Written by Yvonne Ridelys GPU Speech Yvonne Ridleys Speech at the 2006 Global Peace & Unity Conference, London. U.K. Sister Yvonne Ridley is the famous reporter, captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan who, after being held prisoner for some time, was allowed to leave provided she would do one thing: Read the Quran with an open mind. She did. And Allah opened her heart and brought her to Islam. This is truly an amazing woman with an amazing story. She shares her views and experiences in the real world of today . . . I originally dedicated my speech at the Global Peace and Unity conference to Imam Anwar Al Awlaki, a prominent Muslim scholar highly regarded in English speaking Islamic circles, who was arrested in Yemen two months ago. But I must also thank brother Fahad Ansari from the Islamic Human Rights Commission, author of God Save The Deen, whose written work inspired me to write this speech. Much credit of content is due to him. Islamically, I am very young, having reverted in 2003 ? and while I have much to learn I can identify with the frustrations shared by Muslims today. I know 9/11 had a huge impact on the world, but it wasn?t really the start of something ? it was the continuation of a legacy of US imperialism and its fear of Islam. Just over ten years ago, fit, young Muslims across the globe flooded into Bosnia to help their brothers and sisters fight for their survival against the Serbs who were carrying out a genocide sanctioned by the silence of a watching world. The jihad brought together Muslims from all nationalities, status and culture. All were united, even those who could not travel to fight helped in other ways such as fund-raising, public awareness events and demonstrations. The impact was to stop the genocide. Western intervention, when it happened, came only after it was obvious the Bosnian Muslims were heading for victory. The establishment of an Islamic state deep in the heart of Europe was simply too much to bear and so the West intervened. This is not my conclusion, but US President Bill Clinton admitted it in his autobiography. This fear of Islam has now evolved in the last 10 years to such an extent that the blood of our brothers and sisters is now flowing like rivers across Chechnya, Kashmir, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and we saw recently what happened to Lebanon. I have walked through many of these killing fields and let me tell you the twisted, blown up limbs of our Muslim brothers and sisters look exactly like those pulled from the rubble of the Twin Towers. Yet the message of today is quite clear. Muslim blood is a cheap commodity. Meanwhile tens of thousands of innocent Muslims continue to be tortured in far away lands like Guantanamo Bay, Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib, Diego Garcia and ghost prisons throughout the world. Meanwhile, in the dungeons of Syria, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria Egypt ? brothers are being tortured at the behest and request of the United States. And dont think the British Government is not involved ... British intelligence officers will soon be named and shamed for their roles. Even now nine British residents remain in Guantanamo Bay - the Americans dont want them, but neither does this Government. Despite the weasel words of the Foreign Office all it will take is a phone call to have the brothers released. And dont think it is just brothers being incarcerated and tortured - Moazzam Begg can still hear a sisters screams down the corridors of the torture cells in Afghanistan where he was held by the Americans. See him at the Cage Prisoners stand today and ask him what you can do to help. Because we can help. Hardly a single detainee has been released due to legal action, but through political pressure ... that is when governments get involved. You here today, can make a difference. Dont just sit here and get angry - get even. Put pressure on your politicians and remind them you are their political masters. In Surah Al Asr ? God promises that the whole of mankind, including Muslims is at loss. Except ? those who BELIEVE, DO RIGHTEOUS DEEDS, and those who ENJOIN THE TRUTH, and PATIENCE. Only by fulfilling these four criteria, will we be able to meet Allah, however if we bury our heads in the sand, and pretend there is no oppression in the world, and that these brothers and sisters mean nothing to us, then maybe we will not get to meet Him. Even Ken McDonald, Britain?s chief prosecutor, is disgusted by this governments actions - he has launched a scathing attack on secret courts. These courts try terror suspects who are not allowed to see the evidence against them. It is an affront to justice. In an exclusive interview with Islam Channel News, he said: We should be clear these principles are not negotiable. Whatever the political pressures, whatever the climate, these are the essence of fairness: trials routinely opened and reported before independent and impartial tribunals. We dont want secret courts, we dont want vetted judges, we dont want secret justice. Equality of arms; fairness between the Prosecution and the Defence is not negotiable; the right to call and cross-examine witnesses under equal conditions is not negotiable; the right to full disclosure of the States case against you is not negotiable. Defendants are entitled to know what the case against them is, and theyre entitled to have material in the possession of the Crown which either undermines the Crowns case or assists the Defence?s case. A protected right of appeal is not negotiable. And the presumption of innocence, the criminal standard of proof - beyond a reasonable doubt - with the burden of proof resting squarely on the Crowns shoulders, none of that is negotiable. And of course he is right - but Tony Blair says Muslims have got to stop having a victim mentality. Well when the Director of Public prosecutions starts whingeing, then may be we have a point. Think about what sort of message that sends out to our young people? They read about the heroic exploits of Saladin Ayyoubi, Khalid bin Walid, Tariq bin Ziad and listen intently to stories of courage and bravery about our beloved Prophet Mohamed, peace be upon him. Do you know, five years ago I had never even heard of The Prophet, pbuh, but now I would give my last drop of blood to protect his name, his honour and his memory. Even in death he showed how strong he was by uniting the Ummah in protest at those vile cartoons from Denmark. Our modern day heroes include those two sixties martyrs Malcolm X and Sayyid Qutb, both whose writings have helped define me as a Muslim. These are the sort of role models and influences our youth need to follow, but instead they receive confused and mixed messages. If Blair gets his way he will try and ban this book Milestones - he is told this is a book Usama bin Ladin has read ... well hes also read Sheikh Zubair thats Shakespeare to you and me. Should we ban 12th Night, Hamlet and other great classics? One minute our youth are told the fear no one but Allah (swt) while the next minute they are told to dilute their Islam and keep their heads down. Since the events of 9-11, there has been an unrelenting campaign launched to change Islam into something more palatable to Western society. The vision is a secular and cultural Islam at peace with the world through her submission to her oppressors rather than to Allah; an Islam devoid of jihad, shari?ah and khilafah ? the very things we are commanded by Allah to implement in order to establish Allah?s deen on this earth. And it is in evidence everywhere I look. Hijabs are being ripped off the heads of my sisters in Tunisia, France and Turkey. Sisters in Holland and Germany are also in the firing line. And in Britain, we have Jack Straw, the former British Foreign Secretary who questioned the veil ? he might not like the nikab, but I wish he would put it on with a great big gag. I am not having a white, middle-aged man telling me or my sisters how to dress. The nikab, like the veil, like the hijab has become a symbol of a rejection of those negative Western lifestyles like drug-taking, binge-drinking and promiscuity. It is a statement telling the West we don?t want to be like you. Muslims who choose to be more western than Westerners make me laugh ? do they realize how silly they look to the rest of the world? They hide behind such descriptions as moderate ? again what sort of message does that send to our young people? If we ask them to be moderate does that not suggest that there is something wrong with Islam that it needs to be toned down, diluted? What is a moderate and what is an extremist? I really don?t know. I am a simple Muslim. I follow no scholars or sects ? I merely follow The Prophet (pbuh) and the Sunnah. Does that make me an extremist? I dont think Tony Blair knows himself - I wrote to him three months ago and am still waiting for a reply. Being a Muslim is a bit like being pregnant. You are or you are not. Whoever heard of anyone being moderately pregnant? Islam has been under attack for 1400 years and we should have learned by now to put our trust in no one but Allah. Yet there are those who continue to kiss the hand which slaps them. I am afraid that we can no longer put our trust in to someone just because they might wear Islamic dress. There are those Muslim leaders who claim to guide and protect us but not all of them have our interests at heart. Our young people are going to have to be very discerning since the events of 9/11, Bali, Madrid and the London Bombings, to name a few. There are individuals who for years rallied the masses to stand up for justice and support mujahideen groups around the world and now some have become embarrassingly silent while others condemn armed jihad, portraying mujahideen as terrorists and extremists who follow a distorted version of Islam. In some ways we are all to blame. Our greatest shame has been our silence while martyrdom operations in Palestine , Iraq, Afganistan and any other countries or states in all around the world so please dont b silence if u can do something and now u can even just share it now
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 18:09:44 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015