Norway Welcomes a Renowned Salafist Lecturer

To prove how tolerant and free of “Islamophobia” it is, Norway is hosting a radical Islamic scholar who, among other accomplishments, helped inspire the underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab to blow up his crotch on a transatlantic flight.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated an article about this illustrious sheikh’s upcoming visit to the fjords. The translator includes this introductory note:

The article deals with a ‘religion of peace’ seminar which is scheduled for next weekend at the University College of Oslo. One would imagine that all those morally outraged people that demonized the Counterjihad movement in the aftermath of the Breivik attacks would be up in arms about allowing such a person to enter the kingdom of Norway, but funnily enough they are all quiet as mice.

The translated article from Human Rights Service:

Are praising invited extremist
by Hege Storhaug

Next weekend Islam.net is hosting a seminar at Oslo University College. Haitham al-Haddad, the keynote speaker at the seminar, is a well-known Sharia extremist who has been accused among others things of having contributed to the radicalization of the underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab. Seminars by al-Haddad have previously been axed in the Netherlands and the UK, where he currently resides, but apparently he is welcome to come to Norway and he is free to use the premises of the Oslo University College.

Haitham al-Haddad’s record is unattractive, to say the least. Here are some of his “pet causes”: Yes to female genital mutilation; women should not work; women are subordinate to their husbands, whom they should obey; Jews are the offspring of apes and pigs; homosexuality is worse than murder; apostates should be killed, sex outside of marriage should be punished by stoning; forced marriages of girls, the younger the better, just make sure to hide it from the authorities in the West. Hence it also fits into the pattern that he incites hatred against Muslims who do not follow his message.

The underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab was radicalized at a university in the UK, and he has himself admitted that he attended some of al-Haddad’s seminars. Al-Haddad’s rap sheet is even longer than this, but the picture should be pretty clear by now. Al-Haddad blends in nicely with all the other radical preachers that Islam.net brings to Norway — without any shame — and without a single Government Minister or other political figure seeing the need even to raise an eyelid. Here is the invitation to next weekend’s seminar organized by Islam.net — ‘Practising Islam in the West’. The trailer is well worth watching. [The video clip include some Norwegian footage and some English footage — translator]

The seminar fee includes dinner with the man who is presented in the following manner:

Shaykh Haitham al-Haddad is a great scholar who holds the position of a Judge in the Sharia Council in Britain. He has studied under great scholars such as Shaykh Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd Allah ibn Baaz, Shaykh Abdullah Ibn Jibreen, the former top Justice of Riyadh and the retired leader of the monarchy’s “Higher Judiciary Council”, Shaykh Abdullah ibn Aqil, Shaikh Muhammad ibn al Uthaymeen (for a brief period) and other senior scholars

Surely Norwegian students deserve something better than this? What do our leading politicians think about all this? Does one have to be a self declared Nazi before any steps are taken? What would happen if a Christian organization decided to bring a key Ku-Klux-Klan lecturer to Norway?

Well, seminars by this man have been canceled at the University of Amsterdam and the London School of Economics. Why can’t Norway follow their examples? Shall naïveté and weakness be allowed to continue under the leadership of Principal Sissel Østberg?