Islamists infiltrating the social democratic party?

I have already mentioned, that the social democrats´ candiate for the spot as mayor of our capital, Copenhagen, has been accused of justifying terrorism. Now it transpires that another candidate - Pakistani-descented Sikandar Malik Siddique (seen right) - may be a member of the radical islamist organization Hizb-ut-Tahrir. The organisation "The Freedom of Printing Society"´s online publication Sappho reports (my translation and responsibility for mistakes):

Today Sappho can reveal, that a vote for Siddique in all likelyhood also is a vote for the radical moslem organisation Hizb-ut-Tahrir, that advocates the establishement of a caliphate run along 1400-year-old principles, where there is neither freedom of speech, democracy, freedom of the courts nor rights for women and non-believers.

So far, Hizb ut-Tahrir has always claimed, that these conditions would not be introduced in denmark, but that they exclusively had far-off Oriental regions in mind. Danes thus had no reason to be nervous about the organisations agitation and big influence on especially the moslem youths in Nørrebro in Copenhagen.

Something indicates, that Hizb ut-Tahrir now also is seeking direct influence on Danish politics - and that Sikandar Malik Siddique has been chosen as the spearhead of these aspirations.

Sappho learns from multiple sources with an intimate knowledge of the extremist scene in Nørrebro, that the 19-year-old social democrat politician of Pakistani descent has been spotted at two Hizb ut-Tahrir events. In question is the mass meeting of the movement in the Nørrebro Hall on October 24th, 2001, where about 1000 excited followers turned down any thought of integration into Danish society. At the time, he was accompanied by his brother Gohar.

Sources who have known Sikandar Malik Siddique for years, have also observed him as taking part in Hizb ut-Tahrirs mass demonsration on April 16th, 2004, from Nørrebro Station to St. Hans Square.

During the march, extremist slogans agains democracy, the USA and Israel were chanted, and on St. Hans Square Hizb ut-Tahrirs spokesman Fadi Abdullatif and the Danish convert Musa Kronholt whipped up the crowd with threats of "great suffering" for Danish companies that cooperated with the Americans. ..

Siddique says, that he has been a member of DSU (Danish Social Democrat Youth - Henrik) for about a year and a half.

Asked about his association with Hizb ut-Tahrir, he says that it is irrelevant, since he is running as a local politician in Nørrebro.

Liberal candidate for the post of mayor of Copenhagen picked it up and brought it into the press. Problem was, that all sources were anonymous, and with Siddique having denied ever being a member of HuT, the case was dying due to lack of evidece. At least until the blogosphere came to the rescue. As the Danish blog Tiraden could reveal already 3 months ago, Siddique has also dabbled in denying the involvement of al Qaeda in 911. In a posting on the discussion forum of the social democratic youth organisation, he amongst others said:

The 911 catastrophe has not just ransformed our everyday lives, our way to act, but also the entire world. No matter who is responsible for this horrendous and un-human act, it has done something horrendous. The American government immediately blamed al qaeda, but to this day has not produced concrete evidence to that end.

Enough bombs have been thrown, and enough blood has been shed. We can conclude that war, force is not the solution to the problem (terror - Henrik). To make our everyday lives more secure and harmoniv, we have o get to the bottom of the root causes of terror. We are going nowhere with partial solutions. We have to get to the root causes of the problem. How can you expect of a father, who has seen his son tortured and then murdered, that he doesnt take the law into his own hands if he cant have justice.

The posting had at the time already been online for 9 months without drawing any reaction from the organisation. When Tiraden blogged it, a reply was posted, asking the social democratic youth, whether that was the kind of statements they wanted to associate with. Tiraden didnt get any reply. Instead, the organisation deleted not just the posting, but the entire discussion forum.

Thanks to blogger Thomas Lønbæk, a copy was found in archive.com, and through to the attention of the press. Finally, a reaction was forthcoming from the social democrats:

"Osama bin Laden has himself taken responsibility for the attacks, so I think he (Siddique - Henrik) should be enormously cautious about how he expresses himself. Why, the second part is even indirectly justifying terrorism," says Klaus Hansen (Social democrat), head of the social democratic group of councilmen in Copenhagen.

Sikandar Malik Siddiques own nomination district, Blågård district in Copenhagen, distances itself from him:

"Him trying to understand 911 alone sounds totally insane. Had we known about the posting, we probably never would have nominated him," says chairman Hanne Dahlerup.

Infortunately, that is where things stand for the moment.

Henrik