Roger Bolton “You’ve called the assault on Fallujah barbaric. Wasn’t its occupation by Iraqi militants and foreign fighters, using civilians as shields, also barbaric?”

Abdul Bari “Well we have to see what happened in the beginning, as mentioned by some of your, some of the people you interviewed, and I think agreed by the international community, that the occupation of Iraq was illegal. So, if people of Iraq come up and want to fight against the occupation army, we know that, we also mentioned somewhere, we know that there could be some people from outside Iraq that are coming and that is because the main reason that the occupation happened.”

Roger Bolton “Do you think therefore that armed resistance of the sort we are seeing in Fallujah is legitimate? You would support the fighters who are ranged against American and British troops?”

Abdul Bari “Well, people of Iraq have to decide, because the war has been imposed on them.”

Roger Bolton “I’m sorry sir, I was asking if you, not the people in Iraq, do you therefore think it is legitimate for people to fight against the American and British troops in Iraq?”

Abdul Bari “Well, it’s for the people of Iraq to decide.”

Roger Bolton “But it certainly could be legitimate, you’re not telling them it’s wrong.”

Abdul Bari “Well, what we are saying is that the occupation of Iraq itself was wrong”

I wasn’t being sarcastic actually. I was mainly thinking of a certain Lord Jeffery Archer who pales by comparison with Rushdie on every common level – literary output and libidinous compulsion. Also I thought that as the state has already invested heavily in keeping Rushdie safe from fatwa, we could get back some parliamentary representation diversity dividend, by appointing to the House of Lords, a Muslim who, not insignificantly, will also never have any time for Iran.
Who would CookieCutter or anyone else, instead nominate

Sudais’s quotes appear, and then the section with Muhammad Abdul Bari appearing on the full BBC video starting at 7 minutes in to the video.

I did finally get the 2005 transcript, but thank you for the links to the other material on Sudais’ visit.

It can be watched in its entirety here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_4540000/newsid_4544800/4544894.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm

The section with Abdul Bari is towards the end. But if you want to watch just the section with him using weasel words and deflection to deny the truth that Abdurahman Sudais is an antiSemitic bigot, just click here and watch the small video segment embedded within:

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=20895&only

This devious little man should NEVER be granted either a knighthood or a peerage.

John Ware: Sheikh Sudais is a leading Imam from the great mosque in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.

He had one voice for his Western audience – another for his followers in Saudi. Sheikh Abdur-Rahman Al-Sudais: The worst … of the enemies of Islam are those… whom he… made monkeys and pigs, the aggressive Jews and oppressive Zionists and those that follow them: the callers of the trinity and the cross worshippers… those influenced by the rottenness of their ideas, and the poison of their cultures the followers of secularism… How can we talk sweetly when the Hindus and the idol worshippers indulge in their overwhelming hatred against our brothers… in Muslim Kashmir…

John Ware: The East London mosque received $1m from the Saudis towards their new centre. The mosque’s links to Saudi go back many years.

The mosque’s Chairman Dr Bari remains to be convinced that his honoured guest Sheikh Sudais has repeatedly vilified other faiths.

John Ware: Do I take it that if you were satisfied he had said such things you would not have invited him over?

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Chairman, East London Mosque, Deputy Secretary General, Muslim Council Of Britain: Well of course if it was proved that he exactly said this thing that you mentioned then why do you invited people who would be saying like this?

John Ware: I mean, let me say what else he’s reported to have said, he said: ‘There should be no peace with the rats of the world.’ Again he refers to Jews as the scum of the human race, offspring of apes and pigs, and he has also referred to Christians as worshippers of the cross.’ You don’t see Christians in those terms?

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: I don’t see Christians in those terms.

John Ware: You don’t see Christians in those terms?

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: No.

John Ware: No. And idol worship¿ you don’t see Hindus as idol worshippers, do you ? I’m sure you don’t, do you? Do you?

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: Well… why are you bringing all this?

John Ware: You, er, I mean you do not regard Hindus as idol worshippers?

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: Well Hindu… you mean the definition? When it’s idol worshipper, different people worship God in different manners.

John Ware: Mmm.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: Once again you are entering into the theological debate and Muslims worship one monotheistic God and many other communities may have different versions of God.

John Ware: No, I understand that.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: The Trinity may be one of them.

John Ware: I understand that.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: And it all depends how you use the word and explain the word.

John Ware: Sure, but this is harsh.. you wouldn’t… I mean no, I accept all that, but this is different, isn’t it. This is very harsh language; this in effect denounces other faiths, Hindus, Christians and Jews.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: Well denouncing any faith is not acceptable in Islam, that’s not the Prophetic teaching. We need to know the source of this and this is very dangerous thing, that character assassination of Muslim scholars and leaders are getting very widespread.

John Ware: I’m not trying to assassinate his character I’m simply trying to deal with the facts. That’s all I’m trying to do.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: No, I know, you are mentioning… you are saying facts but we have a question whether these are facts.

John Ware: The facts are easily checkable – we found a selection of the Sheikh’s sermons on a Saudi website covering mosques in the holy cities of Medina and Mecca – with English translations.

Sheikh Abdur-Rahman Al-Sudais: Monkeys and pigs and worshippers of false Gods who are the Jews and the Zionists

For Sudais’s latest visit, we got this from the MCB:

The Muslim Council said this evening that it has always spoken out against all forms of hatred, including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.

But their spokesman added: “We cannot comment on the veracity of the comments attributed to the Imam of the Ka’bah.”

And this from the East London Mosque:

These are some of the old reports by Islamophobes. He is very popular. He’s not just coming to our mosque, he is also visiting major mosques around the country.”

Here is the transcript:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/4171950.stm
from “A Question of Leadership”, broadcast on August 21, 2005.

Sheikh Abdur-Rahman Al-Sudais, Imam, Ka’ba, Mecca, Saudi Arabia: The history of Islam is the best testament to how different communities can live together in peace and harmony. Muslims must exemplify the true image of Islam in their interaction with other communities.

John Ware: The $1m gift from the Saudis to the East London Mosque is but a drop in the ocean compared to the billions they’ve spent spreading their narrow form of Islam around the world.

John Ware filmed him discussing why he had invited Abdurrahman Sudeis of the Grand Mosque at Mecca to the opening of the extensions to the East London Mosque.

Sudeis is notorious for his overt antiSemitism.

There is some brilliant footage of Bari denying that Sudeis had sad that Jews were apes and pigs.

I will dig up the transcript.