Sunday, March 8, 2009
Well, isn't this just predictable: British Muslim leader urged to quit over Gaza
One of the UK's most influential Islamic leaders, who has helped counter extremism in the country's mosques, is accused of advocating attacks on the Royal Navy if it tries to stop arms for Hamas being smuggled into Gaza.
Dr Daud Abdullah, deputy director-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, is facing calls for his resignation, after it emerged that he is one of 90 Muslim leaders from around the world who have signed a public declaration in support of Hamas and military action.
Ordinary people understand that Hamas is an extremist, violent organization, proscribed for good reason. Yet, truth be told, Britain, and we, have allowed large numbers of people into the country who don't see it that way.
Abdullah, who led the MCB's boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day, was a member of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, the body endorsed by the government that trains imams and was set up to curtail the activities of extremist clerics. In January, he briefed the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, and communities secretary Hazel Blears on the situation in Gaza and its likely impact on social cohesion in the UK.
Boycotting Holocaust Memorial Day can in no way be simply anti-Zionist. It is anti-Semitic. And this is a guy turned to by government for advice. So he advises the government on 'social cohesion'? That's the reason they turned Geert Wilders away.
There were calls last night for the government and the MCB to condemn Abdullah's actions. "The British government should stop funding organisations such as the MCB and supporting events such as Islam Expo, which hosts scholars from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan who hold extremist views," said Irfan Al Alawi, international director of the Centre for Islamic Pluralism.
"If the MCB is serious about tackling extremism, it should immediately expel extremists such as Daud Abdullah from its own ranks," said Ed Husain, co-director of the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism thinktank. "The man is a fanatic."
Abdullah's name appears as a signatory to a declaration in Istanbul last month that describes Israel's recent military campaign as "the manifest victory which Allah has granted us in the land of Gaza". It opposes the "so-called Arab peace initiative" and the Palestinian Authority and issues a series of obligations to the "Islamic Nation", calling on it to "carry on with the jihad and resistance against the occupier until the liberation of all Palestine".
Obligation six declares that Muslims must seek to open the crossings in Palestine so that "money, clothing, food, medicine, weapons and other essentials"; can enter Gaza and Palestinians "are able to live and perform the jihad in the way of Allah Almighty"...
The fox is truly guarding the hen house. Or would that be the wolf guarding the sheep, with the UK in the role of the mutton. The rest of the article is here. Much more at Harry's Place: Moderates Turn Out To Be Extremists
