Miliband & Other Crawlies

Poor Ed Miliband.

The ethnically Jewish atheist leader of Britain's Labour Party (pictured; yes, I'm too kind to post one of those grotesque snaps online showing him making hard work of chomping through a bacon sandwich recently) has vowed to outlaw "Islamophobia" if, by some unhappy mischance, he should end up as Britain's prime minister next month.

Britain's "first Jewish prime minister," according to him, blithely choosing to forget the Tory Benjamin Disraeli, who although baptised in childhood was gloriously conscious of his Jewishness, and dubbed "the Hebrew conjuror".

Miliband told the editor of the UK-based The Muslim News:

“We are going to make it an aggravated crime. We are going to make sure it is marked on people’s records with the police to make sure they root out Islamophobia as a hate crime.

“We are going to change the law on this so we make it absolutely clear of our abhorrence of hate crime and Islamophobia. It will be the first time that the police will record Islamophobic attacks right across the country,” he said.

.... “We will challenge prejudice before it grows, whether in schools, universities or on social media. And we will strengthen the law on disability, homophobic, and transphobic hate crime,” [his party's manifesto] said.

.... The Muslim community is as an “incredibly important, incredibly rich, incredible asset to our country” ...'

So how frightfully wretched it is that Red Ed has been the subject of an antisemitic tweet by a female Muslim Conservative candidate, Gulzabeen Afsar.

She's apologised and removed the tweet, and has been suspended from the party.

 Daniel Greenfield has noted:

"Gulzabeen Afsal helped raise money for Islamic Relief UK, a group that the UAE has listed as a terrorist organization and that Israel has accused of raising money for Hamas...."

Hers was not the only low message left on social media over the weekend.

On Saturday, Anzac Day, when Australia remembers its war dead, a reporter for the public broadcaster SBS made a number of highly inappropriate tweets,and is refusing to accept his the consequences.  To quote The Australian newspaper:

'The move by SBS to sack sports reporter Scott McIntyre over highly offensive Anzac Day tweets has sparked a fresh debate over freedom of speech....

The Australian understands McIntyre’s view is that the move to sack him was unfair and he is likely to contest the decision.

While he is still considering his options, it is understood he is not going to take his termination “lying down”.

McIntyre, who has worked at SBS for 10 years, declined to comment yesterday. The worst of the tweets, which have not been deleted from his ­social media account, read: “Remembering the summary execution, widespread rape and theft committed by these ‘brave’ Anzacs in Egypt, Palestine and Japan.”....'

On Facebook, the offending tweets have been gleefully reproduced by a Muslim group in Australia and by Muslim members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir.  And these have been approvingly shared by a radical feminist activist with links to Socialist Alliance.  None so queer as leftist feminists climbing into bed with Muslim anti-feminists.  It's that word Palestine that's the aphrodisiac.

And, lowest of the low, are these comments regarding Israel's aid to the victims of Nepal's devastating earthquake:

 Israellycool, I see, has more

But let's come back to Miliband and that promise of his to outlaw "Islamophobia".  Douglas Murray has vowed immediately to test any such legislation:

"There are many things to say about this, but allow me confine myself to three points:

If Ed Miliband does become Prime Minister and chooses to make ‘Islamophobia’ illegal would he mind letting us know what he thinks ‘Islamophobia’ is? After all a ‘phobia’ is an irrational fear. The Charlie Hebdo staff were often called ‘Islamophobes’ before (and after) two Islamists went into their magazine’s office and shot most of them in the head.... 

I cannot help noticing that some actual, serious ‘hate-speech’ occurred while Labour were last in power, yet nothing seemed to have been done. Consider this speech by Michael Adebolajo at a ‘Unite Against Fascism’ rally in 2009. What else was Adebolajo doing here other than inciting anti-non-Muslim violence and prejudice? Of course Michael Adebolajo actually followed words with deeds and went on to behead Drummer Lee Rigby. Where were the hate-speech laws that day?

 And finally, I hate to grandstand, but I suppose I should point out that if Ed Miliband were to become Prime Minister and were to decide to make what people call ‘Islamophobia’ illegal then I’m very happy to test the law straight away. Indeed I will immediately put on a gathering of academics, writers, Quranic-scholars and philosophers – Muslim and non-Muslim – to discuss Islam. It is possible that some of those gathered may disagree with the foundational claims of Islam. I, for instance, may repeat my belief – not being a Muslim – that it is highly unlikely that the Quran was ‘dictated’ by God.... "

Read the rest here

British Labour Leader Lauds Charity With Links To Hamas

On-again off-again "Zionist" Ed Miliband, Britain's Opposition leader, born to non-practising Jewish parents of leftist sympathies, is, like David Cameron and Nick Clegg (both of whom have paid extravagant tribute to Islam in Ramadan addresses seen respectively here and here), keen to woo the votes of Britain's large and growing Muslim community.

Accordingly, along with former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams (who once made an ass of himself by supporting the formal integration of aspects of sharia law in Britain), "Red Ed" was on hand the other evening to pay tribute to the charity Islamic Relief.

Said Ed inter alia:

“I want to congratulate Islamic Relief on its campaign on the War on Hunger. It’s an important campaign because it looks beyond conflict – whether it’s in Syria or in Afghanistan or elsewhere – and it asks the question that all right-minded people would ask, which is: ‘What can we do to make a difference to the most vulnerable people in this country?’ ...."

All very well and noble, no doubt.

But, as Samuel Westrop, Associate Director at the Institute for Middle Eastern Democracy, wrote recently:

'Islamic Relief Worldwide [IRW] is the poster-child of an exemplary Islamic charity. Headquartered in the UK, and given tens of millions of dollars by Western governments, the United Nations and the European Union, IRW consists of a "family of fifteen aid agencies" which "aim to alleviate the suffering of the world's poorest people".

New information, however, indicates that IRW -- which counts Islamic Relief UK and Islamic Relief USA as its most important branches -- is an extremist organization with a pro-terror agenda. IRW has worked with a significant number of organizations linked to terrorism.

IRW's accounts show that it has partnered with a number of organizations linked to terrorism and that some of charity's trustees are personally affiliated with extreme Islamist groups that have connections to terror.

In 2006, the Israeli Ministry for Foreign Affairs designated IRW itself a terrorist front, and claimed that:

"The IRW provides support and assistance to Hamas's infrastructure. The IRW's activities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip are carried out by social welfare organizations controlled and staffed by Hamas operatives. The intensive activities of these associations are designed to further Hamas's ideology among the Palestinian population."

In May of 2006, Israeli police arrested IRW's Gaza coordinator, Ayaz Ali. The Israeli government stated Ali had assisted Hamas-related institutions and groups such as Al Wafa and Al Tzalah, both of which are designated terror organizations in Israel. According to the Israeli government, Ali also said that he had cooperated with local Hamas operatives in Jordan:

"Incriminating files were found on Ali's computer, including documents that attested to the organization's ties with illegal Hamas funds abroad (in the UK and in Saudi Arabia) and in Nablus. Also found were photographs of swastikas superimposed on IDF symbols, of senior Nazi German officials, of Osama Bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as well as many photographs of Hamas military activities … Ali admitted that he was aware that several of the organizations supported by the IRW in Judea, Samaria and Gaza were indeed identified with Hamas." [Author's emphasis]

For several years, IRW has supported the Islamic University of Gaza, where, during 2008, rockets and explosives were produced for use by Hamas. One of the most senior Hamas leaders, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founded the university in 1978, and sixteen of the university's lecturers and teachers are elected Hamas members of the Palestinian legislature.

In 2002, the Russian Federal Security Service also accused Islamic Relief of being part of a radical Islamist network, providing support to terrorists in Chechnya.

Islamic Relief has denied the charges against them. These denials would be more convincing, however, were it not that IRW appears to be a hub for donations from charities accused of links to Al Qaeda and other terror groups.

In 2004, 2007 and 2009, IRW accounts revealed donations of tens of thousands of pounds from the Charitable Society for Social Welfare [CSSW], a charity founded by Al Qaeda terrorist and "Bin Laden loyalist" Abdul Majeed Al-Zindani. In 1998, the Al Qaeda terrorist Anwar Al-Awlaki, eventually killed by a U.S. drone strike, served as vice-president of CSSW's San Diego branch.

During a terrorism trial in 2004 in the U.S., Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Brian Murphy testified that CSSW was a "front organization to funnel money to terrorists."

In 1999, Human Concern International, a charity that Osama bin Laden told an Egyptian interviewer in 1995 was funding an al-Qaeda charitable front called Blessed Relief, gave IRW a $50,000 donation. IRW continues to refer to Human Concern as a partner. In 2008, Human Concern granted IRW a further £25,000.

Human Concern has also funded the Global Relief Foundation, an organization shut down by the American government on the grounds that it had been laundering money for al-Qaeda and was linked to the Taliban. Similarly, in 2009 another funder of the Global Relief Foundation, the International Development and Relief Foundation, gave IRW just under £200,000.

Further, in 2008, IRW's accounts revealed a donation of £13,437 from the Yemeni Al-Eslah organization -- a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood whose leaders include Sheikh al-Zindani, whom the US Government has designated a "Global Terrorist."

The same year, the UK-based charity Human Appeal International gave IRW £34,081. A 1996 CIA report claimed Human Appeal International was one of a number of Islamic charities used as conduits for funds to terrorist organizations, and tied it to the Saudi-based Muwafaq, an Al-Qaeda front group. The FBI, in 2003, claimed there was a "close relationship between Human Appeal International and Hamas." In February 2005, Hamas's website had already openly announced the receipt of funds from HAI.

One of Human Appeal's trustees is Dr. Nooh al Kaddo, who also serves as executive director of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland. In 2009, this organization gave £2,707 to IRW.

The Islamic Cultural Centre is part of the Muslim Brotherhood's European network and hosts the European Council for Fatwa and Research, of which former IRW director Issam Al-Bashir is a leading member. The head of the council is Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who believes Hitler was "divine punishment" for the Jews and is a supporter of suicide bombings.

In 2010 and 2011, the Kuwait-based International Islamic Charitable Organisation provided IRW with hundreds of thousands of pounds. According to counter-terrorism expert Matthew Levitt, a leaked CIA report identified this Kuwaiti charity as a key supporter of terrorism.

It is not just the charity, however, that has partnered with extremist groups. A number of IRW trustees and officials are also personally affiliated with state sponsors of terror, extremist groups and pro-terror organizations ....'

Read all of Westrop's article here

So Ed Miliband’s Jewish. Big Deal – so was Karl Marx!

Anybody who imagines that Ed Miliband’s Jewishness presages a warm touchy-feely attitude towards Israel is inevitably bound for disappointment. The Miliband brothers were raised by parents who to all intents and purposes appear to fit Isaac Deutscher’s blueprint of the politically radical “non-Jewish Jew”. Karl Marx was one such. So was Rosa Luxemburg. (You get the picture.)

Ralph Miliband, Ed and David's father, was a prominent Marxist economist and intellectual. Knowing that, and being fully aware that his mother, Marion Kozak, is a longstanding member of the organisation Jews for Justice for Palestinians, which has made some dodgy moves in its time (not least organising the latest seaborne attempt to break the Gaza blockade), I for one did not expect that Ed would prove any more sympathetic to Israel than did big brother David when he was Foreign Secretary.  And since Ed owes his extraordinary projection into the Labour Party’s top job to his buddies the trades union leaders (most Labour MPs voted for David) I’m not surprised that he seems even harsher towards Israel than David did. After all, many of the unions are hell-bent on boycotting Israel these days.

So when I read what the man widely dubbed "Red Ed" has been saying about Israel in a speech to the party faithful and in a radio interview I just shrugged my shoulders and muttered “So what else is new?”

What did Ed tell those audiences? That he’s an atheist. Yep. Figures. It fits the mould. That faith schools are “fantastic”. Ha! Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he? (Wink, wink.) That when asked whether he supports the Palestinians’ so-called right of return he gave a non-commital answer: “It depends which parts of the land and which borders and I’m not going to prejudge that.” Par for the course. That he added: “ It’s important we do what we can to facilitate peace in the Middle East. I think what we need to work towards is a two-state solution and a two-state solution must involve Israel and the Palestinians getting together and reaching an agreement, I’m not going to pre-judge what that agreement should be.” No surprises there either. And that he declared “I will always defend the right of Israel to exist in peace and security. But Israel must accept and recognize in its actions the Palestinian right to statehood. That is why the attack on the Gaza Flotilla was so wrong. And that is why the Gaza blockade must be lifted and we must strain every sinew to work to make that happen." None there either – though his failure to acknowledge the Qassam rocket attacks that Israel has had to endure from Hamastan is an ominous twist.

Not to worry too much. At least, not yet. For there’s one consolation in all this – that the uncharismatic nasal-voiced Ed faces an uphill and probably impossible struggle in his quest for the keys of Number Ten Downing Street.

In the meantime, those who make much of the fact that he is the Labour Party’s “first Jewish leader” and like to keep a tally of such things will have to console themselves with the fact that Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan had a paternal Jewish grandmother, a Miss Bernstein. That the philosemitic George Lansbury, who led the Labour Party between the wars, had a Jewish daughter-in-law, Minnie Glassman (whom I mentioned in one of my earliest posts). That Hugh Gaitskell, who led the party from 1955-63, had a Jewish wife, Dora Creditor, who became a life peer, and was – I’m happy to say – strongly pro-Israel. And that Gaitskell’s colourful, oft-inebriated deputy, George Brown, was – although he ran off with his secretary after 45 years of marriage – also wed to a Jewish wife, Sophie Levene.