Al Quds Day – the UK agrees yet again to host a racist, Islamist event

The following was written by Babs Barron, reporting from London:

Al Quds (Jerusalem) is allegedly the third most holy site in Islam.  Strange, then, that it is not mentioned anywhere in the Qur'an or ahadith. 

Some background:

Before the Six Days War between Israel and her neighbours in June, 1967, Jerusalem was supposed to be an international city, holy as it was to three religions, and administrated by the United Nations so that Jews and Christians as well as Muslims could have access to their holy places.  However, the envisaged administration by the UN did not materialise.  Instead, upon Israel's declaration of statehood on 14^th May, 1948 and the resulting attacks on her by her Arab neighbours the 1,500 residents of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City were expelled and a few hundred taken prisoner when the Arab Legion captured the quarter on 28th May. The Arab Legion also attacked Western Jerusalem with snipers. Arab residents of Katamon, Talbiya and the German Colony fled.  Arabs were also displaced in the battle.

As a result of the 1948 war, the old walled city of Jerusalem, which contains the Western Wall (the only remaining wall of the second Temple), fell into Jordanian hands.  Jordan took control of all the holy sites and forbade Jews from entry to the Old City.  They severely limited access of Christians to their holy places too.  Israel retained West Jerusalem.

Half of the 58 synagogues in the Old City were either razed or converted to stables and hen houses over the next 19 years, including the Hurva and the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue. The Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives was desecrated.  Its gravestones were used to build roads and latrines and many other historic and religiously significant buildings were demolished and replaced by modern structures.

Jordan was urged to remain neutral during the Six Days War, but it attacked West Jerusalem on the second day.  The Jordanian army should have listened to that advice because Israeli forces captured the Temple Mount after hand-to-hand fighting and extended its law and jurisdiction to East Jerusalem and some surrounding areas, incorporating them into the Jerusalem Municipality.

In time-honoured fashion, Arab/Muslim belligerent self-pity and incapability to let go of grudges ensured that successive Palestinian governments have made the very most of their defeat by Jews in 1967. The Palestinian propaganda machine reminds the world of Palestinians' "right" to Jerusalem (Al Quds) with monotonous regularity. Added to this, disturbingly, alongside the growing antisemitism in the West as a result of Islamist propaganda in newspapers like the UK Guardian, this specious "right" to sling out the Jews once more from the city which was their seat of government during Biblical times and where there has been a Jewish presence since before the Muslim prophet was conceived, seems to have gained some traction.   It will come as no surprise to the well-informed reader that the message rings out loudest and most clearly from the Western capital city which is known for its welcome to all things Islamist and offers them freedom to spout their odious ideas – London.

Al Quds Day is an annual day chosen by the late Ayatollah Khomeini to call for Israel (and for that you may also read "Jews") to be destroyed. It is usually "celebrated" on the last Friday in Ramadan which this year fell on 17^th August.  Islamists and their fellow travellers and haters love a good parade and of course it was marked all over the world by marches and demonstrations against Israel, liberally seasoned (if past occasions are anything to go by) with the belligerent self-pity and antisemitism I have mentioned above.  Devout Muslims are enjoined to hate Jews because their prophet did, even though they may never have met one and will almost certainly have benefited directly from the Jewish contribution to Muslim welfare and to all mankind.  They hate Jews even more, of course, because Jews are cleverer, more resourceful and their military is more powerful than any Arab army which has ever been foolish enough to try to wipe them out.  Muslims are not particularly clever at learning from experience and invariably snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and they do have a ridiculous penchant for repeating the same behaviours which they know will not work and telling themselves and their people fairy stories that they have achieved victory. All this, were it not a hairsbreadth away from the usual Islamist inspired violence, would make this Al Quds Day spectacle one of ridicule rather than concern.  In previous years, for example, we have been "entertained" by poster girl convert extraordinaire, Lauren ("I have read three pages of the Koran") Booth, among other clowns.  

This year we were reminded that the event is bankrolled by the Iranian Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) and is advertised by a series of advertisements by them on the sides of London buses (but see below for the result of a campaign to have those advertisements removed).  This means, of course, that Transport for London was willing to accept money from an Iranian-funded, terror-supporting organisation.  I would imagine that that is against UK law.  You would think that Transport for London would have been more careful, but they seem to have cared little so long as the advertisers stumped up the cash.

A friend, when he heard of the plans to advertise the Al Quds hate fest on the sides of London buses, wrote to Transport for London:

"I am appalled by your even considering doing advertising Al-Quds day on London buses, let alone go ahead with it.

"Quite apart from an utter lack of respect and no sense of timing – have you forgotten that these Olympics mark an anniversary of the murder by Islamic terrorist of Israeli Jewish athletes in Munich? – the utter insensitivity of this almost beggars belief.  What effect do you think this has on Jewish and other communities in London and elsewhere which sees you giving open support to Islamists?  What effect does this have on social cohesion?  This, taken at a previous Al-Quds day in London, is but one example of what your advertisement endorses:

"You have been well and truly hoodwinked by the IHRC.  Did you know that it is an Islamic charity which supported the tyranny of Ayatollah Khomeini?  

"Did you know either that the charity supports Sheikh Abdul Rahman, who was the spiritual leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, which were were consolidated into Al Qaeda?  He was an associate of Bin Laden, and his teacher,  Abdullah Azzam. Having moved to New York to fundraise for Al Qaeda, the Blind Sheikh was convicted of various charges arising from the  the World Trade Center 1993 bombings and was imprisoned several times in Egypt in 1970 and 1981 for 3 years. He left Egypt in 1990 after facing security restrictions and being put under house arrest for a year. Three years after arriving to the US, he was arrested, convicted and sentenced to a life sentence.

"These, then, are the people your buses show you to be supporting.  By inference, your allowing them to advertise so contentiously about a gathering which threatens social cohesion makes it seem that British people support them, but the majority of us most certainly do not.

"No matter how much you received for advertising in this way on behalf of this egregious organisation, please keep your collective soul intact by taking down the advertisements – so insulting to many London and UK citizens.  You have been had most consummately and running these advertisements during the Olympics is ill-judged and insulting to the Israeli athletes who were murdered by people who held the same ideology as them.

"Yours faithfully"                                   

And he received the following form email from one Nigel McDonald.  He and I know of others who got an identical reply.  From the lack of reference to the concerns in my friend's email I doubt that McDonald even bothered to read it:

From: Nigel McDonald [mailto:Nigel.McDonald@cbsoutdoor.co.uk]
Sent: 07 August 2012 14:44
To:
Subject: RE: Al-Quds Day advertisement

Thank you for your email regarding the Islamic Human Rights Commission campaign.

 CBS Outdoor UK sought advice from the Committee of Advertising Practice and the advert complies with Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) guidelines and does not breach any UK ad regulations.

If you wish to make a formal complaint regarding the campaign, please contact the ASA directly.

Advertising Standards Authority                 
Mid City Place                                         
71 High HolbornLondon
WC1V 6QT

Tel: 020 7492 2222

http://www.asa.org.uk/

The ASA will confirm receipt of the complaint and advise you on how it will be proceeding.

Thank you for taking the time to contact CBS Outdoor UK.

Regards,

Nigel McDonald

Subsequently however (although not without many more letters of complaint, representations to MPs etc) the advertisements were withdrawn, although far too late.  The Al Quds hate fest went ahead in all its mouth-frothing ignominy.  I also found out Transport for London promised that it would review its procedures so as to make sure that offensive advertisements would not be accepted again. Transport for London also apologised for the offence caused.

For one person's eye-witness account, complete with photographs, please go to Richard Millett's blog here.  Note that he was advised to leave subsequently by the Metropolitan police.  Note also the first comment below the line to the article, where the poster says that it is his right to demonstrate but, of course, he shows absolutely no awareness that along with rights come responsibilities. 

The UK is sleepwalking into dhimmitude

London has just hosted a tremendous Olympic Games. The UK government and London dignitaries made much of the universal brotherhood which is the Olympic ethos.  Yet in the following week, apparently without any awareness of the contradiction and insult, London played host to as egregiously nasty a collection of haters, antisemites and supporters of Islamist terror as you might find anywhere on earth.  This is not coincidence.  Islamists and their fellow travellers, Jew-haters and supporters of Islamist terror are made more comfortable and welcome in London than in almost any other Western city.  That must be the case when even London buses announced support for their iniquitous endeavours. 

The UK government's twisting itself out of shape to accommodate Islamists and haters of every stripe grows more and more alarming.  I wonder whether this march – in support of a dictatorship which makes no secret of its antisemitism and its desire to wipe out the only democracy in the Middle East because it is a Jewish state, and uses the plight of the Palestinians as an excuse to whip up the masses – would have been allowed to go ahead if Jews, Zionists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Zoroastrians and other faiths and peoples were perceived to be as violent as Muslims when thwarted and as prone to act out in response to imaginary offence?