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Here's one for my man Omid. Kenan Malik in Prospect Magazine (thanks to all who sent this in) tells the truth about Islamophobia: "The charge of 'Islamophobia' is all too often used not to highlight racism but to silence critics of Islam, or even Muslims fighting for reform of their communities."
Ten years ago, no one had heard of Islamophobia. Now everyone from Muslim leaders to anti-racist activists to government ministers wants to convince us that Britain is in the grip of a major backlash against Islam.But does Islamophobia exist? The trouble with the idea is that it confuses hatred of, and discrimination against, Muslims on the one hand with criticism of Islam on the other. The charge of "Islamophobia" is all too often used not to highlight racism but to silence critics of Islam, or even Muslims fighting for reform of their communities.
In reality, discrimination against Muslims is not as great as is often claimed. When making a film on Islamophobia for Channel 4, I discovered a huge gap between perception and reality. One issue is police harassment of Muslims. Last summer, the home office published figures that revealed a 300 per cent increase in the number of Asians being stopped and searched under Britain's anti-terror laws. Journalists, Muslim leaders and even the home office all shouted "Islamophobia." "The whole Muslim community is being targeted by the police," claimed Khalid Sofi of the Muslim Council of Britain.
The bald figure of a "300 per cent increase" suggested heavy-handed policing at the very least. But dig a little deeper and the figures show that just 3,000 Asians had been stopped and searched in the previous year under the Terrorism Act. Of these, probably half were Muslim. In other words, around 1,500 Muslims out of a population of at least 1.6m had been stopped under the terror lawshardly a case of the police targeting every Muslim.
A total of 21,577 people from all backgrounds were stopped and searched under the terror laws. The majority -- 14,429 -- were white. Yet when I interviewed Iqbal Sacranie, general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, he insisted that "95-98 per cent of those stopped and searched under the anti-terror laws are Muslim." The real figure is 14 per cent (for Asians). However many times I showed him the true statistics, he refused to budge. His figures appear to have been simply plucked out of the sky....
All these figures are in the public domain. Yet not one reputable journalist challenged the claim that Asians were being disproportionately stopped and searched. So pervasive is the acceptance of Islamophobia that no one even bothers to check if it is true....
Even Muslim organisations that campaign against Islamophobia find it hard to make the case that attacks on Muslims are routine. The Islamic Human Rights Commission monitored 344 attacks on Muslims in the year after 11th September. Most were relatively minor incidents such as shoving or spitting.
For Muslim leaders, inflating the threat of Islamophobia helps consolidate their power base, both within their own communities and wider society. British Muslims have long looked with envy at the political power wielded by the Jewish community, and by the status accorded to the Board of Deputies of British Jews. One of the reasons for setting up the Muslim Council of Britain was to try to emulate the political success of the board. Muslim leaders talk about using Islamophobia in the same way that they perceive Jewish leaders to have exploited fears about antisemitism.
Exaggerating anti-Muslim prejudice is also useful for mainstream politicians, and especially for a Labour government that has faced such a political battering over the war on Iraq and its anti-terror laws. Being sensitive to Islamophobia allows them to reclaim some of the moral high ground. It also allows Labour politicians to pitch for the Muslim vote. Muslims may feel "betrayed" by the war on Iraq, trade minister Mike O'Brien wrote recently in the Muslim Weekly, but "the Labour government is trying to deliver an agenda that has shown consideration and respect for Muslims." According to O'Brien: "Iqbal Sacranie, the general secretary of the Muslim Council, asked Tony Blair to declare that the government would introduce a new law banning religious discrimination. Two weeks later, in his speech to the Labour party conference, Tony Blair promised that the next Labour government would ban religious discrimination. It was a major victory for the Muslim community in Britain."
Pretending that Muslims have never had it so bad might bolster community leaders and gain votes for politicians, but it does the rest of us, Muslim or non-Muslim, no favours at all. The more that ordinary Muslims come to believe that they are under constant attack, the more resentful, inward-looking and open to extremism they are likely to become.
In the course of making my documentary, I asked dozens of ordinary Muslims across the country about their experiences of Islamophobia. Everyone believed that police harassment was common, although no one had been stopped and searched. Everyone insisted that physical attacks were rife, though few had been attacked or knew anyone who had. What is being created here is a culture of victimhood in which "Islamophobia" has become a one-stop explanation for the many problems facing Muslims....
What all this suggests is the need for a frank, open debate about Muslims and their relationship to wider British society.
That's for sure. Read it all.
Posted by Robert at February 10, 2005 3:15 PM
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Great. Just what UK needs - to perputate the victimhood culture amongst Muslims - through legislation.
People have enough difficulty articulating whats on their minds as it is, without more legislation to worry about. We need the the first amendment over here, before free speech disappears as some olde world concept.
If this new law annoys you please email Tony Blair:
http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/page821.asp
He gets a report every month of the emails.
Posted by: freestar![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 10, 2005 4:27 PM
Our man Omid has already shown that he's not interested in rational discourse. He uses the accusation of "islamophobia" only as a political weapon and not as a description of reality. He's a postmodernist, so reality doen't count for him anyway. He's not even a scientist because he denies the possibiliy to achieve objective knowledge. He's nothing more than a political activist with tenure. Quoting empirical data won't change his views, but it might at least help some of his students who have only heard Omid's point of view.
Posted by: Simon at February 10, 2005 4:29 PM
Who the heck are their PR people? They're good!
It seems that every time the Muslims fall in a sewer, they come up with a gold watch. We're almost to the point where it will be illegal to criticize anything they do. Then what? Do we just lay down and die?
at February 10, 2005 4:36 PM
Substitute a few words and phrases and "homophobe" for "islamophobe", and the true design of the islamic lobby and the homo lobby(and probably 100 others) comes through.
Its identity politics, the class-war reconfigured. Their immediate goal is unearned privilege and power, the ultimate goal of the original(leftist)theorists and strategists is division, resentment, hostility, dissatisfaction,chaos-- then transformation into universal equal incompetence,subservience, slavery-- "socialism with a human face".
--------------------
The islamists are following the leftist model to a T.
at February 10, 2005 4:55 PM
Terms such as Islamophobia and other "phobias", as well as racism are used as bludgeons by certain groups to blackmail, intimidate, extort, and to create and consolidate a base of power and influence.
Islamophobia doesn't exist because "phobia" means "irrational fear of". Our feeling of apprehension is not irrational because we historical and contemporary patterns of abuse by Muslims of non-Muslims when and where they come to power. The same pattern has occurred over and over again. Why should we believe that the Muslims now among us won't adopt the same behaviors after establishing themselves among us?
Posted by: epg at February 10, 2005 5:54 PM
After the 9/11 attack Islamic Org.'s in Canada were asking Muslim to report any perceived act of a hate-crime or Islamophobia,by November 2001 CAIR used those false numbers to prove they were victims of the 9/11 backlash.
Here's the truth,out of about 630 claims of a hate-crime against Muslims the Police found only about 120 valid enough to act on,from those about 20 lead to a charge of hate to a muslim,and there still hasn't been an update on any conviction of the 20 alleged attacks.
The Police had muslims demanding the complaint
be treated and recorded as a hate-crime for statistical reference.
Oh,and with 1.2 million non-citizens living or working in Canada the Nationality or religion of the alleged "Islamophobes" was never reported and CAIR blamed Canadian bogots for the alleged attacks even without knowing the staus of the person doing the attacks. The Imam's included voice mail threats and Females claiming that "People look at them as if they were terrorists" and they feared for their safety.
Cry me a river Hooper.
at February 10, 2005 6:40 PM
Once upon a time we were afraid of communism! What a joke! It came and it went... This goes on now for 1400 years, and we havn't learnt a lesson from it. We must have all been suffering from collective amnesia when we allowed the Muzzies Infiltration of our countries. It took them how long? 30 years? I may not have that much time anymore, but during my time I will do whatever I can to expose them for what they are: Terrorists, murderers, criminals and brainwashed fanatics. Nothing, absolutely nothing it is theat they can possibly contribute to make our world a better place. We know what they do, let's get rid of them....
Posted by: Terminator at February 10, 2005 8:47 PM
Of course the ridiculous term 'Islamophobia' is used only to shut people up. The term 'racist' is incorrect and 'bigot' isn't strong enough. Since 'homophobe' works so well, they copied it. Have to find some way of keeping the truth of Islam from getting out. Easy to do that in Muslim countries. You just murder people who criticize Islam in even the slightest manner. A wonderful deterrent. Can't do that too often in non-Muslim countries though, because the infidels might get suspicious (although given our record so far, maybe not). The odd one here or there can get explained away perhaps, but you can't go around slaughtering everyone who criticizes Islam. There'd be too many bodies. So you have to come up with something less bloody, less obvious.
The term is useful not only to stop open, honest discussion of Islam and it's many faults, but for other nefarious purposes. By making it look like the Muslim is the victim, the silly dhimmis will fall all over themselves asking how to make up for these perceived grievances ...
- pass laws to stop the nasty people from hurting our feelings;
- govt funding for brainwashing sessions, oops 'Muslim sensitivity' training of your law enforcement agencies;
- allow us to infiltrate your schools and brainwash, oops, educate your children about the wonderments of Islamic culture;
- special rights, like Sharia law, segregation of public facilities, apologies for making entertainment that shows Muslims as terrorists, etc.
This is jihad. Just not the bloody kind. It's the slow, patient, non-violent jihad. Same purpose though.
Posted by: feralee at February 10, 2005 9:14 PM
It's a shame that this obnoxious gang of immigrant troublemakers can't shut up, assimilate, acculturate, and fade into the fabric of the society they chose to invade. IF they quit calling constant attention to themselves, their incongruous religion and culture, and their incessant, albeit imaginary, grievances, everyone would be much happier and less tense.
Muslims invite contempt. If they are ignored they complain. If they are the center of attention they complain. They are intractable and implacable. And they wonder why people hate them.
When are they going to get over themselves? They are incorrigible boors.
at February 11, 2005 12:35 AM
Remeber the whining from Somali's about how nobody seemed to care what the Tsunami did to their coastline,well here's a story to help prove why I no longer give a damn about the blood thirsty Muslim living there.
A BBC member was murdered in Mogadeshu from a Fatwa by a local Cleric the want westerners in the city killed.
As a added bonus,the recent news update said indonesia was hit with another quake rated at 5.8
and cause panic from the memory of the dec 26th
Tsunami.
Allah must really hate those Muslims since that now about 5 quakes from 5.3-9.9 ,oh wait,it's the Jews with another nuclear bomb on the ocean bed.
at February 11, 2005 1:09 AM
Remeber the whining from Somali's about how nobody seemed to care what the Tsunami did to their coastline,well here's a story to help prove why I no longer give a damn about the blood thirsty Muslim living there.
A BBC member was murdered in Mogadeshu from a Fatwa by a local Cleric the want westerners in the city killed.
As a added bonus,the recent news update said indonesia was hit with another quake rated at 5.8
and cause panic from the memory of the dec 26th
Tsunami.
Allah must really hate those Muslims since that now about 5 quakes from 5.3-9.9 ,oh wait,it's the Jews with another nuclear bomb on the ocean bed.
at February 11, 2005 1:10 AM
On the other hand, even the Independent, a savagely anti-Israel newspaper, has reported that anti-Jewish attacks in the UK have risen sharply: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=609939.
It even goes so far as to note that "The Community Security Trust (CST), which advises the Jewish community on how to protect itself, said many of the attacks were "a reaction to events in the Middle East".
"Some British-based supporters of the Palestinians chose to express their opposition to Israel by attacking British Jews,""
though it does not go so far as to suggest that any of the attackers might be Muslims.
That would be unacceptable to them, Islam being a religion of peace, love and harmony, after all - and once the new religious hatred law comes in, it would probably be illegal too.
Posted by: philiph at February 11, 2005 2:15 AM
Last month London police said they were hunting a group of black and Asian men said to be behind a string of racist attacks on orthodox Jewish men in the capital.
Not Muslim youths then... This is insulting to 'black' and 'asian' youths.
http://reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=670561
Posted by: freestar at February 11, 2005 5:25 AM
"Islamophobia" concerns are often akin to the story of the Emperor's New Clothes.
Political correctness and "multiculturalism" go to extraordinary lengths to deny the obvious truth, i.e., that certain aspects and sects of Islam are central to and the root ideology of most terrorist organizations.
It is not, however, "Islamophobic", "hate speech", or "racist" to point out the true facts that Islam has a serious problem with extremism and that certain verses of the Koran or various Hadiths are being used by extremist Muslims. This doesn't mean every Muslim is a terrorist. It's just a reality that exists.
To deny this reality is akin to pretending that the "Emperor's New Clothes" really exist(when in fact they don't).
Moderate Muslims, the world and the rest of us Non Muslims will be better off and better able to deal with jihad ideology and terrorism if we confront the truth.
Screaming "Islamophobia" or "hate speech" when certain true facts about certain aspects or sects of Islam are presented or discussed is simply living in denial.
at February 11, 2005 11:39 AM
The purpose of that denial is to be able to continue what they are doing and avoid the consequences by shifting the responsibility(and consequences) onto their enemy.
They want to have us subsidize their fantasy(many varieties) life.They want to enforce subservience on us by redefining the "frame of reference"(already done in many areas,during the "counter-culture revolution") and inverting the perception of reality to suit their desires. They are very psychologically and linguistically sophisticated, in techniques of exploitation and manipulation.
Posted by: kentim at February 11, 2005 3:12 PM
starsandstripes:
"Not every Muslim is a Terrorist'- perhaps!
But what about guilt by association? All the denial, the lies, the 'Shadenfreude' after 9/11, the silent consent and the 'deafening silence' in the muzzie community whenever another atrocity is committed? In dodging the issues, in avoiding to denounce the terror and the Jihad,(they can't, otherwise they themselves would become a target) the call for 'understanding of the "root causes" of terror' and the dubious explanations and relativations, the quantifiers that hang around like a fart that just won't leave the room, that makes them not only sympathizers, it makes them part of the conspiracy!
Posted by: Terminator at February 11, 2005 7:09 PM
Here's why the media is forced to allow Muslims to censor what you watch by practising Islam by proxy,no surprise CAIR is named in a Class-action
suit for creating the atmosphere to allow terrorists to conduct treasonistic attacks by Psy-Ops that make Police fear a lawsuit for being called a racist for stopping a Muslim.
Theo Van Gogh and the Coptic family slaughtered by Muslims should be a wake-up call to fight back and tell Hooper and Allah to go to hell and be with Muhammed the pedophile.
**************************************************
Also wanted to flag something of concern I saw on TV. Do you know the program on CBC, "Just for Laughs Gags"? It is a hidden camera show produced by a comedy school in Quebec and filmed around the streets of Montreal.
While usually quite funny, one practical joke they played was extremely offensive and dangerous: a man dressed in a black burkah, trying to impersonate a Muslim woman, went and sat down beside men on a park bench in a downtown Montreal park. He then made eyes and physical advances towards the men.
All the bystanders were completely shocked and the men targeted were actually quite polite, you could see they were doing everything in their power to ignore the (wo)man. They seem to have more sense than the producers of the show. At a time when Muslim women are experiencing so much discrimination and visibility, they pull an offensive and misleading stunt like that?
I think CIC should complain to the CRTC. I saw the program yesterday Thursday 3 Feb at 9:00pm on CBC-Vancouver (Bell ExpressVu).
Note: that the show gets funding or tax credits from two federal government agencies and from a Quebec government agency (FIDEC).
Thanks and take care,
Tara Ashtakala
Posted by: ala-sux at February 11, 2005 10:07 PM
this fits into the not so far off topic if indeed it is off topic at all.
The story posted is not fictional by far and the events of abu-graib pale in comparison.What I would like to point out are they key words.
(1) ASSOCIATE = join in companionship or partnership
(2) ACCORDING = in conformity with; as stated by.
(3) TARGET = MARK TO SHOOT AT;: GOAL TO BE ACHIEVED;....MAKE A TARGET OF; ESTABLISH AS A GOAL.
http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/7891625p-8830265c.html
Federal agents raid Hells Angels sites across the West
The Associated Press
Last Updated 5:27 p.m. PST Wednesday, December 3, 2003
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Federal agents raided Hells Angels motorcycle gang hangouts across the West Wednesday and made 38 arrests after a two-year undercover investigation into alleged violations of gun and drug laws.
All 38 people arrested were either members or(1) associates, of the Hells Angels,(2) according, to Patrick Berarducci, senior special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Los Angeles.
The San Francisco headquarters of the Hells Angelsgang ,was(4) targeted, and other search and arrest warrants were executed in Southern California, Arizona, Washington state, Nevada, and Alaska.
The Northern California warrants resulted in 16 or 17 arrests, said Marti McKee, a bureau spokeswoman in San Francisco. She declined to say what agents were looking for, saying the supporting documents were sealed by court order.
Targets in Northern California included 29 search warrants and 24 arrest warrants in locations that included Richmond, San Jose and Santa Cruz County.
"San Francisco police did the entry and secured the scene," she said of the Hells Angels raid. "Now that they've taken care of that, ATF agents are going in to search."
More information on the raids will be released "once we've determined the court documents have been unsealed," McKee said.
very industrious of these federal agents would'nt you agree?
and this from the war on drugs that if you win you lose the ol' catch 22 scenario.what you stop at the border pales in comparison to what is being manufactured throughout the cities and rural areas of America by the backyard mechanics....way to go feds....how ya doin' w/ them pharmecueticals any how?
The bottom line here is how can these agencies perpetuate such motion here against America's social problem instead of against America's foes.
Our youths that get caught up in this catch-22 are never afforded on opportunity to serve in the armed forces but 13% of the military is made up of aliens, non-citizens; what kind of QUAGMIRE is this?could the farmers in the carolinas and elsewhere grow something other than tabacco they cant grow any more?
"No man is good enough to govern another without the others consent... these United States Of America can never be destroyed from the forces outside its borders. If America falls, it will fall from within. Brought down by apathy. When good people do nothing, anarchy reigns."
Abraham Lincoln
at February 12, 2005 8:03 AM
So, everybody is being nice to Muslims in the UK?
And we are supposed to congratulate the UK on this?
I think Muslims in Britain know that logically there should be a backlash against them, and they are reporting what should be happening because they can't quite grasp the surreal passive reality that surrounds them.
Iqbal Sacranie, general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, insisted that "95-98 per cent of those stopped and searched under the anti-terror laws are Muslim." He said this because common sense dictates that this should be the case - but it isn't.
"What is being created here is a culture of victimhood" - yeah, well that's just Islam isn't it?
And as for Islamophobia itself…
The Sydney Funnel-Web (Atrax robustus) is the most dangerous spider in the world. It is very aggressive, its fangs can cut through leather and its venom has killed many people. If you would prefer not being in a room full of them, is it because you suffer from arachnophobia?
I think not.
Islam is the only religion in the world that advocates conversion by the sword. Every day Muslims prove their hostility and have perpetrated innumerable acts of terror against innocent civilians. Their disdain for other communities often manifests itself in overt criminality. If you would prefer not living in a city full of them, do you suffer from Islamophobia?
I think not.
at February 12, 2005 10:32 AM
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