'Islam' march through Wootton Bassett cancelled

[Al-khiyal]

'Islam' march angers Wootton Bassett

January 3, 2010 -- A town famous for honouring fallen British soldiers brought back from Afghanistan reacted angrily yesterday to news that a controversial Islamist group plans to march through its streets. Islam4UK says it will parade through Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, in the coming weeks. The group's website states that the event is being organised "not in memory of the occupying and merciless British military" but instead of Muslims who have been "murdered in the name of democracy and freedom". Islam4UK is said to call itself a "platform" for the extremist movement al-Muhajiroun. Its leader, Anjem Choudary, 42, a former lawyer from east London, said the protest would be peaceful, with "symbolic coffins" being carried to honour Muslim victims of the conflict. The march will not coincide with the return of dead soldiers, he added. Hundreds line the town's High Street every week to watch as servicemen's bodies are driven from RAF Lyneham. Chris Wannell, a councillor and former mayor, said: "If this man has any decency about him he will not hold a march through Wootton Bassett."

[Al-khiyal]

Brown condemns 'abhorrent' Islamist Wootton Bassett protest plan

January 4, 2010 -- Gordon Brown tonight condemned as "abhorrent and offensive" plans by a controversial Islamist group to stage a march through Wootton Bassett. In a statement, the prime minister said the Wiltshire town had assumed a "special significance" in the life of the nation, which should be respected. The leader of Islam4UK has said he will try to persuade people in Wootton Bassett to back an anti-war parade along the main street – the same route used to bring home the bodies of troops from Afghanistan. Anjem Choudary , whose group is an offshoot of the radical al-Muhajiroun movement, has caused anger by calling for members to parade through the Wiltshire town carrying up to 500 coffins symbolising the Muslim dead from the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. Local politicians have asked Choudary to abandon the protest and a Facebook site dedicated to preventing the march quickly attracted more than 120,000 members.

Downing Street intervened in the growing controversy with a statement from the prime minister saying he was "personally appalled". Brown said: "I believe that we as a nation should honour those brave servicemen and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Wootton Bassett has a special significance for us all at this time, as it has been the scene of the repatriation of many members of our armed forces who have tragically fallen. Any attempt to use this location to cause further distress and suffering to those who have lost loved ones would be abhorrent and offensive."

Choudary said Wootton Bassett had been chosen because it would attract huge publicity and that he had not yet spoken to the police, who would have to approve the parade. He also had no date in mind, leaving him open to the accusation that the idea is a publicity stunt. Choudary said he would try to win the support of local people by engaging with them over the coming weeks. He insisted he did not want to upset residents or families of dead service personnel. In an open letter on Islam4UK's website, Choudary denies the march is "merely an act of incitement or provocation".

In the letter, addressed "to the families of British soldiers who have fallen", Choudary writes: "It is worth reminding those who are still not blinded by the media propaganda that Afghanistan is not a British town near Wootton Bassett but rather Muslim land which no one has the right to occupy, with a Muslim population who do not deserve their innocent men, women and children to be killed for political mileage and for the greedy interests of the oppressive U.S. and UK regimes. The procession in Wootton Bassett is therefore an attempt to engage the British public's minds on the real reasons why their soldiers are returning home in body bags and the real cost of the war."

Hundreds or thousands of people line the market town's high street regularly to watch coffins carrying the bodies of service personnel being driven to a hospital in Oxford after landing at nearby RAF Lyneham. The former mayor and councillor Chris Wannell said of the idea: "We don't do what we do at Wootton Bassett for any political reason at all, but to pay our respects to those who have given their lives for our freedom. We are a Christian country and a traditional old English market town who honour very much our Queen and country. We obey the law and pay respects to our servicemen who protect our freedom. If this man has any decency about him he will not hold a march through Wootton Bassett."

The town is finding it increasingly difficult to keep politics at bay. The BNP leader, Nick Griffin, turned up for a recent parade and the BBC filmed Question Time there last month. The North Wiltshire MP, James Gray, said local people would not be drawn into political conflict with the group. "They will say these are foolish people making a silly point – we'll get on with our ordinary lives thank you. This also misunderstands the nature of what the people of Wootton Bassett do. They are not blood-thirstily in favour of the war. Most people would say they were not qualified to comment on the rightness or wrongness. The people of Wootton Bassett are decent, quiet, pragmatic people and they'll stay at home instead [of reacting to the march]." The secretary of the Wootton Bassett British Legion, Anne Bevis, urged the group to think "long and hard" before marching. The Facebook group that opposes the march states: "This group can march anywhere it wishes in the country but have chosen to cause outrage and offence." Some postings suggest blocking the roads or writing to councillors, while others take a more strident line. One contributor says: "I want my England back."

A spokesman for rightwing group the English Defence League said if the march took place it would "descend" on the home address of Anjem Choudary and demonstrate outside two mosques he frequented. Tom Robinson said the group had discussed organising a counter-march in Wootton Bassett but felt the best way to register its objections would be to protest outside addresses connected to Choudary. He said he did not believe the march would actually take place in Wootton Bassett. The EDL has organised demonstrations in a number of cities in England and its Welsh arm, the Welsh Defence League, has done the same in Wales. The EDL marches have caused community tension and some of the demonstrations have led to clashes with anti-fascist activists.

[Al-khiyal]

Please don't listen to Anjem Choudary

January 4, 2010 -- First, he announced his plan to march through Wootton Bassett, in Wiltshire, carrying 500 coffins to symbolise the thousands of Muslims killed "by the oppressive U.S. and UK regimes" in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, he is sending letters to the grieving families of fallen British soldiers, telling them he has "no sympathy whatsoever" for their plight, urging them instead to become Muslims to "save" themselves "from the hellfire". Is there anything Anjem "Andy" Choudary won't do for the sake of a cheap headline? As Inayat Bunglawala wrote on Comment is free almost a year ago, Choudary and his gang deploy "a simple formula – hold up some offensive placards designed to get people's backs up and call a local reporter to come along and capture some footage – that has reliably generated acres of media coverage for them in recent years".

Our sensationalist and irresponsible media has, in fact, been deeply complicit in the rise and rise of this fanatic, devoting quite disproportionate and counter-productive coverage to his various rantings. Is Choudary an Islamic scholar whose views merit attention or consideration? No. Has he studied under leading Islamic scholars? Nope. Does he have any Islamic qualifications or credentials? None whatsoever. So what gives him the right to pontificate on Islam, British Muslims or "the hellfire"? Or proclaim himself a "sharia judge"? Will he even manage to round up enough misfits to carry the 500 coffins with him? I doubt it – Choudary and co couldn't even persuade enough people to join a "march for sharia" that they had proudly planned to hold in central London in late October, and, at the very last minute, had to humiliatingly withdraw from their own rally. Pathetic, eh?

The fact is that Choudary is as unrepresentative of British Muslim opinion, as he is of British anti-war opinion. Compare the Islam4UK leader with Prestwick protester Marcus Armstrong. The latter went to prison in protest over the British government's alleged collusion in Israel's bombardment of Lebanon in 2006; the former lives safe and sound in a £350,000 house in east London, a recipient of benefits from the same state he so reviles and repudiates.

And here's a question for Choudary: of the 1,013 civilian deaths in Afghanistan between January and June 2009, recorded by the United Nations, 595 were attributed to "anti-government elements" and 310 to NATO and government forces. So will he and his odious chums have the guts to fly out to Afghanistan and march through the streets of Kabul and Kandahar, carrying coffins symbolising the innocent Afghans killed by the Taliban and al-Qaida? If he agrees to do so, I'll pay for his airfare myself.

Choudary's preposterous and self-serving antics aside, the endless stream of coffins arriving in Wootton Bassett raises awkward questions for supporters of the British military presence in Afghanistan. How many more British troops have to die in the killing fields of Helmand, on behalf of a corrupt regime in Kabul? How many more Afghan civilians will NATO forces kill, in their bloody and unending counter-insurgency war with the Taliban? And will we see more British soldiers in 2010 like Corporal Joe Glenton, who is facing up to 10 years in jail for refusing to serve in Afghanistan despite being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder? The recent decision by the prosecutor of the international criminal court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, to conduct "preliminary examinations" into alleged war crimes committed by NATO forces – including, presumably, British forces — in Afghanistan suggests these questions won't be going away anytime soon.

[Al-khiyal]

[voltaire]

Choudary is a joker, he represents no serious current of opinion among Muslim people in the UK. Nick Griffin with a beard.

[Ruks]

I've never before heard of Islam4UK, but I have met a few people who support Anjem Choudry in many things and I think many more Muslims support him here in the UK.

when are they going to march for the victims of other countries eg Iraq? Why single out one country only?

[Al-khiyal]

To what extent does Anjem Choudary represent the Muslim population?

January 7, 2010 -- There is only one thing worse than being talked about. Especially when you are the leader of a provincial Islamist group that has global pretentions. So it wasn't surprising when the publicity hungry Anjem Choudary announced his plan to parade 500 empty coffins through Wootton Basset to symbolise the thousands of Muslims killed 'by the oppressive U.S. and UK regimes' in the war in Afghanistan. The date has been cleverly left unspecified. His deft media touch suggests he has planned his communication strategy in far more detail than his blueprint for installing the Caliphate (date also unspecified).

The most interesting and awkward question is how far Choudary represents other Muslims in the UK. Quite rightly, the overwhelming response from the majority of the UK’s Muslims has been to denounce his act of provocation and stress that Choudary, and his group Islam4UK, "do not represent the Muslim community". However, this misses the point. Who represents whom within Muslim communities, indeed any community, is contested ground. There has been a splintering of representation within all Muslim communities across Europe in the last decade, especially among young people.

No one really believes that Choudary represents Muslim majority opinion. What matters is how many people he can claim to represent, or at least how many people share his views. The simple, if obfuscating answer is ‘some’, and no one, including Choudary, really knows quite how many. Although it is difficult to estimate, across Europe, what the French call the “element radical”, it is estimated to be anywhere between one and 15 per cent of Muslims. In France, this is believed to be between 300,000 - 500,000 people.

In the Netherlands, about five per cent of the Muslim population practices a ‘conservative’ form of Islam, which equates to approximately 45,000 people. In Denmark it is thought to be ‘a small segment’, but it is impossible to put precise information on it. In the UK, surveys have variously depicted that between two and 20 per cent of British Muslims hold some sympathy with the motives of those who carried out the London 7/7 attacks, although what exactly that means is not clear. Even if only a tiny sub-section go on to be involved in terrorist activity, that still represents a major national security threat.

So Anjem Choudary does not represent the majority of the Muslim community in the UK, nor does he claim to - in fact, he thinks most are apostates. But he does represent some. That means any decision to ban his march (which Alan Johnson said he will do if asked) is even more sticky than the already irresolvable ‘freedom of speech’ v ‘the right to respect’ question. Now there is a practical consideration: let him march and you upset the moderates, not to mention everyone else. Ban him, and you placate the moderates but inadvertently boost his legitimacy in the eyes of people who share some of his views.

There is no good solution here, and Choudary knows it. My suggestion would be to let the march go ahead. But in the hope that everyone in Wootton Basset makes a point to overtly ignore it, and the media collectively refuses to cover it – recognizing it as a shameless and pathetic stunt not worth mentioning.