- Karen Harradine
London's Al-Quds day showcases genocidal Hezbollah but Britain won't outlaw jihadis on para
Almost two weeks have passed since militant Muslims marched through London streets on what is known as Al-Quds Day. This annual hatefest was created by Iran in 1979 and takes place worldwide. Hezbollah, a terrorist group and proxy of Iran, is the core organiser.
Iran is the real colonialist power of the Middle East. It controls, via Hezbollah, Lebanon and is heavily invested in Syria. Continuing the ancient conflict between Shia and Sunni, Iran jostles with Saudi Arabia for dominance in the Middle East, made apparent by their proxy war in Yemen. In a bid to halt Iran’s power grab, Saudi Arabia is tentatively aligning itself with Israel and the US. The geo-politics of the region are changing and Iran, and Hezbollah, are now the greatest threats to world peace. And any support shown for Hezbollah is support for Iran.
This is a spiritual battle between the forces of light and darkness. Iran and Hezbollah both have the same genocidal aims and end game – the destruction of Israel and the establishment of a global caliphate. And they believe that this is achievable by waging a religious war against the West.
Israel attracts the ire of the Iranian theocracy because it has the temerity to exist on what is mistakenly claimed as Muslim land. The caliphate cannot be established if Jews have their own country. So Hezbollah, financed by Iran, seeks not only to murder Israelis but all Jews.
This is a spiritual battle between the forces of
light and darkness.
Terrorism is Hezbollah’s main export. In 1992, aided by Iranian intelligence, Hezbollah attacked the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires. Two years later it bombed a Jewish community centre in the same city. A total of 114 innocents were murdered. Jews are not the only targets for Hezbollah, who were also responsible for killing 20 people in 1996 when it attacked a US air base in Saudi Arabia. Hezbollah also attacked, in 2012, an Israeli tour bus in Bulgaria killing six civilians.
These appalling acts of evil are only a few on a long list of terror activities which Hezbollah propagates. And it is always assisted by Iran. Its finances are shored up through its criminal trade in drugs and weapons trafficking. Currently it has around 160,000 missiles in South Lebanon, pointed directly at Israel.
Hezbollah is not interested in peace or negotiations. Whether we like it or not militant Islam is at war with the West. So why does our government permit Al-Quds Day to take place? And why are Hezbollah flags publicly brandished with no consequences in what is supposed to be an enlightened Western country? Churchill’s government would never have allowed Nazis to march down London streets waving swastikas.
Al-Quds Day is organised in the UK by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC). Given that they are a front for jihadists committed to a monstrous ideology, it is disgraceful that the Charity Commission has not closed them down. Al-Quds Day attracts a motley collection of radical Muslims, deluded leftwing Western useful idiots, anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists and our ‘friend’ Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, who once called for an arms embargo on Israel. This is part of the BDS campaign tactics, goaded by militant Muslims, in the hope that it will render Israel vulnerable and ultimately result in its destruction.
Terrorism is Hezbollah’s main export.
This year Al-Quds was even more nauseating. Babies wrapped in the Hezbollah flag were paraded around Calls to ‘free Palestine’ - code for the destruction of Israel. Protestors screamed slogans advocating the murder of innocents. One of the speakers at the event was Anglican cleric Stephen Sizer, who in 2015 posted an article to his Facebook page titled, ‘9/11: Israel did it’, which alleged that the Jewish state was behind the 2001 attacks that killed approximately 3,000 people on the east coast of the United States. Sizer quoted Martin Luther King, Jr’s famous ‘I have a dream’ speech asking the mob to imagine Dr King as a Palestinian. ‘I have simply substituted the word Palestinian for Negro,’ preached Sizer, flaunting his familiar brand of rabid anti-Semitism.
Given the heinous antics which take place on Al-Quds Day, and the aftermath, I have to wonder what it will take for the government to proscribe Hezbollah in its entirety. A petition is currently circulating asking the government to do this.
The UK has banned Hezbollah’s military wing under the Terrorism Act of 2000. The UK differentiates between Hezbollah’s military and political wing. But this is a misnomer. Hezbollah itself does not distinguish between the two. And neither does the Arab League or the US. Even the anti-Israel EU blacklists Hezbollah in its entirety.
The government’s banal disclaimer to the petition is that peaceful protests are part of a functioning democratic society. I didn’t realise that the burning of the Israeli flag and shouts of ‘death to Israel’ were signs of a peaceful protest. Perhaps the government has a more fluid notion of peace than I do.
‘I have simply substituted the word Palestinian for Negro,’ preached Sizer, flaunting his familiar brand of
rabid anti-Semitism.
Another excuse is that proscribing Hezbollah will disrupt the UK’s diplomatic relations with Lebanon. But these ties are not so strong that they can’t stand some weakening. Perhaps our government is too feeble to stand up to Iran and Hezbollah, who both run Lebanon like a private fiefdom. Khan has correctly pointed out that the ‘Mayor does not have the power to ban a march in London’ and referred to the matter onto the Metropolitan police.
But the Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service have offered measly excuses for their obvious reluctance to stand up to the radical Muslims by banning Al-Quds Day. They are not the only ones. Tory MP Oliver Dowden recently wrote to Nick Hurd, Minister for Policing and the Fire Services, asking for this ban, which could be easily accomplished if the government proscribed Hezbollah in its entirety. Hurd replied, in a letter dated 7 June, that ‘the Home Secretary has no power to initiate a ban on marches’ – a disingenuous reply given that the Home Secretary Sajid Javid stated a few days later that action will be taken to proscribe Hezbollah in its entirety, thereby preventing Jew hating, terrorist loving, Iranian sock puppets marching through London streets on Al-Quds Day.
The establishment’s confusion and chaos in proscribing Hezbollah and banning Al-Quds Day can at best be described as passing the buck. At worst it is craven capitulation to jihadists. I am hopeful that Hezbollah will soon be proscribed in its entirety. There can be no excuse not to. For Hezbollah does not only see Jews and Israel as enemies to be vanquished, but also the entire West. Al-Quds Day is symbolic of the threat which Hezbollah poses to us all and our Enlightenment way of life. Militant Muslims should no longer be free to march through the streets of London, waving flags symbolising jihadism and howling for the death of Jews.
(Karen Harradine is an anthropologist and freelance journalist. She writes on anti-Semitism, Israel and spirituality).
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