"This is about people who might masquerade within the community behind certain faiths... this is about people - desperate, desperate people - who want to do things that no right minded citizen of this country, or any other country, would want to tolerate."
Hey Ziggy, check out the speakers who were at
ExpoIslamia in Manchester. The purpose of this event was to "present
Islam to Muslims, non-Muslims in clearest form."
Here are some great snips from this "moderate" event:
Quote:
A second speaker is Yvonne Ridley, a former British journalist who converted to Islam 30 months after being captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan. She also sits on the national council of Respect, a UK political party, and stood as a Respect candidate in the last general election.
"[Respect] is a Zionist-free party," she declared at a meeting earlier this year. "If there was any Zionism in the Respect Party, they would be hunted down and kicked out. We have no time for Zionists."
She criticized government support "towards that disgusting little watchdog of America that is festering in the Middle East" and promised that a Respect victory would mean the raising of the Palestinian flag in the UK.
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Quote:
The most controversial speaker, by far, at today's conference is Azzam Tamimi, who has condemned unequivocally the London bombings of July 7, 2005, but who praises suicide bombers in Israel – even to the point of saying he would like to be one.
In 2004, while a guest on the BBC's "Hard Talk," Tamimi, who is director of the London-based Institute of Islamic Political Thought, was challenged over his praise of suicide bombers.
"Why, if it is so glorious and honourable to do this, why don't you do it?" asked the interviewer.
"If I have the opportunity I would do it," Tamimi, who was born in Hebron, answered. "If I can go to Palestine and sacrifice myself, I would do it.
"Why not? You see, sacrificing myself for Palestine is a noble cause. It is the straight way to pleasing my God and I would do it if I had the opportunity," he said.
A video of a recent street rally, following the outbreak of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, shows Tamimi denouncing Israel.
"Anyone in the world ... must come together in order to eradicate this cancer from the body of humanity. ... We are ever grateful to the late imam Khomeni for starting this occasion. ... [Bush and Blair] are worried that this spoiled baby of theirs is about to be thrown out of this human body of ours. It's just a matter of time. You count my words. ... If they don't want peace, we have another language. We have another language and we have every right to use that language. And time will tell, and history will tell. Allah akbar!"
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So, uh, how desperate are these people? I think the important question here is how can we blame
ourselves for this bigotry and ignorance....?