"The Global Anti-Aggression conference in Istanbul"

Atlantic Blog:

There is an interesting little storm in Britain involving Hazel Blears, Britain's Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, and Daud Abdullah, deputy secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain. Blears has withdrawn engagement with the Muslim Council of Britain over a conference attended by Abdullah, which produced a curious little document. In a letter to the Guardian, Blears said this:

Over the past two weeks the government has been privately engaging with the Muslim Council of Britain through meetings and correspondence to establish whether one of their senior members attended the Global Anti-Aggression conference in Istanbul, and if so, whether he also signed the Istanbul declaration that calls for violence against troops and Jewish communities. This is not grandstanding. The government would be shirking its duty if it fails to investigate any potential threat to the security of our troops and communities. We must take this extremely seriously.

That is why we have been asking the MCB to find out whether their deputy secretary general, Dr Abdullah, attended the conference and signed the statement. The MCB has now confirmed he did attend and did sign the declaration. A declaration that supports violence against foreign forces – which could include British naval personnel – as the prime minister has offered British naval support to stop the smuggling of weapons to Gaza; and advocating attacks on Jewish communities all around the world.

The Guardian did not merely print Blears letter, it practiced journalism by linking to the post at Harry's Place which not only reprinted the controversial part, but also linked to the entire document. The Guardian also published Abdullah's response, disputing Blears' assertions, and again the Guardian linked to the document in dispute, allowing readers to decide for themselves whether Blears is wrong or Abdullah's denials are dishonest weaselling. Here is the particularly controversial bit.

7. The obligation of the Islamic Nation to regard everyone standing with the Zionist entity, whether countries, institutions or individuals, as providing a substantial contribution to the crimes and brutality of this entity; the position towards him is the same as towards this usurping entity.

8. The obligation of the Islamic Nation to regard the sending of foreign warships into Muslim waters, claiming to control the borders and prevent the smuggling of arms to Gaza, as a declaration of war, a new occupation, sinful aggression, and a clear violation of the sovereignty of the Nation. This must be rejected and fought by all means and ways.

Harry's Place points out the obvious: the reference to "individuals" is an unsubtle call for terrorism against civilians with impure thoughts, and paragraph 8 is a call for attacks on British troops (British ships are patrolling the arms embargo on Gaza), the same thing that got George Galloway kicked out of the Labour Party. Harry's Place calls for trying Abdullah for treason. Any doubts that Abdullah is just misunderstood are cleared away by a letter in today's Guardian supporting him, with thirty signatures, nine of them named. They include Saddam stooge Tony Benn, Jew baiter Ken Livingstone, Jenny Booth (the former Liberal Democrat front bencher sacked for praising suicide bombers), Iranian government employee Lauren Booth (she presents "Between the Headlines" on the Iranian governments tv station Press TV, Kate Hudson and Bruce Kent of the CND, Anas Altikriti of George Galloway's Respect party, and Andrew Murray, the communist head of the Stop the War Coalition, known for his admiration for Joe Stalin and the charming government of North Korea. With friends like that, it pretty much says it all.