Liam Byrne on immigration

It is getting damn crowded on the erstwhile roomy far shores of the right. Where once Ultras could roam in peace, we are now being crowded out by government ministers. The latest arrival is Liam Byrne, the UK immigration minister. The Daily Telegraph and the Times both report that he (and no doubt others in the Labour government) has apparently suddenly realised that large scale, unlimited immigration is damaging to British society. Some of us have been telling the left that for decades, so is this new found concern for the cohesion of society a genuine conversion to sensible thinking or is there some other motive, perhaps an electoral calculation from the the fag end of a wretched government already aware impending electoral disaster?

I think the Daily Mail has got it right in highlighting that:

Mr Byrne acknowledged that mounting public concern over immigration could not be blamed on media scaremongering, and highlighted the "political risks" facing governments which fail to tackle such concerns, citing governments in Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands which "lost power in elections where immigration was a serious issue."

Byrne reveals his new thinking in "Rethinking Immigration and Integration", an article contributing to a study of such issues by the Policy Network think tank, from where it can be downloaded as a pdf file.

Tags: Immigration, Liam Byrne, Policy Network.

Dr Mohammed Naseem

The International Herald Tribune carries an article on local Muslim denial in the wake of Wednesday's terrorist arrests in Birmingham. Towards the end of page 2, it reports that:

The chairman of the Birmingham Central Mosque, Mohammed Naseem, said the attention from the arrests was unwelcome because it was based on what he called the un-British notion of arresting people on the basis of suspicion.

But Dr. Naseem, 82, an outspoken critic of American foreign policy who confronted the American ambassador, Robert H. Tuttle, on Iraq during the ambassador's visit to the mosque last year, said he was concerned about "Muslim nationalism." This "Muslim nationalism" had developed among some of his constituents since 9/11 and was based "not on morality, but my nation right or wrong," he said. "That's the dangerous element, and we're trying to counteract it."

Is that the same Dr Mohammed Naseem who compares Blair's attitude to Muslims with Hitler's towards the Jews, thinks al Qaeda only exists as a CIA lie and denies that Muslims were responsible for the 7 July London Bombings?

Is this the same Dr Mohammed Naseem who wants to execute homosexuals (although anybody can be excused for wanting to execute Peter Tatchell)?

Is this the same Dr Mohammed Naseem who has complained that MI6 are watching him?

Is he representative of the people that the West Midlands Police is pandering to with leaflets?

Yes, yes, yes and very probably.

Of today's press, only the Daily Telegraph puts the police's multi-cultural pandering in a rational perspective.

Tags: Birmingham kidnap, Mohammed Naseem, War on Terror

Multicultural police recruitment

It is over ten days old, but I only came across this strange story today when trawling the Metropolitan Police website and I have not seen it in newsprint:

Former PC Cheema withdraws claim against the Met.

Former PC Tajinda Singh Cheema has withdrawn his claim of unfair dismissal on the grounds of discrimination after admitting to the hearing yesterday that he gave false evidence whilst under oath.

Mr Cheema was dismissed by the MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] in March 2006 for failing to reach the required standard during his probationary period. He claimed that his dismissal was discriminatory and evidence supporting it was fabricated and his claims were reported on the front page of today's Evening Standard.

During the tribunal hearing at the London Central Tribunal in Holborn he made a series of highly damaging accusations of race and religious discrimination against his former colleagues. Counsel for the MPS described his accusations as without 'a shred of evidence' and he withdrew his action after the first day of cross-examination.

Whilst giving evidence Mr Cheema was given advice by the Tribunal Chairman about giving answers that might perjure himself. Had the case continued the tribunal would have heard from 18 witnesses for the MPS, including officers from minority ethnic groups, to show that his claims had no substance whatsoever.

Mr Cheema joined the MPS in August 2001. The normal probation period is two years but Mr Cheema's was repeatedly extended over a five-year period to give him every opportunity to become a competent serving police officer but he was unable to meet the standards we require. The tribunal has dismissed the claims against all respondents.

This strange story raises some worrying questions. Cheema did not make the grade but was given another three years to try. How many of these substandard quota coppers has the Met actually allowed through the system? Would a white individual have received such treatment?

Having failed to become a policeman, Cheema then tried to cash in on it by making false accusations and committing perjury. Is he going to be charged over his behaviour? How many other individuals have done something similar and got away with it?

Tags: Cheema, Multiculturalism, Metropolitan Police

Cartoon demonstrator now singing a not so merry melody

Umran Javed, a British Muslim from Birmingham, has been found guilty at the Old Bailey of stirring up racial hated during a demonstration against the infamous Danish cartoons. The BBC reports:

Javed told a crowd of hundreds at the February 2006 protest: "Bomb, bomb Denmark, bomb, bomb USA."

He had claimed the chants against the two countries were "just slogans" and that he regretted saying them.

Remanding him in custody, Judge Brian Barker said he would not pass sentence until several other trials relating to the protest had concluded - expected to be in April.

The maximum penalty for soliciting murder is life in prison.

No doubt now we will now get demonstrations calling for Javed's release.

Most the press coverage - for example the Daily Telegraph and the Times - is as yet straightforward factual reporting, but the Guardian's Comment is Free section runs a weird piece about the case and post modernist irony; make of it what you will.

It seems a safe bet Javed will be released on appeal, when the fuss has died down.

Tags: Islam, Multi-culturalism

A veiled criminals and a useful idiot..

Yesterday, it was reported that murder suspect Mustafa Jamal had fled abroad using a veil as a disguise. Today, the government has fairly obviously put up John Denham, MP, the Labour chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee and a former Home Office minister, to deny the story is true and to defend the right of violent Muslim drag artistes to remain in the UK, whatever crimes they commit. According to the BBC:

Mr Denham, a former Home Office minister, said the suggestion that a veil disguise was used, when there was no evidence to support the claim, was potentially damaging because "veils are a very sensitive issue in our society at the moment".

Note the technique. A backbench Labour MP thinks he is very important at being asked to help out by ministers; so important, he might even get offered another government job. He duly follows orders. If the Jama story is indeed false, then there is no harm done; however, if it turns out to be true, Denham is left looking more stupid than usual as Home Office ministers and officials, trying not to smile in public, celebrate being off the hook because they have denied nothing. Some useful idiot did it for them.

NOTE: Due to operator error, yesterday's post on this subject has vanished into hyperspace.

Tags: Denham, Islam, Veil

Tony Blair: "Our Nation's Future - multiculturalism and integration"

Tony Lair has been giving a speech on "Our Nation's Future - multiculturalism and integration". Click here for the full text. The BBC has a video of the speech. It is a long rambling affair, full of typicial Blairite meaningless generalities; but at the core of the speech is a set of six proposals (probably designed by a committee) intended to ensure an integrated society in the UK. Stripped of the verbiage, they reduce to:

• conditions for grants to religious groups;
• an end to forced marriages;
• the supremacy of UK law over sharia law;
• tighter control of visiting preachers;
• integration to be built into the national curriculum;
• English tests for immigrants.

I have no idea how many quangos or extra civil servants will be created to implement this vision, nor of how much those extra snouts in the taxpayers trough will cost. However, we can be sure that both figures will be substantial.

In the Daily Telegraph, Andrew Gimson nicely catches the vacuity of much of the speech.

Hopefully, Blair has hammered a few more nails into the coffin of multi-culturalism but I am not celebrating yet; left wing extremists are still a power in the Labour party. Once again, I note that those of us have been calling for such things for years are no longer extremist racists but mainstream Noo Labour. Very unsettling.

Multi-cultural disharmony

Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, has declared war on Trevor Phillips, head of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE). It seems that Phillips' crime is to question the wisdom of multi-culturalism. Red Ken is retaliating by refusing to attend a CRE conference. and organising a rival shindig of his own. The Observer summed up the phoney war:

A furious clash over multiculturalism has erupted after the Mayor of London accused Trevor Phillips, head of Britain's race equality watchdog, of peddling falsehoods and failing victims of racism...

...Tensions between Phillips and Livingstone have been rising ever since the head of the Commission for Racial Equality began speaking out on multiculturalism, which he argues may have led to greater ghettoisation, and harmed relations with the Muslim community following the 7/7 bombings.

Livingstone recently accused Phillips, who is of Caribbean descent, of being so right-wing that he would 'soon be joining the BNP'.

I suspect that Red Ken is really upset because Phillips' not only called for an open debate on multi-culturalism but threatened to use his official powers to ensure it was conducted on his terms.

Black information is behind the Mayor. It seems they are going to parade a coffin in protest at the CRE conference. I hope they do it in style with a Dixieland band.

The Guardian and the BBC also pick up on the story.

I suspect most of this controversy will degenerate into an exchange of insults referring to Enoch Powell's famous speech which is more often cited than read. Here is the text.

Tags: Multi-culturalism, Politics

Beyond the veil:

Aishah Azmi, the Dewsbury teaching assistant suspended for wearing a veil in the classroom and subsequently given £1,000 for hurt feelings, has been sacked. From the Daily Telegraph:

When she was interviewed for the job by Geoff Smith, the headmaster, and again at a training day with male staff present she left her face uncovered. She was suspended from the 20 hour a week post in February for failing to obey the headmaster’s instruction to remove the veil when communicating with children and stay in contact with the school or submit sick notes.

Dos anybody spot the hypocrisy?

The Leeds Evening Post details the small fortune she is costing the council tax-payers of Kirklees:

Mrs Azmi was suspended on full pay of between £10,000 and £13,000 in February this year.
Her case was funded by Kirklees taxpayers to the tune of around £10,000, after she won backing from the Kirklees Law Centre.
The case is thought to have cost Kirklees Council's legal team around £20,000 to date and Ms Azmi has indicated in the past that she would challenge any ruling resulting in her being dismissed.

No doubt there will be an appeal, a court case and a visit to the European Court.

Tags: Islam, Multi-culturalism.

Merry Christmas, Happy Eid (updated)

It is not just Christians fighting back against the denigration of Christmas by secular multi-cultural extremists. Now, Muslims have joined the argumentby joining an inter-faith call for the atheist rabble to keep off all religious festivals. I came across the story in the print edition of this morning's Daily elegraph. Strangely, given the press coverage the issue has generated, at the time of this post, Google News gives only one other reference: the Sun.

The call was made by the Christian-Muslim Forum, a body set up earlier this year to encourage greater co-operation between the faiths for the good of the whole community. The BBC has the background and details.

Here is the (reformatted) statement in full:

Religious Festivals and Celebrations

We have faced various calls over the past few years for the secularisation or de-Christianisation of certain religious festivals. In particular, certain local authorities have decided that Christmas shall be called by another (non-religious) name. The reason usually given is that to use a specifically Christian name for this festival offends members of other religious traditions.

As Muslims and Christians together we are wholeheartedly committed to the retention of specific religious recognition for Christian festivals. Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus and we wish this significant part of the Christian heritage of this country to remain an acknowledged part of national life. The desire to secularize religious festivals is in itself offensive to both of our communities. We believe that the only beneficiaries of eroding the residual Christian presence in public life are those committed to a totally non-religious standpoint. We value the presence of clear institutional markers within society which embody the reality and mystery of God in public life rather than evacuating the public space of any such reminder.

We believe that our open and democratic society should promote freedom of religion in the public space rather than negatively restrict its observance. We welcome, for instance the public recognition of Eid al Fitr, as Muslims celebrate together at the conclusion of the month of Ramadan. We value the partnership evident in some local communities which gives opportunity for others to share with Muslims at this time of celebration. This is a positive way of affirming the public contribution that people of different religious traditions bring to our society. We believe that any attempt to privatise and hide the celebration of religious festivals promotes frustration, alienation and even anger within religious communities. Such negative approaches devalue religion and undermine the positive contributions that faith communities bring to society.

We also rejoice in the contribution and value of all religious communities in our country ­ Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and others. It is important for the integrity of all religious traditions that we recognise the centrality of major festivals within each community. In our increasingly diverse society we need to foster a mature and healthy approach to religious diversity which both recognizes the specific Christian heritage of this country and welcomes the important part that other religious traditions increasingly play within our culture. This demands a greater religious understanding on the part of government and local authorities than has been evident or necessary in the past.

We are thankful for those policies and actions which are responding helpfully to our changing religious environment. On the other hand we are concerned that those approaches which are based on anti-religious philosophies or a fear of religion are in danger of causing alienation in a wide variety of communities and fanning the growth of extremism.

Those who use the fact of religious pluralism as an excuse to de-Christianise British society unthinkingly become recruiting agents for the extreme right. They provoke antagonism towards Muslims and others by foisting on them an anti-Christian agenda which they do not hold.

Human beings require occasions for festival and celebration and, for many in our society, these opportunities are fundamentally religious and spiritual in nature as we mark the high points in our different traditions.

We call on all with responsibility in national and local government to give space and encouragement to an open and welcoming space for religious festivals as part of a positive contribution to community cohesion.

Released by Bishop David Gillett, Chair of the national Christian Muslim Forum and Dr Ataullah Siddiqui, Vice Chair of the Forum.

Update 13.11.06 @19:45.

Reuters has picked up the story, so it is starting to circulate round the world.

A good article from the Times of India.

Tags: Chritmas, Christianity, Islam, Multi-culturalism

Veiled surrender

Further to my previous post on Shabnam Mughal, the Muslim lawyer who refused to remove her veil in court: the Lord Chief Justice has duly considered the matter and has duly surrendered. As the Guardian reports, the veil stays. The Jurist puts the case in an international perspective.

So much for integration.

Margaret Beckett on Defeating terrorism.

Margaret Beckett, Foreign Secretary, has been giving a speech, at the Royal United Services Institute,in which she said not very, much other than vague generalities. She argued Muslims need to stand up against extremists and, along the way, had a poke at Israel for defending itself in Gaza. All typical of the FO line we have heard dozens of times before. The interesting part, however, is buried towards the end of the speech and will probably get little coverage in the media:

The extremists talk of a clash of civilisations, of an implacable war between Muslims and non-Muslims.

But there is no such clash, no such war.

There is only the determined struggle of the vast majority of civilised people in the world who want to live, work and prosper together against a few who would drag that world into chaos.

Beckett misses the point entirely. Although there are only a "few" Muslims who actively participate in terrorism, integration of Islam into the Judeo-Christian western values of European societies is being actively resisted by the many.

Robert Leiken, writing from an American perspective has analysed the problems facing Europe. In a paper for the Council of Foreign Relations, Europe's Angry Muslims. Leiken argues that

Radical Islam is spreading across Europe among descendants of Muslim immigrants. Disenfranchised and disillusioned by the failure of integration, some European Muslims have taken up jihad against the West.

As Leiken observes, Islamic refusal to integrate is spreading because " Europe's Muslims gather in bleak enclaves with their compatriots" and have no interest in adopting the values of their new countries. Indeed, particularly in the UK, they are encouraged not to integrate by the government's multi-cultural policies and by radical preachers who are allowed to denigrate western society and stir up anti-western sentiment. Interestingly, since Leiken's article, there are signs that Tony Blair has realised the UK's mistake and the official line is slowly beginning to change.

Taking Leiken's argument a step further, the problem now is that Muslims increasingly demand the right to retain their traditional practices even when they are in conflict with the host country's laws. Moreover, an increasing number are seeking to impose Islamic law (sharia) on the entire population, Muslim and non-Muslim alike. Compromise is not possible in the face of such (to borrow a word from Beckett) implacable Islamism. The more European governments surrender to Islam's demands, the more those demands are made and, if they are not met, the result is violence, as the continuing French jihad attests.

The first requirement for dealing with any problem is to recognise its nature. Beckett is a living in the FO version of reality if she fails to realise that the clash between Islam and the west has now developed into a war between two diametrically opposed civilisations: a kulturkampf.

Tags: Beckett, Islam, multi-culturalism

Veiled justice

From the Daily Telegraph: Shabnam Mughal, a Muslim lawyer, refused to remove her veil in court after being asked to do so by the judge because he could not hear what she was saying. The case has been adjourned whilst the question is passed to a senior judge.

Miss Mughal, in her twenties, who was representing a Sikh businessman challenging the Government's refusal to permit his nephew to visit Britain, was not taking media calls yesterday. A colleague said she was upset by what had happened.

Well, ain't that a shame. I am sure she will feel better after she has sued.

Tags: Islam, multi-culturalism

Trevor Philips

In the Sunday Times, Trevor Philips, the unelected chairman of the UK thought police, the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) has called for an open debate on multi-culturalism and then issued a not-so veiled threat to try to ensure the debate is conducted on his terms.

There is a danger that increasingly we are so afraid to speak to each other about our differences that nobody can say what they mean and nobody can hear what is meant. Such barriers to honesty and understanding are a disaster for race relations.

These words will of course be taken by some as a licence to offend; they should not be, as the CRE will use its powers strenuously against racist speech

Philips certainly has the tools of intimidation available; the CRE is one of the few organisations that the police can stir themselves to respond to quickly. This is what can happen when a failed politician worms his way into an unelected position of power.

Tags: Trevor Philips, Multi-culturalism

Veiled threats:

According to the Daily Mail, Aishah Azmi, the Dewsbury classroom assistant sacked for wearing a veil whilst teaching, has terrorist connections. No surprise. There is ample evidence, from the London bombings of last July, that terrorist cells are using the Mosques in that part of Yorkshire.

Tags: Islam

Veiled News

The Dewsbury teaching assistant, sacked for wearing a veil, has lost her case for unfair dismissal but has been awarded £1,000 of taxpayers hard-earned cash for hurt feelings because her public sector employers did not follow the correct procedures. She is now whining that minorities in Britain are treated like outcasts.

"Integration requires people like me to be in the workplace so that people can see that we are not to be feared or mistrusted. Mrs Azmi said: "Muslim women who wear the veil are not aliens, and politicians need to recognise that what they say can have a very dangerous impact on the lives of the minorities they treat as outcasts.

"Sadly, the intervention of ministers in my case - against the ministerial code - makes me fearful of the consequences for Muslim women in this country who want to work."

Mrs Azmi's lawyers said she intended to appeal and possibly take the case to the European Court of Justice.

She added: "I will continue to uphold my religious beliefs and urge Muslims to engage in dialogue with the wider community, despite the attacks that are being made upon them."

Tags: Multi-culturalism

The death of multi-culturalism?

In a leading article, the Daily Telegraph has announced the ending of multi-culturalism as the British government's official policy:

At his press briefing yesterday, the Prime Minister made it clear his Government's approach to cultural diversity had changed. He may have couched his position in careful language, but the conclusion was inescapable: integration, rather than multi-cultural separatism, is now official policy.

The Telegraph goes on to state that

Ministers are now clearly ready to embrace the argument that they have attacked for many years as insensitive, even bigoted: if Britain is to succeed in absorbing diverse peoples, ethnic minorities must accept the mores of their adopted country. Private religious observance should always be respected, but its practices cannot be permitted to contravene either civil law or the social rules that make community life workable.

It is probably too early for those of us, who have been arguing against multi-culturalism since the days of the Honeyford controversy, to start celebrating. The Telegraph takes Blair's words at face value but it is entirely possible the prime minister is merely posturing for electoral advantage in the light of the findings of his latest focus group. Yet, the very fact that Blair can articulate views that were once the preserve of what the left called the "racist" right, is at the very least an encouraging sign. As I wrote yesterday, the political climate is changing in our favour.

Neither Blair nor the Telegraph, however, spell out in detail either the exact nature of the problem or what is meant by "integration". However, if a problem is to be dealt with effectively, it must first be identified precisely. Within the UK, there has been relatively little difficulty in assimilating Jews, Hindus and any other religious grouping you care to name. The one religion to create problems through its refusal to integrate is Islam. The problem of Muslim integration is not one of veils; that particular controversy is no more than a convenient way to avoid debate over more serious problems.

In this context, by "integration" I mean an immigrant community being subject to the same laws of the land and their application as the indigenous population. The specific "integration" problems which the government needs to address in this respect are:

• Muslim death threats and civil disorder as a response to any perceived criticism of their faith;
• so-called "honour killings";
• forced marriages and the statutory rape which can be involved;
• domestic violence, especially, wife beating .

Additionally, the government needs to find a way to force the police to stop turning a blind eye to these issues and instead enforce the law as they would if any other section of the population was involved. When we see signs of that happening, we will know that government is serious about integration. Until then, judgement must be suspended.

It will not be easy. This government's previous fanatical devotion to multi-culturalism has spawned a huge industry of race relation advisers in central and local government. They will fight to defend their vast bureaucratic empires, the more so given that these individuals are probably utterly unemployable elsewhere. Moreover, multi-culturalism is the current Whitehall orthodoxy , something which is notoriously difficult to change. Before long, the counter-attack will come, no doubt headed by Trevor Philips and the rest of the extremists at the Commission for Racial Equality. The government's response to that will be a reasonable indication of how serious ministers are about getting to grips with the problem.

In the meantime, the celebrations are on hold, but tonight I will be raising a glass to Roger Scruton who, as editor of the Salisbury Review, led the intellectual battle against the evils of multi-culturalism.

Tags: Multi-culturalism

Mutli-cultural Britain

The Guardian has learnt that the government has a plan to ask universities to keep a terrorist watch on Asian looking students. Who will keep watch on the extremist lecturers who dominate so many universities these days?

Meanwhile, Ruth Kelly, Communities secretary, has been told to stop demonising muslims, by the Muslim Council of Britain.

And the friends of the demons, parliamentary branch, are fighting back.

Just another day in multi-cultural Britain.

Tags: Multi-culturalism

Veiled News

"Muslim leaders rally round Straw", reports the Guardian in a totally misleading headline, following Jack Straws recent comments on veiled Muslim women. In fact, the Guardian's own report makes it clear that Islamic leaders in Straw's constituency did not so much rally round as say nothing in public, one way or the other. The rabble is restless. A demonstration is planned for today outside, Straw's constituency surgery,

...but not on the scale of an earlier planned protest of more than 8,000 people which was abandoned because police told them they were unable to manage more than 500 demonstrators.

Meanwhile, the case of the Yorkshire teaching assistant suspended for refusing to remove her veil in the classroom rumbles on with the school's decision being supported by leading muslims. According to the Times,

The suspension was supported by Shahid Malik, the local Labour MP, local Muslim councillors and the Muslim Council of Britain, all of whom agreed that Muslim women were not required by their religion to cover their heads, let alone their mouths, in the presence of pre-adolescent children.

Tags: Straw, multi-culturalism

"Multi-faith" Britain.

Just as the Church of England gives the impression of being dead, the corpse springs to life and attacks the government's anti-Christian, pro-Islamic philosophy. A report, for the House of Bishops, leaked to the Sunday Telegraph, accuses the government of side-lining the established church:

Instead, "preferential" treatment has been afforded to the Muslim community despite the fact that it makes up only three per cent of the population. Britain remains overwhelmingly a Christian country at heart and moves to label it as a multi-faith society suggest a hidden agenda, it says.

I am not sure about the last point. Nothing much has been hidden about this disestablishmentarian government's relentless anti-christianism (Blair's much publicised faith notwithstanding). Moreover, its specifically antichristian character can be seen in the parallel headlong rush to surrender to the demands of Islamic extremism.

The report lists a number of moves made by the Government since the London bombings in July last year to win favour with Muslim communities. These include "using public funds" to fly Muslim scholars to Britain, shelving legislation on forced marriage and encouraging financial arrangements to comply with Islamic requirements. These efforts have undermined its interfaith agenda and produced no "noticeable positive impact on community cohesion", the Church document says."
Indeed, one might argue that disaffection and separation is now greater than ever, with Muslim communities withdrawing further into a sense of victimhood, and other faith communities seriously concerned that the Government has given signals that appear to encourage the notion of a privileged relationship with sections of the Muslim community."

The Telegraph notes that,

The leaked report follows a week of tension in which a Muslim policeman was excused armed guard duty at the Israeli embassy in London, Asian and white youths clashed in Windsor, and Jack Straw suggested that Muslim women should not wear the full veil across the face in public.

That is the first reference I've seen in the national media to the Windsor riots, a story I came across previously only on Little Green Footballs.

One final point. The Telegraph refers to author of the report as "Mr Wilkinson, who was an archdeacon in Bradford during the riots of 2001". The Telegraph of all papers should know better and refer to the Reverend Wilkinson.

Tags: Christianity

Jack Straw

Jack Straw upsets the mediaeval brigade with this.

Not even a veiled comment yet on the rights of wimmin from Labour's post-modernist harridan tendency.

By my count that is two government ministers and the Chief Rabbi that have recently uttered multi-cultural heresy. It is suddenly getting crowded on the far shores of the right.

Tags: Jack Straw, multi-culturalism