Following on from part 1.
A startling feature of the Committee hearing was a lack of awareness that in Islamist antisemitic circles, the words ‘Zionists’ and ‘Jews’ are used interchangeably.
Nazim Ali’s star character reference came from Rabbi Aharon Cohen an affiliate of the Neturei Karta. The controversial Jewish sect opposes the official British policy of a negotiated two-state solution to resolve the Israel/Palestine conflict. The Neturei Karta have the dubious honour of being the sole Jewish group in the Hope Not Hate hall of fame, a British charity that monitors groups engaged in promoting nefarious ideologies:
The Neturei Karta maintain that Jews have no right to a sovereign state until the arrival of the Messiah, a belief which sets conditions of statehood for Jews which are not expected of other peoples leave alone other democratic nations. According to the IHRA guidelines, this amounts to antisemitism. In short, a reference from a Neturei Karta Rabbi to show that Ali’s comments were not antisemitic would be akin to a neo-Nazi bringing a reference from a Ku Klux Klan leader to disprove charges of white-supremacism.
It is perhaps fitting that Nazim Ali’s first character reference would come from a group which ranks alongside the Ku Klux Klan, Al Muhajiroun, Hizb ut Tahir, Combat 18 and the British National Party in terms of extremism. But it is also disingenuous, for although the Neturei Karta claim to be anti-Zionist, the sect believes that God gave the land of Biblical Israel to the Jews and will eventually become a sovereign Jewish state.
It seems that the Committee may have been led to believe that the Jewish community is split between Zionists and anti-Zionists and that Ali was on the side of the anti-Zionists. This approach is problematic on a number of counts, not least because it does not take into account the nuances of anti-Zionist ideologies. Islamist anti-Zionism differs from Jewish anti-Zionism, which itself is split between religious anti-Zionism and secular anti-Zionism. Moreover, had the Committee members taken the trouble to learn about the religious beliefs of the Neturei Karta, they may have discerned that Nazim Ali was shooting himself in the foot. The more mainstream Jewish anti-Zionist sects like the Satmar refuse to join in Al Quds Day type of anti-Israel activism because they recognise it to be motivated by antisemitism. If, for the sake of argument, the Committee had taken the trouble to ask an anti-Zionist Haredi rabbi from Satmar if they thought Nazim Ali’s comments were antisemitic, the response would likely have been a resounding “Yes!”
Elsewhere, there are attempts to obfuscate the meaning of some of Nazim Ali’s chants. One glaring example (pg. 51):
The Committee should look also at other things said by the Registrant during the rally: he led a Saudi-Zionist chant and these words are inexplicable if when the Registrant talks about Zionists he means in fact, Jews.
Those words are not ‘inexplicable’ if one considers that Ali is a Shi’a Muslim who resorted to what Islamists in the West are forced to do; juxtapose the word ‘Jew’ with ‘Zionist’. Recall the cries:
“Careful of those Rabbis who belong to the Board of Deputies, who have got blood on their hands, who agree with the killing of British soldiers. Do not allow them in your centres.”
And also:
“We are fed up of the Zionists. We are fed up of their rabbis. We are fed of their synagogues. We are fed up of their supporters.”
Ali has not mentioned the words “Pastors” or “Churches” in spite of the fact that Christian Zionists are numerically greater than Jewish Zionists, many millions if including the global adherents. No mention of “Imams” or “Mosques,” even though there is a growing Muslim Zionist movement. The reason being that the latter two religious groups view the ingathering of Jewish exiles (Zionism) as a fulfilment of divine prophecy. A Rabbi can only be Jewish. Synagogues are places of worship for Jews only. The mask of “Zionists are not Jews” fell here.
Furthermore, the “Saudi-Zionist” chant does not exonerate Ali for it needs to be understood within its proper context. Ali is a member of The Islamic Human Rights Commission, the group which organised the Mullah backed Al Quds Day rally at the centre of this hearing. Shi’ite sympathisers of the Iranian regime are irked by the warming of relations between Israel and the Sunni Arab states and believe these would not be possible without Saudi support. Saudi-Zionist conspiracies are simply a modern-day spin on the centuries old Sunni Shi’a rivalries within various factions of the Muslim world. Today, the major players are Saudi Arabia (Sunni) and Iran (Shi’ite). Shi’ite extremists opposed to the growing trend of Sunni countries pursuing normalisation with Israel vent their frustration at the Saudi regime presenting it as an accomplice to or enabler of Jewish supremacy.
Anyone familiar with the media in the Muslim world will know that it is rife with Saudi-Jewish conspiracies. Here is an excerpt from an “article” tellingly titled “The Saudi Royal Family Are Crypto-Jews”
HAFEZ WAHBI, states further that King ABDUL AZIZ AL-SAUD related that bloody true story to the Sheikhs of the MATHEER Tribe, who visited him in order to intercede for their prominent leader at that time, FAISAL AL DARWEESH, who was the king’s prisoner. He related that story to them in order to prevent them from interceding for the release of their Sheikh; otherwise, they would face the same fate; He killed the Sheikh and used his blood as an ablution liquid for him just before he stood up for his prayer (after the false sect doctrine of the Wahabi); The guilt of FAISAL DARWEESH at that time was that he had criticized King ABDUL AZIZ AL-SAUD when the king signed the document which the English Authorities prepared in 1922 as a declaration for giving PALESTINE to the Jews; his signature was obtained in the conference held at AL AQEER in 1922.
That was and still is the system of this Regime of the JEWISH FAMILY (SAUDI FAMILY): All its goals are: plundering the wealth of the country, robbing, falsifying, and committing all kinds of atrocity, iniquity, and blasphemy-all are executed in compliance with their self invented Wahhabi Sect which legalizes the chopping of the heads of their opposing subjects.
If this same piece were to be written for a Western audience it would have the word “Jew” replaced with “Zionist”. Contrary to what Ali’s lawyer is arguing, the term “Saudi-Zionist” means exactly “Saudi-Jewish.”
