Friday, April 06, 2007

INDEPENDENT MUSLIM VOICES

Yvonne Ridley, an unrepentant anti-Semite and apologist for Islamist terrorism around the world, will be a speaker at the first annual Australian Islamic Conference in Melbourne this weekend.

This is the conference to which controversial figure, Sheik Bilal Philips, was headed before immigration officials barred his entry into Australia. Philips has been linked to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York. A second sheik from Saudia Arabia was also banned fom entering Australia because he failed to provide sufficient information as to why he should be allowed into the country. In their absence, Ridley now takes star billing at the conference.

According to Wikipedia Ridley, a convert to Islam after being held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan, holds a view on the Palestine/Israel conflict, which is "pretty much in line with that of Hamas." According to Ridley, Israel is "that disgusting little watchdog of America that is festering in the Middle East".

Ridley is a member of the Respect Party, an unbelievably misnamed British political party headed by George Galloway. She claims that the Respect Party "is a Zionist-free party… if there was any Zionism in the Respect Party they would be hunted down and kicked out. We have no time for Zionists", while both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties are "riddled with Zionists."

Of course, this begs the question as to why any self-respecting Zionist would want to be a member of a party that harbours such racist ratbags.

Ridley once defended Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's campaign of violence in Iraq and Jordan and described the victims of the November 2005 Amman bombings (60 dead and 115 injured - many of them guests at a wedding party) in Jordan as "Iraqi collaborators."

Meanwhile, at home, she urged Muslims in Britain to refuse to co-operate with the police investigating terrorist activities.

To really understand how loathsome an individual Ridley has become since her conversion to Islam, here’s more from Wikipedia: -

"After the Chechen terrorist leader Shamil Basayev (architect of the Moscow theater hostage crisis and the Beslan school massacre) was killed, Ridley wrote a column stating that Basayev had become a 'shaheed', that is, a martyr whose place in Paradise is assured. She went on to refer to Basayev as leader of 'an admirable struggle to bring independence to Chechnya'. In response to objections that Basayev's actions killed many civilians, Ridley stated that he 'resorted to targeting Russian civilians in the latter years of his struggle to try and bring the plight of the Chechen struggle to the wider world,' and blamed the majority of civilian casualties on Russian troops sent in to rescue the hostages, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary."

So, speaking the truth is not Ridley's strongest suit.

Australian Opposition immigration spokesman Tony Burke has asked how a person who praised Basayev as a martyr and urged Muslims in Britain not to co-operate with police, and who has described suicide bombings as "martyrdom operations", could pass the character test required for a visa into the country. He urges the government to kick her out of the country.

I agree Australia could easily do without Ridley but to throw her out of the country would be to turn her into a cause celebre among certain groups here. She would almost certainly be regarded as "a martyr" while the focus would be taken away from the objectionable views she espouses. The intolerance, hatred and lack of respect for others inherent in her message would be whitewashed in the controversy, thereby severely limiting the prospects of any debate on her offensive ideas.

Rather than deport her, Ridley and her extremist views should be exposed to critical scrutiny for only in this way can we understand not only their inherent danger to our society but how counterproductive they are to the very people she claims to support. An example of the latter proposition is that she sings from the same song book as the Islamists who control the Palestine Authority and whose stated aims are to destroy the Jewish State and kill Jews - which is one of the main reasons why the attainment of peace between Israel and Palestine is proving so elusive.

Such positions are well documented and widely understood in the Middle East but they are all too easily brushed aside in general discussions on this subject while in the Jewish community, the tiny minority of so-called "independent voices" who speak out against Israel would rather leave them tidily brushed under the carpet out of sight and out of mind.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

The IAJ and IAJV voices like Louise Adler and Lynn Segal would just love Ridley. They make a nice sisterhood and are great prospects for an invite to the next Age Writers Festival.

Anonymous said...

Independent Muzzled Voices

How many of them speak out against this garbage?

Why?

Because they don't have a death wish.

On the other hand, Loewenstein and Adler know they can throw their tanties and never come to any harm

Anonymous said...

Thanks for heads up on Ridley.

Armed with the information contained in your article I was able to have a long, hard chuckle at the hypocricy of ranting in today's Herald Sun lead article http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21516260-661,00.html

She's a charlatan and will be well and truly exposed for what she is over the coming days.

Anonymous said...

"She's a charlatan and will be well and truly exposed for what she is over the coming days."

But not everywhere. I don't expect the Age to reveal too much about her history of hate-filled diatribes against non-Muslims.

Anonymous said...

Ha. Saw her photograph with the Herald Sun article and couldn't help noticing the old cow's been grazing in a good paddock. Like the Palestinian chicks who were human shields for their men in Gaza a few months ago. These are the same old cows who claim the sanctions against them are causing them to die of starvation. Fat chance!

Anonymous said...

Ridley reportedly told a Belfast meeting of the Islamic Students Association there was no innocent Israeli when it came to suicide bombings. Not even children.

"There are no innocents in this war, because children could grow up to be Israeli soldiers."

She has said that talk of "suicide bombers" was "insulting" -

"Let's call suicide bombers by their proper name, which is martyrs."

As yo can see, Ridley likes fisking around with the facts.

Anonymous said...

There are some interesting letters in today's Age about Ridley and this one is sweet as apple pie -

"People not at fault

I WAS at the allegedly controversial Islamic values seminar on Saturday. I heard Yvonne Ridley explicitly state that it was the Australian media that she thought was "Islamophobic", not the Australian people.

She also went on about how we are some of the nicest people in the world and how she has received "nothing but hospitality" since her arrival.

Belal Haniffa, Dandenong North"

I'm so glad Belal Haniffa managed to clear that up for us. I believe that Kaysar Trad could be out of a job (as apologist for Hillali) soon. Belal should approach Ridley to be her PR agent.

Anonymous said...

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/storm-grows-over-sheikhs-top-job/2007/04/08/1175970943688.html

"Sheikh Hilali drew support from British journalist Yvonne Ridley, who has been in Australia to speak about Islamic feminism at a Muslim conference.

Ms Ridley, a Muslim convert who has attracted unwelcome media attention for her outspoken views, called for Muslims to stand up to government pressure. Ms Ridley said she found Sheikh Hilali 'charming and supportive' on a previous visit to Australia. She said she hated to think the sheikh was being undermined by Australian Muslims 'too weak to stand up to government pressure'."

The piece of covered meat (well covered with generous slabs of fat I should add) thinks the tomcat is "charming and supportive". I'm ready to chuck my guts out right now.

Anonymous said...

Was that the same meeting that was attended by Belal Haniffa of Dandenong North?

Anonymous said...

I demand to know which incompetent at the Age allowed this letter to the editor to see the light of day -

Israel points way

RATHER than buying Perth's expensive, pint-sized desalination plans (The Age, 7/4), the Bracks Government might do us a favour by knocking on Israel's door. Its world-class Ashkelon plant produces 320 megalitres of reliable fresh water a day from the Mediterranean for about 66 cents a megalitre, and cost less than $A320 million to bring in on time and budget. We will spend three times that much, as our Water Minister estimates, if we try to reinvent the wheel locally after wasting yet more precious years on endless feasibility studies.

Patrick O'Leary, North Balwyn

Watch out for an array of letters claiming that Israeli desalination plants were built on homes stolen from Palestinians by the ethnic cleansing apartheid zionists. I's all bullshit but the Age should let one or two through for the sake of evenhandedness

Anonymous said...

I found an article on Ridley from back in 2004 when she visited as a guest of Monash University.

http://www.aijac.org.au/review/2004/294/ridley.html