Channel 4 News has exposed the deception perpetrated by Hassan Butt, a one-time loudmouth with al-Muhajiroun, who has supposedly turned tail and written a book with Shiv Malik about his "exploits" as a militant Islamist. However, police have now released extracts from the interviews he gave since he was arrested last month while trying to fly to Pakistan. Most significantly, he told police that the stabbing he received in Manchester was in fact arranged by him, so that Shiv Malik would believe him. He also said he had never met anyone from al-Qa'ida or who even claimed to be from al-Qa'ida, and the police believed him and let him go. Amusing for the interview with Shiv himself towards the end. Video is after the fold. (Hat tip: MPACUK.)
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The last couple of weeks there has been a controversy over a new book being co-written by Hassan Butt, former al-Muhajiroun activist and self-proclaimed terrorist fixer and fundraiser, and the British writer and "journalist" Shiv Malik. The two were hoping to tell the world about Butt's exploits in Pakistan after the 9/11 atrocities; the police had other ideas, and demanded that Malik hand over the unfinished manuscript. Nick Cohen hailed the two as "persecuted peacemakers" in this article for the Observer the Sunday before last. Some of us, however, are not so convinced by Butt's turn-around.
Technorati Tags: shazad tanweer, shiv malik, abdullah hakim quick, mullah crew, ziauddin sardar, new statesman
This week's New Statesman (the first I've had through the door on a now ended subscription offer of £4.80 for three months) has on its front page a feature marking the anniversary of the 7th July bombings last year. There are two long articles, one by Shiv Malik (yep, him again) on the background of the bomber Shazad Tanweer and one by Ziauddin Sardar (yep, him again) on young British Muslims. Laughably Shiv's feature is entitled The Suicide Bomber in his own words, which refers to the personal statement on his UCAS (university application) form that he's managed to get hold of. Depressingly, as I noted last year when writing about political magazine coverage of the bombings, these two were the only voices within the community the NS could find, with Shiv concentrating on Hizbut-Tahreer, which had nothing to do with the bombings.
I had a number of pieces to write here yesterday, but was unable to get down to write any of them because I received a threatening email from Shiv Malik, about whose "Hizbis have jobs" nonsense I wrote an entry on Monday. On Tuesday, he sent me an email asking for my phone number, inviting me to hear his side of the story because "if you've ever worked in the media then you shouldn't be aghast at the fact that i might not get everything that I want to say across to the readers". I didn't reply immediately, intending to ponder my response. Yesterday, his tone had changed, and he sent me this:
Hi if you don't respond pretty sharpish to my email giving some contact details a part from your email address I might consider suing. Of course it is highly libellous to call some one a liar because it is disparaging in their work, profession. Regards Shiv.
