Quilliam - just another Zionist tool

from Leeds to Palestine  

The Quilliam foundation, a government funded, self proclaimed 'anti-extremism think tank', released a report recently detailing the hatred and extremism of the Islam Channel. A lot of debate exists around the Quilliam foundation, about its aims, its members etc. It is seen, however, in many Muslim circles as just a lackey of the government, given the massive amounts of money it receives. It has also received praise from some of the most pro-Israeli politicians in the UK, such as Denis MacShane and Michael Gove. This aspect of Quilliam cannot be overlooked by the British Muslim community as this pro-Israeli slant will undoubtedly cause it to provide cover for Israeli crimes and proportion blame on the Palestinians.

A quick look at the report's footnotes reveals an impressive collection of clips from the Islam Channel, these are between 20 seconds to 2 minutes and a half - very similar to MEMRI, the institution headed by a former Israeli intelligence official. In fact, many of the clips used to prove the Islam Channel's extremism and anti-semitism were not at all extremist or racist - they simply reflected the facts on the ground and the reality of the Palestinians. Yet the Quilliam Foundation seemed to have a real problem with this as will be shown.

1) 'Interpal appeal' (click on image to view video):
QF (Quilliam Foundation):

Another example of the ways in which the Islam Channel has provided an outlet for extremist views...the Islam Channel broadcast an ‘Interpal Appeal’ for Gaza that included a prayer in Arabic that was translated into English, mixed in with images of the war in Gaza. The video of the prayer...glorified Palestinian fighters and called for God to ‘smash’ the ‘enemies of Islam’, against the backdrop of an image of the flag of Israel. The implication was that Israel was an ‘enemy’ of Islam that needed to be destroyed...

Why are they so worried about Israel being described as an 'enemy', is it our friend?! In QF's world, glorifying Palestinian fighters means you're an extremist and calling on God to smash the oppressors of the Palestinians is extreme (bearing in mind this was at a time when Israel was killing hundreds of Palestinian children). I cannot think of any sane Muslim that regards Israel as anything but an enemy and QF's concern for this should not be ignored.

2) 'Bethlehem: Hidden from View' (click on image to view video)
QF:

This particular programme reports on the current situation in Bethlehem...it is claimed that the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) conducted daily raids on the houses of innocent Palestinians in order to scare and terrorise the population. Yet again, the Islam Channel represented these un-verifiable claims as facts, without a response from an Israeli government’s perspective, seemingly in order to whip up anger against Israel amongst its viewers and increase resentment towards western countries foreign policy. In the programme a former IDF soldier was able to make the unverifiable claim that the Israeli army purposely terrorised innocent Palestinians in order to “make [their] presence felt"

Human rights organisations have frequently documented this IDF practice of terrorising and punishing the civilian population. It cannot be disputed that raids happen on a daily basis in the Palestinian territories and yet QF complains that the Israeli government is not given a chance to defend itself! It is also very concerned about anger directed against Israel! Does this sound like a British Muslim organisation that represents you?

3) Daud Abdullah 1 (click on image to view video)
QF:

On the other hand, Hamas are described on a variety of programmes as a legitimate ‘resistance’ organisation, with their methods of armed violence legitimised and described as acceptable reactions to occupation and comparable to French revolutionaries who had fought against the Nazis. The intentions of such accusations are clearly to lessen support for secular parties in the Palestinian territories and bolster support amongst British Muslims for Hamas.

Not once does Daud Abdullah indicate that he is talking about Hamas, he refers to Palestinians in Gaza which include those from Fatah, PFLP etc. He talks about resistance, whether Islamic or secular - any kind. He doesnt even mention armed violence, this casts doubt on the dubious claim that his aim was to 'lesson support for secular parties'. Once again I ask, why does QF have a problem with this? Do they not want the Palestinians to defend themselves?

4) Daud Abdullah 2 (click on image to view video)
QF:

Such legitimisation of the use of political violence by Palestinians is not caveated to exclude terrorism nor accompanied by the recognition of the number of innocent people that have died at the hands of Hamas...Islam Channel...defend(s) their acts of terrorism through arguing, for example, that their attacks do not target civilians and are therefore incomparable to the ‘indiscriminate’ killing that the Israelis allegedly perpetrate.

As can be seen in the clip, Daud Abdullah was simply quoting the UN war crimes report headed by Richard Goldstone (who as well as being Jewish, is ardently Zionist, has a daughter who did aliyah to Israel and sits on the board of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem). His report found that Israel indiscriminately killed civilians and according to QF, this has to be denied because it constitutes extremism. Furthermore, how many Israeli civilians died in the war on Gaza? Three. How many Palestinian civilians died? >1000. And yet QF decries the murderous Hamas! It is important to note that QF refers to Hamas' fighting in Gaza during the war on Gaza as terrorism. I cannot stress just how Zionist this description is, even some Israelis (such as Shlomo Ben-Ami) accept that attacking occupying and invading troops is resistance and not terrorism.

5) Ismail Patel 1 (click on image to view video)
QF:

Fatah are also accused of being western stooges and only serving the interests of Israel and other western powers, an accusation that is commonly thrown at the world’s Muslim leaders by extreme Islamist organisations.

QF would want you to believe that Ismail Patel's anger is directed solely at Fatah and other Muslim leaders because they want you to believe he is an evil Islamist. But he is also referring to the Wahabbi House of Saud, the biggest Western ally in the Middle East, so his motivation is not to demonise secular Fatah but to point towards the Muslim leader's complicity. He supports the Palestinians, therefore QF must discredit him.

6) Ismail Patel 2 (click on image to view video)
QF:

...makes the anti-Semitic claim that Jewish people have control over the media and are deceiving people regarding the extent of Israeli ‘war crimes’. Constant references are thus made, on many occasions, to ‘Zionist propaganda’ that has apparently managed to ‘cover the truth’ about the conflict. The programme also states that a sense of ‘duplicity’ exists amongst the media when reporting on Palestinian issues due to the fact that the media was anti-Muslim and ‘Zionist’ controlled.

QF is once again, playing the role of Zionist apologist using the classic smear of anti semitism. Ismail Patel never mentions Jews and yet his description of the hugely disproportionate coverage of prisoners in the conflict as Zionist propaganda is deemed anti semitic. Not once does Patel characterise this as anti-Muslim and yet it as described by QF as such. Why is QF acting as the vanguard for Israeli propaganda?

7) Ismail Patel 3 (click on image to view video)
QF:

...recent violence around the Al-Aqsa Mosque site in Jerusalem was all part of a Jewish conspiracy to demolish the mosque, which is the third holiest site in Islam, and replace it with a synagogue, a claim that would understandably provoke mass anger amongst British Muslims.

Ismail Patel was talking about Jewish extremists and settlers, those were his words. Besides, it is well known that Jewish extremists want to destroy Al-Aqsa and build their third temple so why does QF criticise Patel for drawing attention to it?

8) '22 Day War' - tunnels (click on image to view video)
QF:

Other controversial issues tied into the conflict, such as the purposes of tunnels in Gaza and the recent conflict surrounding the Al-Aqsa Mosque, are also not treated objectively, with the Israeli government’s side of the story at one point being referred to as ‘a big lie’ by the presenter.

The Israeli government must be heard! Never mind that they are suffocating Gaza, they must speak and we must pay attention. Without these tunnels, Gazans would starve but for QF, the description of Israelis as liars is just too much to bear.

9) '22 Day War' - civilians (click on image to view video)
QF:

...the Arab-Israeli conflict was treated as yet another attack on Islam by western powers, with Israel consistently depicted as malicious, dangerous and deceptive. The war in Gaza is thus referred to as “a war against civilians, not a war against militants” by the presenter, whilst it is also stated that the Israelis had a policy of targeting civilians which had been in place ever since “they had established their country of Israel on the ruin of Palestinians”.

The presenter is again quoting the UN report written by Richard Goldstone and unfortunately for QF does not describe the war on Gaza as a war on Islam, another wilful omission. They moan about the need for ‘impartiality’ and about the description of the war on Gaza as a war against civilians when this is how all the mainstream human rights organisations described it - as a 'wilful targeting of civilians'. But this does not fit in with QF's Zionist agenda so they will continue to condemn even the slightest word spoken out in defense of the oppressed.

10) '22 Day War' - university (click on image to view video)
QF:

...Incidents that could not be verified were also described in such a way on the programme as to only deepen resentment amongst Muslims towards Israel. A typical example can be found during a description of an Israeli attack on the Islamic University of Gaza in 2008, in which the presenter makes the claim that the university was targeted on purpose by the Israeli military to prevent young Palestinians from gaining an education.

The attack on the University in Gaza was one of the most brazen and senseless attacks in the war on Gaza. The university is well known in Palestine and the Arab world and is renown for its quality education, it was a symbol of Gaza and its pride and its attack was denounced by human rights organisations all over the world as an attack on education. Clearly, QF believes otherwise. Reading through the report, I was struck by how much it read like a piece from MEMRI (here I am referring to the clips that dealt with the Israel-Palestine). I cannot see how QF can seriously want us to belive they are a credible British Muslim organisation when they are clearly working with or for the Zionists in the UK. It is clear that their aim - or one of their aims - is to soften Muslim's attitudes towards Israel and to discredit the Palestinians. Inshallah, this isn't going to work and people should not be fooled by this organisation which, I hope have shown, is working on a pro-Israeli agenda.

Posted by Bilal at 20:33 Labels: extremism, islam, muslims, quilliam, uk

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