KILLING AT CHARLIE HEBDO:
IS AN ASSAULT ON FREEDOM AND LIBERTY
By Dr Syed Talib Hussain Warsi
Director of Intrafaith Relations, AOBM
The Association of British Muslims strongly condemn and express our revulsion at the brutal and insane act of violence and murder of twelve people and injuring eleven others in Paris at the offices of the satirical Magazine Charlie Hebdo.
On behalf of the Muslims residing in Great Britain we express our sorrow and sympathy and convey our condolences to the grieving relatives, friends and associates of those who lost their lives in such tragic circumstance.
The slogan of the perpetrators of this crime “we have avenged Prophet Mohammed, God (Allah) is great” was deliberately made to malign all people of the Muslim faith in the eyes of the world. Islam practiced by all Muslims, except a very small minority, believe that human rights, rights and equality of all religion, race and cultural, plus social justice and freedom are the pillars of our faith. These terrorists are extremely wicked, dangerous, brutal, fanatical part of a particular sect or cult who have disguised themselves wearing the cloak of Islam. They have absolutely and I repeat absolutely nothing what so ever to do with Islam, just like Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland had nothing do anything with Christ or Christianity in their recent feuds. If they claim that they are “the pure and true believers and protectors of Islam and Muslims then why have they been killing thousands upon thousands of their own Muslim brothers and sisters within the bounds of the Muslim world. They have slaughtered men, women and children who say God (“Allah”) is great five times a day in their prayers, prayers that are all about peace, love and charity. These, unscrupulous, hideous and barbaric criminals did not hesitate in beheading Peter Edward Kassing, an American who had converted to Islam and adopted a Muslim name “Abdul Rahman Kassing.
Time has come to tackle this “cult” who are in a comparative way the Ku Klux Klan of the Muslim world. They are by now a global problem, a global menace. These scourge, the very scum of the modern world are branded as Islamists, whilst I keep repeating that they have absolutely nothing to do with Islam or its ideology. We have to acknowledge the fact that they are not only very well financed, armed and trained but also well versed with the art of using the media, especially the social media and the internet for their ill begotten aims. Their main objective is to subjugate other religions, cultures and societies. All efforts must be made and with great haste and urgency to cut off their sources of funding even if they are coming from some of “our best trading partners”. Never in the history of the modern world have terrorists and warlords received so much from so many, so freely, like ISIS, which many nations of the world must envy. Fellows like Abubaker Baghdadi must be saying to each other, “guys we have never had it so good”.
For the sake of regime, too many times we have encouraged, formed, financed, armed and trained rebel armies whose behaviour are no different to any other terrorist organisation. Often they have had boomerang effects. It is now appearing in the media that two of the terrorists named in the Charlie Hebdo massacre are ‘Syria returned’ i.e. ‘terrorists made in Syria’ perhaps at one of our friendly training camps. After gaining field experience, they have been returned to France with compliments. How sad, what a tragedy.
We beseech our Muslim brothers and sister in this country, France and rest of Europe to work hard within the community, with the government, the police, local authorities and the media in exposing and bringing justice to people with such twisted minds. In the safety of our nations and all its citizens lie the safety of all of us, Muslims or non-Muslims.
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The Association of British Muslims calls for Europe to Confront Violence and Protect Freedom.
The Association of British Muslims (AoBM) strongly condemns the horrific shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris that has killed at least 13 people according to the news reports. Our thoughts are with the victims of this terror attack and the families affected at this difficult time.
At AoBM, we have maintained our differences with the editorial policies of Charlie Hebdo. We always have had questions about the judgement (but not the right) of publishing images which are predictably deeply offensive to many and have the potential to be inflammatory. However, at the same time we stand in support of freedom of expression and believe that there is no justification whatsoever, to take lives of people who we disagree with while exercising this right.
We note that the Quran instructs its believers to argue with the challengers in ways that are best and most gracious. The attacks in Paris symbolise nothing close to these Koranic instructions but instead represent a distortion of faith which is forgiving and open to debate.
AoBM also takes this opportunity to condemn the bomb attack in Yemen which killed at least 40 people.
AoBM stands in solidarity with the people of France and Yemen and seek justice for the victims as well as the perpetrators of the attacks.
Zahid Ali Akbar, Human Rights Director, The Association of British Muslims
Paul Salahuddin Armstrong, Co-Director, The Association of British Muslims
Mohammed Abbasi, Co-Director, The Association of British Muslims
Media Contact: +44 741 356 7229
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If someone insults you or what you care about – such as your country (in my case the United Kingdom) or your religion, then walk away, or if you want to make a point then insult them back. Tell them to “fuck off” – or use whatever words you wish to use.
Do not kill people for insulting United Kingdom (on the First World War on anything) or Christianity – or Islam.
On this I think we can all agree.
By the way – on Syria.
Very little has been done for the FSA by the West (perhaps the reason the hard core Islamists took over – or perhaps that was inevitable) – so whoever wrote the line about “one of our friendly training camps”, cut the crap.
Hardly the main point of the posting, but….
Not to pick any nits or prick any boils on the backsides of assorted folk (some of them well-meaning, I guess), but you cannot have “social justice” (as the term is currently used, anyway) and “freedom” at the same time.
“Social justice” is the idea of “fairness,” in some area or other … most seem to think it’s about an equality of financial circumstances (it’s only fair that people have equal shares of wealth), which is what passes for the ethical foundation of “wealth redistribution” efforts; but actually it goes much farther than that. It’s not FAIR that A be better off than B in ANY regard. Especially if A has the unfair advantage of not being a member of Victim Group V.
In a more sophisticated understanding of the “fairness” at the heart of Social Justice, it’s not fair that A, who “works harder” than B, should have less of whatever juicy good it is than B has. Following this line of reasoning, we arrive logically at the position that B doesn’t “deserve” whatever he’s earned–through superior brains (or ability to carpe the diem), industry, or sheer good luck. Therefore it is only fair that B should contribute in some way to making up for his unfair advantage over A. If no way to do this presents itself, the second-best method for equalizing them is by cutting B down to size. (This has the added advantage of allowing those who nurse a smoldering resentment over the unfair treatment they themselves have received, to take it out on the B’s of this world, while looking like noble crusaders for the downtrodden themselves. And in truth, I daresay some percentage of that regard for the downtrodden is genuine. Is this mitigatory of great injustices and actual harms done to the B’s? And yet again, not all who are worldly successes are ethical saints. This method of equalization has other important advantages as well….)
In libertarian parlance, “freedom” means political freedom — liberty — and, of course, the general right of self-determination and right to the fruits thereof.
Of course, this sort of freedom is definitely at odds with the concept of Social Justice in any of the forms suggested above. Although come to think of it, libertarian “freedom” (and its subset, Liberty) IS my idea of a kind of social, or socio-political, justice which we should all welcome and support.
(However, it would be foolish to try to change the meaning of the term in the minds of the public-at-large. That, I think, would only serve to confuse and degrade the concepts of freedom, properly understood, and liberty, still further. I think we are not nearly so good as the Enemy at co-opting terms. Especially seeing that we can’t even seem to hang onto the ones we have.)
And now, a question that is directly On Topic: Does anyone have any knowledge of the actual track record of this gentleman or his organization?