February 09, 2006

TERRORISTS. FREEDOM FIGHTERS.

“But they are legislating besides Allah which is totally Haram!”

I had pointed out in conversation with Abdullah the comments on MPACUK which suggested that he and the guy he argued with on Sky TV had both only managed to “Disgrace Islam in front of the Kaffirs.”

I said that although I had nothing to do with Islam I wondered if the man had a point.

Why am I writing these words? Why on earth have I found myself taking about Kaffirs and arguing with Republicans? Why was Finsbury park mosque like a terrorist casting show? Are any of these people real? Looking at the front page of the Standard last night I wondered to myself in a stoned haze whether Hamza, all of them, are spies working for the government. I had a waking dream of Hamza with his dark glasses and hook standing looking at me from a distance. For a fleeting irrational moment I thought Abu Hamza, David Blunkett and Nick Griffin were all robots put amongst our species to herd us through fear.

I had called Abdullah earlier and he appeared to be threatening a “fatwah”, an attack on the Muslims who spoke against Hamza. At points like that I wonder if I should call the Police, but assume they are listening anyway. Barry Norman told me once that Abdullah had threatened to kill him in the mosque but he hadn't taken him seriously. I was relieved when he called back after his prayer time in a calmer mood.

“I know they all desperately want you to be the next Abu Hamza.”

“Well you've seen the Evening Standard. I'm on page 4.”

I had bought all the papers but hadn't looked at them yet. I saw that the standard said "100 Hamzas still out there" or something. Later I saw Abdullah as he said, on page 4 pictured next to some Muslims I have never met who had gone on TV justifying 7/7. If Abdullah ever said anything justifying 7/7 I would be extremely pissed off. I recorded his views on the subject days after the event.

“You don't understand. All this time I am trying to educate you and you don't accept Islam.”

“Look. You have to understand. It doesn't matter from my perspective if a Muslim believes in democracy or not. I don't vote. At the moment I am anti-democracy. If it gave me any choice i would be for it. I stood at the trial out of respect for the jury for giving up their time, not any "man-made law". I've read MPACUK. They are not pro-war. They believe that they can achieve the same results you are after by engaging with democracy. A lot the Republicans I speak to think this is probably true here as Muslims are breeding faster than the rest of us.”

“A bottle of Alcohol is Haram. A sip of alcohol is Haram. Man made law is forbidden for a Muslim. You may not believe me, but whether you accept it or not, all of these TV people give you knock backs yet you stay with this. There is a reason why.”

“Because I am interested in the people who don't justify bombing in this country yet have a different view of Mr. Hamza to the accepted mainstream view. This is what I want to film. My biggest obstacle is your friends. You isolate yourselves. Except for yourself, Hajj and Jamal, everyone else looks at me like I am some sort of Kaffir. I want peace between your culture and my culture. When I started all of this I wasn't even concentrating on Hamza. I started trying to make a film about you because for whatever reason I found you easier to talk to.”

“You shouldn't be offended by the word kaffir. It just means someone who hasn't seen the light.”

“I'm not offended. In Pakistan I stayed with a tribe who used to control an area called Kaffiristan. I don't mind being called a Kaffir. I am a Kaffir.”

Abdullah talks in long rants battering my phone credit, saying things I mostly agree with. Its hard to get a word in edgeways. Thinking about it, he probably thinks the same about me.

“These are my brothers and sisters! I read your site, you don't care, you smoke and drink and live your life. You value a life over here more than a life over there like everyone else.”

“ Why do you say I don't care? That is not true. I may have a different lifestyle but I don't want innocents to be killed anywhere. I wrote on my blog that when I stoped the week after 7/7 I was remembering Muslims killed in Iraq as well as the 52 innocents killed here. You know, I don't want to advise you or anything. I'm just trying to make an objective film, but if you want these results and you speak in an angry voice blurring or being grey about what is a Jew and what is a Zionist you are doing your cause a disservice and so is Mr. Hamza.”

“It says in the Koran. The Jews are cursed because they rejected Jesus. That is why Mohamed came as the final messenger. If I preach now that a Muslim should aid his brothers and fight back in Palestine I am breaking the law, but any Jew can go to Israel, put on a uniform, kill my brothers and sisters and come back.”

I couldn't really argue with the last part. This was one of the most distressing things I realised during the court case. Even knives and blank firing guns at found at the mosque could still point to Muslims training to fight Russians in Chechnya as easily as the right wing papers suggest it points to terrorism over here. Obviously that is what I would like to be true. No one I have met at Finsbury park justified 7/7.

“That is true, and the British people know what a freedom fighter is, but the way you present yourself the British people will not realise that is what you are about. Look. I believe you don't want to kill me. I believe none of you hate Jewish people as a race. All I am saying is try not to loose your temper, and try and remember you are talking to people who are not Muslims.”

I think we came to the end of our conversation with a good understanding of each other.

I just want to push things forward in Londonistan. Peace between Islam and the West. Oil wealth for the people, the end of dictatorships. Things like that. Complete world peace. Arms down. Jesus, Mohamed, all of them. Clean slate you know?

Things like that.

For me personally I'd like to include an option to disgrace my beliefs in public but there you are..

No comments: