There are few individuals in the blogosphere who combine ignorance and malice in quite the same poisonous mixture as David Toube of Harry’s Place. Having recently subjected Global Peace & Unity, Yasir Qadhi, Azad Ali and Salma Yaqoob to his venomous lying attacks, this obnoxious bigot has now turned his attention to the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (“MPACuk comes out for political violence“), whom he accuses of being “a Jihadist organisation”.
Anyone who has had the misfortune to follow Toube’s posts at Harry’s Place will be aware that he randomly applies the label “jihadist” (along with “fascist”) to pretty well any variant of political Islam. In MPAC’s case, his charge is that they posted a comment piece on their website making the point that violent oppression inevitably generates violent resistance.
As one commenter on Toube’s post points out: “I don’t see how explaining what they feel are the causes of political violence is the same thing as approving of political violence.” In another comment Sunny Hundal, no admirer of MPAC, to his credit dissociates himself from Toube’s absurd attack on them – “violent they’re certainly not”.
Toube’s ignorance knows no bounds. Even when there’s a basis for criticism of an organisation or individual his slovenly attitude to the facts leads him to make an idiot of himself. In another recent post, headed “Fascists and Trots debate at Hizb conference” Toube denounced as a Hizb ut-Tahrir front the 13 December conference on “The Global Financial Crash” organised by Global Vision 2000.
The sole basis for this charge is that HT have a speaker at the event. Applying that stupid criterion you might as well assert that Saturday’s conference has been organised by Stephen Schwartz’s neocon Center for Islamic Pluralism, on the basis that Irfan Alawi is listed as a speaker. Global Vision 2000 is in fact the brainchild of one rather cranky individual, who among other eccentricities is a 9/11 truther. In my opinion the left should give the event a wide berth.
But what about the “fascists and Trots” bit? Well, “fascists” is a reference to Holocaust denier Alistair McConnachie, who has been invited to speak at the conference, and the Trots are the Socialist Workers Party – except that there are no SWP speakers on the platform, so the “debate” between them and McConnachie is entirely a product of Toube’s imagination.
As we have remarked in the past about Toube, it’s a measure of the irrational discourse surrounding the subject of Islam and Islamism that this ridiculous little man is actually given a hearing in some circles.