al Qutubi - The Islamist Extremist: The World Through My Eyes

ABDUS SABUR AL QUTUBI

THE ISLAMIST EXTREMIST

The World Through My Eyes

Copyright Abdus Sabur Al Qutubi 2015

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"What we are fighting, in Islamist extremism, is an ideology. It is an extreme doctrine. And like any extreme doctrine, it is subversive.

David Cameron

We're facing a radical ideology with inalterable objectives: to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world."

George W Bush

Islamism, the specifically twentieth-century ideology which twists the religious impulse into submission to a new totalitarianism."

Michael Gove

negativity towards Muslims is five times higher than towards Christians and Buddhists, so there's quite a significant issue there"

Professor Andrew Markus

In Western Europe, anti-Semitism directed against Arabs has largely replaced Anti-Semitism against Jews

Samuel Huntington

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Abdus Sabur Al Qutubi has been involved in Islamic activism since his teenage years, initially with Hizb ut-Tahrir and then as a freelancer. During his time he has interacted with leading Islamic groups and has contributed to internal UK Islamist discourse. He has been actively encouraged to become the media spokesman for a number of Islamic groups but eschews the limelight in favour of private, more engaging discourse. He has extensively travelled the Middle East, having previously lived in both Syria and Egypt and speaks five languages with a desire to augment this to seven upon the acquisition of Spanish and Persian.

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First published by Qutubi Books 2015

Copyright Abdus Sabur Al Qutubi 2015

All rights reserved

The right of the author has been asserted

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner

ISBN-13: 978-0-9934135-0-6

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For your Glory this forehead kisses the ground

With more tenderness than a mothers sweet embrace to her newborn

For your Majesty knows no bound

You are my Master, my Sustainer!

Oh Lord! Pity this soul like a mother pities her firstborn

Will he be happy, or sad?

Oh Lord! Pity this miserable wretch

Like a mothers thousand nights of pain

Have Mercy on me

For without your Mercy my life would be in vain!

May this tongue flow with your praise

More abundantly than the Monsoon rains.

So long as the fecund clouds send forth rain

or the earth herbage

May your Name be Glorified!

Yes! May it be Glorified!

The first word I heard was Your name,

May it be the last.

For you are the First, the Last, the Eternal.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Q uestion: whats the common thread between Charlie Hebdo, 7/7, 9/11 and the Madrid bombings? Answer: They have nothing to do with Islam. That is what youll hear in the public discourse, yet it keeps on happening again and again, and the perpetrators all claim to be acting in the name of Islam. There are growing signs that the British public is not convinced and harbours a deep-rooted fear of Islam (52% are very concerned about Islamic extremism in our country.

Its time this charade stopped and the detailed and complex issues of identity, political Islam, Islam, foreign policy and more generally Muslims living in the West are all analysed in a brutally frank fashion by someone whos been a committed Islamist since his teenage years.

Im officially an Islamist Extremist in the governments eyes and I intend to take you on a journey through my world. Thats what this book is about.

This book is a brutally honest, no-punches-pulled account of how an inveterate Islamist sees you and the world. Its going to take you out of your comfort zone; parts will positively surprise you, others will shock you but one thing you will be assured of is an accurate prcis of what we Islamists believe in. And thats gold dust because the public at large is ignorant of Islam and even more so the related neologism: Islamism. The general assumption is that Islamism is bad, a kind of twenty-first century politicised, extremist, retrograde ideology loosely related to Islam with the latter the peaceful Abrahamic faith practised by approaching two billion of the worlds citizens.

The problem is that its almost impossible for an Islamist to get his voice heard. How do you know what political Islam is all about when Islamists are barred from public discourse? The only knowledge of political Islam comes from kiss-and-tell rehabilitated Islamists, many of whom are almost certainly motivated by the lucrative dollar gravy train that follows. Their accounts are sensationalist and exaggerated, seeking ratings and press coverage. And anyway, how can any academic take the galimatias of an ex seriously. As anyone whos been through a divorce will readily attest, exes accounts are notoriously unreliable, laced with opprobrium, bitterness, bigotry and ill-will towards their former partners. You ruined my life, now Im going to make you pay for it is the common theme. Throw into the mix lucrative dollars, foreign travel and a government-provided ready-made platform lecturing ministers and foreign dignitaries, and there is more than a hint of a conflict of interest to put it mildly.

Being an ex-Islamist certainly does pay! Im almost tempted myself!

Many of these rehabilitated ex-Muslims were down-and-outs, failing to make ends meet in life. At best, their achievements in life could be described as pretty damn average before their apparent Damascene moment and seeing the Light. You may find this surprising but many of the photogenic role model liberal Muslims who are promoted ad nauseum by the long arm of the state are some of the most duplicitous personalities that you could ever encounter. A classic case in point is the rehabilitated, reformed Islamist Hassan Butt. Right-wing journalists were falling over themselves to ghostwrite his book, showering him with praise for his gutsy expos. Nick Cohen could barely conceal his excitement, [f]or he did not simply leave the al-Qaeda training camps on the Pakistan-Afghanistan borders and write a few articles when he came home, but transformed himself into a tireless opponent of extremism. He has encouraged about a dozen others to quit al-Qaeda, a higher success rate than the intelligence services can claim Such uncritical reporting, lapping up Butts every last word without bothering to verify the veracity of his claims suggests either rank gullibility and ignorance of the real dynamics, or a preconceived agenda to peddle anyone wholl fulfill the desired narrative.

Sick of his grandstanding, the Muslim community made strong representations to the police to have him arrested, given his confessions of apparent terrorist activities. During cross examination Butt admitted:

BUTT: Many people were making a career out of being former radicals. I had to take it one step further and actually say I was a terrorist, which wasn't true.

EDIS QC: So, you were a professional liar then?

BUTT: I would make money, yes.

EDIS QC: If the money's right you'll say absolutely anything?

BUTT: Absolutely anything, yes. If I wasn't going to cash up on it, someone else was going to cash up on it.

He even confessed to stabbing himself in the arm to feign an attack by disgruntled Islamists. He described the journalist Shiv Malik who was lapping up every sentence as a right patsy. Nick Cohen for his part described this right patsy as the most interesting writer on terrorism around!