Yesterday Tarek Fatah informed his followers that this was a ‘March for Sharia’ in London.
There have been plenty of seriously unwelcome demonstrations in London, including genuine marches for Sharia, as well as the Al Quds Day march, due to be held this Sunday.
However the clip Fatah linked to in his tweet was in fact an Ashura march, marking the death of Husayn Ibn Ali.
It’s a pity that, although several people have pointed this out to him, he hasn’t issued a correction, and hasn’t engaged fairly with those raising the issue.
There are, obviously, plenty of absolutely valid criticisms to be made of Islamism – Fateh has recently tweeted this good piece by Sara Khan – muddying the waters in this way increases distrust and undermines the credibility of those working against extremism.
