‘Don’t dress like this in Muslim area. No alcohol in this area, it’s a Muslim area. Move yourself away from the mosque, go away now, don’t come back, keep your mouth closed. We don’t respect them who disobey god.’
‘Mate, don’t you know this is a Muslim area. What’s wrong with your face? you’re walking through a Muslim area dressed like a fag. You need to get out of here. This is a Muslim area. You’re gay mate, get out of here you bloody fag. You can’t stay around here anymore.’
After seeing these videos, non-Muslims started protesting in UK. Muslims tried to avoid by saying, “The actions of this tiny minority (Muslim Patrol) have no place in our faith nor on our streets. We will monitor the situation closely and our Imams will be speaking out against such actions.” Muslim Patrol may be a tiny organisation, but their actions certainly have a place in Islam. Islam neither accepts women’s rights, nor accepts gay rights.
Many Muslims in UK are ready to create enclaves in major cities where, they believe, sharia will one day be implemented. Some areas in London are declared “sharia-controlled zone” as part of a new “Islamic Emirates Project”.
This is alarming.
Now the good news is, two Muslim patrol men who harassed gays are arrested. I was happy but Maryam made me wake up! She wrote:
This type of harassment and abuse (at best) is meted out day in and day out against “Muslims” who are “improperly dressed”, who are gay, who are ex-Muslim, who are dissenters, who question or criticise Sharia law….
But there are never any arrests of officials from far-Right Islamic organisations and Sharia judges and courts…
In fact outsourcing social control to religious organisations is encouraged by the British government .
This time, it all went horribly wrong only because they targeted non-Muslims.
As the spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain says in opposing the “Muslim Patrols” – all their threats and intimidations – applies only to Muslims.
Then, as we have heard countless times, Islamist bigotry, discrimination and violence must be “respected” no matter how many are abused, threatened, intimidated, or who refuse and resist.
Talk about different standards and rights for different people…
This is so true! I know it so well! When Muslim fundamentalists attack me for my thoughts and ideas, most non-Muslims keep their mouth shut or say, ‘the fight is between Muslims! We should not interfere in Muslim affairs!’ Muslim fundamentalists who issued fatwas against me, or set price on my head, or attacked me physically were never arrested.
A Muslim bigot called Owaisi was never arrested for threatening to kill me, but was arrested for threatening to kill non-Muslims. (I am an atheist, not a Muslim. But people don’t stop from labelling me with the religion of my ancestors.)
Hateful Muslim bigots harass, exploit, abuse, threatened, kill more Muslims than non-Muslims. No threat or violence should be considered less serious because it happens at home or in the community.
This is atruthful piece.
However, in previous posts, many commenters attempted to suggest that all religions were identical. And that Islam was no worse than any other.
I suggested that left wing and socialist positions now regularly excuse violations of human rights by Islam, because of their ideological frame, that non-western values are always superior.
I also predicted that the left generally would not welcome your criticism of Islam.
You have found miriam namazie. I would lime to point out that she is widely hated on the left, and is generally dismissed as a right wing crank. She is neither right wing or a crank, but I suggest you pay close attention to how what she writes is received on the left.
Just a suggestion.
Hi Gorb, where have you been? Long time no see! I thought you were dead. How is your MRA thingy going?
Actually, I’m more of an equality than an mra; I haveastrong belief in equal treatment. I have no wish to return to an age when women were treated like children. My opinions vary from those of modern feminism only where the equal rights nd responsibilities of both sexes are not respected. I find, like most people comingfrom a more libertarian viewpoint, that collectivistideologies tend to obscure equal rights in favor of collective rights., … I don’t like victim or identity politics or postmodern forms of irrational argumentation.
So as such calling me an mra is applying a bit of a misnomer. There are strong feminists- very vocal ones, who aggr ssively oppose many left-wing femininity positions. For example, onprostitution, pornography, etc. – there were extremely divisive cultural “wars” that split femininity circles right down the middle in the 1980’s, and these groups have only become more divergent. This means thatthere is no single feminist opinion on many issues.
Writers like dworin and mackinnon et all are usually on one side. Though they represent a majority position in academia – which also appears to be more Marxist in approach- they by no means represent themajority of feminists in thewest, especially in the English speaking world.
So asi mentioned before, it’s quite possible to disagree butnot also be an mra. There are bona fide, aggessively feminist authors who would disagree with many of your publicly held opinions. This does not make them not feminist- itjust means feminist minded people have many ideological and issuerelated positions theycan take.
Few mras would call me an mra. Read some work by Wendy Mcelroy to see one well spoken feminist of a different stripe.
But as far as Islam is concerned, you’re likely going to start getting disappointed by the response of hose on the left. Miriam namazie is one woman who, while liberal herself has been wholly rejected by the left. The left, the specially in places like northern Europe (Sweden, Norway, etc) and in the left in the USA, is now considered more of a universal victim.
Voices like miriam namazie and hirsi alive or even irshad manji are aggressively silenced.
Miriam namazie complains about this frequently.
It’s one of the ideologically driven blind spots onthe “revolutionary” or ” inclusive” left these days.
Criticism of christianity is actively encouraged, but no criticism of Islam at all – even discussion- is considered acceptable.
Thismeans that even non-right-wing critics of Islam are essentially forced to find refuge among righting publications.
It’s very sad. In a real sense, the left haw lost its way, and in thegame of Greater Victim, Islam wins hands down against feminist ideology all he time.
Miriam namazie writes about this extensively. She, like many other feminists in the Muslim world, often feel a deep sense of betrayal by the western left.
You should read this book, we criticized leftists for supporting Muslim fundamentalists. http://www.amazon.fr/Libres-dire-Taslima-Nasreen/dp/2081233002
I admire your courage for doing this. Most feminists who dare to speak out about Islam and Islamism are discarded and reviled b ythe left-wing press, especially by socialists.
Miriam NAmazie is a major victim of left-wing bullying. Ayaan Hirsi Ali – who has a real story of woe, not a made-up one like most on the left – has been vilified, hounded out of polite circles, and called a traitor to the left for her vocal and extremely articulate attacks on Islamism.
Criticizing Islam is now a social crime on the left. Good for you. I hope you keep it up.
Here’s more by Miriam Namazie. She has a lot to say.
Fundamentally, the culturally marxist left is crippled by hypocrisy and self-censorship. As a cultural movement, it’s largely rotting from within. It’s this kind of issue – the real threat of Islamism and Islam to secular liberal values – that shows the rot most clearly.
it’s sad to realize that enemies exist on both the left and right, but the betrayal by people who should be supporting human rights is actually far more disappointing.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2012/01/24/islamophobia-is-to-scaremonger-poeple-into-silence/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2012/01/24/islamophobia-is-to-scaremonger-poeple-into-silence/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2012/06/11/atheists-need-more-critical-islam/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2012/09/23/this-is-about-politics-not-religion/
“Nowadays, many liberals and post-modernist leftists side with those imposing apartheid – sex apartheid – because it is considered the ‘right to religion’…
It’s a betrayal of human solidarity.
And this solidarity is fundamental particularly given that Islamism and Sharia law have killed a generation in what I call an Islamic inquisition. There is a difference after all between Christianity today and one during the inquisition.
…
But we have to move beyond polite and comfortable debates around Christianity to a renewed anti-clericalism and an uncompromising secularism which aims directly at Islam, Islamism and its Sharia laws and religion itself.
As the late Marxist Mansoor Hekmat said:
“In Islam … the individual has no rights or dignity. In Islam, the woman is a slave. In Islam, the child is on par with animals. In Islam, freethinking is a sin deserving of punishment. Music is corrupt. Sex without permission and religious certification, is the greatest of sins. This is the religion of death. In reality, all religions are such but most religions have been restrained by freethinking and freedom-loving humanity over hundreds of years. This one was never restrained or controlled.”
Restraining it – controlling it – in this day and age – that is our task.
“
( sorry for writting here) Dear Taslima,
How are you? Last few months I was trying to get in touch with you directly but could not get your original facebook or email ID.
I believe this is your original Tweeter ID and that is why I am writing to you here.
I wanted to write in your email inbox but I don’t have your email address, anyways.
Let me introduce myself, my name is Sharif. I am a feminist. I work for women rights. I Born in Bangladesh, My father disowned me because of my unbelief. Yes, I am an Atheist.
1995 I had the collection of “Lajja” I was attacked by Shibir while I was selling the book “Lajja” and seriously injured and hospitalized for many months. However, later I have migrated to Malaysia. I had an organization named “Nastik Bangla Shongho” I used to sell books online and from my bookstore in Malaysia.
December 14, 2012, I was assaulted by Shibir terrorist and Malaysian Haji group in Malaysia, they were trying to hang me but fortunately I survived and again exile to Canada. Now I am in Canada, the safest country in the world.
I make an asylum claim in Canada. I can not go back to Bangladesh even in Malaysia.. If I do so, my parents as well as fundamentalist people would attack me.I need your help about my claim.
If you kindly contact me by so that I can talk to you directly and explain to you everything.
You can visit my website at http://www.freethoughters.com ( the site has not been updated for a while )
Thanks
Sharif
There is more, as well:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2012/09/12/we-must-be-able-to-scrutinise-islam/
Political correcteness and left-wing apologetics render criticism of Islam impossible.
“The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain would like to make public our support for Tom Holland’s Channel 4 documentary ‘Islam: The Untold Story’. We are indignant to learn that due to threats made on Holland, Channel 4 has cancelled a repeat screening of the historical inquiry into the origins of Islam similar to the kind of inquiry that has been applied to other religions and histories in Britain for many years.
The threats and concerted attempt to stigmatise the documentary and its producers by attacking its credibility and even legitimacy as a field of inquiry is nothing less than an attempt to impose a blasphemy taboo by stealth and coercion against programming that scrutinises Islam.
Caving in to the coercive pressure of Islamists will have catastrophic effects on free inquiry and expression where it pertains to Islam. It would not only further silence academic, historical and theological scrutiny of Islam but would also have the chilling effect of exerting added pressure on Muslims and ex-Muslims who wish to dissent from and question Islam.
The CEMB urges Channel 4 to reconsider its decision and urges the public to view the documentary and write to Channel 4 calling for a repeat screening.
“
Pretty unfair of you to accuse Erik of being disingenuous. In this comment you state that the screening of channel 4’s documentary was prevented by “Political correcteness and left-wing apologetics”. If you read the Council of Ex-Muslim’s statement as well as Maryam Namazie’s own words, they specifically talk about the documentary being cancelled due to pressure from fundamentalist Muslims, not leftists, politically correct or otherwise. From your own quotes:
Who do you think made these threats to Holland? The Guardian?
Oh look, the answer is right there. I guess you didn’t bother to read what you posted because you were too busy cackling over how those nasty leftist Marxists were oppressing everyone.
It’s true there are those on the Left who would prefer to ignore human rights abuses carried out in the name of Islam. It’s also true there are those on the Right who would prefer to pretend that there’s no such thing as discrimination against Muslims or that Western colonialism in Islamic countries might be partly to blame for their antagonism to us. Still, if you’re correct and the rotten Marxist left is going to devour itself and implode any day now, then what’s the problem? Soon everyone will come around to your rational right wing view when they discover the moral bankruptcy of the Left. Your copious commenting has a tinge of desperation about it as though you’re trying to convince yourself of something you don’t really believe in.
And the commentary in this piece by Namazie says it all.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2012/06/07/meet-this-anti-islam-woman/
Examine this exchange, and you can see how left-wing blinders prevent honest discussion of Islam by false calls of “racism” – the “real” target must always be Western culture and the United States / Capitalism – the true source of all evil – and Islam is just another victim. This is standard Marxist polemicism. This is what silences critics like Miriam Namazie and you today, not the right-wing.
3. Rebekah
June 8, 2012 at 1:18 am (UTC 0)
Reply
Sad, but telling how the rhetoric of Iran (“anti-Islam” as a pejorative) matches the rhetoric of leftist defenders of Islam. I can understand the rationale of why true believer religionists find opposition to their faith objectionable. What I find ever perverse is that a large segment of the non-theist left finds being “anti-Islam” so terribly objectionable.
3.1.
Erik Jensen
June 8, 2012 at 9:16 pm (UTC 0)
Reply
Rebekah, who are you talking about? I don’t know a single left-wing atheist defender of Islam. Can you name one? Perhaps you confuse defending Islam with ideas like these:
1) Muslims should be able to build a mosque anywhere Christians are allowed to build churches.
2) Muslims should not be subject to hate crimes such as vandalism or assault.
3) Muslims should not be fired for their faith.
I’m perfectly happy to criticize objectionable ideas and actions of Muslims, but I’m not cool with discrimination or stereotyping. I’m in the USA and I find it disgusting how people are making a big fuss about mosques in NYC and Tennessee. At the same time, I will continue to participate in “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” as a protest against religious censorship.
….
FredBloggs
June 8, 2012 at 10:33 pm (UTC 0)
Reply
It is a fine line to tread though. Sometimes people end up defending the rights of those who would seek to take their rights away.
<<< This is a very good point, and sums up the dilemma for the Left right now.
Rebekah
June 9, 2012 at 12:23 am (UTC 0)
Reply
“I don’t know a single left-wing atheist defender of Islam.”
Well, Erik, you must never read The Guardian, Huffington Post, The New Statesman, CounterPunch, Salon, or any host of far left blogs. Leftist defences of Islam lie in every:
1. False accusation of ‘Islamophobia’.
2. The constant misuse of ‘racism’ to attack critics of a religion.
3. Various forms of suppressing free expression.
4. Every false equivalency (e.g. atheist like you are just as bad as fundamentalists).
5, Every attempt to change the subject (usually to Christianity or American foreign policy ) when a human rights abuse rooted in islam is being discussed.
6. Every simplistic defence of misogynistic elements of Islam as a ‘choice’.
7. Open hostility to the concept of immigrant assimilation.
8. Apologetics for the use of Sharia law in Western courts.
9. Dismissal of the voices of ex-Muslims to the point of hostility (e.g. Salman Rushdie, Hirsi Ali).
10. Casual acceptance of anti-Semitic and homophobic views from prominent Muslims (see Livingstone, Ken).
I could continue…
<<< and I would point out that the Left is generally extremely, if not definitively, anti-semitic. From its earliest days right down to today, hatred and distrust of jews characterizes most Left-wing criticism of Israel. Israel is demonized far more than it deserves, largely because it's jewish. This has been studied in great depth, and the deep, almost universal roots of anti-semitism on the Left is heavily documented. It's the only ethnic hatred that the Left not only tolerates, but actively encourages. it's one of the reasons the left excuses the Arabs almost any crime, but thoroughly criticizes Israel and Jews generally for the slightest of offences.
….
Erik Jensen
June 9, 2012 at 4:06 am (UTC 0)
Reply
Rebekah, you could go on, but you have only named a single atheist “defender of Islam” and you didn’t even give a specific example. I’m not in the UK, so I don’t know much about Livingstone, but apparently he invited a Muslim cleric to a conference. The horror! Politicians meet with people they disagree with all the time.
All you are doing is stereotyping left-wing atheists. You haven’t presented a single specific instance of a left-wing atheist defending Islam. Can you at least provide a link to these supposed “left-wing atheist defenders of Islam”?
You used the expression “atheist like you”. How am I a defender of Islam? Do you disagree with the three things in my list?
….
Rebekah
June 9, 2012 at 5:10 am (UTC 0)
“You used the expression “atheist like you”. How am I a defender of Islam? ”
See you own words:
“apparently he invited a Muslim cleric to a conference. The horror! ”
You take all of the legitimate concerns about al-Qaradawi’s violent homophobia, misogyny and anti-Semitism and casually dismiss them as mere fears of a “Muslim cleric”. Such unconcern about right-wing bigotry would be unthinkable were that a Christian cleric with the exact same views.
Of course apologists do not defend Islam in a direct theological sense. Instead they do precisely what you just did: delegitimise criticism of Islam by various deflections, ad hominems and distortions, i.e. the issues I laid out in my response to you.
As for your demand for specific examples of leftists defending Islam, do you even read Maryam’s blog or did you just show up to take issue with my comment? Do you never read Butterflies and Wheels? Or Taslima Nasrin blog? This issue of the left and Islam gets addressed on a routine basis around here and I find your know-nothing stance completely disingenuous.
….
Erik Jensen
June 9, 2012 at 6:20 pm (UTC 0)
Rebekah, it is the job of politicians to talk to people that they disagree with. If you say the cleric was a violent, homophobic, anti-Semitic misogynist, then I believe you (I am in the US, so I don’t know anything about this guy). Politicians talk to awful people like Putin, Kim Jong Il, and Jerry Falwell (a Christian version of your cleric) all the time. That’s their job. If they implement policies that favor the ideas of these people, then that’s an entirely different matter.
You still have not given me a specific example of a left-wing atheist defender of Islam. I am not one. Criticize Islam all you want, and I am very likely to agree with you. All I’ve said is that we should talk to Muslims and that we should not deny them their rights (property rights, voting rights, etc.). Do you disagree with me? All you’ve talked about is vague declarations and listed one politician who talked to an evil cleric.
Please give me a single link to some writing by a left-wing atheist defender of Islam. I assure you I am not being disingenuous.
….
And FINALLY MAryam Namazie responds to Erik's disingenuous and ignorant posts:
Maryam Namazie
June 9, 2012 at 9:50 am (UTC 0)Link to this comment
Reply
Erik there are tons of them. I am on the Left as well but that does not mean that we must not see the truth.
EMPHASIS:
There is a post-modernist left out there that is not only silent on Islamism but vehemently defends it. I talk about them here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=N0Njm2vJ8EY. We are preparing a report on them which I will make available as soon as it is ready. Again this is not to say that racism doesn’t exist – it does – and we must oppose the far-Right as unequivocally as the Islamists as they are both far-right movements but we must also challenge the left to do what is must – which is defend people against all forms of fascism including the Islamic version.
I never thought the left, through some misguided addiction to “multiculturalism and cultural relativism at all costs”, would side with people (Islamists) who seek the wholesale extermination of Western liberal ideas.
But they do, and they work very hard to aggressively silence critics of Islam. The British newspaper The Guardian, Huffington Post in the online world, and many other hard-left publications regularly demonize anyone who has the temerity to criticize Islam.
islam and Muslims have become some sort of holy, untouchable Special Victim – a Victim of Western Cultural Imperialism, and in this Brave New World, Islam can do no wrong.
Marxist thought like this inevitably ends up consuming itself. And in this case, it’s happening across an entire media culture.
It’s also true of feminism. Many, many feminists – usually dissenting feminists – have written about how they have been ignored or told to stop talking about Islam, because this should not be an issue – the only enemy are, say, Republicans in the US or Western cultural imperialists. Cultural relativism has been taken too far.
The unbelieavbly bad treatment of Ayaan Hirsi Ali should be a wakeup call to anyone who claims to be a feminist. I know you, Taslima, have no illusions about Islam – but many left-wing feminists in the West do.
Take heart in the fact that it’s happening in London – people may pay attention to this kind of thing, and the issues it highlights. If it were happening in the north of England nobody would give a shit.
Awful. This is just assault and harassment dressed up in theological mumbo-jumbo. Throw the book at them. I don’t know why when some young men get into groups their IQ drops and they end up engaging in antisocial behaviour. . I did my fair share of stupid things but I never hurt or harassed another person. Arrest them all! Put them in a left-wing Marxist re-education camp!
Taslima Nasree, you are an icon of knowledge for the people who are like you knowing this world but not in an out. You have mentioned in your post Islam and ignorance made some UK Muslims hateful bigots! in the sentence QUOTE: ‘ Islam neither accepts women’s rights, nor accepts gay rights’ UNQUOTE. How much you have understood Islam. You are being paid and patronized by the people who are against Islam. They are just for the heck of criticizing doing it and you are helping them. You have not been for your parents and the male with whom you had relations then who can listen to your bragging. You may earn these worldly desires but the life after death will be where nobody will save you, no matter what happens. Read Women should have free sex, Taslima Nasreen and comment if you dare too.
I will be fighting for everything in my bone to fight against this if this happens here. This fuc.king virus of ideology is only infesting the weak minded and the victims. Please people liberate from selves from this chain.
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