This Saturday, amid massive tabloid hype, al-Muhajiroun (AM) were supposed to be marching through central London calling for their vision of Shari’ah to be imposed in the UK. Under the name Islam4UK (a name they’ve admitted is simply associated with a website front-group for AM), al-Macaroon managed to grab headlines with their mocked up images of Buckingham Palace converted into a mosque and the fountains of Trafalgar Square converted to be used for ritual ablutions prior to prayer. This provoked a number of Muslim groups into organising counter-protests in Piccadilly Circus.
Then AM abandoned their plan to march in central London and instead held a rally in Walthamstow. Predictably, the Express covered this protest and incendiary comments made at it by AM’s current leader Anjem Choudary (referred to by the article’s author, James Fielding as a “Sheikh” despite the fact that Anjem doesn’t even know basic Arabic) but omitted to mention any counter protests.
As covered here, British Muslims for Secular Democracy (BMSD) did turn up and organised a well-natured counter-protest against AM, bearing placards saying “Laugh at those who insult freedom/They are very silly people” and “Debate those who insult Islam/You might change a mind”. BMSD’s Shaaz Mahboob has today written a piece for Comment is Free looking back on a “A good day for democracy”, as he calls it. It is well worth a read.
Inayat Bunglawala has also written a piece for Comment is Free, but from a rather different perspective. He decided to call off the counter-protest his ‘Muslims4UK’ group were co-ordinating when AM announced they’d not be turning up. Revealingly, there are twelves mentions of “I” and “me” in this article but, like in the Express, none of the BMSD demo (even calling his article “The demo that wasn’t”. What are we to think of Inayat Bunglawala on this matter, especially when put in the context of Shaaz Mahboob’s comments in his article?
Sadly, we were not joined by the Islamic Society of Britain and Inayat Bunglawala’s group, Muslims4UK, who called off their own counter-demonstration. Also, disappointingly, we discovered that Inayat Bunglawala had formally requested that the police set up a separate pen, so that they would not have to stand with pro-democracy and anti-sharia Muslim groups such as us. This sort of sectarianism is incredibly damaging, not only to Muslims, but Britain as a whole.
Inayat seems to be trying to claim credit for these counter protests despite the fact that, in his own article, it seems pretty obvious that others contacted the police at the same time as, or before, he was organising a protest.
The day after I handed in my official “notification to hold a procession” form to the police, they contacted me to say that a number of groups had registered to hold counter-protests against al-Muhajiroun.
If counter-demonstrations against AM are to be successful in grabbing press and public attention away from Anjem and co’s calculated craziness, those opposing them need to be united and organised, avoiding factionalism and one-upmanship. This Saturday Inayat let the side down. Hopefully, the next time AM organise a publicity stunt, he will behave better and help the cause, not divide it.