<strong>THE</strong> <strong>MUHAMMAD</strong> <strong>CARTOONS</strong>Counter-Jihad provocations<strong>THE</strong> INTERNATIONAL ‘COUNTER-JIHAD’ MOVEMENT has formwhen it comes to distributinginflammatory material designedto incite a violent reaction fromMuslims.In 2012 US counter-jihadactivists produced a trailer for ahighly offensive and provocativefilm, The Innocence of Muslims.The film began with footage ofMuslims attacking the homesof Egyptian Christians whilesecurity forces stood by. Itthen switched to cartoonishscenes depicting the ProphetMuhammad as a child ofuncertain parentage, a buffoonand womaniser, as gay, achild molester and a greedy,bloodthirsty thug.The film was the work offour men in California, allinvolved in the counterjihadmovement. It gainednotoriety when a fiery TVpresenter in Egypt made it an issue on hisprogramme several months later.The group issued a statement initially pretending that the filmwas the work of an Israeli Jew and financed by 100 Jews inIsrael, a clear attempt to direct Muslim anger at Jews and fanthe flames still further.Unfortunately, there were many Muslim groups only toowilling to respond to this provocation.This led to protests, riots and even deaths around the world,much to the delight of the filmmakers.Worse still, the media willingly carried the narrative of‘intolerant Muslims’, with Newsweek magazine, for example,carrying a cover photo of screaming protestors, with theheadline: ‘Muslim rage’.A Guardian newspaper journalist called this: “Either a brilliantbid for attention (and readers) or one of the worst editorialdecisions on recent memory.” 1The filmmakers were unrepentant. “Do I feel guilty that thesepeople were incited?,” said Steve Klein, one of the peoplebehind the film. “Guess what? I didn’t incite them. They’repre-incited, they’re pre-programmed to do this.”In another interview, he admitted they expected this violentreaction. 2Last summer another group of counter-jihadists tried thesame tactics again, this time with a six-minute animatedcartoon telling the story of theProphet Muhammad and hischild bride.Titled Aisha & Muhammed:Dramatic Life of a LittleChild Married to the Prophetof Islam, the film containedgraphic scenes of Muhammadraping a young girl as shecried on her bed and wasclearly designed to whip updislike, fear and even hatred ofMuslims, and in turn provokean angry counter-reactionfrom them. 3It was far more distasteful andprovocative than the Innocenceof Muslims film.It was promoted by theinternational counter-jihadistnetwork and produced by ImranFirasat, a Pakistani-born formerMuslim who had been a vocalsupporter of the Qur’an burningFlorida pastor Terry Jones.To give it an international feel,Lars Hedegaard (President ofthe International Free Press Society) and Ingrid Carlqvist,Editor-in-Chief of Dispatch International, two leading actors inthe European counter-jihad movement were interviewed in ashort documentary that followed on from the trailor.“This movie will certainly give you clues as to why Muslimsin Europe are so actively in sexual abuse of little girls,” saidCarlqvist in the movie.The organisers failed in their attempt to cause a reactionbecause the British government intervened and convincedYouTube and Google to remove the film.However, a full-length 47-minute version of Aisha &Muhammed is now available on the internet. 4Hedegaard and Carlqvist were later to distance themselvesfrom the video, but only for fear of their own public safetyrather than distaste for the film itself.Many of those who promoted this film are now pushing theMuhammed cartoons under the guise of free speech.1 http://www.theguardian.com/media/us-news-blog/2012/sep/17/muslim-rage-newsweek-magazine-twitter2 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/us/from-the-man-whoinsulted-islam-no-retreat.html3 http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/blog/nick/don-t-give-them-thesatisfaction-38824 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZTTeBqJatE12 | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>MUHAMMAD</strong> <strong>CARTOONS</strong> | HOPE not hate
<strong>THE</strong> <strong>MUHAMMAD</strong> <strong>CARTOONS</strong>who hosted Geert Wilders when he screened his anti-Muslim film, ‘Fitna’, back in 2010.The deeper Waters got into the ‘counter-jihad’ world themore extreme she became and the more hardline thepeople she began to engage with.In July 2014 she shared a platform with Lars Hedegaard,President of the International Free Speech Society, andIngrid Carlqvist, a Swedish journalist and the country’smost prominent counter-jihadist. Waters speech wasmainly about grooming gangs but underlying it all, sheargued, was an appeasement by and of the West to Islam.This is a very common narrative among the hardcorecounter-jihadists.Last October, Waters spoke on the dangers of ‘Sharia’ atHyde Park’s famous Speakers Corner. Among the otherspeakers were Toni Bulge, the head of Mothers AgainstRadical Islam And Sharia, which had organised the event,and Charlie Klendjian, secretary of the Lawyers’ SecularSociety. In the audience were Alan Ayling and Ann Machini, 8key figures in the British counter-jihad movement.Chickens coming home to roostAlan Ayling, also known as Alan Lake, is one of the mostimportant and most militant counter-jihadists in Britain.He has provided advice and support to Stephen Lennon(aka Tommy Robinson, the violent founder of the EnglishDefence League, EDL) and even helped him form the EDLback in 2009.Previously active in the Free Tibet movement, after beingbadly assaulted outside the Chinese Embassy duringa protest he become disillusioned with that cause anddrifted towards Christianity. It was at the West KensingtonTemple, a large Pentecostal Church run by Reverend ColinDye in London’s Notting Hill, that his strong views aboutIslam emerged.Among the people he met at this church was an Americanwho now operates under the pseudonym Kinana, and itwas through him that he entered the counter-jihad world.Ayling is part of a small clique of British counter-jihadistswho are completely obsessed with the threat of Islam. Inaddition to Kinana, others in this group included propertymanager and millionaire Ann Marchini; Yorkshire-basedChris Knowles; former tour guide and UKIP candidateMagnus Nielson; and east London-based Darren Marsh.Ann Marchini is one of Britain’s leading counter-jihadistswho provided a crucial link between more respectablecounter-jihadist funders and politicians in Europe andNorth America.Marchini ran a buy-to-letproperty empire from herhome in Highgate, northLondon, and while she hasgiven up some of this workshe still runs a number ofstudent properties.She has attended most ofthe so-called ‘anti-jihad’conferences that have beenheld in different Europeancountries since 2007 andhas been actively involvedin the International CivilLiberties Alliance (ICLA)Ann MarchiniAnne Marie Watersspeaking at the AllFootball Fans/FirmsAgainst Islamisation(AFFFAI) demo in Dudleyin early June 2015HOPE not hate | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>MUHAMMAD</strong> <strong>CARTOONS</strong> | 13
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