The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) reports that Tuesday, Jan 19, Britain’s Channel 4 aired a new documentary titled, “The Jihadis Next Door.” Now that sounds like some real reality television. To make the documentary, filmmaker Jamie Roberts spent two years with a group of extreme Islamic street preachers. Two of these men seem to have quite the reputations.
The first is Abu Haleema. The SMH reports that Haleema is:
“A British preacher considered so extreme in his home country that he has been kicked out of mosques and spurned by the Islamic community…has turned his gaze to Australia and is quickly building a support base in Sydney and Melbourne.”
With his own YouTube channel, Haleema posts videos spouting his religious rhetoric for anyone that will listen. Unfortunately, he seems to be building quite the following. In the beginning of a video posted to Facebook by Britain’s Channel 4 News, Haleema actually sounds eerily like some of the GOP presidential hopefuls. On the issue of homosexuality, Haleema says:
“That act that the homosexuals do, that act is something that Allah curses. Anyone that gets caught doing the act, they will be punished.”
When asked what the punishment would be, Haleema says:
“Well, one of them is obviously chucking them off high buildings…So, we’re not gonna condemn it, we’re not gonna say it’s barbaric, we’re not gonna say it’s not good.”
While I haven’t heard any candidates say that they would chuck homosexuals off of high buildings, I suspect some would. Now Haleema flat out says his videos are meant to radicalize people. That must be a great reason for counter-terrorism police to keep tabs on what he is doing online.
The bright spots of the video are Muslims that openly reject the extremism that Haleema calls for. There are more than you think.
The second notable extremist in the documentary is Abu Rumaysah. The 30-year-old owner of a bouncy castle business – yes, bouncy castles – Rumaysah’s story is darker. According to The Guardian:
“Soon after filming this he jumped bail and left the country with his family, to France, and on to Syria. Now, he is thought to be the masked murderer of five men accused by ISIS of spying for Britain in the video released a couple of weeks ago. Abu Rumaysah is now one of the world’s most wanted men.”
Look, every religion has its extremists. Whether it’s Christianity or Islam, they both share a similar background. What this documentary shows us though is that they are out there. They are looking to push their barbaric agenda and have the force of the internet behind them.
Lastly, while some will say, “Stop giving them attention, that’s part of the problem,” they would be wrong. Ignoring these type of people only lets them advance their agenda unopposed.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAikmDoXUVc&w=853&h=480]
