Tory MEP Daniel Hannan shows that there are at least some members of his party who don't automatically lose their grip on reason when faced with the phenomenon of political Islam (as commentators at, say, Conservative Home invariably do). In a post on his Telegraph blog Hannan notes: 

Many North African governments include what might loosely be termed Islamist groups: the PJD in Morocco, Ennahda in Tunisia, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and so on. Yet the idea, sometimes promulgated by Western writers, that these parties are branches of a single Islamist movement, is quite misleading. Despite facing similar challenges, and sharing a language, they are almost wholly focused on their domestic affairs, and have little to do with one another. They vary enormously in their approaches to politics. Indeed, the more you discover about them, the more you realise that Islamist is a wholly inadequate label. To posit a continuum between salafist radicals, who want a sharia-based theocracy, and pluralist Muslim parties that see themselves as local equivalents of Europe's Christian Democrats, is preposterous.

Paul Goodman (who holds the view that "Al Qaeda and the [Muslim] Brotherhood aren't separated by a firewall in ideological terms. Rather, they're like different rooms that are linked none the less by a common corridor") might perhaps take note.

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Simon Childs of Vice talks to BNP members demonstrating against paedophilia outside Broadcasting House.

VICE: What's brought you out here today?
It's my duty as a nationalist, mate. The BBC have got a pretty entrenched problem here. The whole BBC is a big cover up at the moment.

What's nationalism got to do with being against paedophilia?
We've got to stand up against these grooming gangs. There’s a problem with the Islamic people targeting Christian children and not their own. Alright, you've got British paedophiles – I can't deny that – but you haven't got nine or ten British people in a gang doing it.

What? There are far more examples of white paedophile gangs in Britain than Muslim ones.
There's no evidence of that.

I'm pretty sure that there is.
You know what? Leave me alone. All you journos are the bloody same.

VICE: What are your thoughts around all this?
Paedophilia is part of Muslim culture. They all vote Labour. The Labour Party is Marxist and they're involved with this Marxist mob here.

Wait, the BBC is Marxist?
It's full of them. It's been riddled with Marxists since its inception.

Really? One of the first things the BBC did was help break the General Strike in 1926. 
And?

Well, strike-breaking isn't very Marxist.
That's just offerings; just crumbs.

Do you think the BBC's Marxism manifests itself in its programming?
Well, just look what happened when they let Nick Griffin on Question Time if you want an answer to that. They selected the audience – full of Marxists. And the panel was absolutely full of them.

Baroness Warsi is a Marxist?
No, she's a Muslim. Her father is an immigrant. He’s got nothing to offer this country. It’s take, take, take.

That's funny, because I read he started a successful company that employs a bunch of British people. It's funny what you can choose to ignore.

Via ENGAGE

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Volen Siderov, leader of the fascist party Ataka, addresses supporters in PazardzhikHundreds of nationalists rallied in a southern Bulgarian town on Monday in support of the prosecution of 13 religious leaders accused of spreading radical Islam in a case causing communal strains in the Balkan country.

The trial, just months after a suicide bomber killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian driver at the Black Sea port of Burgas, has tested a delicate ethnic balance between the country's minority Muslims and its Orthodox Christian majority.

Prosecutors in the southern town of Pazardzhik have charged 12 Bulgarian citizens, most of them Muslim prayer leaders, and one woman for preaching radical Islam between 2008 and 2010. Three of them are also charged with inciting religious hatred.

Protesters, led by far-right parties Attack and VMRO, waved banners reading "Our religion is Bulgaria" and "Tough sentences for fanatics", and said the march aimed to counter gatherings of Muslims in front of the courthouse in support of the accused.

The suspects, who deny any wrongdoing, face up to five years in prison if convicted. They are accused of working with an unregistered branch of Al Waqf-Al Islami, an Islamic foundation set up in the Netherlands and funded mainly by "Salafi circles" from Saudi Arabia, the court said, referring to an ultra-conservative brand of Islam.

About 100 Muslims also rallied near the court under heavy police protection in support of the accused, saying the 13 had preached only traditional Islam. Bulgaria's Mufti Office has also declared its support for the accused.

The trial has the potential to threaten a culture of tolerance in Bulgaria, where Muslims make up about 12 percent of the 7.3 million population, analysts said.

Bulgaria is the only European Union (EU) country where Muslims are not recent immigrants but a centuries-old local community, mostly ethnic Turkish descendants of Ottoman rule that ended in 1878.

"Trials like this could dramatically raise tension in the places where Bulgarian Muslims live," said Antonina Zhelyazkova, head of the Sofia-based International Center for Minority Studies.

The trial has revived memories of the 1980s when hundreds of Muslims were forced to change their names to Bulgarian ones and over 300,000 left the country as a result of a campaign by late communist dictator Todor Zhivkov to revive mainstream Bulgarian culture.

Nationalist parties are also trying to use the trial to gain popularity before a general election next year, analysts said.

Reuters, 29 October 2012

See also "Divided Bulgarian xenophobes stage anti-Muslim protests", Novinite, 29 October 2012

Update:  See "Bulgarian Imams' trial resumes", Press TV, 29 October 2012

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