Multiple press reports seem eager to pigeonhole this decision as a racial issue, and a move to cater to a constituency that is described narrowly and somewhat patronizingly as the "white working class." But it is not a racial matter, nor is it about socioeconomic classes; it is a matter of principle for the sake of a free and open society. "British party calls for ban on burkas," from UPI, January 16: LONDON, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- The United Kingdom Independence Party says burkas, the Islamic cloak that covers women from head to toe, should be banned in Britain. The conservative group, which advocates withdrawing from the European Union, issued a call Friday to ban the garments in what was seen as an attempt by the UKIP to expand its appeal to disaffected white, working class voters, The Times of London reported Saturday. "We are taking expert advice on how we could do it," UKIP leader Malcolm Pearson told the newspaper. "It makes sense to ban the burka -- or anything which conceals a woman's face -- in public buildings. But we want to make it possible to ban them in private buildings. It isn't right that you can't see someone's face in an airport." The Times said the UKIP is the first British party to call for an all-out ban on burkas although the far-right British National Party believes advocates banning them from schools. "We are not Muslim bashing, but this is incompatible with Britain's values of freedom and democracy," Pearson said. 
ELEVEN men were arrested and a policewoman was taken to hospital after violence broke out at a far-right group's demonstration against Islamic extremism in England. The 29-year-old policewoman hurt her arm while policing a cordon at the protest by the English Defence League in the city of Nottingham, but no one else was seriously hurt in the skirmishes, Nottinghamshire police said. About 500 members of the EDL, a marginal group which has staged a number of demonstrations against radical Islam in recent months, sang the English national anthem and football songs as they gathered in the city. Many of them had their faces covered with scarves and hooded tops as they chanted "`We want our country back" and held placards saying "Protect Women, No to Sharia (law)'' and "No Surrender''. A counter-demonstration by Unite Against Fascism, which claims the EDL is a racist organisation, took place nearby, despite police requests that they move.
Muted mainstream political reaction to recent Guardian and Institute for Race Relations (IRR) reports concerning allegations of "violations of privacy and professional norms of confidentiality" in connection with the UK government's Prevent (Preventing Violent Extremism) programme is revealing. Politicians and commentators who have been falling over each other to express outrage against Nick Griffin, the leader of the far-right British National Party (BNP), who appeared on the BBC's flagship Question Time for the first time last week, have remained conspicuously silent on the important issues raised in the two reports.
Crucially the Guardian's Vikram Dodd and IRR's Arun Kundnani interviewed ordinary British Muslims in their research. The concerns and fears expressed by these Muslims about the extent to which the Prevent programme might infringe Muslim civil liberties deserve to be taken seriously in Westminster. However, it was not an issue deemed worthy for discussion on Question Time. Instead those British Muslim viewers already fearful of being stigmatised as a suspect community will have noted with concern how Griffin was constantly attacked by his Westminster co-panelists as a racist while his attacks on Islam and Muslims went largely unchallenged. This is significant. Griffin has successfully lifted the BNP from the political gutter by singling out Muslims for attack. His first publication on the topic pre-dates 9/11 and throughout the last decade he has maintained a steadfast campaign against Muslim targets. While it is a tribute to the fairness of the overwhelming majority of British citizens that BNP's electoral successes have been as small as they have so far, it is to the shame of many in Westminster that they have provided much of the fuel for Griffin's rise. This is the same fuel first used by Tony Blair and George Bush to propel the war on terror. At all points Griffin agrees with Blair that the suicide bomb attacks on 9/11 and 7/7, along with those attempts successfully thwarted by British security services and police, are motivated by an evil ideology inherent to what they both call radical Islam. Both Griffin and Blair deny Muslims any political identity based on their religion and suggest that its removal is a key part of a strategy to tackle the root causes of the significant terrorist threat in Britain. Blair's legacy to his successor Gordon Brown was to extend this thinking into the Prevent programme. Thus the outstanding efforts of many grass roots Muslim community projects tackling al-Qaeda inspired propaganda and influence (both with and without Prevent funding) have always been at risk from Blair's diagnosis of the problem. The extent to which this inaccurate diagnosis impacts on Prevent was revealed in Ed Husain's response to Vikram Dodd's report. As co-director of the Prevent-funded Quilliam Foundation, Husain argues that Prevent should target Muslims he describes as Islamists whether or not they are suspected of terrorism or violent extremism. Read more here,,,, Source: Al Jazeera (English) 
By Ed West There’s a truly awful piece in Telegraph blogs by, no not Damian Thompson, but Ed West, entitled “Here’s an inconvenient truth: the Islamisation of Europe”.
West tries to rationalize what is nothing more than a racist diatribe against Muslim immigration and Muslim citizenship in Europe. While he tries to couch his article in language that conveys anxiety over mass immigration and the costs to social cohesion, he betrays his barely concealed Islamophobia by singling out Islam and Muslims as the scourge of Europe. Reading West, one would think the BNP and associated far right racist parties in Europe were merely filling the void left by mainstream parties unwilling to bring the debate on the effects of Muslim mass immigration to the centre stage. Perhaps because to do so would reveal one’s patent anti Muslim prejudice, Mr West? The point of the article was that immigration into Europe is at historically unprecedented levels, and that this will at best make for less happy and less equal societies, and at worst cause serious unrest and violence. I sat on that blog post for almost a week because I was worried about the reaction; it was an unpleasant truth and sometimes unpleasant truths attract unpleasant words and people, but someone had to say it. I wanted to call it “Immigration, an Inconvenient Truth”, but that title had already been taken by Rageh Omaar’s non-hardhitting documentary last year.
Islam has become something of a scapegoat for both decent people concerned about immigration, and outright racists. This is primarily because the other problems associated with immigration – specifically the moral collapse of black culture and the crime caused by it – are utterly verboten: far easier to attack “the Islamics” since liberals also despise their culture and loonies like Anjem Choudary or Abu Hamza make such good pin-ups. But the title was still honest, 90 per cent of non-white immigration being Islamic. Actually I admire Islam far more than most lefties do. I admire its respect for family and old people, I admire its sobriety and sense of charity and honesty.
I find Mohammed a strange character to follow and the Koran full of violence, but that doesn’t neccesarily produce violent societies. Mormonism is by far and away the dumbest-sounding religion in theory, based on the words of a convicted fraudster, but Mormons are overwhelmingly decent, upstanding people and Mormon areas have almost zero crime.
Islam and the West don’t necessarily have to clash forever, although they probably will – much depends on Turkey, the great secular hope. But I also recognise that Islam fell behind Christianity a long time ago, and at the moment, far from catching up, it’s going backwards in terms of cultural and political progress. Religions are like viruses – they are often beneficial, but sometimes a strain will become dangerous, and many variants of modern Islam are a threat to world peace (and would still be if there was no Israel, no American interference, and no Indian occupation of Kashmir). As well as the fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran, which can justify all sorts of horror, Islam has become a lightning rod for all the world’s embittered, angry losers, anyone with a grudge against capitalism, America, the West, white people in general and Jews in particular.
Look at the pathetic specimens who convert to extreme Islam in England. This, coupled with unrestricted levels of immigration to the West, is a dangerous combination.
I don’t hate or fear Muslims or Islam – in a more rational world I wouldn't even feel the need to say that – but I do despise the western liberals who want to whitewash Islam of all its faults and who, by so dishonestly calling it a “religion of peace”, only encourage many people to believe it is a religion of war. Source: Telegraph 
By concentrating on the “far right,” we miss a more lethal type of fascism on the march – in the form of Islamic supremacism.By Melanie Phillips The frenzy over the participation of BNP leader Nick Griffin on “Question Time” this week has been a classic case of failing to identify the real elephant in the room. By fixating on the “far right” as the supremely evil force in British public life, the mainstream political class has failed to grasp that a half-baked neo-Nazi rabble is not the main issue. There is another more lethal type of fascism on the march in the form of Islamic supremacism. The Islamists, or jihadis, are intent upon snuffing out individual freedom and imposing a totalitarian regime of submission to religious dogma which erodes and then replaces British and Western values. Now these two types of fascism are doing battle with each other – and with the white working class and lower-middle classes caught between them. Read more ... Source: FSM
Mr Griffin said Islam was not compatible with life in Britain, while describing homosexuals as "creepy". However, he admitted sharing a platform with the Ku Klux Klan, which has carried out racist attacks across America’s Deep South, and defended leaders in the organisation as "non-violent". The remarks provoked indignation from other members of the BBC panel and hostile parts of the audience, some of whom booed, calling him "a disgrace". The BNP leader could not explain why he had previously sought to play down the Holocaust and defended his use of Sir Winston Churchill on BNP literature on the basis that his father had fought in the Second World War. He claimed that Churchill would have been a member of the BNP and was "Islamophobic" by "today’s standard". Asked whether he denied that millions of Jews and other minorities had been killed by the Nazis, Mr Griffin would only reply: "I do not have a conviction for Holocaust denial." He was then chastised by David Dimbleby, the host of the programme, for smiling. The controversial statements were made in response to intense questioning by members of the audience from ethnic minorities. BBC Television Centre in west London came under siege as filming took place, with MPs joining hundreds of protesters behind lines of police. There were six arrests as dozens of protesters attempted to storm the studio. BBC studios in Hull, Scotland and Wales were also targeted by demonstrators. The cost of the police operation was estimated to be more than £100,000. The BBC was certain to be questioned over why it allowed Mr Griffin to air such controversial views but executives were hoping that the intensive questioning that he faced would justify their decision to invite him on the Question Time panel for the first time. The BBC, which Mr Griffin denounced on the programme as "ultra-Leftist", had claimed that impartiality rules meant that it had little choice but to invite him on to the programme after the BNP won seats in the European Parliament in elections earlier this year. Read more here,,,, Source: Telegraph
Gash: “Demonstrate wherever you can!” Stephen Gash (red marked in picture), press spokesman of SIOE, was talking with PI about the incidents at the anti-Islam rally in Harrow in September 2009 and about the Islamisation of the UK. Violent Muslims managed to prevent an officially allowed demonstration on September 11th – another milestone on the road to Eurabia. PI: Mister Gash, many thanks for giving us an interview concerning the incident in Harrow on 11 September 2009. The demonstration in Harrow was called off by the police. However, one hour before the demonstration was supposed to begin, it was fairly obvious that many of the Muslim counter-demonstrators were ready to use violence. Consequently, there would have been enough time to call for back up. But one hour later, there were not enough policemen to enable the implementation of your demonstration, which was approved by the authorities. Do you think that the authorities were really willing to let this demonstration happen? Gash: No. I think it was intended from very early on to not allow the demonstration. The impression I had was that the police anticipated a counter-demonstration from Muslims and the so-called anti-fascists, so they put 550 police officers around the mosque. However, when the numbers of counter-demonstrators grew to over 1,000 the police decided not to allow the demonstration to go ahead. I heard afterwards that people were being turned back from the area, at the tube stations and roads leading to the mosque, just as in Brussels in 2007. I don’t think the number of our supporters would have been big, perhaps 60 – 100, but we are pretty sure about 60 were prevented from getting to the demo by the police. It would have been difficult for police to mobilize enough officers within an hour and I doubt they could have come from other parts of London because that would have left certain parts of London with too few officers on a Friday night. Bringing in police from outside London would have taken longer than an hour. Many counter-demonstrators (Muslims and Non-Muslims alike) were carrying signs with slogans such as “Stop the fascist BNP” and “Racists out”. However, the SIOE clearly dissociates itself from racism on its website: “Racism is the lowest form of human stupidity, (…)”. How does the SIOE deal with racists who are willing to attend demonstrations who are organised by the SIOE? Read more: http://www.pi-news.org/2009/09/gash-demonstrate-wherever-you-can/#more-516
 Leon Symons | July 16 Parliament will be asked to consider whether the use of Nazi symbols and terms in reference to Jews, Israel and Zionism is breaking the law on incitement to racial hatred. A new report by the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (EISCA) has highlighted the increasing use of what it terms the “Nazi card” in antisemitic discourse and has called for a number of measures to try to combat its spread. “Playing the Nazi card” has been defined in the report as the use of Nazi-related terms or symbols — for example intertwining the swastika with the Star of David — while negatively referring to Jews, Israel, Zionism or other aspects of what it calls the Jewish experience. The report, which was jointly published by EISCA and the Department for Communities and Local Government, recommends that the Home Office, the Association of Chief Police officers (ACPO) and the Crown Prosecution Service should prepare new guidance for the police on whether this kind of terminology amounts to incitement. The report says that universities and adult education colleges should be surveyed to establish how they deal with antisemitic discourse. It also suggests that the University and College Union and the National Union of Journalists use the EU Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia’s definition of antisemitism to improve their harassment policies. Cohesion Minister Shahid Malik, who launched the report on Tuesday alongside EISCA chairman Denis MacShane MP, said: “It is vital to reiterate the significance which my government places on tackling this scourge which has blighted our world for centuries. “Where antisemitic discourse flourishes unchecked, an atmosphere develops where Jews and other minorities — for it is certain that other minorities will also be targeted — feel isolated and vulnerable. “Antisemitic discourse is not targeted at an identifiable victim but at Jews as a group. “The tone in which issues affecting Jewish people are raised or addressed by politicians, the media, educators or the business world, affects the way in which Jewish people are perceived by the wider public.” After the launch, Mr Malik said that the report’s proposals would be overseen by the cross-government working group set up as a result of the 2006 All-Party Parliamentary inquiry into antisemitism. Also on Tuesday, the Community Security Trust published its second report on antisemitic discourse. Author Mark Gardner, the CST’s communications director, said that while antisemitic discourse openly targeting Jews was “extremely rare” in mainstream British politics and media, “nevertheless, antisemitism is an important matter that must be better understood and challenged before it worsens any further”. Contemporary antisemitic discourse, he argued, “is most often revealed in language and imagery that evokes the central antisemitic allegation of a powerful and hidden Jewish conspiracy against all non-Jews”. As the British National Party’s first two MEPs took their seats in the European Parliament this week, the Centre for Social Cohesion published a report into the party’s online network, claiming that BNP members and self-professed BNP supporters continue to host, and link to online, material that is pro-Nazi, racist, antisemitic and homophobic. Source: JC
April 15, 2009 Bet you think its about Islamic Extremism dont you? Well you're WRONG!!!! THE north west's only Muslim MEP Sajjad Karim will be chairing a meeting this morning about the rise of extremism in Europe.
The legal affairs spokesperson and vice-president of the equality and diversity intergroup will be chairing the meeting in Brussels about how to cope and manage the rise of extremist parties including the BNP across Europe.
The Conservative MEP will warn how in north west of England, the BNP is becoming increasingly motivated and mobilised and will discussing tactics and techniques to manage the augmentation of parties with extremist ideals and how best to educate the electorate about the parties they can chose to vote for.
The aim is to also gather key thinkers to create a "unique" forum in which to develop innovative ideas about the policy challenges facing Europe and to evolve practical solutions to help address them.
The BNP needs only a slight improvement to add 2 per cent to its last 6.4 per cent of votes in the 2004 elections "to rear its ugly head" in the north west and to win a European Parliament seat, where the leader of the BNP, Nick Griffin is said to be standing.
The meeting has been organised by the European Ideas Network (EIN) which is sponsored by the EPP-ED, an open pan-European think tank process designed to promote new thinking on the key challenges that Member States of the European Union are facing.
The European Ideas Network has become an important meeting point and serves as an intellectual cross-road for the centre-right in European politics. The EIN regularly brings together politicians, businessmen, academics, policy advisers, think tankers, journalists and representatives of civil society who share a common outlook on Europe-wide issues.
The key speaker at the meeting is Dr Allan Janik, research fellow at Innsbruck University, professor of philosophy at the University of Vienna and Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Technology.
Said Mr Karim: "I am delighted to have the opportunity to chair what I know will be an innovative, creative and extremely interesting meeting.
"As the first British Muslim to be elected into the European Parliament, I have a special interest in ensuring that the rise of extremist parties in Europe and in my north west constituency is prevented, albeit democratically.
"We must not let parties like the BNP spread their message of hate in our communities."
 By Paul Belien
A wave of violent protest demonstrations struck Europe in the wake of the recent events in Gaza.
Despite efforts of the media to downplay the incidents, ordinary Europeans realize that the vandals who demonstrate against Israel in Europe’s streets are almost exclusively youths of immigrant Muslim origin. The protests have been accompanied by anti-Semitic rants and attacks on Jewish citizens. Leftist Europeans joined in by demanding a boycott of Israeli products and local Jewish businesses. Even mainstream politicians joined the chorus of Israel bashing, hoping to attract the support of the growing Muslim electorate in Western Europe.
Some observers see disturbing parallels between the intellectual climate in contemporary Europe and the appeasement mentality of the 1930s. It seems as if Europe is in the grip of a continent-wide “Stockholm syndrome:” Europe’s media and political establishment parrots the Islamist arguments of aggressive Muslim populations who hold major European cities hostage.
According to Philippe Moureaux, a professor at Brussels University and the Socialist mayor of Molenbeek, a Brussels borough with a majority immigrant population, one should understand the “despair” of the immigrant youths over the events in Gaza. The “despairing” mob from Molenbeek, in an outburst of disproportionate rage over Gaza, recently demolished a McDonald’s restaurant and plundered shops in downtown Brussels.
As it happens, Mr. Moureaux, an esteemed and highly decorated member of the Belgian establishment, is the former Justice Minister who authored both Belgium’s 1981 “law against racism and xenophobia” which severely restricts freedom of speech with regard to the dangers of multiculturalism, and its 2004 law granting foreigners the right to vote.
Fortunately, however, the media disinformation and the cowardice of the establishment politicians and intellectuals do not seem to greatly affect ordinary Europeans.
Last Thursday, Belgium’s supermarkets announced that they have not noticed “any impact so far” of the various calls for a boycott of Israeli products. Some Europeans may even specially buy Jaffa oranges as they bought extra Danish butter cookies during the height of the Muslim boycott of Denmark three years ago.
On the political level, the rioting in Europe’s streets seems to benefit those politicians who for years have been warning that Europe has foolishly brought a Trojan horse into its cities by allowing millions of Muslim immigrants to settle in Europe during the past decades.
It seems as if the Israeli operation in Gaza might have two beneficial effects. It is destroying Hamas’ capability to strike at Israel by firing rockets and it is leading to a healthy and long-overdue polarization in Europe where the political complacency with regard to the radicalizing Muslim population should be broken before it is too late.
In France, the major topic among politicians is that the conflict in the Middle East must not be imported into France with Muslim fanatics attacking Jewish French citizens (never the other way round). Although no-one dares say so openly, for fear of violating the laws “against racism and xenophobia,” it is clear to all that the conflict was imported decades ago when millions of anti-Jewish Muslims were allowed to immigrate into Europe.
The harsh reality can no longer be denied: either Europe appeases the Islamists and submits or it fights back against a force which also happens to be Israel’s enemy.
In Italy, the regionalist Northern League party, which traditionally used to sympathize with the Palestinian aspiration for self-government and a Palestinian state, today supports Israel. As Mario Borghezio, a member of the European Parliament for the Northern League, explains: “We fight to preserve the identity of our people. This identity is being threatened by Muslim radicals who want to impose their laws on us. We hear the hate speeches against Israel and the Jews in the mosques in our own cities, and we have come to realize that we have the same enemy as Israel.” The same is true for the Vlaams Belang party in Belgium.
The realization that a common enemy who wants to subdue all non-Islamic peoples, must be fought is bringing together European parties which so far had not entered into international alliances. At a meeting in Antwerp last week the Vlaams Belang demanded that violent anti-Israeli demonstrations by immigrants no longer be condoned by the authorities. The meeting was attended by an MP from the traditionally neutralist Swiss People’s Party and an MP from Germany, a former Christian-Democrat who left his party because of its soft position on the preservation of Germany’s national identity.
While Europe’s mainstream media, in their efforts to win the Muslim electorate, are neglecting the concerns of their traditional voters, others are filling the void. Even Nick Griffin, the politically astute leader of the British National Party, has grasped the opportunities which Britain’s mainstream politicians are giving him by failing to address the concerns of a large segment of the British voters. Mr. Griffin asserts that “9/11 has changed the world; it has also changed our view of the world” and says that his party is no longer anti-Semitic because it has come to realize that Islam is the enemy.
In a remarkable statement on “Israel’s Gaza Affair” Nick Griffin, while opposing any move “to entangle Britain in war on behalf of Israel”, writes that it is “our clear national interest that [Israel] should survive” and that it is for the Israelis at the ballot box, and not for the British, to decide how it responds “to the cynical provocations by Hamas.”
Whether or not Mr. Griffin is an honest politician and whether or not he is misleading the British voters is not the issue here. What is important is that he realizes that taking an outspoken pro-Israeli and anti-Hamas position will win him votes rather than cost him support among ordinary Brits who have grown exasperated with the arrogance of Muslim immigrants in Britain. It seems that more and more ordinary Europeans are willing to defend their own values and fight back. They are looking for political leadership. Source: Europe News
BNP (British National Party) re-posted one of our articles on their site. Our comments that we have no affiliation to BNP or any other Nazi wannabes were changed to look like Muslims Against Sharia support BNP. BNP, just as Islamofascists, operate on the premise of racial and/or religious superiority. Muslims Against Sharia operate on premise of equality; therefore MASH and BNP have nothing in common.
 |
|
Copyright Muslims Against Sharia 2008. All rights reserved.
E-mail: info AT ReformIslam.org
|
|
|