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Report is 'PR stunt'
2:27pm Tuesday 30th October 2007
Comments (1)An Islamic organisation has condemned the opportunist release of a report by the Policy Exchange.
It has been reported agencies linked to the Saudi government have distributed extremist literature to mosques and Islamic centers in Britain.
The Policy Exchange said the material expressed a deep-rooted antipathy toward Western society, calling for violence against enemies of Islam, including women and gays who demand equal rights.
The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS)hit back however claiming that whilst the report is an important contribution to the academic literature on Mosques it Britain, it is actually nothing more than a PR stunt aimed to gain publicity on the back of the controversy surrounding the visit of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
Faisal Hanjra, spokesman for FOSIS, said, "It is severely reprehensible for any organisation to attempt to gain short-term publicity at the expense of damaging community relations in the UK.
"The Policy Exchange document does nothing more than present single sentences, from often large documents, out of context.
"The report also fails to adequately define the term extremist literature' instead applying this label to anything outside of the authors' own personal realms of social acceptability.
"Finally, the report arrives at the illogical conclusion that this literature is in part responsible for terrorism, something not supported by the actual contents of the report."
He further added, "For the release of a year-long research report to coincide with the arrival of King Abdullah into this country is certainly suspicious.
"It is important that all contributions to important debates of this nature are carried out without alternative motives in mind.
"This report may result in short-term gains for some organisations, but it will certainly be at the expense of long-term community relations here in the UK. This attempt at flagrant opportunism should not be tolerated.
"FOSIS notes that many of the mosques mentioned in the report are at the forefront of building greater community cohesion, advancing interfaith dialogue and building bridges between the Muslim community and wider British society.
"It is important to take into consideration the significant damage sensationalist reports, similar to the one issued by Policy Exchange, do to the psyche of the Muslim population in the UK, often resulting in increased feelings of alienation and isolation."
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Yossri, London says...
5:29pm Wed 31 Oct 07
In a zeal to make USSR's invasion of Afghanistan into a "bleeding wound"
those books cited by Watson were distributed globally by container loads. Including Syed Qotb's Milestones and many listed by Policy Exchange.
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For pitting innocent minds against the Communists, motivational literature proved an effective means to ensure supply of cheap cannon fodder. According to the Houston Post, In Charlie Wilsons War, George Crile reveals in extraordinary detail the over-the-top, under-the-table machinations of Charles Wilson, as he spearheaded what eventually became known as the Soviets Vietnam.
CNN would recall interviewing Jere Van Dyk the author of In Afghanistan and a former reporter for The New York Times. In the early 1980s he covered the Afghan-Soviet war, living with the Afghan rebels. Van Dyk recalls: In the mid-1980s, Pakistani and American military officers did train certain members of the mujahadin. We were introducing new weaponry to them, and we wanted them to win their war.
According to the books publisher, The Atlantic Monthly Press, George Crile tells how Charlie Wilson, a maverick congressman from east Texas, conspired with a rogue CIA operative to launch the biggest, meanest, and most successful covert operation in the Agencys history. Wilson, who sat on the all-powerful House Appropriations Committee, managed to procure hundreds of millions of dollars to support the mujadiheen.
Is it too much to ask for some historical hindsight that can help the retrospective.!