Rise of Fascism in UK: Why British Muslims should intensify war against Islamist radicals, The War within Islam, NewAgeIslam.com

The War within Islam

Rise of Fascism in UK: Why British Muslims should intensify war against Islamist radicals

By Farrukh Dhondy

Oct 31 2009

The BBC invited Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party (BNP), to participate in a TV debate as a panelist on their prestigious current affairs show Question Time. The format, chaired by veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby, features each week a politician from the main parties and one or perhaps two people from wider political persuasions who have some track record of holding opinions of interest. They answer questions from a studio audience. The debate can sometimes get heated but is, in the British way, always contained.

Following the dictates of its Charter, which requires the BBC to give proportional air time on radio and TV to elected representatives of the population, invited the far-right BNP to participate. The party, hitherto restricted to representing patches of communities on local councils, won two seats in the last election to the European Parliament and as such was a candidate for air-time.

The BBC must also have known that the controversy would boost viewing figures. For weeks before the programme, after Griffin accepted their invitation, there were protests against his appearance on a “respectable” platform. The party was denounced as racist, fascist, homophobic and misogynist — all with plenty of justification.

http://newageislam.com/rise-of-fascism-in-uk--why-british-muslims-should-intensify-war-against-islamist-radicals/the-war-within-islam/d/2025

Immigration made America strong - but Muslim immigration threatens to ruin Europe, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Immigration made America strong - but Muslim immigration threatens to ruin Europe

By Christopher Caldwell

11th October 2009

Author of Reflections On The Revolution In Europe

Are Britain and Europe being swamped, overrun, defeated by a wave of mostly Muslim immigrants and their descendants? Or are Europe's ethnic problems the figment of a febrile political imagination - something created by racism, dishonesty and manipulation by extremist parties such as the BNP? Those are not the only two possibilities, of course, although a lot of people behave as if they are.

Both sides will take lots of fodder for their arguments from a study released last week by the highly reliable Pew Forum On Religion And Public Life. According to the report, there are now 1.6billion Muslims, a quarter of the world's population.

And they are distributed in surprising ways - there are more Muslims in Germany than in Lebanon, for example. Recent projections by the British Government show the population rising to 71 million within 20 years, due mainly to migration.

Women in London wearing burkas

Culture clash: Women in London wearing burkas, the Muslim dress that has caused controversy

But Europe's (and Britain's) problems with Muslim migration are not mostly demographic. The Pew study shows the world's Christian population is growing too, to 2.25 billion.

It is possible, though, to have grave problems with immigration that do not involve either the wipe-out of a culture or the disappearance of a population.

Europe opened the door to mass immigration in the Fifties and discovered - as the United States did before it - that it is impossible to open that door just a fraction. Immigration, though intended as a solution to a short-term labour crisis, has become, without anyone particularly wanting it to be, a permanent feature of the landscape.

http://newageislam.com/immigration-made-america-strong---but-muslim-immigration-threatens-to-ruin-europe/islam-and-the-west/d/1994

Israel steals Palestinian’s history too: 1948 no catastrophe, say Arab text books in Israel now, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Israel steals Palestinian’s history too: 1948 no catastrophe, say Arab text books in Israel now

The term nakba has a similar resonance for Palestinians as the Hebrew word shoah – normally used to describe the Nazi Holocaust – does for Israelis and Jews. Its inclusion in a book for the children of Arabs, who make up about a fifth of the Israeli population, drives at the heart of a polarised debate over what Israelis call their "war of independence": the 1948 conflict which secured the Jewish state after the British left Palestine, and led to the flight of 700,000 Palestinians, most of whom became refugees.

Netanyahu spoke for many Jewish Israelis two years ago when he argued that using the word nakba in Arab schools was tantamount to spreading propaganda against Israel.

Palestinians have always maintained that the 1948 refugees were the victims of Israeli "ethnic cleansing". But in recent years a new generation of revisionist Israeli historians has rejected the old official narrative that the Palestinians, supported by the neighbouring Arab states, were responsible for their own misfortune.

Reflecting those changing perceptions, Ehud Olmert, Israel's last prime minister and leader of the centrist Kadima party, referred to Palestinian "suffering" at the Annapolis peace conference in 2007.

Netanyahu's Likud takes a different view. "There is no reason to present the creation of the Israeli state as a catastrophe in an official teaching programme," said the education minister, Gideon Saar. "The objective of the education system is not to deny the legitimacy of our state, nor promote extremism among Arab-Israelis." There was bitter controversy in 2007 when nakba was introduced into a book for use in Arab schools only, by the then education minister, Yuli Tamir of the centre-left Labour party.

http://newageislam.com/israel-steals-palestinians-history-too--1948-no-catastrophe,-say-arab-text-books-in-israel-now/islam-and-the-west/d/1568