Earlier this week Moazzam Begg was due to address the SOAS Islamic Society. His topic was “Justice in Islam”.
He didn’t show up and was replaced by Humza Qureshi of Cageprisoners.
I understand from a SOAS student who attended the talk that Qureshi said people should be brought together according to their religious beliefs rather than in nation states. This will achieve justice. In other words, a caliphate is needed. He also hailed “no peace without justice” Malcolm X and said the penalty for apostasy under a caliphate could be death.
Here is something else Qureshi has done at SOAS: seconding a student union motion that trashed the CSC’s report on Islamist extremism on campus. There’s no problem but neocon scaremongering, don’t you know:
To date, there has been no evidence that shows radicalisation is taking place on University campus, though significant work is taking place by Islamic Societies to prevent this from occurring.
This is a popular line among apologists for extremism. The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) even rolled it out after the attempt at mass murder over Detroit by the former president of UCL’s Islamic society. Next FOSIS proceeded to invite Azzam Tamimi, one of the UK’s nastiest proponents of terrorism, and Istanbul declaration signatory Daud Abdullah to their Palestine conference.
It is a ridiculous position. For a selection of cases that were publicly known when Qureshi seconded the SOAS motion (January 2009), please see this post.
Here is just one of those men, Waheed Zaman.
Behind the gates lie the headquarters of the London Metropolitan University Islamic Society. The president of the society, Waheed Zaman, a 22-year-old biochemistry student from Walthamstow, east London, was arrested last week in connection with the alleged plot to blow up passenger aircraft taking off from Britain, together with several of his former schoolmates and university-age associates.
The temporary buildings, which consist of two prayer rooms and a “library”, are used as both an office and place of worship. But among the microwave oven, plastic cups, jars of instant coffee and student detritus that fill the prayer rooms are bookshelves and drawers strewn with inflammatory material.
…
This newspaper also found cassettes produced by al-Muhajiroun, the militant organisation formerly headed by Omar Bakri Mohammed, the radical London cleric forced into exile in Lebanon. Each of three tapes of verses from the Koran found in the “library” had the name, address and telephone number of the disbanded group blacked out with ballpoint pen.
“there has been no evidence that shows radicalisation is taking place on University campus”
What does this say about the credibility of Humza Qureshi and Cageprisoners?
In fact, this brings to mind Moazzam Begg’s dissimulation for al Qaeda preacher Anwar al Awlaki.
Begg has run a similar line on Ali al Timimi, an American preacher who was jailed for life in 2005 for inciting young men to join the Taliban and fight the US in the aftermath of 9/11. At nine minutes into this segment of “21st Century Crusaders”, Begg says:
He cannot be regarded as an extremist, fundamentalist, lunatic type terrorist scholar that they claim abound. He is one of the most reasonable and middle of the path scholars that I have come across, who not only make sense in everything that they say, but they back it up with evidence from the Qur’an.
Here’s “reasonable and middle of the path” Timimi on Shia Muslims:
For example, when asked, by an audience member during a lecture he gave whether it is permissible for a Sunni to pray with a Shiite, Al-Timimi responded: “Ok, you cannot pray behind any of these people. In fact if we were in an Islamic state these people their, their heads should be, you know, lopped off, that’s what, you know, should be done to these people. They deserve nothing better than to just cut their necks, if we were in an Islamic country. To be [UI word] to make the chance to make repentance and if they do not repent to cut their necks, that’s what these people deserve.
For Timimi, Jews are anathema too:
They seek to morally corrupt the region, as is the way with the Jews whenever they enter into a land.
…
We must understand this animosity that the Jews harbour and hold towards this ummah. It began from the time of the prophet and will continue until the appearance of their king and false god, the dajjal (devil), the Antichrist.
Naturally Timimi’s prescription for the Israel-Palestine conflict is not a peace deal, but jihad:
As far as the idea of entering into a peace treaty, outside of these two reasons, namely, that the unbeliever has become submissive or to push back the greater evil, this becomes impermissible. Like in order to enter into a peace treaty because the Muslims feel themselves to be small in number. Or because the Muslims do not want to fight jihad, they don’t want to engage in war anymore, they, you know, just want to sort of enjoy the world, this becomes something forbidden by the sharia and Allah has commanded that we fight as Allah says: “fighting has been prescribed upon you but it is something disliked to you”. So therefore this is a ruling. As the prophet said in a hadith, that jihad will remain until the day of resurrection.
“Reasonable and middle of the path”? A hate preacher who has been convicted of terrorism offences? Ha ha. This is how Cageprisoners operate: dissimulation, obfuscation and lies.
Have a look at this post, for another example.
23/02/2010
An Appeal To The Saudi GovernmentWe are concerned that a number of former Saudi Arabian Guantanamo prisoners have been arrested by Saudi authorities after their repatriation. Only recently, we spoke to close sources in Saudi and they informed us about the new wave of arrests by the the Saudi authorities.
Despite the fact that these ex-prisoners have informed us in the past that the Saudi government looked after them well upon their release and provided financial and accommodation assistance, which was an encouraging news that made us optimistic.
…
We hope that the Saudi government and officials will look into the matter and will take into consideration the suffering theses people endured for many year in Guanatanamo as a result of their charitable and humanitarian work for Muslims. We sincerely hope our appeal will be regarded with the utmost of sensitivity and urgency.Guantanamo Justice Centre
Yes, you must be nice to jihadis, sorry, I mean “charitable and humanitarian workers”. That’s the only kind of Saudi who ended up in Guantanamo. We all know that.
The “Guantanamo Justice Centre” works for former detainees. It is another of Moazzam Begg’s ventures. Here too Amnesty International helps out:
GJC are pleased to announce that Amnesty International have agreed to provide the rest of the funding for Ahmad`s prosthetic limb. We will keep you updated on his progress.
Turning back to Humza Qureshi, like Fahad Ansari, another extremist member of Cageprisoners, he used to work for the Khomeinists of the self-styled Islamic Human Rights Commission. He’s proud of that work and thinks Hezbollah is just great:
The now famous placard carried by people of various faiths and none, showing some of those atrocities with the slogan: “We are Hizbullah: Boycott Israel” proved welcome and were well supported by activists.
He sussed the powers that be while serving as an IHRC volunteer. Combating NATO – the defence alliance that protects his own country – is a divine duty:
…why have we [Muslims] been singled out by the powers that be as the greatest threat to the New World Order?
We have been singled out because we are a people of strong conviction; because Muslims more easily recognise the nature of western rule as there are Muslims suffering in not just one of the wars being imposed by the great powers on others in the world, but nearly all; because we truly have the capacity to be a threat to the unilateral takeover of the world’s resources by the NATO club, at every level, and because it is our duty to do so; because it is the duty of Muslims to be the champions of the oppressed.
A caliphate and defeat NATO! Dangerous radicalism on campus? No, that’s rubbish!
Yes, Cageprisoners is the right place for Humza Qureshi. Its purpose is to provide cover for jihadist groups and individual terrorists, dressed up in the language of human rights. He is a perfect fit.
