#muslim schools in uk

[jameaalkauthar]

Jamea Provides Excellence in Muslim Education in the UK

Muslim schools in UK, such as Jamea, prioritize comprehensive development opportunities for their students. In addition to academic pursuits, Jamea provides programs that focus on social, emotional, and physical development. Students participate in a range of activities that promote teamwork and collaboration.

[mariacallous]

Salman Rushdie has just published Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. In August 2022, he was giving a talk at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old from New Jersey, rushed the stage and stabbed him 15 times. It was astonishing that Salman survived. He lost the sight in one eye and sustained terrible injuries, but he’s still with us and he’s still writing, and unlike Hadi Matar, he’s still worth hearing.

We think of fanatics as stalkers with an obsessive knowledge of their targets.  Like the antisemites who compile lists of Jews in the media or the homophobes who so focus on the details of gay sex they might almost be closet cases

Most terrorists and bigots are not like that. They are like soldiers in an army who kill and hate for no other reason than tradition or men in authority have told them to kill and hate. If we were less fascinated by the pseudo-glamour of violence, we would see them for what they are: dullards and jerks.

In Knife Salman is almost as angered by the sheer lazy stupidity of his wannabee assassin as his violence.

“I do not want to use his name in this account. My Assailant, my would-be Assassin, the Asinine man who made Assumptions about me, and with whom I had a near-lethal Assignation … I have found myself thinking of him, perhaps forgivably, as an Ass.”

The ass “didn’t bother to inform himself about the man he decided to kill. By his own admission he read barely two pages of my writing and watched a couple of YouTube videos”.

That was enough, apparently, along with a little light indoctrination in the Levant.

We know from Matar’s mother that her son changed from a popular young man to a moody religious zealot after visiting her ex-husband in the Hezbollah-controlled town of Yaroun in Lebanon, a mile or so from the Israeli border.

“I was expecting him to come back motivated, to complete school, to get his degree and a job. But instead, he locked himself in the basement. He had changed a lot. He didn't say anything to me or his sisters for months.”

Salman quotes a wonderfully perceptive line from Jodi Picoult

“If you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.”

Rushdie is openly contemptuous, as he has every right to be.

“I see you now at twenty-four,” he writes, “already disappointed by life, disappointed in your mother, your sisters, your father, your lack of boxing talent, your lack of any talent at all; disappointed in the bleak future you saw stretching ahead of you, for which you refused to blame yourself.”

This has always been the way. Readers old enough to remember 1989 when the Ayatollah Khomeini ordered Salman’s execution for writing a blasphemous satire of Islam’s origin story in the Satanic Verses,will know that Khomeini had not read it. Nor had the furious demonstrators in the streets or the regressive leftists and Tory ministers who upbraided him for the non-crime of causing offence.

Those of us who had read the book pointed out that it was a magical realist fiction which contained sympathetic accounts of the racism Muslim immigrants in the UK suffered. Indeed, the Tories of the day loathed Salman, we continued, because of his confrontations with official racism.

But after a while we fell silent. Pleading with his enemies felt demeaning. It gave them undeserved credit, as if they were reasonable people, who could be swayed by evidence rather than just, well, pillocks.

In Knife Salman attempts an imaginary conversation with his persecutor.

OK, he says, Islam, unlike Judaism and Christianity, holds that man is not made in God’s image. God has no human qualities, it says.

But isn’t language a human quality? To have language, God would have to have a mouth, a tongue, vocal cords and a voice, just like a man. The terrorist’s understanding is that God cannot be like a man, however. So, God could not have spoken to Gabriel in Arabic. Gabriel must have translated his message when he came to the prophet.

The angel made it comprehensible to Muhammed by delivering it in human speech which is not the speech of God.

Thus, the version of Islamic instruction Matar received in his basement when he switched from playing video games to listening to Imams was an interpretation of a translation.

“I’m trying to suggest to you that, even according to your own tradition, there is uncertainty. Some of your own early philosophers have suggested this. They say everything can be interpreted, even the Book. It can be interpreted according to the times in which the interpreter lives. Literalism is a mistake.”

For a while, Rushdie says he wants to meet Matar again at the trial, as if he wants to have the argument in the flesh.

He tells a story about Samuel Beckett, which could only have happened to Samuel Beckett.

Beckett was walking through Paris in 1938 when he was confronted by a pimp named Prudent, who wanted money from him. Beckett pushed Prudent away, whereupon the pimp pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest, narrowly missing the left lung and the heart.

Beckett was taken to the nearest hospital, bleeding heavily. He only just survived.

You will never guess who paid for his treatment. James Joyce, of course, he did.

Anyway, Beckett went to the pimp’s trial. He met Prudent in the courtroom, and asked him why he had done it. This was the pimp’s reply: “Je ne sais pas, monsieur. Je m’excuse.” (I don’t know, sir. I’m sorry.)

But the more he thought about it, the less Rushdie had to say to his enemy. The idea that you can have theological arguments with a man who wants to kill you for writing a book he hasn’t even read felt ridiculous.

Although popular culture is full of stories about murderers, and true crime podcasts top the charts, killers and fanatics are nearly always less interesting than their victims. More often than not they are just thick. Nasty and vicious, but thick first of all.

We are about to see the stupidity of fanatics deployed on a mass scale. Two thirds of Republican voters (and nearly 3 in 10 Americans) continue to believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and that Joe Biden was not lawfully elected. They think it because that is what Trump told them to think.

Islamists told Matar that Salman was an apostate, and that was all he needed to know. Trump told Republicans the election was stolen and ditto.

If Republicans were consistent people, they would not vote for Trump in 2024. What would be the point? They would have every reason to fear that the deep state would rig the 2024 presidential election as it rigged the 2020 presidential election.

But they will vote for him because, once again, that is what he tells them to do.

In the end there is a limit to how much attention you can pay the vicious and the stupid.

They are not interesting enough, as Rushdie concluded with marvellous disdain as he contemplated the life sentence Matar will face.

"Here we stand: the man who failed to kill an unarmed seventy-five-year-old writer, and the now 76-year-old writer. Somewhat to my surprise, I find I have very little to say to you. Our lives touched each other for an instant and then separated. Mine has improved since that day, while yours has deteriorated. You made a bad gamble and lost. I was the one with the luck… Perhaps, in the incarcerated decades that stretch out before you, you will learn introspection, and come to understand that you did something wrong. But you know what? I don’t care. This, I think, is what I have come to this courtroom to say to you. I don’t care about you, or the ideology that you claim to represent, and which you represent so poorly. I have my life, and my work, and there are people who love me. I care about those things.”

[songofwizardry]

ok I'm not an expert but I'm not seeing much specific info going around here, and there's a lotta Palestine solidarity protests in the UK this weekend, so here is some (including UK-specific) protest info and resources (mostly pulled whole-cloth from Twitter)

policing is heavy at Palestine protests generally

Hamas is a proscribed org under UK law. that means "inviting support" for them or "wearing clothing or displaying articles" that implies you are a supporter is a criminal offence (if you're interested, here's the full list of criminal offences from gov.uk). Palestinian flags etc are ok*, but do not have something that could be mistaken for Hamas imagery. don't go out there looking for convictions pls.

*in spite of what Suella Braverman has implied, the London Muslim Community Forum has just confirmed that the Palestinian flag is not a proscribed flag and is not banned (apologies for quoting the "we advise the met police" group but I thought it was important to have that info explicitly)

don't talk to cops. that includes the police liasion officers in blue bibs.

particularly if you're concerned about your face ending up on social media etc, but also just good practice in general (both in terms of COVID and protest safety)—mask up. cover up tattoos etc.

have bustcards or contact details for protest legal support on you. Green and Black Cross can be contacted on 07946 541 511. write the number on your arm etc.

if you witness an arrest: check if there's a legal observer nearby and if so call them over; if not: if the arrestee doesn't have a bustcard, give them one, find out where they're being taken, and contact eg GBC or a protest support line

if you have the time and can help out, there will likely be arrestee support required after—GBC tend to post callouts on Twitter for this

other links

for particularly children and young people and their families being referred to PREVENT for pro-Palestine statements, contact PREVENTWatch and maybe also Palestine in School (newer initiative I think, I don't have an excessive amount of detail on them just FYI)

Liberty, Migrants Organise and Black Protest Legal Support have bustcards in different languages, including Arabic and Somali (also Liberty's website has lotsa useful info, including advice for disabled protesters, protesting and immigration status, and what to do if you're kettled)

GBC's thread on what to do if you see an arrest is useful, as are all their resources generally

if I've missed anything or made a mistake, lmk—as I said, I am very much not an expert. if you know people who are protesting, pass them the legal support line numbers; if you're attending, stay safe and be vigilant; and ofc carry water.

[soon-palestine]

The conflict over Columbia U's Gaza Solidarity Encampment pits an Egyptian-born school president against a student movement largely led by Arabs and Muslims protesting Israel's genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip. Goaded by Republican members of Congress and the Israel lobby, Columbia President Manouche Shafik has sicced the NYPD on the protesters, triggering mass arrests and suspensions of students for supposedly "trespassing" on their own campus.

Like so many contemporary Ivy League presidents, Shafik is not a scholar or academic. She currently serves on the board of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, providing a patina of diversity to a supranational global governing entity guided by a single uber-billionaire. Prior to that, Shafik acted as deputy governor of the Bank of England, the UK bank that confiscated Venezuela's gold reserves under orders from the US government in 2019. She has also served in top roles at the IMF and World Bank, where global south debt becomes a point of leverage for Washington and London. Her own journey to the US began as a young child when Egypt's populist President Gamal Abdel-Nasser seized land from her wealthy father.

Shafik owes her entire career to the trans-Atlantic oligarchy, and has no space in which to defy it. She was not appointed as president of Columbia to instill values like critical thinking or academic freedom. She's there to raise hundreds of millions from her wealthy benefactors. Her leadership not only exemplifies the elite corruption of US universities, it exposes the sham of neoliberal diversity politics.

[psychic-waffles]

Cw: child death, racism (particularly islamophobia)

The last couple of days have seen multiple full blown fascist riots in the UK and we're likely to see more over the weekend.

On Monday there was a horrific incident where a 17 year old attacked a dance school in Southport, killing three children and injuring many more. Because of the attacker's age his name has not been released, however the far right quickly started circulating a made up name and said the attacker was Muslim and an immigrant.

On Tuesday, when a vigil was being held in the town for the victims, fascists travelled to Southport and started a riot, centering around attacking a mosque. I really don't have words for how disgusting it is to use the death of children to further their violently racist agenda and take all of this out on a grieving town.

Following this there were multiple fascist riots on Wednesday, the largest of which being in London and Hartlepool. These involved further attacks on mosques, surrounding hotels where asylum seekers were being housed, and attacking brown and black people on the street and in their homes.

There are plans by the far right to hold multiple further rallies over the next few days, I've seen particular mention of Liverpool tomorrow (Friday) and Middlesbrough on Sunday, but I think it's likely we'll see violence across the UK.

There is also a huge demo for Palestine organised for Saturday which involves action across the country and with a march in London, and quite frankly I will be shocked if the fash don't try to disrupt that in any way, so just be prepared that there is a heightened risk of violence.

Overall in response to the riots there's been a lot of talk about the spread of misinformation and how that needs to be tackled, and while this is true it doesn't address the fact that the majority of these fascists really don't care. Even if the attacker had been Muslim or had been an immigrant, that doesn't give anyone the right to try and attack every Muslim and immigrant in the country. This couldn't have and hasn't been stopped by correcting a bit of misinformation, this is about decades of deeply racist islamophobic and anti-immigrant rhetoric baked into the core of the UK and reinforced constantly by the media and politicians across the spectrum as ""legitimate concerns"".

Right now we need community support more than ever. Organise, protect your local Muslim communities, and of course stay safe.

Edit: while I was writing this post the name of the attacker was released as Axel Rudakubana. As I have already said the fash do not care, and islamaphobic and anti-immigrant violence will almost definitely continue, however there will now likely also be an increase in anti-black violence and we need to be prepared for that.

2nd edit: check my reblogs for more info on specific places they're planning to target

[vhstown]

i just wanted to share this

can i just let you guys know that at british schools (im speaking for ldn mainly) they ban kids from talking about palestine. like you get in trouble for speaking about it / having symbols that relate to palestine at all.

a year 7 at my school got detention for drawing a palestine flag on their hand. my 5 yr old little cousin had a hairclip with the design of the flag confiscated. we do presentations at school every friday morning and our teacher told us we can't talk about anything related to palestine & israel. the only reason we got told this was because it was for our "safety"

trigger warning under the cut for bomb threats and threats to harm young children

today i heard about an islamic school getting a bomb threat (or some other violent threat) in relation to palestine. a primary school no less (children ages 4 to 11)

if this is part of the reason, it's understandable, but personally i struggle to understand why students are so punished for it. obviously im upset by it but then again im not sure how to feel, or just who advised schools to do this. i just wanted to share because i am deeply frustrated by the action of my school and many others, and worried by the increasing threats to muslim communities in the UK.

from the river to the sea, palestine will be free. continue to use your platforms and amplify the voices in palestine. do not forget. the genocide impacts you more than you think.

[euryvices]

weird things about my town that lowkey remind me of tma

god, this is going to be a long post.

okay so. i grew up in a town in the middle east (about 200 people), with my bestfriend Whom I Will Not Shut The Fuck Up about apparently, and it was a strikingly different experience to most people who've grown up in the middle east, or in america. it was yk, a rich people town, populated and run mostly by generational wealth owners. as a result, our town was very hush-hush, despite it being in the Crackass Of Nowhere.

i started listening to tmagp about two months back, under the instructions (*cough cough coercion cough cough*) of my lovely moots (im looking at you @forflightlessbirds and @need-a-name-101) i've noticed a few things which may be...off.

the first thing i need to clarify are the rules. we had five of them, that nobody really stuck to, but we all knew of. the rules in and of themselves are normal things any parent tells their child, but weirdly specific. there weren't really any repercussions if we didn't stick to the rules - but most of the time, we didn't like breaking them. they were, as follows :

don't tell strangers your real name, and if you do, run and tell the head of the community center.

if people approach you about 'coming to god' (i.e, christian/muslim/jewish missionaries) tell them god has moved.

do Not enter the junkyard at night. (we broke this one)

always carry a knife. most of us were given jade knives, but my bestfriend got a gold one. ive teased him about it most of our lives, even after we shifted.

take a buddy with you everywhere, and if you can't find one, don't go out.

me and my brother have broken all these rules about once at least, except for the knife one and the junkyard. me and my bestfriend broke the junkyard one though. we shifted together when we were barely teens. first, we lived in the uk, then in the states. we headed back home and barely spoke for a year before he died, at the ripe old age of 17. i miss him, but thats not the point.

it was only after we moved, that we realized how truly Fucked Up our town was. we were living in the middle of war ravaged county, and we had swimming pools, and ipads, and sunset cocktails? obviously i didn't realise it as a kid, as a pre-teen even - but looking at it from the outside feels like a gut punch.

now here's where im going to yap about the similarities between tma and my shitstorm of a childhood and hopefully Will Not Piss Anyone Off. if you're from my town - you'll know exactly what im talking about, and i seriously hope you reach out and/or message me.

the things everyone knows the things. they're just. there. kinda like the bogeyman your mom scares you with when you don't eat lunch except most of us have just accepted that they're real

old man hanna if you've lived here, you know him. he's weird, he's kooky, and he's got a million books and tape recorders and vinyls. he's maybe the only person in that place that doesn't come from money. he hates electronics, says they can't capture things the way old school stuff does

the graves now, our town is mainly christian. uber arab christian. we've got graves, we've got cemeteries. but outside it, on the outskirts, lie a long line of unmarked graves. are they from the arab-israeli war? the gulf war? lord knows

the 2015 blackout this was the creepiest thing that happened here. the blackout, and then the radio stations playing that reading of the bible? my parents shut everything off and rushed me and bulos to the master bedroom

the skydiving institute i have no idea if the government approved this godforsaken place, but it was there. it led to the disappearance of nahren, who was deathly afraid of heights but she said she was ready to face her fears

the church when i shifted to the uk, i saw the proceedings of the greek orthodox church there. and let me tell you - it's so different to our church. for starters, our church doesn't even seem to have any affiliation to the goc, even though it should?? the entire thing is so different

the pond now this is rather controversial. our town's pond was created in the early 70's, but no one knows How or Why. realistically, there shouldn't have been any water supply that far inland. and the water should not be that salty. we don't acknowledge it, and no one drinks from it, even if its really hot. there's a sign outside that asks parents to hold their children tightly when passing by the pond

the soldiers they're mainly american (at least the one i met was), but they rarely enter our town. and when they do, they can only stay in one specific motel - we're not allowed to talk to them. once i did, though. im still...fucked up from it

there's a lot more, but i don't think y'all wanna know about my fucked up town anymore. just writing this is giving me the heebie-jeebies.

we usually aren't allowed to leave our town once we're in it. but my dad got special permission for us to leave, before the divorce. so we did. and then my parents got divorced. which made our family Not Happy, so we weren't exactly welcomed back.

that being said, i don't think there's anything really wrong with my town. it's just a bit...different. and i love it. even if it doesn't seem to love me right now.

god, i think i need to go lay down. i hate remembering all this.

[secular-jew]

This commentary entitled “Europe Died in Auschwitz” was authored by Sebastián Vivar Rodriguez and first published on November 21, 2004, by the Spanish website Gentiuno, and then later, published in a Spanish newspaper. But no one by that name has been found to exist, so the author's name is likely a pseudonym.

""I walked down the streets in Barcelona and suddenly discovered a terrible truth: Europe died in Auschwitz.

We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a group of people who represented culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people, who made great contributions to the world, and thus changed the world.

The contribution of today's Jewish people is felt in all areas of life: medicine, technology, international trade, science, the arts, and above all, as the conscience of the world.

Look at any donors' board at any symphony, art museum, theater, art gallery, science center, etc. You will see many Jewish surnames. These are the people who were burned. Of the 6,000,000 who died, how many would have grown up to be gifted musicians, doctors, artists, philanthropists?

And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the diseases of racism and bigotry, Europe opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.

They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime. Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.

And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition. We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.

What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe.

Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population, which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving in to it.

It is now approximately seventy years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, twenty million Russians, ten million Christians, and nineteen-hundred Catholic priests who were murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on, and humiliated.

Now, more than ever--with Iran, among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth'--it is imperative to make sure the world "never forgets."

This is intended to reach 400 million people. Be a link in the memorial chain, and help distribute this around the world.

How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center 'NEVER HAPPENED' because it offends some MUSLIM in the United States?

Take a minute to forward, reboot, and pass it along. We must wake up the world before it's too late. ""

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for calling out my aunts absolutely dogshit parenting at a family birthday party?

I (21F) cannot stand one of my aunts.  My uncle died 7 years ago and she is his widow, we are not blood related. She is the trashiest parent I have ever met and what she has done this year has just crossed a fucking line.

My cousin, her daughter, Lola turned 16 this year. Within ONE WEEK of her turning 16, she announced that she had a boyfriend, Ben. Ben went to school with me. He is 22. I am 100% convinced that he started pursuing Lola when she was under the age of consent (we’re in the UK, AOC is 16) and is a sneaky shit that waited just long enough that we wouldn’t be able to prove it. I have tried. He’s covered his tracks well and Lola is head over heels and won’t say anything to incriminate him.

Why am I angry with my aunt? This dumb bitch, instead of doing anything at all to stop the nonce taking advantage of her child LET BEN MOVE IN WITH HER AND LOLA. He got fired for racially abusing a Muslim colleague, fell behind on his rent, got evicted and my aunt just let him move in with them! Ben is the fucking worst. He’s utter scum. He’s always been utter scum since primary school, and she was just like “yeah most terrible person in the area, come and live with me and my CHILD that you’re abusing”.

I completely understand that she cannot control what Lola does outside of her house. I get that. I also completely get that she is not at fault for Ben's actions. I'm not about to blame a woman for a man's disgusting perversions. What do not get, and will never, EVER understand is how on earth she could let him MOVE IN!!!

I was already angry. I was even more angry when I found out, four months after Ben moved in, that Lola was 12 weeks pregnant. So…she’s keeping it. And it was consieved after the scum moved into the house.

My aunt let the nonce move in. She is partially responsible for this clusterfuck. And she was invited to my grandma (82F)’s birthday party. The party was two days after I found out about the pregnancy. 

(Lola and Ben did not attend the party, just my aunt.)

I was talking to grandma and a different cousin when my aunt came in and tried to join the conversation. It seemed I wasn’t doing a good job at hiding my disgust, and she asked me what my problem was. Well, she asked, and I told her.  I said what I had said above (grandma + cousin didn’t know the full extent of it, and I made them aware), and called my aunt a terrible parent who should be utterly ashamed of how much she’d failed to look after her child. I said that my uncle would be ashamed of her. I said that Ben was a paedophile and Lola needed to get away from him as soon as possible. My aunt stormed off then and we’ve not spoken since.

My grandma said that while my sentiment was correct, I’d been a bit harsh to her, as we don’t know the full details, and it might have been a compromise to keep Lola around rather than have her run off with Ben. I don’t know, but I still think she’s a failure of a parent.

What are these acronyms?

[jameaalkauthar]

Jamea Provides Excellence in Muslim Education in the UK

At Jamea, the pursuit of academic excellence is of utmost importance. The school presents a comprehensive curriculum that integrates traditional subjects with Islamic education, ensuring that students receive a well-rounded education. Committed educators employ innovative teaching strategies to engage students and enhance their critical thinking abilities. With smaller class sizes, Jamea offers individualized attention, allowing each student to excel academically. This emphasis on excellence prepares students for higher education and provides them with the necessary skills for future achievements.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Spiked

Published: Sept 16, 2024

The new UK Labour government has declared war on free speech. Within weeks of gaining power, it scrapped a law upholding free speech in universities. In early August, following rioting across England, it announced plans to tighten the regulations on online speech. Perhaps most troubling of all, Keir Starmer is also considering writing a broad definition of ‘Islamophobia’ into law, which would make it almost impossible to criticise Islam and even Islamic extremism.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali – writer, activist and author of Prey: Immigration, Islam and the Erosion of Women’s Rights – returned to The Brendan O’Neill Show last week to discuss the importance of free speech in the battle against Islamist extremism. What follows is an edited extract from the conversation. You can listen to the full thing here.

Brendan O’Neill: Why do you think politicians – even those who would define themselves as ‘liberal’ – are so willing to adopt a phrase like Islamophobia?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: I think it has to do with guilt about the past. When it comes to the Jews, many European countries did not protect them from Nazi persecution, so there’s definitely a sense that we don’t want to do the same to our Muslim minorities. When I was living in the Netherlands, this was a very potent argument. The Dutch felt extremely guilty about the fact that, in proportion to the Dutch population, more Jews were removed from their homes and sent to concentration camps, than in any other country in Europe. So there’s definitely a sense of ‘let’s not repeat history’. But this is also what makes me so angry, because the Islamists – and to a certain extent, the leftists – will exploit this. They will exploit what is essentially the goodness of human beings, a desire to ‘do right this time round’, in order to do wrong.

While the Islamists want to use democracy as a tool to win power and then abolish democracy, I think the woke left also wants to do something similar. I think this is part of why the far left does rely on the Islamists to vote for them. This is then compounded by the fact that the white working class, which was traditionally the group of people the Labour Party relied on, has faded. So instead, these parties rely increasingly on migrants. This is their new demography. They think they can harness their vote to come to power. People talk about the ‘great replacement’, but it’s actually a ‘great realignment’. The parties which used to represent the working classes now no longer do so. Instead, they now just represent capital.

O’Neill: So what do you make of this idea of the ‘Muslim vote’ in the UK, particularly in relation to the new Labour government?

Ali: I see Keir Starmer as a front for the radical left. He needs the Muslim vote, and the Muslim vote can be relatively easily gained because Islamists can skillfully organise their communities to vote. But the question that Keir Starmer, and other leftist parties across Europe, should ask themselves is this: ‘What are they demanding in return?’ Because the Islamists do have many demands in return. First and foremost, they want censorship. They want ‘Islamophobia’ to be made illegal. And the way they define Islamophobia is any form of criticism of the political agenda of Islam.

If you talk about the radical views being preached in the mosques or the schools, that’s Islamophobia. If you question the fact that some imams are telling their congregations not to assimilate and to distance themselves from ‘the infidels’, that’s Islamophobia. If you talk about the recent examples of sexual abuse against women and girls, some perpetrated by Muslim immigrants, that’s Islamophobia. If you highlight that there is a kind of soft Sharia law in Britain – which is well established in many Muslim communities when it comes to marriages, divorces and inheritances – that’s Islamophobia. The same goes if you want to talk about the fact that there are Muslim women in Muslim households being beaten, curfewed, removed from school, forced to marry and then raped. If you want to expose any of this, you’re committing Islamophobia. And so, all of a sudden, you can’t fight sexual violence against women perpetrated by men.

That is what banning Islamophobia is going to ban, if you allow it. It will ban discussing these issues in the name of human rights and equality. If you question this and ask, ‘Do we really want this parallel society?’, you’ll be called Islamophobic.

These days, the Islamists are less and less secretive about their agenda. This can be seen recently in the blatant anti-Semitism in some Muslim communities. But if you bring this stuff up, and try to get politicians to discuss it, you’re again accused of Islamophobia. This is the question that we have to ask governments, particularly the leftist governments that are trying to outlaw Islamophobia. It is criticism of Islam that’s going to be banned. Journalists and newspapers will no longer be able to exercise their free-press rights to investigate crimes that are being committed.

O’Neill: The unwillingness of the woke left, even the moderate left, to ever criticise radical Islam is extraordinary. We really are in a difficult situation, aren’t we?

Ali: Absolutely. We’re emboldening them. The woke left is the enemy of civilisation, and they say so themselves. They’re deconstructing everything. On the other hand, the Islamists are also clearly an enemy of civilisation – our Western civilisation in particular. We’ve got to stand up to these two forces now. The silent majority has to stand up and stop this before they stop us. And the only way to do that is through freedom of speech, which is exactly what they want to take away from us.

As voters, we still have the capacity to organise, vote, find new leaders and reject what is being imposed on us. In the decay of the universities, alongside the censorship in schools, there’s definitely a concerted effort to silence us. Most worryingly of all, I think, is what we’ve seen after the riots and how the government has responded. Whereas previously you might be cancelled or piled-on online, now the elites are using the law. British prisons, which are effectively full, are clearing out convicted criminals, some of whom have done all sorts of horrible things, to put people in prison for putting words and images online. They’re using the awesome powers of the state to censor and to silence us. Soon we could be banned from saying things that are, in this very sinister phrase, ‘legal but harmful’. This should be met with the greatest opposition of all time. All of us need to go out into the streets and say, ‘stop right there’.

--

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was talking to Brendan O’Neill on The Brendan O’Neill Show. Listen to the full conversation here:

==

A modern Islamic insurgence is no longer conducted with swords on horseback, but with the aggressors using the language of victimhood.

[pseudowho]

Arguably the UK has been very shitty with politicians doing things like calling Muslim women “letterboxes” or being so completely out of touch with the cost of living crisis, and the ridiculous costs of the coronation and royal fu real even while primary school kids are starving at home

Oh dear me. It's why I called the UK, this evening, a dystopian nightmare over the last few years.

I'm assuming you're taking my sardonic apologies on the state of the US, as some perceived proclaimed belief that I believe the UK is superior?

*incorrect buzzer noise*

You're preaching to the choir here, sweetheart. If you're trying to make a "YEAH WELL" point to someone you're assuming is a nationalist, you'd best check yourself.

It's embarrassing to start a fight with someone when you've added two and two together and made five. So wind your neck in, silly.

I know exactly what country I'm living in.

Further silly arguments which are not arguments, but are instead a weird misread that I'm throwing stones in a glasshouse, will not be entertained. I'm not here to have weird arguments with someone who has made assumptions about my perception of global and national politics.

Good evening,

-- Haitch xxx

[marzipanandminutiae]

which country are you talking about? i know burkini’s were banned years ago in france. and at the moment, abayas were just banned and any loose maxi dress/skirt is subject to the same restrictions (a student was sent home for wearing a maxi t shirt dress and was told it needed to have a higher slit or be tighter to not be considered banned). where were burkinis recently banned?

I meant the previous French law, but oh my god, that's even worse. I can't find any English-language media about the girl sent home over a maxi t-shirt dress, but I did find an article about a girl who was sent home for wearing an ankle-length, A-line black skirt. three guesses what religion she was, and the first two don't count. despite outcry on social media, by people of many religions, the school refused to back down. a similar case in the UK was not backed by an actual law and the school relented, thank heaven

what I'd just like to know is, is this EVER enforced on white and/or non-Muslim women? like, if a white historical costumer took her Victorian bathing costume to a beach in France, would she be ordered to strip down? apparently French men have been required to wear only briefs or very tight swim shorts to public pools since 1903, due to "hygiene concerns;" is that enforced with the same fervor as burkini bans?

(UPDATE: apparently the rule for men IS enforced...causing problems for trans men, and any man who wants to wear a swim shirt for body image, sun protection, or simple comfort reasons. yikes)

it's horrifically discriminatory as it stands now, and frankly a terrifying precedent for all women. again, this establishes that a fucking government can make women and adolescent girls display their bodies, by law. it's something where I want to acknowledge the clear racism/religious bias of the law in France, and also how disturbing the underlying misogyny should be to all women

[mrhaitch]

Living in London, I feel like a lot of incidents are isolated attacks that you dont hear about as opposed to organised riots. Whilst there have been some riots in the more conservative areas (like Walthamstow and Chingford) and more towards Central, in East London especially, I've experienced and heard of isolated anti-immigrant/muslim 'attacks' where it's one or two people that are perpetrators.

East London is the MOST multicultural place you'll find, but my dad's car was kicked in by some white guys literally two days ago. Thank God he was already in the car and was able to drive off, but I've found that it's mostly incidents like these.

In Whitechapel, which is literally full to the brim with Muslims, a young girls hijab was ripped off a month or two ago. Whilst I don't live in Whitechapel, me and my mum have been called nasty names to the point where my mum didn't feel like it was safe wearing her face veil anymore. Islamic private schools have been subjected to attacks as well and generally havent been perceived well, but this is nothing new. It's been happening for years, but you don't really hear about them because it's isolated incidents. I only know because I've been in those spaces and environments and have experienced it personally.

Loads of my friends don't feel like it's safe to go out being women because of the new wave of anti-muslim/poc sentiment and people mainly targeting women. Again, whilst this is nothing new from my experience of being born and raised in London, the anti-muslim/immigrant sentiment has only grown, and certain individuals are feeling braver because of the nationwide riots.

But there's a sense of community in London because of its multiculturalism that other places up North and around the UK don't have. Where you have some people committing hate crimes, you have others that are staunchly outspoken against it and that are really supportive, which I'm forever grateful for. My neighbours are absolutely wonderful, and I know that I'm completely safe with them, I know that if anything was to happen, I'd have people supporting me.

Its weird though because London is one of those places where you'll find there are extremely wealthy areas right next to some of the most destitute places, driving through Bow Road/Mile End Road/Whitechapel Road to Aldgate is a perfect example of that, you can see where it immediately changes and switches up. Same with Hackney and Shoreditch, you walk for 5-10 minutes, and it's like you've entered a whole new realm, likewise with Canary Wharf. It's kind of dystopian, tbh and literally, all the new buildings being built are high-rise 2/3 bedroom flats that obviously aren't for families.

It's like the with the new architecture too is trying to push families out. Alongside the serious underfunding of government facilities like public libraries and gyms. Over the past couple of years, dozens of libraries across have been closed, and public gyms have been sold off to private organisations. Youth facilities are horrendous, too. I've gone completely off on a tangent here, and I do apologise. But I just think it's so crazy that London has some of the poorest areas in the whole UK with poverty being at 25% I think (correct me if I'm wrong) just after the North and West Midlands which is around 28%.

I really shouldn't complain because I know in London we are so fortunate to have such an interconnected train/tube system and that our health care and schools are much more funded than those outside of London. But with more business and wealthier people coming in, the costs in London are increasing so much more disproportionately to wages.

My mum works in the NHS, and what the government did is before increasing the London living wage, they increased the NHS staff wages by 5%, compared to the London living wage by 10%. The NHS HCAS didn't increase, however, and stayed the same. On top of that, NHS staff are subjected to higher national insurances. I think it's just ridiculous. Anyways, I apologise for the long and rambling ask, and I totally lost focus. I hope you have an amazing day, and there's no pressure to answer this whatsoever <33

Nothing further to add here, as I'm not that familiar with London - call it a northerner's suspicion - but will definitely provide further insight to people less familiar with the UK.

[1americanconservative]

@LozzaFox

The Mayor of London is a Muslim.

The mayor of Birmingham is a Muslim.

The Mayor of Leeds is Muslim.

Mayor of Blackburn - Muslim.

The mayor of Sheffield is a Muslim.

The mayor of Oxford is a Muslim.

The mayor of Luton is a Muslim.

The mayor of Oldham is Muslim.

The mayor of Rochdale is Muslim

All this was achieved by only 4 million Muslims out of 66 million people in England:

Today there are over 3,000 mosques in England.

There are over 130 sharia courts.

There are more than 50 Sharia Councils.

78 percent of Muslim women do not work, receive state support + free accommodation.

63 percent of Muslims do not work, receive state support + free housing.

State-supported Muslim families with an average of 6 to 8 children receive free accommodation.

Now every school in the UK is required to teach lessons about Islam.

Has anyone ever been given an opportunity to vote for this?

[werewolfetone]

2nd try—

did the british have a big role regarding tensions between the catholics and protestants in Ireland (as in making them) as opposed to taking advantage/exacerbating them? the speech im reading uses Ireland as a similar situation to caste in india (hence the ‘ireland jumpscare’ lmao) . a common argument used to dismiss/ignore the latter is that it is an imperialist import (so we don’t really do anything bad, we don’t really have any privilege/advantage cause of it, etc etc)

does the same hold true for ireland? said speech (annihilation of caste, dr ambedkar) was written in 1930s iirc, so maybe late 19th cen-20th cen? (i am very ill versed in irish history, school had one page for the whole uk)

Ok so short answer, the way I look at it is that while we do have a responsibility to try and lessen protestant/catholic tensions and break down barriers for the benefit of everyone &c &c today, yes, Britain did play a role in creating protestant/catholic tensions in Ireland. Longer answer:

It's important to remember in discussions of Britain + Ireland + sectarianism, that, to quote the book Scripture Politics by Ian McBride, "there was nothing peculiarly Irish about the eighteenth century obsession with popery." Nor was there with the seventeenth century, or the sixteenth century, or the any century since the Reformation -- since the categories of protestant and catholic have existed, with the possible exception of the 21st century,* Britain and British people have been fighting for one and against the other, often as violently if not more violently than Irish people have. The reasons for this were complex -- questions of freedom, religious doctrine, and national identity too complicated for this post and which I need to do more reading on before I can speak at length about. What matters is that any actions involving Britain and sectarianism must be put into the context of Britain being a very sectarian state itself for as long as that was possible, rather than a state which just exacerbated sectarianism elsewhere. Admittedly most of what I know about caste in India comes from my Indian friends irl talking about it, so this comparison is almost certainly not perfect, but imo it's a little less like the British exacerbating caste in India and a little more like if the British had been butchering one another over caste independently and then come over to India, realised that the same caste system existed there, and immediately decided to bring the conflict over with them. Essentially it can't really be said to have been something Britain just "exacerbated" because, well, Britain was playing an active role in it.

Secondly, & perhaps more crucially, it's important when it comes to Irish history that "protestant" and "catholic" don't just mean what church one attends. In a similar way to how the Israeli occupation of Palestine is not "Jews VS Muslims" but a case of settler colonialism, "catholic" in the context of Irish history usually means one considers oneself Irish, while "protestant" usually indicates a connection to Britishness. There are many exceptions, of course! There are lots of protestant republicans and catholic loyalists, especially historically, but if, like, someone from Derry were talking about "prods" in the modern day they would almost certainly be referring to ethnoreligious conflict between people who are considered Irish and people who are considered British, rather than genuine disapproval over doctrinal disputes (there are exceptions to this, too, though. some of the stuff my mother says...). Both of these labels also often denote a whole other set of cultural behaviours apart from religion (pronunciation of certain letters, what school one attends, so on and so forth). Mentioning this mostly just because I think it's interesting, but wrt this issue I often think about how when modern sectarian violence in the north of Ireland really emerged in 1780s Co. Armagh, rather than "catholic" "anglican" and "presbyterian," those involved would distinguish the three groups by referring to them as "Irish," "English," and "Scotch**," respectively, indicating that the understanding that sectarian violence has been just as much about questions of identity and nationalism as religion for a really, really long time.

So. Do I think that, had British colonisation not happened, Ireland would never have gotten involved in any religious conflict? No. Getting into religious wars was really just what European powers did for a very long time, so a hypothetical free Kingdom of Ireland or whatever in an alternate 17th century probably would have been just as eager to butcher the protestant dogs as other catholic countries like France or Spain were. However, as real history stands, the fact that Britain's crusade against Irish catholics in the real life 17th century was part of Britain's own protestant/catholic religious war, and the fact that 'protestant/catholic conflict' in Irish history is nearly always just settler-colonial violence (perpetrated by Britain) with fancy dressing, mean that yes, I would say that Britain must take at least some responsibility for the existence of protestant/catholic tensions in modern day Ireland.

*personally I wouldn't include the 20th century in this due to the continuation of sectarian tensions in scotland

**historical term for "scottish" I am using as I am quoting historical documents where it was used. if u start discourse over the use of this word on this post I will block u

Sources under the cut

Farrell, Sean. Rituals and Riots: Sectarian Violence and Political Culture in Ulster, 1784-1886. University Press of Kentucky, 2000.

McBride, Ian. Scripture politics : Ulster Presbyterians and Irish radicalism in the late eighteenth century. Clarendon Press, 1998.

Cone, Carl. The English Jacobins: Reformers in Late 18th Century England. Taylor & Francis Group, 1968.

Coward, Barry. Oliver Cromwell. Longman, 2000.

Rees, John. The Leveller Revolution: Radical Political Organisation in England, 1640-1650. Verso Books, 2017.