Hamas infiltration into UK state agencies?

This comes from Britain, but it could just as easily have come from almost anywhere else in Western Europe or North America, and it is a shocking news: Treasury official Azad Ali, president of the UK Civil Service Islamic Society, complained in his blog about the British government’s response to “the Zionist terrorist State of Israel,” and said there was “much truth” in an interview with an Islamic extremist who said it is his religious obligation to kill British and American soldiers in Iraq.

Furthermore, despite the fact that until a few days ago he was regarded as a moderate Muslim who could help tackle Islamic fanaticism in Britain, he attacked moderate British Muslims as “self-serving vultures, feeding on the dead flesh of the Palestinians.”

As it was not enough, as a former chairman of the Muslim Safety Forum and the current head of its counter-terrorism work-team, he works with the Home Office, senior police officers and the Security Services—of course his aim is to combat extremism ...

This, according to Atma Singh (Ken Livingstone’s former adviser and Mayor of London contender 2012), who first acquainted me with this stuff via email, highlights “what I revealed about Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood infiltration into UK state agencies and specifically in the Mayor’s Office under Ken Livingstone,” as well as “true nature of such Islamism turning into an advocacy force for terrorism.”

Meanwhile Azad Ali was suspended from his senior government job, and Tory MP Patrick Mercer, an adviser to Security Minister Lord West, questioned how this man could continue as a civil servant. But two British blogs don't agree with Mercer (nor with Azad Ali):

Harry's Place ...

Don’t get me wrong. Azad Ali’s politics are disgusting.
However, he has made absolutely no secret of them, at any point. Quite the opposite. The Islamist groups with which he has been involved proudly proclaim their support for jihad, in pursuit of the creation of a nightmarish theocratic state.
Nevertheless, despite his politics he has become the civil service’s “go to” Muslim representative of choice. I would like to believe that Gus O’Donnell was shocked - shocked! - to find that the man with whom he and his civil service and the police force have been turning for strategic advice on “Muslim policy” is a vicious extremist. If nobody in the civil service and the police force realised what this man’s politics were, then they must have been blind and utter fools.
I believe that the opposite is true. I think that Azad Ali was engaged with, precisely because of the nature of his affiliations, and his connections with organisations like the East London Mosque, which is a base for Jamaat-e-Islami. Now that his activities have been exposed in the Mail on Sunday, they have cut him loose.

And pickled politics ...

Azad Ali certainly holds some unattractive political views.
[...]
Azad Ali didn’t start writing Islamist material on his blog on Satuday December 27, the day Israel launched its air attacks on Gaza. What we should be asking is how Azad Ali managed to be selected as the Islamist of choice for so many government departments for this long.

How to save a friend from metal rock

What would you answer if someone—an Indian friend, for instance—asked you for a sort of introduction to Western music? And how would you act if you were willing to save him from metal rock? Well, you might want to explain to him that one of the characteristics of Western music is polyphony, and that this whole thing, of combining different melodies together, began in the Middle Ages, possibly by chance, and progressed in the subsequent centuries. Then you might want to tell him that Western music can also be monodic, the opposite of polyphonic … Or you might want to take a look at this post “before” giving a definitive answer. The latter is the option I would recommend ... ;-)

Thank you

Yesterday the winners and the final ranking of the finalists of the 2008 Weblog Awards were announced by the organizers. Wind Rose Hotel didn’t win in its category, but I’d like to thank each and every one of you, anyway, my dear and loyal readers, for taking the time to vote for me. I really appreciated your support and, in many cases, your personal encouragement.

However, believe me when I say that having been a finalist was great reward in itself. During the days of voting this blog had thousands of new visitors from all over the word, dozens of new links pointing to it, and as many new subscribers to its feed. In other words, I am very happy to have participated in such an important competition and I like to thank the organizers who made all this possible. It was a great experience!