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UK’s far-left Guardian rejects Denmark’s surrender to Sharia
blasphemy laws while calling Qur’an burnings ‘bigotry’
SEP 4, 2023 12:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER
It is refreshing to see a far-left outfit such as the Guardian come out for the freedom of expression and against Denmark’s capitulation to Sharia blasphemy laws, but its dismissal of Qur’an burnings as “bigotry” is shallow and propagandistic. Salwan Momika, who has engaged in a series of Qur’an desecrations in Sweden, is not a “far-right bigot.” Rather, he is a refugee from Iraq who has considerable firsthand experience with ardent believers in the Qur’an. But that fact, and its implications, is never, ever considered in the establishment media.
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Blasphemy law is no answer to bigotry in the wake of Denmark’s Qur’an burnings
by Kenan Malik, Guardian, September 3, 2023:
Should governments ban the “improper treatment of objects of significant religious importance to a religious community”? That is what the Danish government is suggesting in a new law it announced last week that could see offenders imprisoned for two years. The proposed ban comes after a spate of incidents in Sweden and Denmark in which Qur’ans have been publicly burned, provoking an outcry (read - hysteria) across the Muslim world.
The answer to the question is both simple and complex. It is simple because any law outlawing any kind of blasphemy is unacceptable and should be opposed. Having abolished its blasphemy law in 2017, for Denmark to seek to reintroduce it in a new form is retrogressive….
If we take this law to its logical conclusion, we will not be able to speak out against Satanism, or Jim Jones kind of cults, voodoo, or any other kind of madness.
City mosque in battle to save £2m youth centre after ‘stoning’ video
triggers hate backlash
by Jane Haynes, Birmingham Mail, August 31, 2023:
The Government has withheld a £2.2 million grant to a city mosque for a vital youth centre project after a social media clip of a preacher discussing ‘stoning women’ went viral.
Leaders at Green Lane Masjid and Community Centre are now battling to overturn the decision by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to ‘pause’ the grant award.
Mosque leaders said the edited clip was out-of-context and misleading, and had triggered a deluge of hatemail and threats. Police had offered to step up patrols around the venue as a result, it said.
The DCMS confirmed it had ‘paused’ handing over £2.175 million from its Youth Investment Fund to the mosque, based in Green Lane because of the highlighted clip. It was seeking more reassurance about safeguarding and investigating online allegations.
They added: “We feel there is an insidious nature to the targeted social media campaign against us (timed to coincide) with the award of the grant. It appears like a deliberate attack on the mosque, coming after the announcement of the youth investment fund grant.
“It has now become a risk and a threat to the mosque, we are receiving hate mail and threats, as well as jeopardising a desperately needed project.”
They added: “There have been mistakes in the past. But we have gone through a lot of changes in personnel and approach, and have strict procedures that aim to support and raise up the community. We would never incite or allow others to incite violence.”
See next story.
Not sure how this 'victim' strategy helps? It seems to me that if DCMS gave in and forwarded the grant it would only cause more alienation.
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Taxpayers’ funding to controversial mosque halted amid investigation
by Charlie Peters, GB News, August 25, 2023:
A Birmingham mosque with a long history of hosting controversial speeches recently awarded millions in taxpayers’ cash has had its grant paused after a GB News investigation.
The Green Lane Masjid and Community Centre in Birmingham was awarded £2.2million from the government’s Youth Investment Fund this month to expand its youth services.
The grant, from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, was awarded for the development of a new youth centre offering programmes on leadership, critical thinking, arts and culture and “empowering marginalised communities,” according to BirminghamLive.
Distribution of the funds is being managed by Social Investment Business (SIB), but GB News understands that funding to the Green Lane Masjid and Community Centre has been paused while the SIB investigates allegations raised by this broadcaster about the mosque’s links to controversial and extremist speakers.
The funding pause comes amid a GB News investigation that revealed that the mosque has a lengthy record of hosting controversial speeches that denigrate women, promote homophobia, and praise extreme punishments such as chopping off the hands of thieves.
The sheikh also said that women were intellectually “deficient” and that “it takes two witnesses of a woman to equal the one witness of the man.”
He still preaches at the taxpayer-funded Green Lane mosque….
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Taxpayers fund mosques that host hate preachers
by David Rose, The Jewish Chronicle, August 31, 2023
The Government has vowed to stop giving taxpayers’ money to mosques that host antisemitic hate preachers after a JC investigation revealed that at least four had received grants totalling millions of pounds.
The largest grant was a £2.2 million award to a Birmingham mosque which has hosted a speaker who has described Jews as “people of envy” who “killed the prophets and the messengers”.
In a viral video, its leading imam was filmed teaching how adulterous women should be stoned to death. The money has now been “paused” pending official inquiries.
Three other Muslim centres with a history of offering pulpits to extremist speakers have also received large sums, the JC can reveal.
Finsbury Park Mosque in north London, which hosted an Egyptian imam who pledged to “liberate” Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem from the “filth of the Jews”, received almost £300,000 from the Labour-controlled Islington Council between 2017 and 2022.
The mosque’s general secretary, Mohammed Kozbar, praised Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the wheelchair-bound founder of Hamas who was killed by Israeli missiles in 2004, as a “martyr” on a visit to Gaza in 2015.
Following the revelations, Communities Secretary Michael Gove and Home Secretary Suella Braverman are demanding tighter “due diligence” checks by both central and local government, the JC understands.
A government source said: “All parts of government including councils are responsible for spending public money appropriately, so they must be far more careful about the organisations they support.
“It’s appalling that mosques and other religious organisations in receipt of taxpayer funding have provided platforms for extremist preachers to spread vile messages of hate.
“We will be taking action to improve due diligence and seek to exclude organisations that fail to deliver their responsibilities effectively.”
The measures that are being considered include a requirement that before granting public funds, both central and local government agencies must check with the Home Office and Levelling-Up departments for evidence that the recipient has sponsored extremism.
A High Court judge found that Begg, who has been imam of the Lewisham Islamic Centre since 1998, promoted “violence in support of Islam” during his failed libel action against the BBC in 2016.
Michael Adebolajo, who murdered Private Lee Rigby in a London street in 2013, was a member of his congregation, although Begg said the killing left him “appalled” and went against Islamic teaching.
In 2021, Begg attended an event at the Lewisham mosque where a speaker expressed support for rocket attacks on Israel, and was praised by the imam as “inspiring”.
Lewisham Council, which is Labour-controlled, claims to have no record of the £539,418 shown as being given to Begg’s mosque in its accounts.
Lewisham Islamic Centre’s 2022 annual report includes an endorsement by local Labour MP Ellie Reeves saying it does “absolutely brilliant work for the Lewisham community” and another by the borough’s mayor, Damian Egan, who described it as “a source of guidance, community and friendship”.
In early August the Department of Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) was reported to have given £2.2 million towards a scheme run by the Green Lane Masjid in the Small Heath area of Birmingham….
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