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British Extremists: “Trafalgar Square is our Mecca”
With bin Laden-boosting extremists on one side, and right-wing skinheads on the other, there was a whole lotta love going on at London's Trafalgar Square.
By Shahed Amanullah, August 26, 2002
The British are proving to be a unflappably tolerant group of people. Traditions of free speech aside, there is hardly another Western country that would tolerate the presence of Al-Muhajiroun, a militant Islamic group founded in 1986 in England by Sheikh Abu Bakri Mohammad, an asylum seeker from Syria. "England is the capital of the Islamic world," says Abu Bakri. "Trafalgar Square has become our Mecca." The group has been quite busy since 9/11 - 3,000 Al-Muhajiroun members found their way to Al-Qaida and Taliban forces in Afghanistan (seven of them are now at Guantanamo Bay), Richard " Shoe Bomber" Reid studied with the group before trying to blow up a passenger flight last December, and Zacharias "20th hijacker" Moussaoui studied with London sheikh Abu Qatada, commonly known as "bin Laden's ambassador to Europe". "[Zacharias] was clearly brainwashed by clerics in London," explained Mossauoui's distraught mother. Mainstream Muslim groups ignored the rally, sayiing Al-Muhajiroun's radical rhetoric doesn't represent the views of the majority of Britain's 1.5 million Muslims. Al-Muhajiroun's latest biting-of-the-hand-that-feeds-them was a pilgrimage to "Mecca", i.e. a rally in Trafalgar Square for 500 of the faithful, with 100 right-wing nationalists shouting anti-Islamic slogans waiting to greet them. Speakers at the " Rally for Islam" included Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri, an extremist imam who was sentenced to death in Yemen for his role in terrorism. Four people were arrested after fights broke out.
Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.
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I wish the Muslims who do not ascribe to al-Muhajiroun's teachings would get up and organize a HUGE rally so we could unite and show people what the majority of us think. Let's tell the extremists that they don't speak for us. I would love for it to be so big that the media just has to cover it. That way it would be a slap in the face to those who say we are quiet or not peaceful. I think Khaled Abou El Fadel suggested something like this and I think he's right! Any ideas? If we're going to change things and perceptions we have to take bold, big steps.
- Posted by sam on August 29, 2002 at 10:14 PM
I think the scary thing, which we have to start discussing is that there are a lot among the silent Muslims in UK who also feel the are at "war" with British society. And that is why there is more silence in England.
Don't forget the "Muslim Parliament" movement of a few years ago which was demanding that they wouldn't pay taxes to Brit govt. A dangerous, nihilistic trend.
- Posted by naeem (New York+Dhaka) on September 17, 2002 at 05:17 PM
I found this to be true in Britain as well, with many voicing frustration with everything "British," including the current Bollywood craze (Bombay Dreams, Kumars at No. 42, The Guru, etc.), which is just seen as appropriated culture anyway. From the outside, I wonder what the average white Briton must be thinking when Al-Muhajiroun has its Sept. 11th conference, openly sympathises with bin Laden, and just a smattering of protestors show up (even though it was all over the tabloids).
British Muslims don't really care about being British. White Britons don't really care that Muslims don't really care. Nihilistic, indeed.
- Posted by groov-e (earth) on September 18, 2002 at 08:09 PM
As-salaamu alaykum warahmatu Allah.
To get an intelligent (though mediated) perspective on Muslims in England, you could do worse than visiting [url=http://www.masud.co.uk]http://www.masud.co.uk,[/url] which Mash'Allah has a very active, if sometimes noisy, mailing list. - Posted by octagon on September 23, 2002 at 10:26 AM
Thanks for the link, Ibnasabil. That's a terrific site.
- Posted by bingregory (Malaysia) on September 27, 2002 at 03:05 PM
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