The tape no longer exists, but the accuracy of his transcription made in 2006 is no
longer in dispute and Mr Taher was not required to give evidence.
136.
I bear in mind the two limitations of the evidence in relation to this speech. First, the
transcript comprises a relatively short extract from a much longer speech. Second, the
absence of the tape means that it is not possible to assess inflection and tone of the
words spoken by the Claimant. However, in my view, the import of the Claimant’s
essential message is clear.
Text of the speech
137.
I set out below the text of the extract from the Claimant’s speech that was retained and
transcribed by “The Sunday Times”. In this part of the speech, the Claimant is
discussing the characteristic of “strength in Islam”. He touched upon two specific
topics, the wearing of the hijab and jihad. I highlight in bold those passages which are
particularly significant.6 The Claimant began as follows:
“So the Muslim should be strong as pertaining to his deen
(belief) even though there might be a war upon Islam where
they want the Muslims not maybe a physical war but an
ideological war where they want the Muslims to stop talking
speaking about the deen of Islam and stop having the Aqeeda
or creed of islam. We say no if you compromise on this you are
that weak Muslim. Islam is not your religion because the
religion of Islam requires strong men, strong women strong
individuals because these issues where there are telling us
where there are issues which are not correct the issue of jihad
or the Muslims women wearing Islamic dress, if you look at
these issues you’ll find great wisdom in it.”
138.
On the issue of the hijab, the Claimant said this:
“As men you brothers when You see a women dressed in Hijab,
wearing jilbab covering herself and you see another individual
not covering herself maybe dressed immorally maybe dressed
in a mini skirt, which one do you respect? As a man maybe the
sisters cannot understand but as men, even non Muslims men
by Allah, by Allah a non-Muslim man came to me he said when
I see a Muslim woman wearing hijab I lower my gaze, this is
what he said. So the issue of hijab we say is pride. Not pride in
the sense of being arrogant but we say it with happiness that
this Allah (SAW) has given to the Muslim woman to honour the
Muslim woman.”
139.
The Claimant then turned to the issue of jihad and said as follows:
“Out of respect for the Muslims woman and yes the same with
Jihad. Jihad if a country is attacked like America or Britain
and America decides to defend itself and Britain decides to
defend itself would you say that this is good or bad. You would
say that this is having courage defening [sic] yourself
defending your land defending honour. So when it comes to
6 I use the same bold to highlight significant passages in the Claimant’s subsequent speeches (below).
30