Update on French Philosopher Robert Redeker

Four months ago, we mentioned here Robert Redeker, the French philosopher forced to go into hiding after Le Figaro published a column by him, labelled by the usual suspects as very islamically incorrect.

Adil al Hyanne was deported to Morocco from Libya, where he was hoping to join the Jihad in Iraq. This young man in his early twenties, who could very reasonably be described as an aspiring islamist, if not an islamist, has admitted to calling for Robert Redeker to be murdered. He posted on the Internet pictures of the philosopher, as well as his personal and professional addresses in Toulouse, including all his contact details, email addresses and phone numbers.

Adil al Hyanne was calling for the 'French Lions' to follow the example of the 'Dutch Lion', Mohammed al-Bouyeri, who butchered director Théo Van Gogh in November 2005.

Many websites had his incitement to murder republished, and so Robert Redeker will stay in hiding.

One reader left a comment on the website of the French daily newspaper Libération, saying that, actually, it had not been a Fatwa and that Robert Redeker was probably disappointed not to have become a French Salman Rushdie.

Perhaps it was not technically speaking a Fatwa, but what counts is the result. Some are already trying to reduce the responsibility of Adil al Hyanne; they are implying that it was some kind of joke and that he was not really an islamist. If this is true, then we don't share his sense of humour.

FG

Our January Event

You are invited to hear:

MICHAEL GOVE MP

Are We Seeing the Emergence of a New Anti-Islamist Intelligentsia?

Monday, 22nd January, 7 for 7.30pm

The Attlee Suite, Portcullis House, Westminster, London SW1A 2LW

(next to Westminster Tube)

The British intelligentsia has traditionally been characterised by its adherence to the doctrines of multiculturalism, cultural relativism and internationalism.

But as Western values face an onslaught from a hostile and increasingly emboldened Islam, and established political allegiances either fracture or make disturbing new alliances, are we witnessing a major new intellectual shift?

Some of the foremost literary figures of our time - Martin Amis, Ian McEwan and Salman Rushdie - have spoken about the threat which Islamism poses to Western culture. Prominent left-of-centre journalists and academics, disturbed by much of the left’s unthinking anti-Americanism and seeming fondness for dictators, have formed the Euston Manifesto Group. And amongst the left/liberal-leaning cultural and media establishment, attitudes are hardening as issues of cultural ‘sensitivity’ and self-censorship in relation to Islam come increasingly to the fore. Is a new anti-Islamist intelligentsia emerging?

Michael Gove, Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath and Shadow Minister for Housing, is one of Britain’s leading writers and thinkers on terrorism and foreign affairs. Michael was founding chairman of Policy Exchange, and is a founder member of the Henry Jackson Society. As well as being a columnist for The Times, he has been a frequent panellist on Radio 4’s The Moral Maze and BBC2’s Newsnight Review. His most recent book, Celsius 7/7, was published last year.

Do join us for what promises to be an important and fascinating talk. It will be followed by a Q & A session.

Please RSVP at events@newcultureforum.org.uk
We would kindly ask for a £5 donation on the evening towards drinks.

Wishful Thoughts for 2007

The New Culture Forum brings you the cultural news and events you can (not) expect to hear about in 2007, as brought to you by our contributors on the ground.

Let’s kick off with Christmas…

DEBENHAM ADMITS: WE DID NOT DESIGN CHRISTMAS”.

The retail giant Debenhams has retracted its “Christmas: Designed by Debenhams” television advert, after it decided it might be offensive to Christians. In the advert, a slim, sexy, modern-styled ‘DJ Santa’ glides and break-dances his way through rooms in his hi-tech grotto lined with robotic toys, perfumes, handbags, and other fashion accessories, before attractive women in stockings help send him out to deliver presents in a flying, high-powered snow ski. A company spokesman told reporters: “As soon as our executives viewed the ad, they realized that we had become so caught up in all the commercial opportunities of the festive season that we had lost sight of the true Christian message of charity and compassion. … We also recognized that some Christians might find our transformation of their beloved Saint Nicholas into a sex-crazed fashion victim, and our claim to have been the true originators of their historic religious festival, offensive.” The spokesman confirmed, however, that an equivalent advert,
“Eid: Designed by Debenhams”, with a similarly sexy, break-dancing ‘MC Muhammad’, would still go ahead in their stores in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia: “The Islamic world is famed for its sense of gentle good-humour, and we foresee no problems there.”

[View ad here: http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=39607]

(from David Brescia)

JANUARY

BBC News press release

Head of BBC News Peter Horrocks today banned the use of three key terms on BBC global news output - ‘suicide bombers’ ‘martyrs’ and ‘freedom fighters’. Horrocks made this unusual statement at the inaugural BBC Friends of Israel fundraising dinner. As well as raising thousands of shekels for Israel to spend on reinforcing the controversial security fence, Horrocks said in his after dinner speech ‘it is time the BBC recognises that homicide bombers in the middle east have the same motives as homicide bombers in the west’ and ‘are nothing but barbaric murderous scumbags acting under a veil of pseudo religious nonsense’. Horrocks then sang the Israeli national anthem as a solo before inviting Baroness Jenny Tongue onto the dance floor for the first Chassidic dancing number ‘We want moshiach now!’.

(from Jonathan Levi)


To celebrate the West's abolition of slavery 200 years earlier, Islam decides to join in, apologising for enslaving more people than the West ever managed and for perpetuating slavery into the present day in countries such as Mauritania. 'This one's been on the books a bit too long,' laugh Ayatollah Khamenei and Yusuf Al-Qaradawi at a joint press conference.

(from Mark Sidwell)

FEBRUARY

BBC, CHANNEL 4 ANNOUNCE FACTUAL PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS

BBC Panorama, tonight, 'teaching sex to kids': how a half-century of UK sex-education has pushed us to the top of Europe's teen pregnancy tables. We ask the Department of Education why it thinks more of the same will now produce different results?

- C4 'Unreported world', 'Castro's Gulag': We get unique access to Cuban dissident groups inside Cuba who show us the true extent of the dictator's repression of writers, thinkers and journalists.

Also 'A Bolivarian blunder', Is Chavez driving Venezuela to ruin and isolation?

- Dispatches: 'A Comprehensive failure': with childhood illiteracy increasing - and entry of poorer students to top universities at a post-War low - we ask whether it's now time to 'permanently exclude' Britain's greatest educational mistake - the comprehensive school.

- C4 News special, 'The Bush tax miracle': how American economic growth has been powered by tax cuts.

- BBC File on four, 'The end of the road for the Human Rights Act?': In order to cope with the terrorist threat, is it time to admit the damage caused by the Human Rights Act, scrap it and re-introduce effective national treason laws?

(from Alan Smithee)

MARCH

THOUSANDS CONVERGE ON WEMBLEY AS ROCK STARS RAIL AGAINST CHINA

Madonna last night led a glittering array of stars from the world of rock and pop in a massive protest concert at the continuing of human rights violations in China. She told the crowd: ‘Chairman Mao caused the deaths of 70 million of his own people. Well Communism is dead but the torture goes on! Make torture history! Rock against China!

(from PW)

APRIL

In an astonishing new play at the National about multiculturalism which looks set to draw angry protests from Muslim groups, a white couple in a largely Asian town see their gay son sacked from his job as a teacher because Islamic fundamentalist parents do not want him teaching their children. Terrified of causing offence, the local council fails to intervene, leaving the angry and frustrated family to deal with a media firestorm. The play, which opened this week, has already sold out, and the theatre has also been encouraged by the proportion of so-called ‘first-time’ ticket buyers. ‘This play is bringing in a whole new audience to the National’, said a spokesman. ‘We’ve been trying to widen our audience over the years with the £10 ticket scheme, and that’s been a real success especially with students, but for some reason the subject of this production has really struck a chord with people who would not otherwise go to the theatre.’

(from PW)

MAY

Leading figures from the arts and media address huge London rally
A massive crowd of moderate Muslims, estimated at nearly half a million, yesterday heard stars of stage, screen and the literary world call for an end to the subjugation of woman and gay men under fundamentalist Islam. Carrying banners declaring ‘Not in Our Name!’, thousands of protesters listened peacefully in the capital’s Hyde Park as figures including feminist Germaine Greer, National Theatre director Nicholas Hytner and Oscar-winning actor Sir Ian McKellen made impassioned speeches condemning the wearing of the burkha, the execution of thousands of gay men in Iran and the increasing tolerance in Britain of what Sir Ian dubbed in his speech ‘vicious attacks on our liberty’.
Interviewed after the event, Germaine Greer underlined how important it was that women in the West stood up to such reactionary forces. ‘It’s the duty of feminists everywhere to speak out in support of women who live lives of total subservience – women whose voices will never otherwise be heard.’

(from PW)

JUNE

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown admits that juvenile relocation to Mayfair, and its attendant reduced knowledge of traditional Malawian songs, dances and agricultural techniques, may be preferable to dying alone, disease-riddled and abandoned in an African orphanage.

(from Emma French)

JULY

Carbon neutral is a load of hippie bollocks," announced Chris Martin, last night, to a stunned audience of Coldplay fans.
"Sorry guys, but the fact is I got it all wrong. This save the planet stuff I've been preaching at you for the last five years - it was just hot air. Al Gore is a mendacious loser twat. Michael Moore is a fat, lying, treacherous c***. An Inconvenient Truth is the worst film ever, worse even than Love Actually or that other terrible Richard Curtis one about the Scottish girl at the G8 summit who converts everyone to eco-fascism. The Rainbow Warrior had it coming. Greenpeace are tossers. Global warming is due primarily to solar activity, perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. Wind turbines are crap. Nuclear is our only hope."
After a climactic performance of Yellow, Martin further shocked fans by urinating on a copy of Kyoto agreement, before driving off in a 4 x 4 with wife Gwyneth Paltrow chic in pure sable fur) and chums Thom Yorke and Michael Stipe (both engrossed in Douglas Murray's Neo-Conservatism: Why We Need It?)

(from James Delingpole)

AUGUST

Gwyneth Paltrow abandons her ‘macrobiotic diet’ in favour of a new diet dependant exclusively on conventionally grown Genetically Modified Organisms.

(from Dawn Steeves)

SEPTEMBER

Ekow Eshun says something cogent and to the point on Newsnight Review

Male character on advert/in sitcom shown not to be a bumbling fool; female character revealed to be something other than a long-suffering omnicompetent.

(from James Delingpole)

OCTOBER

Spooks finally broadcasts an episode in which it really is the Islamists who are baddies and not Christians/Big Business/Jews masquerading as Islamists so as to give these peace-loving people a warlike reputation they SO do not deserve.

Bono admits: "What do I know? I'm just a rock star."

(from James Delingpole)

NOVEMBER

‘We are a waste of taxpayer’s money’, declares Disability Rights Commission

‘There’s a lot to be said for the occasional slap’, NSPCC counsels parents

Muslim Council of Britain condemns suicide bombers

Arts Council launches new fund for middle class whites

(from Nick Seddon).

DECEMBER

Channel 4 announces that it’s Alternative Christmas Message this year will be given by Dr John Sentamu, the Ugandan-born Archbishop of York known for his outspoken support of Christianity and the celebration of British Culture. When questioned about this unusual choice, a Channel 4 spokesman said candidly: ‘We always aim to be provocative, and so we thought it would be really daring to use the Archbishop. Frankly, all the old counter-culture ‘alternatives’ are pretty much mainstream culture now, and rather than just be known as one of Oriana Fallaci’s ‘phoney revolutionaries’, we thought we’d really try to stir things up.’

Tonight on Culture Clash

Hello and welcome to Culture Clash.

The only shock delivered by the Turner Prize this year was that it was won by a painter. Tooma Abts, a 34-year-old German artist of contemporary abstract paintings won against competition from sculptural installations consisting of displays of found objects, a ‘live’ exhibit of a TV production office complete with live workers, a computer designed billboard and a film installation of former participants in reality TV.
When the winner was announced last week, art critics commented that the competition had inspired only indifference, and had failed to get people talking. Well we’re going to fill that gap today and ask whether this annual artistic bunfest means anything to anybody outside the art world.

It was 1993 when Channel 4 launched its so-called Alternative Christmas message, and since then Sharon Osbourne, Jesse Jackson and Ali G are among those you’ve gone head to head with Her Majesty. Often its been played simply for laughs, but this year the channel has chosen Khadija Ravat, a Muslim woman in a niqab, that’s a full veil, to deliver her perspective on the events of the past year. Ravat, a part time primary school teacher in Leicester, was born in Zimbabwe, is a convert to Islam and says that her 6 minute broadcast would celebrate British values and the multi-cultural society. We’ll be asking whether this is a timely celebration of our vibrant diversity, or whether it’s a simply a stunt too far.

My guest today are Michael Attwell, producer and former chairman of BAFTA, Dawn Steeves of The New Criterion Magazine, James Delingpole, TV critic of the Spectator, and journalist Franck Guillory.

French critic of Islam still in hiding

A French high school philosophy teacher and author who carried out a scathing attack against the Prophet Muhammad and Islam in the center-right daily newspaper Le Figaro is the latest to face death threats for daring to criticize the religion and its prophet's emphasis on violence.

The teacher, Robert Redeker, 52, wrote on 19 september that Muhammad was "a merciless warlord, a looter, a mass-murderer of Jews and a polygamist," and called the Koran "a book of incredible violence."

And added: "Islam is trying to impose its values on Europe: opening hours at public pools dedicated exclusively to women, restrictions on caricaturing the religion, dietary demands for Muslim children in school cafeterias, fighting for the right to wear the veil to school, accusations of Islamophobia against open minds."

"As was the case with Communism, the West finds itself under ideological surveillance. Islam is presenting itself, in the image of now defunct Communism, as an alternative to the Western world. Just as Communism before it, Islam, to conquer minds, is playing on sensitive chords. It seeks legitimacy in a way that troubles the Western conscience: by being the voice of the planet's poor. Yesterday, the voice of the poor claimed to come from Moscow, today its coming from Mecca!"

The Redeker case is the latest manifestation in Europe of a mounting ideological battle that pits those who believe Islam and the Prophet Muhammad can be criticized in the name of free speech against those in the Muslim community who believe no criticism can be tolerated.

"I can’t work, I can’t come and go and am obliged to hide," told Mr. Redeker. "So in some way, the Islamists have succeeded in punishing me on the territory of the republic as if I were guilty of a crime of opinion."

Asked to describe the sort of threats he had received, Mr. Redeker replied, "You will never feel secure on this earth. One billion, three hundred thousand Muslims are ready to kill you."

Support Robert Redeker.

by Franck Guillory

* To sign the french petition http://www.petitionredeker.info

* France has one of Europe's largest Muslim communities with an estimated total of six million people, or ten percent of the population.

* The text in french is still available in the archive of the newspaper at http://www.lefigaro.fr

November event

DOUGLAS MURRAY

on

INTIMIDATION, CENSORSHIP AND ISLAM:

Holland’s experience - Britain’s warning?

Monday 6th November, 6.30 for 7pm

Institute of Commonwealth Studies, 28 Russell Square, London WC1

The murder in Amsterdam of Theo Van Gogh left the Netherlands in shock as liberal ideas of free speech clashed with fundamentalist Islamic conviction. Since then, the Dutch social and political landscape has been transformed.

Two years on, is Britain sleepwalking into the same situation? Will we see a new era of fear-induced censorship and self-censorship? How real is the threat to our culture?

Best-selling author and commentator Douglas Murray, whose latest book is Neoconservatism: why we need it, has written and broadcast extensively about the Dutch experience and the growth of Islamicism. A fellow of the Social Affairs Unit, he has appeared regularly on the BBC, Sky, MSNBC and Fox, and lectures throughout Europe and America. His forthright and provocative viewpoint will ensure that the evening will be a fascinating one..


‘The Right’s answer to Michael Moore’ - Andrew Roberts

‘Whether one agrees with him or not, Murray has made a valuable contribution to the global battle of ideas’ - the leading Arabic daily Asharq Alawsat


Please RSVP to Peter at prwhittle@btopenworld.com

A New Culture Forum event on November 6th

On Monday, 6th November, 2 years and 4 days after the murder of controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by moroccan-born Islamic Fundamentalist, you're invited to a virtual trip through the contemporary Netherlands.

With writer Douglas Murray as our guide, we will discuss the effect of religious fundamentalisms on liberal Holland, wonder what it means for the West and the rest of the World and, sticking to the New Culture Forum core 'raison d'etre', debate on censorship and self-censorship in the media and the arts.

More details to come on this event very soon but you may already wish to free your early evening to join us.

The time: 6.30 for 7pm
The location: The Institute of Commonwealth Studies, 28 Russell Square, London WC1

Please book by email at fguillory@btopenworld.com.

Whitechapel Gallery... The importance of Self-censorship

According to stories published by Le Monde in Paris last week, the director of the Whitechapel Gallery, Iwona Blazwick, was accused by the French curator Agnes de la Baumelle of removing material from its current exhibition of works by surrealist Hans Bellmer by fear of offending Muslims - especially the large East London Bangladeshi community.

"The motive was simply to not shock the population of the Whitechapel neighborhood, which is partly Muslim," said Agnes de la Baumelle to Reuters. "It surprised me because Bellmer's work is very well known. She already knew it well and by committing to take our exhibition she must have known what would be on the walls," she added. "I tried to protest," she also said, adding that the move was "a little excessive but there's no need to make a fuss about it."

The gallery issued a statement saying that some works were not included in the exhibition because of space constraints. The Centre Pompidou, Musee National d’Art Moderne, Paris, issued another statement confirming that, as a result of the smaller space available for the exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, the whole selection of works displayed at the institution in Paris could not be shown in London. They added that the Bellmer works that are not included in the display in London are no more or less shocking for certain visitors than those that are in the show.

A few minutes ago, the Whitechapel Gallery agreed to let us film the exhibition for 18 Doughty Street, but then changed its mind when asked if Iwona Blaswick would comment on the affair on camera. 'If you come for that story - it's a false report and we can't let you film', said a spokeswoman.

Self-censorship or censorship... A hazy fog seems to have enveloped Whitechapel when it comes to this.

If you know of any other examples of self-censorship, we would be delighted to hear from you.

A Blight on the Opera

Europe’s latest piece of cringing cultural appeasement has come not from politicians but the heart of the artistic establishment itself. The world famous Deutsche Oper in Berlin has cancelled performances of Mozart’s Idomeneo for fear of causing offence and unrest. As is reported in The Times today, the decision has caused outrage amongst politicians and commentators in Germany.

The scene in the opera which was apparently causing particular anxiety was that in which the King of Crete holds aloft the decapitated heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and the Prophet Muhammad and cries ‘The gods are dead!’ Presumably with the Pope’s recent comments in mind, a spokesman for Deutsche Oper said yesterday that putting on Idomeneo would ‘represent an incalculable security risk for the theatre at present.’ They made this announcement after having received a police report advising that ‘disturbances could not be excluded’ during performances of the opera.

Politicians across the spectrum have at least had the guts to condemn such craven behaviour, speaking out against the threat to freedom of expression which is all too real and of which this is just the latest example. As the Times reports, Peter Ramsauer, head of the conservative Christian Social Union parliamentary faction, said: ‘It is an act of pure cowardice. We are opening ourselves up to cultural blackmail.’

Yet again the European cultural elites, who profess to value artistic freedom above all else, are demonstrating their utter weakness when it comes to actually defending the liberal values they supposedly hold so dear. Perhaps this is to be expected when one considers the ingrained self-hatred and collapse of confidence which characterises so much of contemporary European culture – one which increasingly defines itself purely on the basis of hostility to America.

But what is especially worrying about this episode is that the self-censoring involves an established classic. Does this mean that, along with the self-imposed ban on any new cultural depictions of any aspect of Islam (which is effectively in place and which amounts to a form of unofficial sharia law), Europe will now look carefully at every aspect of its cultural heritage before displaying it?

Peter Whittle

A Closed Set

How depressing it is to see the arts community cave in yet again to pressure from those who would restrict what we would watch or read. Protests from local ‘activists’ in London’s East End have had the desired effect, and filming of the adaptation of Monica Ali’s much-praised satirical novel Brick Lane, about the Bangladeshi community, will not now take place there. The producers, Ruby Films and FilmFour, have ‘taken police advice’ and are using other locations.

There was what the BBC called ‘a noisy and passionate’ protest on Saturday, of predominately male Bangladeshis, who allege that the book, about a woman facing an arranged marriage, insults them.

In an albeit minor echo of what happened when Islamicist extremists demonstrated outside the Danish Embassy over the now infamous publication of cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, police took to silencing one man, Dan Simon, who had attempted to remonstrate with the protesters.
Such incidents as these flare up and then disappear, but the underlying trend we’re left with – which is that broadcasters, writers, and the cultural establishment in general will increasingly self-censor - is insidious. If anyone doubts this, then it is perhaps worth considering that there are now no conceivable cultural or artistic circumstances in which we would see a depiction of Mohammed.