So, Daud Abdullah and the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) with him have come out fighting against the government. This move will bring the records of both under scrutiny.
In this post, let’s take a look back at just one scene from Abdullah’s life as an extremist, this time at home in the UK rather than Istanbul.
First, some background. “Al Quds [Jerusalem] Day” is a march for Israel haters, held on the last Friday of the month of Ramadan. It was established by the Ayatollah Khomeini and is still marked worldwide by Islamist extremists.
In London it is organised by the self-styled “Islamic Human Rights Commission” (IHRC). Its politics are plain enough. In addition to campaigning against Israel, the IHRC supports Islamists in legal trouble, including convicted and suspected terrorists, such as Omar Abdel-Rahman and Babar Ahmad.
This quote from Massoud Shadjareh, the IHRC’s chairman, is neatly telling about the man and his outfit. He pegged the conviction of Abu Hamza, one of the UK’s most notorious Islamists, not as a welcome victory for justice but as a provocation:
“This is creating an environment that can only further alienate the Muslim community.”
Note that the IHRC has listed the MCB itself as one of the sponsors of Al Quds Day demonstrations, alongside (among others) the “Stop the War Coalition” and the Palestinian Return Centre, a pro-Hamas group where Abdullah has been a “researcher” since 1996.
Abdullah spoke at the Al Quds Day demonstrations in 2006 and 2008. This is an excerpt from his speech in 2006:
Many people thought, 100 years ago, that there will be no Zionist state in Palestine. They doubted it, but it became a reality. So don’t you doubt that masjid al Aqsa [the al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem] cannot be destroyed. Don’t you doubt it. There is ample evidence that there is excavation beneath al Quds, that there are chemicals in the foundations of our masjid al Aqsa, which will lead to its collapse, and you should not doubt it.
Israel, you see, wants to destroy a sacred Islamic site, by way of burrowing and chemical assault.
You can listen to the whole 4 minute tirade here:
This is straightforward incitement to religious hatred, delivered by a fanatic to this kind of “we are all Hezbollah” audience (this is the 2008 march):
And here is a collection of pictures from the 2006 march. Hezbollah flags were a must.
Other hateful and annihilationist chants at the demonstrations include the ever-popular “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea” and “With blood, with guns, we will free Palestine”.
Furthermore, Abdullah has chosen interesting company at the microphone: in recent years fellow speakers at London Al Quds Day demonstrations have included known extremists George Galloway, Ismail Patel, Yvonne Ridley, and Azzam Tamimi.
This is Abdullah’s political world. He is an extremist, a promoter of terrorism, a disgrace. He cannot spin his way out of the record. Trying to do so, he may well take the MCB down with him.
Now that would be good for Britain.
