Tuesday 21 February 2012

“Self Haters”

“Self Haters”
     
by Laura Stuart

Being involved in activism for Human Rights and Palestinian Rights in particular, I have met many very active Jewish campaigners. These people are branded as “self-haters” by Jewish Zionists and anti-Zionists alike.

Evidently we also have “self-hating Muslims”, and it is these I would like to write about, and one in particular – namely Hasan Afzal.

There is a difference between a self-hating Jew and a self-hating Muslim. The former in my opinion, does not want to be associated with human rights abuses perpretrated by Israel in the name of Jews, and is more critical of Jewish culture and Zionism. Muslim self-haters appear to be more haters of Islam itself. Most of the Muslim self-haters that I have read about are at war with Allah s.w.t., His word – The Quran and the scholars who teach it. They are happy to “coin it in” and make a living from the lie that Islam is an evil ideology.

I am certain that being a Muslim self-hater can be very lucrative. Writing books about radical Islam and being employed by the government to work in groups who claim to be experts on Islamic extremism, can be a very profitable enterprise.

A few years ago, the British government was floundering around trying to be seen to be doing something to prove that it was taking Islamic extremism seriously. Suddenly we were taking counter-terrorism advice from the Israelis – self proclaimed experts on “how to deal with Muslims”. This didn’t work out too well for the Met after they discovered that the shoot-first-ask-questions-later method didn’t work here. The killing with impunity by police of civilians, just because they look a bit dark skinned (Jean Charles de Menezes), is still disapproved of in the U.K. by the general public, even if legally, the Met managed to get away with it. So the government had to find a different way to tackle the “problem”.

Persistently denying the obvious parallel between British foreign policy on Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan and the fact that over 2 million U.K. Muslims were angry and upset about Muslim lands being “bombed b ack to the Stone Ages” by Israel with British support, the U.K. government came to the very dodgy conclusion that British mosques were radicalising Muslims. The Quran became a book that promotes killing innocents and anyone who spoke out about the Jews killing Muslims in Palestine or calling Bush’s Iraq invasion a crusade (which God told him to do), became a hate- preacher or an extremist.

More than happy to play a leading role in oppressing Islam and Muslims, were many pro-Israel lobby groups and think tanks who have now become rather powerful. With a twofold initiative: Firstly to convince the government that all Jews, particularly children, are in danger and that the government should pay money to protect them and secondly, that Islam is an evil ideology unable to accept Western values, and that Muslims are intent on taking over the world. Creating an environment of fear is intrinsic to the war on Muslims and on Islam and the so-called “War on Terror”. Promoting Israel as the tiny Jewish state, precariously hanging on whilst surrounded by those intent on its demise, has kept millions of American tax dollars in military aid flooding into Israel, while many Americans face poverty.

Perpetuating fear and threat of annihilation are clearly very profitable for those involved. The security business is huge and growing. But what about our Muslim self hating brothers, where do they fit in?

Muslims willing to profit from a government needing to be seen doing something to tacke extremism include The Quilliam Foundation, C.E.N.T.R.I., to name just two, and blogs such as Spittoon and the most hilarious of all, “British Muslims for Israel“. About a year ago the name British Muslims for Israel suddenly came up, of course we all collapsed in incredulity and hilarity as we wondered who they were. It transpired that they were just one young man, Hasan Afzal. I am sure Israel feels reassured that one British Muslim out of 2 and a half million is on its side.

Here is a gem from the website
Groups such as the Palestinian Solidarity Movement, Viva Palestina, Stop the War do NOT speak for us
Hasan Azfal
Who is “us” that he refers to? No-one else has ever joined Hasan Azfal in this initiative.
Finding no-one wanted to be his friend on British Muslims for Israel, and having, no doubt, been regarded as a spy by his local Islamic Students Society for his insane and misguided views on Palestine and Muslims in general, Hasan Afzal set up a new website called “Stand for Peace“. Describing itself as a Muslim/Jewish initiative and claims:
StandforPeace avoids the emotional appropriation that plagues other organisation, because we encourage the very persons – who might usually disrupt such events – to get involved and to come listen and debate with speakers, topics, literature and ideas from a number of differing viewpoints.
At the same time as claiming the above he writes with no trace of irony . . .
I challenge Nabil Ahmed, the president of FOSIS, and FOSIS London to explain why they are inviting such a nightmarish individual to their ‘religious gathering’? What good can this man do to the minds of young Muslims?
Yet again, we have this schizophrenic stance on Free Speech displayed so often by Harry’s Place and other Zionists.
According to Wikipedia
For instance, “ethnic self-hatred” is the extreme dislike of one’s ethnic group or cultural classification
One thing is certain, self-hating Muslims will never be short of people who want to promote their views. Hasan Afzal’s views are published in the Huffington Post, The Guardian, The Jerusalem Post, The Commentator and many more. It is obvious that any Muslim willing to spout hatred about his brothers in Islam is feted, congratulated and some (Quilliam Foundation) even get big, fat salaries.
Here for everyone who enjoys Afzal’s genius is something published by the Guardian. Perhaps someone might be able to explain how Palestinian children being shot by Israelis makes Islam a religion of hate …
Birmingham’s Islamic society recently hosted a speaker, Jalal Ibn Saeed, who gave a presentation on “a day in the life of a Gazan child”.
“It was [about] Gazan children waking, being shot by Israeli soldiers. This isn’t the peace-loving religion I was brought up with,” says Afzal.
One thing is for sure, any Muslim willing to speak out against Muslims, no matter how confused their own understanding of Islam is, will be considered as an expert by the government. There is a huge market for books, talks and advice from any Muslim willing to join forces with the Zionists in creating and perpetuating Islamophobia.

In conclusion it is clear for anyone to see, that Muslims living in the U.K. and the West are very tolerant towards self-hating Muslims. People such as Hasan Afzal are largely ignored by Muslims in stark contrast to the campaigns of harrassment by Jews, both Zionist and anti-Zionist, which are waged against self-hating Jews. I therefore conclude that Muslims are in reality much more tolerant of freedom speech and far from the image that the Islamophobes would like to portray.

I think this video of Hasan Afzal would be hilarious viewing if it wasn’t so sad and worrying to wonder about his psychological state.


إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا يُنَادَوْنَ لَمَقْتُ اللَّـهِ أَكْبَرُ مِن مَّقْتِكُمْ أَنفُسَكُمْ إِذْ تُدْعَوْنَ إِلَى الْإِيمَانِ فَتَكْفُرُونَ ﴿١٠
[40:10] Surah al Mu’min (The Believer)
Indeed, those who disbelieve will be addressed, “The hatred of Allah for you was [even] greater than your hatred of yourselves [this Day in Hell] when you were invited to faith, but you refused.”
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
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