Irene Lancaster's Diary

The Author of 'Hijacking British Islam' in his own words

Expert on Islam and Arabic, Dr Denis MacEoin on his new Policy Exchange report dealing with extremist Muslim literature doing the rounds in mainstream British mosques. The important point to note is that the literature was collected by young Muslims - just in case anyone thought this was a 'Zionist plot'!

'For those of you who may have wondered where I've been for the past six months, here is the answer. I've been working on an extensive report on Islamic hate and intolerant literature found in a range of British mosques. The report has just been published by the think tank Policy Exchange, from whose website the full text can be downloaded (http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/). The title is 'Hijacking British Islam: How extremist literature is subverting mosques in the UK'.

Several teams of young Muslims visited 100 (our of 1600) mosques throughout the UK and obtained books and pamphlets. Theses were then examined and translated (where necessary) by a small team including myself, and the final report was then written by me. Selected texts form a large part of the final publication. It appears in hard copy form on Friday.

The material we found is separatist and hate-centred. Jews, Christians, and even lax Muslims are to be treated with contempt, and apostates can, in theory, be put to death. The same applies to homosexuals and adulterers/adulteresses. Obeying British law can make someone an apostate. Women are to be treated as distinctly inferior to men, should be kept in their homes, and must restrict themselves to activities for which they are considered suited: housekeeping, childbearing and rearing. There is a lot of anti-Semitic material, some of it from school textbooks.

The MCB etc are already in a state of denial, proving yet again that they prefer to defend extremism or find excuses for mosques and centres where it is found than grasp the nettle and work to root it out.

I hope you all enjoy reading it.

Denis

Normal Muslim reactions to Jews in Britain

Having been away for nearly a week (not counting coming back from Jerusalem on Sunday to pack up for school the next day in Jaffa), I decided that the patio needed a bit of a clear-up. Today is Halloween. I don't know if it is celebrated anywhere in Israel, but in Britain it has become rather hairy in recent years, with no less a personage than the Bishop of Bolton advocating a return to more spiritual values.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/04/nhalloween104.xml

So, as I swept up the paper-thin leaves - evidence that we've had no serious rain at all, in contrast to the same time last year, I wondered what he, who is Chair of the fairly new UK

Christian-Muslim Forum

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_060123islamex.shtml

would make of this newly-launched book on Jew and Christian hatred spouted in everyday, normal, mainstream Muslim mosques in today's Britain. The book is written by Islam and Arabic expert

Dr. Denis MacEoin of Newcastle University:

http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/

Also commented on here by

Melanie Phillips:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/309911/britain-the-dhimmocracy-champion-of-the-free-world.thtml

I must say that everything I read in this book about what goes on in mosques in the Greater Manchester area ties in with my own experience of teaching Religion and Theology both at Manchester University at the turn of the millenium (i.e., starting before 9/11) and in local north-west schools during the last 10 years or so. And of course, things have got much worse since then. But the point is to note that this was all going on in the 90s as well and was not the result of 9/11, but one of its causes, as some of us, who work in the area of religion and Middle East studies have been saying for ages, but have either not been heeded, or branded as Islamaphobes (is that why I teach the 'Beatles' to Arabs in Jaffa, I wonder).

Here are some of the more publishable examples of what I myself experienced as the respected teacher, lecturer and mentor of countless Muslim pupils, students and parents whom I encountered between 1996 and 2006 in the Greater Manchester area:

Female pupil: North Manchester School for Girls, Moston, 1999

OOh, we did enjoy your lesson on Islam, Miss: we'll tell our brothers to stop stoning Jewish cars in Cheetham Hill. By the way, please accept this gift of a Koran from our Dad.

Mother of girl aged 14, attending Bury Grammar School, Bury, whom I was tutoring at the time, 2005. The mother wore jeans and was highly critical of much Muslim behaviour

My goodness, Irene, what are all those Jewish kids doing with bags on their backs today. It's half-term! They must be going to tutors! That means that they'll do better than Aisha! (actually, it was not half term for Jewish schools).

Secular Turkish immigrant who wanted me to tutor his daughter, 2004

Dr. Lancaster, I've got two sons! The elder got into Manchester Grammar, but my younger hasn't. This must be a Jewish plot!

MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY. Dept Religions and Theology (one of three best in the country): male student from Oldham, Greater Manchester (parents from Pakistan) during a history class on 'Religion in Mediaeval Spain', September 2000

How dare you discuss the Koran! Everyone knows that the Jews are perfidious and betrayed Muhammad. As a Jew and a woman, you are doubly unclean! (Reaction of Head of Dept: nothing)

Muslim representative on a panel with me (chaired by my friend, the female President of the Manchester Jewish Community) after audience reaction to his anti-British diatribe. The occasion was the Bury Interfaith Forum 2004, held at Bury Town Hall, with the Mayor of Bury representing the Christian religion:

How dare the audience respond to me like that. You're fine and I liked your speech, but that guy in the audience had no right to disagree with my views. I shan't be attending Holocaust Memorial Day after this!

So it isn't just mosques, it seems, but normal, every-day, practically secular, and most definitely well-integrated Muslims who carry these hates and envies within them! And please note that their hatred and envy seems particularly directed towards 'the Jews'.

Melanie has more of the same here:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/310016/britains-dhimmocracy-2.thtml

And here is the Jewish Chronicle's take

http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11&SecId=11&AId=56396&ATypeId=1

with the idiotic response of the Head of the Muslim Council of Britain. Talk about being in denial!

Which will lead nicely to my next blog on Dr. Matthias Kuentzel's book

Jihad and Jew-Hatred

published tomorrow and previewed here:

http://www.spme.net/cgi-bin/articles.cgi?ID=2869

Matthias was the one who was originally banned from Leeds University, by the way:

http://irenelancaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/03/is_germany_now_.html

Is it really necessary to ask why?

How I became a member of the Haifa Technion Symphony Orchestra and Choir

This evening, I arrived back somewhat tired from Jaffa, having got up at 6.00 am and taught the Beatles non-stop at  school. They particularly enjoyed

Yellow Submarine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIjZtgyPhS0

and were especially impressed by the phrase 'sea of green'.

The journey back to Haifa took three hours by public transport. I arrived back at 5.00 pm, only to find an e-mail from Haifa Technion, inviting me to arrive at 6.15 to audition for its famous choir.

Luckily, despite a not particularly good bus service from my place to the Technion, I got there on time, and found the great Israeli conductor, Leonti Wolf, putting various people through their paces.

http://humanities.technion.ac.il/Performing%20Arts.htm

He then auditioned me and invited me to join the second sopranos.

The choir is 150-strong and had been rehearsing pieces by Ramirez and Borodin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Ram%C3%ADrez

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmptWExyKEw

Using a combination of Hebrew, English, French, German, Yiddish, Spanish, Italian and sign language, Leonti managed to produce the most amazing sounds.

Plus, we had coffee and biscuits laid on half way through.

Music is very serious business in Israel and that seriousness lasted for a whole three hours!

We are performing at the end of January, by the way. Might be worth visiting Haifa just for that!

Oh, and it will be in Spanish and Russian! That should be fun!

All you need is love

On Thursday friends of mine (the wife is an Anglican vicar in Manchester) visited Haifa. I hope that this is the first of many.

She was last in Israel when she nursed in Jerusalem in 1979. We had a meal at the Horev Centre and then we travelled to Jerusalem together.

They were staying in a renovated ancient cistern near both the ultra-Orthodox area of Mea Shearim http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meah_Shearim and the Damascus Gate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_City_(Jerusalem). We had tour of some of the Christian Holy Sites, including the Garden Tomb http://www.bibleplaces.com/gardentomb.htm the Garden of Gethsemane http://www.padfield.com/2001/gethsemane.html and Christchurch, Jaffa Gate, the first Protestant Church to be established in Jerusalem http://www.cmj.org.uk/israel/christchurch.html.

And then, I took her to see St. George's Anglican Cathedral, as I had promised Bishop Suheil. 'Any visitors will be welcome' he had told me two or three months ago.

http://www.old-picture.com/middle-east/Cathedral-Georges-St.htm

Then tonight, at the Town Hall there was a presentation to the Chief Rabbi of Haifa, Shear Yashuv Cohen, the closest equivalent of which must be the concept of 'freedom of the city'.

http://irenelancaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/08/why-the-root-of.html

We viewed his life through film and heard his wife, daughter and grandson praise him. Chief Rabbi Metzger of Israel praised Rabbi Cohen's embodiment of love and many spoke of his ability to reach out to all, from whatever political or religious persuasion.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3461959,00.html

And there, in the front row, were representatives of the Christian, Druze and Muslim communities of Haifa, all appearing very relaxed and overjoyed at the honour being paid to their colleague.

The music was marvellous and - as always happens at Israeli events - there was an element of surprise. A lady sat down next to me and started talking in the most regal English accent imaginable. In fact she looked pretty regal as well. It appears that she was the very first person to have received the freedom of the city herself. She now lives in Tel Aviv but is proud to have attended the British school in Haifa during the Mandate period.

The Mandate period also came up in the speeches, which included Rabbi Cohen's role during the many wars that Israel has fought for its existence and/or survival.

Yes, it is true: many people of all religions advocate love, but only very few embody it.

No wonder the Mayor of Haifa, Yona Yahav, stated that since Rabbi Shear Yashuv officiated at his marriage, he has found joy and happiness.

No mention of last year's war, of course. Just thought I'd mention it, in case some had forgotten.

http://www.haifafoundation.com/media.html

The Chief Rabbi of Haifa pauses at a bus stop in Haifa to convey best wishes from the Archbishop of Canterbury

This afternoon I had to pick up a parcel at the post office and took the opportunity to go shopping. A nice lady from Italy (the first such i've met here) highly recommended the bargain health yoghurt and told me she was from Turin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turin

Primo Levi's home town, I said.

I'm related to him she replied.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primo_Levi

So, pondering this information about probably the greatest Jewish writer of the 20th century, I was sitting at the bus-stop waiting for the bus to arrive.

The Chief Rabbi of Haifa was walking past and stopped.

'I have greetings for you from the Archbishop of Canterbury', he said.

http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/index2a.html

'We met at this big event in Naples and were on a panel together'.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7055147.stm

Where else would a Chief Rabbi bother to stop and deliver a message like that from another religious leader, who I haven't even met?

Only in Haifa!

On the anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, British academics visit Haifa University and I get invited to lunch at IBM

On the day that a posse of leading British academics visited Haifa University via the British Council in Israel

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380626160&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

I had a meeting in the same building with Professor Yossi Nevo, Israel's leading expert on Jordan and Palestine.

http://fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/Directory/Haifa.htm

He had just returned from a year's sabbatical in the United States.

http://www.thehoya.com/news/101706/news10.cfm

I was then invited to lunch at IBM, situated in the Haifa University complex and was struck by the luxury of the place. More like an 8 * hotel!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM

http://www.haifa.ibm.com/Workshops/verification2006/

On entering the pristine and elegant foyer, what struck you was the simple but beautiful memorial to PM Yitzhak Rabin, gunned down exactly 12 years ago today.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/916309.html

Then, over a fabulous lunch (including herbs that you cut from fresh), I was given a potted history of IBM. It apparently started its Israeli life at the Technion in 1972, with four members of staff. Now it has about 400 in Haifa alone. IBM helped to push Hi-Tech in Israel.

Haifa is one of only eight IBM research centres in the world. The others are in the USA (3), India, China, Japan and Zurich.

The person who invited me to lunch used to teach maths at Harvard University and has won all sorts of accolades and prizes for excellence and enterprise.

So I was not in the least surprised that he lent me a German novel written in old (Gothic) German, as well as other goodies in English.

Today, IBM was hosting a convention for people from all over the world.

Somehow, after these experiences of Israel's present achievements, the British academic boycott attempt seems remote and even feudal in character. A bit like the Gothic German, in fact!

Which is what I would have told the visiting British academics if I'd happened to have bumped into any of them!

http://jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/20071001ucuboycott.html

The world is very small, really!

Walking down the street yesterday evening after a cool swim in the sea, it struck me how at home I felt. Jerusalem is awesome and Haifa amazingly beautiful, but Tel Aviv is unpretentiously simple. And in autumn I love it. The weather is cool and just right; the people friendly and helpful; and there is a good mix of religious and secular, as well as tourists from all over the world.

Similarly, the difference between school pupils in Jaffa and Manchester is striking. When asked to write about their favourite piece of music, the ones in Jaffa did so without a fuss.

And one of them even asked how to spell Beethoven!

And when a group of Church visitors from Britain came into one of our primary classes, they couldn't believe that we were singing a calypso about a jack-ass, and even joined in!

http://www.amazon.com/Calypso-Harry-Belafonte/dp/B000002WF8

And even more so in the class rehearsing Let it Be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oZYqAeIdYk

And as if to prove that we are all One World, a friend has just sent me this about the very close and burgeoning relationship between Israel and India:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=ea163747-b106-4e32-b231-7eb64de62985

Pity that that this report, drawn up for the Conservative Party with the unfortunate title:

'An Unquiet World'

suggests that we are 'uncongenial'.

http://www.conservativemuslimforum.com/An%20Unquiet%20World%20RESPONSE.pdf

To the spoilsports, all we can say is: 'we are trying our best - honest', but how about you?

Lord Sheikh's (Jews should not have a homeland of their own) shaky affair with a Hindu lady

You couldn't make it up if you tried.

It appears that Lord Sheikh of the British Conservative Party, the guy who doesn't think Jews should have a homeland of their own (and certainly not Israel, because this fantastical idea might upset some Muslims) is not as squeaky clean as some might think.

http://irenelancaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/10/muslims-in-brit.html

This blog

http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2007/10/emergence-of-conservative-muslim.html

gives us the details of Lord Sheikh's seemingly sordid affair with a Hindu lady.

Goodness knows what the Caliphate will make of that.

Mind you, there's precedent for that sort of behaviour among  Orthodox Muslims. Bin Laden also had a fling or two or three before he found religion.

And the Egyptian, Sayyid Kutb, who regarded all evil as basically Jewish (and linked the erasing of the Jewish presence in the Shoah to the erasing of the State of Israel) also had a problem with women - apparently!

Oh dear! All is not hunky dory in Dar al-Islam, it seems!!

Kutb even wrote a book called 'Our Struggle with the Jews'. In German that would be 'Mein Kampf'

Come to think of it Hitler also .....!

SimplyJews recommends this blog

Thanks to SIMPLYJEWS for their recommendation of my blog here:

http://simplyjews.blogspot.com/2007/10/reconnecting.html

and thanks to this blog for alerting me!

http://www.byamossygnome.com/

The irrelevance of Judaism in Britain today

A very interesting BBC Radio 4 Sunday Programme today, both for what it kept in as for what it kept out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/sunday/

A long piece on the recent award of the Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama and what it will mean for the Tibetan community world-wide, as well as the predictable Chinese reaction.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-US-Dalai-Lama.html?ex=1350360000&en=aa884c7b1a6891e2&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Then something on the Vatican interfaith conference organised in Naples. Muslim representation, but not Jewish, was mentioned. A pity, because I think the Chief Rabbi of Haifa was representing Israel.

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=54191

After that, a Muslim scientist from Keele University stated that science had been in the doldrums amongst Muslims for the last 1000 years or so. He then referred (but not by name) to the mediaeval Asharite theology whereby every cause comes from God and therefore science as such doesn't exist.

Jews under Islam also went along with this at the time, for a short period, in any case. But their view was that even if this was true and that the first cause is God, this doesn't prevent us from behaving in a scientific manner where appropriate and acting AS IF God were not in the picture. Scottish philosopher, David Hume, offered similar ideas. It's not the idea that should be rejected, necessarily, but the fall-out from the idea.

It's all in my book:

http://www.amazon.com/Deconstructing-Bible-Abraham-Ezras-Introduction/dp/0415444446

God creates the wheat, but we cultivate it, and then work together with other produce to make bread which we eat and which then keeps us alive. Surely, the Muslims must have realised this!

Then an interview ridiculing Judaism - as usual - over the 'boycott' of Israeli produce. I don't know why they didn't talk to anyone over here. I'd have been delighted to explain the fact that certain rabbis are not going along with this decision, because Israeli farmers and shop-keepers will suffer from this ruling - a more severe ruling than in the past. Trust Anglo-Jewry to go along with the more extreme ruling. I've asked rabbinic advice here in Haifa and been told that buying in the normal supermarket is fine.

http://www.shemittah.com/shemittah-solutions.html

No point making life more difficult than necessary!

And the Archbishop of Canterbury on the 'olive-branch' letter from Muslim leaders to various Christian leaders, which he regards as a positive gesture. Others disagree with that conclusion:

http://irenelancaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/10/muslim-outreach.html

The Archbishop also spoke about his recent 'sober' trip to Lebanon, which he feared might become a tinder-box, or at least that is what he was told in Syria. No mention of Israel, though and the dangers we face through the continuing Syrian arming of Hezbollah (confirmed to me this week by someone very much in the know).

The Archbishop ended by comparing Islam to Christianity, as a non-hierarchical religion. Practically democratic then!! judaism's not hierarchical either, but no-one mentioned that. It seems as if inter-faith nowadays is just a love-in between the world's two most powerful religions and the weak just get thrown to one side: that's us Jews by the way, in case you didn't quite catch on! And yet, they expect their own religions to be treated with kid gloves in the Jewish State itself, the one that they don't even acknowledge half the time!! what a joke!

The programme was partially produced by Amanda Hancox, the Executive Producer of Sunday. She's aware of all our concerns, especially the appeasement of Islam which goes on in Britain and the ignoring of Judaism, or at the very best, the ridiculing of it.

The programme did not make me feel better on that score, but at least there was a major piece on the Dalai Lama and his recognition by the United States.

The next step is to get people to respect the United States for the very great good it often does do in the world. I've met loads of Americans in Israel and they all contribute substantially to Israeli life. They've often sacrificed careers and earnings to come here. They don't deserve the pillorying they get from Britain.

Yes: some of them are 'over the top'. But that's just an outward thing like British reticence. It's behaviour that counts and I hope Rowan Williams bears that in mind when stepping into the minefield of dialogue with Islamic groups whose 'moderate' British members have just told the Conservative Party that the State of Israel should not be recognized.

http://irenelancaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/10/muslims-in-brit.html

Maybe that's why Archbishop Rowan didn't mention Israel at all on the programme. No point upsetting the apple-cart, now is there!