The Sunday Telegraph is full of stories about the Islamic Forum of Europe’s (IFE) growing influence in East London. It says the group has effectively infiltrated the local Labour Party and brought extraordinary pressure to bear on the local council, Tower Hamlets, where a number of the IFE’s members and supporters have been installed in key positions.
Undercover filming captured, Abjol Miah, an IFE activist and Tower Hamlets councillor, telling reporters:
“We’ve consolidated ourselves now. We’ve got a lot of influence and power in the council, councillors, politicians.”
Abu Talha, an IFE member, was also filmed saying:
“Our brothers have gone into positions of influence, council positions.”
The IFE has, of course, flatly denied all the allegations.
That makes Inayat Bunglawala’s email (sent today at 1830) to members of the Islamic Society of Britain and Young Muslims group on Yahoo particularly interesting.
CBS News is breaking an exclusive story over in the United States. It seems that Anwar al-Awlaki did indeed direct the abortive Christmas day attack by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Here’s what CBS are reporting:
The suspect in a failed Christmas Day airliner bombing attempt told federal investigators that radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki directed him to carry out the attack, CBS News has learned.
[...]
The source said Abdulmutallab told investigators he was guided by al-Awalki to detonate the bomb over U.S. soil, unlike the failed British bomber plot in 2006 when the bombers were instructed to detonate bombs on airliners over the ocean on the way to the U.S. so that there would be no evidence left behind.
The Saudi royal family is massive, comprising of an estimated 7000 or so members. Like any family, they have diverse interests.
Recently, one of King Abdullah’s brothers, Prince Faisal bin Mansour, has decided to try his hand at becoming an R&B singer. He even sings about the usual topics of R&B songs – promiscuity, partying, frivolity – but from a uniquely Saudi perspective.
For example, here he is singing: ‘Never Too Late’.
It was at this at this party / where I saw this shorty / and she was all over the place / tried to get male attention / by wearing short dresses / but she had a sad look on her face / young sister / you ain’t gotta dress the way that you seen on TV / be true to (Allah) yourself nobody else / and believe me you’re gonna be free / everybody makes mistakes / but it’s no reason to lose your faith / just believe that God is great / and inshalla you’ll find your way
I’ve recently obtained a statement from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claiming responsibility for the abortive terrorist attack on Delta airlines last week. I’m replicating the statement below for readers of this blog, interspersed with my own commentary.
Urgent Statement, by Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula
Operation by the Mujahid brother Omar Al-Farooq the Nigerian
Praise be to Allah who says:
And fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief and polytheism: i.e. worshiping others besides Allah) and the religion (worship) will all be for Allah Alone.
And peace and blessing be upon the seal of the Prophets….. To proceed:
For most of us, the holidays are a time for rest and relaxation; a time to recuperate and enjoy the company of family and friends.
Muhammad Idrees Ahmad
What has any of this got to do with Neocon Europe? Well, regular readers of this blog will know that last year we shone a spotlight on the racist and antisemitic writings of both Muhammad Idrees Ahmad and his boss ProfessorDavid Miller. Together they run Neocon Europe which has, inter alia, published a list of ‘racial characteristics’ about ‘Jewish intellectual movements’.
That’s the kind of attitude that ultimately led the Nazi’s to their Lebensunwertes Leben doctrine.
So then, back to the festive period – and just look at how Idrees spent Christmas eve, Christmas day and boxing day.
Peter Neumann from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King’s College, provides some instant analysis of the attempted bombing of a Delta Airlines flight travelling from Amsterdam to Detroit. He’s got all the main bases covered, so I’ll only provide some footnotes to a few his points:
Similarities with the ‘shoe bomber’. Richard Reid, the so-called ‘shoe bomber’ tried to blow himself up onboard an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami shortly before Christmas in 2001. As with today’s incident, Reid was caught fiddling with the explosive device, which failed to set off properly. Interestingly, it later turned out that Reid had an accomplice, Saajid Badat, who was hoping to bomb a different plane.
This is a cross-post by Shiraz Maher from Standpoint Magazine
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Anwar al-Awlaki, the al-Qaeda theoretician with links to three of the 9/11 terrorists and who recently inspired the Fort Hood shooter, Major Nidal Hasan, has allegedly been killed by an American drone attack in Yemen.
SANAA (Reuters) – A Yemeni air raid may have killed the top two leaders of al Qaeda’s regional branch on Thursday, and an American Muslim preacher linked to the man who shot dead 13 people at a U.S. army base may also have died, a Yemeni security official said.
Nasser al-Wahayshi, the Yemeni leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and his Saudi deputy, Saeed al-Shehri, were believed to be among 30 militants killed in the dawn operation in the eastern province of Shabwa, said the official, who asked not to be identified.
This is a cross-post by Shiraz Maher from Focus on Islamism
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Deceit and duplicity are the cornerstones of Gordon Brown’s government – an administration so long in the waiting that like the fruit of the medlar tree it went rotten before it was ripe. From Brown’s unchallenged ascension to the Premiership, to his persistent refusal to call an election, to the Damien McBride scandal, this is a government characterised by cowardice.
Yet, iniquity is not just Brown’s affliction. It is pervasive in his government.
It turns out that although the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) announced it was breaking ties with the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) after its Deputy Secretary General, Daud Abdullah, signed the Istanbul Declaration, the MCB was back and meeting ministers less than a month later.
Timothy Garton Ash has written a comment piece for the Guardian discussing the Swiss ban on mosque minarets. I agree with all that he says except for the Islamic Shakhsiya Foundation point.
I have looked at the curriculum that they were teaching at the time they received government funding. And yes, they do promote Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) ideology to the core. And as many of us know, HT ideology mandates Muslims to lead segregated lives from the rest of society and to only follow HT’s version of Islam. It is not exactly rocket science to know that HT run schools with HT teachers and a headmistress that was HT at the time of funding and writing the school’s curriculum would be teaching HT ideology to children. Anyway, the rest of the article is good. Have a read:
This is a cross-post by Shiraz Maher from the Focus on Islamism blog at Standpoint Magazine.
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The Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) is a virulently anti-Semitic organisation. Almost since its inception, the group has obsessed about Jews and Israel, pumping out a near endless stream of articles on the topic.
Yesterday, the group’s website posted this response to an article in the Jewish Chronicle about the disgraced Inayat Bunglawala’s ongoing and vicious sectarianism at a time when he is trying to rebrand himself a ‘moderate’:
Here is a clear case of stirring trouble and hatred (which Zionists are good at)
Do you see how Zionists divide Muslims? Is it not time we united against this scum of the earth?
