Prime Minister Cameron Calls Trump, ‘Stupid, Divisive and Wrong’

Presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said he hopes to be able to work with British Prime Minister David Cameron in spite of Cameron calling the Republican candidate ‘stupid, divisive and wrong’ on his stance on Muslims.

“It looks like we’re not going to have a very good relationship. Who knows! I hope to have a good relationship with him but it sounds like he’s not willing to address the problem either,” Trump said in an interview with Piers Morgan, recorded on Friday (May 13) and due to be aired in full on ITV on Monday (May 16).

Earlier this month, Cameron said he would not apologize to Trump after he became the Republican party’s presumptive presidential candidate for calling his proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States stupid and wrong.

Cameron made the comment about Trump after the reality TV star and real estate developer vowed last December to ban all Muslims from entering the United States if he succeeded in his bid to become the next U.S. president.

“Well, number one I’m not stupid, Okay. I can tell you that, right now – just the opposite. Number two, in terms of divisive: I don’t think I’m a divisive person. I’m a unifier, unlike our president now, I’m a unifier,” he added.

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PM Cameron says Trump policy on Muslims is wrong, will not apologise

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday he would not apologise to Donald Trump after he became the Republican party’s presumptive presidential candidate for calling his proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States stupid and wrong.

Cameron made the comment about Trump after the reality TV star and real estate developer vowed last December to ban all Muslims from entering the United States if he succeeded in his bid to become the next U.S. president.

“I won’t change that view and I don’t change that view and I’m very clear that the policy idea that was put forward was wrong, is wrong and will remain wrong, so I’m very clear about that,” Cameron told reporters when asked if he would now apologise.

However, Cameron did pay tribute to Trump for effectively clinching his party’s nomination this week after the departure of his two remaining rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich.

“Knowing the gruelling nature of the primaries and what you have to go through, anyone who makes it through that extraordinary contest to lead their party into a general election deserves our respect,” he said.

The post For Those Who Call PM Cameron ‘Islamophobic’, Read This appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The Home Office has admitted it holds no record of British citizens barred from boarding transatlantic flights despite them being identified by US security officials as potential threats at UK airports.

James Brokenshire, the immigration minister, confirmed that information regarding the numbers, religion and ethnicity of Britons prevented from travelling abroad was not retained by the government.

The admission came after a question by Stella Creasy, the Labour MP, who raised the case of a British Muslim family of 11 who were barred by US authorities from flying from Gatwick to Los Angeles, where they had planned a Disneyland holiday.

The Mahmood family had been granted travel authorisation through a pre-flight visa obtained online but were blocked when attempting to board their plane in December.

In response to Creasy’s question about the matter, Brokenshire wrote: “You asked for the statistical information relating to the numbers, religion, ethnicity and cultural background of British citizens refused entry to other countries and notified of that at UK airports. We do not hold this information, as these matters are from the government making the decision, the carrier and the individual concerned.”

A “small number” of US Department of Homeland Security officials are present at Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester airports to advise airlines on immigration matters, including the admissibility of individuals travelling to the US, the Home Office letter states.

In a separate letter, David Cameron told Creasy: “It is important to be clear that no UK authorities were involved in any way in preventing the members of the Mahmood family from flying.

“The US Department of Homeland Security has a small number of officials present at UK airports, advising airlines on travel to the US and criteria for entry.

He added: “The advice that these officials provide to airlines is the responsibility of the US authorities, and airlines flying from the UK are not mandated to follow this advice.”

When pressed on whether they were under obligation or not to follow such advice from US security officials at UK airports, airlines including British Airways said they were unable to comment on security measures.

A Home Office spokesman confirmed that under the US immigration advisory programme, US Customs and Border Protection officers had been operating at Heathrow since 2007 and at Gatwick and Manchester since 2008. The spokesman said these officials held no powers in the UK, and that the UK had a similar presence in the US.

Creasy urged the government to ensure that what was happening to British citizens at UK airports was held to account. She said: “I’m concerned the prime minister says no records are held by the UK of what happens at either Heathrow, Gatwick or Manchester – how can I tell my residents their fears are not warranted when our government is turning a blind eye to what the US is doing at our airports? Our Muslim community in Britain deserves better than a shrug – it needs answers.”

She added: “If the US is identifying passengers who are a concern, I’m also surprised the prime minister admits they don’t inform UK authorities about this – they apparently just let them walk out of the airport.

“He also say airlines don’t have to do what homeland security officials say only further compounding the confusion over whats going on.”

Creasy said she would be joining an initiative with Tell Mama, the Islamophobia monitoring project, to call for the UK government to formally address concerns about UK Muslims facing travel restrictions.

The Walthamstow MP said: “We need much more scrutiny of this situation to be confident prejudice plays no part in our security operations – that’s why we’re launching a survey to try to understand the scale and nature of just who is being stopped from travelling and why. Because even if our prime minister operates a don’t ask don’t tell policy, we will. I hope anyone of any faith and none who has ever been stopped from boarding a plane will complete this short survey on the Tell Mama site and help us get to the bottom of what is going on.”

Tell Mama launched the survey this weekend and has already received responses, the organisation said. It aims to collect information to track how often people are barred from flying and to gauge a sense of the profiles of UK citizens who are stopped.

It wants “to get the government to ensure no UK citizen is unfairly treated at UK airports”.

The organisation said in a statement to the Guardian: “These issues have huge impacts on trust and confidence between Muslims and the state and give the impression that Muslims may be targeted because of their faith. This is not the case, but it gives that impression.”

Mohammad Tariq Mahmood, one of the family members turned away from the LA flight, said when the news first emerged: “The children had been counting down the days to the trip for months, and were devastated not to be able to visit their cousins as planned.

“I have never been more embarrassed in my life. I work here, I have a business here. But we were alienated.”

According to US Customs and Border Protection, unarmed, plainclothes officers operate at airports and “discreetly assist airline and security employees with review of traveler information during the processing of US-bound flights”.

Immigration and Advisory Programme officers identify potential threats, who then “engage carriers and travellers to confirm potential matches and make ‘no board’ recommendations to air carriers and the host government to prevent these passengers from boarding flights destined to the United States”.

The Guardian is awaiting a response from US Customs and Border Protection on the number of homeland security officials at UK airports.

After the Mahmoods were barred from travelling to Disneyland, US Customs and Border Protection said: “US Customs and Border Protection welcomes more than a million passengers arriving to the United States every day. CBP officers are charged with enforcing not only immigration and customs laws, but they enforce over 400 laws for 40 other agencies. The religion, faith, or spiritual beliefs of an international traveler are not determining factors about his/her admissibility into the US under US immigration law.”

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]]> 2025 https://www.faith-matters.org/response-from-faith-matters-to-counter-extremism-measures-announced-today/ Mon, 19 Oct 2015 10:48:22 +0000 https://faith-matters.org/?p=1296

The announcement from the Prime Minister regarding a raft of measures as part of the counter-extremism strategy primarily looks to disrupt extremist activities including the use of venues, the posting of extremist material and tougher measures on radio and television channels showing extremist content. These are a raft of measures that will be implemented in the coming months.

Whilst we acknowledge the real and ongoing threat to our nation and to our security, the work that Faith Matters undertakes through Tell MAMA has brought to the forefront, the issue of far right extremism and the impacts that it is having on Muslim communities. These measures must also be used robustly against far right groups that have consistently skirted around the law when promoting their extremism. Also, whilst we are aware that the threat of far right extremist groups is lower than that of groups like the so-called Islamic State, nonetheless, there are risks of lone wolf attacks against mosques and Muslim communities given the rhetoric and threats that we come across in Tell MAMA.

Faith Matters also acknowledges and commends the actions of this Government in tackling anti-Muslim hatred and the Prime Minister has listened to concerns within Muslim communities. We believe that together, collectively, we must all stand together against the scourge of extremism, though we must also support those who stand up publicly to denounce those who promote radicalisation and extremism. The Prime Minister has mentioned that the Government will actively support such individuals and we value and acknowledge this. 

Commenting on the counter-extremism policy initiatives, the Director of Faith Matters, Fiyaz Mughal OBE, stated:

“There is much here that can help in the battle against those who promote extremism and we must not forget that there is a real and ongoing threat from far right extremist groups and their activism should also be caught in these measures. The Government must also ensure that it does not alienate mainstream Muslim communities who are a solution to the problem of IS and Al Qaeda inspired extremism. Side by side with these measures, we must also tackle issues of integration, disaffection and social exclusion which also feed into creating excluded communities.”

Following the recent calls by faith leaders from across a range of faiths, the Church of England has released a letter it had written to the Prime Minister asking him for further action on allowing in more refugees from Syria into the United Kingdom.

The letter has been released and picked up by the Guardian newspaper and urges the Prime Minister to take a, “meaningful and substantial response to the scale of human suffering we see daily”.

The letter also acknowledges the steps taken by the Prime Minister to support refugees in countries like Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey where millions of Syrians have been displaced to and also highlights the public offer made by the Prime Minister of 20,000 refugees being resettled into the UK over the next 5 years. However, bishops urged the Prime Minister to rethink the numbers and to increase the figure to 50,000. Allied to this, the Church added that it would use its vast asset base and provide accommodation and shelter to refugees so that the burden would not have to be picked up primarily by Government.

The letter also asked for moral leadership and that the Government respond prior to a meeting this week of the College of Bishops where they will discuss the ongoing issue.

The release of the letter will cause some embarrassment to the Government given that so many leading figures in the Church of England have signed it and given that the Prime Minister has placed a form of ‘compassionate’ Conservatism within the heart of his recent speech at the Conservative Party conference.

Photo used – credited to www.freefoto.com

A Prime Minister Who Laid Out A Heartfelt Vision To Tackle Extremism

We welcome the speech of the Prime Minister and the need to tackle both non-violent and violent extremism.

The Prime Minister’s approach to identifying the problem and putting in measures where grievances are both addressed and tackled was delivered in a heartfelt and robust manner. The Prime Minister also made clear that wider issues such as employment and training opportunities should be made available to young people as a means of giving them confidence in themselves and this progressive stance should be welcome by those working in the field of tackling extremism. 

Conspiracy Theories

We also welcome the picture that the Prime Minister drew of those who use conspiracy theories to corrode trust between the State and Muslim communities. Through the work we have done on tackling extremism, we have on numerous occasions come across such theories which suggest that organisations working on Prevent (Preventing Extremism), are extended versions of the Government’s intelligence agencies. Such smears, thrown at progressive organisations working in the field of Prevent, simply create a ‘them and us’ fuelling a narrative that the Government is somehow the real problem, whilst failing to address the dangerous phenomena of a small number of young Muslim men and women being drawn to ISIS and other extreme groups.

However, the oversimplification of the drivers towards radicalisation risk alienating swathes of British Muslims. Positing ideology as the main driver overlooks a multitude of factors that drives individuals towards violent extremism.

In our far-reaching report on the Prevent strategy we caution that “The 2011 Prevent strategy fixates on ideology and religiosity at the expense of understanding propensity for violence. It excludes and isolates groups that do not fit into its narrow definition of ‘British values’. By operating through a highly centralised approach to disrupting extremists, the Prevent strategy runs the risk of deteriorating the healthy liberal public sphere deemed necessary to opening counter-speech and debate that can challenge the intellectual basis of genuinely violent extremist opinions”.

We also welcome the Prime Minister’s comments about challenging individuals who peddle conspiracy theories of ‘Islamisation’ and race hate. On the issues of alienation, a search for identity and political grievances, we believe that projects that provide a ‘safe space’ for such discussions should be supported. Offering individuals a ‘safe space’ to discuss these issues in an inclusive manner creates two opportunities: to challenge these “grievance justifications” and let individuals speak without fear of censor. Without these spaces we potentially drive young people into the dark parts of the internet.  

Wider View

This speech is the start of a wider government response to radicalisation. A response that includes the Home secretary refusing to rule out the possibility of British troops and tanks being deployed against ISIS militants. It is a debate that contains both a domestic and international flavour. Moving forward requires partnerships; not a top-down approach towards Muslim communities. Overall though, this is a strong start where muscular liberalism is at the heart of the strategy. 

Tomorrow the Prime Minister is to make a key note speech on extremism and ISIS and is set to outline how the group uses men and women, boys and girls, to promote it’s nihilism through death and destruction. Yet the Prime Minister’s speech will also be notable for one other element which the Government has said it wants to tackle; this includes the environment of conspiracy theories, fear and sometimes purposeful disinformation that some groups promote in order to ensure disengagement by some sections of Muslim communities from civic structures.

In tackling this, the Prime Minister is linking an environment which creates fear, apprehension and disengagement to the extremism agenda. In effect, the Government are saying that they see the people promoting this disengagement as being part of the problem and not the solution and tomorrow’s speech will open up a new front against these groups and the comments are telling. The Prime Minister and his Government will tackle such groups, as well as those espousing extremist or violent extremist groups.

There are other elements that the Prime Minister will raise which will be a subject of much debate. Yet, the Prime Minister will be outlining his red lines, some of which may take in groups which previously have not been tackled and who have openly stated that they are against violent action.