[Applause]
brothers and sisters distinguished
Scholars prospective members of
parliament
counselors activists of all kinds and as
I look around also from different
faiths assalamu
alayum I want to begin if I May by
talking about something other than Gaza
just for a moment or
two because this is a very difficult
time in Britain in
Europe in the wake of the terrorist
murders in France uh over the last few
days in which 17 people were slain at
least 17
some were Shoppers some were workers in
a
shop some were police officers some were
Muslims some were Christians some were
atheists and of course the
journalists who formed the majority of
those
dead whatever we think of the work that
they did no one
no one should ever be murdered for
anything they wrote or Drew or said in a
democratic country like ours like
France that way lies ruin that way lies
Anarchy that way lies Civil War and we
cannot allow our societies to slide down
that path in that
direction but certain things have to be
said having said
that the first
is that these people were not murdered
by Muslims they were murdered by
terrorists the people who were murdered
in
Norway by the
Christian fascist
bravic were not murdered by
Christians they were murdered by
terrorists by
murderers and we cannot accept and will
not
accept the
defamation of
2,000 million Muslims in the world by
allowing the synonym Muslim equals
terrorist to grow
and when I saw the
tweet from rert moch the most powerful
media man on the
Earth from his own hand from his own
personal
telephone this morning in which he
said that the
Muslims must be held
responsible for this CR
in France I immediately consulted my
lawyer with a view to having him
arrested for incitement to racial and
religious
hatred the Muslims are not to
blame for this
crime even
though the vast majority of the victims
of terrorism are
Muslims the vast majority of those being
killed by violence in the world today
are
Muslims we cannot
accept the
designation of terrorists being applied
to the great
faith of Islam and its
followers we cannot accept it
either that the blood of some people is
held to be more valuable
than the blood of
others yesterday in New
York the United Nations security Council
no less for the first time in its entire
history stood for a minute
silence for the 17 victims in
France I'm glad they
did but I want to know where they were
last summer when thousands of
Palestinians were being murdered in Gaza
that's what I want to
know I want to know why there was no
minute silence for
them
500 children
500 children were
murdered in less than 4 weeks in Cold
Blood in an open
prison with all the doors locked with
Nowhere to Run nowhere to hide not only
did the United Nations security Council
not rise for a minute silence they
couldn't wouldn't even pass a
resolution to demand the
cessation of this insane violence that
was being visited upon the Palestinian
people about which more later so we say
don't we unequivocally we are against
terrorism whoever practices it whichever
religion they profess to follow whether
they're wearing a turban and a beard in
the Torah Bora or a white collar and a
suit in Tel Aviv or Washington or
whiteall we are against the killing of
innocent people all killing of all
innocent people and we don't pick and
choose between which pool of blood makes
us
sick and which pool of blood leaves us
entirely
cold I wanted to make those
comments because you wouldn't have heard
them from anybody
else you you won't have heard any other
Member of Parliament say them you w't
have heard them on the
news isn't it funny how I never got on
the news
anymore by the grace of God I don't need
their news I have my own
news I have 50,000 films on
YouTube watched by over 100 million
people I wrote what I just said to you
on
Facebook on Wednesday night and millions
of people people have read it we don't
need them we don't need rert Murdoch we
don't need Sky News we have to use the
tools at our disposal to speak to each
other and learn from each other and
follow the
path the straight path the correct path
that will take us to that Judgment Day
that was described in the opening of
this meeting because be clear about one
thing all of us will face that Judgment
Day all of
us and it won't matter how much money we
had in the second before we
died it won't
matter that we were
busy when we could have been doing the
right
thing and declined the opportunity to do
it it won't be any
excuse on the last day and on that last
day we will be asked not what other
people did but what we
did what we did and what we did not do
that we should have
done 5 years ago exactly this
night I was locked up in an unmarked
van as I emerged from the Gaza
Strip I was arrested by the security
forces of the then dictator of Egypt h
Mubarak I was placed in
irons driven to the airport in
Cairo 5 years ago exactly this night
deported from the country declared
persona non grata which means a person
without
status and I told the little creep who
read me the
Declaration the person without status in
Egypt is the dictator Mubarak and the
people will sweep him
away and funnily enough
was another of my predictions that came
true although he hasn't gone
away now Mubarak is
free and the elected president of Egypt
is in
prison the dictator it turns out was not
a thief was not a murderer after
all it's the guy that won the election
that was the thief and the
murderer and now he's in prison one of
the things he's in prison for
Mory one of the charges against
him is that he
was cooperating with the Palestinian
resistance in Gaza imagine that's a
crime in today's
Egypt and on the subject of freedom of
speech when are we going to hear the
voices of our political class about the
milit Jun in Egypt today closing down
every opposition newspaper every
opposition television station and
imprisoning journalists by the
hundred or is it only some freedom of
speech the our leaders and our media are
concerned
about now you may well ask why
with hundreds of miles still to drive
I'm here on a Saturday night my friends
who've come with me from Bradford asked
me why are we going to jewsbury don't we
have things to do in Bradford I told
them we have to go to dubury because
Yousef asked me and I can refuse him
nothing some of you have heard me say
before of the time that I first met
him we had left London
on St Valentine's Day the 14th of
February with a huge
Convoy of trucks and vans and cars Laden
with medicine and children's
toys and
clothes to try to break the siege on
Gaza When the Smoke was still rising and
the dead still lay
unburied we left London hundreds of us
in hundreds of
vehicles and we drove through France
through
Spain through Morocco through Algeria
they had to open the gate between
Algeria and Morocco with a blow torch it
had rusted shut hadn't been opened for
10 years but they opened up for our
Convoy we drove
across t
IIA which was the most beastly of all
the dictatorships and was the first of
the Arab dictatorships to be
overthrown we literally fought our
way across some of these
dictatorships one
morning at
fjer in Libya and the Libyan
Desert I Rose very proprietor and
started to stroll amongst all the
vehicles just to check that everything
was
okay and in the early morning
Mist I saw a tall
man huddled over a
fire cooking some
food which smell
delicious as I moved towards
them I said Salam alaykum he said wum
Salam I said which part of Libya are you
from he said said I'm from
Batley I'm from
Batley it was Yousef and he was a tower
of strength and dignity and commitment
on that Convoy on the next Convoy on the
next Convoy on every Convoy there's ever
been Yousef has been on
it absolutely
tireless in his
determination to come to the
rescue of the Palestinian people in the
wake of every Massacre and when the
Israel is knocked down what he
builds he builds it right back up
again and we'll come to that too in a
minute on that first
Convoy as Yousef
knows we moved amongst the rubble
as I said the smoke still Rising the
smell of death still
everywhere and I met a young
girl wearing a
hijab perhaps 12 years old she was
then heaven knows what became of her she
was standing in the ruins in the rubble
in the bricks the
stones of her house which had been
destroyed by an Israeli
missile killing her mother her father
and all three of her
brothers she was an
orphan she had been staying with her
grandmother and therefore had not
perished she stood
defiantly amongst the
rubble and I went to talk to
her and this is what she said
where is this
umah they teach us
about in the
mosque where is this umah they teach us
about in the
school why did this umah leave us to
face this
alone why
alone she repeated this
twice the second time to my back
because I could not look her in the face
for I had no
answer to her
question why did the
umah leave her alone this
orphan why are the
Palestinians called the first child to
die of cold in Gaza died
today with no
house living in the
rubble baby dead of frostbite this day
why if there are two billion Muslims in
the world how is that
possible the richest people on the Earth
are
Muslims in the casinos in London
tonight there are Muslims who shouldn't
even be in
there throwing Millions ions of pounds
on roulette tables and card games whilst
a baby is freezing to death in Gaza how
is that even
possible how is it possible to be an
orphan in
Islam if a child is left without its
parents that child becomes the
responsibility of all of us how can
there be such a
concept of a child
left
alone with no warmth no clothes no food
no school no hospital no doctor how is
that
possible it's possible because the
richest and most powerful people in the
Muslim world are
collaborating with the people who are
carrying out these
crimes if they weren't
these problems would
disappear the Palestinian people would
have everything they
needed after
all Palestine is not just any
place not for a
Muslim not for a Christian it's not just
any
place it's the place where Abraham
walked it's the place where Jesus
walked in Jerusalem
from the roof of the alaxa mosque the
prophet himself ascended to the heaven
and returned with the
Revelation yet that mosque is under
occupation by foreigners today and
people going to pray they unlucky to
escape with their
lives if that doesn't touch you I don't
know if you're even still
alive if that doesn't mean anything to
you
I don't know if you're even still
alive so if the rich and the powerful
Muslims will do
nothing for these orphans we have to do
it and when I recovered my poise with
this young girl that I told you
about I said to
her I will
travel everywhere amongst the umah and I
will find people who will be your mother
and father who will be your brother and
sister who will ensure that you are not
left alone and that's what we're here
for
tonight the jabalia refugee
camp where this proposed orphanage is to
be built and I've seen the land as you
have it's a beautiful piece of land holy
land watered by the blood of all these
Palestinians who have sacrificed their
lives to defend their dignity and their
honor this is an important point I was
thinking of it while I watched the film
you know if the Palestinians had
surrendered 60 years ago none of this
would be happening to them if they'd
agreed to go into the museum as an ex
people that we go and look at
exhibitions of their clothes and their
artifacts if they' agreed to become
slaves to give up their land to abandon
their religion to give up their honor
and their dignity none of this would be
happening to them it's only happening to
them because they resist because they
refuse because they will never
surrender that which is dear to
them the jabalia camp has more
Martyrs more
Fighters more
prisoners more Shahid than any other
part of
Palestine and that's where you're being
asked to build this orphanage this
evening I think you should take the
advice that was
given at the beginning
you should see this as an
opportunity an opportunity to be in on
the ground floor at something precious
something holy something that you'll
always remember that you can tell your
children and that will be in your favor
on that last
day on that Judgment
day you'll be able to say I did what I
could to try to defend the Palestinian
people
their children and their
orphans £180,000
there's 1,000 people here and some of
you mashallah are quite
Rich through your hard work through your
efforts we could raise £180,000 here
tonight A th000 people that's
£180 each
we could raise £180 each even if we
can't pay it tonight Yousef will take an
IOU Yousef will take a
pledge he'll pursue you for it I have no
doubt but we could do it so please don't
just give what you've got in your pocket
tonight pledge yourself to give what's
necessary wouldn't it be a good thing if
the orphanage in
jabalia was built buil entirely by the
umah in
jewsbury wouldn't it be good if he
didn't even have to come to Bradford and
ask us wouldn't it be good if he didn't
have to go around the country with a can
rattling
it wouldn't it be good to
say that this orphanage in this holy
place this place of resistance was built
entirely by you you have that opport
opportunity tonight and you can if you
choose take it wasalamu alaykum thank
you very much