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The Hidden Face of Political Islamism

[Times-UK ] Dean Godson - Behind the cultural soft power of the Islam Expo in London is political hard power. The organizers gave floor space to the genocidal regime in Sudan and to the "Cultural Section" of the Iranian Embassy and the Algerian junta. The directors of Islam Expo include Azzam Tamimi, a supporter of Hamas suicide bombings in Israel, and Ismail Adam Patel, who believes that women in the West who are raped share responsibility with their attackers. No wonder Hazel Blears, the feisty Secretary of State for Communities, decided last week that this was not a place where any minister should be seen, and most of her Muslim colleagues in the Labour Party backed her. Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, is in serious trouble over a grant of £215,000 given to the Scottish Islamic Foundation, headed by one of his advisers, Osama Saeed. Saeed, a Scottish National Party parliamentary candidate and a speaker at Islam Expo, has described Hamas suicide attacks as "martyrdom operations" and has supported the creation of a modern caliphate, or pan-Islamic state. Are non-violent political Islamists part of the solution or part of the problem? The writer is research director of the Policy Exchange think tank.
2008-07-17 01:00:00
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