“The Platform” is the Muslim Council of Britain’s new youth outreach initiative.
One of its latest articles, titled “Respectable” Racism, is by Hilary Aked, the editor of London Student. She says:
On Christmas 2009 day a former UCL student is accused of attempting to commit mass murder by blowing up a plane in Detroit.
A flurry of media reports suggesting that he may have been ‘radicalised’ whilst at university in London followed. Although there is no evidence of this, some newspapers presented the fact that he had organised events on the War on Terror as some sort of early warning sign. The absurdity of this is staggering and dangerous.
It is clear that ‘extremist’ is such a vaguely defined conceptual term that in some minds any Muslim with an opinion, especially one critical of Britain or America’s foreign policy, is suspect. This mentality threatens to curtail freedom of speech by intimidation and silence of dissent, and turn into a McCarthyist witch-hunt against left-wing Muslims. A distinction has to be drawn between voicing anger at the suffering caused by the violence of Western governments and espousing violence as a response.
Ho ho.
Here are five people who spoke at University College London’s student Islamic society (ISOC) when the underwear bomber was a student, a member of the ISOC and, in 2006-07, its president.
Taji Mustafa of Hizb ut Tahrir:
This ummah needs a ruler who will stand up for Islam. Who will unite us behind Qur’an. Who will follow the words of the prophet and who will send an army. The army of Egypt is not the army of Egypt. The army of Iran is not the army of Iran. The army of Jordan is not the army of Jordan. These are the armies of Islam. These are the armies of the Muslim ummah. These are the armies that have to move. Takbir! Takbir! Takbir!
…
Yes, give your charity, may Allah accept it. Yes, make duaa (prayer) for the Palestinians, may Allah accept it. But you have to call, you have to demand, you have to march, that the Muslim armies, they have to disobey their orders. The Muslim armies in Egypt, Jordan and Syria, they have to disobey their presidents and these puppets of the West. They have to move across the borders. They have to liberate Gaza. They have to liberate Palestine, the whole of the land again. Takbir! Takbir! Takbir!
Asim Qureshi of Cageprisoners:
So when we see the examples of our brothers and sisters, fighting in Chechnya, Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir, Afghanistan, then we know where the example lies. When we see Hezbollah defeating the armies of Israel, we know what the solution is, and where the victory lies. We know that it is incumbent upon all of us to support the jihad of our brothers and sisters in these countries when they are facing the oppression of the West. Allahu Akbar!
Yvonne “drinking Coca-Cola is like drinking the blood of Palestinian children” yes-she-did-say-that Ridley:
If I could use my Palestinian citizenship, it would be to vote Ismail Haniyeh and Hamas back in again in Gaza. Victory to intifada 3! Victory to Hamas!
Istanbul declaration signatory Daud Abdullah:
There is no winning in this battle. They cannot win a guerrilla war when the people are not in favour. When the people are against them, you cannot win. They tell us it is a war against the Taleban. It is not a war against the Taleban, it is a war against the Afghan people. There’s a national resistance in Afghanistan today.
The blood of those who shed in the Gaza strip will not be in vain. The blood will water the machine of resistance. It will fuel the hearts of those who fight you in Gaza strip.
Haitham al Haddad, saluting the “victory” of Hamas in the Gaza war:
Now many people think that, OK, “is it worth it”, this victory that Hamas got, OK, is it worth it, the amount of destruction that Gaza suffered from…
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They say “is it worth it”? We always say that the conflict between Islam and the enemies of Islam is an ongoing conflict and we should pay a very high price for us, for Muslims, to gain their victory. And we should realise that victory cannot be gained easily and we should be ready to pay the price for this victory from our blood and Muslims are ready to do so.One of the main benefits of this conflict, this war, alhamdulillah, is that many Muslims who left their religion became more convinced that they have to go back to their religion, and they became more convinced that the only solution for Islam to be in power, in order for justice to prevail, is for Muslims to go back to their religion.
It is very, you can say, very promising, it gives hope, when you see, and I have heard that myself, one of the protesters in Morocco …there was one lady, and she said, she said so many things, and she said, “I would like to tell you clearly that I am a secular, I am a secular, I am a secular, however, I believe strongly in jihad. I believe strongly in jihad. I believe strongly in jihad.”
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What has happened, it clearly encouraged Muslims to prepare themselves for jihad, all over the world.
George Galloway’s ally Zahir Mahmood:
We cannot allow the perverted narrative to remain the norm. Hamas are not terrorists. They are freedom fighters.
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Sixty years living in an open concentration camp aren’t terrorists.
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Alhamdulillah, Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minster of Palestine, has given all those who went on the convoy Palestinian passports. We are Palestinian nationals!
What a lovely set of respectable radicals. I just can’t imagine the thoughts of a young man listening to them turning to violence.
