The Sunday Telegraph has today published several articles detailing its investigation, in cooperation with Channel 4’s documentary programme Dispatches (which is screened tormorrow, Monday, 1st March 2010 at 8pm), into Islamic Forum Europe, a Jamaat-e Islami front run out of the East London Mosque, and the Labour Party. I’ve decided to reproduce all the articles here in case they disappear for some reason or another:
Archive for February, 2010
Telegraph Exposé: Islamic Forum Europe and the Labour Party
Posted in Elections, Islamist movements, South East Asia, UK, tagged East London Mosque, Islamic Forum Europe, Islamism, Jamaat-e-Islaami, Labour Party on 28/02/2010| Leave a Comment »
Anjem Choudary and his Idols
Posted in Islamist movements, UK, tagged Anjem Choudary, Islamism, طاغوت on 17/02/2010| Leave a Comment »
Anjem Choudary, the erstwhile leader of the recently proscribed al-Muhajiroun spin-off Islam4UK, is up to his old tricks again. Whilst giving an interview to the Iranian regime’s mouthpiece, Press TV, he rails against that emblem of intolerant Islam, the Tawâghît (طواغيت sing. طاغوت) or idols:
“The people in the past used to worship the idols which they used to make with their hands. Nowadays, people worship idols which are more intellectual – like democracy, liberalism, freedom, and so on. So these need to be destroyed as well, and replaced with worshipping and obeying Allah.
[…]
“You know, I don’t believe in the concept of freedom of expression. I don’t believe in democracy. I don’t believe in secularism or liberalism. I believe these are idols that the people are worshipping nowadays, taking them away from worshipping our lord, Allah. I believe that sovereignty and supremacy belongs to God, but I will function within the realms of their so-called ‘freedom,’ to expose their own fallacies.”
He fervently believes that there can be no symbiotic or complementary relationship between Islam and such fundamental concepts as democracy and liberty. Those who believe in democracy and God, participate in elections and use the freedom of our liberal democracy to argue for change are anathema to this man.
Yet his simplistic theology and appropriation of terms that will strike a chord with fundamentalists and Islamists everywhere are worrying – just how many Muslims (and non-Muslims) are tempted to believe in his revolutionary prescriptions?
The complete transcript of the interview can be read below. You can also watch the interview here, courtesy of MEMRI.
Profile: Mohammed Sawalha
Posted in Islamist movements, Middle East, terrorism, UK, tagged BMI, Hamas, MAB, Mohammed Sawalha, Muslim Brotherhood, محمد صوالحة on 07/02/2010| Leave a Comment »
Mohammed Sawalha (محمد صوالحة) a.k.a. Muhammad Sawalha is one of Britain’s most significant Islamists. Along with Anas al-Tikriti, he’s been involved in the setting up of every Muslim Brotherhood front organisation (MAB, BMI etc.), and is a key cheerleader for Hamas.
Recently, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centre published a profile of him together with a summary of his activities. I thought I’d edit their version by adding some more apposite information. The result is published below:
H/T GMBDR
Hobbes on Iran
Posted in Middle East, tagged Iran, Thomas Hobbes on 03/02/2010| Leave a Comment »
I was ghoulishly amused by Kamal Hasani’s allusion to Thomas Hobbes in the context of Iran:
The misrulers of Iran claim inspiration from the Qur’an and other Islamic sources, as well as Plato’s concept of the “philosopher-king.” But it now seems they are inspired by a more recent Western thinker, Thomas Hobbes. In his classic [sic] on the state, Leviathan, Hobbes wrote, “the aim of punishment is not revenge, but terror.” The Iranian government takes Hobbes as their guide for maintaining the Ayatollahs’ Leviathan in power.
Of course, Hobbes didn’t envision the Islamic theocracy of the Iranian Republic when he wrote this, and he qualified what he wrote with reference to the rule of law as well as other safeguards against the misuse of arbitrary power and indiscriminate force. In Iran, the Vali or Supreme Leader holds the reins to power and there are no effective checks or balances to prevent him from using the full might of the police and paramilitary units such as the Basij against the Green Revolutionaries.
Political Islamism 