Denial / Defamation

When I embraced Islam in 1998, one of the first pieces of advice I received from Muslim friends was to learn the names of three people and then stay away from them. They were Abu Hamza, Omar Bakri and Abdullah Faisal.

A few months later I received an angry email from my father, demanding to know whether I had passed his email address on to a group of Islamic extremists. He had received a mass email purportedly sponsored by a vast array of Muslim organisations which told him to convert to Islam or face the consequences. I most certainly had not passed on my father's email address to anybody and, glancing at the other email addresses - other public figures in the church - I surmised that his email address had been harvested along with others from Christian websites.

My father was a Canon at the time and in charge of all of the lay preachers in his diocese. Rather distressed by my father's anger, I showed the email to a fellow student who had been involved with Hizb-ut-Tahir a few years earlier: he told me about Omar Bakri, the leader of al-Muhajirun, characterising him as a nutcase, and advised me that none of the organisations listed at the end of the email actually existed. The man, apparently, had a habit of making up names to make his little band of followers efforts' more credible.

They plot and plan, but Allah is the best of planners. How little their trust in God: believing they had to send shocking emails to Churchmen, as if God could not guide members of their family without their intervention - like the arrogance of the Christian Right who rejoice in a Pentagon-led Armageddon, as if they can dictate their Creator's timetable.

Over the next few years we heard a lot from the trio I was told to avoid. Around mid 2000, a close friend of mine found himself the focus of attention of an evangelical Christian colleague who spoke frequently of Islamic extremists in our midst; her husband worked for the Police force and apparently had much to say about Muslim radicals. Tired of her constant bombardment, my friend asked her to ask her husband why Abu Hamza was still free to preach despite frequent complaints from the Muslim community at large. That was a question that was never answered.

To be continuously told by the government, media and senior Police officers, therefore, that the British Muslim community is in denial about the existence of extremists amongst us is quite hard for me to grasp. The warnings I received were not from lapsed Muslims who were happy to compromise their beliefs for political gain, but from practising, active individuals. Prior to the attacks on the US on 11 September 2001, I listened to many Muslims lamenting the authorities' refusal to deal with people well known to be creating community tensions. Indeed, witnessing this laxity, some members of the community even began to entertain conspiracy theories about these free men. The Muslim community complained about their outrageous statements and the authorities appeared to do nothing.

No, I don’t believe the Muslim community is in denial about the threat of extremism. Taking issue with sensational investigations in the media in not indicative of a culture of repudiation. There are good reasons to oppose the trend of smearing individuals and community organisations – even if we may not like these people very much personally. Just because others say jump, it doesn’t mean we have to. Our criteria should always be truth and justice. Not accusation and innuendo.

Calling 007

Is it just me, or is the secret service not what it used to be? While it was always clear that the cunningly modified Aston Martin was rather far fetched, I foolishly believed that our finest under-cover agents took their, well, under-cover roles seriously. Alas, you may harbour romantic visions of cryptic classified ads in the Evening Standard, appealing for recruits to MI6. You may expect to be approached by a friendly chap in the corridors of the School of Oriental and African Studies, offering you riches and a fast car in exchange for your BA Honours in Arabic. You may yearn for the double life: a bored, over-weight NHS administrator to your wife, but dashing, energetic superstar amongst colleagues, dedicating every waking moment to thwarting the latest Russian, I mean Iranian scheme for world domination.

But you'd be mistaken. Take the credible and compelling source of the BBC's latest cutting edge investigation. Virgil is the pilot of Thunderbird 2, but Vigil is an undercover group that aims to disrupt radical groups, reporting back to police and security services. Except when police and security services ignore them, in which case they report back to journalists instead. There are two things I particularly like about Vigil: (1) their spies tell you they are spies (none of that last century secrecy) and (2) their website makes you think they're just a bunch of looneys. In fact, add another: (3) the fact they have a website telling you what they do is pretty cool for a spy agency. I know, I know... MI6 have a website, but theirs is dull. It doesn't even have an MP3 Jukebox featuring LeAnne Rymes singing Amazing Grace.

Please, stop that sniggering. This is a credible and compelling source. As a credible and compelling source, I decided to check out their Global News this evening, looking for the latest on Hizb-ut-Tahir cells operating in South London. So I clicked on the Global News link, selected my country of interest and settled on the title that most roused my curiosity. "England plump for Joyce". Damn it, that's just not cricket. Well, actually, it was cricket. It was a story in today's Guardian: "The uncapped Ed Joyce is the surprise choice to replace Marcus Trescothick in England's Ashes squad." But that's okay. Perhaps the Global News section is just a newsfeed for spies; after all, a truly patriotic spy would be a die-hard cricket fan. Or perhaps there are cryptic messages in the article which provide credible and compelling evidence that Hizb-ut-Tahir are infiltrating ladies hair dressing salons.

No, I can tell you're not taking this seriously. Stop it. Sit up straight. These guys have credible and compelling evidence. Just because their Global News comes from a newsfeed, it doesn't mean you have to sit there smirking. And yes, you might think that the skull and crossbones icon is childish, but these guys are an international elite. Remember these guys are reporting back to police and security services. Imagine that. These guys are actually telling MI5 and MI6 where to look. So what's MI6 waiting for? When are they getting their MP3 Jukebox? Some might say they're not taking their jobs seriously; how can Britain's intelligence services hope to operate without Hatikvah and Crown Imperial on their iPod playlist? Indeed, not only is Vigil's evidence credible and compelling, but they also have the best selection of free downloads. You've got banners, desktop wallpaper, the theme song (I bet MI6 doesn't have a theme song), the King James Bible in MP3 and Berean TV Scripture Class.

Well, frankly, I don't care if you're not taking this seriously. Personally I'm convinced by their intelligent use of the English language: "The VIGIL network is a large non-profit, non-political network of former intelligence officers... united in one (mostly online) offensive strategy against the Islamic extremists threatening the planet right now." [http://www.ic-humint.com/vigil.php] I don't care if you think "threatening the planet right now" sounds like a line from a comic book; these guys have credible and compelling evidence. "Undisclosed locations throughout the world" might sound ridiculous to you, but I think a little primary school English can go a long way. In fact the more the better. And they don't disappoint: take their mission statement for example:

"Back in 1991, a young-man from a far-off country came to the Western-Sahara desert to meet with a group of people. They formed an alliance to establish a global network to form an army to fight the Evil-World to come and to serve for the glory of Jerusalem, the city of GOD!" [http://www.ic-humint.com/main.php]

Wow. A group of people. The Evil-World. Man, MI6 need these guys. They are so credible, so compelling. Whoah!

"Since then, many people came and went and we have been around in the world. But in 1998 we established ourselves on the internet. Using it as a portal for our global community. This network is what we now call the IC-HUMINT."

Whoah, whoah, whoah: "many people came and went and we have been around in the world." That's deep, man. Poetry in motion.

But let's not get side-tracked. We're living in the 21st Century and spy agencies have just got to realise that openess is the way forward. You can't be going around pretending that you're a Russian academic at Moscow University when you're really an English toff. It won't do. MI5, MI6 take note: Vigil is leading the way. We need more spies like Whiteman and Jenvey who are open and honest about what they do. When was the last time MI6 published photos of their spies online? Do you see Jenvey worrying about his cover being blown? Not only is his photograph published on the website, he also appeared on last night's Newsnight. Vigil doesn't need FOI exceptions; they're the elite. It's good to know who these under-cover guys are. I know I will sleep easy tonight.

"Glen Jenvey began studying radical Islamic groups when he was in college. His first job as a so called secret agent, was for the London authorities, who back then had hired him to record a demonstration outside the U.S. embassy. He has filmed many similar demonstrations before he was eventually asked by the U.S. embassy to travel down to Iran to gather information on military facilities there.

"Over the past years, Glen has worked for the intelligence services and agencies of several other countries, including Sri Lanka, for whom he infiltrated the Tamil Tigers, a group credited with the first suicide bombings. Glen eventually began using the internet to infiltrate terrorist organizations. It was mainly through his online work that Glen developed a relationship, and subsequently helped bring down, Abu Hamza al-Masri, a leading cleric at Finsbury park mosque in London. Both Richard Reid (the shoe bomber), and many of the September 11 bombers, had ties to Finsbury Park." [http://www.ic-humint.com/glen.php]

According to Jenvey's website, http://www.abuhamza.org.uk:

"Glen Jenvey is the real-life hero who nailed terror chief Abu Hamza. The would-be James Bond tricked the hook-handed hate cleric into handing over the video tapes which brought about his downfall. Gravel-voiced Jenvey posed as a fellow terrorist supporter who wanted to bring death and destruction to Britain. Jenvey even set up a website praising Al Qaeda to lure the Finsbury Park hate preacher into his trap. The sophisticated sting led to jail for Britains public enemy number 1 after his crucial evidence set off a chain reaction of events around the world."

Even if you weren't convinced when I started this eulogy, I'm sure you will now agree with me that our intelligence services would be sunk without the Vigil group. Hurray to convincing and compelling evidence. Lest you still be in any doubt, this friendly secret service provides a handy list of official members under the discrete banner, "For at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people (Dan 12:1). Shalom Jerusalem, holy city of GOD! We are in service of the Mighty one. For there is but one God and only him we shall serve..."

Thank goodness BBC Radio 4's File on 4 and BBC2's Newsnight had access to these guys. Where on earth would we be without them? What I just find outrageous is the fact that a member of Vigil who contacted the Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorist hotline saying he had more than 100 hours of material from the chatroom was told to contact his local police station. "The anti-terrorist office showed no sense of urgency to get this information," he said. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6143632.stm] That is unbelievable. It's not as if Vigil is a group of right-wing nutters, with links to the Conservative Christian Right. If the BBC can accept them as a convincing and credible source, why can't anti-terrorist branch? After all, Jenvey was the man who set up a website praising Al Qaeda and pretended to be a Muslim. The sure sign of a reliable witness. A would-be James Bond after all.

So the secret service isn't what it used to be. Who cares? Vigil's keeping vigil.

______________

Postscript 16.11.06

Glen Jenvey is a man who once set up a website called "Islamic News" which praised al-Qaeda. Although in other accounts he describes himself as a spy, he gave up his job as a van driver in order to pose as "a fanatical Muslim" for several months in order to entrap Abu Hamza. Although he did not work for any secret service and got involved on his own because he fancied himself "as a bit of a spy" ("I’d spied on people before - bizarre as it sounds - as a bit of a hobby, because I was interested in it."), he built up a relationship with Abu Hamza. Read him in his own words: http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=1604&cid=11&sid=63

Storm in a tea cup

Much ado about nothing, I say. Before we can draw our team brief to a close this morning at work we have to cover preparations for Christmas Dinner. It's all going swimmingly until the organiser thinks she should inform us of a problem. Apparently a certain employee upstairs cannot attend because it has been booked in a pub and her beliefs stop her from going to pubs. She's a Muslim. That causes a few raised eyebrows and laughter. Someone points out that if it was a restaurant, they'd still be serving alcohol.

I start sinking in my seat, burying my eyes in the table top. The organiser adds, actually the lady in question wasn't bothered too much, that it was another member of staff who was worried about it on her behalf. Who's attended Equality and Diversity training, asks our Director, what should we do? My Manager starts saying that we should have thought about this. Yes, they agree, but now what are we going to do about the lady upstairs? Will we have to cancel our booking and arrange something else? I could easily say something - suggest that I'm sure she's not even bothered about it - but I'm staying out of this one.

Except I'm not going to be allowed to let this pass me by; I'm about to be outed. We should have thought about this from the start, says my Manager, she's not the only person in the organisation who wouldn't be able to attend for that reason. There are at least two people affected. Who, asks the organiser, you don't mean X (the Indian woman upstairs)? My time has come. I think she means me, I say, and all eyes are on me, a look of horror on six of the faces. Tim's a Muslim, my Manager tells them.

Faces are red. It probably wasn't the best timing; after the words exchanged moments earlier. Never mind, my Manager's brought me in. So yes, I tell them, it's true, I am a Muslim. Personally, I tell them, I wouldn't go to the pub either, which is why I excused myself from attending. I don't expect them to change their plans on my behalf. I appeal to the memory of my Methodist grandfather who similarly excused himself from alcoholic gatherings. I explain that the lady upstairs probably isn't worried about the matter at all and wouldn't expect anything to be rearranged. I point out that last year's storm about a council allegedly banning the word Christmas in case it offended Muslims had absolutely nothing to do with Muslims, but was the product of some well-meaning official. And I say, yes perhaps my faith has implications for them when it comes to organising social functions, but I am not guilty of keeping a secret any more than they are; none of them had told me they were atheist, Catholic or whatever.

After the meeting my Manager sends me a one line email:

Tim, I didn't mean to embarrass you in the team meeting. Sorry if I did.

I tell her not to worry about it, but I send an email of my own to my immediate colleagues, my Director and the organiser of the Christmas Dinner.

Dear all,

A clarification on today’s revelation during team brief... It is indeed the case that I am a practising Muslim – as I have been for about a decade. This was a personal choice, following a period of searching prompted by the discomfort of being the only agnostic in a very religious family – both my parents are Anglican priests.

I really don’t have a problem with people knowing that I am Muslim, but I did make a conscious choice when I started this job not to publicise it widely given the prevailing political climate. I am sure it won’t have escaped your attention that my religion has been receiving a lot of negative attention over the past few years, particularly after the massacre on the London transport system in 2005. Having experienced colleagues making wild assumptions about me because of my beliefs in past roles, I felt that silence was the best option. Thus I disappear off at lunchtime to do my prayers and make excuses for not coming to the pub with you.

I do not expect you to make alternative arrangements on my behalf. Generally I do not sit where alcohol is being consumed – partly for reasons other than religion – which I guess is rather an anathema at Christmas time. But don’t worry about it. At the end of Ramadan, I had a lovely Eid celebration – I don’t feel I’m missing out. Others may feel differently, but that’s my personal take. If in doubt, talk to the people concerned – whether it is someone with health issues or specific cultural needs.

Apologies to anyone who thinks I should have been more open about my beliefs – but you know the English way; we tend not to broadcast our beliefs. Hence I never knew that David is a Jedi Knight.

Thine,

Tim

Almost straight away, my director responds.

Tim, I apologise if you were put in an embarrassing position this morning. As a PCT I hope we are sensitive to everyone’s beliefs. Sometimes it is difficult to think of everything so I was appreciative of your understanding. Please don’t hesitate to come and see me if there is anything you want to talk about.

The organiser of the Christmas Dinner writes to me to say she's sorry I won't be attending, but now she understands why. Meanwhile, my colleague writes:

Good clarification, thanks Tim. And there’s nothing wrong with being a Jedi Knight! It is an official religion on a number of planets I visit as an ET Technical Projects Manager, including: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1589133.stm

As for the conversation which sparked gale force winds in our best china: a colleague of the lady in question casually mentioned it in passing that she would have liked her to be there for Christmas Dinner. The individual organising the dinner became very worried after this, even though the lady explained several times that she did not celebrate Christmas and did not feel left out at all. Having explained that she did not want any plans changed on her behalf, she left it at that. She tells me, "It's all a storm in a tea cup."