Aw shucks
The Flesh Is Grass blog pays a handsome and touching tribute to Harry’s Place:
Harry’s Place is not Islamophobic, it is responding to the real threat of terror in the name of Islam without ever placing responsibility for this threat at the door of ordinary Muslims. It notes that many Muslim immigrants to this country moved here in flight from the ‘pure’ ultra-conservative (i.e. based on 12th century interpretation) varieties of Islam for which organisations like the British Muslim Initiative are conduits. Harry’s place is against discrimination on grounds of religion, sex, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. It never denies the rise and real threat of Islamophobia and maintains a focus (where it considers Islam) on Islamist extremists and a clear distinction between Muslims and the Muslim Council of Britain. When Harry’s Place attracts the Islamophobes, which seems to happen quite frequently to people who expose the Islamist extremists, it disowns the racists.
…..
As far as I’m concerned, in the spheres of left politics which deal with internationalism, these people and those who share their values are the Left now.
Comments
| 17 July 2008, 6:00 pm |
Nice words indeed.
| 17 July 2008, 6:26 pm |
Am I the only one who is wondering why so many HP Posts at the moment are about HP? Many of these are helpfully listed in the FIG tribute. Is HP developing a narcissistic streak?
| 17 July 2008, 6:27 pm |
Indeed.
Nice also to see Gene Robinson on the masthead, outcast and excluded from the Anglican Lambeth conference for being a gay man by Rowan Williams.
| 17 July 2008, 6:34 pm |
ChrisC:
Maybe given the impact of its coverage on IslamExpo, it’s because HP itself is actually in the news (in both print and the blogosphere)?
| 17 July 2008, 6:36 pm |
Maybe. And maybe its the Summer and there’s nothing else to write about.
| 17 July 2008, 6:44 pm |
And maybe you’re a twat.
| 17 July 2008, 6:44 pm |
And the neocon circle jerk/daisy chain continues, Nothing like appealing to like minded to people for support and feel like you accomplished something.
Silly neocons and their silly fantasies
| 17 July 2008, 6:47 pm |
Chris C -
Only two or three posts are directly about HP - and that is because HP is being sued.
The other posts are only tangentially related to HP.
Hope this helps.
| 17 July 2008, 6:53 pm |
Mrs-or-Mr Flesh-is-Grass seem to be saying that your (very successful) campaign to keep Labour-ish people away from the Islam Expo was part of dealing with “real threat of terror in the name of Islam” - was the Islam Expo increasing the threat of terrorism ?
| 17 July 2008, 6:58 pm |
Ann On.
If the Sudan Embassy was represented.
Yes.
If any of the cash goes to Hamas.
Yes
If anyone was convinced that the MB views on mutilating women and killing jewish children in Palestine are correct then yes.
| 17 July 2008, 9:05 pm |
Totally agree with the article. As a left-winger whose real life experience in the left is very different to that I’ve normally found on the internet, I find Harry’s Place a fantastic e-respite from the ridiculous/pro-theocratic ‘left’ the web seems to be full of.
If only that crazy liberal President Gore had known what he was unleashing when he created this thing…
| 17 July 2008, 10:44 pm |
When Harry’s Place attracts the Islamophobes… it disowns the racists.
Unless they happen to be Melanie Phillips, in which case it enthusiastically and repeatedly licks their bottom.
| 17 July 2008, 11:08 pm |
“Unless they happen to be Melanie Phillips, in which case it enthusiastically and repeatedly licks their bottom”: Any examples? Any links? (From HP posts, not comments.) Or are you just having a wank?
| 17 July 2008, 11:36 pm |
I’m no fan of Phillips, and am fairly certain I have stated so a couple of times on this blog already. That said, I don’t think Phillips is racist. However, I do think she has crossed a line in rational discussion about Islamism a few years back, and a variety of other issues, and she is also as unsure of the resilience of our democracy as the Islamists she criticises.
| 18 July 2008, 11:42 am |
Neil D said:”However, I do think she has crossed a line in rational discussion about Islamism a few years back, and a variety of other issues”
I’m no great fan of Mad Mel (in fact I’d go so far as to cross the road to avoid her) but I agree with you on this one. She isn’t a racist but has sadly lost the plot in a few areas.
| 18 July 2008, 12:15 pm |
Even when I agree with MP, she winds me up. And I think she is a bit racist, actually. It’s very sad. ‘Londonistan’ may go down in history as the nadir of anti-Anglo Asian Muslim racism, by the title alone, regardless of the content. Bat Yeor can get away with Eurabia, because she is an Arab, or at least culturally, in origin.
| 18 July 2008, 12:33 pm |
Zkharyha said”‘Londonistan’ may go down in history as the nadir of anti-Anglo Asian Muslim racism,”
I agree that Londonistan (the title and the feelings it stoked) was unhelpful but she was right to bring to wider attention the problems with Islamisim in both its violent and non violent forms.
Maybe if the debate about what to do with Islamofascism had been less emotive (and MP less shrieking) it would have been easier to deal with.
| 18 July 2008, 12:51 pm |
Interesting story in the Evening Standard: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23517732-details/Lawyer+in+Ghaffur%27s+Met+battle+is+fighting+his+own+%C2%A310m+race+case/article.do
| 18 July 2008, 1:45 pm |
I think it is a fair assessment, and good for you guys.
” Harry’s Place is not Islamophobic, it is responding to the real threat of terror in the name of Islam without ever placing responsibility for this threat at the door of ordinary Muslims.”
I wish some of the commenters that turn up would keep that in mind.
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