Sabah al Mukhtar: Troofer
Sabah al Mukhtar is one of two trustees of George Galloway’s “Viva Palestina” Hamas support operation.
In March Galloway called him “my right hand” in the Gaza give-money-to-Hamas escapade.
Their relationship goes back to the 1990s. Notably, al Mukhtar was vice president of Galloway’s Mariam Appeal.
In April I covered al Mukhtar’s enthusiasm for the contemporary value of “The Protocols of The Elders of Zion”, a notorious antisemitic hoax.
He expressed those views in an interview with Daryl Bradford Smith, an antisemitic lunatic.
Here he is in another interview with Smith, recorded in 2005. This time al Mukhtar dares to speak the troof about September 11:
The events have been so beyond the capability of quote unquote Al Qaeda, this myth which we have created. There are terrorist acts, but the idea that there is this super duper power which is there which is beyond the ability of the United States of America and the NATO and all sorts of other things can just never be right and can never be swallowed.
If we look at the events of the actual downing of the buildings at the World Trade Centre, this is beyond the ability of some individuals. It doesn’t matter how much they are trained. You know, the idea that they’ve done this because they had hand knives in their hands? Come on, tell me another one.
You can listen to the whole tape here. That segment starts at 25:23. There’s another entertaining bit starting at 38:10, where al Mukhtar congratulates Smith for his “important station” and says he recommends it to friends. “This is the station to listen to”. Remember, al Mukhtar is talking about the internet crankery of Daryl Bradford Smith.
Al Mukhtar is another British Islamist who has supported the murder of British troops. In July 2005 he attended a conference of Iraqis in Beirut. The conference delegates issued a call which concludes with this:
We hail the patriotic forces that are leading the valiant armed resistance to the occupation, and are hoisting the banner of Iraq high and its soul intact. We hail, too, the other patriotic forces that daily confront one of the most brutal occupiers known in history and are sparing no blood or sacrifice in this historic confrontation.
Indeed, not even the horrific lynching of four American security guards in Fallujah in 2004 moved the man:
[Miriam O'Callaghan:] That was a report from Donagh Diamond. I am now joined from London by Sabah al-Mukhtar, who is an Iraqi lawyer. Sabah al-Mukhtar, can anything justify the killings yesterday in Faluja?
Sabah al-Mukhtar (President, Arab League of Lawyers, London): Well, there are two things. First of all its a horrendous scene to be seen. However we must understand that a week ago the Americans killed fifteen people, fifteen civilians in Faluja. And a year ago Rumsfeld was talking about shock and awe. And the shock and awe wasn’t directed at only four or five or six soldiers. It was -
- Miriam O’Callaghan: Let me just come back in there for one moment, Sabah al-Mukhtar. Sorry for cutting across you. I mean it’s sounding to me like you aren’t condemning what happened yesterday.
Sabah al-Mukhtar: Well certainly I’m not condemning it. It’s a resistance movement. It shouldn’t have taken the form it has taken. But use of force by the Americans, by any occupying force, must be met by force if people had the -
- Miriam O’Callaghan: Sabah al-Mukhtar, how can you call it resistance when you get four civilians mutilated, decapitated, burned, beaten with bars, hung from bridges. I mean that just grotesquely irresponsible of you, isn’t it?
Sabah al-Mukhtar: Of course it is grotesque pictures to see. But probably you would have forgotten the 10,000 civilians who were scorched to death, you have forgotten the thousands of people who were mutilated, all they were called collateral damage, they were not intended victims. We seem to forget all these things. This world we’re living in is not a very nice world. Whether you kill four and mutilate them or you kill fifty and mutilate them, or tens of thousands of people. This is the world we are living in. But at the end of the day this is an occupying force -
Nor does Nick Berg’s fate merit a harsh call on his murderers:
Regarding contractors, they may be civilians in their normal lives, but they are under the command of the military and they have no immunity in international law. International law provides immunity for civilians who are not connected with the military occupying force. This is also granted to journalists and humanitarian aid workers such as the Red Cross, but most certainly not to those who are working under the orders of the military.
This is in general terms. Looking at the situation in Iraq, those who have come with the occupying forces, such as the four who were killed in Fallujah, are mercenaries who are contracted by the occupying power. They are legitimate targets for the resistance to the occupation.
…
I don’t know whether the video is genuine or not. It looked to me as if it is genuine. In terms of its implications, there are at least two extreme reactions to it. The first reaction is that it is abhorrent and unacceptable behavior. And the other extreme is that it is a punishment directed at the Americans as a reaction to their crimes.The first extreme point of view may result in hardening attitudes in the West and making people angry and claiming that is what they are fighting, i.e. terrorism. The other attitude would be based on the fact that such an action will make many people who would have otherwise worked for the occupying forces hesitant and reluctant to do so, and would serve as a warning for others that those involved with the occupying forces will be dealt with severely.
Between these two extremes, there are certainly a variety of other views. I personally think that while I disapprove of the beheading of this man, I think it will create fear in the hearts of those who would have otherwise gone to Iraq. I also think this will certainly not make the Iraqi situation any worse, as the situation is so bad at the moment that the Americans and the British and the rest cannot make it any worse.
Here at home in the UK, watch him play the violence card for his causes in a note to the Telegraph:
Condoning or justifying Israel’s action turn ordinary people to other means to be heard. Remember Lord Scarman Report on “Inner City Rioting”. Especially when they witness the impotence or de facto culpability of our Government that follows an “Ethical Foreign Policy” !
Pprevention of violent extremism and lack of civic participation will no doubt suffer when the British Government does not explicitly and unequivocally condemned the Israeli action as an act of ’state terrorism’. Especially, after the slaughter of almost 1000 innocent Palestinians and almost 3000 injured in Gaza by the Israeli Government, which incidentally has an overwhelming support of the Israeli public !
Sabah al Mukhtar and his supporters should be treated no better than BNP thugs.
Comments
| 13 July 2009, 12:11 am |
You know, the idea that they’ve done this because they had hand knives in their hands? Come on, tell me another one.
Hmmm. You hold a knife to the throat of a flight attendant, gain access to the cockpit, slit the throats of the crew, and fly the aircraft into a building. Is that so hard?
| 13 July 2009, 12:12 am |
Well-researched as usual, Habibti, but:
Sabah al Mukhtar and his supporters should be treated no better than BNP thugs.
…I don’t agree with this. It’s neither helpful nor practical to lump BNP supporters who espouse violence or incite it together with Islamists who call for or condone attacks on British troops and civilians.
Arabs like al-Mukhtar who abuse their freedom to live in the UK make me especially angry because they would never dream of making such public announcements anywhere in the Middle East.
| 13 July 2009, 12:30 am |
Stories like this are the reason why people are listening to BNP’s message.
| 13 July 2009, 12:56 am |
That’s okay. I’ve just been associating with a holocaust denier in our local party branch. In fact he is the president of it. He is a Muslim, who I at first thought was a fairly moderate one. But then today he expressed concern that people don’t recognize the good things that the Taleban does. He said there were no drug problems under the Taleban. When I said that people said similar things about the Nazis, this didn’t at all bother him. He seemed to assume that I had also been a victim of unfair propaganda about the Nazi, and said as if it was something that everyone but me understood that there’s no real proof that there were gas chambers. Another member of the branch came by and corrected him on the matter, but I was the only one that was shocked. For them it was a purely academic discussion. In fairness, though, I don’t really think he is a bad person. I think he is simply listen to what was said in his mosque too much. Fascism is mainstream now, it doesn’t even raise eyebrows. This guy is on a parish council and a pillar of the community.
| 13 July 2009, 1:35 am |
Indeed, not even the horrific lynching of four American security guards in Fallujah in 2004 moved the man
I wonder at your effrontery in even mentioning Fallujah, Habibi.
| 13 July 2009, 1:45 am |
I wonder at your effrontery in even mentioning Fallujah, Habibi.
But about none of the other information in this post, apparently.
| 13 July 2009, 3:26 am |
Give that man a seat in Parliament. You can never have enough retarded and crazy.
| 13 July 2009, 6:21 am |
‘one of the most brutal occupiers known in history’
These people clearly don’t know much about the history of brutal occupations.
| 13 July 2009, 6:28 am |
Well done habibi for exposing this obscene person and his associates.
| 13 July 2009, 7:03 am |
Another member of the branch came by and corrected him on the matter, but I was the only one that was shocked.
By `party branch’ I assume you mean `of a left wing party’. I’m not sure if it’s the left itself is up for some holocaust denial, or if the racism of low expectations means that Muslims aren’t expected to know any better. Either way, it’s disgusting.
| 13 July 2009, 7:59 am |
Why is it that WE understand that Gaza’s plight is self-inflicted by Hamas using its civilians as human shields in a war they started with 6.000+ missiles and rockets, which were breaches of a ceasefire and which both Egypt and Israel asked Hamas to stop or there would be dire consequences?
But they don’t?
| 13 July 2009, 8:03 am |
BTW, I meant to add that someone at Fatah has been stupid enough to articulate what we also ALL know – but they won’t acknowledge. The goal of Fatah and Hamas is NOT to get a Palestinian State in West Bank & Gaza but to get one that includes Israel http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/026904.php#respond
(Then I read that Solano says a Palestinian State should simply be recognised within a fixed time-frame and today the UK put a partial arms embargo on Israel ) The Dhimmis are anxious to placate.
| 13 July 2009, 8:37 am |
“By `party branch’ I assume you mean `of a left wing party’. I’m not sure if it’s the left itself is up for some holocaust denial, or if the racism of low expectations means that Muslims aren’t expected to know any better. Either way, it’s disgusting.”
It’s actual one that is supposed to be centrist. The good old UK Lib Dems, who from their anti-Iraq war stance attracted a lot of people who aren’t liberal in any sense of the word, just Muslim. And they send out target mailings to them, because they can’t afford now to lose them. And pretty soon nobody will know what small L liberal even means. They will think it means Islamist.
| 13 July 2009, 9:31 am |
Lauren -one of my local Lib Dem party members and also a councillor organised a ‘we are all Hizbollah now’ demo here in july 2006 and several anti-Israeli demos this last january. He happens to be an Iranian emigre, but I put the politics down to the Lib Dem attitudes towards Israel rather than his origins. Having acquired a copy of the Lib Dem resolutions regarding Israel from their 2006 conference, I proposed a meeting with my (many) local Lib Dem councillors to put them straight on a few points. They weren’t up for meeting an actual Israeli.
| 13 July 2009, 9:33 am |
“Well certainly I’m not condemning it. It’s a resistance movement..”
This is mainstream chat.
The only difference is most Labour activists dont sound so unhinged.
Same stuff though.
| 13 July 2009, 9:42 am |
Spectrum -Solana’s suggestion is a very worrying and short-sighted development, guaranteed to stoke the fires of the conflict and perpetuate it ad infinitum.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443786047&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
It reeks of smug European self-satisfaction and superiority to me. I certainly hope that the rest of his partners are a little more sensible.
| 13 July 2009, 9:50 am |
I was once a regular Liberal/LibDem supporter who liked the way their councillors got things done. Then there was a local election where they decided to focus on the war in Iraq. So I voted for a local independent whom I knew and trusted. At the last European elections, they didn’t even mention Europe in their PEBs (To be fair nor did Labour and the Tories only devoted a couple of sentences to it). Then there is Baroness Tonge etc. I remain a liberal but am firmly ex-LibDem.
| 13 July 2009, 10:15 am |
“This is mainstream chat.
The only difference is most Labour activists dont sound so unhinged.
Same stuff though.”
That’s it exactly. The Lib Dems are the same way. And our local Tory PPC isn’t much if any better. But the LDFI want me to stay and help them fight. Holocaust denial is not what I grew up to expect at least in a US mainstream party. I can’t even imagine a Democrat doing it. It’s when someone says that sort of thing without “sounding so unhinged” that it becomes scary.
| 13 July 2009, 10:20 am |
The Liberals have always attracted cranks. They don’t have an obvious socio-economic base unlike the Tories and Labour. Thirty years ago there was a big fuss about infiltration by a mystical group called the School of Economic Science (or something like that), that turned out ot have dodgy links. You can always tell LibDems on local political events, they are slightly odd. (Sorry Lauren).
| 13 July 2009, 10:43 am |
But why should it be odd to not base your politics on class wars? That’s part of why I chose the Lib Dems. They are supposed to care about more important things like freedom and democracy and human rights for all people, not my class is better than your class like the other two parties spout.
| 13 July 2009, 10:44 am |
In the day following 9/11 I saw videos of Ben Laden and friends repeatedly watching the twin towers go done and having hysterical fits of joyous giggling. There was a general feeling of “We have succeded.”
| 13 July 2009, 11:05 am |
My brother should have been in one of those towers. He just missed it by being late to work. Sometimes laziness saves lives.
| 13 July 2009, 11:35 am |
I was in Amsterdam when 9/11 took place and witnessed 2 Men of Middle Eastern descent dancing in the street…was amazed!
| 13 July 2009, 11:46 am |
It’s coming to something when the Tories are the only mainstream political party that isn’t overtly anti-semitic.
| 13 July 2009, 12:01 pm |
Guess again, I’m not so sure about our Tory PPC. He’s pretty anti-Israel.
| 13 July 2009, 12:36 pm |
Who is he?
| 13 July 2009, 12:59 pm |
I’m not sure how bad David Mowat is, but he expressed a bit of annoyance with Bush’s pro-Israel stance, and seemed generally to feel that the US was too pro-Israel. Now with Obama in charge, I’m not sure what he is saying, but I suspect he is more likely to think Obama is too pro-Israel than too pro-Palestinian.
| 13 July 2009, 1:18 pm |
There is a David Mowat who is a campaigner on the Palestinian issue. Are you sure you’re not confusing them?
| 13 July 2009, 1:26 pm |
David Mowat appears to be standing in Warrington and Warrington has quite a large Muslim population.
Case solved I think.
| 13 July 2009, 1:27 pm |
Could it be that they are the same person? I’ve met him. This is from talking to him personally. I talked to him personally when the Euro elections were going on because I wanted to get an idea of whether the Tories were better than the Lib Dems.
| 13 July 2009, 1:31 pm |
field, you may be right. Rumor has it the Lib Dem candidate disappointed the Muslims, something having to do with the purchase of a mosque, and Mowat cozied up to them.
| 13 July 2009, 1:55 pm |
Spectrum -Solana’s suggestion is a very worrying and short-sighted development, guaranteed to stoke the fires of the conflict and perpetuate it ad infinitum.
The idiot doesn’t say what will happen to settlements in West Bank. An independent Palestinian state would claim them as its territory and a bloody war will ensue with Israel taking no nonsense from the Palestinians. His idea is beyond belief.
| 13 July 2009, 5:52 pm |
No “drug problems under the Taliban”? What does that mean — that the Taliban had 100% control over production and marketing?
If not, it should, because the Taliban rely on the illegal drug trade to fund their activities.
And while they doubtless would punish the locals for using the stuff, living under Taliban rule would certainly create the right psychological climate to create an drug addicted society (like Iran). I know with the heroin trade, people handling the powder can become addicted via inhalation or skin contact. I’m not sure handling the seed heads is quite the same, but handling the extract could be an addition risk.
| 13 July 2009, 6:22 pm |
“..In March Galloway called him “my right hand”..”
Given Galloway’s history of involvement with various Islamist charities, perhaps that’s an indication of his angst about sharia law…..
| 13 July 2009, 9:14 pm |
Where’s Galloway these days?
And in a completely unrelated incident:-
A charity in Greece raised over $1m to rebuild a Christian Hospital destroyed by the evil Zionists in Gaza.
Hmmm! Actually, the hospital never existed. Seems like a charity scam.
A taste of the sort of scum that back Daryl Bradford Smith:
http://engforum.pravda.ru/archive/index.php/t-242814.html