Losing the plot (ctd)

Hereford

I do think you could be more direct Melanie, don't beat around the bush... ...tell it like it is :o)

Austin Barry

I'd suggest a Carry On version of this event, but even if Sid James (Jewish), Bernard Bresslaw (Jewish), Kenneth Williams (homosexual) and Charles Hawtrey (homosexual) were available they'd all be persona non grata or executed. Even Barbara Windsor would likely be a candidate for stoning or at the very least a light beating.

Ivor, Chelmsford

Isn't this the same Abdul Bari who was last week accusing Britain of turning of into a Nazi state?

Jack R

By associating themselves with this event, which 'Harry's Place' describes as the "Islamist Event of the Year", J.Straw,MP (Labour),S.Khan,MP (Labour),V.Cable,MP(Liberal)and S.Hughes,MP (Liberal),Lord Ahmed and I.Blair (London Met. Police) are giving respectability to the Islamist speakers there and to their jihad-supporting organisations.

Joshua

"Even Barbara Windsor would likely be a candidate for stoning or at the very least a light beating." - As Barbara has almost certainly at some point in her life been alone with a married man, she would naturally expect 6 months in jail and 200 lashes.

Dee Ranged

Anything associated with Gorgeous George has to be a set up, but what has the Metropolitan Police Commissioner to do with a political conference? He is giving out the wrong signal to the law abiding. This can be taken as further evidence of grovelling and appeasment by the establishment towards Islamists.

Leo

The fact that Robert Fisk is speaking there should be considered laughable. In his book “The Great War for Civilization,” he tells you that the first sentence of the Koran is “ There is no G-d but G-d and Muhammad is his prophet.” This is the Shahadaah, the Islamic declaration of faith. Actually the opening is the Fatiha; something totally different. A howler on this scale shows how little Mr Fisk knows about Islam. I am not the only one to notice Mr Fisk’s capacity for factual inaccuracy. Take , Efraim Karsh , author of “Islamic Imperialism: a history, in his review of he states ” It is difficult to turn a page of The Great War for Civilisation without encountering some basic error. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, not, as Fisk has it, in Jerusalem. The Caliph Ali, the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, was murdered in the year 661, not in the 8th century. Emir Abdallah became king of Transjordan in 1946, not 1921, and both he and his younger brother, King Faisal I of Iraq, hailed not from a “Gulf tribe” but rather from the Hashemites on the other side of the Arabian peninsula. The Iraqi monarchy was overthrown in 1958, not 1962; Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem, was appointed by the British authorities, not elected; Ayatollah Khomeini transferred his exile from Turkey to the holy Shiite city of Najaf not during Saddam Hussein’s rule but fourteen years before Saddam seized power. Security Council resolution 242 was passed in November 1967, not 1968; Anwar Sadat of Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, not 1977, and was assassinated in October 1981, not 1979. Yitzhak Rabin was minister of defense, not prime minister, during the first Palestinian intifada, and al Qaeda was established not in 1998 but a decade earlier. And so on and so forth.”

zoltix

I don't think John Rees can reasonably be described as Zionist - Respect. He IS the National Secretary of the Respect Party (non Galloway section) , but his true colours are as a Central Committee member of the Socialist Workers Party.

David Saxon

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Or to paraphrase that expression in the modern vernacular; you couldn't make it up!

Pat Viliors

Ivor-Chelmsford, yes this IS the same Abdul Bari. But to be fair, he didn't use the word 'nazi'. What he said was: "What you had in the 1930s was all sorts of popular fictions were spread about the Jewish community that they were responsible for all ills that were occurring to Germany" ... "They were made into folk-devils and I think there is a danger that the word Muslim in the UK is becoming synonymous with bad news." Personally, I think Mr Bari is correct! We ARE starting to associate Muslims with bad news such as suicide bombings, constant demands for Sharia Law and mega-mosques, endless lawsuits for compensation over ridiculouus 'persecution', demonstrators' banners proclaiming 'Behead those who insult Islam', etc, etc.

Peter Piper

Barbara Windsor (Jewish)

Tiberius

If I could just go off on a slight tangent - has anyone heard of Wednesfieldistan? I hadn't until today, when I had reason to pay a rare visit to this town of my birth, which is now a district of Wolverhampton. The centre now has a skyline dominated by a new mosque which has four minarets that must be 60 ft high. So what, some may say. My emotions upon seeing this construction, should I care to share them, would, I suspect, attract responses varying from racist to Zionist to fascist to imperialist. (I am actually a practising Anglican). All I will say is that the history lesson that says Britain has not been invaded since 1066 needs to be updated somewhat.

George Steiner

Mr. Tiberius, not invaded. Colonized. And for good measure even after the sharia noose is well and truly tightened, the Brits will be moaning about ancient liberties.

CJ

Speaking of Harry's Place, there is an exraordinary series up there right now called Syrian Journal which is a series of dispatches by a Harry's Place poster named "Dave M" who recently spent nine months in Syria learning Arabic. He learned a lot about the mindset of Arabs and the workings of the Syrian regime. I highly recommend it -- it goes way beyond the platitudes and mush delivered by news agencies, and it's brisk enjoyable reading. Here's the URL in case the link above doesn't work (and when is the Spectator going to get previewable comments?). http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/archives/cat_syrian_journal.html

Gordon Neil

Any chance of an update on the conference this weekend ? Anybody have any idea of what went on ? I an curious to know what such staunch upholders of our liberties ,as Jack Straw, Ian Blair and Ken Livingstone actually said to the assembled Islamists ? Sorry am I being unduly naive