When in trouble, Shami Chakrabarti resorts to a wounded innocent feint, hoping to make her critics the problem.
You will see her do it in her own Labour antisemitism report for none other than Moazzam Begg, the career terrorist cheerleader.
She was criticised earlier this year for praising Begg at a meeting at the East London Mosque in 2007. At the meeting, she said:
And now I share the platform with Moazzam Begg, and that is a source of hope and optimism for the future. And you hear what a wonderful advocate he is for human rights and in particular for human liberty.
Her version of this story in the inquiry report is a misleading diversion. She writes:
I think it dangerous to argue guilt by association and in so doing to undermine the kind of dialogue and debate that is the basis of peace, progress and greater understanding in the world. It is especially pernicious, in my view, to blame those who share platforms with people who went on (often some considerable time later) to say and do things with which we profoundly disagree and even abhor.
I myself was subject to this kind of attempt at undermining someone’s good character and good will earlier in the Inquiry process when a Sunday newspaper ran a story about my having shared a platform with a Guantanamo detainee on his release from that legal black hole many years ago. I clearly welcomed his release (for which I had long campaigned) and the speech he gave on that occasion. My suitability to lead the Inquiry was called into question because of incendiary comments that he was reported to have made “recently” (i.e. years after the event I attended).
Oh come now:
– The issue is unqualified and general praise for the “wonderful advocate“ Begg, not sharing a platform with him, though the latter is bad enough on its own.
– Opposing Guantanamo without endorsing the jihadis who ended up there is very simple. Countless people have done just that, blamelessly and rightly too in my view.
– “Welcoming the speech” is telling. Begg’s speech at the event was a typical scaremongering exercise. He compared the UK to brutal Arab dictatorships, encouraged the audience to “understand” terrorists, and explicitly hailed jihad as an “intrinsic part of the Islamic faith”.
– The article she refers to did cover events after the meeting, but it also noted that Begg “was imprisoned in Guantanamo after travelling to Afghanistan to build schools for children of Al Qaeda fighters”.
– The “debate” and peace” line bring Mr Corbyn’s style of dissembling to mind. It was a rally for the extremist cause, not a debate. It was organised by Begg’s Cageprisoners; the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities, a far left group dedicated to serving Islamist extremists; and the Centre for the Study of Terrorism. That Centre should have added “- How To Do It Better” to its name, for it was an outfit of Kemal Helbawy, a nasty Muslim Brotherhood figure who is very keen on terrorist violence.
– In fact, the Centre’s representative at the meeting spoke up strongly for Hamas and Hezbollah and said Israel was the real terrorist. He was perfect for this crowd.
– In addition, this event was part of a pattern familiar to monitors of the far left-Islamist nexus. Later in 2007, Chakrabarti spoke at an event for extremists in Parliament, alongside Asim Qureshi of Cageprisoners. At that point Mr Qureshi’s rant for jihad at a Hizb ut-Tahrir rally outside the US Embassy in London in 2006 was already well-known.
– In 2005 she joined up with Ken Livingstone and failed suicide bomber Azzam “Kaboom” Tamimi to oppose counterterrorism measures and also participated in a Downing Street demonstration for terrorists alongside George Galloway and the Khomeinist agitator Massoud Shadjareh.
– Above all, Mr Begg’s own past is no refuge for Chakrabarti. His extremist record stretches back decades.
Recall one sinister episode before 9/11 to see just how bad Begg was even long ago. In the 1990s he ran a Birmingham bookstore called Maktabah. It was an important hub for the distribution of dangerous jihadi propaganda.
Police officers outside Mr Begg’s Maktabah after a raid in 2000
In 1999 Maktabah published “The Army of Madinah in Kashmir”, a book written to inspire Muslims to join the jihad in Kashmir and teach them how to operate against Indian forces.
The book included a chilling note at the end celebrating the hijacking of an Indian airliner to Kandahar, then the Taliban heartland. One of the passengers was stabbed to death. This was a “landmark”:
December 1999 witnessed a great landmark in the Kashmiri Jihad, one that resounded internationally when revolutionary members of the Pakistan based Harkat-ul-Mujahideen group successfully co-ordinated a hijacking of an Indian airlines plane in the Katmandu region in Nepal, managing to eventually steer it successfully to Kandahar in Afghanistan.
The hijackers demanded the release of prisoners in India. One who was released was Omar Sheikh, who went on to join the band that kidnapped and beheaded the American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002. Well done, lads.
And who was the author of “Army of Madinah”? Dhiren Barot, jailed for life seven years later for plotting to murder thousands of people in the UK and the USA for al-Qaeda.
You see, Mr Begg certainly is and has long been an advocate. For jihadi mass murderers.
I am not in the least surprised that Shami Chakrabarti didn’t get this or pretended not to in 2007. Nor that she has now resorted to a worthless and shabby feint when called on her record. In fact, all this makes her an ideal Corbynista. No wonder she has done so well in her new party. She can fly higher still – the next elevation will reportedly be shadow attorney general.
