Monday, May 31, 2004

Islamophobia News

In Saudi Arabia, an escapee has said that Saudi forces allowed the killers of 22 people to escape. There currently seems to be some doubt as to whether anyone taken hostage survived - those 'rescued' all appear to have been hiding.

The Independent says the attack "shows the bitter harvest America will reap from Iraq". The dead were :

Eight Indians
Three Filipinos
Three Saudis
Two Sri Lankans
One American
One Italian
One Swede
One South African
One Briton
One Egyptian

In Karachi, 10 Shias were killed in an explosion at a mosque the day after a Sunni cleric was shot dead.

In Thailand a 60-year old farmer was found beheaded with a note saying that arrests of more innocent Muslims would result in the beheading of more innocent (Buddhist) farmers. Bad karma or what ? Look what happened to the innocent Taleban when they blew up the innocent Bamiyan Buddhas.

And in Britain, a Government committee met to discuss "draft a plan to tackle the roots of Islamic terrorism in Britain." Key to the strategy is an orgy of liberal apology and breast-beating.

The Guardian is already on board, but Mel P. gives the upcoming report of the Runnymede Trust's Islamophobia Commission the traditional pre-emptive shoeing, noting the involvement of Dr Richard Stone, Racismfinder-General at the Macpherson Enquiry and quoting his words to Metropolitan Police commissioner Paul Condon.

'It seems to me, sir Paul', he said, 'that the door is open. It is like when Winnie Mandela was challenged in the Truth Commission in South Africa by Desmond Tutu to acknowledge that she had done wrong... she just did it and suddenly a whole burden of weight, of sort of challenge and friction melted away... I say to you now, just say, "Yes, I acknowledge institutional racism in the police"... Could you do that today?'

The report on Macpherson, 'Racist Murder and Pressure Group Politics' by Norman Dennis, George Erdos and Ahmed al-Shahi is available here as a pdf file.


UPDATE - the report is out. You can read some of it here. I'm not sure it helps the perceived problem when the BBC spin the report as 'we'll riot if you say we're violent' and illustrate it with a picture of said riot.


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