Conservatives Support Hard line Islam
In August, and Lord Sheikh, chairman of theConservative Muslim Forum (CMF), and Mohammed Amin, the CMF’s vice chairman, attended the launch of Iqra TV, founded by Al-Khair. According to the CMF website, after he had had made a presentation, Lord Sheikh gave a check for 5,000 pounds (approximately 8,000 US dollars) to Al-Khair for the establishment a library. Al-Khair runs Islamic schools (in Britain and Kashmir), a prison outreach program, and hosts speaking and cultural events, including some that are “interfaith.”
However, a number of Al-Khair’s events point 180 degrees in the opposite direction. A section on Al-Khair’s own website listing past events shows that Dr Zakir Naik was a speaker for a 2006 event called “Educating the educators.” Naik is an Indian preacher and, by his own description, an Islamic “fundamentalist,” who believes that religions other than Islam cannot be tolerated, and that churches, synagogues, and other non-Muslim places of worship should be banned.
Lower down the page there’s a flier for Harun Yahya, a prolific Turkish author and conspiracy theorist who has written extensively about his belief in a “Zionist-Masonic” conspiracy to take over the world. This might sound like a joke, but it’s a repetitive and rousing theme in extremist Islamist literature. It is cited in the charter of the terrorist organization Hamas, has been serialized for Egyptian TV, and is regularly cited by the Middle East’s press to explain world events. It is also enthusiastically discussed on radical Islamist websites in the West.
Yahya opposes terrorism, but others who believe this conspiracy do not. In 2004, Islamic militants actually attacked a Masonic Lodge in Turkey, and, more recently, in December 2009, two men from the US state of Georgia were convicted of making videos of potential terrorist targets, one of which was also a Masonic building.
Whether this theme was discussed or not, considering Yahya’s “Zionist-Masonic” musings, it is surprising to find the “Harun Yahya Team” as part of the Educating the Educators event. Dr Azaam Tamimi was another speaker. And, this was in fact the second Al-Khair event to include Tamimi, a supporter of the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, whohas said that he would carry out a “martyrdom” operation in Israel if the possibility arose.
Perhaps even more surprisingly, considering the donation from a Conservative party organization, Yvonne Ridley has spoken several times at events hosted by Al-Khair. Ridley is a socialist who converted to Islam, and a presenter for the London-based, Tehran-financed, Press TV. No stranger to controversy, Ridley made headlines in 2006, after Metropolitan police conducted an anti-terror raid in East London. Her response was to tell a meeting of the Leftist/pro-Palestinian Respect party to “boycott the police and refuse to co-operate with them in any way, shape or form.”
In 2008 Ridley, along with several other guests, appeared at Al-Khair’s 5th anniversary celebration in Scotland. Among the other speakers were Abu Ameenah Bilal Philip, a US-born, Saudi-trained preacher who appeared in Channel 4’s Undercover Mosque suggesting that marriage to pre-pubescent girls was permissible – though in a later statement he said that Muslims should obey the law of the land. (The undercover Mosque documentary exposed the preaching of hate at several British mosques, some of which claimed to be promoting interfaith dialogue.)
There is no doubt that these speakers indicate that, at the very least, a hard line Islam is promoted by Al-Khair. As such, it would be good to know what books are stocked in the library that the CMF, an official Conservative party organization, funded to the tune of 5,000 pounds. Indeed, it would be good to know why it has endorsed Al-Khair at all. But, perhaps a bigger question is why, after previous, similar, scandals, the Conservative party itself continues to endorse the CMF.
In December, Cameron spoke at the CMF’s Eid celebration [video], and expressed his gratitude to the organization for drawing Muslims into the party. Cameron believes this has been crucial in remaking the Conservatives as a modern, multicultural party instep with Leftwing concerns and, as such, able to compete for votes that have traditionally gone to Labour.
When Cameron tentatively addressed the issue of what he called “radical religious extremism,” he said that, rather than demonizing a whole religion or community, “when I talk about the people causing real problems in this country I’m always careful to lay the blame at the right people’s doors,” naming the Islamist organization Hizb ut Tahrir (HT) as an example.
This should give us no confidence. A few months ago when president Barack Obama received his Nobel Peace Prize, he said that war against the Nazis and al-Qaeda had been right, as they could not have been stopped by peaceable means alone. Even those who speak of “overseas contingency operations” and “violent extremism” are able to name al-Qaeda, and, in Britain, HT.
The Conservative party has interest groups besides the CMF, such as the Conservative Christian Fellowship, the Conservative Friends of Turkey, and the Conservative Friends of Israel, and, as such, there may be nothing inherently objectionable about also having a Conservative Muslim organization. There are of course Muslim groups in Britain that take a strong stand against Islamism and for democracy and liberty – such as the “counter-extremist” think tank Quilliam and British Muslims for Secular Democracy. It is the beliefs and the sympathies of the organization that counts.
One cannot help but notice, however, that one of the speakers hosted by Al-Khair (Dr. Zakir Naik) spoke at a HT conference in 2005, while another (Bilal Phillips) spoke at the same event as HT’s Dr Imran Waheed.
Cameron might oppose HT as an entity, and, should he become prime minister, will ban it from operating in Britain within a short space of time. It seems, though that hard line Islam will go unchallenged, and may even get a substantial boost. In September, the CMF’s Mohammed Amin – who also heads the UK Islamic Finance practice at Pricewaterhouse Coopers – claimed that a “Conservative government would be very supportive of Islamic finance,” but that the issue has been kept off the radar because it has “no political mileage.”
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