The BBC is very concerned…it has just learnt that Arab leaders are being trained in oppressive and tyrannical techniques for suppressing public discourse and debate by the dictator’s training establishment of choice…RMA Sandhurst:

Sandhurst’s sheikhs: Why do so many Gulf royals receive military training in the UK?

Generations of foreign royals – particularly from the Middle East – have learned to be military leaders at the UK’s Sandhurst officer training academy. But is that still a good idea, asks Matthew Teller.

A critic might note that the third term of Sandhurst’s Officer Commissioning Course covers counter-insurgency techniques and ways to manage public disorder.

In March 2013, Sandhurst’s Mons Hall – a sports centre – was reopened as the King Hamad Hall, following a £3m donation from the monarch of Bahrain, who was educated at one of Sandhurst’s affiliated colleges.

Since tension between Bahrain’s majority Shia population and minority Sunni ruling elite boiled over in 2011, more than 80 civilians have died at the hands of the security forces, according to opposition estimates, though the government disputes the figures. Thirteen police officers have also lost their lives in the clashes.

I’m guessing Matthew Teller didn’t get the memo:

BBC admits errors in Bahrain unrest coverage
BBC initially underplayed the sectarian aspect of the conflict and did not adequately convey the viewpoint of supporters of the monarchy in its coverage of Bahrain’s unrest, said a BBC Trust report.
It also failed to mention attempts by Crown Prince His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa to establish dialogue with the opposition, according to the publication – which investigated the organisation’s “impartiality and accuracy” of its coverage of the Arab Spring.

No mention of all those universities that get funding and compromise their independence for Arab money:

‘Extremism’ fear over Islam studies donations

The BBC had no problem taking terrorists paintballing though:

BBC film ‘paid for paintballing terror suspects’

Terrorists were given a day’s paintballing for a BBC documentary called Don’t Panic I’m Islamic, a court heard.

And the BBC has no problem training the media in other volatile countries:

The Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) was established under a Law on Broadcasting adopted by Parliament in 2004. GPB is publicly accountable to the citizens of Georgia with a mandate “to provide accurate and up-to-date information that is free from political and commercial bias and is shared without any hidden agendas.”

Absolutely not…no hidden agendas for a state broadcaster…just like in good old Blighty….not a chance in hell the new techniques will be used to close down  debate and suppress dissent.

Most Georgians depend on television as their main source of news and GPB has the widest reach amongst the population of nearly five million.

BBC World Service Trust supported GPB’s board of trustees in becoming representatives of the public and guardians of the station’s independence.

It also helped develop a human resources policy and, as the project developed, supported GPB in creating a second television channel devoted to parliamentary and political reporting, the Second Channel.

Support was also given to GPB’s television news operation in developing an independent agenda showing favour neither to the government nor opposition.

I believe.

And what interesting countries the BBC chooses to work with…

Media Neighbourhood

The Media Neighbourhood project brings together media professionals from across 17 countries bordering the European Union for training and networking.

Participating countries: Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, The Russian Federation, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine.

‘Occupied Palestinian territory‘?

Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham (1997 – 2013)

‘From a political perspective, the approach of avoiding public discussion of the issues was ill-judged.’

You have to laugh at the cheek of the BBC as it moves quickly into damage limitation mode and attempts to downplay any racial or religious aspect to the various sex abuse scandals whilst at the same time claiming to be investigating the issues.

This morning on 5Live they were commendably asking ‘Why Do People Turn A Blind Eye To Child Abuse?’ ,  the problem was that the programme itself seemed to want to cover up the real reason for the cover ups….issues of race.

Certainly race was mentioned but always with a comment along the lines of ‘We must remember that the majority of child abusers are white.’

Why exactly do we need to remember that? What has that got to do with why these scandals were covered up?  No one is saying that Pakistani or Muslim men are naturally inclined to sexually abuse young girls any more than any other race or creed…..what is being said is that their race or religion led to the various authorities and other organisations, such as the BBC, to hold back on Investigations, prosecutions and reporting due to fear of being called racist.

That is the issue.

The culture of denial so prevalent around these issues was made all the more possible by the likes of the BBC also refusing to expose these cases for fear of appearing racist.  The authorities sought to keep these issues from the public eye and the media more often than not colluded in that leaving the victims to fend for themselves.  Tony Livesey on 5Live asked ‘Who were the council afraid would call them racist?’

Well the answer to that is the BBC for a start, then every other left wing media outlet, the race relations industry, Muslim activists and politicians like Keith Vaz who would prefer just not to mention such things:

‘It’s totally wrong to say that [the crime is carried out by a particular ethnic group], because you open up a Pandora’s box as far as race relations is concerned and I don’t think that’s necessarily what we want.’

Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, a think tank, also said that Muslim leaders needed to do more to question the attitudes of young Muslim men towards women.

He said: “Their views about women would horrify many people. They often regard women as second-class citizens, and white girls are regarded differently as acceptable prey in a way Muslim girls aren’t.”

Mr Murray added: “Of course this problem only relates to a minority of Pakistani men, but it is an issue that needs addressing and people like Keith Vaz are denying this.”

Race and religion did however play a part in the selection of target…..the vast majority of girls being white and non-Muslim as the Rochdale judge noted:

“All of you treated your victims as though they were worthless and beyond any respect – they were not part of your community or religion.”

That BBC reminder that the majority of offenders nationally are white (but it doesn’t tell you the ethnicity of their victims….also mainly white) tells you everything about the BBC’s approach to this issue……its nervousness about race/religion and its own reluctance to talk about it…..it illustrates the mindset that contributed to the failure to investigate and prosecute.  The BBC answers its own question.

However when do you hear the BBC issue a similar rejoinder when discussing sex abuse cases by the Catholic Church, or by politicians, or celebrities or by gay people?

It is well known that the likes of Peter Righton and PIE members were left untouched because they were gay and the police or social services were afraid of being accused of being homophobic.

Does the BBC when reporting these other scandals suddenly insert a reminder that ‘We must remember that the majority of sex gangs recently convicted have been of Pakistani heritage’?

No.  So why tell us that the majority of sexual abuse is carried out by whites?  It’s fairly obvious this would be the case from the demographics…but it’s irrelevant to the issue…that being why were these cases in Rochdale etc covered up?

Even the Guardian thinks the BBC’s approach is disengenuous…here’s Michael White noting that Pakistani men are ‘disproportionately represented in these scandals:

Well, yes, that would be likely in Britain, wouldn’t it? The Greater Manchester police and others concerned for public order make the same point: not all the perpetrators were Pakistani Brits, not all the girls involved were white. None of my Asian constituents in (prosperous) Leicester have complained to me that this is going on, says Vaz. They’re horrified too, they have wives and daughters.
This is surely true of most British Muslims as it is of the rest of us. But isn’t it also a little disingenuous? Isn’t Narey’s gentle use of “disproportionate” a better way of expressing it?

The BBC is elsewhere looking to downplay or ignore the race issue:

From the Daily Mail:

Don’t use the A-word: BBC accused of censorship over Rotherham child abuse by failing to mention that gangs were Asian

In its own reports we can see that insidious, stealthy attempt to avoid casting aspersions and spread the blame for child abuse to all parts of society….but once again that’s not the issue…the issue is exactly what the BBC is doing here…trying to dodge the race/religion issue for fear of looking racist.

We have this:

Real or imagined: Racism ‘fear’ over Rotherham child abuse

A report that wants to reassure us how seriously the Muslim community takes these events and how shocked they are…if only they had known eh….and anyway Muslim girls were definitely targeted as well.

The trouble is the ‘community’ did ‘bury its head in the sand’……

Simon Danczuk, Labour MP for Rochdale says ‘We can’t ignore it’:
‘For a while now, I’ve had concerns about disturbing attitudes towards women shown by some of Rochdale’s Asian residents. It goes way beyond casual chauvinism to something far worse. In the two years I have been an MP, I’ve had to throw people out of my surgery because of their violent views on women.
If even Asian councillors were writing letters of support for people now found guilty of horrific sex crimes, it is clear we have a culture of denial.’

Ann Cryer also attempted to reach the Muslim community and persuade them to take action: “I went to a friend of mine, who was a local counsellor and happened to be a Muslim and therefore able to represent me to the elders, because I thought it was a good move to try to get those elders involved. I hoped that I would be able to persuade the elders to go knocking on doors and say ‘this behaviour is un-Islamic and I want it to stop because I’m going l tell the whole community about you and what you’re doing if you don’t’. Now they weren’t prepared to do that.”

Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, accused elders of the Pakistani community of “burying their heads in the sand” on the matter of sexual grooming. He said that of 68 recent convictions involving child sexual exploitation, 59 were of British Pakistani men and it was a significant problem for that community. He said the actions of criminals who thought “white teenage girls are worthless and can be abused” were “bringing shame on our community.”

The Oxord sex gang
The novelist Bina Shah has criticised a culture of racism, misogyny, tribalism and sexual vulgarity among men “who hail from the poorest, least educated, and most closed-off parts of Pakistan”. Julie Siddiqi, the executive director of the Islamic Society of Britain, has called for a change in the male dominance at the top of many Muslim organisations which may have contributed to their community’s silence on grooming.

Mark Easton moves to disabuse us of any of our prejudices about sex abuse…its everywhere, and everyone’s doing it….nothing to do with race or religion…again, no one said it was….apart from it being a factor in which girls to target and the reason for the cover ups.

When we look, we find

The truth is that large numbers of children are and always have been sexually abused in this country….Whether it is dishonest MPs, corrupt bankers, abusive priests or schoolmasters, activities that would once have been quietly swept under the carpet are being exposed.

When we look, we find.

I don’t believe that people deliberately covered up what was going on. It has been about looking the other way, not asking questions or following leads because the subject matter is uncomfortable and scrutiny is potentially damaging.

The we have this:

Rotherham child abuse: Cases in other towns

This is a remarkable report from the BBC as it fails completely to mention the race or religion of any of the offenders…oh except for in Peterborough where it reveals they were ‘of Czech and Slovak Roma and Kurdish backgrounds.’

Here’s the other towns where the BBC fails to mention the offenders in that article……

BBC:  Oxford…The NSPCC said there had been a “systematic failure” by Oxfordshire County Council to stop a grooming gang that plied girls, some as young as 11, with alcohol and drugs.

The offenders were:
In June 2013 the gang received sentences totalling 95 years for what the presiding judge, Judge Peter Rook, described as “a series of sexual crimes of the utmost depravity”.[17] The brothers Mohammed and Bassam Karrar received life sentences, with a minimum tariffs of 20 years for Mohammed Karrar and 15 years for Bassam Karrar. The brothers Akhtar and Anjum Dogar received life sentences with a minimum tariff of 17 years. Kamar Jamil received a life sentence with a minimum tariff of 12 years. Assad Hussain and Zeeshan Ahmed were both jailed for seven years.

BBC:  Derby……Nine men were convicted over three trials of systematically grooming and sexually abusing teenage girls in 2010.

The offenders were:
Mohammed Imran Rehman,  Faisal Mehmood,  Akshay Kumar,  Romaan Liaqat,  Abid Mohammed Saddique,  Graham Blackham,  

BBC:  Telford…..Seven men were jailed after a series of court cases related to a child prostitution ring.

The offenders were:
Ahdel Ali, Mubarek Ali, Mohammed Ali Sultan,  Tanveer Ahmed, Mohammed Islam Choudhrey,  Mahroof Khan,  Mohammed Younis.

BBC:  Rochdale…In May 2012, nine men were given sentences ranging from four to 19 years after being found guilty of offences including rape and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child.

The offenders were:
Abdul Aziz ,  Shabir Ahmed,  Abdul Qayyum,  Hamid Safi,  Mohammed Amin, Mohammed Sajid,   Adil Khan,  Abdul Rauf, Kabeer Hassan

In a contrast with its reporting in the run up to the capture of the ‘Boston Bombers’ when it tried to rewrite history before it had happened telling us that all the evidence pointed to them being white supremacists, the BBC now actually does rewrite history and attempts to forget certain uncomfortable truths and emphasises other issues not relevant to the case…..Pakistani Muslim sex gangs preying on white girls…for the BBC that is a pandora’s box that as far as race relations is concerned and they don’t think is necessarily what we want to hear about…or should hear about.

The BBC does not see itself as merely a provider of news but acts in a way designed to enforce social control and to ensure the public only perceives events in a way the BBC thinks they should perceive them, to manipulate thoughts and actions, to alter behaviour.

How successful is it, or rather how successful are the consequences of its attempts at information management?

Immigration?  Schools, hospitals, housing in meltdown.

Multiculturalism?  Ever more segregated and divided communities….how many people do you know who thinks there will be major conflict between Muslims and the ‘rest’?  Quite a lot I’d wager….as studies show.   Trojan horses, sex abuse scandals, terrorism, cultural supremacy…..welcome to multi-cultural Britain.

Europe?  Ever more expensive, judges over-ruling Parliament under the guise of ‘human rights’, terrorists and criminals given free reign, borders flung open to all and sundry, businesses destroyed, democracy sidelined.

Climate Change?  Massive fuel bills, the country littered with unwanted wind turbines, cheap coal power stations closed down, an energy crisis and possible blackouts.

All good so far then.

The BBC is dangerous.

Hi all! Well, it’s good to be BACK! As you may have gathered, the server that hosts this (and other) sites has experienced some nasty technical problems which has put us off-air! Thanks to the behind the scenes hard work of All Seeing Eye and Rob, we seem to back up and running. So, where to start? How about ROTHERHAM? BBC (along with much of the rest of the UK MSM) have been quick to condemn the dangers of Political Correctness whilst breathlessly informing us about “men of Pakistani origin”…the irony is cosmic.

Two events that seem eminently pointless and one sided discussing BBC bias but only its ‘pro-Israeli’ bias…all the speakers being the ‘usual suspects’….’sold out’ indeed:

Due to high demand this event will be held at the Shaw Theatre, 100-110 Euston Rd, London, NW1 2AJ.

First Wednesday: Reporting the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict – Emotion, Bias and Objectivity

The latest chapter in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict has again highlighted the difficulties of covering this complex and deep-rooted conflict that provokes such a strong emotional response from the general public.

The BBC has faced accusation that it is not critical enough of Israel’s actions and that its reporting is one-sided, where as Channel 4 News has been accused of crossing the line between journalism and campaigning. Is there a middle ground?

In the face of such devastation should we expect correspondents to offer an objective view devoid of emotion? If we encourage correspondents to show more emotion do we risk compromising the credibility and standard of journalism in this country?

Join us as we take a view of the coverage we have seen, talk to the journalists that have produced it and ask what we can learn.

The panel:

Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East Editor.

Jon Snow, Channel 4 News anchor.

Addition speakers to be announced.

and this:

Date
28/08/2014
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location
Amnesty International’s Human Rights Action Centre
17-25 New Inn Yard, EC2A 3EA
London

Jeremy Bowen gives a fair assessment of the consequences of the vote not to help the FSA against Assad…..the FSA now has to fight both the ISIS and Assad and the West is caught between a rock and a hard place having been out-manoeuvred by Assad and the likes of the BBC:

What if the West had intervened in Syria?

The BBC’s Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen assesses the events of the past year in Syria and how they have shaped the Middle East region.

The problem is he misses out one crucial element (never mind the BBC not revealing it had evidence of a chemical attack on a school on the eve of the vote)…..Assad was central to the rebirth of ISIS:

Why Assad is secretly helping his ISIS enemies become most powerful rebel force in Syria

How Syria’s Assad Helped Forge ISIS

That is now crucial because of the discussion on how to tackle ISIS, or IS as it now calls itself,  and who is to blame for the rebirth of ISIS….the BBC usually points the finger of blame at the invasion of Iraq in 2003….despite ISIS actually having originated in Afghanistan as part of Al Qaeda….and now we know ISIS is due more to Assad than Bush and Blair, it having been crushed by the Americans in 2006/7 with the ‘Surge’ in Iraq against them.

The grotesque alliance that has been allowed to carve up Syria

Assad has forced us to choose between supporting him, or watching the very jihadists whom he has empowered advance across the Middle East. Lord Dannatt and Sir Christopher Meyer have duly urged us to sign up the arsonist as a fireman, hoping that Assad can be trusted to refrain from picking up the petrol and going back to his old career.

In truth, this is the bankrupt choice which the House of Commons made – perhaps unwittingly – a year ago. By deciding against striking Assad even after he had gassed hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent people, Parliament effectively resolved to leave events in Syria to take their course. And that meant allowing Assad and Baghdadi, the two most powerful warlords, to carve up the country between them. The non-Islamist opposition was duly ground to dust between these two millstones.

Parliament sent a signal that Western power – the one factor that could have tipped the balance of the conflict – would never be deployed. The result was to leave the field to our twin nightmares, Assad and Baghdadi, the arsonists-in-arms.

Who would be a moderate now?

The BBC played its part in that…first by helping to generate the fear of military engagement with its constant anti-war message and second by hiding the evidence of that chemical attack, only showing it on Panorama after the vote ensuring MP’s consciences weren’t pricked.

With ISIS and its British recruits dominating the news we are also bombarded with ‘messages’ that parcel out the blame for radicalisng these Jihadi warriors….Western foreign policy being the favoured, default, unthinking but sometimes Machiavellian option.

The BBC has always accepted that assertion without challenge…thereby adding to the credibility of the cause for potential recruits to the Jihad…it after all fits in with the BBC’s own agenda about the Iraq war and it will promote any line that makes Blair’s ‘illegal war’ the trigger for all the evils in the world.

However because the subject is very involved and complex before we take a look at whether there really is a justification for that claim let’s look at a sample of the rhetoric expressing such a narrative so that any post about foreign policy can be kept as short as possible.

Mehdi Hasan is always fun to read….guessing how long it will take before you realise he has completely contradicted himself on a subject having previously said something  totally different always makes it worth the effort to read the double-dealing dissembler’s dodgy prose.

Hasan has many lines to spin but few scruples.  One day he’ll be saying this, the next day that…it’s hard to take him seriously…unfortunately many people who should know better do swallow his guff whole and regurgitate it for their own readers giving Hasan an unwarranted veneer of respectability and credibility and his words an undeserved authority.

Daniel Hannan, for example, unfortunately references a Hasan article that misleadingly tries to  separate Jihad from Islam…and Hannan is not the only one to pick up on Hasan’s article, it has spread far and wide on the Web which is why I think it is worth looking at his claims in detail.

Here is Hannan’s reference to it:

What makes some British Muslims become jihadis?

Mehdi Hassan has a fascinating piece in the Huffington Post, in which he reveals the books that two Brummie Muslims had ordered from Amazon before heading out to join the insurgents in Syria. Yusuf Sarwar and Mohammed Ahmed, who pleaded guilty to terrorism offences last month, had not bought works on politics or advanced theology, but Islam for Dummies and The Koran for Dummies. Dummies indeed.

Daniel Hannan is no doubt well meaning rather than wilfully naïve as many are who want to brush the subject under the carpet and do so by proclaiming Islam is the religion of peace and that the Jihadists aren’t Muslims.

What did Mehdi Hasan say that caught Hannan’s eye?  Hasan tries to ridicule the Jihadists as ignorant of Islam because they bought books about the religion…he concludes this proves they can’t have a true knowledge of Islam that would provide a credible intellectual and theological basis for their Jihadi adventure…..and we, on that basis, presumably can’t be considered democrats because we don’t know every law in the statute book and need lawyers (God bless ’em) to represent us …Others, less intent on trying to mislead readers, might conclude that buying such books showed a commendable desire to become more conversant and knowledgeable about their own religion and might indicate that they did take their religion seriously. But Hasan has a political point to make…Islam has nothing to do with Jihadis…..which is a hard sell really….Jihadis being ‘Holy warriors’ with an intent to set up an Islamic caliphate.

It might be noted that the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is theologically qualified having a degree in Islamic theology and having been an Islamic cleric in a Mosque….therefore just like the Pope, his ‘flock’ need only listen to his authoritative judgements to know the ‘correct’ path to follow.

Below is Hasan’s piece from the New Statesman…..but consider this first:

One former hostage, who was held for a year by the [Islamist] group in Raqqa, told the Guardian that the British executioner [of James Foley]  is “intelligent, educated and a devout believer in radical Islamic teachings”.

Who do you believe…a slippery, dishonest Islamist who will say anything to further the cause of Islam or someone who has had close contact with the actual Jihadists and has no axe to grind?

What the jihadists who bought “Islam for Dummies” on Amazon tell us about radicalisation
Pretending that the danger comes only from the devout could cost lives.
Sarwar and Ahmed, both of whom pleaded guilty to terrorism offences last month, purchased Islam for Dummies and The Koran for Dummies. You could not ask for better evidence to bolster the argument that the 1,400-year-old Islamic faith has little to do with the modern jihadist movement. The swivel-eyed young men who take sadistic pleasure in bombings and beheadings may try to justify their violence with recourse to religious rhetoric – think the killers of Lee Rigby screaming “Allahu Akbar” at their trial; think of Islamic State beheading the photojournalist James Foley as part of its “holy war” – but religious fervour isn’t what motivates most of them.

Islam isn’t to blame for the behaviour of such men

So that’s Hasan’s pitch….Islam isn’t to blame for the Jihadist’s behaviour.

Perhaps he should consider the words of Bertrand Russell who compared Islam to Bolshevism… ‘Practical, social, unspiritual, concerned to win the empire of the world’.  

Note that word….’unspiritual’.

To buttress his argument Hasan quotes from a leaked MI5 document obtained, and interpreted, by the Guardian…….

In 2008, a classified briefing note on radicalisation, prepared by MI5’s behavioural science unit, was leaked to the Guardian. It revealed that, “far from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practise their faith regularly. Many lack religious literacy and could . . . be regarded as religious novices.” The analysts concluded that “a well-established religious identity actually protects against violent radicalisation”, the newspaper said.

Instead they point to other drivers of radicalisation: moral outrage, disaffection, peer pressure, the search for a new identity, for a sense of belonging and purpose.

Religion does, of course, play a role: in particular, a perverted and politicised form of Islam acts as an “emotional vehicle” (to quote Atran), as a means of articulating anger and mobilising masses in the Muslim-majority world. But to pretend that the danger comes only from the devout could cost lives.

Whatever the Daily Mail or Michael Gove might have you believe, long beards and flowing robes aren’t indicators of radicalisation; ultra-conservative or reactionary views don’t automatically lead to violent acts.

What is wrong with Hasan’s reasoning?  Firstly he has no idea as to the extent of the Jihadist’s knowledge of Islam….in one BBC radio interview with a Cardiff Imam talking about youths who had gone to Syria the Imam stated that the youths had been acting very strangely…they were far more devout than usual, wanting to follow their religion far more strictly….strange indeed…following their religion! Most Imam’s would be pleased…but here it is a reason for suspicion!

That might indicate, if not any particular level of knowledge, at least the desire to learn and practise the religion undermining Hasan’s claim that they couldn’t be religiously motivated.

Secondly Hasan tries to pull a fast one hoping the reader knows nothing of Islam, or indeed what the MI5 document actually said.  From the Guardian….

The MI5 authors stress that the most pressing current threat is from Islamist extremist groups who justify the use of violence “in defence of Islam”

That ‘violence used in defence of Islam’  is a crucial conclusion by MI5 and gets to the heart of the problem….

Islam imposes an obligation upon all Muslims to defend Islam and Muslims when they are perceived to be under attack.

The Obligation of Jihad “Allah hath granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and persons than to those who sit (at home). …Those that neglect Jihad will be disobeying something God has commanded us all to partake in; they have not aided in protecting the Religion of God, they have not defended the Book of God, its messages and His law, they have not helped the Ummah against the enemy who wants to destroy them.

“He who dies without having fought in the way of Allah or without having felt it to be his duty, will die having a trait of hypocrisy

Hasan refrains from mentioning that obligation and instead tries to claim that anyone going on Jihad requires a deep knowledge of the Koran and Islamic law….that’s just not true….the only requirement is that you be a Muslim, practising to whatever degree, and that other Muslims are under attack whom you must defend.

This is from Luton Mosque’s information website:

Honour, victory, and strength will only come to this Ummah when we return and unite upon the pure religion as it was brought by the Prophet (alayhis salaam) and practiced by the Companions. Only when we single out Allah, alone, in worship and give obedience to Him and His Messenger, will the Help of Allah come.

You might ask just how much can you trust MI5’s report on the causes of radicalisation and its belief about the lack of religious influence on radicalisation (seemingly in contradiction to its final conclusion)?  The government makes tremendous efforts to play down any link between Islam and Jihad in the interest of community cohesion.  Some suggest this might have been a deliberate leak in order to spin that line:

To our suspicious minds, this makes it more likely to be a cynical bit of Whitehall propaganda spin and media briefing, rather than a principled leak by a courageous whistleblower.

The Telegraph has a more realistic view of the MI5 document than the Guardian….one that backs up the ‘conspiracy’ theory that the government is downplaying the link to Islam…….

People in MI5 tell me that denying the connection between Islamism and terrorism derives from the belief that if you accept it, there’s no hope for a multicultural society in Britain: we would just have to recognise that part of the population is permanently liable to become terrorists.

Of course you have to trust the Guardian’s interpretation and emphasis on certain parts of the document.

And what of that ‘Islam for Dummies’ jibe from Hasan?….‘Sarwar and Ahmed, both of whom pleaded guilty to terrorism offences last month, purchased Islam for Dummies and The Koran for Dummies. You could not ask for better evidence to bolster the argument that the 1,400-year-old Islamic faith has little to do with the modern jihadist movement.’

You may remember Mehdi Hasan made an infamous speech where he denounced non-Muslims as ignorant cattle …but the speech had much more in it than that….here(19 mins in ) Hasan explains the importance of knowledge and the obligation to keep learning for Muslims, especially as most Muslims have little knowledge of their own faith and are therefore unable to defend it from critics……

Our holy Imam said that one hour spent in reflection, in contemplation, in thought, is worth seventy years of worship…think about that…one hour of thought…..how can that be?……because worship is worth nothing unless we have first put our thought into it, unless we have engaged our intellect, Allah is not asking us for blind worship, faith based on our brains, they are based on our minds engaging with Allah
How much do you understand what he is praying and why you are praying…do you blindly pray?….if so you benefit very little……the benefit from that worship is based exactly on your understanding and intellectual engagement with that worship.
We are not told only  to engage intellectually with the argument, to use our reason to find Allah, no we are also called upon to acquire knowledge…Islam says don’t give up on that intellectual pursuit, there is no point thinking if you have nothing to think about, if you have no knowledge to go with those thoughts.
Islam orders us that to go with those thoughts you need some basic knowledge…..it may not be common to our community but it is common to our holy book.
Our Holy Prophet said seek knowledge your entire life from cradle to grave…the most learned of the learned has to acquire knowledge till he dies.

We Muslims everyday embarrass ourselves by our lack of knowledge….when challenged about our faith we don’t defend it because we don’t know our faith…we haven’t bothered to study and understand it so we have no response and embarrass ourselves.

Knowledge is the twin of action, knowledge goes hand in hand with action.  He who is knowledgeable must act for knowledge calls out for action, if it is not answered that knowledge will depart.  We must use that knowledge to improve our lives, our families, our Umma….do not act just on emotion but with knowledge.

Hasan preaches that Islam demands you learn, that you continue to learn about Islam, and that you use that knowledge to further Islam’s cause.

From that you might conclude Hasan’s recent outburst against the Jihadis who bought the ‘Dummies’ books is dishonest and highly political, an outburst designed to deceive people by steering them into a particular, and mistaken, way of thinking about Islam, that is, that it is a ‘religion of peace’.

What you have to remember is that Hasan himself is every bit an Islamist as these Jihadis…the only difference is that he doesn’t advocate violence to spread Islam.

As said  from the beginning Hasan has a habit of saying one thing one day and the opposite the next…here’s a couple of examples…..

Hasan attacks Muslims for being too concerned about foreign policy:

British Muslims have too long defined politics by the Middle East. We have an obligation to engage with the national debate.
Why is it that most British Muslims get so excited and aroused by foreign affairs, yet seem so bored by and uninterested in domestic politics and the economy?

And yet here he is himself complaining that Muslim complaints about foreign policy are ignored…..

Extremists Point to Western Foreign Policy to Explain Their Acts. Why Do We Ignore Them?

He accuses David Cameron and others of trying to “zealously police the parameters of the debate, pre-emptively warning off those who might dare connect the dots between wars abroad and terror at home”.
Foreign policy is purportedly a recruiting sergeant for terror yet it has become “the issue that dare not speak its name”….establishment figures continue to denounce those of us who cite the radicalising role of foreign policy
The inconvenient truth for Rubin, Johnson et al is that Muslim extremists usually cite political, not theological, justifications for their horrendous crimes.
[disingenuous…as it is based upon Muslims defending Muslims as instructed by the Koran]
The point is this: terrorism may indeed be a criminal political act but it is a political act nonetheless. It is not, contrary to the conventional wisdom, theologically motivated; according to a leaked MI5 study in 2008, most violent extremists are “religious novices”.

In another example Hasan shows just how slippery he can be….and paradoxically, considering his comments about the Jihadists not knowing about Islam, he himself deliberately misquotes a passage from the Koran in order to make the Koran appear merciful and forgiving…….Hasan says:

‘Whosoever killeth a human being…” says the Koran, in the 32nd verse of its fifth chapter, “it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind.”
Thus, the two supposedly Muslim men suspected of killing and mutilating an unarmed, off-duty soldier in the middle of a London street, while shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is Great”), were violating the injunction of their own holy book

However when a Muslim quotes that verse (5:32) to you in that manner you know immediately you are being spun a line and  it seems Hasan has been ‘cutting and pasting’ to suit himself for the actual, full quote reveals that verse refers to Jews and not Muslims:

We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land – it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one – it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. And our messengers had certainly come to them with clear proofs. Then indeed many of them, [even] after that, throughout the land, were transgressors.

The verse was not telling us that God told Muslims that killing another human was like killing all mankind, it was merely telling what God had said to the Jews, not Muslims.

The ‘peaceful’ Koran goes on in the next verse (5:33):

Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment.

Which conveniently brings us back to Hasan and the Jihadis…going on Jihad to defend Islam against ‘those who wage war against Allah’.

Just another verse in the Koran justifying what they do…..guess they have read the Koran.

Actually no Haggis were spotted( rare and nocturnal) but this was:

Glacier-like hazards found on Ben Nevis

Hazards common in arctic and alpine areas but described as “extremely unusual” in the UK during the summer have been found on Ben Nevis.

A team of climbers and scientists investigating the mountain’s North Face said snowfields remained in many gullies and upper scree slopes.

On these fields, they have come across compacted, dense, ice hard snow call neve.

Neve is the first stage in the formation of glaciers, the team said.

The team has also encountered sheets of snow weighing hundreds of tonnes and tunnels and fissures known as bergschrunds.

The large, deep cracks in the ice are found at the top of glaciers.

Just curious perhaps that this report didn’t appear on the BBC’s science and environment page….lurking instead quietly on the Scotland sub page  ‘Highland and Islands’…from which it seems to have disappearedjust a few days on…..

…though we do have this as a main story on the Scotland page:

Salmond does ice bucket challenge

Alex Salmond takes the ice bucket challenge, along with his deputy Nicola Sturgeon, after being nominated by actor James McAvoy. .

‘There is no rise in the number of reported major floods events over the past 129 years……it is unclear if climate change is implicated in recent flooding.‘

This report demonstrates why the likes of Nigel Lawson should have a place in the debate, the so-called debate, on climate change and its effects.

The BBC seems to have done a volte face and is not only reporting things that might cast some degree of doubt on climate change but also links to the much derided GWPF….an organisation that Harrabin especially has been quite negatively aggressive towards but for this report he provides a link to them.

The BBC is also reporting this:

Global warming slowdown ‘could last another decade’

Though it is still hedging its bets with Harrabin’s favoured reason for the ‘pause’,  as they call it, ocean warming getting top billing (even though the IPCC admitted having no data to prove that):

The latest theory says that a naturally occurring 30-year cycle in the Atlantic Ocean is behind the slowdown.

The researchers says this slow-moving current could continue to divert heat into the deep seas for another decade.

Has there been a sea change at the BBC with a decision to give more coverage to information that is ‘inconvenient’ to the consensus?

Will Bob Ward now be demanding that Roger Harrabin must be banned from BBC airwaves…….a heretical climate denier?

I’m sure there is a stiff letter on its way right now to Fraser Steel.

Harrabin is now having to admit the evidence for floods caused by climate change isn’t there….and, shock horror…immigration, or ‘population growth’ as he coyly puts it, is a major cause……..

‘Growth drives UK flooding problems’

Part of the UK’s problem with flooding is self-imposed, new research suggests.

The study says the number of reported major flood events has increased, but in parallel with population growth and a boom in building in vulnerable areas.

It says it is unclear if climate change is implicated in recent flooding.

The researchers admit their study is a fragment of a complex picture. They have not, for instance, been able to account for the benefits of flood defence spending.

Neither have they factored in land use changes like road-building, ploughing grasslands or draining marshes – which all contribute to floods.

But looking at the broad picture, they conclude that when population growth and building growth are taken into account there is no rise in the number of reported major floods events over the past 129 years.

There has, though, been a rise in the number of reported small flood events.

Dr Clarke said he had been misquoted as ruling out climate change as a contributor to recent floods.

“We have categorically not ruled out a link between climate change and flooding,” he told BBC News. “We just can’t demonstrate that there is a link.

Someone had better tell the government:

UK storms: Hammond says climate change ‘clearly a factor’

Matt McGarth might need a heads up:

Climate impacts ‘overwhelming’ – UN

Some impacts of climate change include a higher risk of flooding and changes to crop yields and water availability.

Roger Harrabin better have a word with himself:

Have we learned our lessons on flooding?

‘…tracts of the UK lie under water, and scientists warn this is likely to happen more often with man-made climate change.’

He puts the blame for the worst effects of the floodng on government policies on flood defences….will Harrabin now look at the effect of Labour’s immigration policies?  Probably not as the BBC’s complaints head honcho, Fraser Steel is also a director of an immigration advisory and campaigning company.

The BBC, and most of the other media, use Ajmal Masroor as a Muslim spokesman asking his views on all the current issues concerning Muslims…..such as what would Sharia Britain look like, is it Islamic to punish people so cruelly ( he blames the Old Testament) and why are young Muslims being radicalised?

We’ve had a look at him before in ‘Blowback’.

Harry’s Place asks:

Is Ajmal Masroor an Extremist? (The answer is yes)

Stand for Peace asks, and answers, the same question:

Ajmal Masroor describes himself as an Imam, broadcaster and politician. Although Masroor advertises himself as a moderate voice, he propagates some of the usual conspiracy theories peddled by extreme Islamist groups.

The Telegraph yesterday thought he was a suitable person to ask about radicalisation:

Three steps to combating Islamic extremism in UK
Muslim Council of Britain spokesman Ajmal Masroor says the government needs to be “more consistent with their foreign policy” and in order to deter British citizens fighting with Islamic extremists in Iraq

“First we need to inculcate the spirit of solidarity, togetherness and our unique identity, and that is we live in this country and it is our home,” he said
He emphasised the need to tell young Muslims, that whatever their grievances that there was no justification for picking up the gun, and “that it cannot be done in the name of Islam”.
Finally the government needed to be “more consistent with its foreign policy”, not support dictatorships and encourage the spread of democracy in the Middle East.

I think anyone who thinks he is suitable as a spokesman for the Muslim community should perhaps think again.

They should listen to this recent speech he gave at Palmers Green Mosque.

When Muslims say they are radicalised by Gaza…who is whipping them up into a frenzy of righteous indignation about the suffering of their fellow Muslims?  People like Masroor…who calls Israelis racists, savages and murderers….blaming Britain, the USA and the Zionist lobby for all the suffering of the Palestinians.

Masroor advises Muslims on the best lines to take when talking to the Media…there are ten main points that in summary say that the Zionists control the world, Palestine, all Palestine must be free and Israel destroyed…peacefully of course…that is the Muslim’s jihad…and Muslims must use their money and power to change government policies.

 
1.  Zionism is  a secular philosophy, a defunct philosophy a philosophy that is rotten to the core based upon racism and the supremacy of the Jewish people and it cannot be accepted in any  narrative.  It is no different to any supremacist ideology today and we must stand together against all forms of extremism.

2.  Zionism is anti-Judaism, against the teachings of Moses.  God does not want Jews to have a home, not in Palestine, not by lying, stealing and murdering.

3. Israel has created the biggest open prison in the world.  1.7 million people sardined into  a tiny strip of land…how did that happen?  They came from the neighbouring land occupied and stolen by the Zionists.
The blockade of Gaza is on 3 sides by the Zionists, on the fourth by the Pharoahs….the Jews are worse than the Nazis.

4.  Israel refuses to allow food and medicine into Gaza…a war crime as the Israelis try to starve the Palestinians.

5.  Israel contaminates the water of Palestine…another war crime.

6.  Israel bombed the power plant…another war crime.

7.   Israel deliberately targets women and children….a war crime.

8.  Israel is a racist, apartheid state and must be peacefully dismantled, a racist state should not exist.  Israel wants all of Palestine.

9.  Who is responsible for creating Israel?  Britain is.  Britain created this monster, Britain must sort it out.

10 One country could end the misery of the Palestinians immediately by bringing Israel to its knees…the USA,  Don’t blame the people of the USA, they are brainwashed by the Zionist media, owned and funded by the Zionists, 60% of people in power are funded by the Zionist lobby.
The existence of Israel is bad news for the USA, Britain and Europe.

We must struggle until Palestine is free, until Palestine is totally free, when all the people are equal and free,  that’s our struggle, that’s our Jihad!

We must unite and become powerful again.  Imagine if all 3 million Muslims withdrew from every financial institution…unite together, become powerful, believe in Islam like it should be believed in, believe truly.  Part of that belief is to unite, to enable us to fight with our wealth and establish ourselves as powerful in this country.

Why is it that 200,000 Jewish people, those who hold positions of power, those who wield the Zionist mantra and use it to gain power and force the politicians to bend over backwards, why is it that their values and their views our stronger and more worthy than the Muslims?

I have news for you.  We are nearly 4.5% of the population of this country, our economic muscle is stronger and more powerful that it was 20 years ago but what we lack is unity amongst ourselves.
If we are united and we went to the Tories and offered them more money than the Zionists they would take it.
We should use that power that we have, the money, to fight and struggle in the cause of Allah.
The Jewish community is very smart, we must learn from them.  Their Zionist brothers have abused their Jewish identity and held our government and MPs hostage.

The government must suspend all arms sales to Israel, stop Israeli trading privileges and prosecute the Israelis for war crimes.
We must boycott all products from Israel and boycott all companies that support the Zionist state of Israel.
We must establish a lobby group to change government policy.

You must believe in Allah and struggle for Islam against injustices in the world.
Rise up and believe.
Part of our belief is struggle, we don’t struggle enough.
Israel was illegally established on Palestinian land, Britain had no right to partition that land.

The conflict is between savages and the civilised world.
The savages murder and intend to obliterate innocent people by dropping bombs on schools, hospitals and mosques, in crowded markets and residential areas, that’s what savages do.
The argument is very simple…we must stand firm with the Palestinians and support their right to have their land returned.

Is there any wonder why Muslims in Britain become so radicalised against Israel, and indeed against Britain and the USA, when fed such inflammatory invective by an Imam.

Makes you wonder how his collar hasn’t been felt by the anti-terror cops.

Still, good to know the Media propagate his views on how to stop radicalisation.

You couldn’t make it up could you?

Tough one for the BBC.

Hamas sources in Gaza say 18 people suspected of collaborating with Israel have been executed. The killings came after an Israeli air strike killed three senior Hamas leaders on Thursday. Two more Palestinians died in overnight strikes.

Ah, that all important “context” and of course can one REALLY blame Hamas for MURDERING 18 Gazans when those Joooos are being beastly to Hamas? Note the use of the word “executed”

Oh, and I also note that a 4 year old Israeli boy has been killed by a mortar fired from beside a UNRWA school. I am sure the BBC will be enraged about this terrible abuse of this alleged “humanitarian” resource. The day after hell freezes over.