The new year will be marked in Islamist style at the East London Mosque’s London Muslim Centre (LMC). On January 1 2010 it will host an event titled “Dark Forces – The Enemy Within”. Here’s the suitably sinister flyer.
Readers of this blog may recall an “End of Time” event at the LMC on New Year’s Day this year, where al Qaeda preacher Anwar al Awlaki was the star turn, via a video link from Yemen.
The organiser of that event was Noor Pro Media, whose home page ever so subtly features a DVD that explodes into a ball of flame.
The East London Mosque has not banned the Awlaki fans at Noor Pro – they are organising this event too.
Yasir Qadhi is one of the speakers. Apparently he will also deliver a sermon in the mosque on January 1. He is of course the man who, in nothing more than an exuberant phase typical of nice young men the world over, endorsed Holocaust denial and antisemitic “Khazar” tales in a lecture in the UK. You can listen to him here.
Two snippets:
As for 80 to 90% of the Jews in our times, they are Ashkenazis, i.e. Khazar, i.e. Russians, Turko-Russians. Look at them, white, crooked nose, blonde hairs, these are not the descendants of Jacob, these are not a Semitic people. Look at them. They don’t look like Semites. And they are not Semites. And like I’m telling you I am not inventing this from the top of my head. When I read it for the first time, I couldn’t believe it, this is just too good to be true, as they say. So I went back and I looked up Encyclopaedia Judaica, OK. Look it up yourselves. They are so embarrassed about this fact. That is why they don’t publicise it.
…
All of these Polish Jews which Hitler was supposedly trying to exterminate, that’s another point, by the way, Hitler never intended to mass-destroy the Jews. There are a number of books out on this written by Christians, you should read them. The Hoax of the Holocaust, I advise you to read this book and write this down, the Hoax of the Holocaust, a very good book. All of this is false propaganda and I know it sounds so far-fetched, but read it. The evidences [sic] are very strong. And they’re talking about newspaper articles, clippings, everything and look up yourself what Hitler really wanted to do. We’re not defending Hitler, by the way, but the Jews, the way that they portray him, also is not correct.
Rebuked for his antisemitism by Tory shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve at a London conference, Qadhi issued an indignant response on his Muslim Matters website, even titling it “GPU ‘08 with Yasir Qadhi: When Islamophobia Meets Perceived Anti-Semitism”. “Perceived”? Condemning a man for Holocaust denial is “Islamophobic”?
Qadhi blamed a notorious Holocaust denial website and the lack of Google and Wikipedia (that well-known reliable source) for his enthusiastic embrace of some of the worst forms of Jew hatred:
In the summer of 1999, someone had forwarded me a website of a group that called itself the ‘Institute for Historical Review’. At the time, I found the articles on it quite fascinating; the pseudo-scientific style in which they wrote gave the impression that they were a serious academic research body. It was only later, after more research, that I realized that they were a front for a group of actual anti-Semites, and were the leading Holocaust-denial organization in the world. Remember that this was a pre-Google and Wikipedia era, and I was sitting on the internet in my apartment in Saudi Arabia, far away from academic institutes where I could have verified the real agenda of this group. So, unfortunately, my mind abuzz with articles from this site, and believing there was legitimate scholarly difference of opinion over such issues, I digressed to a topic that I had not actually intended to talk about and made some serious historical blunders.
Perhaps some readers remember the “Institute for Historical Review” website of 1999. I do. It screamed Jew hatred. And there were, you know, history books before Google and Wikipedia. Thanks for the laugh, Mr Qadhi.
Qadhi also belittles criticism of his fellow Islamists. Here is his reaction to the broadcast of Undercover Mosque. It is a spectacular display of sectarian denial.
Even convicted and suspected terrorists are to be defended. For example, when Muslim Matters published some mild criticism of Tarek Mehanna, a man facing serious terrorism charges in the US whom Muslim Matters had championed in the past, the reaction from commenters was furious, the article was quickly removed and Qadhi issued a grovelling apology to readers.
There is a time and methodology to spread beneficial knowledge. Br. Tarek Mehanna had some history with MM, and that automatically should have disqualified us from speaking about him personally, because our motives would have become suspect (as they did) – even if, as Allah is my witness, I personally have no ill-will against the brother (and I am sure the others here at MM feel the same). Whatever point we wished to drive home through this article was obviously not accomplished. We should have spoken in generalities and not in specifics, and that was our biggest mistake in this article.
This is why Mehanna was snared by the feds:
Acting US Attorney Michael K. Loucks also released two undated photos of Mehanna smiling at Ground Zero in New York City with friends, as well as excerpts of conversations he allegedly had online in which he expressed admiration for Al Qaeda, the 19 hijackers who participated in the 9/11 attacks, and Osama bin Laden.
“I look to him . . . as being my real father, in a sense,’’ Mehanna allegedly wrote on April 28, 2006.
Mehanna, a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, was arrested Oct. 21 at his parents’ home in Sudbury on federal charges and is being held without bail. Prosecutors say he with Abousamra to join a terrorist camp overseas, to launch an attack on shoppers at a suburban American mall, to assassinate two members of the US government’s executive branch, and to attack US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tarek Mehanna grinning at Ground Zero in New York
Mehanna’s blog is still up. There you will find antisemitic tirades like this:
Their Kufr Is Worse than Their Bombing of Gaza!
In the Name of Allah, we praise Him and invoke peace and blessings upon His Messenger.
While we are all following the attacks on our brothers and sisters in Gaza in increasing anger, it is necessary to remember an essential theological concept with every dead woman or child we see on TV lying in a pile of rubble: our enmity towards this accursed nation should be first and foremost because of their kufr. Their offenses against Allah and His Prophets since the start of their existence far outweigh in evil and vileness all of the bombs, missiles, killing, starvation, and expulsion they have afflicted us with since 1948.
When one looks through their history, one finds example after example of stubbornness, rejection, and mockery of the signs of Allah. By Allah, every time I go back and read their tragic stories with Prophet Musa, I still shake my head at how a group can be filled with such stubborn disbelief despite the presence of a real live Messenger from Allah in their midst
Indeed, how could one have any “ill will” towards such a brother.
Another speaker at the “Dark Forces” event is Abdul Majid Ali Hasan, an Islam Channel presenter. Here is his call to Muslims to wake up about the “kaffirs” at the “End of Time” event in January 2009:
Some excerpts:
Your wealth, your business, and your houses, your dwellings, if they are more beloved to you than Allah and fighting in his cause, then wait for Allah’s punishment to come. And Allah’s punishment came to us in Spain, Allah’s punishment came to us in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Allah’s punishment came to us in Kashmir, Allah’s punishment came to us in Afghanistan, Allah’s punishment came to us in Iraq, Allah’s punishment came to us in Palestine.
This is what we are asking Allah to send us the punishment. It is not because these kuffar are powerful. As I said, the match, heavyweight and lightweight. It’s not these kuffar, don’t ever think that these kuffar are supported and helped by Allah. They can’t do anything to Muslims! They can’t do anything to the Muslims. Allah is there with us all the time, but we are turning Allah away from us.
…
This book (the Qur’an) will help you, will give you the prosperity, will give you the victory over these kuffar. You will be victorious all the time. Kaffir cannot touch you. Kaffir cannot even look at you.
…
Bush, or our former prime minister Tony Blair, or any person in the world, if they are fighting us, or killing us, or talking things about us, it is because they know that we are not those who are promised the victory.
The third speaker is Hamza Tzortzis of the Hittin Institute. He is closely associated with Hizb-ut-Tahrir. He supports a caliphate and opposes secularism and freedom of speech, as you will see in this speech, which is hosted on Hizb’s website.
We as Muslims reject the idea of freedom of speech, and even the idea of freedom. We see under the Khilafa (caliphate), when people used to engage in a positive way, this idea of freedom was redundant, it was unnecessary, because the society understood under the education system of the Khilafa state, and under the political framework of Islam, that people must engage with each other in a positive and productive way to produce results, as the Qur’an says, to get to know one another. Whereas in this society, what they call debate and positive discourse is printing cartoons. What they call debate and positive discourse is creating a rhetorically-driven, and gender-motivated, politically-motivated film. Is this facilitating debate and discourse in a positive way in a postmodern society? Of course not.
This month the Hittin Institute has backed Viva Palestina, George Galloway’s Hamas support operation, against lying Israel. Hamas did not threaten Israel’s security, you see. The statement also rolls out the usual solution for Palestine too – sharia:
Following the success of the Viva Palestina led aid convoy to Gaza in February 2009, a second convoy left for Gaza in late November of the same year, approximately a year after the bombardment of defenceless and innocent peoples in the densely populated strip. Millions across the world were angered by the belligerence of the Israeli government and the apathy of the International community. Israel was given carte blanche to perpetrate some of the heaviest bombardment seen in recent history under the false pretext that its security was threatened. After the bombing finally halted Israel left behind scorched earth, devastated services and thousands dead and injured.
The Hittin Institute was vocal during the Gaza onslaught by participating in debates and discussion with many academics including Tony Benn, Brenden O’Neill, Tariq Ramadan and several others, and put forward the case for the necessity of Shari’ah law in Palestine, and highlighted the history of progressive and harmonious La Convivencia under Islamic rule in the Holy Land. The institute also authored articles that put forward the same case – ‘One State Solution: A Jewish Dream’ and ‘The Gaza Massacre and Neo-Conservatism.’ It further delivered dozens of lectures in universities highlighting the plight of the Palestinians and the progressive way forward.
The “One State Solution” article is a call for the annihilation of Israel, including some comical denial of antisemitism:
Therefore, the modern scholarly opinions too seem to suggest that the Muslims were never anti-Semitic nor did they ever persecute Jews because of their religion. If the Muslims have this historical record then they should be allowed to run the affairs of Palestine and other Islamic lands ensuring that the Islamic law is implemented comprehensively, as it was the effective implementation of this law in the first place which produced the ‘Golden Age’ discussed above. The ‘One State Solution’ based upon the Islamic model supported by Shari’ah is a cohesive model that allows a diverse multitude of ethnicities to co-exist and enjoy the same freedoms and rights that are thwarted by the Zionist state today. The ‘Two State Solution’ based upon Secular Democracy does not qualify to be a solution for the conflict, but rather will only intensify the divisions between the Muslim Palestinians. Furthermore, the proposal of the ‘Two State Solution’ is divisive and advocates the segregation of a ‘Jewish’ Sate from a Secular ‘Muslim’ state, proving that it is not a long term solution for the Middle East.
The deluded and hateful arrogance of this eliminationist position is shocking. Finding one of its advocates welcomed at the London Muslim Centre is not. It is extremist business as usual in Whitechapel.
According to its annual reports, over the last two financial years the East London Mosque has received over £1 million in public sector funding.
UPDATE: Guess whom the organisers of the event will be pushing? Why, al Qaeda preacher Anwar al Awlaki, of course.
