In need of attention

Since Islam4UK’s proposal to march through Wootton Bassett—dubbed ‘the most patriotic town in Britain’ for brief yet powerful ceremonies held for every repatriated British military casualty passing through from nearby RAF Lyneham—to publicise the number of Iraqi and Afghani civilian deaths in recent conflicts, the British public has had to contend with two unpleasant realities. Firstly, that the past decade has seen an nearly uninterrupted decline in relations between the Muslim community and the rest of the country. Secondly, Islam4UK’s hirsute poster boy, Anjem Choudary, has been thrust, albeit obligingly, in front of television cameras and microphones. That Home Secretary Alan Johnson has now banned his group will have done little to address either problem.

British-born Mr Choudary trained and practiced as a lawyer before giving up his profession, going on the dole, and committing himself to Omar Bakri Muhammad’s Islamist organisation, Al-Muhajiroun. The group was banned under the Terrorism Act in 2004, and Mr Bakri, accused of having numerous ties with terrorist organisations, was subsequently banned from returning to the UK. Mr Choudary then helped to form Al-Ghurraba, the offshoot of Al-Mohajiroun, which was also banned in 2006, before becoming the spokesman for Islam4UK. To suggest that Islam4UK’s banning is a surprise, therefore, is somewhat odd, given that it merely follows the pattern established by the Home Office in the past.

Choudary has rarely been taken seriously. His television appearances have had all the dignity of a reality TV audition, and share much in common with that other British pantomime villain, Nick Griffin; the audience laugh and hiss, while panellists roll their eyes and smile knowingly. His rants about the Queen, the Pope, and Danish cartoonists as enemies of Islam are known all too well, but his true intentions are unclear. The key mission statement of all his organisations seems to be the implementation of shariah law and the caliphate, a historical system of Islamic governance, in the UK. The government and security services would have us believe that this court jester is more Polonius than Falstaff, and worthy of our fear and hatred; the concern being that his short term goals are of a more realistic, and more dangerous nature.

From this concern springs Mr Johnson’s recent decision to ban Islam4UK under the Terrorism Act, which makes it illegal to express sentiments that “condone or glorify terrorism”. Although Mr Choudary has fulfilled this in his public tirades by referring to Osama bin Laden as “Sheikh”, describing suicide bombers and the perpetrators of 9/11 as “magnificent martyrs”, and discouraging Muslims from co-operating with counter-terrorism strategies, the timing is ill advised. The march through Wootton Bassett is not in itself legal justification for the banning order; many will see it as having been the provocation that made the order inevitable.

Mr Choudary’s statement proposing the march issued the usual hyper-religious sermon about hell-fire and damnation, but also went on to argue that the deaths of Iraqi and Afghani civilians have not been recognised by the British public or media. This is not a novel point of view, nor an unworthy one. In his open letter, Mr Choudary wrote: “The procession in Wootton Bassett is therefore an attempt to engage the British publics [sic] minds on the real reasons why their soldiers are returning home in body bags and the real cost of the war… It is our desire to end the cycle of violence.” The tenor of his speeches mean that glimmers of rationality in Mr Choudary’s rants are easy to ignore and dismiss; public figures and politicians continually return to ridicule his religious views in order to undermine him. This cannot be far from his true aims; if public figures are willing to dismiss the cause as well as the crank, then it serves only to further alienate and even antagonise polemicists like Mr Choudary.

Given that there is no real danger that Mr Choudary’s promises of capital punishment and desire to impose shariah law in the UK will actually ever come to fruition, the most rational position would be to let the man talk: the public can judge for themselves. Nor is there a danger of British Muslims jumping on the Islam4UK donkey cart. The Muslim Council of Britain, the UK’s largest Muslim umbrella body, described the proposed march as “deplorable”; Muslims4UK organised a march in protest of Mr Choudary’s actions and wrote on their website: “It is time to stand up and be counted and say to al-Muhajiroun: You do not represent us”. Maajid Nawaz, director of the Quilliam Foundation, a London-based Muslim think-tank which opposes radical Islam, has publicly opposed Mr Choudary; the Ramadhan Foundation, another British Muslim organization, said of Mr Choudary: “He and his cronies have no support in the British Muslim communities.” Peter Neumann, director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College, London has claimed that the group has only 50-100 members. It is clear then Mr Choudary is a very small fish, albeit a loud one.

It is doubtful that the proposed march was ever truly intended to take place. There was no date set; the Wiltshire authorities have confirmed that they never had any notification of a proposed march. One should also consider the sheer impracticalities of Islam4UK stretching their limited resources and support to transport and carry 500 empty coffins through Wootton Bassett. When asked whether it was a publicity stunt on Sky News, Mr Choudary replied: “of course, we need to gain media attention”. It would appears that Mr Choudary has therefore got something for nothing.

As seen with this recent stunt, garnering publicity and attention appears to have been his primary objective—but as Mr Choudary has also very astutely pointed out: “If you believe in freedom of democracy, and you’re fighting for that...surely it’s a failure of those very ideals if we can’t have that procession. However offensive you might think it is, I think we have a right to air our grievances.” This logic, and the fact that he has successfully manipulated both the media and British law to his advantage, suggests that the qualified solicitor may well have more tricks up his sleeve.

The ban is irrelevant, and won’t damage Islam4UK in the slightest; like the many-headed Hydra, the British government will not have to wait long until the next incarnation of the group to group in Islam4UK’s place. Mr Choudary will certainly not disappear. He himself stated: “We won’t be using those names and those platforms which have been proscribed, but I can’t stop being a Muslim, I can’t stop propagating Islam, I can’t stop praying, I can’t stop calling for the shariah”.