Subscribe"... We need to educate each other, we need to get to know each other, we need to work together. No more cups of tea and smiley faces, it really is time for action. ...That doesn't sound like a man who is going to be easily radicalized by a deportation, to me. Moreover, I don't see anything in these articles that is at all troubling, in terms of government actions. I'm surprised others do.
Action together at a time when we are all facing similar issues, whether it is the climate change, secularisation of our society, terrorism, illegal wars, women's rights, discrimination, politics or homelessness. Cups of tea are not enough!
This autumn, a Christian colleague and I plan to tour Scotland's congregations to promote "tea with a Muslim" and help CAIRS interfaith work flourish.
The Islamic Society of Britain's flagship project, Islam Awareness Week (www.iaw.org.uk) ran with the theme of "One World" recently, focusing on our joint responsibility to the planet.
Let us continue on this journey together, let us bring change in our world, let us be real friends, but without tea!"
"... Abida Malik, from Nottingham University's Islamic Society, believes it has an effective way of fending off infiltration by extremists.Other reports from 2006 and later, by Islamic moderates in the UK, speak of similar actions and trends. Recent actions by the Manchester police and British counter-terrorism agents against Hassan Butt make it clear that the actions at Nottingham are not unreasonable, at all.
"We can't fully guarantee that it would never happen but one of things we try and promote is getting to know our members one to one.
"So we have a lot of social events, a lot of things that integrate all our members - we have lots of circulation of e-mails to get people involved."
On a national level, the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) denies there is a problem.
Faisal Hanjra, head of FOSIS student affairs, said: "Following 7/7 there have been a number of accusations made by a number of individuals that there is this widespread radicalisation taking place.
"We ourselves have conducted a survey and we found no evidence of this... on campuses.
"Obviously we can't account for every single one of the 90,000 Muslim students that are studying in higher education, and one or two may slip through the net, but this general notion of radicalisation taking place is a notion that we firmly refute."
"... Last month, with his book’s publication shelved [Mr Butt’s autobiography, Leaving Al-Qaeda: Inside the Mind of a British Jihadist, had been due for publication this month.], Mr Butt spoke of his fears that police in Manchester suspected that his renunciation of violence was bogus and that he was secretly still a jihadist. He offered to plead guilty to former crimes and said he was willing to go to prison if that was his only chance of being allowed to start with a clean slate. “I’m not asking for immunity or favours. I just want to be able to get on with my life and undo the work that I did,” he said.I think reasonable people look at someone like Hassan Butt, and think to themselves that he must be as nutty as the philosophy he espoused for so long. How in the world could he not think he would be prosecuted for his actions, or that his continued association with young Islamics would not be seen as a threat, by the rest of society?
“I’ve fundraised for terrorism, I’ve trained in a training camp and I’ve sent other people to train. I am willing to plead guilty. I’m not looking to get locked up, but if I have to, I have to.”
The suspicion among some of those close to the case is that police were concerned that Mr Butt was still mixing in dangerous circles.
Mr Malik said that this was inevitable. “It’s rather like trying to take people off drugs. By the very nature of your work, you have to associate with people who take drugs, so there are going to be drugs around.
“Hassan is associating with radicals. That’s what he’s intending to do and that’s the community that he’s in. He’s trying to unwind it, but to do so he still needs to be in those places.” ..."
"... As in Basra, the government gave an ultimatum for militants to hand in their weapons and offered amnesty to those not involved in crimes involving murder in order to make the operation as bloodless as possible. And indeed reports indicate that scores of militants have already handed in their weapons - an encouraging sign in a turbulent city that hardly ever trusted the government. ..."Whether in the U.S., the UK, or Iraq, truly moderate people want effective government action to quell terrorism. Your suggestions to the contrary aren't supported in the least, by what I read, and are actually refuted by many in Islamic youth organizations.
"... A spokesman for Nottingham confirmed that the police had been called after material was found on the computer used by a junior clerical member of staff. “There was no reasonable rationale for this person to have that information,” he said. “The police were called in on the basis of reasonable anxiety and concern. In response to that, the police made a connection with a student who, we understand, was impeding the investigation and arrested that person.”Furthermore, as I've said, we don't know that the advance of deportation action against Yezza isn't resulting from statements made during the investigation. If Yezza was in the UK on a student visa, but had ceased student work, and was working as a staff member at Nottingham, and intended to use his July appointment to apply for a change in status, but it became clear during the investigation that he was no longer a student, his deportation at this point might be germane, simply on the basis of his mis-representation being discovered, before he'd had further opportunity to build his case for change in visa status.
He added that the edited version of the al-Qaeda handbook was “not legitimate research material” in the university’s view.
A Nottinghamshire police spokesman said the police had applied for a warrant to extend the detention. “The judge was satisfied with the evidence presented and granted the extension,” he said."
Sabir's academic adviser, Bettina Renz, said Saturday that the manual — freely available on the U.S. Department of Justice Web site -
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We are at war with terrorism. We've always been at war with terrorism..
posted by DreamerFi at 1:36 PM on May 26, 2008