Fiyaz Mughal and the State-Approved Regressive “Progressive” Muslims

The neocon propaganda machine is at full tilt as the government reveals its ultimate legislative weapon to excise active Muslim political activists from civil society under the dissent-suppressing counter-extremism discourse. Andrew Gilligan has already taken a swipe at Muslim organisations through his trademark blend of Muslim “extremists”, spin and lies. Even Peter Oborne could not help but notice that his article contained “a number of unsubstantiated claims” and “a number of factual errors”.

Elsewhere, David Cameron apparently likes Muslims. Well *some* Muslims would be more accurate.  In what must be the most sterile PR stunt ever, he has lent his approval to a head-scarf wearing Muslim contestant of the TV show, the Great British Bake Off.  One can understand why:

1. Is her politics reflective of a Muslim who needs to prove her “Britishness”? Check.
2. Does the Muslim belong to a gender group which needs to be saved from Islam? Check.
3. Does the show have the word “British” as part of its title? Check.
4. Are the general public supporting her? Check.

It sure is a safe bet. Previously, in Eid messages, Cameron has spoken of the “good Muslims” who fought for “our freedoms” off the back of the brutal colonialism of the Muslim world. Later, in his Birmingham speech, he would go onto proclaim that he was going to “actively encourage the reforming and moderate Muslim voices.”  These voices incidentally belong to “progressive Muslims” who also happen to be primed by key neoconservative officials and who support their key policies, from the discourse on Muslims and global democracy-spreading to Trident. Such promotion and support is key to maintaining the neoconservative assumptions around the Muslim context.   The fundamental impediment is garnering legitimacy from the mainstream Muslim community.

“Uncivilised” Douglas Murray Suggests there are “Degrees” of Torture which is Justified

In a shocking video in which anti-Muslim, neocon Director of the Henry Jackson Society Douglas Murray downplays the recent revelations from the report investigating CIA’s torture, he states that there are “degrees” of torture in response to Diane Abbot’s reprimanding.  The allusion of “legitimate torture” will no doubt be a reference to the US Justice Department’s authorisation of waterboarding.  Waterboarding is torture.  There is no question about it.  Murray’s defence that there may be justification because it can give credible intel (citing a US Democrat) and September the 11th is decrepit as it is discredited.  Moreover Irving Kristol, his neocon godfather doesn’t agree with him either! Writes Kristol,

“Civilized opinion properly decided long ago that there is no justification [for torture], whatever the circumstances.“

In an upcoming blog, I will demonstrate that despite this exoteric statement, the esoteric understanding of neoconservative thinking has allowed the pathway to this revolting legacy of the West to be forged.

Analysing the Impact of the Counter-Terror Bill

If one were to draw a comparison between the freedoms which were being slaughtered in the pen of Parliament vis-à-vis counter terror legislation, and the response from the people and the media to this, a serious indifference would be perceived.  There has been more outrage about the restrictions on the type of porn being produced in the UK than the restriction of civil liberties due to the proposed bill. All three major political parties are in effect in agreement for the need to go ahead with such a legislation.  The debate is not whether the Bill is grossly disproportionate to threat at hand, or whether established, unshakeable principles such as rule of law and non-derogable rights are being systematically stripped to be replaced with meekly fettered “powers” which build on the already abused “powers”. No. The debate is whether the “measures” are “strong” enough, and why the restrictions on the right of freedom of conscious and belief, a jus cogens norm of international law, are not more intrusive.

In this piece, the principles and human rights which are being, not eroded, but decimated due to the Bill will be highlighted.  In terms of the provisions which place the controversial PREVENT strategy on statutory footing, I have elucidated on the impact this has had thus far on the Muslim minority in the following articles:

PREVENT and the Abuse of Women

PREVENT and the Public Surveillance State

PREVENT and the underlying erroneous “conveyor-belt theory”

PREVENT and the discussion of “extremism” and discrimination

The only additional point is that when children are assessed for signs of “radicalisation”, parents or guardians will not be allowed to be present during the assessment before the Channel panel. In other words, legal safeguards in the form of solicitors or appropriate adults do not exist to protect the child from misuse of powers, or more likely, a misapplication of what constitutes “extremism” and “radicalisation”.

The underlying motivation for the Bill points to the raising of the terrorist threat level[1] and Syrian conflict.

Anti-Muslim Neocon William Shawcross Gets What he Wants

More power.  And if we recall from my piece on human rights and the damaging impact of neoconservatism in Britain, we will come to realise that power is a pursuit before which principles, liberal or conservative, fall by the way side.

Around April 2014, William Shawcross had written to David Cameron asking him for more powers.  David Cameron has now announced new powers which will give the Charity Commission sweeping prerogatives to freeze charity bank accounts and suspend or remove trustees.  There have been charities which have been investigated for over a year only to then be cleared of problems; if the charity cannot operate during the investigation the damage to the reputation of the charity will be immeasurable, and more fundamentally, it will inhibit charitable acts which the charity is engaged in such as humanitarian aid in critical, dire areas of the world, the impact of which will be catastrophic for the needy. With the direction given by the new Commission chief executive Paula Sussex that charities should not be given the “benefit of the doubt”, the ease with which such powers will be used, is a cause for consternation for those involved in the third sector.

The key issue is the belligerency with which the Commission has been behaving.  It is the cold war tactics which have been employed by a body at the head of which is an ideologically motivated individual whose views on Islam and Muslims in conjunction with his pro-Israel, Zionist stance, which is a matter of concern.  In an earlier blog on Shawross, I highlighted how discriminatory his view were.  He has described the UN as “lynch mob” for condemning Israeli violence and gone on record to state that,

“Europe and Islam is one of the greatest most terrifying problems of our future, I think all European countries have vastly, very quickly, growing Islamic populations…”

My Thoughts on the BBC Trojan Hoax “Debate”

Throughout my blogs on this farce of epic proportions that has been the Trojan Hoax, I have repeatedly highlighted that despite issues in governance, there has been a discriminatory tone and treatment punctuating the discourse specifically targeting the Muslim minority, architecting a perception that governance-related issues, “nepotism” and other allegations were exclusively a Muslim problem.

As evidenced, nothing has been further from the truth.  Similar allegations against, white, Riverside Church-linked evangelical teachers have been made which in turn has indicated towards a coordinated effort on the part of those, like Karen Slater, formerly of Golden Hillock School (one of the Park View Schools which was scrutinised) and Tim Boyes of Queensbridge School, to malign the Muslim community of Birmingham.  This has fed into an even broader possible plot which would benefit Tim Boyes’ Birmingham Education Partnership in the form of a contract to train governors, a suggestion born from the Peter Clarke report.

I didn’t expect all these revelations of allegations made in my previous blogs to be discussed in the “debate” by the BBC entitled, What Faith in Our Schools? I, perhaps naively, thought there would be a sufficient analysis of the counter-narrative, a critique of the reports and even a call for investigations into the authorship of the Trojan Hoax letter, which has caused so much damage to community cohesion and placed undue stress on schools at the expense of achievement of the pupils. However, the opening presentation of the “debate” set the tone which was maintained throughout the programme, as it downplayed the protests from parents and schools as “some” describing the ridiculous scrutiny as a “witch-hunt”.  If anything, my sources who have been present in the meetings for various campaigns against Michael Gove’s anti-Muslim war against schools, have confirmed that the community at large has been very disturbed and firm in the rebuke of this targeted discrimination.

Boris Johnson is a Neocon Government Extremist and a Threat to Britain

Source: the Times

Whilst much of the focus has been on the alleged brutality from the people representing ISIS on the ground (which is is verified by others in the locality), the reality is that ISIS and its actions perfectly fit a narrative which allows neoconservatives to push forth policy and impress their Machiavellian tactics of mass deception and manipulation of public opinion on Britain domestically, and pursue their violent “interventions” abroad, which have done nothing but wreak havoc across the Middle East.

Theresa May’s reinforcement of the discriminatory and bigoted PREVENT strategy is one example. The most recent bluster comes from the supposedly humorous (child-snatching) Boris Johnson, whose not so humorous suggestion is that we should make a “minor” change in the law and reverse the presumption of innocence.

Boris the Extremist

The presumption of innocence is not only a fundamental aspect of Common Law, it is also a fundamental part of human rights, as articulated in several human rights documents.  Johnson also calls for the reinstatement of the controversial and “illiberal” control orders.  As already highlighted in my previous blog, control orders are an affront to human rights. Human rights, according to the PREVENT definition of extremism is a British value.

Birmingham Mail Allegedly Pulls Advert Celebrating Muslim School Success

The behaviour of the Department for Education, EFA, Birmingham City Council and Ofsted during the Trojan Hoax fiasco was shocking and irresponsible.  With the agenda-driven Michael Gove ordering snap inspections conducted by a biased Ofsted at schools in areas in which the demographic was mainly Muslim, and with the release of Ofsted reports at a critical time for the children who were preparing for their exams, media were swarming around the schools, placing undue, unwarranted strain and stress on the children.  Ofsted Inspectors took discriminatory measures which may have caused psychological harm to some pupils. 

The impact of this can be seen in the schools which were at the centre of this neocon war on Muslim children; Park View School had reportedly forecasted 73% but has achieved 58% A*-C including English and Maths, whilst Golden Hillock School, whose Riverside Church-linked teachers and governors allegedly added to the smearing of the school at such a significant period in time, looked set to achieve 58% but attained 45% A*-C including English and Maths.

My Ramadan Message to David Cameron

 

Rt Honourable David Cameron,

Thank you for your congratulatory message to the Muslim minority of Britain. As the Prime Minister of this country I respect your stature and position.

Whilst I appreciate your act of congratulation, I do not extend the same to your message, which should not be a criticism on your part, as your message, just like your Munich speech, was most likely influenced or written by the widely despised Quilliam Foundation, or like-thinking neoconservatives.

Your Ramadan message wreaks of a colonialist stance. Celebrating the colonial abuse of the Muslims is not the model memory for Muslims to reminisce over. We are not unfamiliar with our history, our being collectively, British and Islamic histories.

Whilst your idea of reflection in the Muslim context may be to remember Indian Muslims who fought and died at the behest of British wishes either out of compulsion or delusion, we, the Muslim minority, recall, for example the impact of British imperialist economic policy on the Muslims in India, where, the coffers of the colonialists were protected and propped at the complete economic annihilation of India. All resources were either exported for the profits of the British or drawn to be used for an imperialist war. After the WWI and leading up to WWII, textile mills in India were forced to churn out clothes for soldiers. The common people could not procure clothes to cover themselves and women committed suicide as result. The economic persecution resulted in desperation to such an extent that naked men, women and children marched through the streets of Bengal in protest.

Ofsted: Gove’s Weapon Unleashed on the Muslim Minority

I spoke to a boy today who wasn’t himself at all. Not concentrating or doing as well as usual. He wanted to tell me about the cameras and journalists all outside his school. He seemed smaller than usual, slumped and defeated. Why should a 9 year old suffer?

-Tutor of child at a Birmingham School

With the continued aggression against schools located in the Muslim majority areas of Birmingham by the triple effort on the part of the woefully compromised Department for Education (DfE), Birmingham City Council and the ideologically-driven Ofsted, backed by a well-oiled media machine, the discriminatory treatment against the Muslim minority has become ever more acute.  Today, Ofsted will be announcing their reports regarding the schools in Birmingham, a critical period for children who are taking exams this week. Michael Gove and Ofsted clearly have their priorities, and the children of Birmingham, quite clearly, are not anywhere the top. The children are suffering and the abuse is coming from the media, Government officials and their weapons-grade government bodies.

Media Attack on Islam

The media continues to play their part as they highlight “evil Muslims” in the media. Their sin seems to be campaigning for justice, adhering to Islam and possessing a beard. In the latter case, the Daily Fail reported, that a “heavily bearded” teacher was encouraging women to wear the veil, in his personal capacity on Facebook. The Daily Fail has blatantly attacked the beliefs of a Muslim, as well as the sign of a Muslim (the beard). Imagine the public reaction if statements highlighting tall hats, or curly hair “flowing” from the heads of Orthodox Jews was made in a sinister article aimed at demonising Jews.

Neocon Britain: “Ideology of Ofsted at Odds with British Values” Claim Educationalists

Finally. My words are starting to resonate. After having comprehensively shown that the Department for Education and Ofsted have been compromised with the destructive ideology of neoconservatism, which I have argued is a threat to British values, it seems the message is starting to percolate.

The Guardian reports,

“An ideology “at odds with traditional British values” has taken hold at the schools inspectorate Ofsted, a group of leading educationalists and Muslim leaders have warned.”

Sir Tim Brighouse and 20 expert educationalists have confirmed what has already been known: the Ofsted is compromised. As per the letter by Dr Robin Richmond to the Guardian,

“… [Ofsted’s] methods are not the objective process that has been assumed and are clearly subject to manipulation.”

The catalogue of procedural irregularities, the psychological abuse of a child by inspectors, and abrupt changes in their reporting (as demonstrated in the Guardian report) are all a testimony to this.