Category Archives: PVE

Muslim Brotherhood front-group declares war on ‘ZINC’

By Guest | Published: October 19, 2009

This is a guest-post by Al-Qanaas Al-Masri

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The Enemy (according to the BMI)

The Enemy (according to the BMI)

At the risk of sounding like Richard Littlejohn, sometimes you just can’t make it up. In response to the Guardian’s report on Saturday on how the government’s ‘Prevent’ counter-extremism programme is allegedly being used to spy on British Muslims, the British Muslim Initiative, a moribund Muslim Brotherhood front-group run by former Muslim Association of Britain spokesman Anas Al-Tikriti, briefly stirred into life in order to issue a single crazed press-release:

BMI president Muhammad Sawalha said, “This campaign of espionage is a hallmark of totalitarian societies. It is an unfortunate throw back to the Cold War years when spying was the order of the day.”

“We are deeply aggrieved that such measures should be adopted to target law-abiding citizens in a modern democracy”, he added.

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Also posted in Islamism | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Accusations Of Spying Do Not Help Our Fight Against Extremism

By Guest | Published: October 19, 2009

This is a guest post by Khuram

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On Saturday the Guardian published a front page article by Vikram Dodd on the Governments PREVENT strategy. This article claimed there were concerns that the agenda was being used to spy and to gather information.   On Sunday another article by Dodd stated that influential MPs were going to investigate these allegations.  Interestingly, Dodd was also behind what was claimed to be a leak of the new Contest 2 strategy back in February 09, the actual strategy did not include anything of what was alleged.  Two important questions need to be asked then: is PREVENT really about spying and is it effective?

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Also posted in Islamism, The Far Left, Your View | Tagged , , , | 15 Comments

At last…A counter-demonstration to Andy’s Army

By Effendi | Published: October 18, 2009

News is emerging of a planned counter-demonstration to Anjum ‘Andy’ Chaudhry’s “Islam4UK” outfit which plans to hold a rally in Central London later this month.

There is a Facebook group called ‘Say No To Andy’s Fanatics’ which has some details. It reads:

The extremist AND UNREPRESENTATIVE cult group al-Muhajiroun intends to provoke hatred and division in both Muslims and British people of all backgrounds with a demonstration in Central London….

I AM ASKING ALL TO STAND WITH LONDONERS AGAINST THESE EXTREMISTS ON OCTOBER 31st 2009….

The way we have stood together against the EDL we now need to stand together against those who want to harm the UK and its people.

Publicise this far and wide – and make sure you get down there. A big attendance is vital.

Afterwards, we’ll all go for a swift half.

andy

Andy in happier times...

Also posted in Activism, Anti Fascism, Politics | 13 Comments

Charles Farr on Countering Extremism

By Yossarian | Published: October 3, 2009

The Guardian yesterday reported on Charles Farr (director-general of the Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism) and a briefing he gave on 26th February this year to MPs on the topic of the government’s counter-terrorism strategy. It appears to have been online for a while but only recently to have been picked up on by the media.

The transcript of his briefing (at least a redacted and approved version thereof) is available online and it’s well worth a read. Here are some highlights (with emphasis added by me):

On RICU (the Research, Information and Communications Unit):

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Also posted in Terrorism | Tagged | 2 Comments

ippr’s idea of “engaging with political Islamists” – CAPITULATE!

By Yossarian | Published: September 22, 2009

ippr have today published a report (pdf) marking the culmination of their two-year research project “on political Islam in the Middle East and North Africa”. It is not impressive.

There are two main problems with this report and, unfortunately for ippr, they are the two main assumptions underpinning it. Firstly, that engagement is always good and must occur with Islamists rather than anybody else (p16 and pp41-42). Secondly, that those poor little political Islamists are simply “misunderstood” and if only we understood them better (like wot ippr do) then everything would be AOK (p41 and p45).

Sorry, but engagement for the sake of engagement is not an argument. The onus is on ippr to argue why political Islamists should be engaged and particularly why they should be engaged ahead of anybody else. Secondly, it is not other people “misunderstanding” Islamism that makes them wary of engagement with Islamists – quite the opposite. A mere faint familiarity with the principal Islamist ideologues is enough to make you very wary of engaging them and their followers.

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Also posted in Islamism | Tagged | 33 Comments

New IPPR report: ‘Fuck the Arabs’

By Guest | Published: September 22, 2009

This is a guest post by Al-Qanaas Al-Masri

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During the last few years, the left-leaning Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank has built up an unenviable reputation on the tricky subject of engaging with Islamists. And for good reason. Previous IPPR papers have argued that hard-line British Islamists from groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood are our best allies against al-Qaeda because ‘shared interests, if not ideologies, are paramount: it is not in our interests or theirs for terrorists to mount another attack.’

The most troubling aspect of IPPR’s previous calls for the empowerment of Islamists has however been IPPR’s underlying argument that, in order to stop jihadists blowing up middle-class white people on planes, trains and buses in western capitals, governments should sell out their own Muslim citizens to religious fascists by empowering Islamists who want to dictate every aspect of ordinary Muslims’ social, political and spiritual lives.

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Also posted in Islamism | 7 Comments

Tower Hamlets Funding Venue for al-Muhajiroun 9/11 Meeting

By Effendi | Published: September 10, 2009

Oxford House in Bethnal Green, east London is a community organisation dating back to 1884. To support its role as a venue for theatre events, drama, dance and the like it receives money from a wide range of organisations including the National Lottery, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and even the EU – see page 14 of their Charity Commission records for more details.(pdf)

It also does a sideline in hosting the nastiest Islamists London has to offer. It has regularly been the location for talks held by “Young Muslim Cooperation”, a blatant front for al-Muhajiroun. Salafi Media (another al-Muhajiroun front) hosts a large number of videos recorded at Oxford House. So unwilling is Oxford House to recognise the unpleasantness of their guests that, when the police stepped in to stop an event being held at Queen Mary’s University of London, al-Muhajiroun were allowed at the last minute to move the festivities to Oxford House. Islam4UK, the most open of al-Muhajiroun’s many fronts, even planned a conference Rise of the Khilafah there back in February.

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Also posted in Islamism | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Fun With Numbers (and the Muslim Council of Britain)

By Yossarian | Published: August 13, 2009

The Muslim Council of Britain likes to present itself as the voice of British Muslims. If you tuned in to Kenan Malik’s excellent programme on Radio 4 this morning, Are All Muslims the Same? then you will have heard MCB spokesman Inayat Bunglawala boasting that organisations like the MCB have never been out of step with what “the silent majority” of British Muslims are saying.

Quite apart from this making no sense at all (How does he know what the silent majority are saying if they are silent?), it is a portentous claim. If the MCB know what all Muslims are thinking then, as discussed yesterday, it makes sense for the government to treat them as gatekeepers to British Muslims. Bunglawala clearly knows better than British Muslims themselves, only six percent of whom actually believe the MCB represents them.

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Also posted in Islamism, UK Politics | Tagged , | 14 Comments

MCB Get Ahead Of Themselves

By Yossarian | Published: August 12, 2009

John Denham, new Secretary of State for Communitites and Local Government, recently stated his desire that the government’s Prevent strategy shift its focus from being on “al-Qaida-influenced terrorism” to looking at extremism of all varieties. As outlined by David T earlier this week, there are many reasons for this being A Good Idea.

Here at the Spittoon we have been horrified by the rise of the viciously anti-Muslim BNP; a government policy to address the rise of far right politics must surely be welcomed. But then this was accompanied by the news that the Muslim Council of Britain’s banishment from Westminster may be coming to an end.

The official attempt to mend fences follows a controversial phase in the history of the programme, which culminated in an acrimonious dispute between Hazel Blears, Denham’s predecessor, and the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB).

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Also posted in Islamism, UK Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Kensington Welcomes Jihadi Preacher

By Yossarian | Published: August 11, 2009

Anwal al-Awlaki is an American extremist based in Yemen. This is his website. Note the picture of a man with AK47 which, very appropriately, Awlaki uses to represent his website. It also distributes a video of British and American troops suffering in Afghanistan, suffering which is celebrated.

On his website, Awlaki publishes a leaflet called 44 Ways of Supporting Jihad. Awlaki tells his readers that, in the current day and age, it is compulsory for them to get arms training then to go and fight jihad. And, before any apologists pop up to say I’m misrepresenting the concept of jihad in Islam, no, he is not talking about jihad  al-nafs. If it entails arms training then what Awlaki is talking about is religiously justified warfare.

This is a point Awlaki makes clear when he tells readers of his website to fight against government armies in the Muslim world.

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Also posted in Islamism, Terrorism | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

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