2011 • Anjem Choudary and students • The passing of Osama bin Laden

George Gurdjieff (1866-1949) said, "Nobody ever does anything deliberately in the interests of evil, for the sake of evil. Everybody acts in the interests of good, as he understands it. But everybody understands it differently. Consequently, men drown, slay, and kill one another in the interests of good." 

Anjem Choudary and students expound, in a CNN interview in May 2011, the sentiment of the Armenian when asked about their thoughts on the passing of Osama bin Laden, whom they call their 'beloved Sheikh’. The calm disposition of the group is chilling as it belies the anger aimed at those who were assassinated and then celebrated the assassination of their teacher. 

Conversely, in the way an apostate grows to hate the figurehead he once loved, one who qualifies in hating a figure such as the Sheikh would be one who truly loved him. Only he, the celebrant of his assassination, would qualify.

The broader platform to love has a wider scope than the little features found within to hate, not unlike the broad scope of a loving spouse or an endearing pet that comes in-built with little features to despise. 

Conversely, the young Muslim loves the broad scope of piety in his Islamic environment back home only to discover little features within to hate, such as a lack of freedom and democracy, primarily. Simply put, the ideologue back home has no freedom to opine. Hence, he seeks a warm embrace. Western civilization offers and emigrates to the broader platform to love. Still, as the scope widens, little features to hate, such as haram food, emancipated women and pornography, receive his attention and that of the Imam, who amplifies them to the extent that the features become euphemisms for the wider platform. At the point of blurring, the radical, one step short of 'taking action', is born.

Although Anjem and ilk claim to be 'moderates', they interface with their Sheikh ideologically, in that every strain appears to be twinned, replicated, and infused, leaving 'action' or lack thereof the only feature that separates them. Western civilization judges 'moderates' by their ‘inaction’ rather than ideology. Result - the 'moderates' receive dole benefits from taxpayers and prime airplay in the media. The same platform judges their Sheikh by his ‘action’. Result - he is shot dead. The shared ideology is blurred in the equation.     

Words – Tommy Peters

Courtesy of CNN (used without permission)

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