Islamism,  Terrorism

Munir Ashi, Cardiff and Hamas

Munir Ashi is the chairman of the Dar ul-Isra mosque in Cardiff. He has had keen supporters in government there:

The [reconstruction] work at Dar ul-Isra has been made possible by a grant of £120,000 from CFAP – the Welsh Assembly Government’s Community Facilities and Activities Programme.

“That has been a huge help,” Dr Ashi admitted. “Although we have raised funds ourselves and some of the work is being completed by members of the Muslim community, the cash from the Welsh Assembly Government has made all the difference.”

Ashi is one of the scheduled speakers at the Cageprisoners fundraising event scheduled for this Saturday at Cardiff City Hall.

This makes sense. Ashi is a good fit with the Taliban supporters and jihad lovers of Cageprisoners. Have a look at him here, wishing Israel’s destruction in a sermon at the mosque in March this year:

If Egypt comes out of the hands of the Americans and the Israelis, it means it is liberated. It means Israel very soon will disappear, inshallah (God willing).

You see, he wants the Egyptian army to invade Israel. Later on in the same sermon he mocks that army for tending to its commercial interests rather than doing what he wants:

From here we call upon Muslim armies, especially in Egypt now, you have to move! Why you are negative? What you doing? The whole Muslim ummah (community of believers) is humiliated!

Are those [Egyptian soldiers] the people who we are waiting for them to liberate Palestine and liberate the ummah?

Here is another video where Ashi looks forward to Israel’s destruction, with some Israelis-are-Nazis abuse thrown in. It was recorded at a demonstration in Cardiff in 2009 during the Gaza war.

No one can describe what is happening in Gaza in any word other than Holocaust. It is a Holocaust in Gaza!

You cannot find more dirty business than what is happening in Palestine. They kicked us out of our whole land. They came from all over the world to establish Israel. Where they have no right to have a piece of land in Israel. Palestine is our homeland, whether today, or tomorrow, or next year, or next century, we’ll be taking it back, inshallah.

Dear brothers, this is the way. Demonstrate, donate, pray for them, keep supporting them. Then they will be the victorious one day. No problem of the power of Israel, no problem. They will be finished. Palestine will be back, inshallah.

People who want to “donate” in support of Mr Ashi’s cause need look no further than a charity where he is the chairman, Education Aid for Palestinians (EAP). It helps Hamas. Here is a picture of him (third from right) visiting the Islamic University of Gaza, a Hamas bastion, in March 2009.

Money was handed over:

The delegation presented a donation to the Islamic University of Gaza by way of a cheque for £120,000 in order to rebuild with IT and Science laboratories. Dr Kamaleen Shaath, the president of IUG thanks the donors from the United Kingdom for all their generous contributions and ask to continue their support towards to this well worthy cause.

Ashi’s fellow trustee at EAP is Zaher Birawi. He’s the man third from left in the picture above.

Birawi will be well-known to this blog’s readers. He is a key operative in Viva Palestina, George Galloway’s Hamas support operation. In the picture below he is to the right of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a ceremony in Gaza honouring Viva Palestina.

You can read more about Mr Birawi and his services for Hamas here.

Until last year Muin Shabib was also a trustee at EAP. He too is a man who has worked for the Hamas financial network. Here is just some of the evidence. Like his fellows, Shabib is a “no peace” man, as the FBI learned in its investigation of the American network:

We don’t want children of our community, in Islamic and non-Islamic schools, one day surrendering to the issue of peace with Jews.

Ashi’s fellow speakers at the Cardiff City Hall Cageprisoners event are also Hamasniks and Israel haters. Here’s Lauren Booth, defender of antisemites Gilad Atzmon and Mahathir Mohamad, beaming with Haniyeh:

And here is Yvonne “Zionist Tentacles” Ridley with Viva Palestina in Gaza, boasting about breaking sanctions law by funding Hamas:

I brought cash and I am happy to say I have given that cash to George Galloway and we have both given that money to the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, which has broken UN sanctions. If they want to charge us, if they want to arrest us, bring it on.

Actually, for Ashi, it seems that Hamas is family. Literally. I understand that he is the brother-in-law of Mousa Abu Marzook, a leader of Hamas in Syria. His daughter Isra married Marzook’s son Omar in Syria in 2004. And his cousins in America, the Elashis, were leading figures in two Hamas fronts, Infocom and the Holy Land Foundation (HLF). HLF was a multi-million dollar Hamas funding network. Marzook was one of its architects. In the end the FBI shut HLF down. Ghassan Elashi, HLF’s founder and chairman, was found guilty of funding Hamas in 2008 and sentenced to 65 years in prison.

The office of the Cardiff council leader, Rodney Berman, is aware of the objections to the Cageprisoners event. There is no word yet on what, if anything, it will do.