A few days ago, Azad Ali complained:
It’s funny how ‘Habibi’ (who sounds familiar) and David Toube both have not challenged any of my points here. Perhaps they feel they can’t get away from fom cut and pasting half quotes to paint a different picture!
It would be very unfair to condemn Mr Ali by “cut and pasting half quotes to paint a different picture”. I agree that it is vital that we hear what he has to say, in full, if we are to appreciate Azad Ali’s hopes for the future of humanity.
Let us take Azad Ali’s September 2008 post in full, and subject it to a proper fisking.
Amir al-Mu’mineen
This term means “Commander of the Believers”
For those few who do not know what a ‘caliph’ is or more appropriately what a Khilafa is, here is a quick definition. In Islam, Khalifa or Caliph (English word) is the successor to the Prophet, peace be upon him, in his role as leader of the Muslims and the head of its political, military and administrative systems. So the Khalifa is the successor and the Khilafa is the government system of which he is the head.
A Caliphate is a theocratic state, which applies a Sharia law system in which religious dissenters are executed as “apostates”, women and religious minorities are politically disempowered and subject to entrenched legal inquality, and in which homosexuals are executed. Such a state would be utterly incompatible with liberal democracy, equality between persons, or the norms of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Remember that Azad Ali is blogging on the website of the Islamic Forum Europe, which is the European franchise of the South Asian clerical fascist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, which aims to create precisely such a state.
So, since we are all working our socks off, in different ways, for the resurgence of the Khilafa, I have one question who would you give bayyah to today and what would you say are the qualities needed for them to get your vote? Please, no essays or dissertations!
Hang on a moment. I thought that Azad Ali was “working his socks off” through the Muslim Safety Forum for crime prevention and good Police-Muslim relations, and as a National Council member of Liberty, for the preservation of human rights and civil liberties.
Is Azad saying that, really, what he’s up to is “working his socks off” for the “resurgence” of a clerical fascist state that would trample over the liberties of Muslims and non-Muslims alike?
I’m shocked!
Try to avoid the obvious things i.e. that it must be a ‘he’, and a Muslim and be of high moral character and be learned in the deen etc. I’m asking for what would make you personally choose someone.
Hang on a second. Surely this is going to be an equal opportunities Caliphate? One in which women and non-Muslims also get to stand for election.
I mean, there is going to be an election? Not just a coup?
Isn’t there?
My vote for the title of Amir al-Mu’mineen would have to go to the Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh.
Oh, right.
So Azad Ali’s choice for International Commander of the Believers is… the leader of a racist genocidal terrorist movement, which is established on the premise that Jews control the world through Rotary and Lions Clubs, and that in the final hour, all Muslims will fight and kill all Jews.
Wanker.
Not only is a motivational leader, with political depth and skill, but also he is a Hafiz of the Qur’an, Mashallah!
He has memorised a book. Mashallah indeed!
Name me one other Muslim leader that is currently leading his people in salat al-Tarawih? I cannot think of another single leader that can lead his people like this!
Because, obviously, the best qualification for a political leader – who has to balance budgets and things like that – is the ability to lead Muslims in special prayers.
So for me, once meeting the obvious requirements to be Khalifa – what tipped my vote for Ismail Haniyeh was the knowledge that this leader was truly a servant of Allah. Reading up on him, I immediately recalled the famous words of Abu Bakr (ra) “The weak among you shall be strong with me until their rights have been vindicated; and the strong among you shall be weak with me until, if the Lord wills, I have taken what is due from them…”
Doesn’t Abu Bakr’s logic indicate that, because Hamas is weak and penned in, God is against them?
Has he thought this through?
Unfortunately, we do not hear enough of these stories of our leaders leading salah, tarawih, hajj etc, sadly we only read about these things in history books!
So who would you vote for?
Anybody but a genocidal theocratic lunatic.
Remember, while reading this piece, that Azad Ali is a man who is treated with respect by the Police, by the leading civil liberties group, Liberty, and by the head of the Civil Service, Gus O’Donnell.
How has this happened?
