Stop Abou Jahjah
This is a guest post by habibi
According to this web page, on Monday the “Stop the War Coalition” will hold a meeting at Friends House in London. The meeting is titled “Meet the Resistance – The Struggle for Peace and Justice in the Middle East”.
One of the speakers is Dyad Abou Jahjah. He is one of Continental Europe’s most repugnant extremists. If the government is serious about its anti-extremist banning policy, he should be barred from the UK.
Jahjah grew up in Lebanon. As a teenager, he joined Hezbollah. However, Europe beckoned, as it does for many young Lebanese, and any old trick to get in would do. In fact, when Jahjah ended up in Belgium he employed two ruses – a preposterous claim for asylum and, according to his former wife, a sham marriage:
”Most asylum seekers invent a story and I said I had had a conflict with the Hezbollah leaders,” Mr. Abou Jahjah said. ”It was just a low political trick to get my papers. Now they want to use this against me.”
His marriage to a Belgian woman was brief, but it gave him Belgian citizenship. His wife said later that she was tricked into the marriage and tried unsuccessfully to sue him.
Safely settled in Belgium, he dedicated his political life to division, anger and hatred. In 2000 he formed a pressure group – the Arab European League (AEL). It rapidly became notorious in Belgium for stirring up trouble.
First, let’s get a measure of the man himself. Here he is explaining why being happy about the atrocities of September 11 is actually OK:
Against the natural order of things, in the Arab Ghetto in Brussels, people were smiling. They were out in the streets, exchanging glances with each other as they walked. Even total strangers would nod at one another; there was something different in the air that day. All that joyful display, because on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, a number of planes had crashed into buildings killing some 3000 people. Isn’t it sick, one might wonder, that such a tragic event could ever be perceived this way?
Once someone told me that the toughest meeting a person might ever have to make is with himself. And it was indeed very difficult for us to realise that we are capable of experiencing a feeling of satisfaction at such atrocity. It was very disturbing indeed. We started wondering, “What’s wrong with us?” But faced with this question, almost everybody answered: “Look how low they have brought us. They have been killing us, humiliating us and oppressing us for so long, that we have lost a part of our humanity — that part which cherishes human life unconditionally.”
Here is his view on the Iraqi “resistance”:
Iraq is under occupation and all structures collaborating with that occupation are nothing more or less than collaborators and traitors in the same way the Vichy government was under Nazi occupation of France.
The only representative of the Iraqi people under occupation is the Iraqi resistance in all its factions just like the French resistance was the legitimate representative of the French people under occupation and not the Vichy government.
There’s plenty more out there along those lines, but let’s turn now to Jahjah’s Arab European League. The Nazis are of course a popular rhetorical cudgel for hateful extremists, and the AEL is no exception. During the Mohammed cartoons controversy, it published this cartoon of Anne Frank in bed with Hitler on its web site:
Here’s another indication of just how depraved the AEL is:
A delegation of the Arab European League headed by Brahim Harchaoui met Samir Kuntar, one of the resistance heroes of the Arab homeland.
Samir Kuntar is a despicable child murderer. He joined a terrorist raid in Israel in 1978. He grabbed civilian hostages and then did this to them:
Israeli witnesses said that Kuntar’s group took Danny and Einat down to the beach, where a shootout with Israeli policemen and soldiers erupted. According to the witnesses, when Kuntar’s group found that the rubber boat they’d arrived in was disabled by gunfire, Kuntar shot Danny at close range in the back, in front of his daughter, and drowned him in the sea to ensure he was dead. Next, eyewitnesses said he smashed the head of 4 year-old Einat on beach rocks and crushed her skull with the butt of his rifle
There is more to the AEL than hateful rhetoric. It also engages in violence. Here is an Observer account of the group’s “Arab patrols” in Antwerp:
The patrols meet at eight most weekday evenings on the Turnhoutse Baan, a long, drab tram-lined road that runs into the centre of Antwerp. Muscular young men, many of whom wear traditional Arab headgear, can be seen filing into an unprepossessing internet café long before then.
Outsiders aren’t welcome. ‘Go home before we beat your fucking white ass,’ is how one group of young men greet The Observer.
Passing police cars are bombarded with a barrage of expletives and spittle. When tension was particularly acute last week anyone with a white face was singled out for abuse. White shopkeepers in this largely Moroccan district were dragged from their shops and beaten, and the area became a virtual no-go zone.
And here is a video of an AEL demonstration in Antwerp in late December 2008. “Hamas, jihad, Hezbollah” is the chant. Property was damaged and policemen were injured. At the end of the demonstration, a group of stone-throwers tried to march on Antwerp’s Jewish neighbourhood. Thankfully the police stopped them.
Jahjah himself openly advocates violent demonstrations. This is from his blog:
Now the demonstrations are smaller and therefore in principal less effective. However there is something that makes me think that this time things are a bit different. This time some of these demonstrations have been agitated and even violent. This is a positive evolution, given that it is directed against the right targets like embassies of the Zionist entity and other representative buildings. trying to occupy and close down embassies by force with all what comes with it is the only strategy for confrontation that should be used now.
The “Stop the War Coalition” should be ashamed of itself for inviting such a horrible man to London, and so should Friends House for hosting him.
Still, they may be spared further embarrassment if Jacqui Smith does the right thing and bans Abou Jahjah from this country.
Comments
| 28 March 2009, 2:54 pm |
He seemed so inoffensive in Star Wars Episode 1
| 28 March 2009, 3:02 pm |
Has anyone told the management at Friends House what this chap is like? Perhaps asked their press office for a comment.
| 28 March 2009, 3:08 pm |
Oh, God, not another one.
”Most asylum seekers invent a story and I said I had had a conflict with the Hezbollah leaders,” Mr. Abou Jahjah said. ”It was just a low political trick to get my papers. Now they want to use this against me.”
Yes, those dishonest infidels. “So, I lied, and now they want me to be liable for lying. It was just an honest low lie. I lied in order to gain citizenship, and now they want to take away the citizenship that I gained by honest dishonesty. How low will those infidels go?”.
“His wife said later that she was tricked into the marriage”
She thought he was really Brad Pitt?
| 28 March 2009, 3:10 pm |
The alternative to banning him, and others like him, is to put articles like this into the public domain. Argue the point, ruin them, show them for what they are.
No matter how repugnant the thought, it is nobodies place to ban it. If you disagree, as you do, then defeat him, which you have. Look at the effect of John Major removing the gag on Gerry Adams, the silence that protected him was removed.
The problem is that the rest of the media really couldn’t care less and argue the point well enough.
| 28 March 2009, 3:15 pm |
Jon, I have.
| 28 March 2009, 3:27 pm |
Thank you, Habibi, for this and other posts. I don’t have the time to contribute as much as I once did, but would like to express my total support for the clear moral line HP has been taking on such issues over the past few months. In the meantime, enjoy this, from someone else who does moral clarity.
OT, I also came across this quite extraordinary take on the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and the view (thoroughly researched) that Carter engineered it, and that its consequence was that we lost a useful ally and gained a virulent enemy, all in the name of “Human Rights” with all the blowback (radical Islam) we have seen since. Rarely have vindictive good intentions lead so directly to ruin.
| 28 March 2009, 3:29 pm |
“The “Stop the War Coalition” should be ashamed of itself for inviting such a horrible man to London”
But the Stop the War Coalition is completely without the capacity for shame. “Should have their heads kicked in” is surely more appropriate.
| 28 March 2009, 3:29 pm |
Jahjah left Belgium in 2006 so he could return to Lebanon, supposedly to help Hezballah fight Israel. Now he’s back in (the far safer environs of) Belgium, whining and banging away at his keyboard….
| 28 March 2009, 3:34 pm |
surely the most damning evidence as far as entry to the UK is concerned is that provided on a previous thread here- a link to a list of enemies to be destroyed, with the UK on that list. No time right now to track the link.
| 28 March 2009, 3:46 pm |
And when has the stop the war scumbags been anti war ?
Were not some of thier leading lghts calling for Victory to the Vietnamese people, and, oh yes, calling for Military Intervention in South Africa ?
Two faced hypocrits !
GW
| 28 March 2009, 3:46 pm |
And when has the stop the war scumbags been anti war ?
Were not some of thier leading lghts calling for Victory to the Vietnamese people, and, oh yes, calling for Military Intervention in South Africa ?
Two faced hypocrits !
GW
| 28 March 2009, 3:50 pm |
Actually, of course I shouldn’t be calling for people to have their heads kicked in (but are the StWC “people” or zombies?) I’ll change that to “should be hung, drawn and quartered”. Then people would think I was joking. They’d be wrong, mind you….
| 28 March 2009, 3:50 pm |
Theo Van Gogh, a few months before he was murdered, called Jahjah, with whom he was scheduled to debate, “the pimp of the prophet.” Jahjah, his delicate feelings offended, summarily fled the scene, along with his bodyguards (!). The bodyguards threatened that “We’ll finish that pig off”, and “We’re not taking it any longer from that pig”, and we all know what words like that helped to.
Van Gogh’s account, from May 2004 (he was murdered October 2 of the same year):
———————————————————–
Labels Belgium Islamo facist “A pimp of the Prophet”
by Theo Van Gogh translated by Beila Rabinowitz
Metro
May 18, 2004
That was a big deal, last week on Saturday evening in the Amsterdam State Theater.The room erupted after I had called Mr. Dyab Aboe Jah Jah Allah’s chief propagandist for Belgium, a “Pimp of the Prophet”.
The gentleman stood up followed by his posse of pansies in black, who acted as thugs to intimidate the unbelievers. Because I am the epitome of harmony, I called out after Dyab, “Allah knows best!” “Allah knows best”!
After which Mr. Dittrich, (a liberal democrat), stood up and declared that I was an “insolent prick”, and in reply I described him as the “holy unction oil of the liberals”.
In short, the ‘ Happy Chaos’ event had proved to be an enjoyable evening.
Outside, journalist Youri Albrecht attempted to cajole the insulted pimp back to the podium. In the meantime, Mr. Dittrich explained in front of the cameras that he was “in complete solidarity” with the honored guest from Belgium.
A young man with a low forehead with a deep wrinkle which made it hard to discern between Allah and Ground Zero attempted to have Albrecht arrested for assault by two passing policemen.
This was a good foretaste of what we can expect if Mr. Aboe Jah Jah suceeds using democratic means to implement the Shari’a, (Islamic law) . In the meantime his body guards announced, “We’ll finish that pig off”, and, “We’re not taking it any longer from that pig”, which I suspect was in reference to me.
The pig is a kind and intelligent animal and is a lot smarter then the idiots with which Aboe Jah Jah surrounds himself. I took their aversion as a compliment. Mr. Aboe Jah Jah is a religious facist who propagates an apartheid a as virulent as that other “Belgian Misreant”, Mr. Filip de Winter, head of the the nationalist “Flemish Blok’ .Too bad the discussion didn’t continue.
I would have asked Boris if he found Dyab attractive and then would have asked Dyab from which floor he would have thrown Boris as a sodomite. (Being thrown from a window as punishment for homosexuality stipulated in the book ,”The Way of the Muslim” which is the subject of a parlimentary debate regarding it’s being banned in Holland )
And what’s even worse is that Dyab is much too cowardly as the prisoner of his own admirers to hit back with words.
Doesn’ t Allah always provide inspiration ?
Mr. Dittrich was one of the politicians who drank champagne after the Pim Fortuin problem was solved . It was certainly instructive to see how he licked Abu Jah’s Jah’s behind. Let’s hope that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
MIM Note :Pim Fortuyn was a flamboyant Dutch politician who campaigned against the Islamisation of Europe and was assassinated by a Dutch ‘animal rights activist’ before the national election.
The tail wagging in front of the boot of the one who is going to kick him appears to be what Mr. Dittrich understands as dialouge. Dittrich is not interested in the fact that Ayaan Hirsi Ali, as democratically chosen representative, still has to be guarded 24 hours a day from types such as Aboe Jah Jah, who publicly declared that she should “shut her mouth”, and needed to be “locked up”. Dittrich’s understanding for and need to kow tow to the pimps and fanatics of Hamas, and according to me they are a small minority , is partly responsible for the escalating climate of intimidation.
Hundreds of people who were present in the audience that evening expressed their support ,a few showed that with some friends one needs no enemies, others surprised me, and I heard time and time again, ” Be careful !”
Dittrich’s performance was a tasteless Judas kiss from a politician who has a lot of ambition but little talent.
It was very instructive to see the new National Socialists at work.
A stooge. A lackey . An enemy of democracy. Let us reward him with the compassion befitting collaborators.
————————–
| 28 March 2009, 3:50 pm |
Alec, thanks for contacting Friends House. Please let HP know if you receive an answer.
Ami, I think you mean this post, no? Good point.
| 28 March 2009, 3:55 pm |
As always, Habibi presents a clear and meticulously researched profile of yet another despicable hate-monger trying to gain access to the UK.
Surely it would be more efficient to cut out the middle men and just put Habibi in charge of the Home Office…
| 28 March 2009, 4:31 pm |
For the moment, I’d settle for his getting his own log-in, Nursey.
Habibi, if you ask David nicely off-blog, I’m sure he’ll forward you my correspondance (with the same provisos).
| 28 March 2009, 4:45 pm |
OT, I also came across this quite extraordinary take on the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and the view (thoroughly researched) that Carter engineered it, and that its consequence was that we lost a useful ally and gained a virulent enemy, all in the name of “Human Rights” with all the blowback (radical Islam) we have seen since. Rarely have vindictive good intentions lead so directly to ruin.
State dinner, Tehran – January 31st, 1997: US president Jimmy Carter toasts the shah as “an island of stability” in the Middle East.
Doesn’t really sound like the comment of a man seeking to overthrow the Shah.
| 28 March 2009, 4:46 pm |
Habibi, yes that is the hit list.
| 28 March 2009, 4:50 pm |
“Alec, thanks for contacting Friends House. Please let HP know if you receive an answer.”
I once tried persuading the Quakers that perhaps they shouldn’t be hosting sessions by the School of Economic Science (ridiculous, but actually quite nasty, cult). I got absolutely nowhere. Good luck!
| 28 March 2009, 5:01 pm |
Why doesn’t Belgium just strip him of his citizenship? Why is that so difficult seeings he obtained it through fraudulent means?
And it’s depressing that only a Far Right party is willing to do anything about this nutjob.
| 28 March 2009, 5:32 pm |
It’s incredible that the Stop the War Coalition would think that a cretin like this would have anything credible or necessary to say about “The Struggle for Peace and Justice in the Middle East”
Here’s Jahjah, from March 2, 2008, on his bloggy blog, calling for liquidation of anybody who supports Israel:
What is happening in Gaza is not a simple escalation, the Israelis are speaking of inflicting “Holocaust” on the Palestinians. They finally have admitted themselves that what the Europeans have done to them is what they intend to try on the Palestinians. This Holocaust is Nevertheless ongoing since 1948… But maybe now that they are calling things by their names some people might wake up.
The final battle is coming, Israel has to vanish and not be recognised, any body supporting Israel has to be liquidated and not debated, the conflict should be open and not restricted, no other way is anymore possible.
The only answer is resistance, and not tears, that final battle is coming, who is not with us, is against us, it’s as simple as that, because the Zionists and their allies have made it that simple. This is Armageddon!!!
———
Got that, Freedom House? Liquidation, not debate.
| 28 March 2009, 5:43 pm |
Here are some of the AEL’s views on other topics:
‘Abou Jah Jah and the AEL’s platform show that Muslims view integration as a form of discrimination.
. “We have three basic demands,” he says. “Bilingual education for Arab-speaking kids, hiring quotas that protect Muslims, and the right to keep our cultural customs. For example, there should be laws that prevent discrimination against women who wear the veil.”
We want to warn Antwerp’s Jewish community in its entirety to be on its guard. The community’s support for Israel is no secret,” Ahmed Azzuz, head of the AEL in Belgium told the Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique.
“The AEL calls on the Jewish community in Antwerp to cease its support of, and distance itself from, the state of Israel. If not, attacks in Antwerp are almost unpreventable..” ‘
| 28 March 2009, 5:47 pm |
Jeremy Stangroom said:”I once tried persuading the Quakers that perhaps they shouldn’t be hosting sessions by the School of Economic Science (ridiculous, but actually quite nasty, cult). I got absolutely nowhere. Good luck!”
I admire Quakers and have Quaker friends but sometimes I think they are so open minded there brains have fallen out. Inviting Jahjah here is a slap in the face for democratic ideals and politics. I’ve always respected the Quaker work for democracy and justice so why on earth are they giving a platform to genocidal fascists? It goes against all Quaker ideals as I know them.
| 28 March 2009, 6:11 pm |
Habibi, thank you for this.
I am appalled that the Friends, who allegedly abhor war and violence, give house room to such a one.
Trundlemaster, I quite agree.
| 28 March 2009, 7:36 pm |
Many thanks to those who found the post interesting. Moves are afoot and if there is any news it will be posted on HP.
I’m genuinely curious about why Friends House hosts so many Islamic extremists. This event is one of many in the genre. In fact, Abou Jahjah has already been there, that time too by way of the “Stop the War Coalition”.
I do support religious people who set out to talk with extremists whom others avoid. Wherever the religious hope to advance peace and reconciliation, that is. I don’t think that is what Friends House London is up to, though.
| 28 March 2009, 7:41 pm |
Ipnh, sorry to be pedantic. The banquet in Tehran where Carter called the country “an island of stability” was on December 31 1977.
| 28 March 2009, 7:48 pm |
Habibi, that link is simply for the upcoming event.
| 28 March 2009, 8:05 pm |
You think it’s IN SPITE of all this he’s invited. I submit it’s BECAUSE.
| 28 March 2009, 8:09 pm |
Oops, my mistake, sorry, so it is.
| 28 March 2009, 8:18 pm |
No, I don’t think it is “in spite” of the record that Jahjah has been invited. Certainly leading activists have no sense of shame.
Remember their attendance at yet another jihadi jamboree, for example,
However, I hope some StWC types who are not very well-informed, or haven’t thought the issues through, or are just seeing things a bit differently these days, will learn about stories like this one and decide to stop participating in StWC events altogether.
| 28 March 2009, 9:03 pm |
At the march today the STWC gave out leaflet re demo G20 on wednesday. 5 Points:1. get the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan 2. End the siege of Gaza-free Palestine 3. create jobs not bombs 4. stop arming Israel 5. Abolish all nukes.
The people giving these leaflets out were all from SWP stalls as far as I could tell. On the basis of this it would seem that the main people behind the STWC are the SWP. Out of 5 points 2 are about the I/P conflict. I asked one SWP member why is there nothing about DR Congo or Sudan or Zimbabwe. His answer was that is “not what we are doing”. It is not suprising. I have been to all the Darfur demonstrations in the last few years and there has never been any sign of the SWP.
Mass killing and rape and they have nothing to say. I am lost for words as to how to describe this group with the words Socialist and workers in their name.
| 28 March 2009, 9:23 pm |
Unfortunately the European Court of Human Rights bars the expulsion of even fraudulent asylum seekers and unabashed terrorists, if they can make up a plausibly sound torture story.
| 28 March 2009, 9:44 pm |
” I am lost for words as to how to describe this group with the words Socialist and workers in their name.”
Dumb narcissistic wankers”?
| 28 March 2009, 10:54 pm |
Politically psychopathic wankers?
| 28 March 2009, 11:08 pm |
From the Guardian coverage of today’s protests: the reporter hangs out with some anarchists: “Hezbollah is also mentioned favourably, a movement they see as developing organically.”Organic” is a key word for anarchists, and it would save a lot of aggro and bad press if they were called organicists rather than anarchists.”
In the Guardian’s preview, under the heading Academics and Intellectuals: Tariq Ali, Alex Callincos [intellectual, yes!] and others were to have met at an alternative G20 summit at the University of East London, but the university cancelled, citing security reasons.
| 29 March 2009, 12:12 am |
Ami -forgive my ignorance, but how exactly does a terrorist group get to be defined as ‘developing organically’?
Is it perhaps something to do with the homegrown qualities of the bovine manure (aka BS) they spout?
| 29 March 2009, 12:57 am |
Interesting Ami mentions above the Guardian interviewing some anarchists from todays protests. In the march there were several groups that appeared to be anarchists. At most there were 200. They were heavily policed and followed by a group of photographers hoping for the conflict pic. The Guardian have a right to interview who they like. But why choose a section of the march who were an insignificant small number. It seemed to me that the largest numbers by far were members of trade unions.
| 29 March 2009, 9:27 am |
Habbibi: excellent post. Next time and every time please give dates. times and email corordinates for action so that we can try and do something about it.
| 31 March 2009, 3:12 am |
So the meeting was held, Abou Jahjah was brilliant and you wankers can now go complain about it hahahahahahahahaha
| 13 April 2009, 2:09 pm |
Abou Jahjah is a monster and an obvious example of Europe’s folly in inviting millions of Muslims to come and be neighbors. But perhaps most disturbing is the complete state of denial that the European press continues to live in. I just watched a video on youtube entitled “Antwerp Muslims – Belgium.” The video shows Mr. Jahjah in all his rhetorical glory but it is Philip Dewinter, the Flemish politician, that the video points out is spreading “Fear and Hate.” I suppose the European press thinks Abou Jahjah is spreading around warm muffins and honey. I do hope the Europeans come to their senses before the upcoming wave of European Muslim youths decide to arm themselves. Things could get dicey if people ever wake up to find ten million Jihadist firing RPG’s in Europe’s capital cities.
Well researched Habibi, but this:
Dyad Abou Jahjah
…needs to be corrected to this:
Diab/Dyab Abu/Abou Jahjah
He’s listed as Dyab Abou Jahjah @Wikipedia and this variant seems to glean the most results. Perhaps add his Arabic name in parentheses (دياب أبو جهجه) for those who want to investigate further.