David T of Harry’s Place and I went head to head yesterday on the question of whether it is right to ban extremist speakers from the country and, if it is not, what can be done to challenge extremist speakers such as those attending the iERA tour covered here over the last few days. (See here, here and here)
It is a massively important topic which rarely comes up for debate. So, what do you think?
Habibi blogged yesterday about a “Dawah” tour being planned by iERA, the Islamic Education and Research Academy. They’re a new group launching themselves onto the scene with a series of events in Manchester, London, Leeds, Luton, Bristol and Brighton. In particular, Habibi examined the deeply unpleasant Hussein Ye, one of their speakers and a man who claimed “a group of Jews was so happy in America, they were having a party when the twin towers had been burned. They had a celebration, they had a party going on.”
iERA may be a new group, but one name associated with them will be very familiar. Bilal Philips, the man caught by Dispatches justifying marriage to 9 year-old girls in the modern world because Muhammad did so over a thousand years ago – a clear case of anthopological illiteracy -, is not just one of their advertised speakers, he is one of iERA’s advisors.
This article by Habibi is cross-posted from Harry’s Place
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Later this month a “dawah” (propagation) campaign will get underway in the UK. It is the first big venture of a new outfit, the Islamic Education and Research Academy, or iERA. Events are scheduled in Brighton, Bristol, Manchester and London.
Have a look at one of the speakers – Malaysian cleric Hussein Ye (sometimes spelled Yee). He was trained at the Islamic University of Medina in Saudi Arabia and is considered a Wahhabi in Malaysia. This clip opens with an invocation:
“May Allah help all the mujahideen, especially in Palestine, especially in Iraq, and wherever they are, who fight to protect human rights.”
Ye goes on to claim – in a speech delivered in 2006 – that America has “no hot proof” of who carried out the 9/11 atrocities. Then he slips in this little observation: