9 Dhul Qaʿdah, 1445

A galley amidst the gallows in a time of war

A man has been arrested by the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command after being linked to online posts supporting Hamas, a proscribed terrorist group.

On April 29, police were alerted by the public to online content that appeared to endorse Hamas. This information was assessed by the national Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit and subsequently handed over to the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command for further investigation.

On May 14, officers arrested a 47-year-old man in southwest London on suspicion of supporting a terrorist organization, in violation of section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Following the arrest, police searched a residence in southwest London.

The suspect was released on bail, with a requirement to return in early August as investigations continue.

— HSToday.us, UK Met’s Counter Terrorism Command Makes Arrest After Public Referral (May 15, 2024). [1]

As usual, I try to avoid directly linking to pages with inanimate images. If you insist on following up on this, then do your due diligence however you feel fit.

I’ve read here and there that the UK doesn’t play around with anything that can constitute for even a fraction of a gesture toward support for any organizations that they classify as terrorist groups. It’s interesting to wonder what constitutes support for Hamas in the context of this story.

On May 14 HSToday.us published an article titled “Jamaal Bowman Hosted Fundraiser With Extremist Muslim Leader Who Praised Oct. 7 Attacks on Israel”. Jamaal Bowman is a United States congressman. Nihad Awad is the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). This is intriguing to me because I’ve always thought of CAIR and those who align themselves with it as a rather milquetoast bunch. “Extremist” is the last epithet that I would expect to be levied against a member of their organization. Before drawing the White House’s ire because of Awad’s remarks, CAIR was named in a May 2023 document published by the Biden–Harris Administration that listed organizations committed to countering antisemitism (1):

The Council on American-Islamic Relations will launch a tour to educate religious communities about steps they can take to protect their houses of worship from hate incidents, such as instituting appropriate security measures, developing strong relationships with other faith communities, and maintaining open lines of communication with local law enforcement.

This was promptly removed as of December 2023, according to the New York Times. The same month, CAIR issued on Awad’s authority that provided context for his remarks that took place at an American Muslims for Palestine convention in November of that year. The statements in question were initially distributed by the US-based, pro-Israel think tank, the Middle East Media Research Institute who obtained and edited video footage of Awad’s speech.

With respect to Allah’s Shariʿah, it behooves me to momentarily digress and condemn photography and videography especially on occasions meant for altruism and appeals for the welfare and justice for oppressed peoples. Maybe my description of “Islamic” groups like CAIR being “milquetoast” falls short. These groups represent the the Muslim word in its decrepid state; shorn of our attachment to the Sunnah of Rasulullah سلى الله عليه و سلم. The validity of a Muslim’s intentions and interests must always be weighed by their conformity to the Shariʿah. In the future further analysis could prove benefical to help you understand where I’m coming from, inshaa-Allah. In the meantime, I sure hope I’m doing alright with my Deen…

Moving on, the remarks that drew the most criticism were:

The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege, the walls of the concentration camp, on October 7. And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in. And yes, the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense, have the right to defend themselves, and yes, Israel, as an occupying power, does not have that right to self-defense.

In the aforementioned press release, Awad makes it clear that he is opposed to “the violence against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7th and past Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians, including suicide bombings.”

May Allah protect us all from the black sites and the torture chambers. Ameen.

It’s taken me longer than I expected to finish writing this post. I didn’t intend for it to turn into some sort of essay about what I think about the conflict between liberal ideals such as “freedom of speech”, “hate speech”, and the concept of “extremism” and Muslims who dare to challenge these ideals under the surveillance of the Kuffar. Nonetheless, these consecutive events in the UK and the US are representations of this conflict. In the case of Nihad Awad it is interesting to ponder: if he is to be described as an “extremist” for his relatively mild words then what can be said about others [2]? What did the gentleman from the UK even say?