Almost as sucky as discovering you’re a bit character in one Martin Amis’ more recent novels.

Who? You? Soru?

The folk of Auchtermuchty demand to be told!

Yes that really, really would. Almost as sucky as discovering you’re a bit character in one Martin Amis’ more recent novels.

fuck me, I thought we were talking about Somalia 2005-2008. If your interpretation of my comment here is tantamount to suggesting “UK is the main source of every form of evil in the world” and that this will be re-purposed by Islamist who want to blow *you* up, then that really is a sad little nightmare scenario in your own head that has sweet FA to do with me.

How does the discussion of these measures in Somalia here on PP result in your being “blown up by some nutter in revenge for failing to stop something that doesn’t appear to have happened”?

Well, if you insist at every opportunity that the UK is the main source of every form of evil in the world, but you think it is laughable that anyone would act on that idea, you must be pretty sure that noone, even the most out-there nutter, will take anything you say remotely seriously.

About that, at least, you are quite likely right.

Still, wouldn’t it suck to get quoted in a martyrdom video?

Is that opinion, generalisation, fabrication or prejudice? Its so difficult to tell with you.

About 90% of the large British Bangladeshi population are Sylheti. There are 19 parliamentary seats in Greater Sylhet and only one voted for a Islamist candidate (and even then helped by their Secular Bangladeshi Nationaslist Party allies votebank). The rest voted AL/BNP. If British residents were significant backers of Jamaat or other Islamists then the Sylhet region would have been the first indicator with a significant swing toward the smaller Islamist parties in terms of seats won.

There is a danger, as with Somalis., to greatly exaggerate matters. Sid and his friends are in competition with Islamic organisations for charitable contributions. It is therefore from secular but politicised sources like Drishtipat and Sid that we should expect the link being made between Brit Cits and evil Islamist groups regardless of evidence.

Tell me Sid, why is it ok for your group to collect financial contributions from British Bangladeshis to fund controversial party political causes in the polarised arena of Bangladeshi party politics like vetting Bangladeshi political candidates for criminal and corrupt practices? Isn’t this mirroring any alleged Jamaati Islami fund-raising in the UK?

How do you feel when British resident members on Drishtipat’s blog ‘Unheard Voices’ voice support for the Awami League to conduct frequent violent ‘hartals’ (political strikes) which destroy ordinary peoples livelihoods and the Bangladeshi economy?

Why do you highlight the terrible ordeal of this 13 year old Somali girl when your Awami League ‘activists’ (read paid thugs) harass and rape female students at University in Bangladesh. That has nothing to do with Islamist ideology. Surely Secular excesses against women are just as bad as Islamist ones?

Is your group registered with the UK Charities Commission? How is the method you utilise to send money to Bangladesh different from the informal Somali hawali or Sylheti hundi system? What are the machanics of accountability and transparancy that Drishtipat adhere to?

I happen to believe cheerleading and support for ALL third world poolitical parties whether secular or Islamist is just silly. Better to send money to ones locality to help poor people on the ground.

*Given the strict rules governing evidence, it is unimaginable that any could ever be found, unless captured on an adult film set.

*Given the strict laws guiding adultery, it is almost unimaginable that the strict rules governing evidence could ever be found, unless on an adult film set.

I don’t know why people are failing to recognise that quite clearly in this case it appears that the case wasn’t properly investigated and a sentence passed and carried out which resulted in someone who may have been innocent dying. It really is that simple. Thus Justice hasn’t been served even in Islamic terms.

Religion is being used as an excuse and laws implemented by people who lack knowledge which leads to miscarriages of justice.

That much we should all recognise. Surely in this case more investigation was required by the courts before a sentence was passed. This smacks of failure here.

Sadly with the behavior of the media then people do question media ethics when reviewing such stories.

I would point out that religious law does call for a complete investigation which to me it looks like failed in this case so I’d say we need to reflect on the fact that potentially an innocent person died and potentially 3 rapists prowl the streets and may do this to other women in the area.

I think in all the funding replies then the point originally made at the start is being lost.

I submit that such serious allegations need to be supported by clear and reliable corroborative evidence (as is available for example in the case of Tamil financial support in the UK/US for LTTE).

Yeah, I would welcome this. Not to mention more information on the relationship between the US/UK funded invasion of Somalia and the ICU splinter groups and militia.

This BBC article talks about the pattern of British Sylheti remittances over the years and the impact in Sylhet.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/jun/21/religion.bangladesh

Charitable contributions to NON-POLITICAL localised causes (centred in Greater Sylhet) does continue. Money is often remitted on religious occasions eg. Qurbani at Eid (religious sacrifice to provide meat for the needy). Remittances fund schools, madrasas, clinics etc in and around Sylhet in the home region of the giver. British Sylhetis fill a vacuum left by the central government’s lack of resources and negligence and under-funding of Sylhet region generally. The Somali narrative and development is likely to be similar to the more established Sylheti narrative. Both Sylhetis and Somalis have strong traditional ie. APOLITICAL Islamic identities, both distrust central government, organs, parties and attendant ideologies in country of origin as essentially self-serving. Family, region and for the Somalis clan affiliation is more important as building blocks of community and society than ideology, whether Secular or Islamist.

While no doubt some money does find itself in the coffers of the likes of Al-Shabaab and Jamaat I Islami, the figures are likely to be dwarfed by the amounts going to everyday run-of-the-mill causes like running mosques, schools and clinics. Sources like corrupt practices, extortion and kidnapping, and in Bangladesh state patronage (Jamaat were junior coalition partners in the last BD govt) are more likely in-country sources of income than ppl living in Britain.

It seems to be a project of the threadstarter to tie-in expatriate and diaspora groups such as British Sylheti Bangladeshis and now British Somalis into fund raising Islamist groups in their country of origin.

I submit that such serious allegations need to be supported by clear and reliable corroborative evidence (as is available for example in the case of Tamil financial support in the UK/US for LTTE). An aside from a ‘community leader’ making generalised comments is not reliable corroborative evidence. In the absence of such evidence it is reasonable to conclude that al-Shabaab receive the bulk of their funding from other sources in-country.

Bush’s War on Terror has resulted in more terrorism not less. Somalia is now controlled by hard line radical militia of the Taliban type after the more moderate Courts movement was destroyed by the US/UK backed Ethiopian army.

How does the discussion of these measures in Somalia here on PP result in your being “blown up by some nutter in revenge for failing to stop something that doesn’t appear to have happened”?

Hey! Wait a minute. These thugs are supposed to be the opposition in Somalia. WTF are they doing fighting against the running dog capitalists, err, us, and imperialist Ethiopia? We are all supposed to be on the same side, pulling down the morally corrupt / upright ICU.

It makes about as much fucking sense as the UK remaining allied to the US when the US allowed NORAID to collect for the IRA.

————————————————-

Y’know, the geopolitics, the religious aspects, or the frank lack of empathy of either your good self or Ashik, to what is at the end of the day was a savage renunciation of justice, is a bit beyond me.

And meanwhile a child is stoned to death. It was probably a bit beyond her too..

RIP.

In the very early days of the pIRA (early 1970s), there were elements in Republic of Ireland military intelligence who backed them, shipping arms and so on. That was found out, there was a big scandal, and it stopped, which is why the IRA later had to go to Gadaffi and so on.

Sid’s post definitely implies that something similar is going on: direct support for al-Shabaab from someone in the UK government (as opposed to failing to stop the americans from deciding not to stop the Ethiopians from attacking the group that might hypothetically have calmed down the nutters that did this). If it was, then I’d have to go out in the rain marching against it, make up banners and stuff (Or at least make some angry blog posts).

Also, I would hate to be blown up by some nutter in revenge for failing to stop something that doesn’t appear to have happened.

What is your intent in criticising this article? A young girl was murdered. There are at least three mainstream media articles that point to that event and say that the murder was associated with some group called al-Shabaab.

Two of these sources say that Somalis’ resident in the UK have remitted funds to this group.

Your comments remind me of the North American Irish who denied until they were blue in the face that money raised through NORAID was not used to fund the IRA. In their case it was a convenient fiction.

Seriously, what’s your motive here?

‘Still euphoric from the night before, I opened the paper to soak up the world’s reaction. I enjoyed that. Buried on a page deep inside and below the fold was a story of sobering force. A girl, Aisha, 13 years old, had been raped by three men in Somalia.

Her parents reported the crime. The Muslim elders ruled that the girl had committed adultery and should be stoned to death. That happened. On the same day Americans elected as their President a man whose sometimes silent middle name is Hussein. That happened.’

And that was from a hopeful article about Obama’s success.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/race-for-whitehouse/richard-schiff-i-watched-obama-like-i-watch-athletes-i-rooted-for-him-like-i-root-for-my-son-1001082.html

Who can you trust?

I have yet to find any evidence of why al-Shabaab and/or other militia groups were not rounded up and murdered in their homes by the Ethopian troops, who had been supplied arms and intelligence by the US and the UK, in the same way that members of the ICU were.

Perhaps they were granted amnesty or perhaps, as I have suggested, back in 2006, the US/UK thought they would make good candidates for another militia-based junta to lead the Somali fiefdoms. And so they supported these idiots, while letting the ICU hang. When however, they turned out to be a bunch of murderous lawless mullahs, they were promptly put on the terrorist list.

So yes that’s my opinion and if you look at my wording, I don’t make an “default assumption” nor am I trying to suggest that this was “news”.

This is after all a blog. If you thought this was wikipedia, you know what to do.

Its not like readers don’t also cast their opinions into the comments threads.

Ashik has, right here on this thread, made the claim that most immigrants don’t send money back home:

Most immigrants tend to look forward to funding their life in Britain rather than looking back; and even then most Somalis are sick and tired of the constant warfare in Somalia.

This, in spite of all the evidence to show that most immigranst do. In fact millions of pounds have been remitted by Bangladeshis and Somalians every year for generations, using formal but mostly informal money transfer methods.

Ashik stated his opinion. He happened to be wrong, but here on PP, we won’t censure you for having opinions.

soru has in the past defended Martin Amis’ outrageous comments regarding detaining British Muslims. His defence was based on zilch, no evidence whatsoever, other than an opinion that Amis did not mean what he said and was being wilfully misinterpreted by people who had an axe to grind. So when I read this:
“but I think its best treated as news when it does, rather than it being a default assumption that if something nasty happens somewhere in the world, it is UK taxpayer-funded.”, well, I have to laugh at the pomposity on display.

So lets not assume that the writers of a blog are a news outlet. But if you’re going to demand factual assertions at all times, then at least have the courtesy to apply the same standards you expect from others, on yourselves.

In other words you were just making stuff up (‘support’ is really not the same as ‘failure to successfully bomb’). Figured so, but just checking: that kind of stuff does happen, but I think its best treated as news when it does, rather than it being a default assumption that if something nasty happens somewhere in the world, it is UK taxpayer-funded.