American Freedom Alliance’s ‘Hero of Conscience’ Award:
Acceptance Speech by Councillor Alan Craig

7th June 2009, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, Simi Valley, Los Angeles

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I am overwhelmed and speechless at your support, generosity and hospitality. I am so grateful to you all. I am grateful to Joyce Chernick. I am also grateful to Avi Davis, who has been a supporter for so long, and to the American Freedom Alliance and all that it stands for. And as a Brit, I honour you. As always America shines a light for the rest of the world and I willingly pay tribute to you for that.  

I'm told I have a few minutes, and only a few minutes, to thank you for this Award. And I do thank you for it. I will express more of my gratitude and my thanks to you in a few moments time, but first I think I should say one or two things that I have learnt from our campaign against the mega-mosque. They are lessons that I think are important and I hope they are relevant to my fellow countrymen and maybe to people here in the US too.

We are faced with the rapid growth of Islam in the West. And as it happens this particular large mosque project came and parked its tanks upon our lawn in East London. The group behind the project, Tablighi Jamaat, is ambitious, secretive and huge. It is the largest and most successful Islamic missionary organisation in the world, and its leaders decided they wanted to build this massive mosque at West Ham, just about a mile from my front door. At this point I ought to say not just my front door, but also - on behalf of my wife Sally, my much better half, who is sitting there – our front door.

Right from the start when we realised this mega-mosque was being planned, my colleagues in our small team and I decided we should have two basic principles to control our campaign against the project. And we think they are very important principles.

Firstly, all the way through the campaign we intend to seek and state the truth wherever we find it.

I understand that you here in the United States, like us in Europe and certainly like us in Britain, are constricted and caged by political correctness. However in our campaign we refuse to be constrained by political correctness: we will speak the truth. So I have found it necessary to say some pretty blunt but truthful things about Tablighi Jamaat and about their intentions for this mosque despite the sensitivities of political correctness. I have been quite open about this and I have stated publicly that they’re irresponsible, they're separatist, they're misogynistic and they are also closely associated with terrorist organisations especially in their homeland of Pakistan. And I will keep saying these things until people start to hear the truth about this group which must not be allowed to build this large mosque.

But of course, truth can be uncomfortable for everyone including us on the campaign. And if I insist of finding the truth and speaking the truth, I also have to acknowledge that Tablighi Jamaat’s piety, their personal restraint, their modesty both as a group and as individuals, and some other aspects of their character and teachings, are socially good values. So I insist on balancing that which is intolerable and unacceptable with that which is acceptable. But all the way through the underlying principle is to follow the truth. We must seek the truth.

And the second principle through which we try to work is that of respecting Muslims and wanting to engage with those behind the project. 'Love your neighbour' is a driving principle for us.

We will love our neighbours and we will respect them as human beings and as Muslims.  So we always try to offer the right hand of friendship towards them and attempt to engage with them.

Back in the early days - as you saw in that video clip - when I first found out about the mosque project, I also found I personally knew the Muslim project manager who lives not far from me. I phoned him and I said I wanted to talk with him about the project. But regrettably he declined to discuss it. So through a third party I contacted the elders of Tablighi Jamaat. Again I said, “I'd like to come and talk with you.” But they wouldn't talk with me either. However at all stages of the campaign it's been important to try to engage with our Muslim opponents face-to-face.

There is a personally hostile website called 'Answering Alan Craig', put up by supporters of the mega-mosque. If you want see how bad it is, it's at www.AlanCraig.org. – yes, they’re using my personal name. I looked at this website and I didn't particularly like what it was saying about me.

The website administrator advertises himself as someone called Tahire Mehmood Faruq. I traced this guy and discovered that he lives about half a mile from my home. I thought, “Blow this for the price of bananas, I'm going to go round to see him.” So I did. I went round one evening with a friend and I knocked on his front door. You can imagine the surprise on his face when he saw me! Maybe he thought I was going to do something to him. Anyway I invited him out, and because I'm English of course I invited him out for a cup of tea. He said he’d think about it. But later he accepted my invitation, so one evening we sat in a nearby cafe and had a long discussion about what he stands for, what he believes and the things he is saying about me. It didn't get much further than that and the website is still up. You can see it tonight when you get home.

But it has always been important to me to speak with people face-to-face where possible. I will say what I think but I want to do so to their faces and give them personal respect despite our differences.

I believe these twin principles, of seeking and speaking the truth and of giving respect to people no matter how much we disagree with their ideology, have been key drivers behind our campaign. I believe these principles both strengthen our campaign and will defeat this mosque.

If the truth sets us free, the truth must come out. And when the real hard facts about this Islamic sect and about this mosque come out, I believe that it will be defeated. No doubt it will be a long hard fight and certainly it isn't over yet, although we've had some successes and so far the mosque proponents have been kept on the back-foot.

My hope is that within the next few years we will get the project stopped completely. Our overall objective is to get the 18 acres of land which they own compulsorily purchased by the authorities, so that the mega-mosque will never be built. We want to see this key site freed up for a better development - for community, housing, commercial and retail purposes. That is our objective.

It may take 3 years. It may take 5 years. It may take 7 years. But if we keep single-mindedly moving towards that objective, then I've no doubt that the mosque can be stopped.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much indeed for listening to me. Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for your hospitality. I'm very, very grateful."