Before I detail my experiences of the MPACUK open day, I’d like to describe why I considered joining MPAC in the first place... My awareness of MPAC is not a recent thing; it’s not like I wanted to be a part of MPAC immediately after discovering the organisation. On the contrary, I’d been receiving their emails for a few years, and although I found some of their articles interesting, I actually considered MPAC a little on the paranoid side – Zionist this, conspiracy that – “let’s not exaggerate,” I once thought! So what changed?

Well, primarily, it was the publication of the Danish cartoons. This offensive act motivated me to attend a protest outside the Danish Embassy on a cold Saturday afternoon back in February. The protest was peaceful and well organised. It lasted a couple of hours, and when it finished everybody left the area without incident.

When I got home, I turned on the TV to see if there was any news coverage, and all I saw was coverage of the previous day’s protests which had some people carrying offensive placards and Omar Khayam dressed as a suicide bomber, (which I don’t condone in the slightest). There wasn’t a single mention of the peaceful protest that had occurred only a few hours earlier.

A week later, the anti-Islamophobia rally was held in Trafalgar Square and Tony Blair himself issued a statement that if today’s rally was like anything last Friday’s protest, then there would be immediate arrests. By now, it was really frustrating me that nobody was mentioning the peaceful Saturday protest, not even a small side comment to put things in perspective! It felt like the media had an agenda to promote a disparaging view of Islam.

The speeches I heard at the rally, not only confirmed this thought, they opened my eyes to just how prevalent the spread of Islamophobia is now becoming! It needs to stop, and if I’m not part of the solution then I’m part of the problem. So when I saw the MPACUK open day invitation, I felt I should attend – at the very least, to find out just what their aims and objectives are.

The open day was held at Platform 1 Learning Centre in Islington. I was the first member of the public to arrive, so seeing as we had some time, a member of MPACUK, who was manning the reception desk talked me through the history and achievements of the organisation, such as the campaigns that helped pro-Palestinian MP Sarah Teather win the by-election in Brent East, and the removal of Robert Kilroy Silk from the BBC to name but a few. Mashallah, it was a pleasant surprise to hear that MPACUK had won some very significant victories in its relativity short existence.

Soon, others started to arrive, so we went into a classroom to watch the MPACUK presentation. This was presented by the CEO and a few other members of the team and gave an overview of what MPACUK is all about. They spoke about the four main principles of MPACUK: Media Jihad, Political Jihad, Accountability and Anti-Zionism, and also the function of the different departments that MPACUK consists of.

I have to say that the presentation opened my eyes even further to the fact that if we could only mobilise Britain’s 2 million Muslims, then neither Governments nor the media could oppress or ignore us, and we could make a real difference, not just in Britain but on a global scale! However, I didn’t have much time to daydream about the possibilities because at that point we broke for Zohr prayer.

After prayers, a delicious lunch was served, and I discovered that there was going to be talks from two guest speakers, which was yet another pleasant surprise, as I had assumed that the open day was going to simply consist of the presentation.

The first speaker was Alan Hart, a correspondent for ITN and BBC’s Panorama programme, who gave a talk about Zionism, and how the fundamentals that the entire Zionist ideology is based on is false, and thereby if we can expose their fundamentals as being false, then their entire argument crumbles.

The second speaker was David Shayler, the ex-MI5 whistle-blower. He told us about the sort of attacks and infiltration techniques MPACUK could expect, now that it had grown to the point that it was getting the attention of Zionist lobbies.

It was hearing Hart and Shayler’s talks that convinced me to join MPACUK. They made me realise that issues that I’d previously dismissed as being overly-paranoid were actual issues that needed to be dealt with.

Finally, just before the open day came to a close, I got to meet a few more members of the team. Mashallah, everybody was very friendly and enthusiastic. They answered my last few remaining concerns and gave slightly more detailed descriptions on the work of the different departments.

All in all, it was an enjoyable and very informative day, and I know I’ve made the right decision in joining.

To join MPACUK, or to fund MPACUK, or for further information,
contact: info@mpacuk.org or call: 0870 760 5594

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