Unencumbered by the regressive Liberal Democrats, the new government has already managed to start taking extremism seriously. The counter-extremism legislation which the Lib Dems managed to stall will be included in the Queen’s Speech next week.
But the government already faces an early test of its policies. Muhammad Salah – a ‘star’ of Huda TV – is due to speak next month at ten venues across the UK, from Edinburgh to Crawley at a ‘Welcome Ramadan’ event. You can see the invitation from ‘Human Appeal’ here.
Now Salah is a strange and disconcerting figure to ‘Welcome Ramadan’. And the Home Secretary can hardly deem his views to be conducive to the public good. For instance Salah seems to believe that ‘Islam does not recognise marriage between a Muslim female and a non-Muslim under any circumstances’ and that in the Islamic state he wishes to bring about all those who leave Islam should be killed.
He is also – how to say this – not entirely behind a peaceful two-state conclusion to the territorial dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. Indeed he seems to think that the Jews are attempting to take over most of the region, including Saudi Arabia: ‘So Allah orders us to fight against those who fight against us. If we sit back and we dismiss the army and the military of the Muslim countries, tomorrow the Zionists will take over. Tomorrow they will reach to Mecca.’
He also appears to think that Europe, America and Israel are behind most of the evil in the world:
‘If we examine most of the crimes which are happening worldwide right now, or in the past 50 years, there is a link to the Zionist criminals, definitely, whether in America, in Europe, or in the Middle East.’ ‘Those people [Zionists] live to harm the international community. Those people are much worse than any disease that we have ever known. We have to confront their evil by strength, by unity.’ ‘We ask Allah to give us the chance to die for his sake and to prove to the coward Zionists that the Muslims are still there and the offspring of Mohammed will definitely come back to free Jerusalem.’ ‘Last but not the least, the day shall come, and it will be very soon inshallah, we will have the rightly guided leadership. It will unite the ummah in order to free Jerusalem. It is coming. We have been informed by prophet Mohammed that it’s going to happen. And whatever he said is definitely the truth and it will happen, it will be fulfilled. We just wish, and we hope and pray, to be in the army which will liberate Jerusalem.’
I gather that Salah lives in America. The Home Secretary has previously said that it is not a right of anyone to enter the UK. Two of Salah’s colleagues from Huda TV – Bilal Philips and Zakir Naik – have already been banned from entering this country. Will Theresa May extend that ban to Muhammad Salah? Or will she allow Ramadan to be ‘welcomed’ with such an extreme start in locations across the UK?
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