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protest
Kashif
05/01/01 at 18:10:02
assalaamu alaikum I'd heard the day before that the demonstrators would gather at Liverpool Street Stn. My plan was thus, to meet up with them in the morning and accompany them for about an hour before turning back to work. I agree with a number of the protestors regarding the issues they want to bring attention to, for example, protection of the environment, the harsh exploitation of the third world, etc. As it turns out, the crowd of hundreds that i'd expected materialised in the form of about 20 or so cyclists dispersed around the station. Forget this! I went straight to work. ... I left my office at 5.30pm and on the spur of the moment decided to travel to the West End to meet up with the protestors. The police had closed down Oxford Circus station - they'd predicted correctly that this was where the bulk of the protestors would go, and they were correct. So i travelled onto Bond Street and took some side roads and found myself along with two or three hundred other about 150 metres away from the main body of protestors. This is where i stayed for the next hour and a half with some demonstrators under the watchful eye of hundreds of policemen and women, & four police helicopters hovering overhead. While i was there i tagged up with a white middle-class, intelligent lady in her late-30s. She'd been there for a longer time than myself and had filled me in with what had happened earlier. The movement is indeed massive. To have thousands of people unite in so many of the world's major cities on one day is impressive and indicative of the level of concern that the supporters have for their issues. But on the other hand, i was thoroughly disappointed with some of these 'protestors.' You had some who were so drunk that they could just about stand straight.. the speech was slurred and they didn't make sense. How do they ever expect the world to deal with them seriously when their image is one of middle-aged, care-free men and women who dress in bright colours and drunk/drugged (yes, it looked pretty clear to me that what some people were smoking was not plain tobacco). And of course you can't forget their musicians; there were two hippies sitting down behind me, one playing an awful beat on a drum and another trying to make the noise sound better by tapping his didgeridoo with a stick! The side roads that i'd taken lead me to the front line of the protestors - up against the police, and in all honesty... formidable though they looked, we got on well. We discussed our reasons for being there with them, and also ended up having some humourous dialogue with them. All the time i was there i was listening to news reports on the radio of what was going on in different locations in the area and what i heard was what you'd expect to from the people in power. Last year, there were running battles with police and they called for calm & 'peaceful demonstration' this year. When they got it this year, they started saying 'what right do these protestors have to bring London to a standstill? Next year we don't want them to have even a peaceful demonstration.' And another from a female representative of the Institute of Directors calling the protestors a bunch of "middle-class, disaffected people who need to get jobs." Standing face-to-face with a policeman in full riot gear had filled me with the inexplicable urge to do something. I'd looked them all up and down and noticed that they all had some type of protective pads underneath their trousers on their knees, and likewise at their elbows. They wore scarves over their faces and on top of that was the plastic visor. But by far the most interesting thing was the shield. So... when the copper in front of me looked in the other direction, i took his shield in my hand and gave it a quick knock with my knuckles to test how hard they really are. The copper quickly looked back and gave me an annoyed look thru his helmet. Verdict? They're not as tough as they look. In summary, the protestors can claim a victory as their actions cost the capital £20 million, but also, the police won too: rioting was kept to an absolute minimum and there were only 2 serious injuries in a whole day of demonstrations by 4000 people. The policeman who drew up the plans to separate the crowd into 3 groups and seal them up in different roads was a tactical genius, his plan worked. Kashif Wa Salaam

Re: protest
jannah
05/01/01 at 21:21:54
slm, what is this in protest of? and why would one say: [quote] "the police won too: rioting was kept to an absolute minimum and there were only 2  serious injuries in a whole day of demonstrations by 4000 people. " [/quote] isn't it a good thing that no one got hurt and rioting was minimum? unless the strategy was to riot and destroy everything in sight or to have as much violence as possible to make alot of publicity???

Re: protest
Saleema
05/01/01 at 23:33:59
[slm] Rioting is a form of civil disobediance and it has worked to over throw government to get your local newspaper shut down. Rioting helped the blacks in the US in the 60s. [wlm] Saleema

Re: protest
Kashif
05/02/01 at 03:01:03
assalaamu alaikum This was the London May Day anti-capitalist protests. Kashif Wa Salaam
NS

Re: protest
jehad
05/02/01 at 08:44:29
Asalm walakum, I forgot all about the mayday thing, I was driving home and lodes of roads were blocked, and there were lodes of pig mobiles every where, it took me a while to get home and there were more police then usual near my house. I live really far away from the protests. The people who are there to destroy stuff are anarchists, they are kind of like communists, but believe the way to obtain dialectal evolution is by having no laws or authority there by allowing society to evolve and progress with out interference. I have attended a debate between a anarchist and a Muslim in a university. Anarchist accuse communists parties like swp of being sell-outs. I was  really disappointed with the demonstrations, they didn't manage to do any fun stuff this time. I like what they did to that idol of that war criminal last year. I wanted them to destroy a lot of those criminal institutions of Riba and I wouldn't have minded if I saw a few McDonalds go up in flames either. Hopefully next year will be better.

Re: protest
eleanor
05/02/01 at 13:49:37
slm Bravo, bravo encore... :( you think all this is good? What good does destroying other people's property do? Where is the ayah or hadith that supports this?? I'd be interested to read it. Of course here in Germany they had their Mayday protests too. Mostly peaceful with one or two stone throwing incidents. It was interesting really because the majority started shouting "Nazis out..Nazis out.." and the police ended up "protecting" a group of about 900 neo-Nazis. The neo Nazi party NPD is on the verge of being banned here in Germany so they probably wanted to protest about that but instead all the rest turned on them. And it was mostly germans who were against them too. Personally I have nothing against peaceful demonstrations but when it comes to ruining property, injuring others and basically one big violent fest, then I just feel sick. wasalaam eleanor

Re: protest
jannah
05/02/01 at 14:22:39
True eleanor.. islam came to protect people's lives, property, mind etc not the opposite!

Re: protest
Kashif
05/02/01 at 17:22:51
assalaamu alaikum Isn't it obvious that peaceful protest isn't going to get any results? You can sit on a lawn with a flower in your hair form now till Eid and the multi-nationals won't look twice at you. Only when you catch their attention will they look at you and consider you seriously. Kashif Wa Salaam
NS

Re: protest
jannah
05/02/01 at 22:15:49
So.. we should catch their attention by defacing innocent people's property and with violence?

Re: protest
BroHanif
05/03/01 at 06:34:48
A.W.W. To bro Jehad and all other Madina residents, Bro Jehad,                I find your language increasingly disturbing. [quote] I was driving home and lodes of roads were blocked, and there were lodes of pig mobiles every where [/quote] Why are you using such terms to decribe the British police force ? Now lets check history to where the police force actually started from. Wasn't it the great Hazrat Umar Farauq R.A the second Khalifah who introduced the police force(the garrision) for the first time and not Sir Robert Peel. So why do you use such language...??? Unless of course in your eyes all the past, present and future police forces in the world are pigs regardless of whether they are muslims or not. No need to go into the qualitys of a pig. [quote]I was  really disappointed with the demonstrations, they didn't manage to do any fun stuff this time. I like what they did to that idol of that war criminal last year. I wanted them to destroy a lot of those criminal institutions of Riba and I wouldn't have minded if I saw a few McDonalds go up in flames either.   Hopefully next year will be better. [/quote]. Are these actions of our last prophet sls ...??? Or maybe actions of the righteous sahabah (peace be upon them) ??? No, so if you are a muslim then why do you intend to follow such ways which are not righteous...??? Brother Jehad and others who share the same stupid vision you need a reality check. This board is on the Internet therefore whatever you post it is seen by people all over the world, before you put pen to paper please think what your views will attain. Either people will turn away from Islam or come closer towards it. Surely it can not be helped by naive and downright stupid postings like yours. And Allah knows best.

Re: protest
jehad
05/03/01 at 09:01:26
Aslam walakum, with all due respect, the kinds of people who come in to Islam are mainly from among the oppressed in society. Briton is an oppressive kufr regime, it might not be as oppressive and as kufr as the regimes in the Muslim world, but none the less it is an oppressive kufr regime. The protesters were generally kaffar, so I can not condemn them for not following our shriah, they have there own sets of morals and their own sets of rights and wrongs. They regard what they are doing as correct; they regard them selves as mujahideen fighting an evil oppressive regime. They rightly regard the banks as the leaders of kufr, and the brains of Shaitan, as these are the institutions that are causing 1000 000 000's to live in poverty by their riba, all over the world, and are causing 1000 000’s to live in semi slaver right here at home with bondage contract that they call mortgage. If Muslims start condemning people who have the courage to try and do some thing to liberate them selves and others from the oppression of the people of evil, then that is the real thing that is turning people away from Islam, including encouraging Muslims to became murtad. Communists say religion is the opium of the masses, due to the fact the person who made this statement was completely ignorant of Islam and well versed in Christianity. The Christian church was used by the regimes in Europe to get people to tolerate the oppression of evil regimes, by slogans such as “turn the other cheek” and “render on to Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto god what is god’s”. So the people whose love for their fellow human is enough for them to do some thing about the evil, with some thing that they think will have some effect have turned away from religion thinking all religions are like the Christianity they have come to despise. Obviously I did not take part in the demonstration, obviously I am not a communist or an anarchist, and I hate their deen the same as I hate any other man made deen. And most importantly, obviously I believe the way to liberate humanity from the evil and oppressions of man made law is by dawa and jihad, not denominations and vandalism. I can only recommend dawa and jihad to them after they embrace Islam. As the shria comes after the aqeedah. I know some of the businesses that were attacked were normal family businesses and this should be condemned. I did not mention anything defending that, I mentioned that I would like to have seen more banks attacked, for obvious reasons, and that I would not have shed tears over McDonalds. You know these people who so many are so quick to attack are desperate for Islam, it is a human instinct to look for some thing to worship. It is obvious to any thinking human being that Allah exists and he alone should be worshiped. Due to being disenfranchised with Christianity, they are going against their instinctive need to worship. If they see that Islam does not order them to tolerate oppression and is clearly the true deen of Allah they will run in to it, and the energies they expend in the name of dialectics will be used in the name of the one true god. Their deen is clearly false and ludicrous, but due to their ignorance of true Islam, they see it as the only solution to fight against the oppression they see all around them. In the 1950’s/60’s when Islamic parties first started to become active in the fight against oppression, the communists were the people leading the fight against the regimes, so many people were leaving Islam and entering the road to hell fire called communism. As they thought Islam was a false deen due to the ulimah tolerating the oppression of the regime.  When Muslims started entering jails they noticed that the prisons were full of communists and started giving them dawa, until people started entering prisons as communists and leaving as Muslim dawa carriers.

Re: protest
jehad
05/03/01 at 09:24:05
Aslam walakum, brohanif, the police force of Hz Umair were enforcing Allah’s deen and protecting what should be protected. The police force in Briton are the enforcers of man made law, and the solders of this regime.

Re: protest
jannah
05/03/01 at 10:06:32
[quote]I mentioned that I would like to have seen more           banks attacked, for obvious reasons, and that I would not have shed tears over McDonalds. [/quote] Hmm let's see who would have suffered if the banks were attacke`.. the ppl who would have tried anything would be arrested and convicted...all banks have excellent security cameras.. Even in full fledged riots, video tapes have been used to catch and convict the perpetrators involved. Damage to the banks?  Some money stolen, property damage? They are insured to the hilt. All banks are. So insurance premiums go up. They pay more, they probably charge more--charge more of an interest rate. More ppl are sucked into that slavery to interest. So...have we improved the Muslims or Islam at all? How about McDonalds... damaged mcdonalds makes alot of low-income workers out of a job. The corporation absorbs the damage. Improvement to Islam or the Muslims? I think besides the fact that needless property damage and violence are not Islamic AT ALL [I mean come on, we can't even do that in war so how are people going to do that in a protest??], the only benefit you get from it is attention. And as the brother mentioned is this what our deen teaches us? Is this the example of the prophet [saw] to protest what the Makkans are doing with destroying property and injuring people???

Re: protest
bhaloo
05/03/01 at 10:15:18
Assalamu 'Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh Jehad, people may or may not have a problem with your views/beliefs, but the way you express your views, is often times very rude and inconsiderate.  Please use appropriate language and good manners at all times on this board.   This thread is now closed.
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