Following the news that the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) will share a platform with the MCB and the An Nisa Society at next Monday’s Select Committee hearing in Parliament, now would be good time to find out more on where it stands on Britain’s pledge to support the Afghan people wrest their country from the grip of al-Qaeda.
This article hosted on the IHRC’s website should go some way to answering that question:
I refuse to buy a poppy for remembrance day, because Britain hasn’t remembered anything at all.
Sentimental rituals such as poppy-wearing only help the collective amnesia. We don’t remember that Britain was defeated in Afghanistan twice in the 19th century, that the mighty Soviet Union was defeated there a couple of decades ago. We don’t remember, or we never learnt, that imperialism is fundamentally wrong.
Wrong wrong wrong, in every case. And stupid. We don’t remember that imperialism only ever makes social conditions worse and increases the hatred of the imperialised for the imperialiser.
If Britain had learned this simple lesson it would not have stumbled into the US-Israeli war in Iraq or into Afghanistan years before an al-Qa’ida attack here.
If Britain knew and remembered that people can only develop their social mores in their own way and at their own pace it wouldn’t accept for a moment the noxious propaganda that we are bombing Afghan women in order to liberate them. If Britain understood that people of darker complexion are just as attached to their land and rights as white people it would never have supported apartheid in Palestine and Zionist assaults on Lebanon.
Here is what I will do to support British soldiers. I encourage them to desert, so that they may become true heroes.
So to summarise the fatuous, offensive and hateful arguments in the article:
- Britain’s role in Afghanistan is a continuation of the Imperialist tendency of the West and is racist (‘white people versus brown people’) in nature.
- Events in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to motivate “terrorist activity in the UK”.
- We in the west have no obligation to the people of Afghanistan to help them rid their country of Arab-funded terrorist activity.
- Al-Qaeda terrorism against the Afghan people goes unmentioned. Possibly because Muslim-on-Muslim terrorism is of no consequence, benign and possibly good for the Afghans.
- To support British soldiers in Afghanistan is “false patriotism”. They are there to commit murder.
The article admits that “old school al-Qa’ida had training camps in Afghanistan” but latterly terrorism in the west has been incubated in the west.
Although old-school al-Qa’ida had training camps in Afghanistan, the September 11th attacks were planned in Hamburg, not Helmand, and the necessary training was done in the United States
However, the IHRC is on record for criticising the west for tackling homegrown terrorism in it’s own backyard as well. When Abu Hamza was convicted in the UK, Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the IHRC had this to say:
“This is creating an environment that can only further alienate the Muslim community.”
So it looks like the IHRC is an operation created to criticise any form of opposition to terrorism whether in Afghanistan or Britain as “anti-Muslim” and to support the work of Islamists and terrorist cells by conflating their interests with that of the British Muslim community.
Let us hope that the members of the Select Committee on Monday’s hearing will be able to identify the IHRC for what it truly stands for.
Opposing the IHRC
13 Comments
and don’t forget that jews are “white”, whereas palestinians are “brown”. i’d like to see them make that argument at the synagogues i pray in.
b’shalom
bananabrain
Funny that an organization that’s is opposed to opposing Taliban rule and is linked to Iran has a problem with what poppies might symbolize.
After all, the Taliban fund their campaign of terror and repression of Afghans and Pakistanis through poppy production, and it’s been alledged that heroin addiction is a huge problem in Iran, fostered by its rulers as a way to keep a restive population under their thumbs.
http://www.mcb.org.uk/downloads/RememberingtheBrave_MCB.pdf
What a vile and ignorant outpouring of hate is this. With attitueds like this there will always be animosity towards Muslims if this purports to represent their opinions.
They should get out of this Country and take thier plastic grievances with them. They dont belong here and never will; they are going a great dis-service to the average hard working Muslims tryting to make their waythrough life in the UK.
Mike
I wear a poppy to remember my grand uncle, who died in 1917. He was injured on his first time at the Front. He was removed to a forward medical unit, where he was subsequently gassed to death in his bed, when a chlorine shell landed on the unit. He is buried in Flanders. He was 17 years old, the apple of his mother’s eye, and he lied about his age.
Lest we forget.
Apologies, *Matt*, not Mike (can’t find my bloody specs!).
The Muslim dead of WWI:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5114930.stm
In any case, does it matter whether of what faith (or none) they were?
Chirac rightly said at the time, of a certain place:
“People of all walks of life, of all beliefs, of all religions, are at Verdun,”
Marchons, mes freres.
Helping the kaafirs by buying a poppy is a form of major kufr which puts one beyond the pale of Islam. Allaah says concerning one who supports the mushrikeen:
“And if any amongst you takes them (as Awliyaa’, i.e., friends), then surely, he is one of them”
Do go away, Gerrit.
The IHRC must show more tact, and sense. Whilst they may disagree with the wars in Afghanistan/Iraq, they must respect that poppies, for the most part, are in honor of those who were slain in the war against Nazism. A war which resulted in the deaths of numerous Westerners AND Muslims.
There was a wonderful program on the beeb a few months back called ‘The Muslim Tommies’. It contained vivid accounts of Indian Muslim soldiers fighting on the front lines.
Hassan
That has got to be the understatement of the year!
I thought you didn’t do satire, Hassan!
I do unintentional satire, apparently.
Seemingly so, Hassan.