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December 10, 2006

UK: More Money Wasted On Patronizing Muslims

Yet another example of how Britain is frittering away its taxpayer's money on making empty gestures towards Muslims at home and abroad can be found in today's Sunday Telegraph.

Last month, Tony Blair announced that he had promised $910 million to Pakistan (£480 million), with most of this money to be spent on Islamic seminaries, or madrassas. When Pakistan and Britain do not even have an extradition treaty with each other. This over-generous and pointless donation was part of a package worth £7,000,000,000 ($13,279,983,802) to be spent on Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan between now and 2011.

This is in addition to the existing costs of the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. These have so far cost £5,000,000,000 ($9,485,702,716) for Iaq and £1,000,000,000 ($1,897,302,733) for Afghanistan.

We have already written of the Islamist member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Mockbul Ali, who is employed as an "Islamic Affairs adviser" to the Foreign Office. Ali heads the "Engaging With The World Islamic Group (EIWG)". This has an annual budget of £8.5 million ($15.8 million), much of which has been wasted on ventures which do not remotely benefit Britain. 26 people are employed in the EIWG department.

Mockbul Ali, aged only 26, was a student radical. As a student he was a member of the Union of Muslim Students (UMS), where he edited its newspaper, which has praised at least one Palestinian suicide bomber, describing Aayat al-Akhras who blew herself to bits in a Jerusalem supermarket, killing two Israelis as "heroic", and dubbing her a "bride in the dress of martyrdom".

The current president of the UMS, Sharif Hasan al-Banna, has been sent by Mockbul Ali, at taxpayer's expense, to Islamic conferences in Indonesia and Nigeria.

In June Mockbul Ali approved the funding of an Islamic conference which was held in Turkey, at a cost to the taxpayer of £300,000 ($550,863). The costs included flying the "spiritual leader" of the Muslim Brotherhood, the terrorism-supporting Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, along with his wife, from Qatar to Istanbul and back. 180 other Muslims were treated similarly. They were housed in a luxury hotel while in Istanbul.

The Telegraph reveals today that another Foreign Office scheme has involved sending parties of Muslims to foreign locations to "share their experiences" with other Muslims. These excursions involve groups of up to eight people. The groups have so far gone to 18 nations, including Morocco, Egypt, Bahrain, Singapore, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Algeria, Indonesia, Qatar and Sudan. Other tours went to Bosnia, Spain, Germany, France, India and Holland, with the next trip planned for the United States.

A spokesman at the Foreign Office claims that "The idea is to promote British Muslims overseas, to try to get rid of the myth that British Muslims are oppressed, and to give Muslims in the UK the experience of how Muslims in other parts of the world live."

The official stated that the trips have brought clarity and understanding about mutual countries' perceptions. On a trip to Qatar, a group met with the supporter of suicide attacks within Israel, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual head.

In Sudan, the group met with Hasan al-Turabi. This 75-year old cleric was the head of the Sudanese wing of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. He joined the Brotherhood in the 1950s and while Egypt's Sayyid Qutb was advocating armed jihad in the 1960s, Turabi was the head of the group. Turabi was formerly part of the government of the Islamist dictator Omar al-Bashir. He allowed the terrorist Carlos "the Jackal" to reside in Sudan between 1991 to 1996, helped to arm the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, and also provided sanctuary in Sudan to Osama bin Laden between 1991 and 1996. Turabi's imposition of Sharia law upon non-Muslims in the south of Sudan led to fighting which caused the loss of 2 million lives.

Mockbul Ali is not alone in supporting moves to make better relations with the Islamist terror-supporters of the Muslim Brotherhod and the Pakistan and Bangladesh party, Jamaat-e-Islami, which advocates sharia in its host nations and is fiercely opposed to women's rights.

Angus McKee from the Foreign Office Middle East and North Africa department has written: "Given that Islamist groups are often less corrupt than the generality of the societies in which they operate, consideration might be given to channelling aid resources through them, so long as sufficient transparency is achievable."

They may be less corrupt, but in the case of the leader of Pakistan's Jamaat-e-Islami party, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, they are borderline psychotic and fully opposed to democracy. Qazi Hussain Ahmad opposed changes to Pakistan's "Hudood" laws which meant a woman who had been raped had to produce four witnesses. If she reported a rape and could not provide the four witnesses (who had to be male and Muslim), she would automatically be accused of adultery. The maximum penalty for this was stoning to death and 100 lashes, but no stoning took place. However many rape victims received heavy jail terms.

The news of these trips was brought to light by Ben Wallace, who is Conservative MP for Lancaster and Wyre. He used parliamentary questions to uncover the sponsored trips, and how they were managed. He said: "I'm not sure how sending British Muslims abroad to other Islamic countries helps to counter the jihadi movement at home. I can't see that this is anything more than a jolly for a lot of people. It should not be forgotten that Britain has an appalling record of exporting jihadi fighters to other countries, not the other way around."
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And while news of more wastage of money on religious issues is being highlighted, the Telegraph additionally notes that the "Church" of Scientology has managed to secure massive rate reductions on a property it owns in London. This is their new center near St Paul's Cathedral (a real church). The Scientologists, who charge people extortionate fees to join classes with names such as "happiness rundown course", are already exempt from IRS tax in the United States.

In Britain, the group tried to get "charity" status, but the Charities Commission decided that the group did no charity work at all, and refused to register it. With assets estimated at $398 million, the Scientologists have used European rulings and Government equality regulations to have 80% of their annual rates on their east London center removed. This has been allowed by the City of London corporation on the grounds that the group is a charity, even though it is not a charity.

Instead of paying £343,045 ($670,861) in rates, the Church of Scientology has been awarded a discount of £274,436 ($536,689).

Founded by Lafayette Ron Hubbard in 1954, whose main claim to fame was an appalling science fiction novel (recently filmed by John Travolta as a resounding flop), Scientology uses obscure methods of "auditing" to promote its ideology of "dianetics". It believes humanity was manipulated by aliens, and we are reincarnated. To become a "clear" or "Operating Thetan" - the highest rank of dianetic "wisdom", individuals must spend ridiculously large amounts of money to the so-called Church.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 10, 2006 11:34 AM

Comments

Posted by: Celsius at December 10, 2006 1:07 PM

Posted by: Sir Henry Morgan at December 10, 2006 1:53 PM

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