Readers may remember the background to this story. Back in 2013 Liberal Democrat Salah al Bandar, a former Cambridge city councillor, attacked CEMB spokeswoman Nahla Mahmoud for her criticism of Islam in a series of inflammatory comments. Now he’s at it again. AS CEMB reports, he asserts that she is an extremist, and even compares her views to those of ISIS:
In last week’s ‘A View Point’ which al Bander hosts (episode No 109 also available on his Facebook page), he discusses ‘Extremism and ISIS’ within the Sudanese Diaspora in the UK and says that Nahla Mahmoud is an extremist as dangerous as ISIS:
“Our youth are faced with two extreme choices, the choice of ISIS which is a savage path, and the choice of Nahla Mahmoud which is a shameful scandalous path, and one which no morals would accept”. He adds that Nahla is “a woman who is deviating the youth, insulting Islam and promoting infidelity”. He calls on people to take action against her and adds: “We will not tolerate what she is advocating: promoting the addiction and drinking of alcohol in public, insulting people’s beliefs, offending Islam and the Sudanese traditions and culture. We believe that her goals of promoting Ridah/Apostasy and encouraging people out of Islam, besides her missionary role to insult people’s beliefs is a dangerous project which should be fought against.” He also says: “This issue needs clear awareness, caution, preparation and serious handling to tackle the extremism we are facing so that our youth are not forced to either path if that was the path of ISIS or the path of Nahla.”
In the programme, he uses – without permission – personal photos from Nahla’s social media accounts, photo-shopped phrases and edited segments from her online articles. He also uses a recording of a phone conversation with Nahla Mahmoud’s mother, edited and recorded without her knowledge or permission.
A number of other activists are attacked, including Maryam Namazie, Founder and Spokesperson of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, who he claims is “a mentor of Nahla” who has “insulted Islam” herself.
The show is in Arabic as was his previous Takfir/Hate campaign. He is still using “double-speak” – saying one thing in English to dupe his English speaking audience and another in Arabic. His speech in Arabic clearly incites hatred against Nahla who has merely expressed her views, promoted freethought and secularism and lived a life of her choosing. Al-Bander shamefully compares her to ISIS, which kills people like Nahla every day, whilst he himself promotes Islamist ideas of hate, misogyny and the targeting of apostates not very different from that of ISIS.
You can read the full CEMB statement here. It is Bader, not Mahmoud, whose views are ‘dangerous’, whipping up hatred against a secularist who has exercised her right to leave Islam.
