Brave Men Marching

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In Basra, Iraq, on March 16, 2008, Abdel-Qader Ali murdered his 17-year-old daughter Rand Abdel-Qader for falling in love with a British soldier. Rand was a student at Basra University where she was studying English. According to her closest friend she died a virgin. Ali was outraged when he heard his daughter had been talking to a British soldier. He stood on her throat until she stopped breathing. Rand’s mother called on her two sons to prevent the killing. Ali stabbed his daughter repeatedly. The sons instead of trying to restrain their father joined in the killing.

Ali showed no remorse. “If I had realized then what she would become (when she was born),” he said, “I would have killed her the instant her mother delivered her.” He was arrested and was released within hours. The police congratulated him. It was an honor killing—a not uncommon occurrence in Basra.

The 2^nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment of the British Army served in Basra. Honor killings were not part of their agenda. They served nobly and bravely and did their best to protect all segments of the civilian population from violence and abuse. The 2^nd Battalion marched through Luton, UK, the other day. It was a homecoming parade Angry Muslim protestors greeted them with ugly signs and placards. One said: “Anglican Soldiers Butchers of Basra.” Another said: “Cowards, Killers, Extremists” and another “Anglian Soldiers Go To Hell.”

Butchers? Cowards? Extremists? Could they have been mistaken? Had any of the protestors been to Basra? Had any of them ever been to Basra? Not so as one would notice.

Life in today’s Basra is fraught with terror and violence with butchers, killers and extremists often in control of the streets. Christian girls attending Basra University have been ordered by extremists to wear headscarves. The penalty for non-compliance can be a beating or even death. Sunni students attending the same university have been ordered by extremists to grow beards and to behave like Muslim men. None of the extremists were wearing British uniforms.

Women who have failed or refused to wear the hijab have been butchered in the streets of Basra. None of the butchers were English soldiers. The Basra Security Council reported 135 women murdered in Basra in 2007—47 of them honor killings. A jackrabbit would be safer in Elmer Fudd’s backyard than a woman without a headscarf in Basra.

Foremost among the protestors in Luton, was Istaiq Alamgir. Istiaq was born in England. He calls himself Sayful Islam—it means Sword of Islam. He is leader of the Luton branch of al-Muhajiroun. “When I watched those planes go into the Twin Towers, I felt elated,” he said. He felt no such elation as the 2^nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment marched through Luton.

“They (the soldiers) have killed, maimed and raped thousands of innocent people,” he screamed.

They did no such thing. Alamgir, at best, is a bald-faced liar, at worst a hate-filled devil.

“They can’t come here and parade where there is such a Muslim community,” he said. “What do they have to be proud of?”

If they had killed and maimed thousands of Muqtada al-Sadr’s thugs or killed and maimed thousands of al-Qaeda butchers, cowards, killers, and extremists, they would have been doing their duty and would have much to be proud of. It they had scraped the beards from the chins of even a dozen Istiaq Alamgirs they would have contributed more to the advancement of humanity than the paranoid bleatings of thousands of Swords of Islam.

The 2^nd Battalion was sent to Iraq in the spring of 2006 and became a part of Basra City South Battlegroup. In 2007 the unit was incorporated into the 7^th Armored Brigade, descendants of the famous Desert Rats of World War Two. The Battalion operates as light infantry. They are known as the Poachers. The 2^nd spent two six-month tours in Iraq.

General Mohammed was in charge of Iraqi Security in Basra at the time. He praised the British troops. “The arrival of the British in Basra is the best thing that has happened to this HQ,” he said.

The 2^nd Battalion was in Basra fighting the butchers, cowards, killers and extremists; Istiaq Ilamgir was in Luton supporting the butchers, cowards, killers and extremists that had killed Rand Abdel-Qader.

Major Bev Allen served with the 2^nd Battalion in Iraq. “The children are waving to us and the people are pleased to see us,” reported Allen. “All in all, a much more encouraging picture than perhaps a few months ago.”

Anjem Choudary was not to be outdone in the hatred directed toward the returning British troops. “They are terrorists,” he raged, “ and cannot be excused for simply carrying out their duty, which incidentally was also used by Nazi soldiers in Germany to justify their notorious and bloody campaigns in the early 20^th Century.”

This hackneyed prose would sound silly coming from George Galloway or a 5^th grader in a Madrassas school but it is what one gets from Choudary. If Anjem has evidence of any terrorist act committed by the 2^nd Battalion in Basra he should make it known. Were he not such a great coward he would have hurried to Basra to assist Adbel-Qader Ali in cleansing the country of its impurities. He could be bullying Christian girls into wearing headscarves and Sunni Muslims into growing beards instead of muttering his ridiculous charges against British troops and then his friends and associates would have another reason to be proud of him.

Of course, Anjem is only following the orders of Allah—like the Nazis followed Hitler’s.

It was Islam that harbored Nazi war criminals after the Second World War, not England; it was Islam that continues to persecute the Jews and still worships at the shrine of Adolph Hitler, not England. Churchill and Thatcher helped make the world safe for creeps like Choudary and Alamgir, gave them a place where they could practice their hatred unmolested, a place where they need not fear their own brand of justice should be applied to them someday.

If life’s path should lead Choudary to an O.K. Corral he will never show—the Earps will be forced to look under every rock and tear up the every board in the outhouse to find him.

Brave men do not insult other brave men by calling them cowards.