Tuesday 26 October 2010

Commonsense prevails.

The television watchdog Ofcom has rejected complaints against an investigation into an Islamic group broadcast by Channel Four’s Dispatches earlier this year.

The programme, presented by journalist Andrew Gilligan, looked at the Islamic Forum for Europe which it described as a “fundamentalist” group that had “secretly infiltrated” the Labour party and was “exerting influence” over Tower Hamlets Council in East London.

In its latest bulletin, Ofcom said it had received 205 complaints variously alleging that the programme had been biased and misleading about the IFE or contributed to Islamophobia.

But the broadcast standards body concluded: “We considered that the programme included views to both support and reject the allegations made about the IFE in the programme, and any response or opposing views to the evidence gathered was appropriately presented during the course of the programme. Given this, Ofcom considered that the programme was a legitimate investigation into the activities of the IFE.”

While the programme had made some “controversial allegations,” these were supported by “recorded clips, or actual quotes” and there was “no evidence that viewers were materially misled,” Ofcom said.

Saturday 23 October 2010

Islamist radicalisation at British universities

This is a press release from Peter Tatchell

The Quilliam Foundation’s latest briefing paper, Radicalisation on British University Campuses:

A case study, cites incidents at City University in London during the last academic year (September 09 – June 10) to show how a mainstream academic institution in the UK can become an incubator for extremist, intolerant and potentially violent forms of the political ideology of Islamism.

Links to an executive summary and the full report are listed below.

Responding to the Quilliam report, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, of the LGBT rights group OutRage! said:

“This report is a wake-up call to complacent university authorities and student unions. They too often look the other way while Islamists foment hatred and intolerance among the student population.

“It is a strong defence of the vast majority of Muslim students who do not share an extremist mindset and who frequently face ostracism and denunciation by fundamentalists.

“Quilliam have produced a thorough expose of the way Islamist extremists are bullying and threatening other students. It highlights sexist, homophobic and anti-Semitic intimidation, and the victimisation of Muslims and non-believers who do not adhere to hard-line fundamentalist Islam.

“Radicalisation often begins with the promotion of misogynistic, queer-baiting and anti-Jewish prejudice; together with the stirring up of hostility against Muslims who believe in other strands of Islam or have abandoned their faith. Such intolerance can be a gateway to Islamist extremism. That’s why it should never be ignored or tolerated. City University would never host white supremacists who incite racism and racial violence. Why the double standards?” queried Mr Tatchell.

Here are some examples of two Islamist extremists who have been hosted at City University:

http://www.petertatchell.net/religion/kill-gays-preacher-hosted-by-london-universities.html

Kings College has also hosted extremist clerics. See here:

http://www.petertatchell.net/religion/muslim-extremist-hosted-by-kings-college-london.html

A spokesperson the Quilliam Foundation said:

“University campuses have been recognised by policy-makers as key places where Islamist ideologies can spread, but the processes of radicalisation involved have often remained unclear. This paper seeks to address this knowledge gap by identifying the factors on a university campus that may contribute to radicalising an individual towards Islamist-inspired terrorism. Whilst the paper does not suggest that everyone exposed to these factors will become a terrorist, it shows how and why exposure to them can increase the risk of radicalisation towards terrorism as well as illustrating the considerable disruption that such radicalisation can have on campus life.

“The paper concludes with specific recommendations for universities, students’ unions and government to prevent similar situations from arising on other university campuses.

“Radicalisation on British University Campuses’ is the latest of Quilliam’s publications to deal with areas where the risk of radicalisation is either high or is poorly understood. Previous reports released in the last year include studies of radicalisation in prisons and on Arabic-language jihadist websites.”

An executive summary is available here.
http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/images/stories/pdfs/radicalisation-on-british-university-campuses-executive-summary.pdf?dm_i=JI3,9VVO,2Q60WK,QMSG,1

A pdf of the full briefing paper can be downloaded here.
http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/images/stories/pdfs/radicalisation-on-british-university-campuses.pdf?dm_i=JI3,9VVO,2Q60WK,QMSG,1

Quilliam Foundation: http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/

Wednesday 20 October 2010

Is there such a thing as 'moderate' Islam?

"The promise of moderate Islam is beginning to look decidedly unconvincing," says Janet Albrechtsen, and marshals a good deal of evidence for why that is the case. "The extremes of moderate Islam," by Janet Albrechtsen for The Australian, October 20:

EVEN for supposedly reasonable Muslims, accommodation is a one-way street.

PERCHED high in the verdant mountains of central Java recently, the rural silence was broken five times a day by the Muslim call to prayer. The chanting wafted up from loudspeakers in the local villages as Indonesian Muslims observed longer than usual prayers during Ramadan. I asked a cab driver if he was fasting until sunset during this Islamic month of reflection. Rules are made to be broken, he said with a smile. But not according to the government and police in Indonesia, a country hailed as the world's largest, most moderate Muslim nation.

Local newspapers report an American man being held on suspicion of blasphemy for pulling the plug on a loudspeaker at a local mosque. According to police, Luke Gregory Lloyd pulled out the loudspeaker's cable in Kuta village in central Lombok when he was woken by the Koranic reading.

So how is moderate Islam doing in Indonesia? Not so well if you're that American man facing five years in prison. Perhaps it's all relative. In Saudi Arabia, he may have faced more violent punishment for his cultural insensitivity. That said, the promise of moderate Islam is beginning to look decidedly unconvincing.

Certainly, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has made plenty of promises. In an address at Harvard last year, he described his country as a model for how Islam, modernity and democracy can go hand in hand. He said tolerance and respect for religious freedom forms part of Indonesia's "trans-generational DNA".

Back in Indonesia, the President is quiet about the fact that moderate Islam is not so respectful of religious freedom if you belong to the Ahmadiyah sect. As yet another daily call to prayer began, I read about the ban on this religious sect for propagating its beliefs, including the tenet that Mohammed was not the final prophet. Indonesia's Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali announced the Ahmadiyah congregation "must be disbanded immediately" for violating a 2008 decree prohibiting the group from spreading its teachings. If this "is considered as religious freedom, then I call it an excessive freedom", Ali said.

Moderate Islam is not so moderate if you are a Christian either. In August, 300 hardline Islamic protesters confronted Christians worshipping in an open field owned by the Christians. The Christians want to build a church. A leader of the hardline Islamic Defenders Front told reporters that the culture of the people will not allow a church. Earlier this year, thousands of Muslim extremists set fire to a Christian community centre in West Java when they suspected the local Christians planned to build a small chapel. According to the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, there have been more than 28 attacks on churches since January, a substantial increase since last year.

And how is moderate Islam doing when it comes to freedom of speech? While President Yudhoyono boasts about his country's "increasingly incisive" free press, one the markers of moderate Islam's commitment to democracy, it's too bad if you're the editor of Playboy Indonesia, a magazine consciously remodelled for the local market with no nudity. After being tried and acquitted for public indecency in 2007, Erwin Arnada was found guilty of public indecency last month by a new Supreme Court ruling. Arnada was arrested last week and has commenced a two-year prison sentence. The Indonesian constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press, is no match for hardline Islamic groups baying for Arnada's blood. Is that moderation?

Move to New York and the fraught debate over the proposed Ground Zero mosque. Muslims demand the mosque be built. And their left-liberal supporters decry opponents of the mosque as bigots. They demonise and scold mainstream Americans who think otherwise. Even New Yorkers believe Muslims should show some sensitivity to the atrocities committed in the name of Islam on 9/11. A poll in The New York Times found that while 67 per cent agree the right to freedom of religion allows the building of the mosque, they believe the developers should find a different site. An editorial by the moralising New York Times would have none of that. Building the mosque would be "a gesture to Muslim-Americans", it lectured. What about a gesture from moderate Muslims?

In recent years the West has fallen over itself to accommodate Muslim sensitivities. In Britain, the BBC boss says Islam should be treated differently from other religions. American publishers pull books that might offend Muslim sensibilities. Television stations censor images of Mohammed. Why does the accommodation always run one way?...

Fear, of course, and the idiotic multiculturalist guilt complex.

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Islamic Court: - UAE Says Wife, Child Beating OK - Just Don't Leave Any Marks

This is yet another reason why Western civilisation is superior, because we would consider any type of violence against women and children to be illegal and morally indefensible.

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ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (CBS/AP) Apparently, it is perfectly OK for a man to beat his wife and young children, according to the UAE's highest judicial body, as long as the thrashing doesn't leave any physical marks.

The decision by the Federal Supreme Court shows the strong influence of Islamic law in the Emirates despite its international appeal in which foreign residents greatly outnumber the local population.

The court made the ruling earlier this month in the case of a man who beat his wife and adult daughter. The court stated that the man crossed the line suggested by Sharia Law because the daughter was not a minor and the wife sustained visible injuries.

The beating left the wife with injuries to her lip and teeth and the 23-year-old daughter suffered bruises on her knees and and hand. In ruling against the defendant in that case, Chief Justice Falah as Hajeri stated that there were conditions when domestic violence was acceptable, according to the New York Daily News.

But Justice al Hajeri said the man "abused this right of discipline" and therefore was not "exempted from punishment."

Islamic law allow for "discipline" if no marks are left. It also says children who have reached "adulthood" - approximately puberty - cannot be struck.

The ruling was reported Monday in the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National.