Azad Ali is back

The Telegraph report the unwelcome news that:

'An Islamic extremist who has described al-Qaeda as a "myth" and justified the killing of British troops in Iraq has been chosen as the main link between the Metropolitan Police and the Muslim community.

Scotland Yard will now face pressure to renounce Azad Ali, the new chair of the Muslim Safety Forum, which is recognised by the Met under a formal written agreement as "the principal body in relation to Muslim community safety and security".

The deal says that the Met will "use the MSF as a consultation body to help formulate policy or practice". Mr Ali was the founding chair of the MSF in 2006, but left that job in 2008 and resigned entirely from the group last year after publicity over his extremist comments. Last week, he was quietly reappointed as its chairman.

...

Mr Ali is a senior official of the fundamentalist Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE), which works, in its own words, to create an Islamic state under sharia law in Europe. The IFE and the MSF share the same offices.

He has previously praised a key mentor of Osama bin Laden. Earlier this year, he was filmed by an undercover reporter from Channel 4's Dispatches stating: "Democracy, if it means not implementing the sharia, of course nobody agrees with that."

When the documentary was aired, Mr Ali attacked the reporter on the IFE's official radio station, saying: "We've got a picture of you and a lot more than you thought we had. We've tracked you down to different places. And if people are gonna turn what I've just said into a threat, that's their fault, innit?"

Mr Ali's comments about terrorism were made on his official blog on the IFE website. Earlier this year, he lost a libel action against a newspaper which reported them. The judge, Mr Justice Eady, said that Mr Ali "was indeed taking the position that the killing of American and British troops in Iraq would be justified", describing his claim as "bound to fail" and having an "absence of reality".

Patrick Mercer, a Conservative MP and counterterrorism expert, said: "It beats me why the police should want to take the advice of this man. They should have nothing to do with him. I know for a fact that there are just as knowledgeable members of the Muslim community who do not share his subversive views."'

Does the name Azad Ali ring any bells? If you read this blog it should... In January 2009 I blogged for the first time about 'Treasury official Azad Ali, president of the Civil Service Islamic Society'. Here are some extracts from that article so you have some background on Azad Ali:

'Shortly after this newspaper contacted the Cabinet Office, a senior official disclosed that Mr Ali had been suspended for the remarks made on his personal internet blog.

In it he:

* Quotes an Islamic extremist who says it is his ‘obligation’ to kill British and American soldiers in Iraq;

* Accuses the Government of failing to condemn the ‘Zionist terrorist state of Israel’; and

* Attacks moderate British Muslims as ‘self-serving vultures, feeding on the dead flesh of the Palestinians’.

Here's a few extracts from his blog as reported by The Mail: "‘If I found the same soldier over the border in Jordan I wouldn’t touch him. In Iraq he is a fighter and an occupier, here he is not. This is my religion and I respect this as the main instruction in my religion for jihad.’

Last week Mr Ali wrote on the ‘Between the Lines’ site: ‘We are the Resistance. The Zionist terrorist state of Israel had only one aim, to destroy all semblance of resistance. We have yet to hear any condemnation from our government.’"

The Mail also reports the unsurprising news that:

"Until his internet outburst, Mr Ali was regarded as a moderate Muslim who could help tackle Islamic fanaticism in Britain.

As a former chairman of the influential Muslim Safety Forum and the current head of its counter-terrorism work-team, he works with the Home Office, senior police officers and the Security Services trying to combat extremism.

...

The proceeds of a recent Civil Service Islamic Society annual dinner were passed to Interpal, a Palestinian charity that is banned by the US government – although not in the United Kingdom – due to allegations of links to terrorism.

The dinner was attended by Labour MP Sadiq Khan and Peter Lewis, head of the Crown Prosecution Service.

As well as being a career civil servant, Mr Ali has been a community activist for more than 20 years.

He is also on the board of London CrimeStoppers and sits on the Metropolitan Police’s Strategic Stop & Search Committee and Police Use of Firearms Group.

Mr Ali is a member of the Independent Police Complaints Commission’s Community Advisory Group and the Home Office’s Trust and Confidence Community Panel.

There are few people with a higher profile within the ‘moderate’ Muslim community. He is a trustee of the East London Mosque & London Muslim Centre. He chairs the Muslim Council of Britain’s membership committee and is a member of its central working committee.

He is also the vice-chairman of Canon Barnet School board of governors and chairman of the Saturday Islamic School board of governors.

He has a wide network of friends, making him an influential figure as the Government tries to ‘engage’ with radical Islamic groups to prevent them turning to terrorism.

Mr Ali’s friends on the Facebook website include former Guantanamo Bay inmate Moazzam Begg, Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain, and journalist and Muslim convert Yvonne Ridley."

...

A second thought is if such a leading 'moderate' Muslim as Azad Ali has been freely expressing such thoughts on the internet, what are the thoughts of other (maybe less moderate) Muslims in the organisations that Azad Ali played such a leading role in?


Is the expression "fifth column" a tad tough? Maybe, but whilst such organisations as the Civil Service Islamic Society, the Muslim Safety Forum, the Independent Police Complaints Commission’s Community Advisory Group and the Home Office’s Trust and Confidence Community Panel exist and employ people with views such as those expressed by Azad Ali then one does start to.'

In July 2009 I blogged that

'Azad Ali was "punished" by being suspended on full pay for six months and is now back at work as if nothing had happened.

Could someone explain why Azad Ali, a civil servant, is back at work after a six month paid holiday with no other action being taken whilst DC Richard Horton, author of the Night Jack blog, was forced to stop blogging and given a written warning.'

And finally in February this year I blogged that:

'I see that Azad Ali is back in the news. It seems that the simply delightful civil servant who used his personal website to justify the killing of British troops in Iraq appeared at the "Progressive London" conference organised by Ken Livingstone along with Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband. So much for community cohesion or are this labour government so desperate for votes that they are willing to cosy up to people such as Azad Ali? '

Depressing, very depressing that the UK government/civil service are so blind that they cannot see what certain peoplke really stand for.

As a side matter, whilst I expect no better from Ken Livingstone, maybe the Jewish Weekly News could ask Ed Miliband about his links with a supporter of the creation of an Islamic state under Sharia law in Europe and for aspects of Islamic terrorism the next time they decide to write a puff-piece about a JINO (Jewish In Name Only) Labour politician.