Jeremy Corbyn and Anas Altikriti will speak at a “Stop the War Coalition” rally in October. How appropriate, for they make a fine pair.
Starting with Mr Corbyn’s “friends” Hamas. Here’s Mr Altikriti, a veteran Muslim Brotherhood devotee, posting a happy moment with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in 2012.
The links are close:
Mr al-Tikriti states openly that “the Brotherhood supports Hamas. I believe that if you are occupied you need to fight back.” Mr al-Tikriti co-founded a group called the British Muslim Initiative with a senior commander in Hamas, Mohammed Sawalha, and a Hamas “special envoy,” Azzam Tamimi.
Hamas is but one of Mr Altikriti’s causes. The Muslim Brotherhood has many to serve. Altikriti obliges.
Raed Salah
Raed Salah, the “blood libel sheikh”, is an Israeli Arab hate preacher with close links to the Brotherhood and Hamas. He has rightly been excluded from the UK since 2011.
Altikriti has a rather different view. Here he is presenting a gift to Raed Salah the last time Salah was in the UK. It was given on behalf of Islamist groupings with very unpleasant records – BMI of the Hamas UK network, Ismail Patel’s Friends of al-Aqsa, Daud Abdullah’s MEMO, the hate preacher fans of the Palestinian Forum in Britain – plus the self-styled Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
For his part, Mr Corbyn has nothing but praise for Raed Salah. He even looks forward to “tea on the terrace” at Parliament with the “a very honoured citizen”, whose “voice must be heard”.
Hamas honouring Raed Salah
Yusuf al-Qaradawi
Yusuf al-Qaradawi is a top Brotherhood hate preacher. He was excluded from the UK in 2008. He was a keen supporter of suicide bombings in Israel and post-invasion Iraq when they were frequent and unspeakably horrific. He is also a fan of Hitler, a divine tool who put Jews in their place:
For Altikriti, meeting this man in 2012 was an “honour”.
Holocaust Slurs
For several years the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) boycotted Holocaust Memorial Day. In 2007 it gave up on this crude gesture. Mr Altikriti was not pleased, to say the least. He lamented the loss of a “principled stand”, which showed “weakness” and amounted to a “sorry episode”.
Then he went further, equating Israel with Nazi Germany:
Rather than remembering the dead and vowing never to allow similar crimes to occur ever again the event, led by the Israeli ambassador in London, keeps similar crimes hidden, lest the memories of those who died in Nazi camps be disturbed.
The Chakrabarti report notes:
I recommend that Labour members resist the use of Hitler, Nazi and Holocaust metaphors, distortions and comparisons in debates about Israel-Palestine in particular.
…
In day-to-day political debate, it is always incendiary to compare the actions of Jewish people or institutions anywhere in the world to those of Hitler or the Nazis or to the perpetration of the Holocaust.
Backing Cageprisoners
Altikriti runs an outfit called the Cordoba Foundation, described by David Cameron in 2008 as a “front for the Muslim Brotherhood” with “close connections to people with extremist views”.
Well, yes. Here is an example. In 2009 Cordoba was a paying sponsor of a Cageprisoners event that featured Anwar al-Awlaki via a video link from Yemen. At that point Awlaki was already widely known as a highly dangerous al-Qaeda preacher and recruiter. Cageprisoners promoting him was no surprise, as they were terrorist cheerleaders then, just as they are today.
After the event, Cordoba insisted that it expressed “serious reservations” about Awlaki to the event organisers. Those of us on Awlaki’s trail in that period simply did not believe Cordoba. Not least because Cordoba advertised the event on its own website. With a list of speakers, including Awlaki.
But let’s give it the benefit of the doubt. Wasn’t promoting Awlaki too much, prompting Cordoba to steer clear of Cageprisoners? After all, Cageprisoners proceeded to place the banned video message from Awlaki on the internet.
No, of course not. Cordoba went on team up with Cageprisoners at further events, for example in 2011 and 2012 (with Jeremy Corbyn this time).
Here you will see Altikriti lauding Cage figurehead Moazzam Begg in 2014. Working with Begg is an “honour and a privilege”. He is nothing less than “the epitome of exemplary behaviour” and “our model”.
Supporting the Iraqi “Resistance”
Here is Altikriti telling a Muslim Brotherhood website that the “resistance” in Iraq needed to be more selective about its killing. Specifically, go for foreign soldiers.
Al Tikriti called upon members of the Iraqi resistance to embolden its true patriotic image before the world and refrain from killing for the sake of killing but only to resist the occupation. He concluded by reaffirming the right of the Iraqis to engage in legitimate resistance against foreign occupation abiding by the international laws and traditions.
Al-Tikriti said this in 2006, when Iraq had a democratically elected and internationally recognised government. That government and coalition troops, including our own, were under vicious attack from a “resistance” with no legitimacy whatsoever.
The Mindset
As noted earlier, the British Muslim Initiative (BMI) is yet another front for nasty extremists linked to Hamas. Altikriti has been one of its key figures, alongside fugitive Hamas commander Mohammed Sawalha, Corbyn’s dear friend Mohammed Kozbar of the Finsbury Park Mosque, and Azzam Tamimi.
A look at its Facebook records reveals the antisemitic mindset in these circles. Here Jewish tentacles grab al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, a sacred site in Islam. This is one of Raed Salah’s favourite incendiary themes, by the way – the Jews are out to destroy al-Aqsa.
Politicians are simply purchased:
So are journalists:
Mind you, some cartoons are not acceptable. When Charlie Hebdo staff were murdered in Paris, Mr Altikriti offered this observation:
But ultimately you have to say, listen, if you poke someone in the eye once too many [sic], you have to expect a response.
Platform Pieties
Remember Mr Corbyn’s platform pieties:
No one should be sharing a platform with an avowed racist and an avowed fascist.
Mr Altikriti, by contrast, is surely an outstanding anti-fascist. What a brilliant rally it will be when he and Corbyn share the stage on October 8.
