Subject: Yvonne Ridley’s Speech at EWAMY, Cairo (Egypt)
Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2006 23:00:39 +0000
Yvonne Ridley’s Speech at EWAMY, Cairo (Egypt)
Posted by Ibn Juferi November 28, 2006
Yvonne Ridley
The Arabic language is one of the cornerstones of Islam, as we have heard today from our brother, so I do apologize in advance that this is one of the many areas of Islam I’ve yet to master. Islamically, I am very young, having reverted in 2003. And while I have much to learn I can identify with the frustrations shared by young Muslims today. I know 9/11 had a huge impact on the world, but it wasn’t really the start of something. It was the continuation of a legacy of US imperialism and its fear of Islam.
Just over ten years ago, fit, young Muslims across the globe flooded into Bosnia to help their brothers and sisters fight for their survival against the Serbs who were carrying out a genocide sanctioned by the silence of a watching world. The jihad brought together Muslims from all nationalities, status and culture. All were united; even those who could not travel to fight helped in other ways such as fund-raising, public awareness events and demonstrations..
The impact was to stop the genocide. Western intervention, when it happened, came only after it was apparent that that the Bosnian Muslims were heading for victory. The establishment of an Islamic state deep in the heart of Europe was simply too much to bear and so the West intervened. This is not my conclusion, but US President Bill Clinton admitted it in his autobiography.
This fear of Islam has now evolved in the last 10 years to such an extent that the blood of our brothers and sisters is now flowing like rivers across Chechnya, Kashmir, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and we saw recently what happened to Lebanon. I have walked through many of those killing fields and let me tell you the twisted, blown up limbs of our Muslim brothers and sisters look exactly like those pulled from the rubble of the Twin Towers.
Yet the message of today is quite clear. Muslim blood is a cheap commodity. Meanwhile tens of thousands of innocent Muslims continue to be tortured in far away dungeons and cages in Guantanamo Bay, Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib, Diego Garcia and ghost prisons throughout the world.
Others are tortured in Syria, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria and even here in Egypt. Brothers are being tortured at the behest and request of the United States.
So what sort of message does that send out to our young people?
They read about the heroic exploits of Salahudddin Ayyoubi, Khalid bin Walid, Tariq bin Ziad and listen intently to stories of courage and bravery about our beloved Prophet Mohammed.
Do you know, five years ago I had never even heard of The Prophet, but now I would give my last drop of blood to protect his name, his honor and his memory. Even in death he continued to show how strong he was by uniting the Ummah in protest at those vile cartoons from Denmark. Our modern day heroes include those two sixties martyrs Malcolm X and Sayyid Qutb, both whose writings have helped define me as a Muslim. These are the sort of role models and influences our youth need to follow, but instead they receive confused and mixed messages.
One minute they are told the fear no one but Allah while the next minute they are told to dilute their Islam and keep their heads down. Since the events of 9-11, there has been an unrelenting campaign launched to change Islam into something more palatable to Western society. The vision is a secular and cultural Islam at peace with the world through her submission to her oppressors rather than to Allah ; an Islam devoid of jihad, Shariah and khilafah? The very things we are commanded by Allah to implement in order to establish Allah ’s deen on this earth. And it is in evidence everywhere I look. Hijab are being ripped off the heads of my sisters in Tunisia, France and Turkey. Sisters in Holland and Germany are also in the firing line.
Amd in Britain, we have Jack Straw, the former British Foreign Secretary who questioned the veil? I am not having a white, middle-aged man telling me how to dress. Keep out of my wardrobe and that of every sister on this planet. I pick up the newspapers in Cairo today to discover the Minister of Culture has called the wearing of the veil a regression. How dare he say that? Why are the men in Egypt standing by and doing nothing to silence him? He is insulting the honor and dignity of every Muslim woman who chooses to cover.
Farooq Hosni is a disgrace to Islam! What sort of message does he send out to our young people with his weasel words? The nikab, like the veil, like the hijab has become a symbol of a rejection of those negative Western lifestyles like drug-taking, binge-drinking and promiscuity. It is a statement telling the West we don’t want to be like you.
These Arabs who choose to be more western than Westerners make me laugh! Do they realize how pathetic they look in the eyes of the rest of the world? This Minister should be sacked from his post for dishonoring every sister who chooses to cover. I suppose he hides behind such descriptions as moderate? Again what sort of message does that send to our young people? If we ask them to be moderate does that not suggest that there is something wrong with Islam that it needs to be toned down, diluted? The last time I came to Cairo I was called an extremist by none other than the Sheikh of Al Azhar? Sheikh Tantawi. The reason for this? Because, I would not shake his hand. What is a moderate and what is an extremist? I really don’t know. I am a simple Muslim. I follow no scholars or sects? I merely follow The Prophet and the Sunnah. Does that make me an extremist?
I once said being a Muslim is a bit like being pregnant. You are or you are not. Whoever heard of anyone being moderately or extremely pregnant? Islam has been under attack for 1400 years and we should have learned by now to put our trust in no one but Allah . Yet there are those who continue to kiss the hand which slaps them. I am afraid that we can no longer put our trust in to someone just because they might wear Islamic dress or have a long beard? I notice quite a few long beards in here today, but I am not referring to you, brothers. There are those Muslim leaders who claim to guide and protect us but not all of them have our interests at heart. Our young people are going to have to be very discerning since the events of 9/11, Bali, Madrid and the London Bombings, to name a few.
There are individuals who for years rallied the masses to stand up for justice and support mujahideen groups around the world and now some have become embarrassingly silent while others condemn armed jihad, portraying mujahideen as terrorists and extremists who follow a distorted version of Islam. In some ways we are all to blame. Our greatest shame has been our silence while martyrdom operations in Palestine and other occupied lands have been condemned as acts of terror as witnessed in 9/11 and the July 7 bombings. Our young people have to be taught that what is happening in Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya, Iraq and Afghanistan is legitimate resistance against a brutal military occupation, while crimes like 9/11 and the London bombings are blatant terrorism.
Equating the two only betrays our brothers and sisters who have no other option but to fight or face being wiped off the face of this planet.
The new slaves of the West criticize Islamist parties and governance by Shariah. Even student and youth movements which consistently campaigned for Palestine and Iraq have suddenly lost their tongues in a bid to be seen as… Moderate?
In Britain we have an invasion of what I call the Happy Clappies. They are being flown in by the Government from the US, Canada, Yemen and Mauritania to preach a diluted form of Islam. They are poisoning the minds of our youth and we should be very wary before the Happy Clappies spread across the world. They attack ******* groups in the most cynical manner? Some even misuse nasheeds, and I am deeply afraid that the Happy Clappies are infecting our nasheeds with the excesses of western pop culture.
The end result of all this has been a dilution of the deen of Allah , a weak and pacified Islam willing to accept the status quo in which Muslims are oppressed and subjugated; an Islam in which Muslims are content to sing and dance the night away to nasheeds, to concentrate on bettering their life in the West and to condemn the actions of their brothers and sisters who courageously resist occupation and oppression with whatever they have.
Even making dua for them now has become a crime! How long before we are told not to even pray for the mujahideen?
One of the greatest military general the world has known, Salahuddin Ayyubi, the liberator of al-Quds, was once asked why he didn’t smile. He answered back that how could he smile while he knowing that Masjid al-Aqsa, remained under Crusader occupation.
I wonder what he would make of the state of the world today. I wonder what advice he would give our youth? This is a world where Arab leaders belly-danced shamelessly in front of America while handing Iraq over on a plate. The same Arab leaders look the other way as our beautiful Palestine is continually raped and sodomized, and that other great daughter of the Arab world, Lebanon? Where was the Arab world when she was so brutally assaulted? And the war drums are beating again. Not only is the whole world watching, but so are our children, our youth, and our future. We must nature them, and inspire them with tales of the Prophet and the Sahaba.
As long as the Ummah continues to throw up figures like Khalid bin Walid, Salahuddin Ayyoubi, Sayyid Qutb and Malcolm X all is not lost. The more we are oppressed by the tyrants the more we will fight back. That is the nature of Islam. And this is the Islam our youth need to follow, be guided by and inspired. Farooq Hosni and his ilk are pale imitations of real men? They have castrated themselves in a pathetic attempt to become more Western than the Westerners. He will be consigned to the history books with barely a sentence while the courage and heroic resistance of our brothers and sisters will go down in chapters.
A rapidly increasing number of Muslim youth are now realizing that no matter how hard they compromise their deen to blend in with the wider society, when things go sour, they will be treated with suspicion. The more we are told to forget Shariah, khilafah and jihad, the more Muslims will pay the blood price to uphold these values. The jihad we are witnessing in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Chechnya is something noble, a just war against injustice and tyranny. The actions of the jihadists pose absolutely no threat to the West or Western lifestyles and their resistance is not only justified but embraced and encouraged by international law.
The real religious extremists who pose the greatest threat to radicalizing our youth are the Christian Fundamentalists in the White House and Downing Street. Bush and Blair have become al-Qaeda’s finest recruiting officers. More and younger Muslims are waking up with the realization that it is not terrorism or extremism that is being targeted but Islam itself. It is up to the Ummah to lead and inspire our youth, just as The Prophet led and inspired millions and continues to do so.
And the first lesson we must teach our youth is to fear none but Allah .
i dont think personal insults are called for so please kindly make constructive comment or criticism based on varifiable fact or shut up because this is an islamic board so insults without anything to back it up really isnt called for.
i dont think personal insults are called for so please kindly make constructive comment or criticism based on varifiable fact or shut up because this is an islamic board so insults without anything to back it up really isnt called for.
wa alaykumus salaam,
Abu Abdullah
Asalam alaikum AKhi,
I hope all is well with you and your family, insha'allah.
Akhi, speaking of 'personal attacks', incase you haven't noticed,... i've read 3 of her articles ( or maybe 2... i am pretty sure there are 3 on here somewhere.. ) which are full of Personal Attacks. My 'attack' on her is like a black ant on a black stone on a dark night. My 'attack' on her is like a sweet love letter compared to half the crap she has been writing since her conversion.
One thing i won't deny is that she does make valid point(s) time to time, but the way she goes about presenting her complaints is just ridiculous. When i think of the Majority of sisters i know, or have seen, or heard of, i see Beautiful ( spiritualy ) sisters who love their deen. When i think of Yvone, i see a sign that says " PMS'ING 24/7"
Examples? Look for the articles in which she has attacked Tariq Ramadan, look for the article where she attacked Sami Yusuf.
This reminds me of a Lawyer called Irfan Yusuf, this bloke in Sydney. In so many of his articles, he has 'dissed' dozens of Muslims. But when someone says a word against him, he ( and his wife ) started threatening my friends, that he'll sue them.
.. No, she hasn't threatened to sue me, but i find it to be very halarious how her fans have jumped down my throat in the past for 'dissing her' yet they look right past all the fitnah she spreads, all the people she 'disses'. What hypocrisy. What a joke.
Critics need to grow a back bone. If they are able to criticise, they should be able to handle the jandle when it is thrown back at them.
"this is an islamic board so insults without anything to back it up really isnt called for." Look around you akhi, i don't think there is need for me to point out the hundreds of posts that are available on the forum for the world to see, which are full of attacks on muslims/non muslims which are unjustified.
Heck,.. come to think of it,... as much as i hate digging into the past, you should review alot of your posts from not-such-a-long-time-ago in which you were indulging in spreading lies/slandering a scholar who has done more for this Ummah then sister Yvone's ' who should i complain about now' 'constructive criticisms' articles ever will.
Kheir, there you have it. Like i originally said... "..And people say i am a whinger."
Wa'salaam
-Zubair
Last edited by SirZubair; 12-09-2006 at 04:45 PM.
Dont Mistake My Harshness For Strength And Neither Mistake My Kindness For Weakness.
Ok, forget constructive comment but think when posting.
Unfortunetly, after reading that article, my brain stopped functioning as it normally does. But allhumdulilah, after a good nights sleep, all is well..
As for "Think when posting", maybe the Mods should review all her articles before allowing the Public to read it? Because most of the articles i've read are absolute rubbish.
.. Laced with good intentions, no doubt. But at the end of the day, intentions are not everything. You cannot disguise rubbish as anything else, no matter how good her intentions are.
Dont Mistake My Harshness For Strength And Neither Mistake My Kindness For Weakness.
Unfortunetly, after reading that article, my brain stopped functioning as it normally does. But allhumdulilah, after a good nights sleep, all is well..
As for "Think when posting", maybe the Mods should review all her articles before allowing the Public to read it? Because most of the articles i've read are absolute rubbish.
.. Laced with good intentions, no doubt. But at the end of the day, intentions are not everything. You cannot disguise rubbish as anything else, no matter how good her intentions are.
Unfortunetly, after reading that article, my brain stopped functioning as it normally does. But allhumdulilah, after a good nights sleep, all is well..
As for "Think when posting", maybe the Mods should review all her articles before allowing the Public to read it? Because most of the articles i've read are absolute rubbish.
.. Laced with good intentions, no doubt. But at the end of the day, intentions are not everything. You cannot disguise rubbish as anything else, no matter how good her intentions are.
I think one might have more problem with her choice of words than some of her observation. Although I am not fond of some of her criticism towards one or two person it would of been best ovoided, I don't think this article should give any hiccups.
Last edited by Skillganon; 12-09-2006 at 05:15 PM.
If anyone has a problem with personal insults, report the post and a mod will be on it. Do not join in by hurling personal insults of your own. This is not directed at any one member in particular, rather it is a general notice.
Do a search on the forum "Yvonne ridley", you can't miss it.
format_quote Originally Posted by Skillganon
I think one might have more problem with her choice of words than some of her observation. Although I am not fond of some of her criticism towards one or two scholars, I don't think this article should give any hiccups.
Like i said, she makes some valid points once a blue moon, and it is her choice of words that i am 'attacking'.
As for this artcile, you don't have to look deep into it to see traces of self-righteousness spilt all over it.
format_quote Originally Posted by Muezzin
Play nice, mmkay?
Yes sir Mr.Garrison
Dont Mistake My Harshness For Strength And Neither Mistake My Kindness For Weakness.
big up to the sister for speaking the HAQ, not many sisters or even brothers for that matter have the courage to stand up and praise our bros n sisters who are fighting our battles.
I hope all is well with you and your family, insha'allah.
Akhi, speaking of 'personal attacks', incase you haven't noticed,... i've read 3 of her articles ( or maybe 2... i am pretty sure there are 3 on here somewhere.. ) which are full of Personal Attacks. My 'attack' on her is like a black ant on a black stone on a dark night. My 'attack' on her is like a sweet love letter compared to half the crap she has been writing since her conversion.
One thing i won't deny is that she does make valid point(s) time to time, but the way she goes about presenting her complaints is just ridiculous. When i think of the Majority of sisters i know, or have seen, or heard of, i see Beautiful ( spiritualy ) sisters who love their deen. When i think of Yvone, i see a sign that says " PMS'ING 24/7"
Examples? Look for the articles in which she has attacked Tariq Ramadan, look for the article where she attacked Sami Yusuf.
This reminds me of a Lawyer called Irfan Yusuf, this bloke in Sydney. In so many of his articles, he has 'dissed' dozens of Muslims. But when someone says a word against him, he ( and his wife ) started threatening my friends, that he'll sue them.
.. No, she hasn't threatened to sue me, but i find it to be very halarious how her fans have jumped down my throat in the past for 'dissing her' yet they look right past all the fitnah she spreads, all the people she 'disses'. What hypocrisy. What a joke.
Critics need to grow a back bone. If they are able to criticise, they should be able to handle the jandle when it is thrown back at them.
"this is an islamic board so insults without anything to back it up really isnt called for." Look around you akhi, i don't think there is need for me to point out the hundreds of posts that are available on the forum for the world to see, which are full of attacks on muslims/non muslims which are unjustified.
Heck,.. come to think of it,... as much as i hate digging into the past, you should review alot of your posts from not-such-a-long-time-ago in which you were indulging in spreading lies/slandering a scholar who has done more for this Ummah then sister Yvone's ' who should i complain about now' 'constructive criticisms' articles ever will.
Kheir, there you have it. Like i originally said... "..And people say i am a whinger."
Wa'salaam
-Zubair
assalaamu alaykum,
i think you need to go back and read again what i wrote only a few posts before, i.e if you have some valid criticisms backed up by evidence then please supply them, if you dont then really dont say it.
as for what you are referring to about myself, i backed up everything i said, every criticism on the person we both know you are referring to with evidence (and yes i am still waiting for a response to my very polite email to his institute several months later).
she is right in everything she has said here, and what is more although good adhab is the general rule there are instances where it is not quite right and sterner stuff is needed.
personally i think she is too kind with those who are trying to subvert islam from within.
personally i think she is too kind with those who are trying to subvert islam from within.
Personally, i see people such as her as the people who will be the cause of the downfall of this Ummah. I pray that i am wrong.
format_quote Originally Posted by Dawud_uk
as for what you are referring to about myself, i backed up everything i said, every criticism on the person we both know you are referring to with evidence
Asalam alaikum,
And every 'evidence' you provided was refuted and you were proven wrong over and over, yet you carried on arguing about it. Ring a bell?
Anyway, yeah, i've gone off topic.
I will take your first advise and will shut up, for now.
Wa'salaam
-Zubair
Last edited by SirZubair; 12-09-2006 at 08:17 PM.
Dont Mistake My Harshness For Strength And Neither Mistake My Kindness For Weakness.
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I dont get it, people always say theres no such thing as being a moderate.
Re: Yvonne Ridley’s Speech at EWAMY, cairo
) sisters who love their deen. When i think of Yvone, i see a sign that says " PMS'ING 24/7"
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