{{short description|British Muslim activist}} '''Azad Ali''' is a British Muslim activist, civil servant for the HM Treasury, and a spokesman for the Islamic Forum of Europe. He variously served as the founding chair of the Muslim Safety Forum, as Vice-Chair of Unite Against Fascism (UAF), and as the director of engagement at Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11515630/Muslim-group-with-links-to-extremists-boasts-of-influencing-election.html|title=Muslim group with links to extremists boasts of influencing election|date=4 April 2015|work=Telegraph.co.uk|accessdate=14 July 2015}}</ref>
==Islamic Forum of Europe== Ali was community affairs co-ordinator for the Islamic Forum of Europe, an offshoot of the Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami. According to fascism and anti-fascism specialist Nigel Copsey of Teesside University, this brought Unite Against Fascism into disrepute as a group unconcerned with Islamic extremism.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Copsey|first1=Nigel|title=Anti-Fascism in Britain|publisher=Routledge|page=216|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gxgxDQAAQBAJ&dq=azad+ali+nigel+copsey&pg=PT359|accessdate=2 March 2018|isbn=9781317397618|date=2016-10-04}}</ref>
==Muslim Safety Forum== Ali was founding-chairman of the Muslim Safety Forum from 2006.<ref name=telegraph1/> While in that post, he became a "key member" of the Metropolitan Police's 'Communities Together Strategic Group', chaired by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Rose Fitzpatrick, which met fortnightly to "oversee and review community reassurance and engagement measures" involving the Muslim community. Ali was also a member of the Kratos Review Group, to examine the Met's response to suicide bombings.<ref name=telegraphIB>{{cite news|last=Gilligan|first=Andrew|title=Sir Ian Blair's deal with Islamic radical|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/7339604/Sir-Ian-Blairs-deal-with-Islamic-radical.html|accessdate=2 November 2013|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=1 March 2010}}</ref>
Ali left the post of chairman in 2008, then resigned entirely from MSF in 2009 after publicity over his comments. In July 2010, he was reinstated as MSF's chairman.<ref name=telegraph1>{{cite news|last=Gilligan|first=Andrew|title=Police Muslim forum headed by Islamic extremist|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/andrew-gilligan/7908273/Police-Muslim-forum-headed-by-Islamic-extremist.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100728072120/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/andrew-gilligan/7908273/Police-Muslim-forum-headed-by-Islamic-extremist.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=28 July 2010|accessdate=2 November 2013|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=24 July 2010}}</ref>
==Controversial views== According to Charles Moore, former editor of ''The Daily Telegraph'', in 2008 Ali is a "leading Muslim networker" in Britain who described Al-Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki in 2008 as, "one of my favourite speakers...," and "blogged in favour of a man who argued that it was a duty under jihad to kill British and American troops in Iraq."<ref name="MooreSuspicious">{{cite news|last1=Moore|first1=Charles|title=You cannot stop the threat if you are unable to profile it: The most effective way of preventing attacks is to target the most suspicious|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|date=30 January 2010|id={{ProQuest|321743038}}}}</ref> Ali "dissociated himself from al Awlaki" in the wake of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting.<ref name="MooreSuspicious"/> Ali has denied that the 2008 Mumbai attacks,<ref>{{cite web|title=UK civil servant says 26/11 not terror attack|url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/UK-civil-servant-says-26-11-not-terror-attack/536019/|publisher=The Indian Express}}</ref> and the 2017 Westminster attack were terrorism.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Ramzan|first1=Iram|title=MPs ditch meeting with Muslim group Mend over Islamist claims|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/mps-ditch-meeting-with-muslim-group-mend-over-islamist-claims-rgxqn0s05|access-date=2 March 2018|work=The Times|date=29 October 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Extremist leads Muslim lobby group|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/extremist-leads-muslim-lobby-group-7q2hg30zc|access-date=2 March 2018|work=The Times|date=10 April 2017}}</ref>
In 2009, Ali was suspended as a civil servant in the Treasury after he praised Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, Osama bin Laden's key mentor, and wrote approvingly on his blog of Azzam's son saying that as a Muslim he is religiously obliged to kill British soldiers in Iraq.<ref name=telegraphIB/> In the blog he also criticised the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband after the minister had condemned the Palestinian Muslim militant organisation Hamas for encouraging attacks on Israeli civilians.<ref name=Telegraph>{{cite news|last=Gardham|first=Duncan|title=Muslim who justified killing British troops back at Treasury|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5810703/Muslim-who-justified-killing-British-troops-back-at-Treasury.html|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=12 July 2009}}</ref> The exposé was by ''The Mail on Sunday'', whom Ali unsuccessfully sued in 2010.<ref name=telegraphIB/><ref name="pg1">{{cite news|last=Luft |first=Oliver |date=2010-01-28 |title='Kill British' blog man fails in MoS libel bid |url=http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/44965 |newspaper=Press Gazette |accessdate=2015-02-21 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221163746/http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/44965 |archivedate=2015-02-21 }}</ref>
When a documentary on the Islamic Forum of Europe was made by the Channel 4 programme ''Dispatches'' in 2010, an undercover reporter filmed Ali saying "Democracy, if it means at the expense of not implementing the sharia, of course no one agrees with that."<ref name=telegraph1/><ref name=Guardian>{{cite news|last=Gilligan|first=Andrew|title=IFE: not harmless democrats|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/mar/04/islamic-forum-europe-dispatches-gilligan|newspaper=The Guardian|date=4 March 2010}}</ref> Ali later attacked the undercover reporter on the IFE's official radio station, saying: "We've got a picture of you and a lot more than you thought we had. We've tracked you down to different places. And if people are gonna turn what I've just said into a threat, that's their fault, innit?"<ref name=telegraph1/> Andrew Gilligan, who produced the documentary, has labelled Ali as an "Islamic fascist".<ref>{{cite news|last=Gilligan|first=Andrew|title=Ken Livingstone's anti-fascist group appoints fascist as vice-chair|url=http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100140248/ken-livingstones-anti-fascist-group-appoints-fascist-as-vice-chair/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302235119/http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100140248/ken-livingstones-anti-fascist-group-appoints-fascist-as-vice-chair/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 March 2012|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=29 February 2012}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== *[https://www.twitter.com/azadaliCCM Official Twitter account]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ali, Azad}} Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:British Muslim activists Category:British Islamists