Category Archives: United Kingdom

Amnesty International turmoil: chief sacked over attacking group’s support of Taliban

Posted on by

From The Daily Mail U.K.

Amnesty chief suspended after attacking group’s links to ‘Britain’s most famous Taliban supporter’

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 5:51 PM on 09th February 2010

A senior Amnesty International official has been suspended after attacking the human rights charity for allying itself with ‘Britain’s most famous supporter of the Taliban’.

Gita Sahgal, head of the organisation’s gender unit, branded Amnesty’s links to former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg a ‘gross error of judgment’.

She was removed from her post within a few hours of her criticism emerging, and now a bitter war of words is raging between the activist and her employer.

Both have angrily defended their position over Mr Begg, 42, a Briton held at Guantanamo for three years until 2005 because of suspected links to al-Qaeda. Continue Reading →

London’s Islamic Radicals Speak Out

Posted on by

Great Britain recently raised its terror alert to “severe” following reports that al Qaeda was plotting new attacks.

But Britain may be facing an even greater threat from within — one the British government helped to create.

CBN News recently traveled to London to interview a number of leading Islamic radicals who have settled there with the full knowledge of the British government. Continue Reading →

Muslim man demands right to bring second wife to Ireland

Posted on by

A Muslim man has gone to the High Court in Ireland demanding that he be allowed bring in his second wife to Ireland.

The native of Lebanon, where polygamy is allowed, says his polygamous marriage must be recognized.

Liam Egan, a member of the Muslim Public Affairs Congress, told the Irish Sunday Times the man was being discriminated against unfairly. “It is draconian to treat this family differently,” said Egan.

“Ireland discriminates against Muslims seeking citizenship by asking them to sign an affidavit. The state should not be interfering in families like this. It is silent on adulterous affairs but the moment you try and do something honourable by bringing a woman into a marriage, even a polygamous marriage, there is an issue.”

The man first entered Ireland some years ago and claimed political asylum which was granted. It is believed there are numerous other cases involving second or even more wives awaiting the court’s verdict. British law allows only one wife to legally emigrate.

Liam Egan says the Koran allows Muslims to marry and “love each of them equally.” The Immigrant Council of Ireland says the case highlights the need for the government to deal fairly with the issue.

In other news… Twenty Two Percent of Irish Look To Emigrate Elsewhere

London-Muslim bus driver stops mid-route to pray

Posted on by

From The DailyMail U.K.

Passengers left stunned after Muslim bus driver pulls over and begins praying in the aisle


By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:13 PM on 08th February 2010

A Muslim bus driver stunned passengers when he pulled over and started praying in the aisle – with the engine still running.

The driver parked without warning then rolled out a fluorescent jacket as an improvised prayer mat.

He took off his shoes, knelt down facing Mecca, and began to chant.

The prayer session held up the bus for more than five minutes with no-one able to get on or off. Continue Reading →

You, Britain, are the breeding ground for Muslim terrorists

Posted on by

The Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka says the UK, not Nigeria, should be on the terrorism watch-list.

Read the comments in The Times and you see that almost all responders agree with her. Pretty hard not to actually.

Ever since I told the US website The Daily Beast that Britain was a cesspit and a breeding ground for fundamentalist Muslims, people have been asking me what I meant: “Why do you, a Nobel laureate, say such things? Where’s the evidence?”

So let me clarify: I was responding to a question about what I thought about Nigeria, my home country, being placed on a US watch-list of states deemed to be incubators of Islamist terrorism. The listing — which puts Nigeria into a club whose members include Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen — followed the failed attack by the Nigerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the young man who boarded a plane with a bomb in his underpants.

I believe it was irrational to point the finger of suspicion at Nigeria because this young man — the so-called Christmas Day bomber — was not radicalised in Nigeria. Everything we know about Abdulmutallab suggests that it happened in London, where he went to university.

The same is true of the shoe bomber, Richard Reid. And of the extremists who bombed the London Underground and the buses in July 2005. (A Nigerian was killed in those bombings.) The terrorists who primed a car found outside a London nightclub in 2007 with petrol containers, gas canisters and nails were based in Britain. If Nigeria qualifies for a place on the US list of terrorist countries then, admit it, Britain is overqualified. Continue Reading →

UK anti-Semitism at record high

Posted on by

From The Jerusalem Post

The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the UK set a new high in 2009, the most since records began, according a report released on Friday.

The Community Security Trust, a charity that monitors anti-Semitism and provides security for the Jewish community in Britain, recorded 924 anti-Semitic incidents in 2009.

The high number of incidents was attributed to “unprecedented levels of anti-Semitism” during and in the immediate aftermath of Operation Cast Lead. This included 288 incidents last January, during the conflict, and 114 in February, after the cease-fire. These compared with a previous highest monthly total of 105 incidents in October 2000.

The 36-page report stated that 212 of the 924 incidents, 23 percent of the total, recorded by CST in 2009 included some form of reference to Operation Cast Lead. In January, 158 of the 288 incidents made reference to the Gaza conflict. Continue Reading →

UKIP Threatened by Islamist

Posted on by

From The East London Advertiser

TOWER Hamlets council has launched a disciplinary enquiry over pro-Islamist emails sent to a London Euro-MP.

Two e-mails, with a town hall address, attacked proposals by the UK Independence Party to ban Muslim face coverings, including burkas and hijabs, in public places and accused the party of trying to “stoke a religious war on the streets of Britain.”

London MEP Gerard Batten has lodged a formal complaint with Tower Hamlets council and is demanding to know what disciplinary action will be taken against any individual found responsible for sending the emails.

The emails, which have been linked to a Town Hall employee’s email account, were sent last month.

One message said: “Teenage pregnancies, binge drinking, that is what is associated with British culture. Islam is the dominant religion in the United Kingdom. If you don’t like it, go live somewhere else. Continue Reading →

Norman Tebbit mauls David Cameron

Posted on by

From The Mirror

Norman Tebbit yesterday launched a stinging attack on David Cameron for being all spin and no substance.

The former Tory chairman said the Conservative leader’s reliance on slick PR techniques had backfired.

“I am not sure that it is possible to sell politics quite like soap powders or organic vegetables,” Lord Tebbit wrote on his blog.

“Margaret Thatcher would sometimes listen to a clever plan from one of her ministers quietly, then dismiss it out of hand with the words ‘Far too clever’.

“So if I were an election planner in Camp Cameron I would be beginning to ask myself why there has now been a slow erosion of the Tory lead over the last year or 18 months.” Continue Reading →

The Tory Twitter police: Election hopefuls told their online comments must be approved first

Posted on by

From The Daily Mail

David Cameron has ordered his party’s candidates to submit their online utterances for vetting.

The strict edict issued to every Tory candidate across the country covers updates on social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, as well as Internet blogs and websites.

The move aims to cut the number of gaffes in the run-up to the General Election when would-be MPs will face intense scrutiny.

Cameron

But last night critics said the move smacked of the worst excesses of New Labour in the 1990s under spin doctors Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson.

In the e-mail to Tory candidates, they were told ‘electronic publications such as websites, blogs and Twitter have to be approved before they are posted’. Continue Reading →

UKIP “Surge” Sends Warning to Parties

Posted on by

From The Independent

By Chris Mead

Labour made two gains in the latest council by-elections but a UKIP surge served a warning to major parties amid the latest revelations in the MPs’ expenses scandal.

Liberal Democrats surrendered a Holmewood and Heath seat they had taken at North East Derbyshire District in 2008 when they failed to field a candidate.

Labour’s Lee Stone easily won in a straight fight with Tories.

The second gain came at Blackburn with Darwen Borough when Mustafa Desai triumphed at Queen’s Park where the previous councillor had been elected as a Lib Dem but later became independent.

Labour won another seat in the ward in the 2008 main polls.

UKIP shot from fourth place to second as Tories held on at Newchapel, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough, Staffordshire. Continue Reading →

Counter-terrorism officers target universities. U.K.

Posted on by

Special Branch officers are being stationed in universities at risk of being targeted by extremists, the Government has admitted.

A number of institutions have been identified by counter-terrorism officers amid fears students are in danger of being groomed by fanatics.

David Lammy, the Higher Education Minister, insisted the threat posed to universities had been exaggerated but admitted that it remained an “extremely serious issue”.

The move comes just weeks after a former student at University College London sparked a major terror investigation when he allegedly attempted to detonate explosives on a flight over the United States on Christmas Day.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was president of the university’s Islamic Society for three years before graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering in June 2009.

UCL – rated as one of the best in the world – has now launched an investigation into his time at the university.

In an interview, Mr Lammy admitted that security had been stepped up at a series of universities, with anti-terrorism officers actively patrolling campuses.

“We have identified universities for whom the risk is greater and they have to work closely with Special Branch, and so I think it is a partnership between leadership at universities and the police,” he said.

Mr Lammy said he did “not recognise a caricature of a significant risk across Britain”.

But he added: “We do recognise that threat levels have been raised and that this is an extremely serious issue and that there are particular institutions – and those institutions are aware of this because we have brought it to their attention – where the risk is greater and those institutions are working very closely with the police and are working closely with Special Branch and those institutions (police and Special Branch) are present on campus.”

The Government refused to be drawn on which universities had been identified or the number of institutions with tightened security.

In the past, Prof Anthony Glees, director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at Buckingham University, has suggested as many as 24 institutions may have been infiltrated by extremists. The Government has denied the claims.

Vice-chancellors announced last month they were establishing a panel to look at how universities can take action to prevent violent extremism while protecting freedom of speech.

Tory MP claims ”barbaric and medieval” views about women have been imported into Britain

Posted on by

A Tory MP accused some communities of importing ”barbaric and medieval” views about women into Britain while discussing the sentencing of an Asian teenager for rape.

David Davies, a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, has called for the Attorney General to review the three-year term imposed on Balal Khan, 14.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live on Wednesday the Monmouth MP said the case raised a ”wider question”.

”What is it about this young man’s upbringing, what about his community or his parental upbringing, that led him to think that women are second-class people whose rights can be trampled over like this?” he said.

”That is a very interesting question. And, you know, there are some sensitive issues here, but there do seem to be some people in some communities who don’t respect women’s rights at all and who – if I may say, without necessarily saying that this is the case on this occasion – who have imported into this country barbaric and medieval views about women and that is something that also needs to be addressed.”

The Conservative Party distanced itself from Mr Davies’s comments.

A spokesman said: ”These comments do not reflect the views of the party in any way.”

Khan was sentenced to three years in a young offenders institution at Stoke Crown Court after admitting raping and robbing a 20-year-old woman.

Peter Hain, the Welsh Secretary, said: ”I am appalled at this Conservative MP’s indiscriminate attack on whole communities in our tolerant society.

”This sort of inflammatory language from a leading Welsh Tory does nothing to help hardworking people in difficult times.

”We are trying to get along together the best we can – David Davies should be ashamed of himself.”

Mohamed Ali Harrath, Islamic TV chief, is held over terror claims

Posted on by
Mohamed Ali Harrath

Mohamed Ali Harrath

 TIMESONLINE… The head of the Islam Channel, Britain’s most popular Muslim television station, has been arrested in South Africa and faces deportation to Tunisia over terrorism allegations.

The Times disclosed more than a year ago that Mohamed Ali Harrath, a Scotland Yard adviser against Islamic extremism, was wanted by Interpol because of his alleged activities in his homeland. His arrest on Sunday after a flight from London is being blamed by supporters on a security clampdown by the South African authorities in the run-up to this summer’s World Cup.

Harrath, 46, is the force behind the Islam Channel, which is watched by 59 per cent of British Muslims and beamed by satellite to 132 countries. He has been fêted by politicians, with the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, the minister Shahid Malik and the Tory frontbencher Dominic Grieve attending his annual festival. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, gave him a platform to address thousands in Trafalgar Square in September at the official taxpayer-funded event to mark the end of Ramadan. Harrath, who has a heart condition, collapsed during his arrest and is being treated at Eugene Marais hospital in Pretoria, where he is under police guard. The broadcaster has been convicted in absentia of numerous criminal and terrorism-related offences by Tunisian courts and sentenced to 56 years in prison.

The Islam Channel last night accused Tunisia of using Interpol to harass and intimidate Harrath. Continue Reading →

Who are we and where are we going? Child rapes in Britain.

Posted on by

R.E.A.L. … It is heartbreaking, even as it is unsurprising. In Britain, the authorities are now reporting the forced marriage of girls as young as nine years old on British soil. We are not talking about one case, but several, which take place under official protection. We are not speaking, then, about parents or “husbands” who are being charged with a criminal offense. The situation, in other words, is completely unacceptable and makes clear that we have a crying need for a new approach to these matters. Government must put its foot down — and powerfully so — so that there will be no doubt as to the way in which such grotesque crimes will be addressed.

First, when I say that the marriage of nine-year-old girls in today’s Britain (and the rest of the EU, for that matter) is unsurprising, my statement is based on my own 17 years of experience in the field of immigration: forms of assault based on tradition and religion — including child marriage, forced marriage, genital mutilation, so-called honor-related offenses such as rape and murder — have become established here as a result of immigration, mostly from Muslim countries. Instances of these offenses have been documented in countries such as Norway (where, to be sure, there have been no recorded cases of marriage to girls as young as nine, but where the marriage of an 11-year-old came to light in a TV documentary that I worked on as journalist; such cases have also been known in Sweden). The only phenomenon that has not been documented in Norway thus far is forced eating by girls before they are to be married off. I was told about this practice by feminists in Paris in 2003, and the phenomenon had been imported into France by immigrants, mostly from Mali. Girls are locked up and fed like geese before being married, because in their culture being fat is considered beautiful.

This being said, the news from Britain, which has been reported in the Times, deserves widespread attention. Because the authorities are obviously aware of very serious information about actual children who are supposedly under the protection of those very same authorities. In other words, Britain’s Ministry of Justice, if the Times is to be believed, knows who these children’s parents are, parents who have attempted to arrange for the rape of their own children. For this is what we are talking about here: the deprival of children’s freedom, plus countless years of repeated rape. Such phenomena must force authorities to sit down with a cool head and a warm heart and ask themselves: who are we, and where are we going? What are we doing to ourselves as a nation, to our heritage, to our culture, to our future? According to the Times, however, British authorities are not doing anything of the kind. Here comes the proposed initiative, and before you read this sentence you had better take a deep breath. The Ministry of Justice says that the children’s parents are receiving help from the authorities “to solve the problem.” Continue Reading →