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Airline bomb plot: mosque has been
recruiting ground for 20 years September 7, 2009 Why didn't the vast majority of peaceful Muslims, the adherents of the authentic and peaceful Islam, rise up and drive out these terror recruiters from the mosque? More on this story. "Airline bomb plot: mosque has been recruiting ground for 20 years," by Sean O'Neill for the Times Online, September 7 (thanks to Kris): The mosque frequented by key members of the airline plot terror cell has been a recruiting ground for Islamist extremists for more than 20 years, The Times can reveal. The Queen’s Road mosque in Walthamstow, East London, was a regular place of worship and meeting place for central figures from the group. Abdullah Ahmed Ali, the cell leader, prayed there and met with his associates including Waheed Zaman, who lived opposite. The mosque is currently under the control of Tablighi Jamaat, an ultraorthodox Islamic sect which preaches that Muslims should replicate the life of Muhammad and tells them it is their duty to travel the world converting non-believers to the one true faith. Intelligence services around the world believe Tablighi Jamaat’s fundamentalism makes some of its followers easy prey for terrorist recruiters. Mohammed Sidique Khan, the leader of the London 7/7 bombers, was an adherent. Almost without exception, the Walthamstow bombers were Tablighi followers. They sometimes went to huge Friday night gatherings in West Ham on the site beside the 2012 Olympic Park where the sect wants to build Europe's biggest mosque with space for 12,000 people to pray.... I was at that site recently. The Muslims there were very suspicious and closemouthed -- much more so than in other mosques in London. Read it all. Posted by Robert at September 7, 2009 4:22 PM Print this entry | Email this entry | Digg this | del.icio.us | Buzz up! Comments (Note: The Comments section is provided in the interests of free speech only. It is mostly unmoderated, but comments that are off-topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise annoying stand a chance of being deleted. The fact that any comment remains on the site IN NO WAY constitutes an endorsement by Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch, or by Robert Spencer or any other Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch writer, of any view expressed, fact alleged, or link provided in that comment.) The bottom line is that Muslims, collectively speaking, in any Western country are a fifth column (this is in an advanced state in Britain). No good can come from Muslims in the West unless it be the case that Muslims en masse see the barbarism, fraudulency and intolerance rooted in their religion due to exposure to Western ideas and leave Islam en masse (hopefully not being killed for doing so). Posted by: Wellington at September 7, 2009 4:53 PM "The mosque is currently under the control of Tablighi Jamaat..." This is the same Tablighi Jamaat that William A. Graham, Dean of Harvard Divinity School and an academic "expert" on Islam, assured his alumni in 2003 are really just a "moral" reform movement that is trying to help the "sufferings" of the Muslim people: Probably one of the largest Islamist movements in the world today is a group called the Tabligis... Tabligis have a strictly nonengagement-in-politics approach to Islamic revival and to becoming a better Muslim. Their practice is effectively "each one, reach one." They don't seek to convert the world, to go out and convert infidels, if you like, or people who are not Muslims. Rather they strive to convert Muslims to faithful practice of Islam, to being real Muslims, real "submitters to God." To be a Muslim, according to the Tabligis, you only have to: have faith in God; pray; act with modesty; learn the word of God and transmit it; follow the right way; and receive all faithful Muslims, in other words, be kindly. That is a pretty simple credo. The movement has publishing houses around the world and has spread out through societies all over the world. In numbers, they are probably the largest Islamist, that is Muslim reform, movement in the world today. We don't hear about them because they are quietists; they are apolitical in their approach. "Reform the world, beginning with me" is their approach. Sounds so harmless! The Dean of Harvard Divinity School goes on to talk about groups that want to have a so-called theocracy of some kind -- which he immediately reassures the alumni is something that, by the way, is virtually unknown in Islamic history. How can an academic expert on Islam be so illiterate about his own subject? I could argue that there has never really been an "Islamic state," at least not since the time of the Prophet. And I am not sure the Prophet would have even described his state as an "Islamic state." Ah, so he's sophistically quibbling about the political-science term "State", which he appropriately rejects as an adequate term for Muslim polities in history. But does this mean that those polities did not strive to be theocratic? The Dean doesn't care to explore that question which he himself raised, because he has, in his mind (and perhaps in the minds of most of his audience) successfully performed his sophistical sleight-of-hand by subtly shifting the point from theocracy to political "States". It is important to recognize, then, that a lot of reformative zeal is due to the immense level of injustices that many Muslims, and particularly a lot of the leaders of Islamist groups, have suffered. Axiom #2 in the PC MC paradigm -- it's all our fault. The Tabligis with their "each one, reach one" notion of trying to spread moralism person to person are certainly activist in their own way. The level of activism ranges broadly, including much we don't hear about. One reason that Islamist groups are now so important and powerful in many countries in the Muslim world is not because of their ideology, frankly, but because of their engagement with the social realities of their suffering peoples. They are the people that at a time like the 1992 Cairo earthquake provided all of the relief for the poor quarters of the town, which really suffered terribly. The government was hopeless about doing anything. Instead, local Islamist groups went in, got shelter for people, brought food and fresh water, and did all the infrastructure activities that the government was unable to do because of its incompetence. I wonder if they did all that charitable work for the Copts of Cairo, too...? [This] is one of the reasons that people flock behind the banners of a lot of the Islamist groups, because these groups are actually meeting the needs of the people on the ground. When they become political in this way, they are quite often successful. So what is the Dean saying -- the Tablighi Jamaat are "apolitical" and "quietist", or they are becoming "political in this way" and "are quite often successful"? Of course, he's saying both, out of both sides of his mouth, as is not only typical of PC MCs like him, but part of their essential paradigm about Islam. If the aforementioned wasn't bad enough, prepare your nausea for worse: There is a seriousness about social justice in a lot of the Islamist movement that reminds me of the Social Gospel of Protestantism in this country of a century and a half ago and that still abides: a notion that being religious means being concerned about one's fellow and doing something about it. This idea is very strong in most of these Islamist movements, whether they are radical or not radical in any sort of overt political terms. Notice also the unintentionally foreboding information about the Tablighi Jamaat which the Dean transmits: The movement has publishing houses around the world and has spread out through societies all over the world. In numbers, they are probably the largest Islamist, that is Muslim reform, movement in the world today. [Their] level of activism ranges broadly, including much we don't hear about. Probably one of the largest Islamist movements in the world today... The Dean's stupidity, alas, reflects a much broader mainstream stupidity about this: but not an ordinary stupidity -- rather a paradoxically intelligent stupidity, which I call "quantum ignorance". Thus, the general obliviousness to the Tablighi Jamaat and the danger it poses is not so much a problem of the Tablighi Jamaat being under the radar: it's rather that our radar in the PC MC West has been specifically and consciously calibrated to avoid detecting them -- not through malice so much as because of the quantum ignorance of politically correct multi-culturalism. http://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/bulletin/articles/graham.html Posted by: Hesperado at September 7, 2009 5:26 PM "I was at that site recently. The Muslims there were very suspicious and closemouthed -- much more so than in other mosques in London" Of course, the Muslims who post here from time to time will tell you that you are welcome to visit at any time..I have been near mosques and the tension in the air is very apparent...you can really feel it...try it and see if you can sense it...Islam is not a religion that will make you comfortable... Posted by: pulsar182 at September 7, 2009 6:15 PM "Why didn't the vast majority of peaceful Muslims, the adherents of the authentic and peaceful Islam, rise up and drive out these terror recruiters from the mosque?' Well, not all Muslims are terrorists but all Muslims are Islamists and that includes a high tolerance for terror / jihad toward implementation of supremacy & sharia law. Posted by: Sounder at September 7, 2009 6:22 PM pulsar - you should go over to New English Review and read Esmerelda Weatherwax's account, in this article, entitled 'Square, green and evil', of the history of the Walthamstow Mosque, which happens to stand opposite the historic churchyard in which her parents are buried: http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/22874 I quote, from that article (though it should be noted that in her experience, some mosques - like this one - give off far worse vibes than others): "As I wrote in here [linked] in 2006 when this plot came to light something about that missile {the minaret of this Walthamstow mosque} brooding over my parent's grave upsets me every time I visit. . . "I would say to my husband, "One day something will happen, and that place will be at the centre of it." " I never thought I would be so horribly, horribly right. "I always found the waves of evil coming from that building palpable, "an effect other mosques, and heaven alone knows there are enough of them in east London these days don't have on me. " Thus saith Esmerelda Weatherwax, who seems to have psychic antennae similar to yours. Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at September 7, 2009 7:23 PM Here's more background on the disturbing and secretive Tablighi Jamaat, from a Telegraph article from 2006: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1526793/Army-of-darkness.html Posted by: gravenimage at September 7, 2009 8:03 PM And pictures here Posted by: Esmerelda Weatherwax at September 8, 2009 12:12 AM Afzal Akram, the local councillor whose brief included "community cohesion", insisted that Queen's Road mosque itself is not part of the problem. "It's got nothing to do with the imams or the mosque - some of my friends and family pray there, I've been there myself," he says. "None of the mosques here have been used to preach extremism. Individuals may have met at particular mosques and individuals may live within a stone's throw of the mosque. But I wouldn't put two and two together." How many times have we heard the same song and dance? You can hear the same sludge repeated almost verbatim in the United States. It is practically a script. Posted by: Worry01 at September 8, 2009 2:31 AM As an ex-Muslim, I have had a lot of unpleasant encounters with these Tablighi Jamaat characters. They always go around all areas in large all-male groups, especially on Thursdays, canvassing all homes looking to especially target nominal Muslim males. They generally look for those without beards as potential recruits. If a woman answers the door, they rudely turn their backs on her and ask to speak to all the males in the house. The males who come to the door are told that their movement is having a very informative talk on Islam at their local mosque and "request" their presence. At the mosque, the indoctrination and brainwashing of the average nominal Muslim begins. They are told that their present tolerant practice of Islam is nothing but ignorance. They are then "radicalised" i.e. taught "true" Islam. Posted by: Shafee al-Zindig at September 8, 2009 5:29 AM It is clear that 'rogue'members of the Muslim religion are never ostracized by the Muslim community.There seem to be a fine line between moderate and militant Islam. Posted by: unbeliever1 at September 8, 2009 8:13 AM The evil ones yet conspiring in the quiet suburbs of England may have something more awful to demonstrate tomorrow, 9.9.9. Posted by: MistahKurtz at September 8, 2009 10:20 AM Shafee, Interesting story. So what happens when these "requests" are not honored? Posted by: boneshack at September 8, 2009 11:54 AM http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027491.php |
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