Justice, Labour Style: Andy Slaughter and Al-Muntada

Here is Labour’s Shadow Justice Minister, Andy Slaughter, speaking to Al-Muntada, at their 25th Anniversary Gala Dinner, which was held on the 7th June 2011:

In addition to this gushing speech, Slaughter has further praised Al-Muntada as “renowned for the charity work they do worldwide“, and “one of the most successful Islamic charities in the country“.

The centre has a long history of hosting known hate preachers.

In fact, one of its own imams in recent years has been Haitham Al-Haddad, a Palestinian who grew up in Saudi Arabia. He is one of the most prominent Islamists in Britain, and still preaches at today. He appears frequently as a speaker at mosques and university Islamic societies known for their extremism. He claims that Jews are the descendants of apes and pigs.

Al-Haddad is a strong supporter of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. For Al-Haddad, the Gaza war of 2008-09 was actually a happy occasion, because it drew Muslims to jihad, as he noted in a lecture in January 2009 titled “The Victory of Hamas”:

One of the main benefits of this conflict, this war, Alhamdulillah [praise be to God], 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.”

…

What has happened, it clearly encouraged Muslims to prepare themselves for jihad, all over the world.

Haddad is far from alone. In recent years guest speakers at the Al-Muntada centre have included the following:

Sheikh Khalid Fikri. Here is at Al-Muntada, giving a vicious sectarian tirade against Shia Muslims, who are actually kaffirs and not Muslims, according to Fikri:

Ali al Timimi, a virulently antisemitic American preacher who was convicted of recruiting fighters for the Taliban in the United States after the September 11 attacks and sentenced to life in prison in 2005.

Murtaza Khan, a British preacher who bitterly hates Jews, homosexuals, women, and social liberalism. He has told British Muslims it is highly desirable in Islam to die in jihad and regrets that more Muslims do not do so.

Assim al-Hakeem, an extremist recently banned from Sheffield Hallam university, who recommends female genital mutilation.

Abu Zubair, AKA Saleem Beg, one of the founders of Islamic Awakening. It is a British internet forum where vicious extremism and jihad are regularly promoted. Last year Zubair issued thinly veiled death threats to an imam who accepts and teaches evolution.

Zakir Naik, an Indian hate preacher who has expressed support for Osama bin Laden, supports the death penalty for apostates from Islam, and says Jews control America and are the “staunchest enemy” of Muslims as a group. He has been banned from the UK.

Abu Abdissalam, a hate preacher who thinks police and security officers are waging a war on Islam, that jihadist-recruiter Ali al-Timimi was not an extremist, that Shias deserve their heads chopped off, and that Jews will hate Muslims until their devil-king Antichrist messiah arrives.

Khalid Yasin, an American preacher who teaches hatred of non-Muslims, calls for the death penalty for homosexuals, denies that Muslims carried out the September 11 attacks, and has been accused of serious fraud.

Nabil al-Awadhi, a Kuwaiti preacher who has called for computer games to teach children how to “play and slaughter Jews”. Indeed, he thinks the last day will not come “until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims kill them.”

Bilal Philips, a Canadian preacher who promotes extreme views on social issues, such as denying that there is any such thing as marital rape and supporting the death penalty for homosexuals and apostates from Islam. He has also advanced arguments for suicide bombing. He was named as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the New York bombing cases of the early 1990s – he was a close associate of one of the key suspects – and has been banned from the US, the UK and Australia.

The Al-Muntada centre was also a formal backer of the “Stop Police Terror” campaign, which encouraged Muslims to defy police anti-terrorism operations over the first half of the last decade. The campaign also toured Al-Qaeda preacher and recruiter Anwar Al-Awlaki around the UK when he was living in the country in 2003-04. At the time Awlaki urged Muslims not to inform the police about suspected terrorist activity. In a sermon at the East London Mosque in 2003, he said: