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Britain
Abu Waleed preaches hate and receives benefits
2014-06-30
A radical hate preacher linked to the ‘brainwashing’ of three Welsh young jihadis fighting in Iraq and Syria has outlined his chilling vision of a Nazi-style, Islamic state in Britain on video, describing how non-Muslims will be forced to shave their heads and wear a red sash, in a land where the ringing of church bells is banned.
It's more of the usual nonsense in Britain: a Muslim 'radical preacher' puts his entire family on the dole while he calls for the destruction of the nation. He's not a loonie, he's just plain dangerous, but that doesn't seem to motivate anyone in Britain to do anything about him.
Abu Waleed, 35, a leading preacher for a group banned last week for incitement to terrorism, was seen earlier this month at a barbecue in the Welsh capital where the banner of the Isis terror group – the Al Qaeda splinter group which the trio are fighting for – was flying.

According to friends, former students Reyaad Khan, Nasser Muthana, both 20, and Muthana’s 17-year-old brother Aseel were seen handing out leaflets for a group closely linked to Waleed outside a Cardiff mosque seven months ago. Khan and Nasser appeared on an Isis recruitment video this month.

Jobless Waleed – whose real name is Shahid Janjua – lives in a council house in Hounslow, West London, and claims benefits for himself, his wife and three disabled children. His group Need4khilafah, whose leader is Anjem Choudary, the firebrand who once led the Al-Muhajiroun group – banned after the deadly July 7 terror attacks in London in 2005 – dreams of the flag of Islam flying over Big Ben.

In the films, he calls for the Queen to wear a burka and brands the Duchess of Cambridge ‘a whore’.

In the most recent film, made last January, Waleed rants: ‘The kaffir [non-believer], when he walks down the street, he has to wear a red belt around his neck, and he has to have his forehead shaved, and he has to wear two shoes that are different from one another.

‘He [the non-believer] is not allowed to walk on the pavement, he has to walk in the middle of the road, and he has to ride a mule.’

He adds that Christians can have their churches, but not ring the bells. ‘The kuffar [kaffir, plural] can have their churches, but they are not allowed to ring the bell   .  . that is, my dear brothers, the Islamic state.’

The preacher adds that when Britain becomes Muslim, a Christian must open his house and accommodate a Muslim at all times, giving up his bed and sleeping on the floor.

In an earlier video, of a lecture that was delivered in April 2011, Waleed is far more inflammatory. He tells the male audience: ‘What is the nightmare on Downing Street? The nightmare on Downing Street, my dear brothers, is when the door of 10 Downing Street is kicked down by one muwahid [Muslim], and the Caliph [Islamic ruler] he walks in, and establishes the sharia.

‘The nightmare on Downing Street, my dear brothers, is when one muwahid pulls a rope, and he raises the banner of “there is no god but Allah” above Big Ben. The nightmare on Downing Street is when one muwahid flies a helicopter all the way to the top of Big Ben, and he removes those numbers and he replaces them with Arabic numbers.

‘That is the nightmare of Downing Street, my dear brothers.’

He says that under a British sharia state, non-Muslims will pay a tax called jiziya for protection. He continues: ‘We are the ones who want to work for the sake of Allah, to establish the manifestation of Islam, and make sure David Cameron comes on his hands and knees, and gives us the jiziya.’

‘Yeah, that’s right, and we cover up all the women and put a niqab on their faces, including Queen Elizabeth and Kate Middleton as well, the whore, the fornicator,’ Waleed says.

Lord Carlile, the Government’s former watchdog on counter-terrorism legislation and a QC, said Waleed’s words border on an incitement to religious hatred, a crime punishable by up to five years in jail. The Lib Dem peer said: ‘The words used are inflammatory, discriminatory, offensive and ludicrous.

The suggestion that a Christian should have his hair shaved and wear a red belt around his neck reminds me of the very worst views and actions of Adolf Hitler.’

Waleed was condemned by moderate Muslim leaders. Inayat Bunglawala, of the Islamic group Muslims4UK, said: ‘These discriminatory and frankly reprehensible views should have no place in modern Islamic political thought.

'Those espousing such bigoted views clearly have no understanding or appreciation for the notions of equality, tolerance and respect for others. These small extremist groups are a disgrace and are rightly shunned by the overwhelming majority of British Muslims.’
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Britain
Number of Brits converted to Islam doubled
2011-01-05
(KUNA) -- The number of Britons choosing to become Mohammedans has nearly doubled in the past decade, it was reported Tuesday.

Following the global spread of "violent Islamism", British Mohammedans have faced more scrutiny, criticism and analysis than any other religious community, the Independent newspaper reported.

Yet, despite the often negative portrayal of Islam, thousands of Britons are adopting the religion every year, according to one of the most comprehensive attempts to estimate how many people have embraced Islam.

Estimating the number of converts living in Britain has always been difficult because census data does not differentiate between whether a religious person has adopted a new faith or was born into it, the paper noted.

Previous estimates have placed the number of Mohammedan converts in the UK at between 14,000 and 25,000.

But a new study by the inter-faith think-tank "Faith Matters" suggests the real figure could be as high as 100,000, with as many as 5,000 new conversions nationwide each year.
Versus 200,000 Muslims reported by the Times to have converted to Christianity as of 2006. And the Muslim claim that sub-Saharan Africa alone sees 6 million conversions from Islam to Christianity each year. Raw numbers need a frame in which to be properly understood.
By using data from the Scottish 2001 census - the only survey to ask respondents what their religion was at birth as well as at the time of the survey - researchers broke down what proportion of Mohammedan converts there were and then extrapolated the figures for Britain as a whole.

In all they estimated that there were 60,699 converts living in Britain in 2001.

With no new census planned until next year, researchers polled mosques in London to try to calculate how many conversions take place a year.

The results gave a figure of 1,400 conversions in the capital in the past 12 months which, when extrapolated nationwide, would mean approximately 5,200 people adopting Islam every year. The figures are comparable with studies in Germany and La Belle France which found that there were around 4,000 conversions a year.
Versus 15% of European Muslims leaving Islam, according to the same Times article linked above. For perspective, in 2009 the BBC said France had 5-6 million Muslims, and Germany 3 million.
Fiyaz Mughal, director of Faith Matters, admitted that coming up with a reliable estimate of the number of converts to Islam was notoriously difficult.

"This report is the best intellectual 'guestimate' using census numbers, local authority data and polling from mosques," he said.

"Either way few people doubt that the number adopting Islam in the UK has risen dramatically in the past 10 years." Asked why people were converting in such large numbers he replied "I think there is definitely a relationship between conversions being on the increase and the prominence of Islam in the public domain.

People are interested in finding out what Islam is all about and when they do that they go in different directions.

Most shrug their shoulders and return to their lives but some will inevitably end up liking what they discover and will convert." Batool al-Toma, an Irish born convert to Islam of 25 years who works at the Islamic Foundation and runs the New Mohammedans Project, one of the earliest groups set up specifically to help converts, said she believed the new figures were "a little on the high side".

"My guess would be the real figure is somewhere in between previous estimates, which were too low, and this latest one," she said.

"I definitely think there has been a noticeable increase in the number of converts in recent years. The media often tries to pinpoint specifics but the reasons are as varied as the converts themselves." Inayat Bunglawala, founder of Mohammedans4UK, which promotes active Mohammedan engagement in British society, said the figures were "not implausible".

"It would mean that around one in 600 Britons is a convert to the faith," he said.

"Islam is a missionary religion and many Mohammedan organisations and particularly university students' Islamic societies have active outreach programmes designed to remove popular misconceptions about the faith." The report by Faith Matters also studied the way converts were portrayed by the media and found that while 32 per cent of articles on Islam published since 2001 were linked to terrorism or extremism, the figure jumped to 62 per cent with converts.

There are around 1.6 million Mohammedans in the UK, the majority from India and Pakistain.
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Britain
London mosque near Olympics site aborted
2010-01-19
[Al Arabiya Latest] Plans to build a giant mosque near London's 2012 Olympic stadium have collapsed after local authorities said Monday an Islamic group failed to submit a planning application in time.

Tablighi Jamaat, a group with roots in India, wants to build a complex with space for 12,000 worshippers in east London which would be a hub for Muslim competitors and spectators at the Games.

But the group missed a deadline this month to formally outline its plans to the local London authority, and it has now been issued with a warning that it must close a temporary mosque it is operating on the site by Thursday.

There was an outcry when the group unveiled its plans for the site in 2007, with 48,000 people petitioning the government to prevent the development.

Tablighi Jamaat was founded in India during the British Raj. It says it is apolitical, but opponents of the mosque plan have expressed concern at the group's strict interpretation of Islam.

A spokesman for the local Newham Council said: "The council has a responsibility to be reasonable in such cases and the (mosque) trust was encouraged to submit a long-term strategy for the site, which is identified as having significant developmental opportunities for the local community.

"This did not happen.

"Temporary planning permission expired on Oct. 31, 2006 and any operations since then have been unlawful. The trust was given until January to submit a master plan for the site, although failed to meet this deadline."

A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain said Tablighi Jamaat had been "subjected to some unfair coverage."

"We would hope that they will be able to work in cooperation with the local council if they wish to set up a mosque in the area," spokesman Inayat Bunglawala said.

He added: "Tablighi Jamaat has no ties to terrorism. It has been subjected to some unfair coverage."
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India-Pakistan
Minhaj-ul-Quran to issue Fatwa against attacks on civilians
2010-01-18
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] The 600-page document, drawn up by Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri, declares that attacks on innocent citizens are "absolutely against the teachings of Islam".

The Minhaj-ul-Qur'aan, a Sufi organisation based in East London, which advises the British government on how to combat radicalisation of the Muslim youth, will launch the 600-page Fatwa against suicide bombings and terrorism, declaring them un-Islamic, tomorrow.

It condemns the perpetrators of terrorist explosions and suicide bombings. The document, written by Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri, declares the suicide bombings and terrorism as "totally un-Islamic". It is one of the most detailed and comprehensive documents of its kind to be published in Britain.

The Fatwa, which was released in Pakistan last month, uses texts from the Holy Qur'aan and other Islamic writings to argue that attacks against innocent citizens are "absolutely against the teachings of Islam and that Islam does not permit such acts on any excuse, reason or pretext." Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said: "All these acts are grave violations of human rights and constitute Kufr, disbelief, under the Islamic law."

Radical Islamists will dismiss the Fatwa, but it will be welcomed by many Muslims from the large community of South Asian heritage in Britain, among whom confusion about religious teaching is exploited by extremists seeking to recruit suicide bombers. "Extremist groups start brainwashing the young students from British universities and eventually convince them to oppose integration in the British society," said Shahid Mursaleen, a spokesman for the Minhaj-ul-Qur'aan.

The Fatwa would help fight extremist recruitment of young Muslims and was "one of the most comprehensive verdicts on this topic in the history of Islam", he added. Inayat Bunglawala, the former spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain and founder of the new group Muslims4UK, set up to counter the radical message of the newly-banned Islam4UK and other extremist groups, welcomed the Fatwa.
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Olde Tyme Religion
Islamic law challenges Western freedom: report
2009-06-30
[Al Arabiya Latest] Islamic law should not be recognized under the United Kingdom's arbitration laws because its principles are outdated and they contradict Western laws, a report by a British think-tank said on Monday, which UK Muslim figures have dismissed as ''scaremongering.''

The report, Shariah Law or One for All?, claimed to have discovered as many as 85 Islamic ''courts'' operating in Britain that hand out unofficial rulings, or fatwas, sought by devout Muslims from their mosque imams, which the report claims are in contrast to the laws applied in British courts.

''They are not official in terms of British law but they carry weight in terms of Shariah,'' Dennis MacEoin, author of the report published by independent think-tank Civitas, told Al Arabiya, adding such rulings are ''inappropriate with Western legislation.''

MacEoin said he believed the worst contradictions were in Shariah's laws on marriage and divorce and said Muslim men can easily divorce their wives, leaving the woman with no rights and turning Muslim women into ''second class citizens.''

When asked about Beth Din, the Jewish court that operates freely across the U.K., MacEoin said they only rule according to British law.

''It is discriminatory against a woman and I'm not happy about that," MacEoin explained.

According to Jewish law it is ''very difficult'' for a woman to get a divorce from her husband and this makes the arguments against Islamic law applicable to Jewish law.

MacEoin said he believed Shariah was outdated and was ''no longer appropriate for the modern period'' because ''it is not how the world works any more.''

He added it was not possible to integrate Shariah law into British law and said the current situation was harmful to relations between Muslims and non-Muslims and hindered Muslim integration into British society.

Last year, head of the Anglican Church and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, caused public outcry when he suggested that the adoption of aspects of Islamic law in the U.K. was "unavoidable."

The issue of integrating Britain's 1.8 million Muslims has been widely debated since July 2005, when four British Islamists carried out suicide bombings on London's transport system, killing 52 people.

However a member of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) criticized the report, splashed across the British press, for its lack of research credibility. ''It must be gratifying to be able to publish work without ever properly researching the subject matter,'' the unnamed MCB member wrote on Engage, a U.K.-based media awareness website. ''And it says something of any institute willing to even entertain the idea of publishing such poor quality work.''

Inayat Bunglawala, also of MCB, told Britain's the Telegraph: "To term them Shariah courts is ridiculous, it's just scaremongering."

Bunglawala was referring to the 85 ''courts'' allegedly operating across the U.K., which is a massive jump from only five believed to be dotted around the country.
Link


Britain
UK police release all Pakistani terrorism suspects
2009-04-23
[Al Arabiya Latest] British police said on Wednesday they would bring no charges against 12 men seized in raids to foil a suspected al-Qaeda plot that were brought forward due to a security breach. The men, 11 Pakistanis and one Briton, were arrested around northwest England on April 8 as part of a counterterrorism operation.

Police said all the suspects, aged between 22 and 38, had been released although 11 had been handed over to immigration officials and face deportation on national security grounds. Prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to justify holding them any longer or bringing charges, police said.

"As there are ongoing issues of matters of national security around this investigation, it does limit what we are able to say," said Chief Constable Peter Fahy. "We had a duty to act to protect the public and a subsequent duty to investigate what lay before us. We don't take these decisions lightly and only carry out this kind of action if it is wholly justified."

Media reports at the time of the arrests said police believed a large attack in Britain was in its final stages. An unnamed source close to the investigation was quoted by the BBC as saying it was a "very, very big attack."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said at the time the operation involved a "major terrorist plot," which briefing documents said was linked to al-Qaeda.

A Border Agency spokeswoman said: "The government's highest priority is to protect public safety. Where a foreign national poses a threat to this country we will seek to exclude or to deport, where this is appropriate."

The government has come under pressure to strengthen its visa rules after it emerged that 10 of the Pakistani men were in Britain on student visas.

Relatives of the suspects in Pakistan had pleaded their innocence and demanded access to them, saying neither the British nor the Pakistan government had provided them with information on their detention.

"Protecting the public is the main focus of the police. These arrests were carried out after a number of U.K. agencies gathered information that indicated a potential risk to public safety," the police spokeswoman said Tuesday. "Officers are continuing to review a large amount of information gathered as part of this investigation. Investigations of this nature are extremely complex."

Brown angered Pakistani officials after the April 8 arrests by calling on Pakistan to do more to "root out the terrorist elements in its country".

Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain Wajid Shamsul Hasan responded by saying Britain should do more by allowing Pakistan to scrutinize people applying for visas.

Several plots to launch attacks on Britain have had links to Pakistan, including suicide bombings in 2005 which killed 52 people on three trains and a bus in London.

The Muslim Council of Britain criticized Brown for his remarks. Spokesman Inayat Bunglawala said the decision to deport the men following their release was "very dishonorable."

"When these arrests took place, in very dramatic circumstances with students being pulled from universities and thrown to the floor, we were told by the Prime Minister no less that this was part of a very big terrorist plot," he said. "We would hope that senior ministers and the Prime Minister will understand that it is completely unfair to make prejudicial and premature remarks in cases like this."
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Britain
Government adviser on Islamic terror arrested after man is stabbed at his home
2009-03-15
A Muslim who advised the Government following the July 7 London bombings has been arrested after an alleged stabbing. Inayat Bunglawala, 39, was held on suspicion of attacking another man at his £300,000 home.

Mr Bunglawala, who also briefed former Security Minister Tony McNulty on the threat posed by Islamic radicals in the UK, was arrested two weeks before Christmas last year. The identity of the alleged victim is unknown and it is not clear what circumstances led to the alleged attack in the early hours of December 13 last year. Mr Bunglawala has been released on bail while the Crown Prosecution Service considers bringing charges.

Mr Bunglawala is one of the most prominent members of the Muslim Council of Britain, an organisation which advises the Government on extremism and counter-terrorism. After the July 7 London bombings in 2005, he was one of seven Muslims appointed to a Home Office taskforce tackling radicalisation in the UK. Last week, Mr Bunglawala was featured on the BBC and in many newspapers as the moderate ‘voice’ of British Islam after the Luton anti-war demonstrations.

Critics claim his arrest will once again focus attention on the MCB. In his final years as Prime Minister, Tony Blair came to distrust the organisation amid claims it was linked to Islamic extremism. But the MCB has enjoyed a renaissance under Gordon Brown and briefed Counter-Terrorism Minister Bill Rammell on community tensions last week. MCB representatives also advised Foreign Secretary David Miliband during last year’s Israel-Gaza War.

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, who worked as a security adviser to Mr Brown, said of the alleged incident: ‘This calls into question the Government’s vetting of its Islamic advisers.’ Mr Bunglawala has previously worked as a civil servant at Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs but now runs an Islamic website. His wife, Tahmina Saleem, works for Redbridge Council in East London. They have several children. According to the Land Registry’s records, Mr Bunglawala bought his large Luton townhouse for £300,000 in August 2007.

Many in the Islamic community have been concerned at his behaviour. Mr Bunglawala – the MCB assistant general secretary and Press spokesman – lodged a complaint with the BBC after its website described firebrand cleric Abu Qatada as an ‘extremist’. Dubbed Al Qaeda’s ‘Ambassador in Europe’, Abu Qatada gave religious authority to extremist groups in the UK and abroad, including the men behind the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre. Last night, a BBC News source said: ‘We were right to call Abu Qatada an extremist and we would be happy to do so again.’
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Britain
Anti-terror code 'would alienate most Muslims'
2009-02-22
The government is considering plans that would lead to thousands more British Muslims being branded as extremists, the Guardian has learned. The proposals are in a counterterrorism strategy which ministers and security officials are drawing up that is due to be unveiled next month.

Some say the plans would see views held by most Muslims in Britain being classed by the government as extreme. According to a draft of the strategy, Contest 2 as it is known in Whitehall, people would be considered as extremists if:

  • They advocate a caliphate, a pan-Islamic state encompassing many countries.

  • They promote Sharia law.

  • They believe in jihad, or armed resistance, anywhere in the world. This would include armed resistance by Palestinians against the Israeli military.

  • They argue that Islam bans homosexuality and that it is a sin against Allah.

  • They fail to condemn the killing of British soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan.

    • Contest 2 would widen the definition of extremists to those who hold views that clash with what the government defines as shared British values. Those who advocate the wider definition say hardline Islamist interpretation of the Qur'an leads to views that are the root cause of the terrorism threat Britain faces. But opponents say the strategy would brand the vast majority of British Muslims as extremists and alienate them even further.

    The Guardian has also learned of a separate secret Whitehall counterterrorism report advocating widening the definition of who is considered extremist. Not all in Whitehall agree with the proposals and one official source said plans to widen the definition were "incendiary" and could alienate Muslims, whose support in the counterterrorism effort is needed. There were also fears it could aid the far right.

    Contest 2 is still being finalised by officials and ministers. Those considered extreme would not be targeted by the criminal law, but would be sidelined and denied public funds. Ed Husain, of the Quilliam Foundation thinktank, said the root causes of terrorism were extremist views, even if those advocating the views did not call for violence.

    Husain, once an extremist himself, said: "Violent extremism is produced by Islamist extremism and it's only right to get into the root causes."

    Inayat Bunglawala, a former spokesman for the Muslim Council of Great Britain, said such plans would affect many British Muslims. Bunglawala, who now runs Engage, which tries to get Muslims to participate in politics and civic society, said: "That would alienate the majority of the British Muslim public. It would be counterproductive and class most Muslims as extremists."

    In a speech in December, the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, said the government's counterterrorism strategy had to include challenging nonviolent extremist groups that "skirt the fringes of the law ... to promote hate-filled ideologies".

    The Contest strategy was put in place in 2003 as the UK beefed up its response to the threat of al-Qaida inspired terrorism. But the security service's assessment shows no drop in those they consider dangerous and the UK's terror threat level remains at severe general.

    The Home Office said: "We don't comment on leaked documents."
    Link


    Britain
    One Brit gets It
    2008-04-02
    Mrs Ruoff, a former nurse and magistrate, is a conservative evangelical regarded as one of the more outspoken Synod members. She responded to Dr William's sharia lecture by calling for the Archbishop's resignation. Speaking on Premier Christian Radio, she said: "We are constantly building new mosques, which are paid for by the oil states.

    "There are enough mosques for Muslims in this country.

    "You build a mosque and then what happens? You have Muslim people moving into that area, all the shops become Islamic, all the housing will become Islamic and that will be a no-go area for anyone else.
    Give a mouse a cookie...
    "They will bring in Islamic law. We cannot allow that to happen.

    "We are still a Christian country,
    That's debatable, especially after Emir Chuck sits on the big rug.
    we need to hold on to that."

    Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "These are very narrow-minded and bigoted remarks. As a Christian, she surely ought to be working to build good ties between different communities."
    Including the ones who want to kill her.
    Link


    Britain
    RAF surveillance planes hear Taliban fighters talking in British accents
    2008-02-11
    The Taliban are thought to be recruiting an increasing number of fighters from Britain after RAF experts overheard secret transmissions from the Afghan frontline spoken in broad Midlands and Yorkshire accents.
    i.e. they grew up in the UK versus being educated briefly in British universities from abroad
    Specialists in top secret surveillance planes listened in on radio traffic broadcast by the Taliban in Helmand province and heard fighters talking in thick regional accents. The discovery indicates that a growing number of British-born Muslim are turning their backs on the West and moving to Afghanistan to be trained as fighters.

    It has been reported that RAF radio operators were able to hear the young fighters speaking in clear Bradford and West Bromwich accents. The linguistics experts were listening to the conversations from specially adapted Nimrod planes flying above the province.
    One reason they're so concerned about losing the Nimrod.
    The Taliban reportedly spoke mainly in Afghan Persian or Pashto - but when they were stuck for words, they would slip back into their native language. "The mission specialists could easily jam the Taliban transmissions but the RAF believes listening in to their plans is much more productive," a source said to The Sun.

    It was quite startling to hear English being spoken with clear Bradford and West Brom accents. "They reverted to English when they couldn't remember the Afghan Persian or Pashto - the two local languages - for certain words."

    The newspaper said that the transmissions were picked up by three converted Nimrods that are usually based at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, with 51 Squadron. The planes fly at more than 40,000ft and with language specialists on board who operate surveillance equipment known as "The Package".
    Why not just publish the frequencies while you're at it?
    General Sir Anthony Walker, former deputy chief of the defence staff, said: "We seem to have confirmation that fanatical jihadists from Britain are working on the frontline of the the war in Afghanistan.

    "Eavesdropping seldom has a good image.

    "But let's hope the perseverance and dedication of our listeners-in-the-sky continues to save the lives of our men and women."

    The Ministry of Defence said in a statement: "The Nimrod R1 operated by 51 Squadron has a highly sophisticated and sensitive suite of systems used for reconnaissance and gathering electronic intelligence. However, due to operational security, we are unable to discuss its operations."

    Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, expressed his shock at the report. He said he was aware that some British Muslims travelled to Afghanistan to fight when hostilities began in 2001. He had heard of no cases since then, but accepted it was "not beyond the bounds of possibility", given that the conflict had lasted so long. Mr Bunglawala said: "I do know that when the initial bombing was occurring in late 2001, there was a lot of sympathy for the Afghan people, who had endured so much.

    "I am surprised if people are going now. I wasn't surprised then, but I am surprised now. That's the effect of the conflict having dragged on. We were told it would all be over in a few weeks, but the end is still not in sight."

    He urged British Muslims opposed to the war in Afghanistan to protest peacefully using the democratic means available in the UK. "I don't think it can be denied that our actions overseas have contributed to some British Muslims being radicalised," he said.
    They're Victims®.
    "Our advice to youngsters is to campaign within the democratic framework here. Going to fight British soldiers in Afghanistan leaves them open to accusations, quite rightly, that they are betraying their own country."
    Some of us think so, anyway. Depends on what country they identify with.
    Link


    Britain
    Muslim women to curb terror
    2008-01-06
    MUSLIM women are to be sent on leadership and assertiveness courses to help to prevent Islamic extremism.
    Knives and pruning shears would work better ...
    In an attempt to stop young Muslims being seduced by Al-Qaeda, women will be sent on training courses designed for FTSE 100 managers to give them the skills and confidence to confront fanatics.
    How about skills and confidence to prevent honor killings?
    Amid fears that extremists are becoming more sophisticated in their recruitment, Hazel Blears, the communities secretary, has concluded that a key way to stop extremist ideas further permeating Muslim communities is to give “the silent majority” a stronger voice. She is to publish a good practice guidance document which will say that “resilient communities can only exist where women are playing a full and active part”.
    Great in theory but you're dealing with a group where women are regarded as breeding stock. Going to take more than 'communication strategies' to help out.
    Blears will tell local authorities to use part of a £70m government fund set up to combat extremism to pay for the courses in confidence building, communication and mediation skills.
    £70m would pay for a lot of knives ...
    Muslim women will be offered work placements with business leaders and top athletes to imbue assertiveness and leadership and help them to advance their careers. Funding will be available to set up local Muslim women’s groups to provide a “safe space” where they can discuss their concerns. The plan is likely to attract criticism from some Muslim men who will see it as a threat to cultural traditions about the role of women in society.

    Blears believes that Muslim women have “untapped potential” to become a voice of moderation in communities targeted by fanatics. Half of all Muslim women have never worked and the government believes that improving their educational and job prospects will boost their influence.

    A Whitehall source said: “Muslim women can have a unique moral authority at the heart of families as sisters, mothers and friends and must be supported to play a greater role in tackling extremist ideology.”

    The plans have already provoked a mixed response among Muslims. The Muslim Council of Britain accused the government of trying to turn women into government spies. “The government at first wanted our imams to act as spies on young British Muslims and now they seem to want Muslim women to do the same,” said Inayat Bunglawala, the council’s assistant secretary-general.

    Shaista Gohir, chief executive of the Muslim Women’s Network, said: “It’s not about Muslim women becoming investigators, it’s about giving them a greater role in Muslim public life.”
    It's about letting them say 'no' and mean it.
    Professional motivational firms will run role-play courses in which Muslim women will learn how to confront fanatics. Some of the courses will be run by actors who are expected to pose as radicals espousing violent jihadist arguments, whom the women will be taught to challenge effectively. Mothers will also be offered confidence-building courses to help them speak out if they see their children being wooed by extremist preachers. The courses will help young women to have the confidence to challenge young radical men in debate.

    The Home Office estimates between 10,000 and 15,000 British Muslims support Al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups. The document, to be published this month, will express concern that extremists are targeting young people aged between 16 and 35.

    “Extremists’ operation methods and use of technology are becoming ever more sophisticated. They are exploiting ungoverned spaces such as the internet, bookshops and cafes and using new media to put across slick and seductive messages,” a draft of the paper says. “This is about giving the silent majority a stronger voice in their communities and equipping people with the skills and strength to withstand the messages of extremists preaching division and hatred.”

    Muslims have three times the unemployment rate of the general population, with more than half economically inactive.
    Link


    Britain
    Bunglawala Sez: "Lyrical Terrorist" Case Reveals UK Oppression
    2007-11-13
    Inayat Bunglawala, Guardian
    I seem to recall that a California blog received e-mail threats from an office building where Bungy was employed.
    The conviction last Thursday of the self-styled "Lyrical Terrorist", 23-year old Samina Malik, marks a further dramatic erosion of our liberties in the United Kingdom.
    The British public was outraged when the leader of the Muslim Council of Britain, complained of "Nazism" in the UK, and did so 1 day before "Armistice Day" (Nov. 11)
    In the wake of the guilty verdict, several newspapers printed extracts from her attempts at poetry, including gems such as How to Behead, and The Living Martyrs. The court had heard that on an online social networking group known as Hi-5 Samina Malik had listed her interests as "helping the mujahideen any way I can" and, in the section for her favourite TV shows, she entered "watching videos by Muslim brothers in Iraq, yep, the beheading ones".

    However, Malik was also said to have downloaded some material from the internet including The al-Qaida Manual and The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook - it took me less than a minute to find both of these using Google, along with a document entitled How To Win Hand-to-Hand Fighting.

    Although she was acquitted of the more serious charge under section 57 of the Terrorism Act of possessing an item for a "purpose" connected with terrorism, she was still convicted under section 58 of the same act which states:

    A person commits an offence if ... he collects or makes a record of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism

    It hardly needs stating how incredibly broadly this act can be interpreted. The act does allow a defence for a person to download such material if the person can "prove that he had a reasonable excuse for his action or possession". Evidently, the court felt that Samina Malik had no such reasonable excuse and as the Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, of Scotland Yard, remarked after the trial: "Merely possessing this material is a serious criminal offence."

    It is to be hoped that this case may yet serve as a demonstration of just how badly-framed some of our anti-terror legislation actually is. In a truly free society, it should not be a crime to merely download and read such material.

    During her trial, Malik argued that she was not a terrorist and that she had chosen the online moniker "Lyrical terrorist" simply because it had "sounded cool" and that her poetry, online remarks and downloading of internet material was undertaken in an attempt to attract male admirers.
    The "poetess" clearly declared her hate for the majority in her adopted homeland, and she more than advocated violence, she expressed an intent to personally act on her hate.
    Her story is quite plausible and I am sure there must be many more like her. Countless young British Muslims visit popular internet sites such as YouTube every day to obtain footage of what is really happening in Iraq and come across sickening material such as US soldiers deliberately killing a clearly wounded Iraqi and then appearing to gloat over the murder, a US soldier in Iraq using a loudhailer to taunt Muslims with his expletive-filled mocking of the Islamic call to prayer, footage graphically showing the enormous and terrible impact of the US-led war on Iraqi civilians (this last one has the haunting Manic Street Preachers hit, If you tolerate this your children will be next ... as its soundtrack). If you have not already done so, then do try viewing some of this material - there is a lot more out there - and ask yourself whether, if you were a 23-year-old it might not also have prompted dark thoughts to cross your own mind, however fleetingly, and perhaps even have led you to download similar material from the internet.

    Samina has been put under house arrest for the time being, but she must return for sentencing on December 6. As one blogger noted, it will be interesting to see if the judge chooses to make an example of her in order to discourage others or if he chooses instead to make an example of what is undoubtedly a bad and illiberal law whose primary purpose is to punish people for having the wrong thoughts.

    There would appear to be something preposterously wrong with our criminal justice system if nearly five years after the Iraq war was launched and hundreds of thousands of wholly unnecessary deaths later, Tony Blair is able to just walk away from his responsibility for the ongoing carnage and unbelievably emerge as a Peace Envoy to the region, while a foolish young woman who did not harm anyone now faces a maximum 10-year term in prison for what can only be described as a thought crime.
    Free speech? Bungy and the MCB have a habit of demanding "hate" prosecutions of non-muslims who scrutinize his cult. He would jail "islamophobes" if he had the power.
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