Godson v Bunglawala on al-Jazeera

again, I wonder why, due to the supposed 'accademic' credential of the report, an expert was not called to debate it. In my Blog, I have asked Dr Denis MacEoin to answer some precise questions, which were never answered, and I expect, by now, that will remain answered.
I think that there is a clear attempt to avoid discussing the main issue of this report: it is apparently based on a bad research and possibly on an unethical one. Only a clarification (with evidences) by Dr MacEoin can resolve the dilemma.
Best wishes
Gabriele

Not once, not once has a Muslim commentator spoken about the material we published. This was a golden opportunity for the MCB and others: if Inayat Bunglawala had just said 'Yes, you're right, this is pretty disgusting stuff, and we will work with you to see it is eliminated from mosques and schools', the MCB would have gone up in public estimation. Instead, IB said this was all legal and pretended that you can find much the same sort of thing in any church or synagogue. Has he ever set foot in a church or synagogue. The point is simple, these texts are revolting, and they were found in mosques. If the message is that the MCB etc. wish to defend gross anti-Semitism, or calls to 'hate' all non-believers, to separate Muslims from the kuffar, to treat as apostates Muslims who make non-Muslim friends, to call for homosexuals to be thrown from high buildings, to urge the marriage of underage girls, to praise the stoning of adulterers, and to urge Muslims to engage in physical jihad. That's just a sample. The MCB claims to be moderate, but it defends this hideous radicalism and seems to have no conscience about doing so. It's time these 'representative' Muslims got real and did something for once to defeat radicalism. As a non-Muslim, I'm pretty damned offended to be told that Muslims are not to be friends with me, to help me, to show love for me, and the rest. I'm offended that there is so much Muslim hatred towards Western civilization. Without Western civilization and its emphasis on religious freedom, there wouldn't even be a Muslim community in this country. We treat Muslims here much, much better than Jews or Christians are treated in most Muslim countries. For goodness, take the chip off your shoulder, stop shooting the messenger, and start taking this sick message seriously.

The MCB are moderate, Dr. Maceoin. However, they are moderate by muslim standards which are a little different to others' standards.

Calm down Denis. I think your reaction is ironically, radical and extreme. I can see your point that the substance of the text is shocking and hurtful to you (and it should be). What I fail to see is that although you are apparently well-educated, you have bizzarely taken the text and assumed that muslims will apply it literally. So straight off the bat, you offend me, as a muslim, by making such an insulting assumption. The rest of your post is filled with uncorroborated slander and not backed up by anything other than hot air. You have refused to answer Dr. Marranci's questions. As he rightly points out, your research has no substance, is not measuring causality or attitudes. In fact it seems quite random. Is is even looking at who selects the materials to be placed in the mosque? I notice your report was timed to coincide with the Saudi King's visit.

In fact Denis, you seem to be guilty of appearing 'moderate' while conducting a smear campaign. You clearly have an agenda, but it is nothing new and I suppose that Policy Exchange has to keep firing the big propaganda guns every now and then.

So, no substance and hot air, backed up by assumptions without base. I doubt you will get a serious response from any quarter that is not already in agreement with your way of thinking. Have a nice day.

The debate surrounding Policy Exchange's controversial report goes far beyond a few suspicious reciepts right to the dubious intentions, malicious motives and audacious approach of a so-called research body for pushing their agenda by all means fair and foul. Rather than blaming Newsnight of sidetracking, Dean Godson should come up with verifiable proofs to establish why this and other Policy Exchange reports should be considered neutral and objective and how it is helpful for community cohesion?

Godson's underlying motives are clear from his article is The Times: "During the Cold War, organisations such as the Information Research Department of the Foreign Office would assert the superiority of the West over its totalitarian rivals. And magazines such as Encounter did hand-to-hand combat with Soviet fellow travellers. For any kind of truly moderate Islam to flourish, we need first to recapture our own self-confidence."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article702053.ece

What Godson didn't mention is that Encounter, is an Anglo-American magazine co-founded by Irving Kristol. Not until 1967 would it be revealed that Encounter and its parent organization, the Congress for Cultural Freedom, were funded by the CIA as part of the programme of covert action that has become known as the cultural cold war. In fact there is reason to believe that Cold War methods of psychological warfare are already shaping the debate about Islam and the war on terror in Britain. Dean Godson himself may be one the most successful practitioners. Certainly, he comes from a family with long experience of what the CIA calls ‘covert action’. http://www.spinwatch.org/content/view/4309/8/

Dean Godson has a long history with neoconservatism, starting out as assistant to John Lehman, a signatory to the Project for a New American Century and Conrad Black. Bringing the ideas of neo-conservatism to the UK, Godson has compared Britain's 'late-imperial defeatism' with America's 'self-confident liberal interventionism.'

Of all books, Dean Godson's favourite is the one by his brother Roy, Dirty Tricks or Trump Cards, Counter-Intelligence and Covert Operations, which among other thing looks at how to spread disinformation through the media.
http://timworstall.typepad.com/timworstall/2007/05/dean_godson.html

There are good reasons to be concerned about Dean Godson’s role to influence public and private perceptions about Muslims in Britain. He has made no secret of his own advocacy of ‘political warfare.’ It is clear from the historical precedents that he cites, and the methodology that his brother describes, that deception and covert manipulation are an integral part of ‘political warfare.’

Journalism influenced by this covert action approach clearly invites scepticism. There is likely to be a hidden agenda, in line with Roy Godson’s injunction that: “to be effective, covert propaganda must be co-ordinated with overall policy. It serves little purpose to dabble in the trade unless there are important strategic goals to be achieved.” There are also likely to be unverifiable claims that should be treated with caution.
http://www.spinwatch.org/content/view/4309/8/

Godson has worked as chief editorial writer at The Telegraph and Special Assistant to Conrad Black. Does this indicate a tendency to be in company of those working with fake receipts?

Lastly, imagine writing a monograph on Islam in Australia: Democratic bipartisanship in action including interviews with prominent players in law enforcement and politics but without interviewing a single Muslim, and launching the monograph thousands of miles away in London with none other than Dean Godson!

http://madhabirfy.blogspot.com/2007/09/middle-eastern-gerard-henderson.html

If anyone has ever wondered who would be more appropriate to talk about "community" and "cohesion" none could better disqualify himself from such a responsibility than Godson exemplifying an exact opposite of those terms.

In the above TV programme,
Dean Godson insists the viewers to consider Denis MacEoin as a scholar of Islam.

Having fanned the flares of curiousity in to flames, here are some
rather intriguing dimensions of what MacEoin
dubs as scholarship:

MacEoin is the owner and principal contributor to
named as Middle East Analysis, Comment & Analysis about Middle East Affairs.
http://middle-east-analysis.blogspot.com/

The header blurb claims: Middle East Analysis presents a spectrum of views about Middle East political affairs. See what topics, occasions and events MacEoin choses to comment on:
http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2006/12/if_mary_and_jos.html

For the campaigns this 'scholar' is passionate about check:
http://hnn.us/blogs/archives/3/2005/5/
http://www.zionismontheweb.org/history_of_Muslim_antisemitism_and_anti-Zionism.htm
http://irenelancaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/07/what-the-guardi.html

What kind of cards he has up in his sleeves can be guessed from his adulation of the below work as "simply riveting"
http://irenelancaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/10/eyewitness-repo.html

MacEoin generated many flacks and triggered many questioning his stands and writings http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/008296.php
http://www.jewlicious.com/?p=2513
http://tinyurl.com/2kxuqf
http://dan92024.blogstream.com/v1/pid/189031.html

The above writings are clear and undeniable evidences of Denis' obsession to demonize, distort and denounce a specific faith and its values. Attempts to portray MacEoin as a scholar in itself speaks of inviting someone to portray followers of a particular faith in black, tarnish their image and taunt their traditions.

If there are any doubts
about what perceptions
those associated with
Policy Exchange hold and profess the below link will jog the memories:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1373075,00.html

http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1554701.ece

There is a trail of shadowy characters with the dubious agenda to malign institutions
Of a particular faith under one pretext or the other.

http://blogs.salon.com/0003494/2006/11/24.html

http://blogs.salon.com/0003494/2007/08/18.html