Sunday, August 19, 2007

Hani Al-Sibai: Asylum Seeker

Bachir Habib

The West is often accused of using double standards in international politics. That is certainly true. But they are not the only ones. Some expatriate radicals do not miss a chance to “spit in the water they drink”.
Hani Al-Sibai, a 46-year-old radical Muslim cleric, has lived in Britain since 1994. He fled his homeland of Egypt where he was convicted by a military court in absentia of plotting terrorist attacks. Despite having been refused asylum nine years ago after British security chiefs concluded he was a senior member of the Islamic Jihad; he was, however, granted temporary permission to remain in the UK while the courts consider his appeal.
In his free time, Mr Al-Sibai continues to speak out against the West. In a debate on Al-Jazeera television aired last month, he declared live on television, very at ease with Big Ben and Westminster in the background, that Islamic fighters were humiliating Western forces, adding: "There are no real men except for the people of Islam. Look at the people who give reason to hold the head of Islam high, in politics they are the masters. In the battlefield they are the masters. They are the ones who rub in the mud the nose of the occupation forces in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Palestine, throughout the world." He also contrasted Islamic extremists with pro-Western secular leaders in the Middle East, who, he said, "should be placed in public squares so that people can hit them with their shoes and spit on them".”
What Mr Al-Sibai forgets to mention is that unlike in our “Arab democratic States”, there exists in the West a Judicial power willing to stop the executive authorities power from expelling opponents, however controversial they might be, on a pure legal basis. While he and others are happy to benefit from its protection abroad, you don’t see this item high on their list of political priorities at home. After all the separation of powers, essential in a democratic system, is not yet part of our culture. But then neither is stoning other human beings for their opinions.

4 comments:

Maysaloon said...

It seems like quite a hypocritical position to take. Why do you think he is doing this?

Arab Democracy said...

There is a remote possibility he could be a hypocrite.

J.E

Bachir said...

no guys come on... he's not hypocrite... let's put it in another way, he's an opportunist who's trying to be smart. he is actually, because till now he's not in prison neither he's deported, at the contrary, he might become a british citizen one day, at least a political refugee...
wassim, i don't care about the why by the way, what i do care about are the implications and consequences of such trend of thinking. the why may lead to many rhetoric and ideological arguments about the responsibilty of western imperialism and sionism in perpetuating the arab helplessness... the constructive question in my view will be "how" to stop such dangerous people and denounce them. or "how" to create a new "society project" more convincing than the dark one proposed by the culture of jihad!...
no i will not go on the "why" ground and try to understand or explain such a sick behaviour and blame it on the industrial revolution in the early 20th century or the creation of israel in 1948!...

ItinerantView said...

@Bachir"no guys come on... he's not hypocrite.."
He is an appalling hypocrite.
The Islamist ideology he proscribes to has a documented strategy for jihad for those not taking direct action,it's economic sabotage and with his use of,no doubt the benefit system and at the very least legal aid he does just that.Why do you think he resists deportation so vehemently,it's certainly not because he loves the UK.
Yes he is an appalling hypocrite and a frothing hatemonger spouting supremacist propaganda.One who would not reciprocate the same refuge and rule of law shown to him.He's a parasite denouncing the host while feeding off of it.