Twitter historian Mike Stuchbery shows how not to debate far right

Characters from the loony part of the right such as Paul Joseph Watson (Infowars crank who made his name as a 9/11 truther and loads of other conspiracies) or Peter Sweden (lunatic who among various things has dabbled in holocaust denial and flat earth) ought to be eminently easy low hanging fruit to “school”.

However not for former supply teacher Mike Stuchbery, who somehow manages to come out of exchanges with them looking just as foolish with his awfully smug abuse laden supposed “historical smackdowns” that prove little but his ability to skim read Wikipedia.

For instance see this irrelevant reply to a tweet here. “Your ancestors traded white slaves to Baghdad” which is followed by a thread mentioning some Islamic trinkets from centuries ago. What exactly has slave trade and some trinkets centuries ago got to do with a complaint that a country is changing in a way someone dislikes?

(As a sidenote it is amusing Peter Sweden bemoans “my culture” considering his anti-Semitic, homophobic, and tradlife misogynistic views would fit in nicely in Saudi Arabia.)

Here is another example: “is this a 15th-century French noblewoman or a 21-century Muslim woman from Luton?” Again what is the point? We should stop being bothered by niqabs in the UK as you found a picture of a veiled woman from over 500 years ago?

Then there is this attempt at a “historical smackdown” that inadvertently just simply backs up what the guy is saying.

This is a theme from Stuchbery’s tweets. A reply of “hey dickhead, in 1567 whites/Western country did this, PS get fucked” to whatever bad thing some far-right person is complaining about.

Here he is for example (in response to it being mentioned by some far-right account) on honour killings, a specific type of violence more common today within South Asian or Middle Eastern families, which he falsely conflates with domestic violence and homicide solely so he can say “whites do it too!”. There may be instances where that has happened, but saying “Honour-killing? Roman & Jewish culture allowed husbands to murder adulterous or disobedient wives” or Anne Boleyn’s death “could be described as an honour killing” is an utterly worthless point to make.

Firstly, no Anne Boleyn is not equivalent to cases such as Banaz Mahmod and Samia Shahid or others you read about from places like Pakistan (think you will find it was not Anne Boleyn’s own siblings and parents plotting to kill her for who she married). Also secondly, this is such a pathetic childishly tribal take on a serious issue. Those suffering from honour based violence today are not likely to find much comfort in being compared to the wives of Henry VIII.

Also on acid attacks: “Acid attacks are nothing new in Britain. They were quite common-place in Victorian London” and because that came earlier than their current prevalence in South Asia can be blamed on “whitey” for some reason. Why the issue of acid attacks needs to be viewed from some tribal lens of which race did it first is beyond me.

For someone who likes to talk of “melting pot”, Stuchbery has a habit of pointlessly bringing up “whites” that would impress the most obnoxiously identitarian of far-left or alt-right activists. Such as here: “Ah, the annual curated season, 'White People Can't Follow Simple Instructions'”. Why exactly does a story of somebody wearing the wrong shoes have to be made about race?

Unsurprisingly whilst he notes names such as “Democratic People's Republic of Korea” may not be perfect descriptors he cannot say the same for Antifa cretins, who he compares to WW2 heroes and praises their thuggish violence. Even Trevor Noah could strongly condemn those idiots.

He’s also pro punching Nazis, and doesn’t care even if innocent people get hit in the crossfire. And supports teachers’ pushing their politics on 10 year olds (or at least as long as it’s politics he agrees with like Donald Trump being Hitler).

(Another sidenote: Stuchbery says he lives in Luton, which is notably home to Amjen Choudary and his Al Muhajiroun crew, the hardcore Salafist Luton Islamic Centre, and Britain First on their “Christian Patrols”. Has the Twitter coward who applauds thugs and cries “punch them, punch them, never stop punching them” ever dared lay a finger on any of those people?).

Finally his takes on concerns over large scale Islamic migration to Europe are simply laughably stupid and twee.

For example another of his long threads compares the 50,000 Huguenot Protestants from France moving to England in the 16th century, to fears over large scale Islamic migration into Europe on the scale of over a million from failed states in the 21st century. Stuchbery says there are “many parallels” between the two, of course he neglects to mention the many obvious differences ...

He then rounds off the thread with this: “Anyhoo. Refugees? Asylum seekers? Nothing new under the sun. My Muslim neighbours in Luton work just as hard and contribute just as much. And if you somehow think that they're not assimilating... Dudes, they already took your damn biscuits”.

Somehow I find it doubtful those with concerns about large scale Muslim migration (who are also branded with a broad brush as all “xenophobic mouthbreathers” by Stuchbery) are likely to persuaded otherwise by pointing to Luton of all places, or that integration there is all going fine because a hijabi won a TV baking show.

On the contrary, Stuchbery again just unwittingly made the best argument for immigration scepticism possible. There is not a single sane person in the UK who would point to Luton, often referred to as “the UK’s Most Radicalised Town” and linked to dozens of jihadist plots and far-right rampages, as a good example of successfully well integrated Muslim migration.

Nobody in the UK would want their town to end up like Luton. Yet Stuchbery responds to the hyperbole on Fox News by portraying the problems in Luton as nothing but lies and claims “it’s actually probably the most accepting and welcoming place I’ve ever lived” and the fact it’s a “heavily Muslim area” is “part of the reason” it’s “fantastic”.

If he thinks that then great for him, but brushing over problems in places like Luton, and claiming everything there is just going swimmingly is as misleading as what you might see from the far-right. The right response to Fox News exaggerating is to call out and correct them, not to simply point at an exaggerated or false claim and then use that to just merrily deny real problems in order to portray everything “multicultural” as all hunky dory. This is just rancid dishonesty and denialism.

Nevertheless Stuchbery’s shtick has quickly become a Twitter favourite for some on the Left in particular churnalists at clickbait outlets looking for low effort articles. However you suspect though this is largely down to the awful people he has positioned himself against as his actual arguments are utterly terrible and unlikely to impress anyone beyond an echo chamber of those already sold on the “multicultural” bromides of a Justin Trudeau.

Moeen Ali's fraternising with Islamists and status as a "role model"

England all-rounder Moeen Ali has been on superb career best form this summer and deservedly has received acclaim for his performances. However as someone with a visibly devout Muslim identity succeeding some have also started championing him beyond his on field exploits as a great “role model”.

Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail called him “one of the most significant cricketers of this generation” because of his faith and “his crucial status as a role model for British Asians”. There have been numerous other articles in newspapers or from notable personalities on Twitter echoing that praise along identity lines.

The problem here is sports stars’ off pitch politics could be anything from far-left, to far-right, to David Icke. Often they may not advertise any noticeable political leanings at all, but having seen Ali’s Twitter feed that does not seem to be the case. He has hung around Islamist circles which are not at all good to put it mildly.

One such example of this are at events run by an organisation called “Knowledge 1st UK”, who stage “Light Upon Light” conferences showcasing just an array of the most utterly abhorrent speakers. For instance their most recent event last month advertises Abu Abdissalam, who spews hatred for the West, supports “stoning to death of the adulterer, cutting the hand of the thief, obligation of hijab, and so on”, plus defends convicted terrorist recruiter Ali Al-Tamimi. Along with Said Rageah, who promotes ideas of death for apostasy, blasphemy, and instructs women “not come out of the house unless it’s a necessity”.

Moeen Ali was also speaking at one of their “Light Upon Light” events last winter, where he shared a platform alongside Ismail Menk, a well-known Islamist cleric who he has also publicly embraced as “my friend and brother” and even follows fan pages dedicated to him.

Menk has called gays “filthy” and worse than “the dogs and the pigs”, and also defends hudud punishments such as for adultery saying “the Sharia says such a person should be stoned to death. That is there, there is no doubt, no debate”.

Video: Ismail Menk defends stoning to death those who commit 'zina'

Among Menk’s other views include preaching that music is haram: “there is no scholar on earth who allows you to listen to Beyoncé or Michael Jackson”. He also promotes gender segregation, warns Muslims about greeting and giving gifts at Christmas or Diwali, and also a good friend of various extremists one being Zakir Naik, one of the most extreme preachers and banned in numerous countries across the world.

On the stage moderating this event with Ali and Menk was YouTube Islamist Ali Dawah, whose channel includes a series of “AskTheSheikh” videos with one of the most notorious loony hate preachers in the UK Haitham al-Haddad, videos slamming Muslims for saying “Merry Christmas” accusing them of “shirk”, explanations of how he had to cut ties with people because they listen to music (also regarded haram and shirk), plus public shaming of the hijabi twerking in a viral clip. He also tweets defences of punishment for apostasy which he labels “treason”, brands Maajid Nawaz  “munafiq who gets paid by zionists” and a “clear cut enemy of Islam”, and his feed is full of retweets of open Jabhat al-Nusra and Awlaki fan Majid Freeman plus support for groups like CAGE.

Another of the Islamists at this event Ali was posing for photos with and referred to as his “brother” was Wasim Kempson, a white Salafist convert who is frequently seen alongside some of the very worst extremists in the UK.

Kempson is a patron of the extremist charity HHUGS which has a record of defending terrorists, and Imam of the “West London Islamic Centre” who also routinely host extremists. He posts pictures of himself on social media grinning with banned extremist preacher Zakir Naik, and is also a regularly listed speaker at events (held by groups like CAGE or for causes such as “Bring Aafia [Siddiqui] home”) alongside a who’s who of the worst of Islamists in the UK such as Uthman Lateef, Abdurraheem Green and the Anjem Choudary rally going anti-Ahmadi preacher Sulaiman Gani, or Haitham al-Haddad and proven extremist Shakeel Begg (both fellow patrons of HHUGS) and many more.

Wasim Kempson at a 'Moeen Ali Foundation' event

That event unfortunately wasn’t the only time Ali has been posing for friendly photos with Kempson on social media recently. He also did so at an event in April for the Moeen Ali Foundation, where Kempson was featured on the poster as one the main guests.

The rest of the guests listed on the poster for that Moeen Ali Foundation event get even worse. They included Alomgir Ali and Faraz Farhat, both close associates and colleagues of Haitham al-Haddad. Alomgir Ali thinks secularism is a modern version of pre-Islamic idol worship, homosexuality is a crime, and women who wear perfume are fornicators and adulteresses. Farhat says stuff such as how he wants to “rid society” of the “evil” of music. Also listed was Murtaza Khan, another of the vilest of Islamists in the country who promotes ideas of stoning adulterers, killing homosexuals, and hatred towards non-Muslims.

This was an event with Moeen Ali’s own foundation, carrying his own image and name, and a bunch of truly despicable Islamists were advertised as guests. Ali’s fraternising with Islamists doesn’t stop there though.

Moeen Ali with Abu Eesa Niamatullah of Al Maghrib

He has also done YouTube chats with Abu Eesa Niamatullah from the virulently bigoted anti-Semitic Islamist group Al Maghrib (their founder and president has authored a paper titled  “Why the Jews are cursed” and endorsed stoning as a punishment for adultery among many other things). Niamatullah has a record of advocating Sharia, complaining of advances in gay rights, pushing the death penalty as punishment for blasphemy, plus expressed extremely anti-Semitic, misogynistic views, and regards liberal secular Muslims as a kind of fifth column.

Also briefly featured on that video was another notorious Islamist bigot from Al Maghrib Yasir Qadhi, who likewise has a long track record of expressing vile views on topics of homosexuality and barbaric punishments in an Islamic state. Ali has also shared platforms with him at events too.

Moeen Ali with Abubakr Islam (aka 'Roadside2Islam')

Ali also hangs out and appears to be friends with Islam Channel presenter Abubakr Islam (aka “Roadside2Islam”), who’s Twitter feed is seething with sectarian hate towards Shia who he refers to as “evil”, “crazy people” that “I hate so much” and “make me sick”. Plus of course anti-Semitism, homophobia, heaps of misogynistic lecturing towards “naked” (ie non hijab wearing) women who he says men won’t respect or take seriously, retrograde announcements about “zina”, or how freemixing “kills the heart”, “music is haram” and “will take us to the hell fire fast”.

Ali follows virtually all these people on Twitter and other social media platforms too. All the other Islamic figures he follows, retweets or likes on Twitter just continue on a similar theme.

Ali friendly greeting Islamist Hamza Tzortzis

These include IERA’s Hamza Tzortzis (a Hizb ut-Tahrir linked extremist who has expressed support for apostasy and blasphemy punishments), Bilal Philips (who endorses the killing of apostates, and other hudud punishments, says there is no such thing as rape in marriage), the utterly embarrassing YouTuber Imran ibn Mansur aka “Dawah Man” (who calls homosexuals “filthy” and “diseased”), Islamist lobby group MEND, and of course Moazzam Begg from the terror apologist group CAGE of Jihadi John was “a beautiful young man” infamy.

Additionally Ali follows an account called “Salafi Masjid” (which plugs sectarian messages like: “the Rafidi Shi'ah intend evil for Islam and the Muslims”). Also the account from “Green Lane Masjid”, described as “a hardcore Wahhabi institution [...] known for bringing in hardline Wahhabi clerics in order to preach intolerance and hate”. Plus another Salafi account called “Pearls of Knowledge”, which tweets “the Jews were cursed”, more sectarian hate “the Rafidah Shia & Their Evil Way”, and obnoxious announcements of disbelievers going to hell. So it is perhaps not entirely unreasonable to deduce from all this some possibility that Ali may have Salafist leanings.

Anyway you would struggle to find a more disgusting, downright regressive, nasty collection of people amongst Muslims in the UK (short of actual jihadists of course) than these types who Ali shares platforms and pals around with at Islamist conferences, or done friendly YouTube chats with, or invited along to his own ‘Moeen Ali Foundation’ events, and follows and likes on Twitter.

Maybe this was just a mistake done through ignorance (in which case hopefully Ali realises this and makes a clear effort to denounce and distance himself from these crowds) and Ali has not himself made any public statements as awful as these people, but it does nevertheless raise questions in regards to whether he is this great “role model”.

If a sportsman was hanging amongst far-right PEGIDA circles, spoken at their events, and following numerous of their most egregious personalities on social media. Then whilst acknowledging their sporting ability, you would imagine most would hesitate to laud them in particular as having a “crucial status as a role model”.

The same ought to apply for what is the Islamist religious far-right that Moeen Ali hangs around with. Most British sportsmen of Muslim background do not go to Islamist events and pal around with such people. You do not see Mo Farah do this, or Nasser Hussain himself. Ali has a “crucial status” in the England team as an excellent all-rounder, but he is not the special role model off the pitch various people have made him out to be. On the contrary his fraternising with some of the most repugnant Islamists in the country arguably makes him a uniquely bad one.

Douglas Murray and the "fetid swamps" of the far right

On Douglas Murray’s latest appearance on Sam Harris’ podcast, the issue of his appearance on Stefan Molyneux’s YouTube show was raised and Harris talked of how “dicey this situation is” for him.

Murray responded firstly by admitting he is “promiscuous” in deciding whom he talks to, before going on to promote generally being open to discussions with a wide variety of people as opposed to “not speaking to anyone who isn’t 100% aligned with us”.

However this response didn’t quite meet the point Harris was attempting to make of why exactly this situation is “dicey”. This isn’t about refusing to talk with certain people, but the impression Murray’s appearance on such shows gives to its viewers.

As he stated Murray does anything but isolate himself from opposing views. Over the years he has talked with loads of people and debated all sorts with wacky views such as former KGB employees, various Islamists, or even extreme as actual ISIS supporters.

However there is a key variable here in regards to Molyneux. The fact is what Murray referred to as the “fetid swamps” of the far-right is a not inconsiderable part of his fan base.

As Harris mentioned, Molyneux’s show hosts a roll call of racists, misogynists, and conspiracy theorists. These include white nationalist Breivik fan Vox Day, lunatics from Infowars like Mike Cernovich or Alex Jones, an anti-Semitic holocaust revisionist from the extreme Red Ice Radio is his resident Sweden “expert”, whilst white supremacists Jared Taylor, or Helmuth Nyborg, who hang out at the sort of events that feature David Duke, are called upon to discuss race and IQ.

Molyneux is far from the only one in these circles to have praised Murray.

Kevin MacDonald, probably the leading promulgator of anti-Semitic conspiracy theory in the USA, says “Douglas Murray rocks”. Geoffrey Miller, a far-right evolutionary psychologist who loves the likes of Vox Day and Moldbug, says “if enough people read this excellent Douglas Murray book, Europe still has some hope of surviving into the 22nd century”.

Tara McCarthy, white nationalist YouTuber who thinks interracial relationships are “borderline bestiality” and advocates deporting non-whites, says “I definitely recommend you buy Douglas Murray’s book and give it to [‘red pill’] your normie friends”.

Paul Weston, PEGIDA co-leader whose political party advocates banning Muslims from running for public office, executing “traitor politicians/journalists”, and published articles glorifying Radovan Karadzvic, lauds Murray’s book as “filled with wisdom, reality and logic”. Paul Joseph Watson, a conspiracy theorist at Alex Jones’ Infowars who made his name as a 9/11 truther and pushing countless other conspiracies which are generally anti-West and favourable towards Russia, calls it “the most important book of the 21st century so far”.

Other far right figures such as trolls Milo Yiannopolous or Katie Hopkins are big fans and call him “wonderful” or say “I love Douglas Murray”. Murray is also following and retweeting praise from accounts supportive of the likes of Britain First, Jared Taylor, Richard Spencer, that also talks of “white genocide” and putting politicians on trial for treason.

It varies for each individual, but around these circles, you’ll hear conspiracies about pizzagate, Seth Rich, the Rothschilds, “white genocide”, and various other ugly sentiments directed particularly towards liberals, Jews, Muslims, non-whites, or women.

The Islamist far-right Murray has conversed with may be equally as beyond the pale in terms of nuttiness, but not a single sane person would get any impression at all of him being aligned with someone like Tariq Ramadan and that’s the difference. These people at least perceive Murray to be an ally and on their side.

You suspect Murray ought to know this difference too. In the past he correctly and entirely justifiably criticised Nicola Sturgeon for sharing a platform with the lunatic white Muslim convert Yvonne Ridley, or Sayeeda Warsi for speaking at FOSIS (a group that frequently hosts various Islamists).

Here Murray fully understands the difference between his discussions with Ridley and Sturgeon sharing a platform with her. The latter is fellow travelling with a malevolent agenda that caters to a nasty audience of anti-Semites and theocrats, the former is challenging it. The only thing is in going to discuss the failures of mass immigration on Molyneux or Rebel Media (where Murray was interviewed by an idiot who accuses his friend Maajid Nawaz of having an “agenda of terrorism”), whose shows caters to an audience of paleo-cons, ethno-nationalists, and conspiracy theorists, Murray is unwittingly or not doing similar himself.

It would be inadvisable and worthy of criticism for anyone to go to toxic Islamist personalities or groups like MEND or ISNA to just discuss “Islamophobia”, bash the West, and play to their narratives. But the same also applies to far right and conspiracy platforms like the awful Rebel Media or Molyneux as an appropriate outlet to discuss failures of mass immigration.

Murray discussing "the future of
the west" with Rebel Media

In going on their shows and following the likes of them and Paul Joseph Watson on Twitter after they praised him, Murray is just further reinforcing their impression of him as an ally and fellow traveller. This can be forgiven for a mistake out of ignorance (if acknowledged as such), but there are others who will not be so generous, not least opponents eager to stigmatise him.

This brings us to another question of why Murray has been attracting more and more fans from the far-right, and whether he is particularly bothered these people have this impression of him.

In a 2010 article Murray slammed Russia Today as a “strange propaganda outfit” pumping out conspiracy “filth”. If he’s genuinely still worried about this conspiracy “filth”, and the “fetid swamps” of racism and anti-Semitic conspiracy he talks of, then he ought to perhaps be alarmed many of its most notable promulgators perceive him as an ally and are fans of his.

On Harris’ podcast late in 2015, Murray stated his goal “has always been to wake people up about [problems of mass immigration and Islam] and to make them take it seriously in order so it wasn’t left to [...] Marine Le Pen in the future”.

Yet curiously with the prospect of Trump or Le Pen in recent elections, Murray did not seem concerned enough to use his position as a commentator to critique them. Instead, although not endorsing them, his takes (such as “Trump won't be as bad as you think” and “Is Le Pen really far-right?”) were consistently apologetic usually focusing solely on lambasting Left wing hyperbole, hypocrisy and overreach, and either downplaying or ignoring the legitimate concerns many have about the dangers of these candidates.

And more broadly he has scarcely made any noises against the sensationalist overreach, exaggeration and conspiracy, the promotion of nativist identitarianism, Putinist/Assadist apologetics, the love for Assange and Wikileaks, and contempt for the post-WW2 liberal international order found on Alt-Lite/Alt-Right friendly outlets Breitbart, Rebel Media, Infowars, Sputnik/RT, and other characters in those circles who grew in prominence alongside Trump and Le Pen’s campaigns.

For example on a topic such as Sweden, whilst Murray correctly notes “there is no doubt” it is “exaggerated by some people”. Unlike another critic of mass immigration Tino Sanandaji, who manages to be more balanced and calls out the “cartoonish exaggerations” often seen on the above websites which strengthens and distinguishes his arguments from more reactionary voices. Instead Murray rarely calls this out and even repeats in his book ludicrously misleading claims from the far-right such as that Sweden has the second highest levels of rape in the world (this overreach being a gift to those who want to brush over the very real problems and indeed one critical review of his book did just that).

This is the main reason these people speak of and perceive Murray the way they do. He does not only bash the Left’s overreach and exaggerations, but will go on their podcasts and shows and bash the Left with them. All the while neglecting to talk of the likes of Trump or Le Pen in any other terms than they’re either the Left’s fault or the Left is criticising them wrongly or are hypocrites.

As Ben Shapiro said on a recent podcast when a fair number of such people “claim you as an ally” then “that does matter” and “it becomes more incumbent on you to disassociate from them, if you want to disassociate from them”. That means calling out and critiquing the Breitbart/Rebel Media/Infowars-sphere and their overreach, conspiracies etc on occasions too.

Murray is an articulate thoughtful speaker does raise interesting points that should be taken seriously. Hopefully after his podcast with Harris he will be more aware though of how “dicey this situation is for him” and whether he is comfortable with the way the far-right view him.

Otherwise it is hard to take the concern he expressed of an empowered far-right sincerely, and it may be worth asking if his views have shifted to now basically align with Dennis Prager, who’s lately been using Murray’s book to advance his lecturing to Never Trump conservatives that there is a “Left-Right battle” that is “existential” for Western civilisation and they must “join the fight” to stop the Left.

Anne Marie Waters UKIP leadership launch: fruitcakes, loonies & not so closet racists

Last week anti-Islam activist Anne-Marie Waters officially launched her bid to become UKIP leader. Her general ideas were very much in the mould of her “hero” Marine Le Pen. A mix of nationalist isolationism hostile to intergovernmental organisations (she not only wants Brexit but an end to the entire EU and her manifesto seems to suggest abandoning NATO) and trade unionist socialism (her second favourite topic is the NHS, she mentioned something on getting rid of tuition fees, and was previously a hard-left strike supporting trade unionist with Labour).

Waters' so called "dream team" ...

Anyway Waters has been complaining on Twitter lately of the use of the term “far-right” to describe her movement. Yet her manifesto launch and the sort of people she was bringing along with her, and moreover her activity over the past couple of years more generally, certainly will not do much in the way of altering that impression of those who may hold that view.

First up chairing the launch event was Jack Buckby, apparently her campaign manager who announced he’s “known Anne-Marie for some years and proud to call her a friend and a colleague”. Buckby is an ex-BNP member who used to pose for photos alongside Nick Griffin who he regarded as “a top bloke”. He since says he left as they became “quite nasty” (a discovery that hardly required Sherlock Holmes), and instead joined another party called “Liberty GB” led by a man named Paul Weston.

However Weston in his own words actually says “I agree with a lot of BNP policy” and describes himself of the “National Front/BNP mould when it comes to the defence of English people”, but was opposed to Griffin on his Jewish/Zionist conspiracy theories.

Weston obsessively talks of “white genocide”, he claims whites who opposed apartheid South Africa had “a mental illness”, his party also has complained of things such as a “negress” winning a beauty pageant in Helsinki. He also actually admits he’s “hoping Islam commits a number of atrocities over the coming years” (a view shared by Buckby who stated after Wilders’ election defeat “only terror can save Netherlands now”) to counteract a “PC long march through the institutions” and even floats the idea of violence and suggests “if we and our children and grandchildren are to survive the 21st century, it will be via physical revolution rather than the ballot box”.

“Liberty GB’s” best known policy was a ban on Muslims holding public office. Also featured on their site include articles pushing conspiracy theories about liberal Muslims such as Maajid Nawaz being an “expert taqiyya merchant” who only deradicalised for money, and glorifications of Radovan Karadzic as “a hero of the West who should’ve been acclaimed not condemned”.

They also want the death penalty reintroduced and applied to “traitor politicians” (Tony Blair is compared to Lord Haw Haw and Hermann Göring). According to Weston on Twitter “Angela Merkel & all Muslim loving Western politicians will one day stand trial before peoples courts charged with genocide” and to “deport the migrants” and “prosecute the traitor politicians/journalists” are the “two steps for European survival”.

As for Buckby he’s more recently best known for contesting the Batley & Spen by-election following Jo Cox’s death (which he first speculated was an “attempted false flag” from the Remain campaign) where his campaign circulated tasteless posts exclaiming “DEATH OF A FOOL”. He’s also part of the alt-right “ProudBoys” where he writes “cuck of the week” articles on people such as Sam Harris, and reportedly also previously wrote posts railing against the “negroid culture” which “goes against respect for oneself dressing suitably and speaking English correctly”, and “a majority of modern women aged 18-25” who “are generally pretentious, stupid sluts”.

Waters, Tommy Robinson &
Paul Weston with PEGIDA

Incidentally Waters is of course co-leader of PEGIDA UK alongside Weston, who previously referred to UKIP as “a racist party” with “an utter contempt for native Britons”, and complains they are “useless on Islam and non-white immigration”, however now is saying he’s thinking of scrapping Liberty GB and joining forces with Waters if she were to win. Buckby meanwhile despite being barred from the party as an ex-BNP member, and previously arguing “UKIP should be boycotted”, attacking Nigel Farage and accusing the party of promoting a “multicultural hate agenda”, has been one of her closest campaign staff and most prominent activists on social media encouraging people to sign up and vote for her.

Anyway, moving on as this was certainly far from the only dubious figure chosen to speak at this event. The next speaker at the leadership manifesto launch was UKIP councillor Brian Silvester, another of Waters most noteworthy activists on social media, but also a man deeply lost in the weird conspiracy land of Infowars, “globalists” and the “Rothschild”, “New World Order” agenda.

According to him Emmanuel Macron is a “NWO adherent” and “just another Rothschild stooge”, who is “peddling more the same globalist agenda” and “will finish France it will be an Islamic state”. He also of course is a big fan of Donald Trump for “putting the brakes on the globalist agenda that was being shoved down our throats” and retweets “we will fight against the globalists agenda & attempts to remove Bannon from the White House”.

Furthermore he thinks George Soros “causes civil unrest and violence in multiple countries” and “belongs in jail”, accuses Commons Speaker John Bercow of being a “closet Zionist Bolshevik infiltrator”, and says the “UK should follow what Putin is doing” in “putting interests of his country before international law”.

His timeline is full of retweets for lunatics from the Infowars scene such as Alex Jones, Paul Joseph Watson, Mike Cernovich, Stefan Molyneux, Roger Stone, or Jack Posobiec (as an aside he’s also retweeted groups like Britain First too). So unsurprisingly he pushes stuff such as the Seth Rich conspiracy, the “Deep State”, or the the “Syria hoax” hashtag from outlets such as the absurd Assadist conspiracy nut “Partisangirl”, Cernovich, and even David Duke, forwarding theories Obama or the BBC were staging a chemical attack to frame Assad, along with more old school conspiracies about JFK repeatedly.

Silvester also is a big fan of Piers Corbyn, the deranged conspiracy weather forecasting brother of the Labour leader Jeremy, and his views on the weather are suitably wacky. According to him “global warming is the biggest science hoax ever”,  he’s forwarded stories claiming “climate change is a hoax developed as part of a secret plot by UN to takeover the world” and “create New World Order”, a scare “orchestrated” by the CIA, or “a geostrategic weapon” used to harm Putin. He thinks Al Gore and Soros (again) should be tried for “crimes against humanity” for this “biggest scam in history”.

This guy is an obvious conspiratorial loon, yet Waters says she was “proud” to have him at introduce her leadership manifesto launch, and he is her most retweeted Twitter account campaigning for her.

Also at this launch were YouTube media outlet Rebel Media best known for their fondness of using Antifa knuckleheads as a prop for puff coverage towards genuinely far-right groups or people. Their British section includes someone who’s used slurs such as “pig jews” and says even “secular Muslims are terrorist enablers”, plus an anti-Semitic Rothschild conspiracist pizzagate enthusiast, whilst the guy who was at the event interviewing Waters thinks Maajid Nawaz’s think tank the Quilliam Foundation are “violent, lying thugs” whose “agenda is terrorism” and “should be classed as a terror group”.

All those people from Rebel Media and Waters herself are good friends with another one of their Twitter activists called “Annie Greek UK lover”. She helped organise the “UK against Hate” march in Manchester last month, which was picked up and promoted by Rebel Media, and spoke alongside Tommy Robinson and co at that event. She also was pictured as part of Waters campaign team at her launch, and been sharing multiple jolly pictures with them at all over the past few months, and has organised another match for September that Waters and the Rebel crew will also apparently all be attending again.

According to her “if you are a Muslim then rape is what u believe”, and she agrees “ALL Muslims who live in Western society need to be interviewed” and “those that don’t speak out should be classified as traitors and shipped to the Middle East” and “non EU citizens should be banned” from the UK to end “ellen culture” (sic).

This woman constantly refers to Muslims as “barbarians”, “inbreds”, “monkeys”, monkey racers” and “monkey looking men”, “dirty monkeys” that “I'm to disgusted to even touch”, or after saying she was being harsh on monkeys “just worthless creatures”. In regards to migrants she demands “those apes should return in the jungle they came from” and posts images of them “practicing their natural monkey climbing skills”.

Also according to her Turkish people are “inbred rapists”, “rapists barbarians”, “barbaric subhumans” and says she refused to be treated by a Turkish doctor and “would rather die”. Meanwhile Somalis are also “inbreds” who “look like monkeys” but “don’t even have a monkeys IQ”. And says she boycotts “Paki curry or Arab kebab” so not to “support their economy”.

She calls Hillary a “pedophile goddess” and suggests support for her from black people was down to low IQ levels, plus if she won “all white Americans would have fled USA asking for asylum in Europe”. Merkel “the most obvious example” of a mentally ill communist. Whilst Tony Blair is “the ultimate traitor”, deserves the death penalty and should be “publicly executed” along with George Soros. Also “anyone not supporting brexit is a traitor and should be sentenced as one”.

Reminder this is one of Waters most regularly retweeted accounts. Her interactions with her “dear friend” on Twitter include agreeing to get together for their marches, or sharing photos from events with mutual “I love you” messages. It’s hard to believe over a period of months of following her on Twitter and several meetings in person, it could not be worked out that this woman who’s tweeted about “monkeys” or “inbreds” hundreds of times isn’t particularly the sort you want on your campaign team or desire hero worship from.

Also posting pictures alongside Waters at her campaign launch included a fan of David Duke who tweets black crime articles from Daily Stormer and have “joined UKIP for @AMDWaters!! She’s our only hope!” Or a Britain First fan who posts Oswald Mosley interviews and retweets of Nick Griffin and “joined UKIP in order to help elect @AMDWaters as leader”. Obviously she wouldn’t have been aware of this, nor is it a suggestion of holding them herself, but still not a good look for someone complaining of mentions of “far right”.

So just to recap, Waters’ leadership launch went as follows. She invited an ex-BNP member from a party which campaigns for all Muslims banned from public office to chair the launch. Also invited an Infowars conspiracy crank to introduce her to the stage. Posted selfies with campaign volunteers and supporters who are basically fans of Britain First. Had puff coverage from her friends at the ridiculous far-right promoting Rebel Media outlet.

Then topped it all off retweeting endorsements from people who go on Red Ice Radio (where Waters herself has recently been on as well) such as Ingrid Carlqvist (described by Waters as “my friend”) and Anke Van dermeersch (who spoke at Waters “Islam kills women” event last year, and who notably met with the Golden Dawn in Greece last year), and others she regards as “heroes” such as Geert Wilders or Tommy Robinson. Again to repeat, that is not doing much to change minds of those who perceive this movement to be “far-right”.

As an anti-Islam activist Waters has moved in some highly dubious circles, and the list of those Waters has praised, promoted, and/or shared platform with could go on. Many would argue her embrace of various of the characters already mentioned, along with her enthusiastic endorsements of Wilders as “my favourite politician”, Le Pen as a “hero”, the AfD in Germany, along with virtually every other similar European party all commonly associated with the term would be enough to consider her movement “far-right”.

There is an alternative take on this, in that she herself has not put forward views as extreme as some of the people she befriends and associates with, and may not even have been aware of all their views. Although that take also suggests severe levels of ignorance and poor judgement on her behalf and is hard to believe given both the length of time, and quantity of people she has travelled with amongst these circles. She has in fact already been publicly challenged on allying with Weston.

A potential cabinet "liked" by Waters ...

The much more plausible and likely scenario is she has allied with people like Weston, Buckby or Carlqvist for the past few years simply because her own views have moved closer towards them than to others, and does not see her disagreements as deal breakers. After all she must know these people by now, but still clearly allies with them often retweeting them, and has liked tweets suggesting as prime minister she put Tommy Robinson, Katie Hopkins, and Buckby in her cabinet, or that Hopkins and Britain First’s Jayda Fransen are “women that would be great leaders”.

Waters has herself also retweeted stuff using language such as “rapefugees”, “white genocide” and calling the Left “mentally ill” recently. She’s also liked tweets calling Quilliam “just a bunch of taqiyya artists”, plus several calling for Islam to be “eradicated” or “banned” (of course impossible without extreme authoritarian policy), or various views along the lines of or explicitly supportive of “ethno-nationalism”.

Among the "rapefugee" tweets that Waters has retweeted

Also, like Weston, she has mentioned several times of her desire to imprison “treasonous” politicians. She’s tweeted that “it’s lucky for them [politicians] that Blair got rid of treason laws”, tweeted “if only treason was still a thing” in reaction to a story about Sadiq Khan. Plus also stated she wants Merkel tried for treason and thrown in jail, and also retweeted that “there needs to be a modern day Nuremburg trial”.

However whilst likely most would disagree on much of the rhetoric and solutions, it is still worth noting some of Waters' grievances do have merit (albeit exaggerated in reference to calling Germany “a violent third-world hell-hole” or that the UN say Sweden will be third world by 2030 which comes from reading too much Breitbart and conspiracy sites) and reading some of her work there is clearly an old school feminist there who in fact genuinely cares for women’s rights.

Her critique of the sort of confused “World Hijab Day” celebrating brand of “feminism” exhibited for instance by the ludicrously stupid “Women’s March” leaders is essentially correct, and her rage against it clearly does not come from the same angles as MRA types, Molyneux, Lauren Southern, or some of her allies amongst her circles who may be closer described as “trad-cons” and regret moving beyond the 1950’s.

But Waters also clearly has an extremely high tolerance for allying with such people and frankly even worse over agreement essentially over Islam and “ethno-nationalism”.

Waters with "my friend" Swedish
Red Ice Radio host Ingrid Carlqvist

Even she would have to concede that some of the people she has promoted, praised or allied with and described as “friends”, events she has attended, the rhetoric of “rapefugees” etc, accusing actual liberal Muslim activists of “taqiyya”, abandoning and tearing up intergovernmental organisations, or talk of putting media or politicians on trial for treason, would not be widely considered remotely near to the centre in the context of British politics.

In fact they’d all be considered commonly held views on the “far-right”. And you suspect Waters surely knows this, considering she must see the wave of Enoch Powell memes and EDL types in her Twitter mentions, and says herself she wants to make UKIP “radical”, which is by definition far removed from the centre.

Regardless of labels though, one thing Waters would admit is she is bringing Le Pen style politics to UKIP and a surge of membership emanating from followers of people like her friends Tommy Robinson or Paul Weston. Odds of her winning the leadership were slashed after a report of 1000 new members signing up believed to be motivated to support her. Win or lose, how this plays out will be interesting.

[Note: If any link goes missing try searching for the URL on archive is.]

Omar Suleiman is not a progressive

American Imam Omar Suleiman has been the recipient of a handful of puff pieces in various media outlets over the past year or so. Most notably he was featured in a BBC online documentary titled “United States of Hate: Muslims Under Attack”, plus recently in articles on Huffington Post, or in local media such as D Magazine which hailed him as “the religious leader Dallas needs right now”.

His act is to present himself to a progressive audience as a gentle, softly spoken, peace loving, and totally benevolent progressive activist with a big grin determinedly battling bigotry. But look beyond the façade of professionally shot profile photos and the progressive platitudes of tolerance across his social media profiles, and you will find a very different figure.

Advocacy for theocracy

First of all it’s clear beyond any doubt Suleiman is an Islamist. When asked about Sharia in front of a progressive audience, he will say that living in a non-Muslim country it merely “means practising my faith” and “so long as the laws of my land don’t stop me from personally practising my faith then I’m actually as a Muslim obligated to obey those laws”. He will then go no further and seemingly sound relatively benign.

However at Islamist conferences he has gone further and has explicitly advocated a caliphate. On an ICNA Shariah Council Panel Q&A Suleiman said “that the Sharia practised on a societal level as was practised by the companions of the prophet” was “a righteous system” and “we do believe this was divine law”.

At a previous ICNA event he stated “we ask Allah to allow us to witness a righteous khilafah (caliphate)”, and expressed disappointment at Arab Spring protesters demanding democracy rather than Islamic rule (although he did also offer the caveat that “at least democracy has its pros in the sense that it allows the best ideas to rise and the people do want Islam”).

Video: Suleiman explicitly advocating a "khilafah" (caliphate)

Defence of hudud punishments

Suleiman also defended the hudud punishments for adultery or theft at these conferences too. He couches these with qualifiers such as to stone an adulterer “you would need four trustworthy witnesses” so it was in effect only so “people would not be able to commit pornographic acts”, or that it was only the “skilled thief” who get their hands chopped off.

Additionally Suleiman’s think tank the “Yaqeen Institute”, via their scholar Jonathan Brown, has defended hudud punishments on the argument that it is the prison system in the West which is in fact the “cruel and unusual punishment” which “brutalises in lasting ways much more so than whipping or lashing or beating”.

Furthermore Brown in another video for the Yaqeen Institute has stated “that in my opinion […] the Islamic death penalty for apostasy […] is punishment for who really publicly leaves Islam”. According to Suleiman this man “writes great stuff”.

Video: Yaqeen Institute scholar Jonathan Brown's opinion on punishment for apostasy

Hateful homophobia

On the topic of homosexuality, Suleiman has written Facebook posts expressing disgust at increased tolerance towards gays.

Asking “when Allah describes homosexuality as a repugnant shameless sin and details his punishment of a people that practiced sodomy, how can anyone who believes in Allah not find it immoral?” and further adding that “if as Muslims we don’t take a clear stance on this, we will be forced to conform and watch this disease destroy our children”.

Previously Suleiman also stated on Facebook that “I am opposed to legalizing gay marriage because it destroys the fabric of our society”, and wrote a message to “applaud” an ICNA press release that “expressed dismay at President Obama’s support for same-sex marriage” arguing it “can only lead to the deterioration of […] society as a whole”.

Defence of Islamic sex slavery

According to Islamist Watch Suleiman has defended Islamic concubines and sex slavery. Whilst Jonathan Brown (again) also caused controversy earlier this year over a piece for Suleiman’s Yaqeen Institute defending sex slavery as well.

Retrograde attitudes towards women and sex

Suleiman has also done talks such as one titled “Fighting Zina” where according to Peace & Tolerance he preached women must not take off their hijabs in front of their cousins, being too close to their brothers may lead to incest, and should never be alone with a man outside of her family. He also has done other talks stating men and women “cannot be friends”.

In his advocacy for the hijab, he compares non-hijab and hijab wearing women respectively to “a bag of chips” and “a mink coat”, the latter being “preserved [...] hidden and concealed” and “that shows me this is a thing of value”.

Video: Suleiman compares non hijab and hijab wearing women to "a bag of chips" and "a mink coat"

Meanwhile Suleiman has written Facebook posts warning of “sinful or degenerate” nudity “creeping into” TV shows and that “pornography, even in its unrecognized forms, is destroying us as individuals, families, and communities” and not to “unashamedly make reference to these shows publicly”.

He’s also posted quotes such “if you want to destroy any nation without war, create [...] nudity common in the young generation”, praised an organisation called “Purify My Gaze”, and even forwarded a weird post from somebody who thinks his daughter’s death was caused by him watching pornography saying “Allah showed me the result of my disobedience to him”.

Other joyless austere religious social conservatism

Suleiman’s austere religious preaching ranges to trivial matters too. His contributions to the “Hadith of the Day” website include recommending that time spent watching movies “should be limited as much as possible” and avoiding playing chess is “safer for one’s faith”, both “wind and string instruments are haram (forbidden)”, that “having a beard is mandatory for men” and “it would be sinful and punishable to shave”, if spaying pets “can be avoided then it should be”, or that sandwich making jobs that may touch ham “clearly falls into the prohibited category”.

He also advises parents that public school is not an option as “the system encourages haram” it is “too risky to ever put your kids in that environment” and only to go to either “Islamic school or homeschool”.

Anti-“Zionist” hatred and conspiracy

Unsurprisingly much like every Islamist Suleiman is extremely anti-Israel. He frequently has referred to Israel as “JSIL” (Jewish ISIS), and compared them to both Nazis and the KKK.

In his own words “the Zionists are the sincere enemies of God, His Messengers, sincere followers of all religions, and humanity as a whole”, and in reference to Israel has stated that “may Allah destroy the oppressors”.

He’s also pushed classic conspiracy of how “Zionists” are controlling the world. Including forwarding posts from Yasir Qadhi saying “how servile America is to the interests” of Israel, himself called the US government a “Zionist pawn”, and said that celebrities and politicians are “afraid of Zionist influence”, and complains of “the Zionist media”.

However he’s merely just an “anti-Zionist” of course...

Anwar al-Awlaki

Anwar al-Awlaki was “our beloved Imam” and “so beloved to our community”

As a member of the ICNA Shariah Council, Suleiman authored a condemnation of senior Al Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki following his praise for the 2009 Fort Hood shooting.

However Suleiman’s condemnation also stated that prior to his release from Yemeni prison in 2007, al-Awlaki had been “our beloved Imam”, “who once seemed so level-headed”, and “was so beloved to our community”. That his arrest “brought many of us into a state of shock and depression”, and he recalled how “ecstatic Muslims around the country” were on news of his release.

For the record, al-Awlaki was hardly a moderate before 2007. In 2002 due to his frequent links to Jihadists, al-Awlaki was added to an early version of what is now the federal terror watch list. In 1998-99 he had served as vice-president for the “Charitable Society of Social Welfare”, an organisation later identified by the FBI as a “front organisation to funnel money to terrorists”. The 9/11 commission report stated two of the hijackers had “reportedly respected [al-Awlaki] as a religious figure and developed a close relationship with him”. He also published articles such as one titled “Why Muslims Love Death” praising Palestinian suicide bombers.

To portray al-Awlaki as being someone who had been up until 2007 “so beloved to our community” is fairly astonishing.

As an aside, Suleiman also praised in that “condemnation” how al-Awlaki “very clearly denounced the attacks of 9/11”, which doesn’t give the whole picture, as he also wrote on 17 September that Israelis may have been responsible for them and that the FBI “went into the roster of the airplanes and whoever has a Muslim or Arab name became the hijacker by default”.

Aid al-Qarni: “one of the greatest scholars and thinkers in the world”

Elsewhere Suleiman has described Saudi cleric Aid al-Qarni as “one of the greatest scholars and thinkers in the world” and “our beloved teacher”. This is a man on the US “do not fly list” and has a long record of extreme statements.

According to MEMRI in 2004 al-Qarni praised Hamas co-founder Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi and criticised Muslims who are “incapable of taking action, of being useful, of harming the Jews” and said “I pray to Allah […] he will destroy the Jews and their helpers from among the Christians and the communists and that he will turn them into the Muslims’ spoils”.

He then moved onto praising jihadist opposition to American troops in Iraq stating “I praise Jihad, sacrifice, and resistance against the occupiers in Iraq. We curse them, all of them, every night and pray that Allah will annihilate them, tear them apart, and grant us victory over them”. Plus that “the Jihad in Fallujah is a source of pride […] downing their planes, destroying equipment, slaughtering them, taking them hostage, and proclaiming 'Allah Akbar' from the mosques”.

Before finally finishing off his tirade violently by saying “throats must be slit and skulls must be shattered this is the path to victory, to shahada, and to sacrifice”.

Video: Aid al-Qarni on jihad against Jews and American troops 

Furthermore al-Qarni is also on record saying “women driving cars is a sinful thing” arguing the consequences of allowing it in Saudi Arabia would include “the spread of corruption, women uncovering their hair and faces, mingling between the sexes, men being alone with women and the destruction of the family and society in whole”. He’s also referred to Jews as “the brothers of apes and pigs” and compared them to Hitler.

Reminder this is a guy Suleiman says he regards as “one of the greatest scholars and thinkers in the world” ...

“How awesome is this!”

Suleiman also ecstatically posted “how awesome is this!” in reaction to al-Qarni and a Kuwaiti preacher Muhammad Al-Awadi sharing one of his videos. There isn’t much online about Al-Awadi in English, but a brief search of his Twitter shows he posts images from the anti-Semitic holocaust denying lunatic “conspiracy artist” David Dees of a Jewish octopus around the White House.

Others who Suleiman has celebrated “how awesome” it is they are sharing his videos include Syrian preacher Mohammed Rateb al-Nabulsi, who has reportedly written on his website “all the Jewish people are combatants”, that “the wicked Jews are a collection of defects and imperfections, and a hotbed of evils [...] the worst enemies of God”, plus endorsed suicide bombings.

As well as Saudi preacher Salman al-Ouda, who was recorded by MEMRI in 2012 saying “the role of the Jews is wreak destruction, to wage war, and to practice deception and extortion” and promoting the Jewish blood libel.

Video: Salman al-Ouda on Jews, the holocaust, and drinking human blood

Suleiman seems to be a big fan of this man as he has posted videos and quotes from him numerous times, refers to him along with another well-known anti-Semitic Islamist Yusuf al-Qaradawi as “true scholars”, and gave him a “special note of thanks” for “inspiring” some of his work.

Both al-Nabulsi and al-Ouda were recently in May banned as hate preachers from entering Denmark.

“No one is more beloved to me than my teachers”

According to a biography of Suleiman, he also “sought knowledge and studied” under Salah al-Sawy and Hatem al-Haj, who are both scholars on the “Fatwa Committee” at the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America.

Among the contributions to AMJA from al-Sawy include stating that repentance for insulting Allah or His Messenger “shall not be accepted” or “lift up the set punishment” of execution because the Prophet is” not alive to practice his right to forgive” and “no Muslim is ever entitled or authorizes to forgive on the Prophet’s behalf”.

On the topic of Islamic law al-Sawy preaches that “not ruling by Shari`ah is the reason for all that the Ummah is afflicted with […] misfortune, neediness, adversity and disaster” and that “if only they would uphold the Book of Allah and apply His Divine Law […] Allah would remove from them the humiliation which has enveloped generations and which has grabbed them by the throat”. He also bemoans that “the Devil” has “deceived them into believing that the Shari`ah is not appropriate for every time and place” and that “applying the hudud” is “harsh and barbarous”.

He has also stated the situation in Gaza should be used by Muslims to “revive the obligation of jihad”. His answer to somebody asking about FGM is that it is “neither obligatory nor rejected” but is “considered an honourable thing for females” and that “it is good if you do it”.

Suleiman eulogises al-Sawy saying “I have not seen anyone in the West who parallels his knowledge” in a video urging Muslims to study under him, and posted a picture grinning alongside him saying “After Allah, His Messenger, and my family, no one is more beloved to me than my teachers”.

Video: Suleiman eulogises Salah al-Saawy and urges Muslims to study under him

As for Hatem al-Haj, who is best known for a controversy around him advocating “female genital cutting”, his contribution to AMJA includes fatwas saying the punishment for apostasy is death. Suleiman also refers to al-Haj as “my mentor and beloved teacher”.

Additionally AMJA have other fatwas such as one responding to a question about whether there “is such a thing as marital rape?” which states “as for the issue of forcing a wife to have sex, if she refuses, this would not be called rape” and “there is a great sin upon the wife who refuses”. Suleiman endorses this group as “a very qualified fatwa issuing body” and has forwarded people towards them for advice.

Suleiman with Abu Eesa Niamatullah
and Muhammad Alshareef

The Al Maghrib Institute

Suleiman also works an “instructor” at the ultra hardline Islamist Al Maghrib Institute, which is led by its founder and president Muhammad Alshareef, who’s authored a paper titled “Why the Jews are cursed” and endorsed stoning as a punishment for adultery among many other things.

Also among Suleiman’s colleagues at Al Maghrib include Kamal El Mekki, who has stated his belief that drug dealers should be beheaded, thieves have hands cut off, and described why apostates are killed in an Islamic state.

Abdullah Hakim Quick, who decries “filthy” Jews and kaffirs, and pushed hatred towards gays calling them “sick” and referencing the Islamic position being “death”, along with apparently some wacky New World Order theories.

Abu Eesa Niamatullah, who has a record of advocating Sharia law, complained of advances in gay rights, pushed the death penalty as punishment for blasphemy, plus expressed extremely anti-Semitic, misogynistic views, and regards liberal secular Muslims as a kind of fifth column.

Abdul Nasir Jangda, described by Suleiman as “awesome” and “a beautiful person”, who defends Islamic slavery, and teaches people drinking alcohol publicly should be beaten; thieves have hands cut off, and advises on when adulterers or apostates should be killed.

Suleiman with Yasir Qadhi

Then there is of course Yasir Qadhi, the best known figure from Al Maghrib with numerous vile views on the topics such as homosexuality and barbaric punishments.

Suleiman has referred to all of these as people as “my dearest Teachers and Brothers” and promoted their articles, videos, or speaking events, and posted grinning photos alongside them on social media hundreds of times.

Praise for various other Islamists

Others from the American Islamist circuit Suleiman has praised include Siraj Wahhaj, who has a 30 plus year record of espousing vile views including endorsing various hudud punishments such as lashes for drinking alcohol, stoning adulterers, or chopping off the hands of thieves, and also a big supporter of notorious anti-Semitic lunatic Louis Farrakhan.

Plus Wahhaj has ties to actual jihadists having served as a character witness for Omar Abdel-Rahman (aka “The Blind Sheikh” convicted of a terror attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 that killed 6 people and injured thousands) where he called him a “respected scholar” and “bold, as a strong preacher of Islam”. He’s also been recorded asking for donations for the Benevolence International Foundation, an Al-Qaeda front which was designated in 2002 as a “financier of terrorism”.

Audio: Siraj Wahhaj on stoning, lashing, and chopping off hands.

Suleiman calls Wahhaj “my beloved Imam” and a “legend”, plus said “every time I meet him I feel like a little child meeting his hero [...] he is truly the Imam of America”, and encouraged his followers to attend his events or “get a hold of some of those old Imam Siraaj Wahhaj tapes and Abdullah Hakim Quick tapes!”

Then there’s Jamal Badawi, who has for decades expressed his belief in Islam’s superiority to “man-made law”, and repeatedly spoken in support of Palestinian terrorism. Suleiman praises him (along with Siraj Wahhaj and Abdullah Hakim Quick) “for inspiring so many people to dedicate themselves to the cause of Allah”.

Suleiman also seems to like Bilal Philips, who endorses the killing of apostates, and other hudud punishments, says there is no such thing as rape in marriage, and is banned from entering numerous countries. He’s tweeted “give my salaam to him”, and attacked an article critical of Philips urging his followers “to write to the paper expressing your dissatisfaction with their biased reporting” (for the record the article in question merely seems to be quoting the awful things he’s said about homosexuals).

Suleiman with Ismail Menk

And Ismail Menk, a gay bashing cleric who says they are worse than “the dogs and the pigs”, plus also defends hudud punishments such as for adultery (“the Sharia says such a person should be stoned to death, that is there, there is no doubt, no debate”), preaches that music is haram (“there is no scholar on earth who allows you to listen to Beyoncé or Michael Jackson”), and promotes gender segregation, and is friendly with various reknowned extremists including Zakir Naik. However Menk is described by Suleiman as “a wonderful individual and great scholar” and “who embodies love and peace in so many ways”.

The British Islamist circuit

Suleiman has praised some of the vilest figures on the British Islamist circuit too. He describes Hamza Tzortzis, a Hizb ut-Tahrir linked Islamist who has endorsed apostasy and blasphemy punishments, as “awesome” and promoted his classes, posted “beautiful” speeches from Haitham al-Haddad one of the ugliest Islamist preachers in the country, posts pictures grinning alongside Zahir Mahmood who is known for praising Hamas “as freedom fighters”, and of course he’s a supporter of Moazzam Begg and his despicable Caliphate advocating group CAGE.

 

The Aafia movement

Finally Suleiman is also a supporter of Aafia Siddique (another cause that unites the worst of Islamists), named by the FBI as “an Al Qaeda operative and facilitator” and serving an 86 year prison sentence for an attempted terror attack. Suleiman has posted Facebook messages that he is “praying for Dr. Aafia Siddique to be freed”, and has forwarded petitions from the “Aafia movement” (whose site is full of the same sort of foul anti-Semitic ramblings Siddique herself was known for) urging people to sign it.

The Yaqeen Institute

Suleiman is President of the “Yaqeen Institute” a think tank he founded last year. It has already published dubious content via their scholar Jonathan Brown on the topics of apostasy, hudud punishments, and sex slavery as referenced above.

Also listed as part of the Yaqeen Institute team are one of the world’s best known Islamists Tariq Ramadan (recently in the news for criticising critics of FGM), and another very well known figure Dalia Mogahed.

Also there’s Hatem el-Haj from AMJA (see above). Hatem Bazian who’s social media feed asks questions like “should Jews have to pay reparations for slavery?”, speculates Benjamin Netanyahu might have been behind terrorist attacks in France, and has been involved in numerous controversies around anti-Semitism over many years. And Mohammad Elshinawy, who thinks women who don’t wear the hijab will be condemned to hell fire and are likely to get breast cancer.

Another Islamist Daniel Haqiqatjou, who frequently complains of gay rights and also endorses hand chopping and other hudud punishments, has contributed to the think tank too. These are the people Suleiman hand picked for his “Yaqeen Institute”.

[Note: Suleiman has a habit of deleting relevant tweets or posts when attention is drawn to them. If something is missing try searching for the URL on archive is.]