This is a cross-post by Sheikh Ya Bhatti
In recent years, British TV screens and radio waves have been polluted with the obnoxious and incoherent diatribes of a self-styled community leader who calls himself Mo Ansar. His views and comments are so ludicrous that he has managed to inspire a widely followed parody account on Twitter, as well as galvanise a large group of social media activists to mock and ridicule his every utterance. Ansar also dresses up as a community leader; never failing to make a media appearance without his prayer hat, eye-liner, scarf and long Arab style dress. In fact, he wouldn’t be out of place on the set of Citizen Khan.
Beyond his bizarre utterances and seeming lack of knowledge on almost every topic he comments on, Ansar remains a mystery. Until he launched himself at the unsuspecting public a few years ago, no-one on the activist Muslim scene in the UK had heard of him. Furthermore, there is no evidence of him participating at an event, speaking at a seminar, lecturing at an educational institution or writing an article prior to the launch of his now infamous media career. So whilst he humbly presents himself on his own website as ‘TV & Radio Commentator, Visiting Lecturer, Public Speaker, Civil Rights Activist, Theologian…etc’ his past is shrouded in a cloak of mystery.
There is an abundance of loud-mouthed and foolhardy idiots in the media that get more attention then they deserve, such as Mehdi Hasan, Owen Jones and Nigel Farage to name but a few. However, when Ansar decided to become Witchfinder General and incite a lynch mob against counter-extremism campaigner Maajid Nawaz, I decided to do a bit more research into his background. What I found only served to confirm my suspicions, that Ansar is actually an absolute nobody who hoodwinked, bullied, pestered and harassed the media into giving him a platform, then used that platform to promote himself for nefarious ends.
Ansar describes himself, amongst many other things, as a theologian. In spite of being asked repeatedly, he has never been able to substantiate this claim. He never mentions where he got his theological qualifications from and no-one else has ever recalled studying with him or teaching him. In a similar fashion, his claim that he is a ‘visiting lecturer’ has no basis in reality whatsoever. He is often challenged on social media to name the institution at which he lectures, yet to refuses to do so. Furthermore, no record exists on any university website for a visiting lecturer in Theology called Mo Ansar.
The rest of his claims are equally fallacious and his much vaunted track-record, which includes him claiming to have 17 years of experience of working in diversity, seems practically non-existent. For example, his claims of being a civil rights activist, a legal advocate, a marriage counselor, a diversity advisor etc. are impossible to substantiate and he doesn’t even try to substantiate these claims when asked. So who is Mo Ansar?
What is known is that Ansar was one of the directors of a company called Securum Limited, that was incorporated in 2008 and described Ansar as ‘an experienced business professional and senior manager. His work history includes more than a decade as a senior manager for top 5 UK banking institution’. This claim is inconsistent with Ansar’s many other claims cited earlier, unless he is the greatest polymath since Leonardo Davinci.
More worryingly, his co-directors included a man called Jabraan Azlam, who was described as a ‘security professional’. In 2012, Azlam was sentenced to four years in prison for his involvement with the Khan Line Crack gang, a notorious group of ruthless heroin and crack dealers in Watford who did their deals close to school grounds. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest Azlam and Ansar even lived together for a while back in 2004.
It is also known that Ansar used to work for Lloyds TSB as an advisor, and he took his employers to court for racial discrimination in 2006. His case was not only dismissed by the judge, but Ansar was deemed manipulative and dishonest. Furthermore, the judge decided that Ansar’s forceful personality and supreme self-confidence made it impossible for him to accept advice and guidance from his female superiors.
As for his claims of being a marriage counselor, which again lack substantiation, his poor and ill-judged advice has often come back to haunt him. In July 2013, a woman confronted him on Twitter and claimed that he had advised her to stay with her husband in spite of being beaten and raped by him. Ansar initially denied giving such advice but when the lady threatened to make evidence of the advice public, he backtracked and began citing confidentiality.
Following the breakdown of Ansar’s relationship with Lloyds TSB, it seems he tried and failed to launch a number of business ventures with unsavory characters. With these ventures failing to get off the ground, he decided to change his wardrobe and re-invent himself as a community leader and social commentator. Hence, it was necessary for him to fabricate a back story that involved an illustrious track record of doing every kind of social and community work under the sun.
However, Ansar made two fatal errors. Firstly, he aimed too high and made such a wide range of grand claims about his past that even the most credulous were forced to raise eyebrows. Secondly, he assumed people are stupid and over-estimated his own abilities. Those of us who have been following media debates on Islam and Muslim related issues for years can spot a fake when we see one and Ansar has the words ‘fake’ tattooed on his forehead, as well as narcissist if you look closely.
When he speaks about important issues in the media it becomes immediately obvious that he lacks knowledge, experience and know-how. When he is challenged on social media to substantiate his claims or defend his arguments he either back tracks or goes silent. Why he insists on maintaining his community leader persona after being repeatedly exposed and humiliated is beyond me. Since he does insist on muscling into debates and making unhelpful contributions, it has become necessary to expose him as a dangerous charlatan that our media should now shun and place in the same file as David Icke.
For further info. see – http://en.anarchopedia.org/Talk:Mohammed_Ansar
