With the UK election on Thursday and the ongoing news of police failure to take threats from Muslim extremists seriously (leading to the terrorist attacks we have seen) I reproduce a highly relevant post below from just before the 2010 UK election. The friend wrote two formal letters to the Police about it and never got any reply. He says this Madrassa is more active than ever (some recent photos outside it are provided).
Muslim Threats in East London
A friend of mine was handed this leaflet (click
to enlarge) by a young man in traditional Muslim dress outside a mosque/madrassa
in the Mile End Road near Stepney Green station.
The
leaflet states that the crime of “Shirk” (when Muslims dishonour Allah)
is “the worst crime that anybody can commit” … and states that it is
worse than “rape and murder”.
Hence, what makes this
leaflet so threatening is the text printed in bold near the bottom,
which warns Muslims against voting in the forthcoming elections; it says
“voting in the elections (manmade law system) is a form of shirk and will negate ones islam”.
My
friend has passed the leaflet on to the local Police. Since it contains
a telephone number and email address there is not really much excuse
for them not to follow up on this. But then again, since the Police have been infiltrated by an Islamist/Khomaneist grouping I would not hold out too much hope.
Walking through Central London this afternoon (just off Oxford Street) I head loud screams of Allah Akbar. Just outside the Maroush Lebanese restaurant I saw a lot of police and two Arabic looking guys being arrested. Here is one on the floor. He was screaming Allah Akbar when he wasn't threatening violence and cursing the police:
Update: see this follow-up for people who think none of this has anything to do with antisemitism.
Today, like so many days in London over the last 10 years, a group of antisemites who go under the laughable guise of 'Palestine supporters' planned to:
March through the streets of London shouting despicable lies against Israel without being challenged
Hand out leaflets spewing more lies, hatred and antisemitic blood libels to unwitting Londoners trying to enjoy a day out in the sunshine; and finally
Lay siege to a modest Jewish Israeli-owned shop with the explicit intention of forcing it out of business, without a murmur of protest against them.
But NOT today. They met their match because, thanks to outstanding work by Gemma Sheridan (see update* about this below), Paul Besser, Joseph Cohen, Yochy Davis, and others, Israel supporters had found out their plans and, at short notice, got together an impressive counter demo. And for over 3 hours Israel supporters were right in the faces of the antisemites ensuring that not a single Londoner or tourist heard their lies unchallenged.
It all started when the antisemites gathered in Soho Square and were about to serenade the visitors there trying to have a peaceful lunch with their classic tune "From the river to the sea Palestine will be free". They were greeted first by Ishmael Sali, who they assumed would be joining their hatefest.
The look on their faces was quite something to see when Ishmael pulled out a large Israeli flag (see more pictures of Ishmael below), followed by others doing the same. Within seconds the terrorist supporting goons were surrounded by more people with Israel flags (more people in fact than the antisemites) and for the 20 minutes they stayed there singing the Israel supporters drowned out their noise with their own, including with some impressive shofar blowing.
When the antisemites started their march toward Covent Garden they were surrounded and followed all the way. For the 2 hours they were outside Sabon Israel supporters made sure to counter their lies. In particular they made sure the lies in these leaflets they were handing out did not go unchallenged:
And their ludicrous stunts - like letting off smoke bombs in red and then in the colours of 'Palestine' and attempting to throw a bag filled with shit were muted.
Even when their demo outside Sabon ended (to a rousing rendition of Hatikvah) the antisemites were followed all the way back. For once they did not have the streets of London to their own and they did not like it one bit.
Although still relatively small in numbers today's direct action by Israel supporters was a thousand times more effective than anything done in the last 10 years by the entire set of organisations run by Britain's 'official Jews' combined (UPDATE: Note I am referring to those 'official' demos and not other direct action events like today of which there have been quite a few). In fact I have no doubt that if the Board of Deputies and CST were aware of what was going to happen they would either have tried to stop it or would have made sure the Israel supporters were penned in as far away from the action as possible (which they manage to do every time) to maintain the image of the 'trembling Jew' **(UPDATE: see below comments about this from the
President of the BoD).
Every time the 'Palestine Solidarity Committee' plans one of these stunts I can't help thinking of this. And it's about time they are shown up for the bigots they are.
***TODAY WE SCORED A DECISIVE VICTORY*** London Palestine
Action tried to close down an Israeli cosmetics shop in London called
Sabon, their reason? Because the Sabon factory is in Kiryat Gat, a city
well within the 1949 Armistice Lines, this was not a protest against
"settlements", disgracefully this was a protest against the very
existence of Israel. London Palestine Action promoted this event for over a month, yet without advertising we were able to mobilise far more activists
than they had. For one of the first times in years, our chants of "1,
2, 3, 4 stop the boycott, stop the war, 5, 6, 7, 8 stop the boycott,
stop the hate", drowned out their screams of "From the river to the sea,
Palestine will be free"... a call for the destruction of Israel.
With our activists and supporters robed in Israeli flags we were successful in obscuring their message of hate.
The cherry on the cake, was when Chloe organised our supporters to end
the day with a shopping spree in Sabon... the perfect response to a
boycott. For those that couldn't make it today, please take 5 minutes to head over to https://www.sabonuk.co.uk/en/ and support a great business that has found itself the focus of a vile and bigoted hate campaign. Thank you so much each and everyone who came and continues to support Israel with us.
*UPDATE: Gemma Sheridan was working solidly on this - and the counter-demos that took place the day before - for six weeks and deserves special credit.
**UPDATE: Following my posting of this article the President of the Board of Deputies (Jonathan Arkush) wrote this response (which he is happy for me to share here):
Dear Edgar
I was very pleased indeed to read about the counter-demonstration.
You rather did the Board a disservice with your wide-of-the-mark
comment. The Board has always supported demonstrating and indeed has
organised many of the leading ones. The very last thing we would do is
to have restricted this type of event ! Provided, obviously, any
demonstration is conducted within the law I can assure you it will have
the Board’s support.
I think you are aware that under my presidency the Board has spoken
up and acted loudly and clearly for British Jews and Israel and I assure
you will continue to do so without fear or favour.
What we need to do is to act with unity. Let us support each other
strongly and steer away from making derogatory comments – we can save
those for the real opposition.
Regards
Jonathan
UPDATE: a commentator expressed concern at the (well-meaning) banner saying "Israel is not an apartheid state etc") held
up by one of the pro-Israel demonstrators, feeling it was far too
defensive. I have written about this here.
When I first started writing this blog in the summer of 2005 it was as a result of going to see a play called “Arab-Israeli Cookbook”. Instead of the pleasant evening out I was looking forward to I was subject to a barely disguised piece of brutal anti-Israel propaganda. The Israeli characters were all based on the classic stereotypes of militaristic or heartless immigrants from New York, with no culture of their own; in contrast every Palestinian character was warm, sympathetic and with rich culture deeply ingrained in the land now ‘usurped’ by the Jews.
Last Sunday I experienced the further extent to which the demonisation and deligitimisation of Israel has infiltrated British consciousness. I was at the Saatchi gallery in London to see the special exhibition of new art from the Middle East. A very fine exhibition and overall experience was totally spoiled by a vicious, nasty and unsubtle piece of anti-Israel propaganda posing as art called ‘Qalandia 2067’ by the artist Wafa Hourani. The piece is a very large model. As you approach it from the normal direction you see an intricate and impressively realistic reconstruction of a chaotic Arab village, full of life, diverse culture and even music coming from the houses. But at the end of the village is a very large wall of mirror with a soldier standing on top of it pointing a gun. As you walk round this wall you realise that it is supposed to be the Israeli security fence. But, there is no attempt to leave any doubt about what lies on the other side. In contrast to the vibrancy and ‘authentic’ life of the Arab village this is cold militaristic Israel whose only culture is American imports. Unlike the Arab village, the Israeli side is abstract and unscaled. Just in case anybody fails to notice the Israeli flags and large El Al sign, the artist has helpfully placed an enormous Star of David on a stand ‘protected’ by a soldier (who is of course much larger than any of the Arab figures) and tanks pointed at the Arab side. The only other objects on the Israeli side are an airfield with warplanes (all helpfully emblazoned with the Star of David) and a large abstract reconstruction of an eerily cold restaurant (with the obligatory Israeli flag on top) made from what appears to be coloured sweets - to laboriously emphasize that Israeli presence is alien in this land. A large ‘menu’ pinned to the model helpfully lists only American imports on offer.
The model manages to encapsulate just about every anti-Israel stereotype currently permeating our media, even to the extent of ignoring the context in which Israel’s security fence was built (Qalandia has been a notorious breeding ground for terrorists who have committed dozens of suicide attacks and shootings against Israeli civilians; only since the construction of the security fence have fatal attacks from Qalandia been largely avoided). It also portrays Israelis not just as lacking in humanity, but actually being not human at all. This is much like the way the Nazis portrayed the Jews in order to create the mindset necessary for their annihilation. Make no mistake, the anti-Israel propagandists now have the same end game in mind and they clearly feel they are winning with prominent exhibits like this (I understand that art critics have praised this piece as the outstanding work in the exhibition).
But what I cannot understand at all is why the Saatchi gallery – opened, named and presumably at least part-financed by the well-known Jewish philanthropist Charles Saatchi - should allow this piece to be displayed. Is he aware of the offence this causes to (the still large number of) people who are sympathetic to the State of Israel and the Israeli people? The large Star of David in this context is especially disturbing wince it borders on pure anti-Semitism.
It is also curious that an exhibition of new art from the Middle East fails to feature a single Israeli artist. Perhaps the owners of the gallery know that, if an Israeli artist exhibited a piece that was in any way politically sympathetic to Israel, the usual anti-Israel renta-crowd would have been protesting not just outside the gallery but would have destroyed the work itself as part of their openly stated campaign to boycott all Israeli culture. So why is the Saatchi gallery supporting those kind of people and their propaganda?
In particular note this is not the evening 'splinter' group violence in Kensington. This is the main event - the one that the BBC, Sky and CNN told us was a peaceful, carnival-like anti-war demonstration.
As my posts below about both the pro-Israel demonstrations I've attended in the last few days suggest, the TV news media has been grossly misrepresenting what has been going on in the various demonstrations. From BBC, Sky and CNN you will have got the impression that that there may have been a small amount of violence but that this was somehow evenly distributed between pro and anti-Israel demonstrators with the Police separating the two sides. In fact it turns out that their reporting in this respect bears all the features of its more general reporting of the Israel-Palestine conflict. It is complete and utter bullshit. The pro-Israel supporters have behaved impeccably and the anti-Israel supporters have behaved like animals.
The images here (which I got from the Mail on Sunday) are from the pro-Hamas London rally on Saturday (and if anybody tries to tell you this was pro-Palestinian rather than just pro-Hamas and anti-Israel just look carefully at the images). Most of the action here took place in Kensington High Street. When we there last Wednesday I noticed that the Hamas supporters were very close to this Starbucks and I had a feeling this would eventually be a target for their violence due to the Muslim campaign to boycott Starbucks as they view it as a 'Zionist' institution. It was therefore no surprise that this Starbucks was smashed up and then looted by these people. [UPDATE: here is a video of them smashing up Starbucks - listen to the 'fuck the Jews' cries and also notice a line of Police who simply allow the thugs to carry on the destruction without fear of arrest]
Of course none of this got any mention on the news channels. This is happening now every night in one of the busiest and most fashionable streets in London and nobody is doing anything about it. Even worse, despite both the police officers on the scene and the shop owners being outraged by this (I know because I've spoken with them) somebody high up in the Metropolitan Police is giving authorisation to allow these demonstrations ot take place every night.
A friend of mine was handed this leaflet (click
to enlarge) by a young man in traditional Muslim dress outside a mosque/madrassa
in the Mile End Road near Stepney Green station.
When I first started writing this blog in the summer of 2005 it was as a result of going to see a play called “Arab-Israeli Cookbook”. Instead of the pleasant evening out I was looking forward to I was subject to a barely disguised piece of brutal anti-Israel propaganda. The Israeli characters were all based on the classic stereotypes of militaristic or heartless immigrants from New York, with no culture of their own; in contrast every Palestinian character was warm, sympathetic and with rich culture deeply ingrained in the land now ‘usurped’ by the Jews.
As my posts below about both the pro-Israel demonstrations I've attended in the last few days suggest, the TV news media has been grossly misrepresenting what has been going on in the various demonstrations. From BBC, Sky and CNN you will have got the impression that that there may have been a small amount of violence but that this was somehow evenly distributed between pro and anti-Israel demonstrators with the Police separating the two sides. In fact it turns out that their reporting in this respect bears all the features of its more general reporting of the Israel-Palestine conflict. It is complete and utter bullshit. The pro-Israel supporters have behaved impeccably and the anti-Israel supporters have behaved like animals.
The images here (which I got from the Mail on Sunday) are from the pro-Hamas London rally on Saturday (and if anybody tries to tell you this was pro-Palestinian rather than just pro-Hamas and anti-Israel just look carefully at the images). Most of the action here took place in Kensington High Street. When we there last Wednesday I noticed that the Hamas supporters were very close to this Starbucks and I had a feeling this would eventually be a target for their violence due to the Muslim campaign to boycott Starbucks as they view it as a 'Zionist' institution. It was therefore no surprise that this Starbucks was smashed up and then looted by these people. [UPDATE: here is a video of them smashing up Starbucks - listen to the 'fuck the Jews' cries and also notice a line of Police who simply allow the thugs to carry on the destruction without fear of arrest]
Of course none of this got any mention on the news channels. This is happening now every night in one of the busiest and most fashionable streets in London and nobody is doing anything about it. Even worse, despite both the police officers on the scene and the shop owners being outraged by this (I know because I've spoken with them) somebody high up in the Metropolitan Police is giving authorisation to allow these demonstrations ot take place every night.
