By Supna Zaidi
Given the negative reaction Israel is receiving as it wages its war against Hamas this week, the international community should ask itself whether it is committed to fighting Islamist terrorism or not. British citizens particularly seem unable to understand that Hamas is not different from the terrorists that committed the London attacks and attempt numerous other attacks on British soil regularly. Nor is Hamas different from Lashkar-e-Taiba, who perpetrated the Mumbai attacks in India, or al-Qaeda and a myriad of other organizations that fight to achieve one goal - to replace foreign influence in Muslim lands, and apply Islamic law globally. As Lashkar-e-Taiba focuses ridding Kashmir of Indian influence or inciting Muslims to fight against non-Muslims in India itself, Hamas focuses on removing Zionism from the Middle East. The British should just read their Charter. It's on the internet.
Why pick on the U.K.?
The U.K. has been a victim of terrorism more than once, it has a large Muslim population that it is afraid to engage with in a meaningful way, which allows extremists to continue to incite apolitical Muslims to violence through literature, speeches, on British soil. If anyone doubts that the Israeli fight with Hamas is in any way connected to British Islamist terror, visit the Muslim Public Affairs Committee's (MPACUK) website. An article posted on December 28, 2008 demanded that the public forward the names of "Neo-Con Zionist" Muslims who helped the think tank Policy Exchange expose the sale of extremist literature in British mosques.
Upon an initial reading of the article, I had to ask what extremist literature had to do with Israel. Moreover, why would British Muslims have a problem with members of their community helping to weed out extremism from their mosques. Would not such an effort improve the image of mosques? The think tank was clear in its report to note that not only was extremist literature found only in a minority of the mosques, but that the presence of such material on Mosque property did not imply that either the mosque or any mosque board member knew about it. The think tank report was merely concerned, as it rightfully should be, with the presence of such material circulating in the British Muslim community.
The MPAC-UK article, entitled, "The Hunt for 8 Sufi Zio-Con Frauds",(http://mpacuk.org/content/view/4245/34), labeled these true Muslim moderates as part of "Sufi underground cults" who teamed up with the Zionists to discredit Islam. Spokesman, Ashgar Bukhari, said that any Muslim killed fighting Israel goes straight to paradise. (http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson/blog/2008/12/19/any_muslim_killed_fighting_israel_goes_to_paradise_says_mpac_spokesman).
When Damian Thompson, of the London Sunday Telegraph pointed this out, he was denounced as part of a Zionist conspiracy as well.
MPAC-UK doesn't stop there. The article reminds readers how the British encouraged Muslims not to be political to their benefit. "The British used it in India too, creating groups who focused on every minor ritual and repeated the words 'no politics' over and over and over again…anyone guess who they are? The Sufi Muslim council is the recognizable face of the new Government appointed cults. However there are many Sufi groups operating throughout Britain doing work to pacify the Muslim mind."
British society, especially the media needs to understand that badly written articles like MPAC-UK's, and much more sophisticated media efforts continue to support Islamists when they ignore the goal Islamists wish to achieve and allow such violent, separatist rhetoric to reach the airwaves or hit the newspapers.
MPAC-UK is clearly anti-British but purports to make its claims as of right as taxpaying British citizens, supports Islamist terrorism by failing to support the work of the Policy Exchange think tank, which is meant to benefit all British Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
By trying to "out" Muslims that try to work with the British government to fight Islamist extremism, MPAC-UK is obstructing justice and aiding and abetting terrorism. These are criminal threats, which threaten the lives of the Muslim researchers that worked hard to defend their British home.
Israel is fighting one of the fronts on the war on terror. To discuss "disproportionate" military responses, the humanitarian crisis, etc while ignoring the fact that Hamas does not believe Israel has the right to exist is a futile position to hold. A stalemate in perpetuity will continue to scar the innocent on both sides for generations to come.
Given the negative reaction Israel is receiving as it wages its war against Hamas this week, the international community should ask itself whether it is committed to fighting Islamist terrorism or not. British citizens particularly seem unable to understand that Hamas is not different from the terrorists that committed the London attacks and attempt numerous other attacks on British soil regularly. Nor is Hamas different from Lashkar-e-Taiba, who perpetrated the Mumbai attacks in India, or al-Qaeda and a myriad of other organizations that fight to achieve one goal - to replace foreign influence in Muslim lands, and apply Islamic law globally. As Lashkar-e-Taiba focuses ridding Kashmir of Indian influence or inciting Muslims to fight against non-Muslims in India itself, Hamas focuses on removing Zionism from the Middle East. The British should just read their Charter. It's on the internet.
Why pick on the U.K.?
The U.K. has been a victim of terrorism more than once, it has a large Muslim population that it is afraid to engage with in a meaningful way, which allows extremists to continue to incite apolitical Muslims to violence through literature, speeches, on British soil. If anyone doubts that the Israeli fight with Hamas is in any way connected to British Islamist terror, visit the Muslim Public Affairs Committee's (MPACUK) website. An article posted on December 28, 2008 demanded that the public forward the names of "Neo-Con Zionist" Muslims who helped the think tank Policy Exchange expose the sale of extremist literature in British mosques.
Upon an initial reading of the article, I had to ask what extremist literature had to do with Israel. Moreover, why would British Muslims have a problem with members of their community helping to weed out extremism from their mosques. Would not such an effort improve the image of mosques? The think tank was clear in its report to note that not only was extremist literature found only in a minority of the mosques, but that the presence of such material on Mosque property did not imply that either the mosque or any mosque board member knew about it. The think tank report was merely concerned, as it rightfully should be, with the presence of such material circulating in the British Muslim community.
The MPAC-UK article, entitled, "The Hunt for 8 Sufi Zio-Con Frauds",(http://mpacuk.org/content/view/4245/34), labeled these true Muslim moderates as part of "Sufi underground cults" who teamed up with the Zionists to discredit Islam. Spokesman, Ashgar Bukhari, said that any Muslim killed fighting Israel goes straight to paradise. (http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson/blog/2008/12/19/any_muslim_killed_fighting_israel_goes_to_paradise_says_mpac_spokesman).
When Damian Thompson, of the London Sunday Telegraph pointed this out, he was denounced as part of a Zionist conspiracy as well.
MPAC-UK doesn't stop there. The article reminds readers how the British encouraged Muslims not to be political to their benefit. "The British used it in India too, creating groups who focused on every minor ritual and repeated the words 'no politics' over and over and over again…anyone guess who they are? The Sufi Muslim council is the recognizable face of the new Government appointed cults. However there are many Sufi groups operating throughout Britain doing work to pacify the Muslim mind."
British society, especially the media needs to understand that badly written articles like MPAC-UK's, and much more sophisticated media efforts continue to support Islamists when they ignore the goal Islamists wish to achieve and allow such violent, separatist rhetoric to reach the airwaves or hit the newspapers.
MPAC-UK is clearly anti-British but purports to make its claims as of right as taxpaying British citizens, supports Islamist terrorism by failing to support the work of the Policy Exchange think tank, which is meant to benefit all British Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
By trying to "out" Muslims that try to work with the British government to fight Islamist extremism, MPAC-UK is obstructing justice and aiding and abetting terrorism. These are criminal threats, which threaten the lives of the Muslim researchers that worked hard to defend their British home.
Israel is fighting one of the fronts on the war on terror. To discuss "disproportionate" military responses, the humanitarian crisis, etc while ignoring the fact that Hamas does not believe Israel has the right to exist is a futile position to hold. A stalemate in perpetuity will continue to scar the innocent on both sides for generations to come.
Source: Muslim World Today
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