Immigration and Racism in Britain and USA

Steve 41oo wrote:

Most Muslims believe the Americans and Israelis destroyed the WTC

Actually, bewilderingly enough, such delusions are not anymore particular to Muslims...

Over a third of Americans now believe that "People in the federal government either assisted in the 9/11 attacks or took no action to stop the attacks because they wanted to United States to go to war in the Middle East", according to a Scripps Howard News Service / Ohio University poll.

A sixth even believes that "The collapse if the twin towers in New York was aided by explosives secretly planted in the two buildings", and almost one in eight believes that "The Pentagon was not struck by an
airliner captured by terrorists but, instead was hit by a cruise missile fired by the U.S. military"

...speechless... <blinks>

EDIT: Forgot the LINK

georgeob1 wrote:

... the best assimilation of Moslem immigrants to Britain involves more of welcoming them to British culture than it does modifying British culture to accomodate them.

This is surely true of most immigrants to a new culture. They must make most effort to adapt, and in the process the wider society absorbs something of the minority culture. That way we all benefit. But it does not seem to happen with Islam. They tend to keep themselves apart, presumably in the knowledge that they and they alone are in possession of the final perfect unchanged and unchangeable word of God courtesy of Mohammed.

Is it just America being more welcoming that accounts for the amazing proportion (1 third) of Muslims in Britain who want to live under Sharia law?

I find the number of Britons who want a republic even more dramatic. (Might discuss that with one or two of those extremists the following days.)

Well as an English republican I must admit to having a soft spot for Queen Elizabeth. She's done a good job, because she takes being Queen seriously. Its the institution of monarchy in its archaic fossilised form that I have a problem with. I always wanted to be King myself, I was mightily pissed off when as a boy I was told I had the wrong sort of parents.

In our tolerant and humane society oughtn't we to provide financial assistance for them to go and live under the law of their choice.

Kelly vows that new debate on immigration will engage critically with multiculturalism

Friday August 25, 2006
The Guardian

Launching the government's new Commission for Integration and Cohesion, communities secretary Ruth Kelly promised to respond to the fears of some white people about increased levels of immigration, and revived the debate about whether multiculturalism has left society more divided.

She said the Commission had to engage with the argument made by CRE chairman Trevor Phillips, that support for multiculturalism should be abandoned in favour of efforts to create a more homogeneous society.

The much-delayed commission, promised in the wake of the 7/7 bombings, has been told to report by next June with proposals for tackling extremism and improving community relations.

Kelly has asked it to look at ideas such as greater support for English lessons for new immigrants and help for student exchanges and twinning between schools from different communities. But the commission will not debate faith schools.

If we send them home, then who'll do the dirty work?

Sunday August 27, 2006
The Observer

A video by an American artist shows a Portuguese woman describing the dislike extended to her and her 5,000 compatriots who migrated to British Lincolnshire to work on the land. The installation, originally entitled I Hate Boston and Boston Hates Me, was to have been beamed across the town's railway station wall.

But as community leaders cried outrage at the branding of their town as a cauldron of racial venom, the sponsoring arts group withdrew the work.

Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly wants a 'new, honest debate' about immigration. It might as well start here.

The local chaplain for migrant workers, has icy stories. People can pay £80 a week rent, and landlords pack up to 20 tenants in a room. Workers rise at 5am and work until 8pm, sometimes for £25 weekly take-home pay. Meanwhile Boston's mood seems febrile. The BNP has done well here.

If disaffected potato pickers showed any propensity to blow us up, then the migrants of Lincolnshire might get a bigger voice in the multiculturalism debate.

No doubt Boston's insular past influences today's behaviour, but the problems of one rural town, far from being unique, are those of fearful, monoglot UK, inscribed in bigger print.

Row as judges back Blair in key terror case

Friday August 25, 2006
The Guardian

British immigration judges delivered a major legal victory for Blair's anti-terror campaign when they cleared the way for foreign terror suspects to be sent back to Algeria despite fears that they could be tortured.

The case they decided involved an Algerian who has already been acquitted of involvement in the so-called "ricin poison plot". In a highly unusual move three of the jurors involved in that trial issued a statement saying they were shocked by such an "unfair and unjust sequence of events".

But Lord Carlile, the independent watchdog on the anti-terror laws, accused Amnesty International of being "thoroughly naive" about the case. He argued that acquittal in a criminal trial did not mean it was in the national interest for that person to remain in Britain.

The ruling by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission means that the "no torture, no ill-treatment" assurances given by the Algerian government have unexpectedly passed their first major legal test. It clears the way for the removal of a further 15 Algerian terror suspects.

Solicitor Gareth Peirce said that she was profoundly disturbed by the ruling. "A year ago Tony Blair said .. they would deport refugees to countries that they knew used torture, but they would not do it unless we have a memorandum of understanding and an independent monitoring group," she said.

"Now one year later, there is no memorandum of understanding and no monitoring group in place. The government are saying they are not necessary and today the court has endorsed that."

I left of my own free will, says girl at centre of Pakistan 'abduction' case

Saturday September 2, 2006
The Guardian

The story was of the abduction of a 12-year-old mixed-race Muslim girl, taken by her father to Pakistan where she might be forced into marriage with an older man. But yesterday Misbah Iram Ahmed Rana, also known as Molly Campbell, smiled and laughed as she spoke of how she travelled to Lahore with her elder sister and father of her own free will.

She said she had not seen her siblings, whom her mother had barred her from contacting, for more than a year and had missed them terribly, adding defiantly: "I'm not Molly, I'm Misbah." And Misbah's father rejected the forced marriage claims: "I would hope that she will wait till her 20s before she is married. What father would wish for his daughter to be wed at 12?"

Eorl wrote:

I have a theory (yet to be crushed) that says that we are each tolerant of the ideas of others only to the extent that they conform to our ideas.

Actually, that's been the case with humanity since the dawn of consciousness. It's just now people like to believe they are holier-than-thou.

... while they merrily loot the scant contents of the pockets of the poor and rain high explosives down upon the the devoted pates of those who misfortune it is to live above significant petroleum reserves.

Reid warns judges not to block Iraqis' deportation

Tuesday September 5, 2006
The Guardian

John Reid will sanction the forced removal of up to 32 Iraqis today after telling the high court he would ignore any last-minute legal challenge to their deportation. The home secretary has told the high court that today's specially chartered flight will not be stopped by anything short of an injunction.

This is despite the Foreign Office issuing advice against all travel to Baghdad and all but essential travel to Iraq, which suggests there can be no guarantee for the safety of those being sent back.

The 32 Iraqis are all in detention, and were only told they were to be forcibly returned within the past seven days. They were all warned that the home secretary would not defer their removal if a threat or legal application was made.

The high court is closed for the summer, and only a duty judge is available to deal with possible appeals. This is believed to be the first time removals will take place as a matter of policy while there are still legal challenges outstanding.

Today's deportees are only the second group of failed asylum seekers that the government has tried to send back to Iraq. In February 2004 ministers decided to start enforcing the return of failed asylum seekers to the country, but the programme has been a notable failure. Of the close to 30,000 failed Iraqi asylum seekers, only 2,600 are known to have gone home voluntarily and 20 to have been forcibly removed.

Ministers admit that there are security problems in parts of Iraq, "but we do not accept this applies to all areas". Nevertheless, they have decided not to send back women or children or break up family groups for the present.

Maeve Sherlock of the Refugee Council said last night: "News reports every day show that Iraq is still a highly volatile and dangerous place. It isn't possible under these circumstances to guarantee the safety of anyone returned there."

Iraq: Deported refugees fearful of persecution on their return

06 September 2006
The Independent

Thirty-two Iraqis have been deported from Britain despite warnings that they face persecution and violence upon their return.

To the anger of refugee groups, they will be forced to start new lives today in the Kurdish-controlled north of the country that some fled up to a decade ago.

A last-ditch attempt by lawyers to halt the removals resulted in a reprieve for five of the men, but immigration officials ordered five other Iraqis in custody to take their place.In a display of the Home Office's determination to deal more toughly with failed asylum-seekers, the group was flown direct by military aircraft from an RAF base to northern Iraq.

The Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel to the area, and the UN opposes enforced returns to northern Iraq.

Iraqi Kurds held a demonstration outside the Home Office, warning that the deportees would be victimised because of their opposition to the major political parties in the north of the country. Sherzad Ahmad fled Iraq after his wife was murdered. He said his family had been targeted for their Communist sympathies. "I don't understand how anyone could think I will be safe if I'm sent back," he said.

Another 60 Kurds are believed to be in detention, while hundreds more have been served notice that they will be expelled from Britain.

The Home Office insists that the forced removals are essential to deter future asylum-seekers.

UK government wins right to resume deportations to Zimbabwe

THE British government has won the right to resume deporting failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers who have been fighting tooth and nail to avoid being sent home since last year.

Justice Hodge of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) [..] said a failed asylum seeker returned involuntarily to Zimbabwe did not face on return a "real risk of being subjected to persecution or serious ill-treatment on that account alone". [..]

The judge said although the general country conditions were extremely difficult, those difficulties will not generally be sufficiently severe to enable an appellant to resist removal. He also ruled that being a white Zimbabwean did not in itself mean an applicant was in danger if returned to Zimbabwe.

Last October the AIT stopped the British government from deporting people back to Zimbabwe after a failed asylum seeker, who can be identified only as AA, won his appeal against the Home Secretary against forced deportations. That decision was however, rescinded by the Appeals court [..].

[T]o be protected from deportation [however] are known opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists and teachers "with an actual or perceived political profile of support for the MDC". [..]

Adds Judge Hodge in the ruling: "Returnees are regarded with contempt and suspicion on return and do face a very hostile environment. This by itself does not indicate that all returnees are at real risk of persecution but that returnees are liable to have their background and circumstances carefully scrutinised by the authorities."

The ruling angered many Zimbabweans who had gathered at the courts expecting at least to be allowed some time to live and work in the UK until things improved on the ground back home.

Activist Harris Nyatsanza said the ruling in essence took the failed asylum seekers back to last year where hundreds were in detention camps fighting against removal by the authorities. [..]

"I'm disappointed by the ruling because returning anybody to Zimbabwe in the current situation is extremely dangerous and we think the government should return to its policy of not returning Zimbabweans back home," [Tim Finch of the Refugee Council] said.

"What we are saying is that we think Zimbabwe is an unsafe country [..] and we are saying why not the government go back to having a temporary suspension on deportations."

Reacting to the tribunal ruling, UK immigration minister Liam Byrne said: "Enforcing the return of those who have no right to remain here is a key part of upholding a robust and fair asylum system.

"We recognise that there are Zimbabweans who are in genuine fear of persecution and that is why we have granted them asylum, but it is only right that we remove those who seek to abuse our hospitality." [..] He added that it was now time to resume enforced returns to Zimbabwe. [..]

Kate Hoey, the chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Zimbabwe said: [..] "Many Zimbabwe asylum cases will now have to be re-opened." [..] She said dodgy lawyers and the absolute chaos and corruption at the Home Office meant that many applications dating back several years have never been properly examined. A lot of the decisions made were very unreliable, she said. [..]