On being a Muslim Jew

This is cross-post by Shiraz Maher from Focus on Islamism


I have long maintained that I don’t ‘do’ theology. It really is not my game and, given the mess modern Islam finds itself in, there is very little to be gained from my entering the fray. Those who know me or follow my writing will know that from 2001-2005, I was a member of the radical Islamist party, Hizb ut Tahrir. I can’t profess to having known much about Islamic theology then either – joining was a political move, the Militant Tendency of my day – and I don’t claim to be an expert on Islamic theology today either.

I have been content to have left the party on my own terms and in my own way after researching Islamic political thought for myself. Until now, I have never sought to comment on that further but the ongoing mosque controversy in New York – fuelled by some of the very worst elements of the American Right – and, this silly post by Edmund Standing on Harry’s Place (from which he nominally retired as a blogger at one point) has forced me to review that.

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“So, you’re offended? So fucking what?”

I am amazed that the Park 51 Community Centre or the so called “Ground Zero Mosque” debate in still chundering on, with no end in sight, despite the paucity of cogent arguments on why it should be opposed by those who oppose it.

Alex Massie’s comment on the “Ground Zero Mosque” is spot on:

One of the recurring arguments against the plan is that, however well-intentioned its backers may be, it represents an unfortunate and unnecessary “provocation”. Even if those involved mean no harm and don’t mean to “provoke” they should have been wise enough to appreciate that their proposal was bound to provoke a hostile reaction. Which means they should think again.

Posted in Anti Muslim bigotry, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Religion | 4 Comments

Andy Hull Writes to the Papers

This is a cross-post by Lucy Lips from Harry’s Place


Jews and Muslims are familiar with it. The pig’s head desecrating the place of worship.

That’s what happened at the Finsbury Park Mosque, last month. The perpetrators of this criminal and disgusting act have yet to be caught. However, the mosque has a very good idea of who is to blame. Not neo Nazis: but rather their former trustee, the Labour MP Khalid Mahmood: abetted by Hansard, James Forsyth of the Spectator, and me.

That conclusion may surprise you. It certainly surprised me. However, as Andrew Gilligan points out, this does appear to be their explanation.

The slur against the MP is repeated in the Islington Gazette:

The current trustees, who took over in 2005, believe the pig’s head incident happened because Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood, himself a former trustee, recently cast fresh aspersions on the mosque.

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Activism killed the radio star

Abjol Miah, a leading activist in the Respect Party and in the Jamaat-e-Islam front Islamic Forum Europe (IFE), has lost his appeal to the Press Complaints Commission after he complained about an article in the Telegraph, which identified him as…an activist in the IFE.

Mr Miah, Respect’s leader on Tower Hamlets council, is no longer a councillor, and his party was all but wiped out, after he was exposed as an IFE activist by the Telegraph and Channel 4’s Dispatches. We also played the viewers a secretly-recorded tape of Mr Galloway, you might remember, saying that his election to Parliament in 2005 owed “more than I can say, more than it would be wise for me to say, to the IFE.”

Posted in Islamism | 1 Comment

Lessons Learnt?

This is a guest-post by Chris Blackburn


The recent deluge of sensitive information by Wikileaks on the US in AfPak has made me really mad. I don’t care about the breach of security, although, the naming of Afghan informants was highly cavalier and Julian Assange should have blanked out assets names. Intelligence and the suppression of strategic information should become more open in some respects, but what Wikileaks have done is just simply reckless. The Afghan people have been risking their lives to give us information and intelligence which they hoped would help defeat the Taliban and its allies. But, what really annoys me the most is the fact that Pakistan has been complicit in sponsoring militants and playing us for fools, or have they? That position is certainly conventional wisdom at the moment, but is it strictly accurate?

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One Caliph to rule them all

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Hizb ut-Tahrir; Jamaat-e-Islami; Ikhwan al-Muslimeen and al-Qaeda all have, as a fundamental aim; the establishment of a global dictatorship under the rule of one Caliph, an autocrat, who will impose one interpretation of the Shar’iah over the entire globe. They intend to do this through unifying countries where there already exists Muslim majorities then launch a worldwide international effort at expanding this state through diplomatic and hostile means i.e. warfare.

For them, there is a religious duty (fard) in which there is no dispute, that there must be a single caliphate encompassing the whole globe. There is no room for different interpretations, and anyone differing with them – especially the likes of the Hizb, and al-Qaeda, are upon Kufr – unbelief and apostates from Islam. In fact they would argue that all the Muslim scholars who have abandoned engaging in political activity for the sake of establishing such a super-state are upon misguidance, and Kufr, even if on the whole the Muslim jurists take the position, that there are different opinions on this issue, which are legitimate opinions – Ijtihadaat – and therefore we cannot start accusing others of being on un-Islamic positions for holding different views.

Posted in Hermeneutics, History, Islamism, Sharia | Leave a comment

Goodbye Pakistan?

This is a cross-post by Terry Glavin


The Sound of Pennies Dropping:

1. Pakistan’s main spy agency says homegrown Islamist militants have overtaken the Indian army as the greatest threat to national security, a finding with potential ramifications for relations between the two rival South Asian nations and for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. A recent internal assessment of security by the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s powerful military spy agency, determined that for the first time in 63 years, it expects a majority of threats to come from Islamist militants, according to a senior ISI officer.

2. Much now depends on the ability of the government and its foreign allies to bring relief to flood victims. Tens of thousands of Pakistani troops and virtually the army’s entire helicopter fleet are now involved in the effort. But its resources are way overstretched, and for months to come the army is unlikely to be in a position to even hold the areas along the Afghan border that it has recently won back from the militants, let alone initiate any new campaigns against the Taliban. That means the war in Afghanistan is about to become even more bloody.

Posted in International Affairs, Islamism | 1 Comment

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard is digging mass graves for American soldiers in preparation for a war over its nuclear programme, according to a former senior commander.

This is a cross-post by Richard Spencer.


The scene in the south of Iran where hundreds of mass graves have been dug

General Hossein Moghadam, the Guard’s former deputy chief, was speaking after film footage showed strings of freshly dug graves in the south of the country.

They were close to the site of war graves for the dead of the long war between Iran and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, which devastated the region in the 1980s.

“The mass graves that used to be for burying Saddam’s soldiers have now been prepared again for US soldiers, and this is the reason for digging this big number of graves,” Gen Moghadam told the Associated Press, which obtained the footage.

The warning is unlikely to be more than symbolic. No-one expects a land invasion, should the White House authorise a strike on nuclear facilities, while Iran has so far suggested counter-action is most likely to be aimed at American allies in the Gulf and Western bases there.

Posted in International Affairs, Politics | 2 Comments

The Mughal Caliphate

This is a re-post of an article by Raziq first posted in January 2010

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Islamist groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir, Al-Muhajiroun and the Muslim Brotherhood claim that Muslims were ruled by a single political leadership which started from the time of the Prophet Muhammad in the 6th century and lasted until the last days of the Ottoman Empire in 1924. According to Islamists, this political leadership looked after the interests of all Muslims worldwide. The central aim of Islamist groups today is to recreate this leadership by uniting the 52 or so Muslim-majority countries in the world into a single state ruled by a single ruler (Caliph). They refer to this totalitarian system as the Khilafah (or the caliphate).

Posted in Education, History, Islamism, Politics | 21 Comments

Exclusive: Tower Hamlets communities unanimously reject IFE!

Having become sick of the IFE and their Islamist entryist tactics, community groups in Tower Hamlets have got together and issued the following press release:

PRESS STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TOWER HAMELTS COMMUNITY STANDS UP TO FIGHT FASCISM IN ALL ITS COLOURS:

The entry of the English Defence League (EDL) into Tower Hamlets to protest against a meeting at the Troxy in East London is a direct provocation to stir up racial tensions, foment dissent among faiths and attempt to bring disunity amongst the communities of the borough. We condemn the fascist EDL whose sole objective is to act as storm troopers for the British National Party (BNP) and pick up the pieces for them after their miserable rout in the local and national elections in neighbouring Barking and Dagenham Council. Under the guise of being non-political and upholding “English” values they are propagating a virulent form of naked Islamophobia which is rejected by the communities of Tower Hamlets. We will do everything in our power to defend the peace in the borough, protect the lives of Muslims and ensure that the unity amongst all is maintained.

Posted in Activism, Anti Fascism, Anti Muslim bigotry, Entryism, Islamism | 45 Comments