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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (65626)	8/21/2005 2:34:06 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

IMO it is a tragedy if or when a fanatic liberal and dangerous thinker such as yourself get into a position of power in a civilized country. Top job fighting extremism for Muslim who praised bomber By Alasdair Palmer (Filed: 21/08/2005) news.telegraph.co.uk A Muslim accused of anti-Semitism is to be appointed to a government role in charge of rooting out extremism in the wake of last month's suicide bombings in London. Inayat Bunglawala, 36, the media secretary for the Muslim Council of Britain, is understood to have been selected as one of seven "conveners" for a Home Office task force with responsibilities for tackling extremism among young Muslims, despite a history of anti-Semitic statements. Mr Bunglawala's past comments include the allegation that the British media was "Zionist-controlled". Writing for a Muslim youth magazine in 1992, he said: "The chairman of Carlton Communications is Michael Green of the Tribe of Judah. He has joined an elite club whose members include fellow Jews Michael Grade [then the chief executive of Channel 4 and now BBC chairman] and Alan Yentob [BBC2 controller and friend of Salman Rushdie]." The three are reported to be "close friends… so that's what they mean by a 'free media'." In January 1993, Mr Bunglawala wrote a letter to Private Eye, the satirical magazine, in which he called the blind Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman "courageous" - just a month before he bombed the World Trade Center in New York. After Rahman's arrest in July that year, Mr Bunglawala said that it was probably only because of his "calling on Muslims to fulfil their duty to Allah and to fight against oppression and oppressors everywhere". Five months before 9/11, Mr Bunglawala also circulated writings of Osama bin Laden, who he regarded as a "freedom fighter", to hundreds of Muslims in Britain. The Muslim Council of Britain was one of several organisations invited to a meeting held by Tony Blair after the London bombings. The Prime Minister said afterwards that he would set up a task force to tackle extremism "head on". Mr Bunglawala's job at the Home Office will be to help to organise a programme to tackle radicalism and extremism among young Muslims. News of his appointment comes 10 days after he wrote to Mark Thompson, the BBC Director General, accusing a forthcoming BBC1 Panorama programme of possessing "a pro-Israeli agenda". Although the programme had yet to be completed, Mr Bunglawala said that the BBC had allowed itself to be used by "highly placed supporters of Israel in the British media to make capital out of the July 7 atrocities in London". The programme, A Question of Leadership, which will air tonight at 10.20pm, seeks to discover whether British Muslim leaders can tackle the extremism in their midst. It features an interview with Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, who says members of the Palestinian terrorist organisation Hamas are "freedom fighters". Sir Iqbal compares Hamas suicide bombers to Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Ghandi. He says: "Those who fight oppression, those who fight occupation, cannot be termed as terrorist, they are freedom fighters, in the same way as Nelson Mandela fought against their apartheid, in the same way as Gandhi and many others fought the British rule in India." Sir Iqbal also refers to the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, as "the renowned Islamic scholar". Sir Iqbal attended a memorial service at the Central Mosque in London for Sheikh Yassin after he was killed in an Israeli air strike last year. The programme also shows a leading Saudi cleric, an honoured guest of the East London Mosque, claiming that Islam is "the best testament to how different communities can live together", while back in his pulpit in Mecca, he has referred to Jews as "monkeys and pigs" and also as "the rats of the world". Christians are "cross worshippers" and Hindus "idol worshippers". Mr Bunglawala said: "Those comments were made some 12 or 13 years ago. All of us may hold opinions which are objectionable, but they change over time. I certainly would not defend those comments today." The Home Office refused to confirm or deny the appointment.

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (65626)	8/21/2005 2:36:35 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

Japan Today. Pope calls on Muslims to fight fanaticism Sunday, August 21, 2005 at 07:01 JST japantoday.com COLOGNE, Germany — Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday urged Muslim leaders to combat the "cruel fanaticism" of terrorism that he said aimed to poison ties between Christians and Muslims. The 78-year-old pontiff said those behind terrorist attacks "evidently wish to poison our relations, making use of all means, including religion, to oppose every attempt to build a peaceful, fair and serene life together." Addressing a group of around 20 leaders from Muslim communities across his native Germany, the pope said he was "profoundly convinced that we must not yield to negative pressures in our midst, but must affirm the values of mutual respect, solidarity and peace." The meeting, on the penultimate day of his first foreign visit as pope, was a key part of Benedict's pledge to use his four-month-old pontificate to build "bridges of friendship" with the world's other monotheistic religions. It followed a visit to the Cologne synagogue on Friday when he addressed leaders of Germany's Jewish community. Like his message of friendship then, his words to Islam's representatives were warmly welcomed. "I told the pope that his speech was marvellous and I cried listening to it," said Muzeyyen Dreessen, a representative of Turkish Muslims, who form the bulk of Germany's 3.5 million-strong Islamic community and one of three women on the delegation. "This meeting today was not just a polite meeting, but a clear signal that we need more courage, more mutual trust," said a member of the delegation, Nadeem Elyas, the president of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany. As he had with the Jewish community, Benedict acknowledged the bloodstained history of relations between Christians and Muslims: "The recollection of these sad events should fill us with shame, for we know only too well what atrocities have been committed in the name of religion." "How many pages of history record battles and even wars that have been waged, with both sides invoking the name of God, as if fighting and killing the enemy could be pleasing to Him?" "The lessons of the past must help us to avoid repeating the same mistakes," said the pope. "We must seek paths of reconciliation and learn to live with respect for each other's identity. "The defence of religious freedom, in this sense, is a permanent imperative and respect for minorities is a clear sign of true civilization." Meeting on the margins of the World Youth Day festival, the main reason for the pope's visit, the pontiff said dialogue between Christians and Muslims was a "vital necessity" on "which our future depends." "If together we can succeed in eliminating from hearts any trace of rancour, in resisting every form of intolerance and in opposing every manifestation of violence, we will turn back the wave of cruel fanaticism," hindering world peace, he said. Benedict recently back-pedaled on calling the July 7 London transport bombings "anti-Christian" — which would likely have provoked a backlash from the Muslim world — after an early draft of a Vatican statement condemning the bombings included the inflammatory phrase. Instead, a final version approved by the pope stopped at referring to the blasts as "barbaric acts against humanity." (Wire reports)