Rolled-up Trousers

Molly Campbell - kidnapped, abducted or something more complicated?

There is always more than one side to any story, and the case of the 12-year-old taken from the Western Isles is no different.

What has been put about by the media has been the mother's tale. I've now managed to piece together some more information from the father's side.

Friends close to the family are angry at the way this has been portrayed as a case of abduction or kidnap. Even Louise's own emotional statement today gave a sense of this not being the case:

"I would like to say to Molly that we miss her so much and we beg her to come home to us.

"She has to know she is not in any trouble and we are not angry, we just want her home."

She seems to be saying that the girl herself chose to go. Reports indicate that Molly met her father the day before she actually disappeared, but kept this secret from her mother.

Multiculturalism, Terror and Shariah

In their attempts to move the discussion away from the foreign policy role in terror, the government have returned to the theme of multiculturalism.

The position of the pro-war elements on this is strange. On one hand they tell us that there is a global evil ideology we must confront in a violent way, but on the other they say that the terror threat is the result of the failed policy of multiculturalism at home. The two positions cannot sit with each other. Surely if the Al-Qaeda strand of thinking is global, then whatever we did at home does not matter? Did terrorists breed in Afghanistan because of the Taliban's position on multiculturalism?

The government's argument

The argument of the government goes roughly as follows. Asians have lived parallel lives in this country for too many years, and because of this segregation, they care nothing at all for white people and are thus quite willing to blow them up on public transport.

This is simply not true. For one, Al-Qaeda have regard for nobody's lives, and white people should not take it personally. US, UK, and Australian targets have been hit in Muslim countries, resulting in the deaths of many hundreds of their co-religionists. For Al-Qaeda, there are no rules to the game. They kill, and it doesn't matter about your creed or colour in pursuit of their goals.

Iraqis want troops out

Poll by University of Michigan. More at Lenin's Tomb and Abu Aardvark.

More Muslims singled out by airport passengers

The Sunday Post has reported on two more incidents of passengers objecting to flying with Muslims on board. The incidents at Edinburgh Airport have been been commented on by a senior member of the airport ground staff:

“It’s a real concern. After the 7/7 attacks, in particular, passengers were noticeably more wary of Asians. But the situation became even more tense after the alleged terrorist bomb plot a fortnight ago.

“I’ve only witnessed two sets of passengers kick up a fuss about Muslims on their flight but I’m sure it’s happening regularly. It’s sad, but people are inclined to take the law into their own hands if they think their lives may be at risk.”

By the way, the 'Illsama' quoted in the article is me. It's amazing I still need to spell my name out!

Blair is the threat to our national security

Anyone with any kind of analytic ability can see the role foreign policy plays in the terror threat we face. It isn't just Muslim leaders - it's our security services, civil servants, think tanks, and basically anyone who didn't support the war in Iraq. A Guardian/ICM poll found that 72% of people think there's a link, with only 1% thinking Blair's policies have made us safer.

And here's the problem. Those who backed the war cannot now turn back and admit this. It would involve too much embarrassment, too much humble pie. We can even say we won't rub it in their faces, but it would still be too much to swallow for the likes of Blair. They sent people to die for their cause, stayed at home themselves, and still can't do the decent thing. The only course of action left is that if the prime minister cannot unlock us from this cycle of violence, then he must go.

This guy was an umpire?

The revelation that Darrell Hair offered to quit as an umpire in return for a pay-off of $500,000 raises some interesting questions, apart from exactly how much these umpires earn.

This man was paid to make judgements. Yet he could not fully think through his action of emailing this offer over to the ICC. Surely he must have considered that if the ICC wanted rid of him they'd take the infinitely cheaper option of leaking the email rather than paying him?

In any case, the Pakistanis are vindicated. See Mike Marqusee for some analysis of this affair before this latest twist.

'Malaga Two' hoax claim

The Independent has added to the story of the two Muslims who were thrown off the Monarch Malaga-Manchester flight, by claiming that it was an elaborate hoax.

By piecing together disparate strands, they construct a story whereby the whole thing was a set-up aiming to make money.

And what a way to do it! Fly to Malaga. On the way back, wear some thick clothes, speak some Urdu, and count on brainless idiots on the flight to have you thrown off. These guys don't need to be at uni - clearly they are prescient geniuses.

Then count on there being widespread media coverage at the weekend (I have since heard of other flights this has happened on in the last year - where clearly there was no media coverage), but know that you will still be able to capitalise on it by selling your story as late as the following Wednesday.

Don't miss George Galloway - Live from Beirut

George Galloway will be doing his weekly radio talk-in shows live from Beirut this weekend.

George has gone to Lebanon to show his solidarity with the many families who have had family members killed and injured and who have lost their homes, their work and their businesses, and also to show his support for the Lebanese resistance that the Israeli military was so singularly unable to defeat.

We hope you will tune into his programme on Saturday and Sunday between 8pm and 10pm on talkSport 1089/1053 AM

War on Islam

A few days ago, complaints were directed at the Daily Express about their headline "Britain says: We're at war with Islam".

Turned out that a poll had actually found three-quarters of the British public thought that we are in a battle with "Islamic terrorists".

I wondered at the time though what a poll asking whether we were at war with Islam would conclude. Well, the Daily Telegraph have done something similar. 53% have said that they feel "Islam - as distinct from fundamentalist Islamic groups - poses a threat to Western liberal democracy".

Iraqi resistance statistics

The above statistics, released by the occupiers in Iraq, show that the vast majority of attacks in the country are carried out against coalition targets. Many would have us believe that the violence is purely sectarian between Sunnis and Shias, but the statistics belie this. See Lenin's Tomb for more analysis.

I said I would have liked to see one of the national newspapers carry an interview with the two guys - Sohail Ashraf and Khurram Zeb - who were thrown off the Monarch flight last week. The Mirror to their credit have done it.

They are so far removed from extremism that they even spent the day boozing and tucking into a McDonald's burger. (...)

Yet the students had no idea they were suspected of being suicide bombers until security officials told them after they had been marched off at gunpoint.

Khurram said: "We just didn't twig. Why would we? Then we heard a child crying. I looked around and there was a girl of about 12 looking at me, pointing and crying.

... Khurram went on: "I wasn't that bothered about what happened, but when my father heard he hit the roof.

"He said, 'Why didn't they throw all the passengers off instead of you? If they didn't want to travel, they should have been left behind'.

Hat tip to the Saracen. More cases at Islamophobia Watch

Is Israel under attack or not?

Israeli journalists don't think so. They "ambushed" Liverpool manager genius Rafael Benitez at a press conference regarding his apparent refusal to take his multi-million pound team to Israel for tonight's Champions League match against Maccabi Haifa.

"Why are you so afraid to come to Israel?" "There is no war there now, so why not come?"

The match is instead taking place in neutral Kiev. It seems that Israelis think that their country is safe. They've been paying attention to the fact Hamas have not carried out a suicide bombing for the best part of two years. You wouldn't think it given Israel's non-changing policies towards the Palestinians though.

Dubai family turned away from London Eye - for speaking Arabic

Mr Husain said: "As soon as the security guard heard my sister speak to her husband in Arabic, the attitude towards us changed. They said: 'Sorry, you can't carry a bag with you'."

Mr Husain's bag was searched and he was told to bring it to a locker at Waterloo Station, while his sister and her husband were held in a secure area nearby.

He returned without the bag and the three queued again but were confronted by the same security guard, who asked if he was carrying knives.

"I was surprised, he had already searched me, now he is asking for knives. I said 'no', then he pushed his hand inside my pocket, searching for knives. He couldn't find any knives. He then let us inside the capsule."

From the BBC via Islamophobia Watch

Martin Sullivan at Islamophobia Watch replies to Shahid Malik MP's criticism of Muslim leaders because of one Muslim's call for aspects of shariah law and recognition of holidays. More at Lenin's Tomb

Muslims thrown off plane - for speaking Arabic

The Mail on Sunday reports on the incident of two Muslims who were thrown off a Manchester-Malaga flight after passengers complained they were speaking Arabic.

The incident is so bad that even the Tories have condemned it. The Mail however, manages to write a whole article about the incident without using the term "Islamophobia". They actually describe the men as "Asian", despite the fact they spoke Arabic.

One of the families on the flight are interviewed like they were the victims. Would love to see one of the tabloids doing a heart-to-heart with the guys who were humiliated.

British holidaymakers staged an unprecedented mutiny - refusing to allow their flight to take off until two men they feared were terrorists were forcibly removed.

The extraordinary scenes happened after some of the 150 passengers on a Malaga-Manchester flight overheard two men of Asian appearance apparently talking Arabic.

Passengers told cabin crew they feared for their safety and demanded police action. Some stormed off the Monarch Airlines Airbus A320 minutes before it was due to leave the Costa del Sol at 3am. Others waiting for Flight ZB 613 in the departure lounge refused to board it.

Keep Comment Free

The Evening Standard has run a story claiming that the Guardian's comment editor, Seumas Milne, is set to get the boot.

This has been greeted with delight by Harry's Place, who along with a number of pro-war, pro-Israeli and right-wing blogs, have had him constantly in their sights over the last few years. They are not used to seeing opinions in the papers other than their own.

The Guardian is unique among British newspapers in that it does give voice to comment that doesn't get aired anywhere else. This is why "leading figures" are gunning for Milne.

Sufi Muslim Council exposed

A new blog has sprung up to watch the movements of the recently founded Sufi Muslim Council.

It's started off with quite a lengthy submission with various points, including the SMC's links to US neocons. This has understandably had Blair's government fawning all over it.

It backs up the suspicion among many that the SMC are not so much "apolitical" as the "right sort of political". In New Labour speak, it's fixing the Muslims around the policy. It won't succeed.

Hollywood Friends of Israel

Hollywood luvvies have come together with Rupert Murdoch to sign a letter condemning Hizbullah and Hamas. It reads:

"We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

"If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die. We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs."

The 38 signatories include actors: Nicole Kidman, Michael Douglas, Dennis Hopper, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Danny De Vito, Don Johnson, James Woods, Kelly Preston, Patricia Heaton and William Hurt.

And directors: Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Michael Mann, Dick Donner and Sam Raimi.

Latest with the terror plot

Yet again, Craig Murray is thinking what I'm thinking.

Ware hits back?

John Ware has apparently replied to my criticisms of his Panorama film about Interpal. This was posted on the Pickled Politics thread on the topic:

Osama Saeed and I may well look through the telescope from different ends. But the gap between those like us is always going to be unbridgeable if even the most basic facts can’t be agreed. Categorically we on Panorama did not “mock up” the classroom scene at the orphange. The class that we filmed was most emphatically not arranged at our request. We don’t do “mocking up” on Panorama. Neither I nor the producer Tristan Quinn would ever be party to that kind of stunt television. The relationship between Osama’s other “we-now-know” assertions about the programme and the facts is equally non existent.

If this is indeed his reply, then I'm astonished. I really doubt he would accept this kind of answer from someone he'd put questions to.

The "telescope" has nothing to do with it, but it is interesting to see he's admitting a bias on the topic, rather than some kind of objective observer status. The fact is that I've put some rather serious points to him that his documentary, which claimed to show that Interpal had helped build Hamas, actually did nothing of the sort.

As well as saying he mocked up a scene, I've said that that the BBC has been used as a mouthpiece for Mossad propaganda - the film would have been nothing without them (they should complain that they weren't given "special thanks" in the end credits).

He additionally needs to demonstrate why Interpal were uniquely singled out for criticism, when the Palestinian institutions in question have been funded by a host of other (non-Muslim) European and US charities.

Ware also got it very wrong about the songs and about the Hamas flag. He may well say "we-now-know", but he should have known this before he broadcasted.

Profiling

I can't understand why there has been a fuss over profiling Muslims for special searches at airports. It is not new, it has been going on for a very long time.

Well, searches of Asian-looking people, and presumably Brazilians, has been going on for a while anyway. Muslims have said that they'd been boycotting Glasgow airport because of it for one.

Harry says at his place that we should be grateful that we don't have a separate queue for Muslims. Yet.

Maybe we should take the BNP's suggestion of banning Muslims from the sky altogether. Before boarding planes, make sure passengers renounce God and renounce Muhammad.

Maybe make Muslims wear a special yellow crescent on their arms. See Thabet for more detailed proposals on this.

Trying to point out that this leaves a serious security breach in terms of white terrorists goes unheard. According to John Stevens, Muslims don't play rugby, have kids, or run businesses, so we're easy to spot. Incidentally, it was interesting to see that he flew the kite on this originally on Sunday and the media agenda followed later. I've not been able to ascertain where the news that profiling was to be carried out at airports originated from. It did however move the agenda on from foreign policy to passenger profiling.

David Davies MP / AM - idiot

Conservative MP and AM for Monmouth in Wales has hit out at the visit of Dr Zakir Naik to Cardiff.

Maybe they don't get much exciting action on the 'war on terror' front in Monmouth, but letting the dogs out on Zakir Naik is really barking up the wrong tree.

"Cardiff County Council ought to step in immediately to prevent this hate-monger from having a platform for his obnoxious views. If a British Nazi party wanted to promulgate the annihilation of ethnic minorities, I can't imagine they would be given a public platform. Here is a man who believes people who change their religious beliefs should face the death penalty. Some of the rest of his views are, I think, arguably in breach of various laws aimed at keeping public order.

"The vast majority of moderate British Muslims will, I am sure, find his views as appalling as I do. Mainstream Muslims need people to help them stand up against the kind of repression this man seeks to promote, especially Muslim women."

Source: Western Mail

Madeleine Bunting in the Guardian:

... the government can't talk to extremists because they endorse violence and/or are nutty and irrational, and can't talk to "moderates" (warning: the word is on the point of becoming a term of abuse in the Muslim community) because they're not representative. These methods of dismissal are so frequently used by journalists that the only possible conclusion is that there are many people in this country who have no interest in listening to any Muslim unless they can chorus their own loathing and suspicion of Islam - the former Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the case par excellence.

Response to Ware's response

John Ware has responded to some of the criticisms leveled against him after his documentary about Interpal. It took in points made by AIM magazine, Sunny at Pickled Politics, the MCB and myself.

The main thrust of his film is, as he puts it, that “we showed that some of Interpal's money had gone to charities like the al Khalil al Rahman Young Girls' Society and that over the years this had helped build Hamas into the popular movement it is today”. As such, they are preposterous grounds for a documentary. It is something intangible that nobody could know or prove. Ware has consequently had to clutch at various straws – songs, flags, attitudes - to try and construct a case. He has also employed some very questionable methods.

However, the main point I would put to him is that his documentary was Mossad-inspired propaganda. It depended on material provided to him by the Israeli secret services. He tried to dismiss the links by saying:

Letter from British Muslims

The letter that has been sent to the Prime Minister from 38 Muslim organisations is to be welcomed. Instances are too few and far between of the community themselves setting the agenda in this manner. They've sent a clear message about this country's foreign policy's role in creating the terror threat we face.

Particularly welcome are the signatures of three of the four Muslim MPs (Khalid Mahmood counted himself out). For at least one of them, it marks something of a u-turn. I was on Newsnight with Mohammad Sarwar after the July bombings, with him arguing against this very point. Still, better a repentant convert than a constant sinner.

It shows the frustration that has set in over the cycle of violence that the prime minister seems to have locked us into. The government has responded on the back foot. Kim Howells, former chair of Labour Friends of Israel, and now minister for the Middle East, described the letter as "facile" and said:

Max Hastings in the Guardian:

The madness of Bush's policy is that he has made a wilful choice to amalgamate the grossly irrational, totalitarian and homicidal objectives of al-Qaida with the just claims of Palestinians and grievances of Iraqis. His remarks on Saturday invite Muslims who sympathise with Hamas or reject Iraq's occupation or merely aspire to grow opium in Afghanistan to make common cause with Bin Laden.

If the United States insists upon regarding all Muslim opponents of its foreign policies as a homogeneous enemy then that is what they become. The Muslim radicals' "single narrative" portrays the entire course of history as a Christian and Jewish plot against Islam.

It is widely agreed among western governments and intelligence agencies that, in order to defeat the pernicious spread of such nonsense, a convincing counter-narrative is needed. Yet it becomes a trifle difficult to compose this when the US president promulgates his own single narrative, almost as ridiculous as that of al-Qaida.

Ware responds

John Ware has issued a response to some of the criticisms levelled against him after last month's Panorama film about Interpal.

His response took in points made by AIM magazine, Pickled Politics, the MCB and myself. The whole thing can be read at AIM, but I've pasted the pertinent points below.

6) Sunny Hundal wrote in Pickled Politics: "We didn't bring anything new to the table."

We did - at least according to Kenneth Dibble, Executive Director of the Charity Commission's legal services: what he himself defined as possible "collateral activities" - e.g. those promoting or glorifying terrorist activity - amongst the Islamic charities in the West Bank and Gaza to which Interpal distributes funds. For example, the video of children at the Al Khalil Al Rahman Young Girls' Society being encouraged by adults to sing songs celebrating their deaths and the deaths of Israelis through suicide bombings. This was the same material Sunny himself later describes as "quite disturbing".

Mr Dibble accepted that this "collateral" conduct was not something the Charity Commission had previously taken a view about. But he also said it was "...an issue that you are raising now and if I may say so is quite a pertinent issue."

7) Sunny quoted approvingly from MAB's Osama Saeed who wrote: "Ware's goading of young boys in an orphanage as to how many of them wanted to be fighters was sick beyond words."

Actually, my question to those boys was: "Who would you like to be. Who is your big hero? It's hard to see how that constitutes "goading."

This man was the most senior police officer in the land

WHEN will the Muslims of Britain stand up to be counted?

When will they declare, loud and clear, with no qualifications or quibbles about Britain's foreign policy, that Islamic terrorism is WRONG?

Most of all, when will the Muslim community in this country accept an absolute, undeniable, total truth: that Islamic terrorism is THEIR problem? THEY own it. And it is THEIR duty to face it and eradicate it.

From his News of the World column. More with the Saracen and Chicken Yoghurt

"Islamic fascists"

George Bush showing contrition in May 2006

I learned some lessons about expressing myself maybe in a little more sophisticated manner, you know.

George Bush August 2006:

The recent arrests ... are a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists...

The point where we stop being told anything about Lebanon

I was going to write something about the latest terror plot, but found that Craig Murray had already written it.

I would go slightly further though in saying that it's not just today we won't be hearing about Lebanese children dying on the news. I think this is when TV cameras will depart the area, period. It's been four weeks of top billing, and I'm actually surprised it has lasted this long. I now suspect the killings in Lebanon will be treated the same way the killings in Iraq and Afghanistan, and indeed the West Bank and Gaza are. Israel, do your worst.

While being far from ideal, I wrote recently how the coverage of the Lebanon situation had contributed to keeping our leaders' minds on the issue. From saying they'd "never had it so good" about the media coverage at the beginning of the conflict, Israel was now talking about boycotting the BBC in frustration.

Tony Blair was being pilloried for his 'efforts' in getting the hopeless UN resolution to the table. Jim Sheridan resigned the day before the arrests.