Anjem Choudary on Newsnight: 12 January 2010

manicstreetpreacher comments on what will hopefully (yeah, right!) be the last time we will have to put up with this clown.

Islamist hate-preacher, Anjem Choudary, made a complete fool of himself on Tuesday night’s edition of Newsnight (11 January 2010) when he debated Maajid Nawaz of the Quilliam Foundation on the UK government’s decision to ban his crackpot fundamentalist organisation, Al-Muhajiroun, also known as Islam4UK.

The full interview can be viewed over at BBC iPlayer.  The report begins at c. 20 minutes and it will be available until 11:19pm on Tuesday, 19 January 2010.  I will update this piece to include the YouTube videos as soon as some kind person edits and uploads them.  😮

UPDATE 29 January 2010

The YouTube clip is below.

Choudary comes across incredibly badly and will not make any friends from this appearance.  He relies on shouting and talking over people as a tactic in debating and by being evasive and deceptive.  Harry’s Place has listed all the lies and evasions that Choudary spouted during the interview:

Lie 1

• “Al Muhajiroun is not a HT offshoot” – ALM was set up by Omar Bakri who used to be the leader of HT in the UK and set up ALM after he had been expelled from HT.

Lie 2

• “I was never with HT” – Anjem was an activist with HT for a number of years and met Bakri through HT lectures.  I personally met him when he was with HT, as did many others including Maajid.

Lie 3

• “I have never met Maajid Nawaz” – Anjem represented Maajid in a legal case at Newham College in 1993 and they met again on The Big Questions last year.

Lie 4

• “I have not received any money from the government” – Anjem and his family of 4 have been living off state benefits for over 10 years.

Lie 5

• “We don’t believe in appealing against man made law” – Yet Abu Izzadeen (ALM member) lodged an appeal at the court of appeals in 2008.

Lie 6

• “Islam4UK got banned because it was exposing the Government foreign policy” –  Islam4UK is working to bring convert Britain into a Caliphate under Shariah law and they support the Taliban and Al Qaeda in places like Afghanistan.  They also approve of terror tactics and praise terrorist attacks. It is not a lobby group that exists to highlight bad policy – there are many such lobby groups that have not been banned.

Lie 7

• “Britain is an apartheid system” – Anjem clearly does not know the meaning of this word.  He lives freely in the UK, has the same legal rights as everyone else, is free to express his anti-western views, speak out against British Foreign policy and claim generous state benefits.  As Maajid pointed out, he has not spent any time in jail and is regularly invited on various TV shows to express his views.  Clearly, his organisation has abused these privileges to incite violence, support terrorism and spread fear and hate. As such they deserve to be banned.

Questions avoided

• “Are you on the dole?”

• “Will I (Maajid) be executed in Anjem’s version of the Khalifate?”

• “Is non-Muslim blood halal for you”

Choudary’s and Nawaz’s previous clash on BBC One’s The Big Questions from March 2009 can be viewed below:

Part 1/2

Part 2/2

I was left rather cold by Nawaz after seeing him against Choudary on this occasion.  He attempted to portray the mad mullah as a fringe radical who was a perverting “true Islam” and his use of the “serious scholarship” card (known to atheists as “The Courtier’s Reply”) made my eyes roll.  I have recently given my thoughts on this brand of religious moderation, but in a nutshell, Choudary may well be a nasty piece of work who risks giving demagogy a bad name, but he is no psychopath.

A layman listening to Nawaz would not think that the core texts of Islam were to blame, when I know that they are most definitely are.  I have to disagree with the writer of the above Harry’s Place post on a few points.   While Choudary is a “charlatan” with “neither principles nor basic manners” and “how anyone can look up to the guy or regard him as a leader” is indeed beyond me, he is still a man guided by his faith.  He does really believe this stuff.

Nevertheless, Nawaz redeemed himself on Newsnight by playing a blinder in asking Choudary the same three questions over and over again without getting a straight answer.  Even the usually stone-faced Paxman was practically in stitches as Choudary avoided Nawaz’s questions about whether he would be executed as an apostate under Choudary’s caliphate and how much in state benefits he was claiming.  It was all rather reminiscent of Paxman’s notorious interview of former Conservative Home Secretary Michael Howard where he asked his subject 12 times about his alleged overruling of the head of the Prison Service, Derek Lewis without success.

However, what is utterly tragic about Choudary is that a few years ago, he was a hard-drinking, hard-smoking, soft-core porn reading student who had a sense of humour like the rest of us.

I only hope that now his pathetic jihadist organisation has now finally been criminalised, mainstream television can stop giving him airtime, even if it is to wheel out the court jester.

Chris French on Radio 4’s Beyond Belief discussing guardian angels

manicstreetpreacher hits 60 posts for 2009!

Paul S Jenkins over at Notes from an Evil Burnee has posted the podcast links to an appearance by Professor Chris French, whose superb lecture on paranormal experiences for Merseyside Skeptics’ Society I reported earlier this year, discussing whether angels exist on Radio 4’s Beyond Belief.  The presenter, Ernie Rea, is joined by French, Emma Heathcote-James spiritualist author of Seeing Angels and Greek Orthodox priest, Father Gregory Hallam.

The show’s title is all too apt: it really does defy belief!  I can barely accept what my own ears tell me; that Auntie is giving airtime to such spurious nonsense.  If I’d have been there I would have been tempted to swing a punch at Emma Heathcote-James just to see whether her guardian angel would do anything to protect her!  She clearly accepts that visions of guardian angels are the paranormal experiences flavour of the month following on from previous crazes such as ghosts and alien abductions, but like Fox Mulder from the X-Files, the woman just wants to believe…

Heathcote-James is so wrapped up in it that she has either deluded herself into believing anything she hears about angels or is preying on basket cases (like the woman they interviewed partway through) in order to sell books.

UPDATE 01/01/2010

Philosopher Stephen Law has blogged on this show as well and describes Heathcote-James as “very irritating” and has reproduced a typical piece of theological obscurantism from Father Gregory Hallam.  Hallam’s retort is in response to Chris French’s suggestion of objective evidence of angels if e.g. under controlled conditions they provided information to those who claim to communicate with them that could be checked and which could not have been acquired in any other way:

My problem with your answer Chris is you are subjecting these phenomenon to certain criteria and tests in relation to scientific evidence and you’re actually talking about a confusion of categories of truth here.  I understand that you operate in the realm of anomolistic psychology and that this is a kind of a difficult interface between science and human experience but I think that unless we are actually clear how to assess each piece of evidence according to appropriate criteria we risk just making no sense at all.

Thanks for clearing that one up for us, Greg…

YouTube Moment of the Year 2009

manicstreetpreacher unveils the clip that he has replayed the most in this Year of Our Lord.

It has been a great year for the ‘Tube.  I have watched many brilliant lectures and debates and even appeared in one of them myself.  Certainly, NonStampCollector is the one YouTube user who has provided me with the most joy.  I wish I could include them all.  However, the clip I have played the most is the this wonderful “re-edit” of BNP leader Nick Griffin’s appearance on BBC One’s Question Time on 22 October 2009 by cassetteboy.

At over a million views, I’m probably not the only one who would class it as the cream of the crop for ‘09.

Many thanks to my friend, the anti-fascist blogger Edmund Standing, for forwarding me the link.

New Zealand Christians outraged by poster of Mary and Joseph after sex

manicstreetpreacher: LMFAO

I have come across this hilarious article on The Daily Telegraph website regarding the poster below which was vandalised after being displayed at a church in Auckland, New Zealand:

The large poster depicts a dejected-looking Joseph lying next to Mary, whose eyes are turned heavenwards, under the words: “Poor Joseph.  God was a hard act to follow.”…

Within hours of the billboard being erected outside the Anglican church of St Matthew’s in the City, in central Auckland, it had been attacked by a man who clambered on to the roof of his car to smear brown paint over it.

As a result it was almost obliterated and the church, which describes itself as “progressive”, is seeking a replacement.

Archdeacon Glynn Cardy said the billboard was intended to lampoon the literal interpretation of the Christmas conception story “and that somehow this male God impregnated Mary”.

“What we’re trying to do is to get people to think more about what Christmas is all about,” he said.

“We actually think God is about the power of love as shown in Jesus, which is something quite different than a literal man up in the sky.”…

St Matthew’s was inundated with angry phone calls and emails soon after the billboard appeared at a busy street corner on Thursday.

The poster also sparked a barrage of comments to radio stations and on internet websites.

Among leading critics was Lyndsay Freer, a spokesman for the Catholic Church, who said: “This is disrespectful and offensive to all Christians.

“It’s flying in the face of our 2,000-year-old beliefs,” she said.

Too flaming right!  This is a piece of blasphemy up there with the infamous Mary Whitehouse –v- Lemon & Gay News poem by James Kirkup, The Love that Dares to Speak Its Name, depicting homosexual necrophilia on the body of Christ and the BBC’s showing of Jerry Springer: The Opera.

Someone deserves to be canonised into the gallery comedic terrorists!

UPDATE: RichardDawkins.net has posted the story after I forwarded them the link.  Some of the comments are hilarious:

Comment #442632 by Rosbif on December 17, 2009 at 6:35 pm

If God made man in his own image, size couldn’t be the problem.

Comment #442637 by Art Vandelay on December 17, 2009 at 6:51 pm

And guess who’s name she was calling out all the way through…?

Comment #442665 by chameleonpete on December 17, 2009 at 7:37 pm

it just demands a caption comp…..

Yey again Mary and Joseph argued about who was sleeping in the wet patch

or

Mary was getting sick of Joseph’s nun fetish.

Comment #442679 by SaintStephen on December 17, 2009 at 8:12 pm

Damn… missed the obvious one:

Is carpenter Joe having trouble getting wood?

Comment #442682 by squinky on December 17, 2009 at 8:26 pm

Caption: Years after being married, Joseph’s advances are again rebuffed by Mary the virgin.  Again, Joseph must rub one out.

Comment #442692 by root2squared on December 17, 2009 at 8:48 pm

Caption: Joseph wished he could cure headaches instantaneously like god.

Comment #442708 by GODisNOT on December 17, 2009 at 9:38 pm

Joy to the world, the lord has cumm! :)) 😉

One commenter has submitted an improved version of the picture:

Another commenter has posted a link to this hilarious picture which is in a similar vein:

And another commenter has submitted NZ newspaper articles before and after the paint attack.

Finally, one commenter has managed to make a serious point:

Comment #442671 by sibias1978 on December 17, 2009 at 7:52 pm

It is somewhat distressing to recall that three years ago every single newspaper in Great Britain had refrained from publishing the Danish cartoons on Muhammad in a grotesque display of cowardice and appeasement.  Religion rarely deserves the respect it asks of non-believers or the reverence it demands from believers.   However when ridicule is directed at one particular religion while simultaneously ensuring that it provokes the least amount of backlash it becomes difficult to applaud.

Theistic madness round-up for 14 December 2009

manicstreetpreacher shakes his head in disbelief at another day of faith-based stupidity on the eve of the second decade of the 21^st century.

I have come across quite a lot of the above during my lunch and doss time at work today.

Apocalypse Soon

Kicking off is a trailer to a rather scary movie called Waiting for Armageddon (IMDB / RichardDawkins.net) about the 20 million or so demented members of the American population who are convinced that the End Times and The Rapture will happen within the next 20 years.

My post on the afterlife deals with the religious obsession for this miserable little world to be over, so I won’t repeat my arguments.  Suffice it to say that this is not the kind of thinking that will ensure the long term survival of our species.

Tim LaHaye and Jerry B Jenkins’ Left Behind series of novels are either cashing in on pre-existing public opinion and/ or have a lot to answer for!

Bishop to the UK Forces praises Taliban then retracts comments and pleads “context”

An interview with the Right Reverend Stephen Veneer appeared in The Sunday Telegraph yesterday where he apparently praised the strength of faith of the Taliban:

We’ve been too simplistic in our attitude towards the Taliban.

There’s [sic] a large number of things that the Taliban say and stand for which none of us in the west could approve, but simply to say therefore that everything they do is bad is not helping the situation because it’s not honest really.

The Taliban can perhaps be admired for their conviction to their faith and their sense of loyalty to each other.

We must remember that there are a lot of people who are under their influence for a whole range of reasons, and we simply can’t lump all of those together.

To blanket them all as evil and paint them as black is not helpful in a very complex situation.

Afghanistan is going we hope in the end to find a way to live together with justice and prosperity for all.  In order to do that we have to involve all the people of Afghanistan to find it.

It is that lasting and just peace that will in the end justify the sacrifices our servicemen and women have made.

The uproar was immediate as one can imagine.  Edmund Standing has labelled Veneer as “deranged”:

Disgusting.  This man should be relieved of his post immediately.

What would he have said during World War 2?  That we should admire the conviction and loyalty of the SS?

The Right Reverend Veneer has backtracked immediately and you can view his interview with BBC News from their website here.  Veneer now claims that his remarks were taken out of context by The Daily Telegraph.  Apparently, he was trying to express sympathy with some Afghans who are being misled by the Taliban ringleaders.  I’m not altogether convinced, but he wouldn’t be the first to accuse Jonathan Wynne-Jones of such underhand tactics.

I can kind of see where the Bishop is coming from now he has clarified his comments.  If and when the hostilities in Afghanistan cease, those Afghans who supported and even perhaps fought with the Taliban will have to be included in the peace process in some way, shape or form whether we like it or not.

But perhaps the good reverend’s faux pas today shows that Christ’s edict to “love your enemies” is totally unworkable outside of scripture and therefore quite foolhardy.

Tony Bliar… sorry, BLAIR, hides behind his religious faith now he’s out of Number 10 and the clutches of Alistair Campbell

And finally, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has taped a nauseating and saccharine programme on his religious faith with the fawning Fern Britton, which can be downloaded from BBC iPlayer here.   (RichardDawkins.net has a thread on the programme and the comments are not complimentary!)  Watch out for that Paxman interview in 2003 at 21 minutes, when Tony squirms at the suggestion that he and George W Bush pray together!

UPDATE 29 January 2010

BBC iPlayer has stopped streaming the programme.  The YouTube playlist begins here.

Don’t get me wrong.  I am no supporter of Saddam Hussein or the irrational leftists who have used the Iraq War as an excuse to attack the US, as embodied in Michael Moore’s reprehensible Fahrenheit 9/11.  As Hitch said in his review of the film:

If Michael Moore had had his way, Slobodan Milosevic would still be the big man in a starved and tyrannical Serbia.  Bosnia and Kosovo would have been cleansed and annexed.  If Michael Moore had been listened to, Afghanistan would still be under Taliban rule, and Kuwait would have remained part of Iraq. And Iraq itself would still be the personal property of a psychopathic crime family, bargaining covertly with the slave state of North Korea for WMD.  You might hope that a retrospective awareness of this kind would induce a little modesty. To the contrary, it is employed to pump air into one of the great sagging blimps of our sorry, mediocre, celeb-rotten culture.  Rock the vote, indeed.

Anyone who doubts that Saddam had links with international terrorism, al-Qaeda or committed crimes against humanity on his own watch should read this report by Deroy Murdock, Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University and get acquainted with just what a monster the man really was.

The truth is that I have not made up my mind about the Iraq War.  I don’t support it.  But I can’t bring myself to oppose it either.  My natural tendency is as an historian rather than an investigative journalist.  Hindsight is 20-20 vision: the cheapest form of wisdom.  I like to form my opinions long after the fact.  When the dust has settled, when emotions are not running so high and when a cold sense of objectivity can be maintained.  But one thing I can be certain of is that this world is a better place without Saddam and Iraq will be a better country, I hope sooner rather than later.

I am also certain of my distain of Blair’s recent attempts to use the card of religious faith to wash himself clean of the lies, the hypocrisy and the attempts to manipulate public opinion that took our country to war.  The manipulation of the press and public opinion, the misinformation, not least of which was a dossier into the 45-minute WMD claim partially culled from a PhD paper that was 12 years old has left a taste in my mouth that has been impossible to wash out.  I’m not ready to call Blair a war criminal yet, but I hope the Iraq War Inquiry probes deep and hard.

The programme unwittingly demonstrates the sheer futility of religious faith.  Blair himself admits that his faith was of no help in making the decision to go to war, but at least it helped him through all the heartache that followed.  Just well perhaps; if Blair had thought for a minute that his faith did help him make the decision, he would have to accept that God put him in Downing Street to make what many now see as a terrible mistake.

My slot on BBC Radio Merseyside – 15/02/2009

I’ll be appearing on Wayne Clarke’s show, Daybreak, this Sunday morning, 15 February 2009 from 6am to discuss my upcoming debate with Peter S Williams at Liverpool University on 19 February 2009.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2006/04/18/radiomerseyside_pres_wayneclarke_feature.shtml

Wayne is also a Baptist Minister and will be the official moderator of the live debate on the 19th.