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It's unlikely that any good will come of this. From Associated Press of Pakistan, with thanks to Morgaan Sinclair:
LONDON, June 1 (APP): British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to meet Muslim leaders from all over the world at a major conference on Islam, hosted by University of Cambridge next week. The June 4 and 5 event, aims to explore ways in which greater unity and understanding might be fostered between Muslims and non-Muslims in the societies in which they live. Representatives from more than 30 countries will be attending, said a media release of the Cambridge University....
That is, they want to foster greater unity and understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims in the West. They will almost certainly not discuss the plight of non-Muslims in Muslim countries, although it is getting worse all the time.
The conference is being organized by The Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme (CIP), based in the University's Faculty of Divinity. CIP is a teaching and research programme that seeks to achieve a deeper understanding of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. It also aims to develop public outreach programmes for the benefit of faith communities and wider society.The event will open with a video message from HRH Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales, while the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, will host a reception in the evening.
Other speakers will include the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shaykh Ali Gomaa; the Grand Mufti of Bosnia, Mufti Mustafa Ceric; Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Glasgow; the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres; the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Ruth Kelly and the Leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron.
About Ali Gomaa, see here. Mustafa Ceric has repeated the misleading fiction that "the Muslims and Jews have contributed to European development [as much] as Christians did"; while he is right that the Jews made an immense contribution to European culture, historically Muslims have contributed to Europe the way the fox contributes to the henhouse. About Cameron, see here. About Ruth Kelly, see here.
Professor David Ford, Director of the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme, said:"There is an urgent need for Islam and traditionally Christian cultures to understand one another specifically from a religious perspective.
"The conference will focus on the relationship between Islam and the non-Muslim world, inviting Muslims from this country and abroad to discuss the challenges we all face in creating communities that can accommodate and thrive on the religious diversity that exists in Britain, Europe and beyond.
"In the past, policy has too often focused on the question of integrating Muslims into secular society. In fact we live in a complexly religious and secular society where the expression of religious beliefs remains important to huge numbers of people."
So forget about getting Muslims to integrate -- at least until they start rioting as in France. Then the government will be blamed for not integrating them.
Speakers and guests will be encouraged to consider the contribution Islamic debate has made to a host of contemporary topics including citizenship, the place of Islamic law, women and human rights.
What does this mean? What contribution has "Islamic debate" made to questions of "citizenship, the place of Islamic law, women and human rights," except to threaten the rights of women and non-Muslims, as well as the very concept of citizenship itself? How does Islamic law make any contribution to Britain except as the goal of those who would destroy British civilization once and for all?
Timothy Winter, lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge, said:"The question facing British society, and society as a whole, is not how we encourage minorities to engage with western countries, but how those countries define themselves as a collage of different religious cultures. We hope that this conference will enable those responsible for encouraging and building unity in communities to approach the task from that perspective.
Once again we hear that Britain has no culture of its own, but is a clearinghouse, or here a "collage," of different cultures. And indeed, if Britain has no culture of its own that any British leader thinks is worth defending in itself, it certainly will lose the vestiges of what it does have.
"If we are to overcome the problems of religious ignorance and misunderstanding, we need to have precisely these sorts of conversations and collaborations across religious and secular boundaries."
Posted by Robert at June 1, 2007 12:49 PM
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Its not about us amd them understanding each other. The dialogue Islamists talk about is one way only. They don't care about understanding us.
All the meetings in DC and elsewhere, and open houses at the mosques are designed to educate us about them, to get us to understand their point of view, to get us to give in and be understanding of their wants, their needs, their problems. Our concerns are not addressed, ever.
Posted by: Mr Jones![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 1, 2007 1:54 PM
The daily grist, for the daily grind, at the daily mill. Robert, are you sure you don't make these stories up? It's just one damn incredible and impossible and intolerable thing after another. You must make these up.
Posted by: Hugh at June 1, 2007 1:55 PM
Damn right there is an urgent need for our culture to understand Islam from a religious perspective.
Only then can we realize the catastrophic folly of initiatives like this.
Posted by: StephenA55 at June 1, 2007 2:31 PM
"If we are to overcome the problems of religious ignorance and misunderstanding, we need to have precisely these sorts of conversations and collaborations across religious and secular boundaries."
Dream on.
Posted by: sounder at June 1, 2007 2:33 PM
I like the way that Muslim converts change back to using their original names when they wish to appear more palatable, such as Cat Stevens, David Hicks and in this case Timothy Winter, who is also known as Adbul Hakim Murad.
Whenever they call him Timothy Winter, rather than how he appeared in Channel Four's 'Undercover Mosques documentary as Abdul Hakim Murad, it reminds me of the poem we did in school by Charles Causey, titled 'Timothy Winters':
'Timothy Winters'
Timothy Winters comes to school
With eyes as wide as a football-pool,
Ears like bombs and teeth like splinters:
A blitz of a boy is Timothy Winters.
His belly is white, his neck is dark,
And his hair is an exclamation-mark.
His clothes are enough to scare a crow
And through his britches the blue winds blow.
When teacher talks he won't hear a word
And he shoots down dead the arithmetic-bird,
He licks the pattern off his plate
And he's not even heard of the Welfare State.
Timothy Winters has bloody feet
And he lives in a house on Suez Street,
He sleeps in a sack on the kithen floor
And they say there aren't boys like him anymore.
Old Man Winters likes his beer
And his missus ran off with a bombardier,
Grandma sits in the grate with a gin
And Timothy's dosed with an aspirin.
The welfare Worker lies awake
But the law's as tricky as a ten-foot snake,
So Timothy Winters drinks his cup
And slowly goes on growing up.
At Morning Prayers the Master helves
for children less fortunate than ourselves,
And the loudest response in the room is when
Timothy Winters roars "Amen!"
So come one angel, come on ten
Timothy Winters says "Amen
Amen amen amen amen."
Timothy Winters, Lord. Amen
at June 1, 2007 2:43 PM
Blair is attending this although he's handing over the keys to Number 10 Downing Street to Gordon Brown. This is part of the role he wants to perform from now on, ie that of a international goodwill envoy trying to bring the different faiths together. Just shows how deluded our Tony really is.
Posted by: Elephant at June 1, 2007 2:46 PM
The June 4 and 5 event, aims to explore ways in which greater unity and understanding might be fostered between Muslims and non-Muslims in the societies in which they live.
One way is to institute shari'a, obey Moslems and admit they are our betters. See, easy!
Posted by: Seymour Paine at June 1, 2007 2:55 PM
Blair's most blighted hour.
Posted by: Old Atlantic at June 1, 2007 3:06 PM
BLair, and his wife Cherie BLair, a 'human rights' lawyer, are whores. Plain and simple. This whole exercise is nothing other than to show the Muhammedans 'look, we are for sale, we will be available for speaking engagements, we will champion the Muhammedan cause, we will defend your actions no matter how perverse they are and f*#ck freedom of speech and all those other imaginary 'rights'- no, my wife Cherie will help you even when you're a convicted terrorist, so that your brood and your four wife's can remain in Britain an you will not be extradited ... just like Clitman, just like peanut Khadr. He had good teachers, Tony BLair.
Now don't tell me I'm being too harsh, am I?
Other news:
http://sheikyermami.com/2007/06/01/geneva-synagogue-fire-was-arson-investigator-says/
Posted by: sheik yer'mami at June 1, 2007 3:10 PM
There's always some kind of interfaith dialogue or cultural understanding going on, but where are the results? Year after year people gather to "understand one another specifically from a religious perspective" but the problems just keep getting worse.
Why is all this endless dialogue necessary anyway? I thought Islam and Christianity share the same values, and Muslims are just like us. There shouldn't be any problems.
Posted by: Jesus Christ Supercop at June 1, 2007 3:12 PM
I guess those interfaith sessions fail because us kafir haven't learnt our lesson & coverted already...
Posted by: Miss_Anthrope at June 1, 2007 3:22 PM
"The common curse of mankind, - folly and ignorance". - (Troilus and Cressida, Act II, Scene III)
Tony Blair is a menace.
*Newsflash* Tony - not everyone shares your kumbaya, great-big-socialist-utopia-family-of-man beliefs!
Why do seemingly all of our "leaders" continue to assume Islam wants anything more than our conversion, subjugation or deaths?
Why won't they just sit down and look at Mohammed, is life and deeds and the bloody history, teachings and tenets of Islam as an ideology?
This is like a living nightmare.
So much willful ignorance - everywhere.
Incredible.
at June 1, 2007 3:30 PM
Bullocks on Blair! The only thing jihaddists understand is force. They will tell you they understand you , but turn arround and shove a knife in your back. The Serbs had it right! Wake-up Christians or we will all be under the sandal of Islam!
Posted by: Triphammer at June 1, 2007 3:32 PM
maybe we need to FORCE the utopianites to actually READ Utopia...you know, the BOOK???
"while they make their chamber-pots and close-stools of gold and silver..." - Sir Thomas More
Posted by: Miss_Anthrope at June 1, 2007 3:40 PM
TONY BLAIR IS TO CONSULT MUSLIM LEADERS AT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY CONFERENCE ON ISLAM.
Well, whoopdy do. What swell company will be there. Shaykh Ali Gomaa-chappie who would have us
believe Murderous Mo's urine was drunk by his followers as a 'healthy treat'.[Give me alcohol anytime].
Self styled 'Grand' Mufti of Bosnia - smooth,taqiyya tongued Mustafa Ceric who supports
foreign Jihadists staying in Bosnia. Ceric supports 'democracy' in front of Western Cameras
though.
Why waste more Taxpayers money on these shitbag
Islamic Conferences-Hell, they're the people who openly avow [they're that confident] DESTRUCTION
OF THE WEST!
Note how any Infidel nation that fights back against Islam is instantly branded 'Racist,Genocidal Monsters' and demonized
as Israel and Serbia are.
As for vain,posturing fool Blair-you will see-are
seeing all his policies unravel at the rate of knots-this guy has happily sold out Britain to
the highest bidders.
at June 1, 2007 8:08 PM
They really don't get it do they?
The Koran has hundreds of threatening and inflammatory comments about "infidels" moreover, veiling the truth about Islam, and telling lies to defend/support Islam, is enshrined in their religion, and ordered by their holy book. So, with this in mind, obviously any "dialogue" is going to be a sanitized and less than truthful affair. Consequently, the only way of judging Muslims is to observe their actions and react accordingly - to "negotiate" is simply to be ensnared in their web. Unfortunately, the biggest leftist defenders of the "poor downtrodden Muslims" have never read the Koran, and simply believed the watered down, distorted version dished out by the Imams, who OF COURSE are going to come over as sweet as possible.
It reminds me of the Nazis, the British, French etc. in the 1930's probably never bothered reading Mien Kampf, and if they had done they probably didn't take it seriously and preferred to listen to the soothing PR spiel of Hitler and his henchmen. The agenda of conflict, Fascism, anti-Semitism and expansionism was already clearly laid out in Mien Kampf, - as it is in the Koran, but again, as in the 1930's, our weak leadership prefers to believe in hollow and contradictory assurances, rather than simply read the Muslim instruction booklet.
How dare this TIMOTHY WINTERS say the immigrants into England have no obligation to adapt or fit in with mainstream ancient indigenous British culture. This is the contradictory game Muslims play: they want to distance themselves as much as possible from the British way of life and anything remotely patriotic. But when (inevitably) they are referred to as not being British, they claim to be “British born and bred” – but of coarse, their idea of being British is being (almost completely) Pakistani.
Of course – Pakistan is allowed to have a culture, whereas Britain must be a “collage” just because they are unfortunate enough to have 1.5 million hostile Muslims within their shores. Their only credential for being BRITISH is a passport. In Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, etc. Pakistanis are NEVER given passports of those nations even if they are third generation immigrants – only the “evil” West shows them such kindness. Who says we have nothing to learn from the Arabs?
at June 1, 2007 9:01 PM
Timbo is right. But maybe they never intended to assimilate into the west.
Posted by: Triphammer at June 1, 2007 9:20 PM
I'm with Australia's Howard on this.
Enough about "understanding" the noisy mohammedans.
Let them understand the rest of us!
Posted by: joeblough at June 2, 2007 12:22 AM
"Unity through submission, understanding by Jihad!!"
Posted by: Infidel One at June 2, 2007 2:10 AM
I've just emailed a close friend who works at cambridge to ask around if anyone is actually in opposition to this insanity..
Hopefully if she's not busy she'll do some digging around in the next few days.
I particulary asked her to look into where the money is coming from.
Saudi..anyone?
I'll post what I find out.
Regards
at June 2, 2007 11:10 AM
A quick update on what my friend found out..not much but here it is if anyones interested:
"as I understand it it's being sponsored by the Weidenfeld Institute for Strategic Dialogue (WISD) and the Coexist Foundation in cooperation with the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme in the Divinity Faculty but I've also been told that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the Department for Communities and Local Government were quite heavily involved but no idea if that involves any funding or not.
I can get hold of a programme of what's going on, who's involved if that's any use? It's in London rather than here."
It seems it's just the usual bunch of happy clappy multiculti's who have no sense of history or have chosen to be selective with their reading matter..
wackademia indeed.
at June 3, 2007 11:22 AM
It seems that we in the UK are rushing willingly into dhimmidom, that's if we don't get bombed out of existence first.
Islam is a totalitarian uncrompromising draconian religion. Its adherents weasel their way out of tight situations by saying what they think we want to hear.
After 7/7 the powers that be showed so much "understanding" of how the bombings happened they "understood" the culprits out of any blame and put all the blame on Israel.
I have written to Blair and his cronies countless times saying "Not in my name."
Posted by: Ehup at June 3, 2007 1:40 PM
It seems that we in the UK are rushing willingly into dhimmidom, that's if we don't get bombed out of existence first.
Islam is a totalitarian uncrompromising draconian religion. Its adherents weasel their way out of tight situations by saying what they think we want to hear.
After 7/7 the powers that be showed so much "understanding" of how the bombings happened they "understood" the culprits out of any blame and put all the blame on Israel.
I have written to Blair and his cronies countless times saying "Not in my name."
Posted by: Ehup at June 3, 2007 1:40 PM
It seems that we in the UK are rushing willingly into dhimmidom, that's if we don't get bombed out of existence first.
Islam is a totalitarian uncrompromising draconian religion. Its adherents weasel their way out of tight situations by saying what they think we want to hear.
After 7/7 the powers that be showed so much "understanding" of how the bombings happened they "understood" the culprits out of any blame and put all the blame on Israel.
I have written to Blair and his cronies countless times saying "Not in my name."
Posted by: Ehup at June 3, 2007 1:40 PM
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