Al Quds (Jerusalem) Day is an annual march for Israel haters founded by Ayatollah Khomeini and held worldwide.
In London it is organised by the Khomeinists of the self-styled Islamic Human Rights Commission. Fiery speeches by extremists, Hezbollah and Iranian flags, banners of Khomeini and Hezbollah’s leader Nasrallah, and hateful chants are the norm.
You can see the whole ugly procession in 2008 in this video:
This year’s march on September 4, from Marble Arch to the US embassy, will be no different.
For a warm-up, the IHRC have thoughtfully posted links to many words of the venerable Khomeini. On the day, speakers will include:
– Mohammed Saeed Bahmanpour, principal of the Islamic College in Willesden
– Daud Abdullah, former deputy secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain and director of Middle East Monitor
– Rabbi Ahron Cohen of the Neturei Karta sect
– Yvonne Ridley
– Taji Mustafa of Hizb ut-Tahrir
– Roland Rance of Jews Against Zionism
These names will be familiar to readers of this blog. Let’s recap just one of them which may not be well-known: Mr Bahmanpour.
He pays some lip service to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but only better to dispatch it (pdf) as an assault on God and a cause of hatred and conflict:
The Declaration of Human Rights, having its roots and origins in the liberalist mindset of the modern West, can by no means accommodate in its entire framework the concept of God, the concept of the world beyond and the practical implication of these two, i.e. the concept of sin. The very language, tone, insinuation and undertone of the Declaration are all in defiance with such a concept.
…
According to Benjamin Barber, an excess of liberalism is undoing the democratic institutions of the modern society, for the democracy existing in the West has been repeatedly compromised by the liberal institutions and philosophy that undergrid it. Such an excess might as well undo the Human Rights Declaration in its entirety and ushers the world into a new phase of extreme fundamentalism, and consequently plunge the human race into a modern era of hatred and conflict.
Human rights violations in Iran? Oh come off it:
It is certainly not a liberal democracy that Iranians are opting for and they should not be judged according to the standards of liberal democracies. Iran is trying to create a democracy based on Islamic priniciples, something that has no past precedence. They might have made and continue making mistakes on their path towards this aim and their efforts might have not been complete, but if you judge the democratic institutions they have created after the revolution you would certainly give them a high mark in what they have achieved.
…
Human rights are being violated in almost every country including Iran and the US. However, a degree of such violation is acceptable for a country like Iran which has not yet developed a perfect and mature judiciary system, and is still struggling to establish a stable political system. What is important is that such violations are not systematic and the situation is being improved day by day.
That’s from 2004. We all know what has happened in Iran “day by day” since then.
What about Hamas? They represent the “true people” of Palestine and are no terrorists, he said in a speech at Al Quds Day in 2007:
A peace could not be obtained without the presence of Hamas and those real Palestinians who are fighting and resisting for their freedom. To exclude Hamas from the peace negotiations in Palestine would only end in failure. There will be no peace until and unless you could bring the true people of Palestine on board. If you say that Hamas is a terrorist organisation, we want to declare here, now and today that we are all Hamas, we are all Hizbullah. Anyone saying that Hamas or Hizbullah is a terrorist organisation is just dubbing everyone, every Muslim around the world to be a terrorist.
Have a look at him in this video with the friend of Holocaust deniers and Jew hater Michèle Renouf. Especially from 8:20 in, where she reveals that feminism is a Jewish conspiracy and the antisemitic hoax “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” has much to teach us:
It is certainly not the case to claim it to be antisemitic to remark that feminism is basically Jewish-oriented.
…
So that we know that there were many proofs, from their own lips and their own writings, Herzl in his diaries, which indicate that those Protocols of Zion, although they may well be forgeries, nevertheless do indicate certain aspects of cultural direction that we ought to look at, be they forgeries or otherwise.
Bahmanpour seems quite impressed by Renouf. He is perfect for Al Quds Day.
Naturally the hate march has had backing from some on the far left in Britain. George Galloway has been a speaker. So has failed swuppie John Rees. The “Respect” party and the “Stop the War Coalition” have also backed the march in the past.
Last year the “anti-fascists” of the UAF showed up to demonstrate “solidarity” with the marchers. From “inminds”, a website that is the work of Abbas Panjwani, another man who, it seems, is comfortable with Holocaust deniers:
At the end of the march as we entered Pall Mall for the rally we were warmly greeted by a crowd of anti-fascist activists from “Unite Against Fascism” (UAF) and the Socialist Workers Party who had come to give us support against the fascists, we were truley moved! We recognised many of the faces as ardent supporters of Palestine from previous demonstrations.
From Indymedia:
The pitiful UAF/SWP (around 25 people) were stationed at the end of the demo, apparently there to protect the demonstration from fascists. They had no clue what was happening, they must have known that the EDL were up by Piccadilly Circus – 200 metres up the road, because thats where they had been for over 2 hours, in a pen with around 100+ police in attendance. When the Al Quds demo reached the end point, the UAF/SWP took up their position to chant “solidarity” with the marchers!! It was a complete joke.
Here is the list of “supporting organisations” this year, as named by the IHRC:
AhlulBayt Islamic Mission, AhlulBayt Societies, FOSIS, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Friends of Lebanon, Islamic Forum of Europe, Innovative Minds, Islamic Centre of England, Islamic Human Rights Commission, Islamic Student Association UK, Islamic Unity Society, Lebanese Community UK, Jews Against Zionism, Muslim Association of Britain, Muslim Council of Britain, Muslim Student Council, Neturei Karta UK, Palestine Return Centre.
That’s a rather neat summary of the who’s who of the British Islamist extremist scene, including groups which insist they are not extreme at all, such as the Muslim Council of Britain and FOSIS, the umbrella body for Islamic student societies.
I suppose it’s nice of them to show their true colours so clearly once a year, for all to see.
