Posted by Mehdi Hasan – 04 January 2010 21:52

From the Guardian:

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.

But why does the media give the buffoonish Choudary so much time and attention? And why, when he is interviewed, are the questions so piss-poor and pathetic?

Here are ten questions that I think British journalists should be putting to the leader of “Islam4UK”:

1) Do you have any qualifications as an Islamic scholar? If not, on what basis do you call yourself a “sharia judge” and why on earth should anyone take your pronouncements on Islam, Muslims or “the hellfire” seriously?

From Wikipedia: “He is a qualified solicitor and chairman of the Society of Muslim Lawyers, although he was removed from the roll in 2002. He has also claimed to be a “judge” of the “Shari’ah Court of the UK”,[4] alongside Omar Bakri;[5] although neither men are officials of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, the only legally binding sharia courts in the UK.”

2) Do you not think it is even slightly hypocritical to live off benefits from the same British state that you revile and reject? Why do you say “it’s not of importance”?

From the Evening Standard: “Mr Choudary, a father of three, admitted he lived off benefits despite objecting to the British state. He rejected suggestions of hypocrisy, saying: ‘I don’t think it’s of any importance.'”

3) After you’ve gone to Wootton Bassett, will you take your coffins and go to Kandahar as well, to protest against the killing of innocent Afghans there by the Taliban and al Qaeda? If not, why not?

From the UN News Centre: “UNAMA [United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan] recorded 1,013 civilian deaths in the first six months of 2009, an increase of 24 per cent as compared to the same period in 2008. Of these, 59 per cent (595 deaths) were due to AGEs [anti-government elements] and 30.5 per cent (310 deaths) to PGFs [pro-government forces].”

4) Why did you call off your “march for sharia” in October 2009? Is it because you couldn’t round up enough people to turn out for your “cause”?

From the Guardian: “At the 11th hour, we heard that Islam4UK were cancelling their demonstration, rumours that were initially dismissed as the Choudary camp’s standard tactical manoeuvring. When it later emerged that Islam4UK had indeed sheepishly withdrawn from their own protest, the official reason doing the rounds was that English Defence League members had made death threats towards Anjem Choudary. What an irony. Al-Muhajiroun have repeatedly praised the 9/11 terrorists as “magnificent” yet they wholly failed to muster up the moral courage to square up to their first challenge from Muslim democrats. They ran scared – terrified by the prospect of an intellectual duel of conflicting viewpoints, in full view of the media and the public.”

5) You have called for people who drink alcohol to be lashed but how do you square that with your own record of drinking? Do you plan to lash yourself?

From the Telegraph: “Muslim preacher Anjem Choudary has called for people who get drunk to be flogged. The lawyer, who recently praised the Mumbai terror attacks, said anyone becoming intoxicated by alcohol should be given 40 lashes in public. He claimed alcohol was ‘the root of all evil’.The 41-year-old made the remarks on his website Islam4UK, which argues that Britain should become an Islamic state ruled by Sharia law.”

From the Daily Mail: “Photographs obtained by the Mail suggest ‘Andy’ – as he was then known – should be inflicting on himself the 40 lashes he prescribes for drunkenness. As well as downing cider and lager, the cleric is shown playing drinking games with cards, clearly forbidden under his strict Islamic laws, and holding a cannabis joint between his lips before smoking it. And the woman on the cover of the Mayfair pornographic magazine he is looking at is certainly not wearing a burka. On the evidence of friends from his student days, Choudary had sex with numerous white Christian girls.”

6) You claim Islam is “not a religion of peace” but is a “religion of submission” – but have you not read the verse in the Quran which says “there is no compulsion in religion”?

From the Evening Standard: “When a woman in a burkha asked how he could justify this when Islam was supposed to be a religion of peace, the crowd mocked her. But it was Choudary who rose to put her in her place. ‘Islam is not a religion of peace,’ he said. ‘It is a religion of submission. We need to submit to the will of Allah.'”

From the Quran (2:256): “There is no compulsion in religion.”

7) You and your allies have described 11th September, 2001 as a “towering day” and the 19 hijackers as “magificent” – do you have a fatwa from any reputed Muslim scholar or Islamic seat of learning which supports your view?

From Wikipedia: Abu Hamza al-Masri created the Islamic Council of Britain to “implement sharia law in Britain,” on 11 September 2002, the first anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, primarily through funding from Al-Muhajiroun. Masri celebrated the establishment of the ICB and the 9/11 attacks by holding a conference in Finsbury Park mosque in North London entitled “September the 11th 2001: A Towering Day in History.” Bakri, who attended the conference, said, that attendees “look at September 11 like a battle, as a great achievement by the mujahideen against the evil superpower. I never praised September 11 after it happened but now I can see why they did it.” Flyers distributed at the conference referred to the 9/11 hijackers as the “Magnificent 19.”

8) You say you have “no sympathy whatsoever” with the grieving parents of fallen soldiers but how do you square that with the Islamic emphasis on mercy and compassion, even towards one’s enemies?

From the Sun: “He also told grieving parents of war dead that he had “no sympathy whatsoever” for fallen troops.”

From the Institute of Islamic Studies: “The very opening of Qur’an, the holy book of Islam is with Bism Allahir Rahmanir Rahim i.e. I begin in the name of Allah who is Compassionate and Merciful. Thus it will be seen that Compassion is one of the names of Allah and it is among the most popular names of Allah. Muslims always begin their name with this incantation i.e. ‘I begin in the name of Allah who is Compassionate and Merciful’. A Muslim, who worships Allah has to be compassionate in his own behavior else his/her worship would not be complete. There are four key values in Qur’an which are repeatedly emphasized are: Justice (‘adl), benevolence (ihsan), compassion (rahmah) and wisdom (hikmah) and compassion is one of them.”

9) If one of your own four young children had been blown to pieces on 7th July 2005, would you still claim that “oppressed” Muslims had a right to defend themselves using “whatever means”?

From the Sun: “Anjem Choudary also claimed ‘oppressed’ Muslims had a right to defend themselves using ‘whatever means’. Choudary, 38, right-hand man of exiled hate preacher Omar Bakri, repeatedly refused to condemn the 7/7 bombers at a press conference on the eve of the anniversary of the London blasts. But when asked if he would inform the police of another suicide mission he said in Walthamstow, East London: ‘No I wouldn’t. I don’t think Muslims can co-operate with police.'”

From Wikipedia: “Choudary married 22-year-old Rubana Akhtar in 1996, who had recently joined al-Muhajiroun, which he led at the time.[46] They settled in Ilford, London and had four children: three daughters (Hidayah, born 1999; Hajar, born 2004 and Wafa, born 2008), and one son (Luqman, born 2001).”

10) Why do you continue to reside in a country you hate so much?