Salmond's 'Friends in the Gulf'

Salmond seeks Middle East investors

Last updated 1 Nov 2011 - 2:25 am

First Minister Alex Salmond has said Scotland could offer attractive 'investment opportunities' to Gulf states
Scotland could offer attractive investment opportunities to its "friends in the Gulf", First Minister Alex Salmond has said.

Mr Salmond, on a five-day trip to Qatar and United Arab Emirates, will meet representatives from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority to discuss possible joint working between UAE and Scotland on infrastructure projects.

Scottish Enterprise chief executive Lena Wilson and other leading business figures will also be at the forthcoming meeting.

Speaking before it, Mr Salmond said leading figures in both Qatar and UAE had "expressed their confidence in Scotland's economic strategy".

The meeting with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, wholly owned by the Abu Dhabi government, is "an opportunity to talk in more detail about some of the unique opportunities Scotland can offer".

Mr Salmond went on: "Worldwide market forces make this an attractive time to invest in long-term, viable capital projects. I am confident that the Scottish Government's commitment to capital investment for long-term growth will make Scotland an attractive partner for our friends in the Gulf."

The talks come after the First Minister spent two days in Qatar where he discussed strengthening links with Scotland with Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, emir of Qatar, and Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al Thani, prime minister and foreign minister.

Mr Salmond said: "The economies of Qatar and the UAE continue to perform well as they seek to diversify. They share Scotland's commitment to sustainable capital investment which will secure the long-term future of our respective economies.

"In the current economic circumstances, capital investment must be a priority in both the public and private sector. Scotland offers many attractive business opportunities, particularly in renewables and infrastructure, which offer the prospects of good returns for substantial investors.

"Now is the time to invest, which is why I am visiting both Qatar and the UAE this week."

Source: The Herald

SNP Foreign Aid Recipient Maldives Intensifies Religious Repression

I've written before about how the SNP is giving foreign aid to the Maldives (see here, here and here) and made a specific commitment to this in their manifesto. The Maldives was already ranked one of the most religously repressive Islamic regimes in the world. Now the repression is going to intensify a bit further.

MALE, September 17 (HNS) – President’s Office has gazetted the controversial Religious Unity Regulation, declaring it an offence to preach a religion except Islam in the Maldives.

The 12-clause regulation makes it mandatory for preachers of Islam, both locals and foreigners, to have a first degree in a field of Islamic education from a ministry-approved college, university or centre.

...The regulation also prohibits comments of hatred towards people of other religions, spreading a religion other than Islam and using an object that resembles a sign of a religion other than Islam.

A person who violates the regulation will be sentenced to 2-5 years in prison, banishment or house arrest.

Source

Humza Yousaf: the Hamas Connection

In a post yesterday, I mentioned that Humza Yousaf had been a director of the Scottish Islamic Foundation and that the Scottish Islamic Foundation had ties to Islamic extremists and had even introduced a man alleged to have been involved in terrorism, Mohammed Sahalwa, to officials of the Scottish government.

Now we have the proof that Humza Yousaf himself was personally involved in this. The graphic shows a screen capture documenting a meeting between SIF personnel, including Humza Yousaf, and Mohammed Sawalha. This establishes that Humza Yousaf had a personal acquaintance with Sawalha. The original web page is here.

This page has some excellent information on Mohammed Sawalha's background, some of it reproduced below.

In 2005, the Sunday Times reported:

Sawalha’s link with Hamas emerged after he was named as a co-conspirator in an American court case involving racketeering and conspiracy. Last week the cleric, who arrived in Britain 15 years ago and has been given indefinite leave to remain, said that he still supported Hamas, notorious for its suicide attacks in Israel.

Asked whether he supported the military activities of Hamas, he replied: "I have no comment on the question of military activity."

...According to US court documents, Sawalha was a leading militant in the early 1990s “in charge of Hamas terrorist operations within the West Bank”. The documents, from the federal court in Chicago, claim he met two of the three “conspirators” accused of laundering millions of dollars to finance Hamas activities, including the purchase of weapons.

Hamas was classified as a terrorist organisation by the UK government in 2003.

On Panorama, the BBC reported:

From London, Sawalha is said to have master minded much of Hamas’ political and military strategy. Wanted by Israel, he fled to London in 1990… In London, Sawalha is alleged to have directed funds, both for Hamas’ armed wing, and for spreading its missionary dawah. Then, in January 1993, an operation Sawalha was involved in went badly wrong. Hamas would be forced to reorganise its funding arrangements. A senior Hamas man from America flew into London for instructions from Sawalha. Sawalha’s visitor was en route to the Palestinian territories. The two men travelled to Sawalha’s home. His visitor’s name was Mohammed Salah. Salah’s mission was to distribute funds. Sawalha told him who to meet in the Palestinian territories…. With Sawalha’s agreement Salah began distributing about a quarter of a million dollars to local Hamas operatives. Some was ear marked for military activities. Some for missionary dawah. More money was in the pipe line from his bank in Chicago. But the Israeli’s had been tracking him. Stopped at a check point as he left Gaza, Salah was arrested.’

How can Humza Yousaf complain about being stopped at airports when he has associations with known extremists?

Humza Yousaf Complains About Being Questioned at Airport

In the Herald yesterday, Humza was at it again - except this time he wasn't just complaining about Muslims in general being searched at airports; he claimed that he himself had been.

AN MSP has become the latest Muslim to be caught up by airport security checks while returning from holiday.

...Glasgow MSP Humza Yousaf was selected from among returning passengers at Edinburgh Airport while coming back from holiday with his wife Gail Lythgoe.

The SNP MSP stressed he was not seeking special treatment just because he was an elected public figure, but he said it demonstrated Schedule 7 stops had no basis in terms of security or intelligence and were based simply on skin colour.

“I was stopped coming into Edinburgh Airport returning with my wife from a break in Istanbul via Charles de Gaulle in Paris, our first holiday since our honeymoon a year ago.

“We were pulled aside, our passports were screened under Schedule 7 and we were asked where we had been and why we were there. It is the fourth or fifth time this has happened to me, but the first since I was married last year.

“My wife felt humiliated and I felt angry at this. Coming into Edinburgh Airport you should be thinking about whether your luggage is there rather than this kind of thing.”

He added: “The problem is that under Schedule 7 they don’t even have to have reasonable suspicion to stop you. It’s a shame. This is my home, my country. It’s where I was born, and I hope I would have a history of public service.

A history of public service? Is that a joke? He was appointed an MSP a few weeks ago and has spent all his time since then agitating on behalf of Muslims and against the interests of the Scottish people. A history of public menace more like.

“I don’t expect any preferential treatment from anyone else, but this demonstrates there is clearly no intelligence involved whatsoever, nothing other than the colour of your skin or the flight you are on. No-one else was stopped on our flight, so far as I could tell. I am not saying this is racist. It’s just that it isn’t led by good intelligence.”

In fact there are compelling reasons why Humza Yousaf's name should be right at the top of the airport security staff's list of suspicious characters.

Humza Yousaf's cousin, Osama Saeed, spoke admiringly of the terrorist leader Anwar Al Awlaki. Like Saeed, who also stood as a candidate for the Scottish National Party, Yousaf was a director of the Scottish Islamic Foundation, which had documented links to Islamic extremists.

The Quilliam foundation said this about these links:

Through the Scottish Islamic Foundation, Osama Saeed has given a platform to some of the most prominent Islamists in the UK. For example, the SIF has arranged on two occasions for Kemal Helbawy, the founder of the Muslim Association of Britain, and Alamin Belhaj, the head of the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood, to lecture young Scottish Muslims on Islam. On other occasions, Saeed’s SIF has given platforms to yet more foreign Islamists, including two senior members of the Brotherhood-linked Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the former head of the US branch of the Saudi-Wahhabi group the World Association of Muslim Youth (WAMY).

The Times reports that the Scottish Islamic Foundation arranged a "meeting between culture minister Linda Fabiani and Mohammed Sawalha, who is alleged to have directed terror operations in the West Bank."

Sawalha, president of the British Muslim Initiative, was named in US court documents as a leading militant in the early 1990s “in charge of Hamas terrorist operations within the West Bank”.

The documents alleged he met two “conspirators” accused of laundering millions of dollars to finance the group’s activities. In 2006, the BBC’s Panorama accused him of directing funds to Hamas’s armed wing.

The cleric, who arrived in Britain 17 years ago and was given indefinite leave to remain, has refused to denounce the terrorist group.

West Dunbartonshire Council Boycotts Israeli Books

The council is SNP-controlled but all 22 councillors (9 SNP, 9 Labour, 3, Independents, 1 Scottish Socialist) voted for the resolution in 2009. It's interesting that the SNP is not only not boycotting, but is actually giving foreign aid to countries like Pakistan and the Maldives, where the persecution of Christians by Muslims is rife.

Amusingly, this seems to have gone global on Israel-sympathetic sites round the blogosphere. I don't know if any of them have picked up on the SNP's donation of money to Islam-dominated countries that persecute Christians but if they did, it might be a good way of exerting pressure on the SNP about it. All the information is on this site.

Source

Didn't Take Long Did It?

Newly appointed MSP Humza Yousaf has already started to agitate on behalf of Muslim interests and against the interests of the Scottish people, and he seems to have roped the rest of the SNP hierarchy into his plans.

Airport Open Day for Minorities

Notice it says minorities when it's really specifically about Muslims.

Ethnic minority representatives will be invited to a security open day at Glasgow Airport to try to allay fears they are being singled out for questioning by security staff.

Glasgow MSP Humza Yousaf has been in discussions with airport authorities following claims that some ethnic minorities would rather travel to Manchester or London rather than face "awkward questions" at Glasgow.

Mr Yousaf said: "During the election campaign, a number of folk raised it with me. People have been stopped four or five times and asked really awkward questions like: How many times a day do you pray?; What mosque do you go to?; or Does your wife wear a headscarf?."

Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 empowers police officers to stop and question travellers at UK ports and airports without needing reasonable suspicion that the person is engaged in terrorism.

A BAA Glasgow spokesman said: "Schedule 7 checks are a police matter so we cannot comment specifically. However, we have good relations with ethnic minority groups who we meet with on a regular basis, and we will help facilitate an open day to explain the procedures involved in the security screening process."

Mr Yousaf welcomed the airport's approach. He said: "There was a report in The Guardian (newspaper) that said that people from ethnic minorities are 42 times more likely to be stopped under Schedule 7 in UK airports.

"From speaking to people, the situation seems to be a lot worse in Glasgow than anywhere else, to the point where some people are travelling to Manchester or London to take a flight instead.

"I spoke to one individual who has lived here for 35 years and is well integrated in the community, who has been stopped several times and now takes the train to Manchester whenever he wants to fly."

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill will be attending the meeting alongside Tayside Police's Assistant Chief Constable Colin McCashey, Scotland`s head of counter-terrorism.

He said: "There are some questions that need to be legitimately asked. Equally, there are manners and ways in which it can be done."

Source: The Herald

Of course the security staff who, before, were simply being appropriately thorough, will now be intimidated and will go softly-softly on the Muslims, increasing the risk to anyone flying in and out of Scotland.

The Muslim News is Happy About the Scottish Election Results

Labour, SNP, Tories, Lib Dems...doesn't really matter to the Muslim News, as long as they're Muslims. Hell, they'd probably even be happy about a BNP member being elected - as long as he was a Muslim too. The newspaper happily reports on the two Muslims, Humza Yousaf and Hanzala Malik, who recently won appointment to the Scottish parliament through the undemocratic regional list system.

In amidst the gushing reportage, there are a few interesting nuggets of information. For example, there is further evidence, as if any were needed, on the SNP's self-debasement in pursuit of Muslim votes:

The majority of his [Yousaf's] time therefore was spent campaigning on behalf of Nicola Sturgeon. He even arranged for the Deputy First Minister to visit a packed restaurant hall showing the Pakistan India World Cup cricket match.

Oh, yes, no need to bother campaigning for your own election when you're going to be appointed, not elected.

Weeks before the election the SNP published a leaflet in Urdu. It highlighted the £1m it gave to aid the Pakistani flood relief, its opposition to the Iraq war as well as its critical stance on the Israeli siege of Gaza.

This is shocking. I didn't know the SNP had wasted taxpayer money donating to Pakistani flood relief. Yet again we see the SNP's foreign aid going to Islam-dominated countries; and they choose to highlight it in their election literature, published in Urdu so real Scottish people can't read it. This is blatant abuse of power. They are giving money away as foreign aid to win over domestic voter groups.

The article also has an interesting quote from Hanzala Malik:

“But for the last 15 years Alex Salmond has been engaging with the Muslim community. It was the SNP that introduced a bill to criminalise forced marriage and we are the only Scottish party, unless the situation has changed recently, that supports the right of the Kashmiri people to determine their own future.”

What does this mean? "It was the SNP that introduced a bill to criminalise forced marriage". It sounds as if he is saying that as a criticism of the SNP. So, presumably, he must be in favour of forced marriage? I think it's time a journalist asked Hanzala Malik pointedly what his position on forced marriage is.

Malik also makes it clear that he intends to agitate on behalf of Muslims rather than act in the interests of the Scottish people as a whole:

He will also focus on the effect of economic downturn on the minority communities. “Economic squeeze hurts minority communities more than anybody else and they need to be assisted,” he said.

There were also some more interesting details on Hanzala Malik's career:

He also recently helped with the transfer of two fire engines from Strathclyde Fire and Rescue to the Punjab.

What the f*ck are we doing, giving free fire engines to the Punjab?

Hanzala was the spokesman for Glasgow City Council on International Affairs.

Why the f*ck does Glasgow City Council need an International Affairs Spokesman? What a freaking joke! The delusions of grandeur among our mickey mouse politicians are astounding. Alex Salmond likes to give taxpayer money away in foreign aid so he can feel important; the munchkins on Glasgow City Council like to speak out on international affairs so they can indulge their own sense of grandiosity.