Members of the House of Lords have mocked the suggestion that the government should monitor mosques and Islamic madrassas “hate speech”, calling for the UKIP Peer who asked the question to be monitored instead.
Baroness Warsi, a former Conservative minister who was made a life Peer after her government career ended, replied to his question in the house by asking if it would instead be prudent to monitor Lord Pearson’s words in the chamber for “Islamophobia and hatred towards Muslims.”
Speaking after the debate to Breitbart London, the UKIP Peer said “the real hatred” was with the “silly” members of the House of Lords who had shouted him down.
Responding to Lord Pearson’s question on behalf of the government, Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth said they “have no plans to require monitoring of preaching in mosques” before speaking at length about tackling “Islamophobia” rather than radical Islam.
In a recent written reply to a question seen by Breitbart London, Lord Bourne, the secretary of state for communities, also admitted the government does “not hold any data on the number of madrassas” in the UK.
“They don’t even know how many there are. Isn’t that fascinating,” Lord Pearson said.
“[Former Prime Minister David] Cameron said he was going to monitor the madrassas, but he flunked it,” he added, referring to comments from Cameron in 2015 when he said children were “having their heads filled with poison and their hearts filled with hate” in some Islamic schools.
Under plans published, and subsequently dropped, that year, the government would register and have access to inspect all settings providing intensive education — including madrassas.
Lord Pearson, a former leader of the UK Independence Party, faced cries of “shame, shame!” and “nonsense!” when he described radical Islam as, currently, the world’s “most violent ideology” in Britain’s upper chamber.
Polls have shown most Brits see Islam as incompatible with their way of life and, speaking exclusively to Breitbart London moments after the exchange this Wednesday, Lord Pearson expressed concern that if those in government continue to mock and dismiss widespread concerns about radical Islam, street protests could “turn violent.”
Lord Pearson said Mr Cameron had “lost his nerve,” adding that some of the more radical schools attached to mosques are “where the serious poison is spread. All I want to know is what’s going on here,” he added.
Responding to Baroness Warsi’s suggestion he should be monitored for “hate speech” instead of the schools, Lord Pearson described her as a “leftie, Liberal Democrat, wet Conservative” and said he was not surprised by her comments, as almost all criticism of radical Islam is treated as “hate speech” by her political bedfellows.
“You can say what you want about Hindus and Christianity … and nobody ever gives a damn. But, as soon as you say ‘can we talk about Islam’ … you can’t touch that,” he asserted, citing violent passages of Islamic scripture.
“I’m getting fed up of being accused of being guilty of ‘Islamophobia’ all the time,” he continued. “And so [are groups like] Veterans against Terrorism and the Football Lads Alliance [who are] getting fed up with the Islamification of their country … and being told they are the guilty ones when they try to talk about it.”
The Lord denied he and such groups are guilty of hatred, saying they make “a very clear distinction between the peaceful Muslims and Islamism and radical Islam.”
He explained that, when he also asked that the government require mosques to preach in English, he expected other Peers to ask why he did not support the same rule for French and Jewish places of worship.
“Answer: Because the French and the Orthodox Jews are not killing hundreds of thousands of people on the strength of the ideology,” he said. Breitbart London reported in June that more than 1,000 people have been murdered or injured on European soil since 2014, in attacks carried out by Islamist asylum seekers and refugees, according to new research.
Pearson added a warning that, unless the establishment begins to take concerns about radical Islam seriously, rather than mock them, unrest could follow.
“The special treatment meted out to Muslims and the Islamic community, to the detriment of the white working class, that is what started it. And of course [the people] will respond,” he suggested.
“At the moment, they’re marching in huge numbers but nobody is listening,” he said, claiming protest would change little and urging people to join political parties like UKIP and use their vote to pressure the government into taking note instead. “If people keep marching in the tens of thousands and nobody gives a damn, then they are going to turn violent.”
In his question to the Upper house, Lord Pearson asked if the government would monitor hate speech in schools and mosques “in pursuit of their anti-terrorism strategy.”
Police have linked several recent terror attacks in the UK to allegedly radical preaching in mosques. Among those is the case of Westminster Bridge attacker Khalid Masood, who had connections with the “hardline” Luton Mosque, which has denied extremism. The mosque has an attached school.
In 2016, the Charity Commission investigated a mosque in South London after being used as the “headquarters” of a sectarian hate group “distributing literature from its premises” promoting “hatred” and the killing of the moderate Ahmadi sect of Islam.
The notorious Finsbury Park Mosque, in north London, hosted the extremist, pro-terror preacher Abu Hamza between 1997 and 2003, was linked to “shoe-bomber” Richard Reid in 2001, and an alleged plot to produce ricin poison in 2003. It has since reformed.