Author Archives: avicenna

What turned Roshonara into a Jihadi knife criminal?

By avicenna | Published: November 5, 2010

This is an extract from a police interview with Roshanara Choudhury was conducted four hours after her arrest for stabbing Stephen Timms MP.

Choudhry says she was studying English and Communications at King’s College London, but dropped out on 27 April 2010, in her third year. She also states that she embraced her jihadi beliefs after listening to the lectures of Anwar al-Awlaki and reading the website of the jihadi group Revolution-Muslim of South Park fame, while she was studying at Kings College.

The full extract of this interview can be read here.

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DC Hussain Sorry, just before we finish, I’ve just a couple of questions that I’ve got to ask you. When did this interest of yours for Islam develop?

Posted in Islamism | 17 Comments

The Western “Confusion”

By avicenna | Published: October 31, 2010

Is it Islamic or Islamist? That’s the title of this brilliant piece by a couple of senior fellows at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, published in Newsweek. The two ideological forces at the heart of this Western confusion is the left – which often intentionally mistakes Islamism with the common person’s Islam – and the right – which is, more often than not, attacking the Muslim faith by confusing it with Islamism. Both sides have utilised this “confusion” whenever they have had to alternatively support Islamism or attack ordinary Muslims.

Either way, it has been ordinary Muslim people and their beliefs who have been affected while the Islamists and their causes have prospered.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Strict with Lutfur Rahman, Fluffy with Ken Livingstone

By avicenna | Published: October 27, 2010

Here is Ken Livingstone giving a clear-cut message of endorsement to Lutfur Rahman, while criticising the NEC’s decision to expel Rahman and downplaying Rahman’s replacement:

Labour have taken swift and strong action against Lutfur Rahman and, given his appalling track record, rightly so. Andrew Gilligan reports:

The Tower Hamlets Labour councillors met last night at Westminster. According to several of those present, they voted:

to ban their members from joining Lutfur Rahman’s cabinet or acting as paid advisers to him.

to oppose Lutfur’s and all his supporters’ readmission to the Labour Party.

to ask Labour’s National Executive Committee to investigate the role of Labour Party members in Lutfur’s election campaign and to treat them all equally.

This last bit is clearly aimed at Ken Livingstone, whose action in campaigning against Labour and for Lutfur continues to appal many members of the Labour Party.

Posted in Tower Hamlets, UK Politics | 4 Comments

Why Imam Abu Sayeed is wrong on rape

By avicenna | Published: October 27, 2010

In a recent interview with the Samosa blog, the head cleric of the UK Islamic Sharia Council, Sheikh Maulana Abu Sayeed, backed rape in marriage and suggested that it was “un-Islamic” to prosecute the perpetrator. He didn’t end there – he went on to say that it was an act of “aggression” against the man to prosecute him for rape, rather than protect the safety of the real victim, the woman. Imam Abu Sayeed remains unapologetic and stands by these remarkable statements.

This is what Tehmina Kazi had to say:

It is clearly counter-productive for women to report marital rape cases to sharia councils. Firstly, there is usually no real punishment for the offender and insubstantial recourse for the victim. While conviction rates for rape in the British criminal justice system have never been reflective of reality (the national average was 5.3 percent, or 1 in 20 reported cases, as of 2005), these vary widely from area to area, from 13.8 percent in Northamptonshire to just 1.6 percent in Suffolk. Also, the British criminal justice system is far ahead in terms of taking marital rape as seriously as any other kind of rape, criminalising it in 1991.

Posted in Misogyny, Sharia, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Debate: Islam Is A Religion Of Peace

By avicenna | Published: October 11, 2010

The Intelligence Squared forum recently organised a debate on the motion ‘Islam is a religion of peace’.

Is the rise of terrorism and violence justifiably traced to the teachings of Islam, or is this call to war a twisted interpretation of the true Muslim faith? Most of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims are moderates who see Islamic terrorism as a violation of their sacred texts. Is it wrong to let a radical minority represent authentic Islam? Has fear blinded us to its lessons of tolerance and peace?

Speaking for the motion were Zeba Khan and Maajid Nawaz. Against the motion were Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Douglas Murray.

Polled before the debate, the audience voted:
41% FOR the motion
25% AGAINST the motion
34% Undecided

And after the debate:
36% FOR the motion
55% AGAINST the motion
9% Undecided

Posted in Uncategorized | 54 Comments

Why is Anti-Muslim Hysteria in the US At Its Worst?

By avicenna | Published: September 14, 2010

Simon Schama examines why the “bubbling fury” and the acute bigotry is now directed at Muslims in USA today, along with the anti-immigrant hysteria that has engulfed some parts of the country.

Asked why he thinks the anti-Muslim hysteria is worse today, nine years after 9/11, than it was immediately after that incident, Schama suggests that it is due to the collapse of US economy. Whenever the US has had its periodic explosions of toxic anti-minority hatred, it was related to a falling economy.

Any other reasons apart from ‘it’s the economy, stupid’?

Posted in Anti Muslim bigotry | 15 Comments

‘Burn a Quran Day’ and its precedents

By avicenna | Published: September 8, 2010

This is Dr Terry Jones, senior pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center of Florida, a “New Testament Church – based on the Bible, the Word of God”, interviewed on CNN on his plans to commemorate 9/11 by organising ‘Burn a Quran Day’.

The echoes of 1933 when the Nazis burnt some 20,000 books in Germany is clear. But this is not the first time Christian fundamentalists in the USA have shown their intolerance towards books by burning them, as this video show.

It goes without saying that this is an outrageous act of provocation. The fear is – how will Muslims react to this? My only hope is that they will not respond to this act of irrational cynicism and stupidity by reacting in kind, or worse. But perhaps that is asking for too much.

Posted in Anti Fascism, Anti Muslim bigotry, Antisemitism, Obscurantism | 9 Comments

The New Labour Mayor of Tower Hamlets

By avicenna | Published: September 5, 2010

Good news for Islamist entryism in the UK: Lutfur Rahman has won the nomination to be Labour’s candidate for the first directly-elected executive mayor of Tower Hamlets.

Lutfur Rahman, a councillor with close links to Islamic fundamentalism, has won the nomination to be Labour’s candidate for the first directly-elected executive mayor of Tower Hamlets, according to three sources. He was kept off the shortlist three times by the party amid deep concerns over his links with the Islamic supremacist group, the Islamic Forum of Europe. Yesterday we exposed how he had signed up entire families of sham “paper” members to get himself the nomination. Turnout in the party selection contest today was extremely – perhaps suspiciously – high, at around 70 per cent, double the expected figure.

More here.

Posted in Islamism | 2 Comments

Anarchy in the Khilafah

By avicenna | Published: September 4, 2010

Do young Muslim women who were born in the UK and who wear the niqab or veil do so exclusively for religious reasons? Or is there an element of protest, of provocation, of thumbing your nose at the establishment? This wouldn’t be too dissimilar to the reasons why, back in the 70s, punks sported bright green mohican haircuts and skinheads wore swastika t-shirts. The image shown below is a meeting of the punk and the hijabi sub-cultures.