The Awlaki Colony – Infested by Denialists

Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens’ remarkable report (pdf) uncovering Anwar al-Awlaki’s links to Islamist organisations and individuals, exposed an extensive array of linkages, meetings, lectures and articles all designed to distribute and disseminate Awlaki’s ideology here in the UK has led to a flurry of denials and disclaimers from various Islamist organisations. Amongst the named and shamed are the Islamic Forum Europe (IFE), East London Mosque (ELM), Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), Cage Prisoners (CP) and the Cordoba Foundation (TCF).

Since its publication by the CSC, there has been a number of predictable and entertaining reactions. Here is Osama Saeed of the SNP, scrambling desperately to cover his tracks:

Compare this interview with Awlaki in the National Geographic after 9/11 with his current positions. It’s one of the sad hazards of being Muslim that agreeing with someone at one point in time will come back and bite you years later, and even after it is clear that the subject in question has changed his views. I’ve spoken previously about the propensity of rightwing newspapers and thinktanks to do this kind of thing here as well as outlining where I stand on the issue of Islamism overall.

Note the reference to the National Geographic interview, which is fast becoming the favourite get-out route forIslamists who have formerly associated with Awlaki. But Saeed chooses not to mention that in September 2006,  three months before he wrote the following endorsement of his beloved “Imam”, Awlaki, by then regarded by security authorities to be an al-Qaeda operative, was accused of involvement with terrorist attacks on two oil and gas installations in Yemen:

Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki was originally hounded in the US becuase two of the 9/11 bombers happened to pray at his mosque. Many of my Muslim readers will either know him personally or have heard his lectures. He preached nothing but peace, and I pray he will be able to do so again.

Perhaps Saeed was living in a hermetically sealed bubble prior to 2006 which prevented him knowing anything about the events in the world of the Ikhwaan. Highly unlikely of course, but now, hindsight being 20-20, Saeed has rushed a recent update (on 11 Nov 2009) as a postscript to disentangle himself by suggesting the Awlaki he endorsed in November 2006 was different to the Awlaki of today, with his “new views”:

It should go without saying that I completely disagree with his new views. This was not what he was expressing while he lived in the US and visited the UK.

Nice try at pleading ignorance, but it’s simply not the case, is it?

Anyone who has followed Awlaki knows that his views and his actions have consistently backed the ideology of armed jihad since 1999. In this Friday khutba delivered at the East London Mosque on December 26 2003, Awlaki states:

“A Muslim is a brother of a Muslim, he does not oppress him, he does not betray him and he does not hand him over…You don’t hand over a Muslim to the enemies…”

Furthermore, Awlaki’s terrorist connections and his relationship with the 9/11 attackers Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar are well-documented. So the claim that they merely “happened to pray at [Awlaki's] mosque” is an intentional and grotesque distortion of the facts by Osama Saeed.

Between 2007-2008, the Cordoba Foundation (TCF) received £38,000 of taxpayers money as part of the Government’s Prevent initiative. In August 2009 The Cordoba Foundation sponsored the Cage Prisoners event in the Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall which was to feature a video address from Awlaki.

And here is the Cordoba Foundation’s hilarious statement of denial of any wrongdoing:

Upon the publication of the event’s advertisement a few weeks later, TCF became aware, for the first time that among the speakers was Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki via a video link. Immediately, TCF contacted the organisers and clearly communicated its serious reservations about the inclusion of Imam Al-Awlaki, and explained its position that any association with this person would go counter to the vision, policy and approach of TCF.

All this scurrying is reminiscent of an ant colony whose size and scale has only recently begun to be uncovered. And you can be sure, dear readers, that there is more to come.