There is much to criticise about the pro-Islam policies of the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and in particular their continued funding of the mendacious grievance mongering taqiyya artists of the Tell Mama organisation. There’s also a lot to criticise about some of the projects that they’ve funded many of which do not benefit the nation as a whole but only benefit the noisy and and often obnoxious and arrogant Islamic community. However, I had high hopes that Sajid Javid, the DCLG Secretary of State, would do the right thing where the ‘Palestine Expo’ event was concerned and ban this event from using the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster for their anti Israel hate-fest.

Mr Javid had previously said that he would look into about the ‘Palestine Expo’ but according to the blog Harry’s Place, the event is still going ahead despite Mr Javid voicing concerns. It appears that Mr Javid’s seemingly critical comments about the nature of ‘Palestine Expo’ were so much meaningless hot air. Like so many other government ministers Mr Javid will not stand up to Islamic interests even when they are represented by the organiser of the ‘Palestine Expo’ the odious Ismail Patel of the Friends of Al Aqsa group.

The ‘Palestine Expo’ is a full on anti Israel hate festival where dangerous Islamic hate preachers are given full reign to pump out their bile including one Imam who gleefully quotes the views on Jews promulgated by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Here is part of an excellent article by the writer ‘Habibi’ from the Harry’s Place blog detailing the sort of Islamic hate preachers who are welcome at a conference centre controlled by Mr Javid’s department.

Habibi said:

When Ismail Patel and his Friends of al-Aqsa group organise a conference on Palestine, one can be confident that the speakers will be suitable for the cause. Namely, hating Israel and loving Hamas. This is Mr Patel’s lifelong mission.

Sure enough, the prominent South African preacher Ebrahim Bham is on the bill for Mr Patel’s Palestine Expo, which will be held next weekend at the QE II Centre in Westminster.

Mr Bham’s preaching record shows that he is a perfect match for Mr Patel.

The Israeli People? Nazis!
In a sermon on Israel, Bham knows exactly where to turn. Tell people the Israelis are like the Nazis. First he quotes Goebbels:

“People tell me that Jews are human beings. Yes, I know they are human beings. Just as fleas are also animals. Just as fleas are also animals, they are also part of human beings like that.”

Those words, he then says, explain Israelis today:

Using that example, the psyche of the whole people seems to be to mete out the very same treatment to others the way was meted out toward them. And that seems to be the psyche. That they don’t regard Palestinians as human beings.

Note the slur on the entire Israeli people rather than a politician, a party, or the IDF.

Rightly, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) includes “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” as one example of anti-Semitism in its working definition.

Our government has formally adopted the IHRA working definition.

Furthermore, Bham says, it is the “nature” of the Israelis that makes a two state solution impossible:

The reason they will not agree to it, it bounds them to a certain boundary and they are by nature expansionists who do not want to be bounded by a certain boundary. Because when they have a boundary, they can’t expand, they have to accept it.

Bham doesn’t have it in for Israelis alone. Oh no. All Jews and Christians are agents of Satan, he says in another sermon:

For us to expect otherwise, or to try and appease the Americans or the Western world is naïve in the extreme. The Qur’an tells us “the Yahood [Jews] and the Nasara [Christians] will never be pleased with you.” You can never appease them until you follow their religion, their way of life, and we are not prepared to do that. We will never be able to do that. It is naïve to expect otherwise.

Then secondly, the aims, the objectives, the goals of Islam are completely opposed to what they believe, are completely opposed to their dreams, objectives and goals. So they are fulfilling their evil urges. They are fulfilling their evil urges, acting as agents of Shaytaan [Satan] in employing instruments, methods and plots against Islam and the Muslims.

Bham repeatedly uses the disparaging term kuffar for disbelievers in this sermon and concludes with a call to “instil fear in the hearts of your enemies and the enemies of Islam and the Muslims”.

Proud Support For Harsh Sharia Punishments
As for Muslims, they need to be kept in line by way of brutality. In another sermon, Bham tells Muslims they must stand up for the harshest sharia punishments and see opponents of sharia as nothing but haters to be rejected:

We need to be careful because there are attempts made to win over your heart and mind. So thus, through the means of very slick propaganda and very slick slogans, sometimes when it comes with regard to the hudud, the laws of almighty Allah, the penal law, cut the hand of the thief, stone the adulterer and the adulterers who are married, we should make no apology with regard to it.

We should never allow someone to say that “no, this is wrong because it deprives, it’s deprivation of human rights”. Never! Maybe it not practised for whatever reason, but we believe it is a command of Allah, it is full of wisdom. Don’t let them ever tell you, make you say, that this is barbaric. If you have said that, then they have won over your heart and mind also. Don’t ever let that happen. Don’t give them your mind. Because they cannot take it until you give it to them.

And so on and so on it goes We read a lot in the Harry’s Place article about Ebrahim Bham, his support for Shariah Hudud punishments and his invective about Jews and Christians. Bham is also a supporter of jihad and although he uses weasel words to try to distance himself from the murder of civilians and disagrees with the ISIS group, he cannot bring himself to say that violent Jihad itself is wrong. Bham is also a supporter of the idea of a Caliphate.

Habibi continues:

Bham does say he opposes Islamic State. However, his message is part of the problem: he insists that Muslims must stand up for the concept of jihad. In a 2015 sermon against Islamic State, he says:

Now, jihad is a tower in the castle of Islam. We can never, ever deny the aspect of jihad. Jihad is something that is part and parcel of Islamic teachings. For the sake of being politically correct, we can say “no, we don’t believe in jihad”. But then you will be doing an injustice to your religion. And our religion has clearly made mention with regard to the fact that jihad is part and parcel.
…
Islam makes no hypocritical apology that there is sometimes a need to go for war.
…
Allah has given you permission to fight because you have been oppressed.

Bham does go on to stress that there are many rules for jihad, including a prohibition of killing non-combatants. Nonetheless, backing any divine sanction for jihad is perilous in these times.

Moreover, his “traditional” interpretation does underpin widespread religious support for Palestinian terrorist groups and al-Qaeda jihadis who have attacked Western troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Islamic State is not the only issue here.

In addition, Bham speaks up for the idea of a caliphate later in the sermon:

There was a time when the caliphate was a central leadership. Who doesn’t aspire to be under a central leadership where people are not carved out by the way the Sykes-Picot had carved out people in unnatural borders, but carved out on the basis of the commonality of your faith? Who wouldn’t want that? That you come together on the basis of the Kalima La Ilaha Illa Allah [the words there is no God but God] and you choose a person who is the most worthy to lead you. Who wouldn’t want that particular situation, the centrality of leadership of believers? It is something that each and every one will aspire to.

Bham has also made dishonest statements to the effect that Israel is committing genocide and has backed the genuine genocidal nutjobs of Hamas.

Habibi added:

Another statement in 2014 included a ludicrous and hateful genocide accusation and supported Hamas:

The on-going attacks on Gaza have for the umpteenth time demonstrated Zionists’ genocidal intentions of annihilating the Palestinians in general and people of Gaza, in particular.
…
Yet, Hamas, a movement that is very much part of the Palestinian society and in the forefront of the resistance to the occupation and brutal attacks from the Zionists, is expected to agree to any kind of humiliating terms of a settlement as if Palestinian rights are abridgeable.
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Going forward, both al Sisi and Netanyahu will have to recognise Hamas as a popular representative voice of Palestinians. Any settlement without Hamas is incomplete and the continued massacre of innocent civilians under the pretext of degrading Hamas’ capabilities for armed resistance will only count as war crimes for Tel Aviv.

The article by Habibi goes on to detail Bham’s criticism of anti terror warnings and how he has promoted conspiracy theories about how the West created ISIS in order to attract potential jihadis.

All in all Bham is a deeply unpleasant and dangerous character who is being allowed entry to the UK in order to promote his particular brand of Islamic anti-Semitic rhetoric. All this at the same time as opponents of Islam and the more egregious aspects of this ideology such as Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller are excluded from the UK. It should be noted at this point that Mr Spencer and Ms Geller were banned from the UK in large part because of the encouragement of Fiyaz Mughal of the Faith Matters and Tell Mama organisations, organisations that have been in receipt of much taxpayer largesse from Mr Javid’s department. Sadly it seems that there are few if any individuals connected to the DCLG who were prepared to speak up against Bham and the ‘Palestine Expo’ even though this individual and this event is far more dangerous to the security of the nation and of its citizens than Ms Geller and Mr Spencer ever could be.

Habibi concluded his article, which I would strongly advise reading in full, with this statement:

I would really like to have a “difficult conversation” with Sajid Javid. He had suggested he would deny the QE II venue to Palestine Expo. Then he relented and the event is scheduled to go ahead in the heart of Westminster, with Mr Bham in attendance.

I guess enough is never enough.

What sticks in my craw about the ‘Palestine Expo’ is the evidence it throws up of a double standard that is employed when it comes to Islamic groups promoting hatred and violent hatred against Jews and against Israel. These Islamists and their handmaidens and supporters are indulged whilst conservatively minded non Muslims are punished and excluded. According to a below the line comment made by Habibi on the Harry’s Place article, a Christian conference that was planned by the Christian Concern group was earlier this year banned from using the QEII centre because the group opposes gay marriage.

Habibi added in his comment:

And what happens when conservative Christians book the QE II Centre? This:

However, on May 22, the day before the rearranged conference was due to take place, the centre’s chief executive, Ernest Vincent, told Christian Concern he was cancelling the event.

According to the legal documents, he said it was ‘inappropriate’ and when pressed added that certain comments on the WCF website were contrary to the centre’s diversity policies. The website describes marriage between men and women as the ‘sole moral context for natural sexual union’.

Double standards, anyone?

It is indeed a double standard. It seems under Sajid Javid’s stewardship of the DCLG all manner of violently minded Islamic nutjobs can use government buildings such as the QEII centre to promote hatred of Jews and hatred of Islam, but Christians who peacefully object to the concept of gay marriage are banned from the building. I ask you what is worse, supporters of the genocidal Hamas group, such as Patel and Bham or peaceable Christians who have a dispute with current government social policy? A reasonable person would say that the genocide supporters are the greater danger but it seems that there is a shortage of reasonable people in positions of influence in the Department of Communities and Local Government. I ask you since when were people like Christina Odone or Philip Blond who were slated to appear at the Christian conference considered as a greater threat than the supporters of Hamas? It appears to be a topsy turvy world of misplaced priorities at the DCLG these days.

It’s plain to see from where I am that the DCLG, like all too many other Government departments, is a swamp that urgently needs draining but I have very little hope that Theresa May’s government has the balls to do that. The Government would much prefer it seems to allow the violent Muslims to promote their equally violent ideas of jihad and hudud punishments than deal with what is now a very serious problem of the large number of supporters of Islamism that have embedded themselves in our governmental system.

The DCLG is not fit for purpose it really isn’t. Instead of regulating the activities of local government, which should be its primary purpose the DCLG has become a trough of funding and support which both mendacious Islamic grievance mongers such as Fiyaz Mughal and the gruesome supporters of Hamas, such as Ismail Patel, both feed from. Sajid Javid could have struck a blow for decency and British values by cancelling the ‘Palestine Expo’ hate-fest but he did not. That should quite rightly anger all those Britons who are justifiably angry at the free pass extremist Islam gets from those who should know better and should be standing up for our rights and not the rights of violent genocidal savages such as Hamas and their supporters.