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July 3, 2006

UK: Supporter Of Muslim Suicide Bombings At Islam Expo, On Eve of 7/7

The man pictured at left is Azzam al-Tamimi, who is head of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought, and is a spokesman for the Muslim Association For Britain.

Born on March 15, 1955 in Hebron, Tamimi is based in London, where he is sometimes presented as a "moderate" Muslim. We reported that while Britain will be remembering the victims of last year's 7/7 bombings, Muslims will be having a celebratory event, called Islam Expo, lasting from 6 July to 9 July, complete with "funland" events for children.

We mentioned that the hardline Pakistani cleric 67-year old Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who supports Al Qaeda and has pledged to mount an armed uprising in Pakistan, will be attending the Islam Expo as a guest speaker.

Today, the Daily Mail reports that Tamimi will also be speaking at the Islam Expo event, and that he is a known supporter of Muslim suicide bombings. In an interview held in November 2004 on the BBC's Hardtalk TV show, Tamimi said that it would be a "noble cause" to sacrifice himself to the Palestinian cause, and claimed he would do it "if I had the opportunity."

Today, he said that those comments were about "Palestine" and were totally unrelated to the bombings on July 7, which killed 52 people and maimed and injured hundreds more.

Tamimi said: "I have always made a distinction between the right of the Palestinian people to fight the Israeli occupation and the terrorist attacks on London. To confuse the two is to do a great injustice to the British public."

It is obvious who is really doing an injustice to the British public, and that is Tamimi himself, for having the audacity to shed crocodile tears on the eve of the anniversary of 7/7. The full transcript of his Hardtalk interview, conducted by Tim Sebastian can be found HERE.

This is an extract:

TIM SEBASTIAN:
"And for that, continuing violence - that's what Hamas and your friends in Hamas speaks for?"
DR AZZAM AL-TAMIMI:
"We don't call it 'violence'. We call it 'legitimate struggle'; we call it 'jihad' ..."
TIM SEBASTIAN:
"Well it doesn't matter what you call it. It's still murder isn't it?"
DR AZZAM AL-TAMIMI:
"You see the problem is that you're starting the story right from the end. Begin from the beginning. The beginning is when we, the Palestinians were removed from our land ..."
TIM SEBASTIAN:
"But let's deal with the act. The act is murder isn't it?"
DR AZZAM AL-TAMIMI:
"It's not murder."
TIM SEBASTIAN:
"You can call it 'struggle' but it's murder, isn't it?"
DR AZZAM AL-TAMIMI: "
No, no, no. The Vietnamese people struggled and freed themselves. The South African people struggled and freed themselves."
TIM SEBASTIAN:
"Does it make you feel better to call it 'struggle' rather than to give it its real name of 'murder'? When you see Israeli teenagers with their blood spattered all over the ground, does it make you feel better to call that 'struggle' as opposed to 'murder'?"
DR AZZAM AL-TAMIMI:
"If the Israelis want it to stop, it can stop today but the Israelis don't want it to stop..."
TIM SEBASTIAN:
"No, but please answer my question: Does it make you feel better to call it 'struggle'?"
DR AZZAM AL-TAMIMI:
"It doesn't make me feel better to see anybody killed but if you come and kill me and kill my children and drive me out of my land what do you expect? I have to defend myself - on the basis of humanitarian law, on the basis of international law ..."

This sort of "I am a Muslim victim, therefore anything I do is justified" line of argument is also employed by Tamimi in his so-called "political" discussions. On January 7 this year, Tamimi argued in the Guardian that the reason why there are no real democracies in the Muslim world is all the fault of the West.

The blogsite Harry's Place last year noted the hypocrisy of Tamimi, after he made an emotive speech condemning the 7/7 bombers in the immediate aftermath of the atrocity. Harry's Place points out how Tamimi threatened Jewish MP Louise Ellman that if she ever repeated allegations she had made in Parliament in the public arena, he would sue her.

The Telegraph reported on 20 December 2003 that she had said in the House of Commons that Tamimi had links with Islamic terrorists, who used his speeches to promote hatred against Jews and the destruction of Israel. He is close to Khaled Meshal, a leader of terrorist group Hamas. She also said that Tamimi has advised Hamas on its public relations strategy.

Louise Ellman said it was "time the spotlight fell on the Muslim Association of Britain. All of them are connected to the terrorist organisation, Hamas... It is militantly anti-semitic and always has been." She quoted from a speech Tamimi made in Vienna where he had said that Jews should "sail on the sea in ships back to where they came from and all drown in it."

She continued: "Preaching hatred of the sort that we are now hearing and seeing will undermine reconciliation and threatens community relations in the United Kingdom. It is already igniting anti-semitism with potentially dire consequences for community relations in this country and in Europe as a whole. This must not be ignored."

Louise Ellman, no shrinking violet, repeated her claims outside of Parliament, and Tamimi did not sue her. He would have had no legal leg to stand on.

He has said: "As a Muslim, martyrdom is an integral part of Islamic theology and these young men from the Islamic perspective are not committing suicide. What they are doing is that they are turning themselves as an act of sacrifice into bombs..."

Andrew C. McCarthy in the National Review has called Tamini "an apologist for jihadists masquerading as a moderate Muslim intellectual.....Tamimi is one of the many faux moderates who thrive in the West, beneficiaries of a facade of respectability which owes to our obsession not to offend the Islamic world or examine the actual beliefs of our militant enemies.....Tamimi, in particular, is a Palestinian extremist who not only has publicly advocated suicide bombing... but has also declared his personal willingness to commit a suicide bombing . He is, moreover, a rabid detractor of the United States who has publicly praised the "courageous" Taliban."

Daniel Pipes has a transcript of an interview which Tamini had with Monica Crowley of MSNBC, which took place last year, where Tamini's Islamist mindset is further exposed.

This is an extract:

Tamimi: "....For instance, how can you not expect people to sympathize with Bin Laden when Musharraf, who came to power who through a coup d'etat, is not a democrat, does not respect human rights does not deal with the core issues that matter to the people in terms of equal distribution of resources in terms of improving the conditions of people, and in terms of making them realize or feel that they are a dignified nation. And the same thing applies to every single other Muslim countries that is considered to be a loyal friend of the United States of America."

And he defends the Pakistan madrassas

Tamimi:: "Who said that the madrasas are a hotbeds for hatred? These madrassas are very simple institutions that teach the Koran and basic Islamic teachings. There is no evidence."

Tamimi also justifies the 7/7 bombers, as it was the fault of George W. Bush that caused the 2005 London atrocity, not radical Islam:

Tamimi: "And this is not about ideology, this is about people disgruntled with politics. There is a political crisis across the world in the Muslim world. And it is true the people came from Leeds are not impoverished, they do not have socio-economic problems, but they've been enraged by what they perceive by a war on Islam. This war on terrorism launched by George W. Bush and allies in the West is perceived by many of them as a war on Islam itself."

And so on the eve of the anniversary of the 7/7 London bombings, Tamimi will be spewing more of his fake moderate hypocrisy. Anas Altikriti, a spokesman for Islam Expo, said: "I think I speak on behalf of all at IslamExpo in saying we are extremely proud to have Dr Tamimi involved."

Pardon me while I vomit copiously.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at July 3, 2006 10:41 AM

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