Centre for Social Cohesion

This is an extended version of my article which appeared in yesterday's Sunday Herald.

We officially launched the Scottish-Islamic Foundation this week, with warm words of encouragement and congratulation from three of the country’s four main party leaders and the head of the Catholic Church for what may well be the most innovative, ambitious and forward-looking programme ever laid out by a Scottish Muslim organisation.

At the same time, we were baffled by a briefing put out by the gloriously named ‘Centre for Social Cohesion’ warning people against us. They don’t have as wide a remit as their name suggests, a quick scan of their website shows almost everything is on the topic of Islam and Muslims, and very few escape their wrath.

Their “research” was in reality nothing more than a quick Google job, and a negatively screened one at that. The tactic of these kind of hatchet jobs which emanate from London is to smear by association. Attaching Muslims with someone controversial is like the “six steps to Kevin Bacon” test. It’s a modern day McCarthyism.

We could disavow the A-Z of Muslim groups that are blacklisted, and one or two groups in London have gained celebrity criticising other Muslims on the drop of a hat in a game that never ends. They as a result have no friends, while we’re committed to working with our community in improving things wherever necessary. If there’s criminality involved, then let the police deal with it, but there’s not a hint of that.

We’re a new body with no links to anyone outside of Scotland. Amongst our objectives are the furtherance of human rights and freedom at home and in the Muslim world. These right-wing bodies though say we’re lying about this, that we hate democracy. Some even say this lying is part of our faith, which really is the language of Islamophobia. It’s impossible to win against such a gutter argument.

They say we’re promoting a form of Islam that separates Muslims from wider society, but then they rail against the political connections we have and the influence we apparently wield. Which is it? Melanie Phillips laughably wrote about “Omar Saeed” (sic) mounting an Islamist takeover and setting up a “Caledonian Caliphate” on England’s borders. This conspiratorial nonsense is very reminiscent of how Jewish people have in years gone by been demonised, you could call it the “Protocols of the Elders of Caledonistan”.

Let me finish by briefly furnishing you with my own research on CSC. They have a neocon agenda, and their director Douglas Murray indeed wrote a book entitled ‘Neoconservatism: Why We Need It’. He told the Pim Fortuyn Memorial Conference in 2006: “Conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board”. Fortuyn was famous for saying Islam was "a backward culture" and that he was “in favour of a cold war with Islam”. Social cohesion indeed.

The CSC shares a building with Policy Exchange, another rightwing “stinktank’. Last year, PE were subject of a Newsnight investigation which claimed to have uncovered damning evidence that they had forged receipts of extremist literature they said they purchased from Britain’s mosques. Its head Dean Godson said he would sue the BBC. We are all still waiting. The dodgy report’s author, Denis McEoin, sits on the CSC’s board.

And the media outlets that carried this shower’s internet activities are now linked in with all this themselves.

Comments

[Yunus Yakoub Islam]

Will the Scottish-Islamic Foundation be taking up the case of Asad Gull?

[Rumple Stiltskin 24]

I know exactly what you mean.

There was an attempt a while back to smear MAB Scotland with connection to Qaradawi.

The fact that Qaradawi has never been on a MAB Scotland platform and has never been to Scotland were seemingly condidered incidental.

Further investigation showed that the person making the charges was responsible for organising Conferences which had , amongst others, a high proportion of Halliburton Officials.

[Tauseef Zahid]

They are anything but social cohesion. I agree with your comments regarding both organizations.

[joe90]

‘Centre for Social Cohesion’ ?
- These are the people who question the bona fides and credentials of good people such as yourself Osama, to speak up for the rights and interests of Scottish (and British) Muslim folks.

Of course, its the easiest task in the world to prove these organisations and individuals are bunch of complete nobodies who have no support in the community (outside of the corporate news media, such as Murdoch, BBC etc) and that they are indeed violent racists who support crimes greater than terrorism, ie war crimes , and who also inisist that the British taxpayer subsidise them and carry them out on their behalf.

all the best RUT!

ps
Is this a BNP march or a celebration of 60 years of Israel?
photos of rally
posted by m.cushman
JPUK
30 June 2008

Is this Melanie Phalangist at the same celebration of 60 years of Israel, or an interloper?
Police dive on diva
jews sans frontiere
01 July 2008

The Mussolini Philips look-alike (the great Deborah Fink) was arrested under the prevention of terrorism act I believe.
What a police state we live it.

pps
Dennis McEoin in the Sunday Herald comments section -
‘Surviving hell’ is reality of peace for Gaza civilians
Sunday Herald
29 June 2008

[Wicked Wahine]

CSC have smeared the Campusalam website too, with badly done research and not an not an ounce of truth. They won't bother to find out your side, or what you actuallyd do.

[James Brandon]

Anyone wishing to read the Centre for Social Cohesion's briefing on the Scottish Islamic Foundation for themselves can find it online at:

http://www.socialcohesion.co.uk/pdf/ScottishIslamicFoundation.pdf

[supercargo]

I will do absolutely nothing to advance your agenda. Why? Because Muslims do less than absolutely nothing to better the lot of non-Muslim minorities in their homelands. After the Partition of India, Hindus were reduced from 20% of Pakistan's population to 1%. In stark contrast, the Muslim percentage in India doubled to 15%.

Yah, I have heard your standard comeback: Hindus abandoned animal worship. That is not what happened. Pakistan governments either coerced emigration or persecuted Hindus into abandoning their faith. Every city in western civilization has at least one alternate religion bookstore. Check the shelves. Our sole interest in Islam is in Sufism. We buy many more Hindu books because their naturalistic faith, is original to humanity. Any unity you seek is only a means to the end of domination.

I am not a Hindu, but I respect their identity politics. Pakistanis want to be Arabs, and Arabs won't let you.