On Thursday night, Britain’s Channel 4 concluded a week-long debate series about the niqab and its role in Britain with a broadcasted debate at the East London Mosque.
The debate featured an audience of niqab-clad women, as well as three on stage debating against Douglas Murray, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Khola Hasan.
Fatima Barkatullah, Shalina Litt, and Sahar Al-Faifi defended the niqab, claiming it was a “right”, and attempted to make a case in favour of the garment which has been described by Muslim activist Tarek Fatah as the “most offensive attire human beings have worn seen since we walked out of Africa”.
But an investigation by TrendingCentral.com seems to immediately undermine the transparency and balance of the Channel 4 debate, with at least two of the panellists appearing to be Islamists, a fact that was never highlighted before, during, or after the debate. Questions will no doubt be raised as to why Channel 4 produced an unbalanced panel, effectively attempting to reflect the Muslim population of Britain by using Islamists, rather than ordinary Muslim women.
Channel 4 may now face claims of both misleading the public, and of bigotry against ordinary Muslims.
Al-Faifi’s Twitter Biography
Sahar Al-Faifi, introduced simply as a molecular geneticist, is a self-proclaimed “Islamist”. She even says so on her Twitter biography, where it reads, “Molecular Geneticist by profession,Islamist by intellect,Revolutionist by actions,Universal Freedom & Justice seeker @CitizensUKcoordinator + @Cordobafoundati“.
At no point in the Channel 4 programme was it made clear to the audience that Al-Faifi was an Islamist. Islamism as an ideology encourages the use of Islam as social and political tool, and in most cases seeks to alter current legal and political frameworks and shape countries in the mould of an Islamic caliphate (i.e. creating Islamic states worldwide). Islamism promotes Sharia law, and is the doctrine behind extremist groups such as Hizb-ut-Tahrir, and the ousted Egyptian Freedom and Justice Party (Muslim Brotherhood), of which Al-Faifi seems to nod to in her bio also.
The Cordoba Foundation, which Al-Faifi links to with a claim to be working with or for them, is referred to by experts as a UK lobby group for the Muslim Brotherhood, with Anas Al-Tikriti, the son of the Muslim Brotherhood leader in Iraq as its founder and CEO.
“For example, Anas al-Tikriti, one of the shrewdest UK-based Brotherhood activists and the son of the leader of Iraq’s Muslim Brotherhood, has described how he himself has tried to encourage Western support for Islamists in the wake of the Arab uprisings:‘I was asked at a recent meeting with some of Washington’s wheelers and dealers about what the American government should do with the Islamic movements gaining prominence and claiming the limelight across the Arab world, I answered simply: support them … unless we encourage them and offer them an incentive, their own crop of hard-liners will have been proven right..’”
Al-Faifi was only ever referred to on the programme as an activist and a molecular geneticist. Nowhere did it make clear that Al-Faifi had an Islamist agenda or ideology, or that she worked for a Muslim Brotherhood operative who was the son of the largest Islamist party in Iraq today.
Another Islamist group operating in the United Kingdom is iERA, or to give it its full name, the Islamic Research and Education Academy. iERA and its staff have often appeared in the news having promoted extremism or gender segregation as recently highlighted by campus watchdog group Student Rights, which is overseen by TrendingCentral.com’s founder and editor Raheem Kassam.
Another of the panellists, Fatima Barakatullah, is a noted and publicised member and lecturer on behalf of iERA, where she serves alongside former Hizb-ut-Tahrir member Hamza Tzortzis, and the notorious Abdur Raheem Green, who is noted for claiming that, “Islam is not compatible with democracy” and who has claimed that a husband may beat his wife. iERA was recently banned from the University College London after it was discovered that women were being segregated in its events.
Barkatullah, who appeared on the Channel 4 discussion programme, is promoted prominently on the iERA website, though the organisation refuses to post pictures, even in full niqab, of its female staff and lecturers. Barkatullah is also married to iERA’s head of Media and Public Relations, Saleem Chagtai, who is described as a “student of Haitham al-Hadded”, who has described homosexuality as a “scourge” and endorsed the death penalty for those who leave Islam.
Channel 4 again made no attempts to explain that Barkatullah, like al-Faifi, is an Islamist.
The broadcaster is set to come under fire for failing to disclose the true identities and associations of two out of three of their ‘pro-niqab’ panel. Critics who wish to remain anonymous have already told TrendingCentral.com that, “To dress up Islamists as ordinary members of the British Muslim community insults both the non-Muslim and Muslim public, and and apology should come immediately.”
Ghaffar Husain, a counter-extremism expert told TrendingCentral.com, “The fact is that when you hold a debate at a biased venue like the now notorious East London mosque, these are the sorts of people you’re going to get. It’s not moderate, it’s not mainstream, and it’s little surprise to me that such a spurious debate has now been exposed as an utter sham”.
“We should ask what the consequences would be if Channel 4 hosted a British National Party (BNP) member, without clarifying their affiliations, and tried to pass them off as an ordinary member of the British public. There would be outrage. I look forward to similar levels of outrage about this grotesque abuse of power.”
Members of the public can complain to Channel 4 by clicking here, while complaints toBritain’s broadcasting regulator Ofcom, can be made here.
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