Having failed to intimidate me, the Quilliam foundation have now written to my webhost in the Netherlands, threatening to sue them in England (English law claims effective universal jurisdiction on libel). They are demanding that my webhost pays damages to the Directors of the Quilliam Foundation.
You will recall that Alisher Usmanov got this website temporarily closed down by threatening my then webhosts. I hope Quilliam will find my current webhosts made of sterner stuff, but repetition or mirroring of the Quilliam Foundation posts would be helpful at this stage. Here they are:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/11/public_money_go.html
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/11/all_blogger_ale.html
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/11/quilliam_founda.html#comments
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/11/we_are_instruct.html#comments
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/11/murray_to_quill.html#comments
Plus this one. of course.
I do not libel. All the money spent by the likes of Alisher Usmanov and Tim Spicer on lawyers’ letters to threaten me, my publishers and my webhosts has never resulted in anybody going to court against me, despite the fact I have always maintained the truth of what I have written and never bowed to threats to remove it. It is all still on here because it is all true.
I have written this to my webhosts:
There are loads of posts on my blog about this, and all my correspondence with them.
Key points:
At the time I pubklished my blog post, they had NOT filed their accounts
They filed their accounts six days AFTER I blogged that they had not filed them
At the time I blogged, their accounts were overdue and they did not have an extension ?” they applied for the extension THE DAY AFTER my blog that they had not filed their accounts ?” six days later they filed accounts
I have not at any stage accused the directors of stealing money. I have said that too much money goes into rewarding the Directors. Perfectly fair comment on a taxpayer funded organization ?” and a comment made by hundreds of others, repeatedly (google the Quilliam Foundation)
This is legal bullying. Having failed to intimidate me, they are trying to intimidate you
My own view is that, unless bloggers are prepared to stand up to this kind of intimidation, the internet is in deep trouble. The bad news is that English law claims the right to prosecute anyone anywhere in the world for posting to the internet as it can be read in England. This is a disgrace, and several US states have passed or are passing laws to protect their citizens from it. It is not impossible they would get your arse into an English court if they really wanted to make themselves infamous.
I am refusing to back down because I am quite confident that they are bluffing, and if they did go to court they would lose. I have in my five years of blogging received about sixty letters like the one you just got, and nobody has ever taken me to court, let alone won. It is called “chilling” ?” people are so terrified of UK libel law they usually back down when they get such a letter.
I cannot pretend it is one hundred per cent risk free to call their bluff. But if we give in the first time a wealthy institution pays a lawyer 500 dollars to write a letter, what is the purpose of our internet activity?
Craig
There is an interesting article in today’s Independent by Johann Hari about former “Islamic extremists.” Hari too notes the extraordinarily wealthy lifestyle of the Quilliam directors.
The most famous former Islamist fanatic in Britain is Maajid Nawaz ?” a high-cheekboned 31-year-old who walks with a self-confident strut. I make an appointment with him through his personal assistant, and he strides into the hotel lobby where we have arranged to meet in an immaculate and expensive suit. He seems to blend perfectly into the multi-ethnic overclass who use expensive hotels like this as their base…
We are served tea by the kind of effusive waitress who works in high-end London hotels. Maajid does not acknowledge her.
I get the impression Johann didn’t like Nawaz very much.
Craig, has the Quilliam Foundation given you a copy of its accounts yet? If you do get a copy, might be useful to get a forensic accountant to have a good look through.
“Craig, has the Quilliam Foundation given you a copy of its accounts yet?”
Just download from Companies House for a small fee. That’s what its for.
http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/01cdd8899c280a009bd5ada22e504241/wcprodorder?ft=1
It occurred to me when they just wanted to sue you for libel, to be worried. But now that they have gone after your web host, they just seem desperate, and I’d be inclined to believe now they’re just bluster.
Anno,
The people in Hari’s article appeared to have come to realisations as individuals, so I owuldn’t regard their positions as designed to please any particular party. Moreover Hari’s perspective appeares to have been independent from theirs, or thye wouldn’t have been noticeably uncomfortable with some of his questions.
Abu Rene
I know that their realisations appear to have been individual, but for reasons that emerged in Bradford when Craig stood on an anti-Iraq war etc ticket, and from observations of my own, I smell some conspiracy. Muslims do not easily put their convictions in reverse and when they do I suspect political manipulation.
There are many things I don’t discuss with certain people at certain times. Journalists have a habit of distorting the message or transferring it to people who are not in the room at the time. That’s their job. So I put on a pained face and say something at a tangent. These brothers are experienced proselytisers, Jehovahs Witnesses of the Muslim world. Foot in the door salesmen. Forgive me for smelling a whiff of politics from all sides in these interviews. Maybe with time it will become clearer where the smell is emanating from.
Things seem to have gone a bit quiet. What is the Quilliam Foundation up to now? I would guess that they are thinking about what to do next as they have put themselves in a corner! I bet they never thought that Craig wouldn’t just roll over! Now they either have to go though with the action and get the spotlight shone on them in court – and in the run up to the General Election! Or they drop the action, which means that it wasn’t serious, and Craig could sue them all for harassment?
Keith Elison deals with an American Qullam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx48OxYaetU&feature=player_embedded
There are a thousand blogs who would let you guest post all of your work.
They are in many countries so your persecutors will not prevail.
Keep up the good work.
When Foreign Secretary Millstone round the neck of democracy announces that there will now follow a political solution to the war in Afghanistan, Obama’s long awaited plan begins to unfold. There are, apart from a vast range of Sufis, only three Islamic political parties in the world. The Islam of Saudi Arabia which is under the direct control of the US and no fatwah can be issued without their approval. The Islam of the Deobandis which works with this country, and the Islam of Egypt which is owned by Zionism.
They are political parties in the sense that they adapt the religion to the sultan, or boundary conditions, of these Western powers, but apart from this they are purely religious institutions. There are many independent groups in Islam which are not working either with or for the West. Obama’s Afghanistan Pakistan plan is, firstly, to arrest citizens through law enforcement powers as was done in Iraq by UK/US forces, to put pressure at all levels of society for their area representatives to make concessions to the invaders. In common parlance, hostage taking.
Secondly, Divide and Rule. The West has tried its utmost to light a civil war between Sunni and Sufi ideologies in Pakistan, as Bush/Blair did in Iraq between Sunni and Shia who had lived happily together for many generations. The difference is that, in Iraq, Sunni and Shia differ on theology, but also on the delicate, social issue of srict marriage/chastity compared to the legal prostitution of temporary marriages, Muta’a. But the differences between Sunni and Sufi are mainly theological.
To address this problem, the powers that be are trying to ignite a theological division. By introducing a new theology to this continent, like the theology of the Muslim Brotherhood, which advocates a secular separation of Islam and state, they want to make both Sufis and Sunnis angry. Their leaderships currently enjoy unquestioning loyalty, even to the extent that when you re-wire the mosque, all the technical decisions are over-ruled by the mosque committee.
That’s why we now see ex-jihadis in the UK changing their colours and promoting a different theology, to put the cat among the pigeons between Sufis and Sunnis who have different views of the Afganistan war. To fill their own pockets, and for the West to divide and rule the country they originated from. Charming.
22 November 2009
“Libel reform will liberate us all”
“Jack Straw’s move is welcome, but cosmetic surgery won’t be enough to end this international embarrassment”…
http://tinyurl.com/yjwvl7t
works for me