This is a guest post by Al-Qanaas Al-Masri
****
The head of the Civil Service Islamic Society, Azad Ali, has today sought to clarify his long-standing support for Anwar Awlaki, the pro-jihadi preacher who apparently inspired, and possibly orchestrated, the recent Fort Hood shootings in the US.
The Times has quoted Ali as saying of Awlaki’s views: “I reject them and disassociate myself from them completely”. The Islamic Forum Europe’s website additionally reports that Ali additionally said that:
My article talking about Mr Awlaki was specifically referring to his lectures on Companions of the Prophet and other similar lectures. I am not aware of his comments regarding Major Nidal Hasan other than the text you sent below. If these comments are indeed Mr Awlaki’s then I reject them and disassociate myself from them completely.
One could argue that Azad Ali’s latest statements have not been entirely true – as they given the impression that he only ever supported Awlaki’s earlier talks.
Five months prior to Azad Ali’s notorious November 2008 blog entries which described Awlaki as “one of my favourite speakers” and which empathised with “his frustration at the constant denial of legitimate Islamic principles” such as violent jihad, Azad Ali made other controversial comments on the blog of his ‘Easy Talk’ radio programme which have so far not been reported.
These were made by Azad Ali specifically in response to an Awlaki lecture given in May 2008 which was entitled ‘The battle of the hearts and minds’. This lecture contained a fine cross-section of Awlaki’s more repugnant beliefs. Although the original link on the Easy Talk forum is now dead, the talk is also available on Youtube.
At one point, for instance, Awlaki attacked Cheryl Bernard, a Rand Corporation analyst, for being Jewish:
In this report, titled ‘Civil, democratic Islam’, and it’s by Cheryl Bernard – she’s a Jew, married to a murtad [apostate] – it can’t get any worse – her husband is Zalmay Khalilzad, the murtad if he ever was a Muslim who held some very high posts, as you know, in the US administration.
[00:45, part 2]
Soon afterwards, Awlaki described democracy as “not Islamic”:
Democracy isn’t Islamic. Democracy is a system and Islam has brought us a completely different system. And if you, in reality, believe in the system of the Islamic state and Shurah [lit. consultation], then say Shurah. Call it what it is. Don’t call it democracy.
[03.50, part 2]
Awlaki also rails against the Rand definitions of extremism which seek to categorise as ‘extremists’ those who reject religious freedom and equal rights:
And then the questionnaire carries on. “Does it believe that members of religious minorities should be entitled to the same rights as Muslims? Does it believe that a member of a religious minority could hold high political office in a Muslim-majority country?” And we answer, “no” to that question They cannot hold high office.
Awlaki then quotes verses from the Quran and says this ayah does not allow us to take al-yehud [Jews] and an-nasara [Christians] as bitana, advisors, or to put them in high office.
[02:50, part 3]
He then continues his rant, saying that Muslims should reject all pre-Islamic civilisations (he specifically cites the Ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamian civilisations and the Ancient Greeks and Romans):
We should not have any pride in our pre-Islamic history, it is all jahiliyah [state of ignorance of Islam], and it shouldn’t even be called a civilisation because it’s not: it is the path to jahanam [hell]. It is zulumat, darkness upon darkness,
[07:45, part 3]
Inevitably Awlaki gets more and more stirred up as his talking continues, saying that he cannot understand why jihadists in Iraq and elsewhere are described as cowards:
And the American heroic soldiers, fighting from the comfort of their armoured Bradleys and Strykers, but nevertheless boiling inside layers of bullet-proof gear in the boiling heat of the Iraqi summer are courageous while the Iraqi mujahideen armed with nothing but the light weapons of guerrilla warfare are cowards. And what I really fail to understand is how can the martyr, the shaheed, who willingly and happily hands over his soul to Allah, who walks towards his fate with pleasure and faces death with a smile – what I fail to understand is how can you call such a person a coward? But that is what they have been called and that is what the parents in the Muslim world have been repeating – that these people are cowards.
[05:50, part 4]
He later refers to Al-Qaeda’s ‘Islamic State of Iraq’ as a “monumental event” which is struggling against “the immense conspiracy [that is] against the rise of any Islamic state”.
[03:00 onwards, part 6]
He then says:
[W]hether it succeeds or not, it represents a move of the idea from the theoretical realm to the real world, the idea of establishing the Islamic rule and establishing Khilafah on earth now is not any more talk, it is action … [Al-Qaeda] possess a project of an Islamic state followed by the return to this system of Khilafah. Brothers and sisters we are inching forward to the final stage of the hadith of al-rasool [Mohammed] … ‘finally it will be Khilafah, on the path of prophethood’.
[04:40 onwards, part 6]
So what does Azad Ali, head of the Civil Service Islamic Society, have to say about Awlaki’s anti-Semitism, his support for the Iraqi ‘mujahideen’, his support for al-Qaeda’s vision of an expansionist Caliphate and his advocacy of violent, intolerant Islamism as outlined in this talk?
In response to Awlaki’s above lecture, ‘The battle of the hearts and minds’, Azad wrote:
Mashallah good presentation. Much of it is known very extensively but he has a way of presenting things that makes it clear! Some of it I hope people don’t take out of context and the generality that they are meant in specifically the last 5 minutes.
None of Awlaki’s above quotes were taken from the last five minutes of Awlaki’s talk. There is also no obvious way that any of these quotes (for example, “she’s a Jew, married to a murtad – it can’t get any worse”, “democracy is not Islamic”) can conceivably be justified by their context. How on earth can any sane person regard this as a ‘good presentation’?
Gus O’Donnell, the head of the Civil Service and a prominent defender of Azad Ali, should immediately sack Azad Ali from his job at the Treasury and from his position as head of the Civil Service Islamic Society. Individuals who support pro-al-Qaeda anti-Semites like Anwar Awlaki should have no place in the British civil service.
NB: Since my last post about the Easy Talk blog, the website’s administrators have sought to hide the website’s embarrassing contents. Fortunately, this webpage is still available here. And the Spittoon has saved screenshots anyway.
23 Comments
I take it he would not approve of my cuneiform gravatar, then?
Oh good.
Azad Ali defending Mullah Omar and the Taliban’s weasel words in refusing to hand over Usama Bin Ladin:
http://blog.islamicforumeurope.com/?p=91#more-91
The Taliban’s Afghanistan was a decent country that ha[d] mastered the art of diplomacy in international relations?!?!?!?
Azad Ali – defender of Islamist clerical fascism.
Is this the same pre-Islamic history that Muslim scientists and scholars learnt a great deal from, or the Ottomans modelled their political administration on. Such bullshit. Anyone stupid enough to think Awlaki is a good speaker should be locked up in a lunatic asylum.
The whole Azad Ali episode makes me wonder quite how insane a person would have to be to get thrown out of the civil service.
Seriously, what does it take to get chucked out??
Is this the same Azad Ali that newly moderate Bungles was so eager to defend just a few months ago. Oh how things change.
Tell me about it, dude, tell me about it.
Things are changing so quickly that by the time I’ve found out that an extremist has become ‘moderate’, they’ve already gone back to being an extremist again.
It’s enough to confuse anyone.
Al-Qanaas Al-Masri
Posted November 12, 2009 at 4:22 PM | Permalink
Short of uttering threats against superiors and bringing weapons to the workplace, not much.
Nothing in Pre Islamic Civilisation to be proud of?
WTF?
One of the things that made the Ottomans so successful for a long period was their open mindedness to Classical Learning and the use of governmental structures that were quite quite different from the ‘Islamic’ ones employed by the Abbasids, Umayyads etc etc etc.
Ah I see someone has already mentioned that.
Regarding Azad Ali – How is he still employed? Imagine a white, christian civil servant talking about members of the Far Right in such a way or non whites in such a way. He or she would be very unemployed very quickly.
So why do Islamists get a free pass and a promotion? Does brown skin colour act as moral and professional body armour? The attitude to such extremists from the Senior Civil Service is troubling indeed.
TCH
Lynne T
We seem to have mislaid the notion of the moral, at least some time ago… and I expect some sneering to immediately follow from my mention of the moral… more’s the pity, look.
I am flabbergasted by the sheer ignorance (that is truly jahiliyah) with the idea that Islamic society has learned nothing from that around it (including the past – especially the past).
Do these people not even read or comprehend their own history? What of al-Farabi, the first philosopher, who dedicated his al-Madina al-Fadil to his Christian teacher of philosophy? Without fear. Without reservation.
We have truly lost our way if this is to be disparaged.
Given Awlaki’s objections to all things pre-Islamic he must be finding Yemen to be a veritable den of jahiliya. The Yemenis are, almost without exception, enormously proud of their pre-Islamic heritage such as the highly-advanced civilisations of Marib, Hadramaut and elsewhere – not to mention the Queen of Sheba.
One also wonders how Awlaki squares his hysterical attitude to pre-Islamic civilisation with Islamic traditions. What does he think of Bahira, the Christian monk in modern-day Jordan, who writers such as Al-Tabiri and Ibn Hisham believe was the one of the first to recognise Muhammad as a prophet? What also of the pre-Islamic poetry which Muhammad and his companisons so enjoyed? What too of the pre-Islamic decorations that Muhammad allowed to remain the Ka’aba after he returned to Mecca from Medina?
I could continue. Awlaki is a fool.
And I recall with great love, the mosaics that adorn the Great Mosque of Damascus – and pour down the walls; and I wish I was back in Syria, far away from ignorant scum as Awlaki.
Insh’allah.
Al-Qanaas Al-Misri
Who is of course mentioned in the Quran which has a whole chapter named after the region of Saba (Ancient Yemen)
He’s clearly not alone
Winter.
I’m confused by your comment. Are you saying that the Queen of Sheba was not pre-Islamic? Or are you agreeing with me that Awlaki’s position is somewhat contradictory?
You really need to learn to express yourself more clearly.
And, once again, an Islamist troll has hurled a few moronic-isms around the shop and then run away.
Keep on runnin’, mofos.
Have you ever realised how stupid you sound Al – Qanaas!!! It’s such a shame that you just cannot have a civilised discussion or argument without letting your tongue run loose!! You really need to learn to communicate with mannerisms! You obviously haven’t yet learned that being rude/ shouting or swearing doesn’t make your point right!
You need to take your own advice – and express yourself more eloquently!! Maybe you could talk to yourself in front of your mirror – practice definitely won’t make you perfect, but hey something is better than nothing right?!
(And anyway, it’s not as if you have anything better to do! (just sitting at home and writing ridiculous articles and childish comments behind pseudonyms!!!).
(P.S honestly don’t bother wasting your time replying back to this post (as i know it’ll contain nothing but filth because that’s the type of person you are).
Back to discussion….
I note, with some amusement, that in the four paragraphs of illiterate gibberish G has just put up, he manages to avoid all mention of the topic of the thread.
‘You really need to learn to communicate with mannerisms!’
LOL!!!!
^^ That’s right, mind your mannerisms, everyone.
Cretins.
What is it with the trolls Spittoon attracts and their abject failure to use correctly terms ending in -ism?
They can’t help it Yoss babe. They all suffer from acute mor0nism.
According to the beeb, this Khalizad fellow is a Muslim, not a murtad.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4736394.stm