Governor of Punjab tried to intervene to get her freed, describing the blasphemy law as a ‘black law’ and was killed by his own guard after being named by clerics as ‘wajib ul qatl’, or necessary to be slaughtered.

The history of the law mandating the death penalty for blasphemy can be traced back to an earlier chapter in the history of Pakistan. In the British times a law was enacted in the then undivided Indian penal code, article 295A, which makes it a criminal offence to: “insult the religion or the religious beliefs of any citizen with deliberate and malicious intention to outrage their religious feelings.” This law, still current in India, has in Pakistan been further modified to include article 295B which mandates life imprisonment for defilement of the Quran and article 295C which prescribes the death penalty for the “use of derogatory remarks in respect of the Holy Prophet.”

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Posted in Sharia | 1 Comment

Jamaat-e-Islam’s “Bangladesh in Crisis” Rally

By Guest | Published: October 4, 2011

This is a guest post by Ashik

Last night I went along to a political rally organised by the Bangladesh Crisis Group which is an offshoot of the British Jamaat-e-Islam front, Islamic Forum Europe. I arrived at the Water Lily Centre which was the advertised venue to be told that the event had been moved to the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel. It was later expressed in the rally that the meeting had been moved because of “political pressure”. My guess is that the Water Lily Centre, which is controlled by Awami League supporters, decided not to host any political lobby involving Toby Cadman in case it irritated their leaders in Awami League HQ in Dhaka.

I thought that it was fitting that the rally had been moved back to London Muslim Centre, the nerve centre of the Jamaat-e-Islam in the UK. After all, it was the DCLG which correctly observed that the ELM/LMC is the base for Jamaat-e-Islami in the UK.

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Posted in 1971 War, Human Rights, Islamism | 22 Comments

The Law and the Killing of Al-Awlaki

By Effendi | Published: October 3, 2011

A number of commentators have come out decrying USA’s killing of Anwar al-Awlaki without a trial.

Glenn Greenwald:

What’s most striking about this is not that the U.S. Government has seized and exercised exactly the power the Fifth Amendment was designed to bar (“No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law”), and did so in a way that almost certainly violates core First Amendment protections (questions that will now never be decided in a court of law). What’s most amazing is that its citizens will not merely refrain from objecting, but will stand and cheer the U.S. Government’s new power to assassinate their fellow citizens, far from any battlefield, literally without a shred of due process from the U.S. Government.

Greg Scoblete:

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Posted in Terrorism | Leave a comment

Karzai abandons talks with Taliban

By Effendi | Published: October 2, 2011

Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, supported engagement and negotiations with the Taliban for years. Not anymore:

KABUL – President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, who for years pushed for reconciliation with the Taliban, now says attempts to negotiate with the insurgent movement are futile and efforts at dialogue should focus instead on neighboring Pakistan.

Karzai explained in a videotaped speech released by his office yesterday that he changed his views about trying to talk to the Taliban after a suicide bomber, claiming to be a peace emissary sent by the insurgents, killed a former Afghan president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, at his home on Sept. 20. Rabbani was leading Karzai’s effort to broker peace with the Taliban.

“Their messengers are coming and killing. . . . So with whom should we make peace?” Karzai said Friday to a gathering of the nation’s top religious leaders that was videotaped.

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Posted in Farce, Terrorism | Leave a comment

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