A British al-Qaeda supergrass told yesterday how Osama Bin Laden gave him a hug and wished him well on his suicide bombing mission...
but he hasn't said nothing about Mr Hamza yet. I think I am the only one in the UK still interested in this story.
On the subject of Bin here is a very cooky article about Osama's time in London
..
April 28, 2014
April 24, 2014
ITS IN THE MANUAL
Flashed onto a large screen for members of the jury to see, the map pinpointed a bin Laden home and said the Taliban had "45,000 troops plus the bin Laden bases and training camps."
Various extracts of the textbook, translated into English, were read to jurors detailing how to plant mines, wage sabotage and recruit youngsters aged 15-17, and leaders no older than 23.
"A person of this age is more receptive... and he is ready to sacrifice for it," according to the translated text.
Other titbits dealt with assassinations and kidnappings, with the advice: "Do not prolong the period of detention and start executing hostages" to show your zeal.
also, finally we get to hear testimony from Oregon! From a very colourful sounding witness:
...According to al-Masri’s lawyer last week, the camp was similar to being in the “Cub Scouts,’’ with the men riding horses, tending to little lambs and telling campfire stories.
But Hatley said one of the arrivals, militant Oussama Kassir, boasted about previously running training camps in Afghanistan and being a “hit man” for Osama bin Laden.
She said Kassir told her that al-Masri was his “leader” and that al-Masri sent him and others to the Bly ranch to create a “training camp” where men would learn to shoot guns, throw knives and do calisthenics along open, spacious fields abutting a ravine and desolate dirt roads.
“He said he was there to train men for jihad,” she said. “He said that Abu Hamza sent him. He intended to train them to fight.”
The visitors, she claimed, said the ranch resembled Afghanistan. She added that some had CDs with information on how to make poisons to “kill people” and regularly “talked” about “robbing and killing truck drivers” on nearby roads.
Kassir, she recalled, claimed there were plans to eventually dig a hillside compound at the ranch for al-Masri to hide out in.
“I was shocked,” said Hatley, who claims she fled the ranch in fear in December 1999, four months after moving in.
During cross-examination, al-Masri’s lawyer Jeremy Schneider painted the gun-loving Hatley as paranoid and having a shady track record. She admitted to him under oath that she agreed to marry her husband after only their first encounter — and had tricked him into thinking she had money.
She claimed she feared that Rule — who was married four previous times and had 18 kids — wanted to kill her and had “suffocated” his previous wife to death.
When asked if Rule, al-Masri, Kassir or others who stayed at the ranch had ever threatened her, she said, “No, but I am still afraid.”
Hatley went into witness protection in 2004 but was kicked out years later for telling one of her new neighbors her secret. She was given a second chance, but the feds booted her again after she violated multiple rules, including driving with a suspended license...
...
also, finally we get to hear testimony from Oregon! From a very colourful sounding witness:
...According to al-Masri’s lawyer last week, the camp was similar to being in the “Cub Scouts,’’ with the men riding horses, tending to little lambs and telling campfire stories.
But Hatley said one of the arrivals, militant Oussama Kassir, boasted about previously running training camps in Afghanistan and being a “hit man” for Osama bin Laden.
She said Kassir told her that al-Masri was his “leader” and that al-Masri sent him and others to the Bly ranch to create a “training camp” where men would learn to shoot guns, throw knives and do calisthenics along open, spacious fields abutting a ravine and desolate dirt roads.
“He said he was there to train men for jihad,” she said. “He said that Abu Hamza sent him. He intended to train them to fight.”
The visitors, she claimed, said the ranch resembled Afghanistan. She added that some had CDs with information on how to make poisons to “kill people” and regularly “talked” about “robbing and killing truck drivers” on nearby roads.
Kassir, she recalled, claimed there were plans to eventually dig a hillside compound at the ranch for al-Masri to hide out in.
“I was shocked,” said Hatley, who claims she fled the ranch in fear in December 1999, four months after moving in.
During cross-examination, al-Masri’s lawyer Jeremy Schneider painted the gun-loving Hatley as paranoid and having a shady track record. She admitted to him under oath that she agreed to marry her husband after only their first encounter — and had tricked him into thinking she had money.
She claimed she feared that Rule — who was married four previous times and had 18 kids — wanted to kill her and had “suffocated” his previous wife to death.
When asked if Rule, al-Masri, Kassir or others who stayed at the ranch had ever threatened her, she said, “No, but I am still afraid.”
Hatley went into witness protection in 2004 but was kicked out years later for telling one of her new neighbors her secret. She was given a second chance, but the feds booted her again after she violated multiple rules, including driving with a suspended license...
...
April 23, 2014
April 20, 2014
MARY QUINN
But Mary cut him off and said: “I am one of the tourists who was taken hostage by Abu Hassan.”
Hamza was speechless for a moment – then smiled and said: “I am surprised that you would have come here. "Very surprised.”
Mary asked to tape their meeting. Incredibly, Hamza agreed.
She said: “Our 15-minute conversation lasted nearly an hour.”
Hamza admitted providing a satellite phone for Abu Hassan and being in touch with him during the 1998 ambush. He expressed regret for the deaths of the four tourists and insisted he had ordered the kidnappers to keep them safe.
Hamza told her: “We never thought it would be that bad.”
She also asked whether he wanted to turn Britain into an Islamic state.
Hamza replied: “I don’t intend everyone should be converted to Islam but the image of Islam has been distorted. “Western countries want Muslim countries to be poor and weak.
“I want peace for those who love peace, war for those who love war.”
At the end of the interview, Hamza leaned forward and warned: “Do not go back to the south of Yemen. "They will not bother with kidnapping foreigners next time. “Rocket attacks on tourists will be next. From a hill, they can fire a rocket at a car. You will not see it coming.”
Mary – now chief executive officer of international technology giant Callaghan Innovation – added;
“Hamza said he could spare no more time and called on one of the youths sitting behind me on the floor to escort me from the mosque. “I thanked him for his time and asked if I could follow up with him in future if I had more questions. “He gave his mobile phone number.”
Mary Quinns book Kidnapped in Yemen is very interesting and well worth a read
...
Hamza was speechless for a moment – then smiled and said: “I am surprised that you would have come here. "Very surprised.”
Mary asked to tape their meeting. Incredibly, Hamza agreed.
She said: “Our 15-minute conversation lasted nearly an hour.”
Hamza admitted providing a satellite phone for Abu Hassan and being in touch with him during the 1998 ambush. He expressed regret for the deaths of the four tourists and insisted he had ordered the kidnappers to keep them safe.
Hamza told her: “We never thought it would be that bad.”
She also asked whether he wanted to turn Britain into an Islamic state.
Hamza replied: “I don’t intend everyone should be converted to Islam but the image of Islam has been distorted. “Western countries want Muslim countries to be poor and weak.
“I want peace for those who love peace, war for those who love war.”
At the end of the interview, Hamza leaned forward and warned: “Do not go back to the south of Yemen. "They will not bother with kidnapping foreigners next time. “Rocket attacks on tourists will be next. From a hill, they can fire a rocket at a car. You will not see it coming.”
Mary – now chief executive officer of international technology giant Callaghan Innovation – added;
“Hamza said he could spare no more time and called on one of the youths sitting behind me on the floor to escort me from the mosque. “I thanked him for his time and asked if I could follow up with him in future if I had more questions. “He gave his mobile phone number.”
Mary Quinns book Kidnapped in Yemen is very interesting and well worth a read
...
April 19, 2014
BITE ME
...Smith said Mustafa, also known as Abu Hamza, told his followers they
would be filled with so much zeal on the battlefield that "it would make
you want to throw your AK-47 and run up to the nonbeliever and bite
him."...
...
...
April 17, 2014
NEED TO BE OUTRAGEOUS
Kim, the prosecutor, told the jury: “In the fall of 1999, two men were sent on a mission, directed to travel halfway round the world to another country. They were sent on that mission by their leader.”
That man, Kim said, was Hamza.
They were sent, he said, to a remote compound set a mile back from the nearest road and given money to accomplish their mission. Kim said its purpose was to establish a training camp for terrorism, “a place for men to fight and to kill”.
The compound had nerve gas and explosives, and they learned how to shoot a gun and how to slit a throat, Kim said. The prosecutor told the jury that the two men carried with them letters, one to Bin Laden and one thanking Hamza. He told the jury they would hear evidence showing how Hamza participated in the “terrifying” hostage-taking in Yemen, providing “crucial resources and guidance”.
Kim said the defendant had posted a message to westerners to “stay out of Yemen”, shortly before the hostage-taking. “Abu Hamza did not just post that warning about Yemen. He provided a satellite phone” and paid for additional minutes.
In 2001, when US soldiers were fighting al-Qaida in Afghanistan, Hamza sent two of his followers, including Feroz Abbasi, a British national who was detained at Guantánamo Bay, to fight. He told the jury they would hear from an al-Qaida operative via video link about Abbasi in Afghanistan.
Kim said the jury would also hear from two women in Bly, into whose community Hamza sent two of his followers in the middle of the night. The two men, Kim said, carried money Hamza had given them to set up the camp, and a CD with instructions on how to make bombs. They dressed in black, carried knives, and one of them was so committed he brought over his wife and family.
Kim told them they would hear from two of the rescued hostages, including Mary Quinn, who managed to escape into the desert and who travelled to London two years later to interview Hamza at the mosque about the kidnapping. “Abu Hamza said it was justified.” Dratel, Hamza's defence counsel, said his client did not participate in any of the crimes, “not in Yemen, not in Oregon, not in Afghanistan”.
Dratel said he “he never set foot in the US” until he was extradited. Hamza was extradited to the US from Britain after an eight-year battle in 2012, following his conviction and imprisonment in the UK for inciting his followers to kill non-Muslims.
Dratel described his client as “his own man” and “an independent thinker” who was concerned about oppressed Muslim communities around the world.
He said Hamza's controversial views, which he had a right to hold, were not a crime. Dratel said that in the late 1980s and 1990s, his client spoke up for Muslim communities who were being oppressed in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya.
Dratel said his client “needed to be outrageous” to keep the entire spectrum of appeal to his community. “There's a third way between Osama bin Laden on one extreme and George Bush on the other,” he said.
Dratel told the jury that Hamza was relied upon by British intelligence to try to keep the situation non-violent. He said he had raised the alarm on the hostage-taking in Yemen. He said Hamza had not sent anyone to Afghanistan, but had provided money for schools, charities and computers there. "He is not a follower of Osama bin Laden. He is not a follower of anyone. He's his own man.”
also Two High Court judges warned Theresa May that if there are no US assurances by 4pm on June 13, her decision to go ahead with the extradition of Haroon Aswat, despite a European court ruling blocking his removal, will be quashed.
Trial of jihadist cleric expected to highlight ex-Guantanamo detainee's al Qaeda role
...
They were sent, he said, to a remote compound set a mile back from the nearest road and given money to accomplish their mission. Kim said its purpose was to establish a training camp for terrorism, “a place for men to fight and to kill”.
The compound had nerve gas and explosives, and they learned how to shoot a gun and how to slit a throat, Kim said. The prosecutor told the jury that the two men carried with them letters, one to Bin Laden and one thanking Hamza. He told the jury they would hear evidence showing how Hamza participated in the “terrifying” hostage-taking in Yemen, providing “crucial resources and guidance”.
Kim said the defendant had posted a message to westerners to “stay out of Yemen”, shortly before the hostage-taking. “Abu Hamza did not just post that warning about Yemen. He provided a satellite phone” and paid for additional minutes.
In 2001, when US soldiers were fighting al-Qaida in Afghanistan, Hamza sent two of his followers, including Feroz Abbasi, a British national who was detained at Guantánamo Bay, to fight. He told the jury they would hear from an al-Qaida operative via video link about Abbasi in Afghanistan.
Kim said the jury would also hear from two women in Bly, into whose community Hamza sent two of his followers in the middle of the night. The two men, Kim said, carried money Hamza had given them to set up the camp, and a CD with instructions on how to make bombs. They dressed in black, carried knives, and one of them was so committed he brought over his wife and family.
Kim told them they would hear from two of the rescued hostages, including Mary Quinn, who managed to escape into the desert and who travelled to London two years later to interview Hamza at the mosque about the kidnapping. “Abu Hamza said it was justified.” Dratel, Hamza's defence counsel, said his client did not participate in any of the crimes, “not in Yemen, not in Oregon, not in Afghanistan”.
Dratel said he “he never set foot in the US” until he was extradited. Hamza was extradited to the US from Britain after an eight-year battle in 2012, following his conviction and imprisonment in the UK for inciting his followers to kill non-Muslims.
Dratel described his client as “his own man” and “an independent thinker” who was concerned about oppressed Muslim communities around the world.
He said Hamza's controversial views, which he had a right to hold, were not a crime. Dratel said that in the late 1980s and 1990s, his client spoke up for Muslim communities who were being oppressed in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya.
Dratel said his client “needed to be outrageous” to keep the entire spectrum of appeal to his community. “There's a third way between Osama bin Laden on one extreme and George Bush on the other,” he said.
Dratel told the jury that Hamza was relied upon by British intelligence to try to keep the situation non-violent. He said he had raised the alarm on the hostage-taking in Yemen. He said Hamza had not sent anyone to Afghanistan, but had provided money for schools, charities and computers there. "He is not a follower of Osama bin Laden. He is not a follower of anyone. He's his own man.”
also Two High Court judges warned Theresa May that if there are no US assurances by 4pm on June 13, her decision to go ahead with the extradition of Haroon Aswat, despite a European court ruling blocking his removal, will be quashed.
Trial of jihadist cleric expected to highlight ex-Guantanamo detainee's al Qaeda role
...
ABBASI
Feroz Ali Abbasi, a 34-year-old former computer student from Croydon, is set to play a key role in testimony prepared for the trial of Abu Hamza in New York
also
Two High Court judges warned Theresa May that if there are no US assurances by 4pm on June 13, her decision to go ahead with the extradition of Haroon Aswat, despite a European court ruling blocking his removal, will be quashed.
..
also
Two High Court judges warned Theresa May that if there are no US assurances by 4pm on June 13, her decision to go ahead with the extradition of Haroon Aswat, despite a European court ruling blocking his removal, will be quashed.
..
April 10, 2014
DONT WANT ONE
Hook-handed terror suspect: I don’t want plea deal...
Conveniently and strangely A mate of mine is moving to New York. If I turn up and wave from the public gallery do you think it might cause consternation?
...
...
April 04, 2014
TERR-R IS COMING
Red alert: New York cops fear hate preacher Abu Hamza's trial could spark more terror
...One-eyed Hamza, who was extradited to the US from Britain in 2012, will appear in court next week in New York, and the city’s authorities fear another al-Qaida attack to coincide with the trial. Security services including the CIA are said to have picked up a high level of “internet chatter” among Islamic extremists. Rebecca Weiner, security chief for the NYPD, said: “We are attuned to the possibility that his upcoming trial may inspire more terror.”
She called Hamza, 55, a “star” among jihadists and said he had “helped radicalise dozens of individuals in both the UK and the US who went on to engage in terrorist acts”...
...John Miller, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence also said officers in the city, where al-Qaida destroyed the Twin Towers in 2001, were on high alert but had yet to identify any “specific” threat.
Last month Hamza, 55, was branded a “terrorist leader of global reach” by the US government. Prosecutors said he was so dangerous they wanted jurors to have armed guards...
They forgot to mention that coincidentally or not coincidentally the 7/7 bombing happened a day into his trial in the UK.
...
...One-eyed Hamza, who was extradited to the US from Britain in 2012, will appear in court next week in New York, and the city’s authorities fear another al-Qaida attack to coincide with the trial. Security services including the CIA are said to have picked up a high level of “internet chatter” among Islamic extremists. Rebecca Weiner, security chief for the NYPD, said: “We are attuned to the possibility that his upcoming trial may inspire more terror.”
She called Hamza, 55, a “star” among jihadists and said he had “helped radicalise dozens of individuals in both the UK and the US who went on to engage in terrorist acts”...
...John Miller, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence also said officers in the city, where al-Qaida destroyed the Twin Towers in 2001, were on high alert but had yet to identify any “specific” threat.
Last month Hamza, 55, was branded a “terrorist leader of global reach” by the US government. Prosecutors said he was so dangerous they wanted jurors to have armed guards...
They forgot to mention that coincidentally or not coincidentally the 7/7 bombing happened a day into his trial in the UK.
...
March 28, 2014
March 01, 2014
WE ARE GOING TO HEAR FROM MR H
Cleric plans to testify in NY trial
NEW YORK — Islamist cleric Abu Hamza Al-Masri plans to testify in his own defense at his trial on terrorism charges in New York in April, according to a letter to the judge overseeing his case. In a five-page hand-written letter made public on Thursday, Al-Masri told US District Judge Katherine Forrest he was “surprised” no one had told her of his plans. Al-Masri also wrote that, when he testifies, he does not want to exclude mention of any person, organization or place referred to in his indictment, saying it would be “impossible” to provide a coherent account otherwise. The judge said in an order on Thursday that she planned to discuss the letter at a hearing on Friday. Joshua Dratel, a lawyer for Al-Masri, declined to comment. Representatives for Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara did not respond to requests for comment. – Reuters
..
February 04, 2014
SUPERGRASS
...An al Qaeda supergrass is to give evidence against hate preacher Abu Hamza and show he was a 'terrorist with a global reach'.
British-born Saajid Muhammad Badat will be the star witness when Hamza goes on trial in New York later this year, according to court papers.
Badat, who was jailed for plotting to blow up a U.S. passenger jet with shoe bomber Richard Reid and later released for agreeing to become the first terrorist supergrass, has agreed to give evidence via a video link
..
..
January 31, 2014
January 29, 2014
AND A BIT MORE HAMZA
...According to the indictment, Abu Hamza conspired with others in December 1998 to take a group of Western tourists hostage in Yemen. The indictment explains: “On or about December 28, 1998, the hostage-takers stormed a caravan of sport utility vehicles carrying sixteen Western tourists and took the tourists hostage by use of force.” The Yemeni military then attempted to rescue the hostages, at which point the “hostage takers used the hostages as human shields and attempted to fight off the Yemeni military,” according to the indictment. Four hostages were killed and several wounded in the ensuing combat.
The indictment goes on to allege that Hamza conspired with others and provided material support for a “violent jihad training camp” in Oregon. These efforts included, among other things, the stockpiling of weapons and ammunition within the US. The indictment goes on to allege that Abu Hamza’s two co-defendants Oussama Abdullah Kassir and Haroom Rashid Aswat travelled to Bly, Oregon – telling individuals there that “they had been sent there by [Abu Hamza] to train people for jihad and to assess the suitability of the Bly, Oregon property for a Jihad training camp. [Kassir and Aswat] also both told individuals at the property that they supported Usama bin Laden and al Qaeda, and had received their own jihad training in Afghanistan.”
The indictment further alleges in part that Abu Hamza provided and concealed material support and resources to terrorists facilitating violent jihad in Afghanistan, and that Abu Hamza conspired to supply goods and services to the Taliban in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)...
...
...
January 18, 2014
MORE ATILLA
Atilla talking on Salafimedia about his court case.
This is the first time I have seen Atilla preach since Finsbury park. Is this "hate speech"? Tell me. This is media they are controlling themselves through Salafi Media.
January 06, 2014
December 31, 2013
ATILLA MESSAGE TO OBAMA
'
.. Happy New year one and all. I had no idea Atilla was speaking again, I saw him for the first time since he has been out a coupla weeks back. I went round Hajj's place and we played dominoes.
..
.. Happy New year one and all. I had no idea Atilla was speaking again, I saw him for the first time since he has been out a coupla weeks back. I went round Hajj's place and we played dominoes.
..
October 10, 2013
ROCK ON TOMMY
I thought I would come out of blog retirement to encourage Tommy. I don't know why I like extremists, they are just fascinating. I think its because I used to be a bit of a christian extremist growing up. Knocking on peoples doors telling them about Jesus was scary but there is something about moving with conviction which I have missed, so when I see it in others, especially when it is a controversial direction in the face of the norms of the mainstream alseep culture it interests me.
I never had a look at the EDL, my attempts to engage with the United British Alliance who came down to protest Hamza years before the EDL existed are here. My film with the National front in Bermondsey is here.
I have always been interested in Tommy because of the way he comes across. I fucking hate all these middle class journos who twist what he says much more than I could ever hate Tommy. Now they are asking if he has changed his racist ways when it was they who continually reported him as racist which he continually denied. It still goes on with Paxman saying "If the EDL aren't a racist organisation what are they?" They think they are being clever, it just looks pathetic and at worst a fucking denigration of free speech.
Its pretty much the same as how they refused to broadcast Abu Hamza's continual exhortations against terrorism in the UK. I don't see why intelligent journalists do this. Its like reducing real life to their own soap opera. I think if someone is expousing extreme views it is crucial in a world of free speech to report exactly what those fucking views are. Its actually not difficult either. What gives these egomaniac journos the fucking nerve to add their own layer of grease?
Anyway, I have always disagreed with Tommy about the nature of the threat this country faces but I think Tommy is as genuine now as he has always been. I don't know. Its just little things like when he asked Jon Snow if he was happy he had left the EDL. Also I know personally from the four or five times I have been in solitary doing Vipassna, its just really good for you.
It is just stupid to expect Tommy to have completely changed his views. He is on a learning curve and having not grown up in a working class community I have no right to comment on where that learning curve might take him but Quilliam seem like a safe set of hands to accompany him in this case.
He has been able to articulate a lot of white working class resentment which middle class politicians and journos of all persuasions ignore. It exists whether we like it or not, I always thought that the fact these types had moved on from basic racism to "against Islamic extremism" was a good thing. I wonder now if the people he can relate to have some faith in him he can be of use talking to them where others cant. Whether we might go on some sort of journey together through this doco. I hope so, it is what the very best TV docos are all about.
When I heard the way he spoke about what Quilliam were doing, he sounded genuine and also made me think yeah, hang on- what are they doing? I look forward to the coming doco. Yeah all the Fundamentalist Muslims I filmed laugh at Quilliam. I don't doubt that dislike of them is one of the only things which unites the Islamic community. I have no idea but I think Majid reaching out to Tommy is the best thing he has done and it touched me to hear how he described how it happened, relating to his own experiences with Amnesty international going out on a limb for him while he was in a much nastier jail that Tommy has been in.
Yeah people can jaw about how he is being "careerist" and that the EDL were a lost cause anyway blah blah blah. I have seen how peoples egos get over inflated by publicity, it happened to Atilla. It even happened to me when we became news for a short while when squatting, but I don't think it necessarily follows that people who become spokespersons for extreme views are capable of such cynical manouverings a lot of people are accusing Tommy of. Anyway, all the best Tommy.
from David.
Tommy and Maajid debating around the Breivik incident
BBC piece
Tommy on Newsnight
South London Anti fascists say bollocks
as does someone in the Guardian
Mehdi Hasan in the Spectator
and someone on Liberal Conspiracy
Liberty GB say
"people must face the possibility that some Muslims are sincere in their moderation. If they don't, then they may well come across as bigots"
Do you take Tommy Seriously? The most interesting hour of radio I have heard in a long while on Three Counties Radio
Tommys old Tw@
Tommys "new era" tw@
Maajid Nawaz's Tw@
sorry for the tw@ joke I just can't get the hang of twitter but looking at both these twitter feeds it is easy to see the important work both these guys are already involved with.
I never had a look at the EDL, my attempts to engage with the United British Alliance who came down to protest Hamza years before the EDL existed are here. My film with the National front in Bermondsey is here.
I have always been interested in Tommy because of the way he comes across. I fucking hate all these middle class journos who twist what he says much more than I could ever hate Tommy. Now they are asking if he has changed his racist ways when it was they who continually reported him as racist which he continually denied. It still goes on with Paxman saying "If the EDL aren't a racist organisation what are they?" They think they are being clever, it just looks pathetic and at worst a fucking denigration of free speech.
Its pretty much the same as how they refused to broadcast Abu Hamza's continual exhortations against terrorism in the UK. I don't see why intelligent journalists do this. Its like reducing real life to their own soap opera. I think if someone is expousing extreme views it is crucial in a world of free speech to report exactly what those fucking views are. Its actually not difficult either. What gives these egomaniac journos the fucking nerve to add their own layer of grease?
Anyway, I have always disagreed with Tommy about the nature of the threat this country faces but I think Tommy is as genuine now as he has always been. I don't know. Its just little things like when he asked Jon Snow if he was happy he had left the EDL. Also I know personally from the four or five times I have been in solitary doing Vipassna, its just really good for you.
It is just stupid to expect Tommy to have completely changed his views. He is on a learning curve and having not grown up in a working class community I have no right to comment on where that learning curve might take him but Quilliam seem like a safe set of hands to accompany him in this case.
He has been able to articulate a lot of white working class resentment which middle class politicians and journos of all persuasions ignore. It exists whether we like it or not, I always thought that the fact these types had moved on from basic racism to "against Islamic extremism" was a good thing. I wonder now if the people he can relate to have some faith in him he can be of use talking to them where others cant. Whether we might go on some sort of journey together through this doco. I hope so, it is what the very best TV docos are all about.
When I heard the way he spoke about what Quilliam were doing, he sounded genuine and also made me think yeah, hang on- what are they doing? I look forward to the coming doco. Yeah all the Fundamentalist Muslims I filmed laugh at Quilliam. I don't doubt that dislike of them is one of the only things which unites the Islamic community. I have no idea but I think Majid reaching out to Tommy is the best thing he has done and it touched me to hear how he described how it happened, relating to his own experiences with Amnesty international going out on a limb for him while he was in a much nastier jail that Tommy has been in.
Yeah people can jaw about how he is being "careerist" and that the EDL were a lost cause anyway blah blah blah. I have seen how peoples egos get over inflated by publicity, it happened to Atilla. It even happened to me when we became news for a short while when squatting, but I don't think it necessarily follows that people who become spokespersons for extreme views are capable of such cynical manouverings a lot of people are accusing Tommy of. Anyway, all the best Tommy.
from David.
Tommy and Maajid debating around the Breivik incident
BBC piece
Tommy on Newsnight
South London Anti fascists say bollocks
as does someone in the Guardian
Mehdi Hasan in the Spectator
and someone on Liberal Conspiracy
Liberty GB say
"people must face the possibility that some Muslims are sincere in their moderation. If they don't, then they may well come across as bigots"
Do you take Tommy Seriously? The most interesting hour of radio I have heard in a long while on Three Counties Radio
Tommys old Tw@
Tommys "new era" tw@
Maajid Nawaz's Tw@
sorry for the tw@ joke I just can't get the hang of twitter but looking at both these twitter feeds it is easy to see the important work both these guys are already involved with.
July 04, 2013
ALI BEHESHTI
Very interesting news on the BBC about our old friend Ali Beheshti's turn around. As I have said before he was always one of the friendliest people outside Finsbury park and I was surprised when he was arrested for fire bombing.
I filmed him playing with fire outside the US embassy, he is the guy holding the burning picture of George Bush
I filmed him playing with fire outside the US embassy, he is the guy holding the burning picture of George Bush
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