In November 2014 Katie Hopkins was reported to the police after a number of anti-Muslim rants were sent from her Twitter account including one that called Palestinians “filthy rodents.”
The former Apprentice contestant and Sun columnist, 39, also demanded that Israel “restart the bombing campaign” on Gaza after two Israelis were stabbed to death in separate knife attacks in Tel Aviv.
The messages sparked demands for Hopkins to be arrested.
The tweets from her account, which had over 244,000 followers in November and where she refers to herself as “telling it like it is”, were branded Islamophobic.
A number were about the crisis in the Middle East and the series of stabbings apparently carried out by an Arab man on two Israelis who eventually died.
Tweets from Ms Hopkins’ account said: ‘Palestinians busy knifing Israelis. 2 state solution my a***. Filthy rodents burrowing beneath Israel. Time to restart the bombing campaign.”
“Arab terrorists fired rockets from schools and hospitals. They brought down Israeli fire on to their own people. See behind the pictures.”
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Dozens accused her of inciting racial hatred and demanded the police take action.
But despite the complaints the police have so far taken no action against her, although she has recently stopped tweeting about Muslims and Islam.
Sectarian presenter
Also in November the Blackburn-based Ummah Channel came under fire over “sectarian” presenter Shaykh Naveed Ashrafi.
YouTube videos showing Ashrafi denigrating “Wahabis” and Shias were widely circulated although the comments seem to have been made a while ago.
In one video he tells a caller not to associate with “Wahabis” because it would be endangering her Iman. He also tells her that it’s okay to call them “Wobblers.”
5Pillars understands that a complaint to broadcasting regulator OFCOM was made but the channel was cleared over it.
The video can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wuxvqrSAhA
And in another video he tells a caller that it’s strictly forbidden for Sunnis to marry Shias as they are “not proper Muslims” who have “filthy beliefs.” He adds that “Sunnis” are not supposed to have any kind of relationship with Shias.
Again, the video can be watched here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGGveaHoYXI
Ashrafi is the founder and principal at Madani Education Centre in Blackburn, and is still given a platform by Ummah Channel despite his controversial comments.
Syria returnees
Also in August, after contacting at least ten British fighters trapped in Turkey because of a fear of returning home, advocacy organisation CAGE urged the government to adjust its anti-terrorism legislation to allow them and others the right to return.
CAGE said it went into the region to locate returnees in order to assess the true story, rather than rely on tweets. They spoke to fighters who say they are waiting in no-man’s land for fear of returning home.
CAGE is now urging the government “to give these fighters the chance to share the knowledge gained in Syria to contribute to the fight against global injustice and terrorism, instead of leaving them stranded and vulnerable.”
“These are normal average guys, who felt a moral obligation to assist ordinary Syrians against the Assad regime,” said CAGE spokesperson Amandla Thomas-Johnson.
According to CAGE, a little over 100 British men left the UK to fight against the “oppressive regime” of Bashar al-Assad, at a time when this was supported by the British government.
CAGE has argued in its report “Blowback – Foreign Fighters and the threat they pose,” that there is no empirical evidence to suggest that blowback from Syria or Iraq will occur in the UK.
However, it says the possibility of violence in the UK – due to a draconian and non-consultative approach to counter-terrorism that relies on blanket measures such as passport revocations and detention without trial – continues to increase.
ISIS and the Gold Dinar
On the international scene, ISIS announced it would introduce a new coin-based currency in the territories it controls across Iraq and Syria.
The treasury department of the so-called “Islamic State” said it would start minting gold, silver and copper to produce new money named the Dinar.
Details of the new currency were circulated online, alongside images showing the planned design of the future coins.
The announcement came as ISIS was enhancing its effort to be perceived as a proper state rather than a militia group.
The Al Qaeda splinter group said the Dinar would help rid Muslims of the “satanic usury-based global economic system”.
The new currency would remove the self-professed Caliphate “from the tyrannical monetary system that was imposed on the Muslims and was a reason for their enslavement and impoverishment,” the group claimed in a message, translated by SITE Intelligence Group.
ISIS Dinars will come only in three cuts of round-shaped coins: solid gold, silver and copper. No banknotes will be issued, according to the group.
Gold Dinars were the currency used during the historic Caliphate of the Rightly Guided Rashidun in the 7th century AD.
UAE bans “terrorist” groups
Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) blacklisted 82 organisations as “terrorists”, mainly consisting of Syrian rebel factions and any group affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
The list also included three British organisations: The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), The Cordoba Foundation and Islamic Relief.
Numerous Syrian rebel groups including ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham as well as Al Qaeda and all its umbrella organisations across the Muslim world have been banned.
The Muslim Brotherhood and all its regional and international offshoots appear to be the main target of this list, along with jihadist groups from Africa and Asia.
Militant Shia groups also figure in the list, including Hezbollah in the Gulf states, brigades with the same name in Iraq and Yemen’s Houthis. But Lebanon’s Iranian backed Hezbollah was not blacklisted.
In late August, UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahayan enacted federal law number 7, which mandated the list to be published and circulated by the media to further “transparency” and “increase awareness” of terrorist threats.
Opinion and analysis
Yusuf Dhia Allah warned about the escalating threat to Masjid al Aqsa.
He said: “Rabbinical law prohibits Jews from trespassing on the sacred soil of al-Haram al-Sharif, the Zionist thugs are trampling on even their own law to grab the holy site, writes .
“Zionist encroachments on al-Haram al-Sharif in al-Quds (Jerusalem) that houses the two holy masjids — al-Masjid al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock — have become quite brazen in recent weeks. Palestinian men under 50 have been barred from entry onto the sacred site resulting in clashes with heavily-armed Israeli police and soldiers. Armed Zionist squatters (aka settlers) also attack Palestinians when they try and prevent Zionist encroachment.
“What has added urgency to the matter is the fact that a bill filed some six months ago in the Israeli Knesset is reportedly being considered for a vote. Knesset members Miri Regev (Likud) and Hilik Bar (Labor) are signatories of the bill that calls for Muslims and Jews sharing space for prayers. Bar retracted his signature several days later, after his party pressured him to do so but Regev (as chairwoman of the Knesset Interior and Environment Committee and member of the ruling Likud party) carries considerable weight, and has stayed put.
“While the Zionist regime claims there are no plans to put the bill to a vote in the Knesset, it has prompted Palestinian leaders and Jordanians to take steps. Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas’ Political Bureau issued a call to the Palestinians and members of the broader Arab and Muslim Ummah to take note of the issue and to rise up for the defence of al-Masjid al-Aqsa. He issued the call from Doha, Qatar on October 16. He accused the Zionists of trying to occupy the sacred site…
“This is where the situation stands today: al-Masjid al-Aqsa, indeed the entire Haram al-Sharif is under Zionist occupation and threat of destruction. Even while Muslims throughout history provided sanctuary to the Jewish people after they suffered persecution elsewhere, the Zionists have turned out to be the worst kinds of oppressors in history. They act with impunity and are extremely hostile toward the indigenous Palestinian (Muslim) people. Heavily armed, they shoot at the slightest pretext and have no regard for Palestinian life.
“The corrupt Muslim rulers are totally subservient to the imperialists and Zionists. Reposing hope in them to rescue the Muslims is a waste of time. It would require a figure like Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi to emerge among Muslims to liberate al-Masjid al-Aqsa and Palestine from another group of Crusaders, this time of the Zionist variety.
“Until then, Muslims can pray and prepare for that day. A good starting point would be to become better acquainted with their history, especially relating to Palestine and al-Masjid al-Aqsa, which seems to have been largely forgotten.”
Gruesome ISIS video
Finally, 5Pillars editor Roshan Muhammed Salih said the brutal execution of several Syrian soldiers as well as American Muslim convert Peter Kassig was the most gruesome, graphic and high-tech ISIS video to date.
Roshan wrote: “As part of my journalistic research I had the displeasure of watching all 15 minutes of it and it left me feeling that this is an organization which feeds off hate, revels in blood and has no moral boundaries whatsoever.
“In fact, I would go as far as to say that ISIS is probably the most powerful and most frightening internal threat to Islam and Muslim countries that has existed in modern times. They literally make Al Qaeda look like pussy cats.
“I’d prefer the repressive dictatorships of Mubarak, Ben Ali and others over these homicidal maniacs who wear Islamic garb. At least the former imposed order while the latter thrive on destruction and anarchy.
“These bloodthirsty killers pervert our great religion in the eyes of the world and they provide the perfect excuse for the West to destroy our nations. And we need to eliminate them and the ideology they espouse before they burn the house of Islam down…
“So while fighting imperialism and opposing dictatorship must always be our priorities, all that will be pointless unless we fight imperialism’s bastard child – the takfiri menace.
“We need an internal strategy to eradicate ISIS and the takfiri ideology in general, one that completely dissociates itself from the West and its agendas and only has the good of the Ummah at heart.
“Ultimately that means we need to stop living in denial and get radical. And if we don’t we should all realise where we are heading.”
