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SALMA YAQOOB: TIME TO APOLOGISE
NOVANEWS
January 29, 2008
Posted by: anjam
Most readers will be familar with Salma Yaqoob: a Birmingham councillor for the far right Jamaat/Respect Renewal party.
Salma Yaqoob has been involved in extreme islamist politics for a number of years. She cut her teeth on a campaign to defend relatives of Abu Hamza, who had been arrested in Yemen where they were engaged in jihadism. She also wrote for Inayat Bunglawala’s “Trends” magazine, and penned a fantasy vision of Great Britain as an Islamic Republic, with Salman Rushdie fleeing for his life.
Salma Yaqoob is the spokeswoman for the lunatic Chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque, Dr “Dancing Cows” Naseem, the conspiracy theorist and advocate of capital punishment for homosexuality, who is the largest single funder of RESPECT. Her own press officer is a RESPECT activist called Adam Yosef, who has been in trouble for his outspoken homophobic abuse of Peter Tatchell.
Notoriously, she described the 7/7 London Bombings as “reprisal attacks” against American aggression.
Salma Yaqoob’s entire political career has been devoted to stirring up sectarian hatred.
A case in point is Yaqoob’s response to the anti-terror raids in Birmingham, one year ago. You’ll remember that, at the time, it was reported that the raids were in connection with a plot to kidnap a British soldier, cut his head off, and then place the video on the internet. A responsible politician would have taken the opportuntity to condemn terrorism, and call for support for the police.
A sectarian troublemaker would say something like this:
Yesterday Councillor Salma Yaqoob (Respect Sparkbrook) said speculation over an Iraq-style kidnap and execution only served to heighten tensions between the police and Muslim community.
Ms Yaqoob said: “The reality is that people are asking why are we being picked on, why are we being persecuted, because that’s what it feels like when all they want to do is get on with their day-to-day lives. The reason people are so fed up and cynical of the whole process is because the raids are so high profile. The area was full of reporters and television crews yesterday, but they will disappear quickly and when charges are dropped they’ll be nowhere to be seen. “That said I think there would be a huge public outcry if these latest raids fail to turn up anything that results in a successful prosecution “Well, the raids have today resulted in a guilty plea and a conviction, for a really appalling crime:
A 37-year-old Birmingham man has pleaded guilty to plotting to kidnap and kill a British soldier.
Parviz Khan, an unemployed charity worker, intended to seize and behead the unnamed Muslim serviceman “like a pig”, Leicester Crown Court was told. Three other men, Basiru Gassama, 30, Mohammed Irfan, 31, and Hamid Elasmar, 44, have admitted other offences connected with Khan’s plot.
…
The jury was told how Khan, of Alum Rock, intended to kidnap the soldier while on a night out, behead him in a lock-up garage and then release footage of the killing on the internet.
Nigel Rumfitt QC, prosecuting Mr Mahmood and Mr Iqbal, who both deny two offences relating to the plot, told the court that Khan had planned to seize the serviceman in Birmingham’s Broad Street entertainment quarter.
“He would be taken to a lock-up garage and there he would be murdered by having his head cut off like a pig,” he said.
“This atrocity would be filmed… and the film released to cause panic and fear within the British armed forces and the wider public.”
Khan, who also admits intending to supply equipment to terrorists on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, pleaded guilty to the plot earlier this month…”
Salma Yaqoob is invited to write op-eds for the Guardian. She is a favourite of the BBC, and is repeatedly invited on programmes like Question Time, where she is presented as a serious politician and a spokewoman for Britain’s muslims. In reality, she is a marginal politician, for a tiny party, whose interventions in local and national politics have been poisonous. Let us hope that we hear a lot less of Salma Yaqoob in the future.
Posted by david t at January 29, 2008 01:04 PM | TrackBack
Comments
Remember all that horseshit about spin doctors in the Home Office as well.
Yesterday someone brought up the “lyrical terrorist” on a CiF thread. (Funnily enough it was an Israeli trying to demonstrate that Israel is less repressive of Islamists than Britain!) I reminded him exactly why she was prosecuted. Both our comments were deleted, and I was warned to stay on topic… CiF ran a number of articles defending that person before the full facts were released. Now they are it is not permitted to talk about the case on the site!
Posted by: Thermaland at January 29, 2008 01:17 PM
The problem in relation to terrorism raids is that there’s a limit to what the police can say: because they don’t want to do anything which might cause problems later at trial.
Sectarian demagogues, like Tamimi or Yaqoob, take advantage of this handicap by stirring up communalist resentment, and creating a sense of victimisation which they know, full well, is wholly without basis.
Shamefully, their lies are repeated in parts of the liberal press, which should be countering them.
Once again no respect is being shown for the Contempt of Court Act. This case is ongoing (other defendants deny the charges they face) and this posting is stupid high-risk behaviour in those circumstances
Salmas political survival depends on all Muslims being part of one group,rather than violent Jihadists and their Islamist apologists on one side,and the vast majority on the other.
Obvious relly as she is in the apologist group.
Remeber whe thought 7/7 were “Reprisal Attacks”
You lot clearly missed her on the BBC breakfast time news talking about how getting muslim women more involved would- somehow- limit and curtail muslim extremism and their ideology.
I tell ya I nearly pissed myself.
She did manage to squeeze-in Iraq and Afghanistan hence making their ideological extremism all our fault though. Thanks BBC.
Greg, I am not au fait with the internal politics of the Guardian. I am aware that there is a faction there that can’t get enough of terror apologies and Israel-demonising and so on. But the way I see it, these people don’t own the Guardian. It’s partly in their stewardship, but just because they are disgracing it doesn’t mean it should be abandoned to them. There are also some really good writers, including on CiF specifically.
Posted by: Thermaland at January 29, 2008 02:16 PM
Now they are it is not permitted to talk about the case on the site!
Kommentar ist Erlaubt on CiF …. but Dissent ist absolutely Verboten!
CiF Heil … CiF Heil … CiF Heil!
Heil Mein Mullah!
(chanted with a glazed look in those pink red eyes …)
I’ve just watched the news with its report about the Birmingham trial. Several things struck me, one how ugly the defendents were (a capital crime in my book as I have pointed out before) and secondly, how they planned to kidnap and behead a WEST AFRICAN soldier. The soldier was never selected due to the Ghanaian plotter who was supposed to identify him deciding it was one religious obligation too far. I can’t help but think there was an underlying racism here, the same racism that leads to Kofi Annan being called ‘America’s slave’ by Islamicists.
The third thing that struck me was that there must be a lot of undiagonsed mental illness in immigrant communities, both psychotic and personality disorders. Easy for people like that to thrive in a culture that welcomes male bullying.
Not that I’m aware of, but he’ll certainly claim victory if he did.
Posted by: Oliver Kamm at January 29, 2008 05:14 PM
Not to be forgotten is Naseem’s own reaction to the Birmingham arrests. This is from an IHT “they are good lads” (uh huh) report from the neighbourhood:
The chairman of the Birmingham Central Mosque, Mohammed Naseem, said the attention from the arrests was unwelcome because it was based on what he called the un-British notion of arresting people on the basis of suspicion.
?!?!?
A few days later the Telegraph reported these lines from Naseem:
Dr Mohammad Naseem, the chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque, said it was vital that Muslims in the city did not panic or become angry despite growing scepticism about the intelligence which led to the arrests on Wednesday.
Dr Naseem’s call came after Islamic religious leaders nationwide urged Muslims to co-operate with police investigating the alleged plot to kidnap, torture and behead a British Muslim soldier.
Dr Naseem said that although it was “not a time to panic or get angry”, he disagreed with the manner of the arrests and the use of laws on the detention and questioning of suspects.
“This unfortunate country is moving towards a police state – the laws being passed are wrong and against the traditions of this country,” Dr Naseem said.
How about panic and anger about would-be head choppers instead? Strictly for racists, presumably.
Yaqoob’s latest piece in The Muslim News is also barking. Apparently the only banes of (truly unfortunate) Pakistan’s existence are the US and the army. It includes this line –
Musharraf has used the Pakistan army to wage war against its own people in Waziristan
– without any mention of why there is fighting in Waziristan.
This kind of nasty communalism and apologism for terrorists really must come to an end.
The problem in relation to terrorism raids is that there’s a limit to what the police can say: because they don’t want to do anything which might cause problems later at trial.
Then why, and how, does so much information get into the newspapers? Why was it “reported that the raids were in connection with a plot to kidnap a British soldier, cut his head off, and then place the video on the internet.”
Why was the area was full of reporters and television crews?
Posted by: Andrew Adams at January 29, 2008 06:41 PM
Because someone in the Police leaked it I woud guess Andrew.
Your point being?
Presumably someone thought leaking out some information about what the suspected terrorist activity was might reassure the community that something genuine was happening. Otherwise it looks like the Police are coming in silently and abducting people without good reason – re-enforcing the impression that there is a “Police state”.
Today the Police in Birmingham raided a house thought to have sex workers in. Would you prefer the Police did not tell the public what they were doing?
Because someone in the Police leaked it I would guess Andrew. Your point being?
That if “there is a limit to what the police can say” then they would be better off not leaking stuff to the press. If the raid, and especially the reason for it, did not get such huge publicity then the police would not be under pressure to reveal information which could cause problems at trial.
That’s assuming it was the police that leaked it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the hand of the Home Office wasn’t present somewhere.
To take Anthony’s point I’m sure there must be a way of liaising with the local community to reassure them that the raid was neccessary and appropriate without divulging the exact nature of the offences involved. I’m sure most people would prefer that to having TV and the press swarming all over their neighbourhood.
Posted by: Andrew Adams at January 29, 2008 08:34 PM
I like this one from Yaqoob in habibi’s link above
‘Western politicians are quick to criticise the thousands of madrasas in Pakistan. But the reason there are so many is that they are the only place poor families might at least ensure that one child will be clothed, fed and educated.’
which child would that be Salma?
Posted by: Mettaculture at January 29, 2008 08:38 PM
To take Anthony’s point I’m sure there must be a way of liaising with the local community to reassure them that the raid was neccessary and appropriate without divulging the exact nature of the offences involved. I’m sure most people would prefer that to having TV and the press swarming all over their neighbourhood.
I agree.
I don’t think that would stop Salmas raison d’etre though.
I suspect then she’d be complaining about press blackouts and people being whisked away at dawn.
I saw Alfred John on SkyTV on Thursday, somplaining about the sus laws, saying that they would be used against ‘subjugated people’. How is this man helping the situation? Isn’t he sworn to uphold the Queen’s Peace? His answer to the stabbings and gun crime on our streets is to get rid of poverty, just like that. The man is a buffoon and if that’s the quality of Black Policemen I despair. Why on earth join the Police if you have that attitude? Or does he have his own interests to advance?
