In the category of exceedingly unwelcome news, Anwar al-Awlaki appears to be back and spreading his hatred on the Islamic Awakening forum, which is popular with extremists.
Islamic Awakening user AbuSulaiman has recently posted this on the forum:
new Fatwa from Sh. Anwar
From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 5:32 PM
subject: Fwd: Fwd: Imam Anwar updte!!
Dear brother XXXX,I wanted to clarify my recent comments on brother Nidal Hasan’s shooting at Fort Hood which i am unable to do on my site until the brothers restore it, may Allah reward them.
If a Muslim is in a non-Muslim army and is part of the military apparatus which is waging war against Muslims, it is not permissible for him to take part at all. Helping the kuffar against the Muslims is riddah without doubt. Allah said concerning the one who supports the mushrikeen:
The Washington Post has obtained a copy of a slideshow presented by Major Hasan to US military doctor colleagues in June 2007. Rather than speak about medical topics, as he was supposed to, he lectured on Islam, suicide bombings and threats the US military would face if it continued to fight in Muslim majority countries. He called it “The Koranic World View At It Relates to Muslims in the US Military”.
View it here.
At slide 11 he discusses fatwas concerning Muslims serving in the US military. It concludes with a quotation whose origins are unclear:
“It’s getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims.”
Peter Oborne’s Dispatches programme was on last night, preceded by the Guardian article and comment piece and Opendemocracy pamphlet (pdf) which were released to coincide with the programme. I have been avidly following the inevitable online wranglings which ensued.
The CST’s response is certainly one of the best, particularly this gem of a detail:
There is another, very simple, example of how the programme makers appear to have decided on their theory and conclusions before accumulating any facts. The Guardian opinion piece states:
For instance, Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) – once described by the famous Conservative politician and historian as “the largest organisation in western Europe dedicated to the cause of the people of Israel” – claims that 80% of all Tory MPs are members.
The Guardian news article states:
At least half of the shadow cabinet are members of the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), according to a Dispatches programme being screened on Channel 4.
Unfortunately for those who previously backed Awlaki (but say that he must have recently changed from being a fluffy friend of all to fire-breathing jihadist preacher without anybody noticing), in his first interview since the Fort Hood attacks, the Yemeni-American preacher has revealed that it was under his influence that Major Nidal Malik Hasan was first radicalised back in 2001/2002.
Aulaqi said Hasan viewed him as a confidant. “It was clear from his e-mails that Nidal trusted me. Nidal told me: ‘I speak with you about issues that I never speak with anyone else,’ ” he told Shaea.
The cleric said Hasan informed him that he had become a devout Muslim around the time Aulaqi was preaching at Dar al-Hijrah, in 2001 and 2002. “Anwar said, ‘Maybe Nidal was affected by one of my lectures,’” said Shaea.
Global Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) likes to claim that it is devoted to an “exclusively political method” which is non-violent. Even though HT would be happy to see the deaths of millions and its ideology and strategy has been well documented by my Spittoonite comrade Houriya (not least in the excellent, but somewhat prosaically titled, report Hizb ut-Tahrir: Ideology and Strategy (pdf) which she authored with her colleague Hannah Stuart) there are still many politicians, civil servants and the like who repeat the wrong-headed platitude that HT is non-violent.
They could not be less correct, as a Bangladeshi news site reports:
The Dhaka University’s vice chancellor received death threats on Sunday from banned Islamist outfit Hizb ut-Tahrir.
The organisation in two letters asked A A M S Arefin Siddique to reinstate central coordinator of the outfit and spokesman professor Mohiuddin Ahmed to his position in the university without delay.
Swapan Dasgupta has an interesting article in The Pioneer today. He explores the differences between the recent case of Major Nidal Malik Hasan and that of the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her bodyguards 25 years ago.
The saga of an armed custodian of military power turning roguish, whether out of stress or conviction, is not new. Just 25 years ago, there was the incident of the Prime Minister’s own bodyguards turning their guns on the person they were entrusted to protect. The reason was not any personal dislike of Indira Gandhi but a political (or, if you must, religious) retribution for the military action on the Golden Temple in Amritsar. A few months earlier there were incidents of mutiny among Sikh soldiers unable to digest the desecration of their holiest shrine. In weighing a perceived injustice to their faith with loyalty to the state, individuals exercised painful options — and only a handful involved rebellion.
It has been widely reported that, since his disgusting statement in support of Major Hasan’s actions in Fort Hood, the blog belonging to Anwar al-Awlaki has been taken down. Who by is still unclear, but one detail has gone unreported. Yesterday, this message was posted:
website coming back online
Assaalmu’alaykum all
The website will be back to normal with a few days time.
If it does come back online this would be an unfortunate development. However, with Awlaki on the run in Yemen, it is most likely that this message was posted by an anonymous supporter, not the man himself. Anyway now his Facebook page is also down we at the Spittoon thought we’d highlight a few people who probably thought this would protect them from being busted as Awlaki supporters on Facebook.
Yvonne Ridley is also a fan of herself. Narcissist.
A Pakistani magazine article from earlier this year.
Soldiers, policemen, factory and hospital workers, mourners at funerals and ordinary people praying in mosques have all been reduced to globs of flesh and fragments of bones. But, perhaps paradoxically, in spite of the fact that the dead bodies and shattered lives are almost all Muslim ones, few Pakistanis speak out against these atrocities. Nor do they approve of the army operation against the cruel perpetrators of these acts because they believe that they are Islamic warriors fighting for Islam and against American occupation. Political leaders like Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan have no words of solace for those who have suffered at the hands of Islamic extremists. Their tears are reserved exclusively for the victims of Predator drones, even if they are those who committed grave crimes against their own people. Terrorism, by definition, is an act only the Americans can commit.
They are both, apparently, a tad sex-starved. But where Hasan stuck to legal strip-joints, Awlaki prefers prostitutes.
Yet more evidence of the links between them? Probably not, but it’s always worth noting the dubious personal morality of the ostentatiously pious.
First the Spittoon brought you the news that the darling of Cageprisoners, East London Mosque, City University’s Islamic Society and others too, Anwar al-Awlaki, had, in the past, been the imam for the Fort Hood murderer, Major Nidal Hasan. A connection which also linked him to two of the 9/11 hijackers, for whom Awlaki has been described as being a “spiritual advisor”.
Well, now Awlaki has responded to the shooting with an entry entitled Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing (pdf) on his blog. I reproduce it below in the hope that people in various capacities in government (central and local), the media and more will become familiar with this man and never again will he be able to sully a venue in Britain.