This is a cross-post by Stand for Peace
iEngage is an organisation which claims it “works with Muslim and non Muslim organisations to ensure that anti-Muslim prejudice is regarded just as socially unacceptable as anti-Semitism and other forms of racism and xenophobia”
In truth, iEngage is an Islamist organisation that defends hate preachers.
iEngage was launched in October 2008, with a board of trustees that included Mohammed Ali Harrath, a veteran of the Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood group and CEO of the Islam Channel, a television station recently censured by OFCOM for promoting marital rape.
Another iEngage trustee is Iqbal Sacranie. Sacranie was General Secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) until June 2006, after which Mohammed Abdul-Bari took over. Sacranie is also the current chairman of extremist institution the East London Mosque. Sacranie famously said of Salman Rushdie that, “Death is perhaps too easy”.
Azad Ali is ‘Head of Community Development’ at iEngage. He is also involved with the extremist Islamic Forum of Europe. In 2009, it was reported that Azad Ali had praised Abdullah Azzam, Osama Bin Laden’s mentor.
Ali described the late Azzam as one of the “few Muslims who promote the understanding of the term Jihad in its comprehensive glory”. He also quoted Azzam’s son as saying: “If I saw an American or British man wearing a soldier’s uniform inside Iraq I would kill him because that is my obligation. If I saw the same soldier in Jordan I wouldn’t touch him. In Iraq he is a fighter and an occupier – here he is not. I respect this as the main instruction in my religion for Jihad.”
During the past two years, ENGAGE has:
- Attacked journalists and campaigners who have carefully raised concerns about links between specific Muslim institutions, hate preachers and particular Islamist political parties.
- Defended hate preachers and protested their exclusion from the United Kingdom by the Government.
- Attacked Muslim campaigning groups and individuals who have opposed Islamist politics or political extremism.
- Attacked David Cameron and Hazel Blears for breaking off relations with the Muslim Council of Britain, after Daud Abdullah, the Deputy Secretary General, refused to remove his signature from the Istanbul Declaration, which threatened terrorist attacks.
- Objected to the banning of Hizb ut Tahrir from a university campus, and defended a Hizb ut Tahrir-run primary school.
- Defended a senior Islamist activist who had written an article supportive of attacks on British troops in Iraq.
- Written to the Foreign Secretary to oppose the imposition of sanctions on Iran.
- Written to various politicians urging governmental dialogue with Hamas.
It is perhaps not too surprising, then, that iEngage should promote the writings of Laura Stuart, an openly anti-Semitic Islamist blogger, by adding her to their “Best of the Blogs’ section.
In a piece titled ‘What Good Muslims think of Jews’, promoted by Holocaust denier Paul Eisen, Stuart writes:
The Quran is just full of stories of how the Jews are always arguing and plotting so, to be honest, even without Palestine/Israel, Muslims are always going to be viewed as the Jews’ enemy number one.
In September, while defending Gilad Atzmon, Laura Stuart emailed another activist a video (since removed from YouTube) entitled What Famous Men Say About the Jews(all negative), uploaded by a user called “Aryan000005“.
Stuart has previously spoken to PSC groups, once warning the audience about “people in the Finchley area” who have dual loyalties. She also complains about orthodox Jews “hiding their identity”.
- A comment left by Stuart on one of her own articles
Lucy Lips adds: Naturally iEngage finds support at the top of the Labour Party. They were welcomed to Parliament last November.
ENGAGE launched a unique exhibition and a month long campaign “Islamophobia Awareness Month”, highlighting the spread of Islamophobia in the British parliament where speakers included MPs Simon Hughes, Jack Straw, Peter Bottomley and Sadiq Khan.
