Hege Storhaug, HRS
Leser ambassador Susman aviser? Ser han på fjernsyn? Kan han google på nettet? Hvis svaret er ja på ett av disse tre spørsmålene, burde Obama kalle Susman prompte tilbake til USA, under anklagen ”kriminell naiv og farlig opptreden”. Ta eksempelvis et søk i google på East London Mosque + radical. Jeg fikk over 36 000 treff. Eller handler det om troen på at hvis bare vi er snille med dem, så er de snille med oss? Fuglan veit.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom visited and praised a well-known extremist mosque in London Monday, and invited its youth to participate in an embassy-funded initiative to travel to the United States.
The East London Mosque(ELM) hosted recent speeches by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula leader and now Specially Designated Global Terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, a prominent leader of extremist group Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, and a wide variety of other radical leaders. That’s beside hate and terrorism promoted by the mosque’s leaders and the Islamic Forum for Europe (IFE), a group headquartered in the mosque complex.
U.S. ambassador Louis B. Susman went to ELM, which, in combination with the adjoined London Muslim Centre, holds more than 5,000 worshippers. During his visit, Susman said he had «great admiration» for the mosque and was «looking forward» to a dialogue with community members. He also invited young people from the community to enroll in the U.S. embassy’s cultural and interfaith program, which coordinates trips for young leaders to the United States.
ELM’s long history of radical ties was the focus of a major documentary on Britain’s Channel 4 in March. A cursory search on Google of the terms «East London Mosque Radical» generates multiple hits that show the mosque’s radical connections. Recent reports have also appeared in major British papers such as the Independent and the Telegraph.