On iERA: Let me say what no one is saying clearly enough

The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain’s (CEMB) has a new report “Evangelising Hate” on the Islamic Education and Research Academy (iERA). It has received quite a bit of media coverage (though of course not from the Guardian) particularly since its publication coincides with a Charity Commission investigation into the iERA. CEMB is calling for iERA to be considered a hate group and not a charity.

But there is more.

Let me say what others are avoiding or not saying clearly enough.

As we have mentioned in our report, iERA is not a “religious group” but rather a “soft” Islamist group, normalising and justifying the Islamist agenda, including by perpetrating hatred against gays, Jews, women, ex-Muslims, a majority of Muslims who don’t abide by their values… But there is more to this story and that is that “soft” Islamists are often linked with violent Islamists or jihadis.

At least one iERA dawah activist, Iftekhar Jaman, has been killed in Syria whilst fighting for the brutal Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), which even Al Qaeda has broken ties with.

ISIS executed a secular Syrian activist for “apostasy” and has taken up crucifiction. Moreover, Iftekhar was friends with Mashudur Choudhury, the first Briton to be convicted of terrorism charges for travelling to Syria to train for jihad…

Clearly, groups like iERA are responsible for more than normalising the Islamist agenda like gender segregation at universities, Sharia-compliant wills, and the imposition of burkas and Sharia courts. They have links to and are – let’s just be frank – even cultivating British jihadis.

This should not be surprising given the freedom they have been given to organise around their hate-speech, including on university campuses.

Britons now make up most of the foreign members in Syria’s most violent terror group. UK Islamists are involved in activities including beheadings, crucifixions and ill-treatment of women – many of them not unlike iERA’s teachings.

The iERA’s charitable status is the least of our worries… Someone with the access needed to investigate these links needs to get on it – and fast.

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I am annoyed to no end at reports that worry about what will happen when the British jihadis come home. What about what they are doing right now to the people of Syria? And what about the climate of threats and intimidation they are creating right here in Britain for dissenters – Muslim and ex-Muslim?