David Myatt, Usenet and Media Allegations:
Part of The Other Side of the Story
In the interests of fairness, and in line with my objective of providing as much relevant material about Myatt as possible, I provide here various replies, from various sources, by Myatt, to some of the many allegations made against him.
I do this in order to give readers a balanced overview of Myatt, thus enabling them to draw their own conclusions.
Usenet:
Allegations have been made, by Journalists and others, that Myatt, on Usenet, present himself as an authority on Islam, and used various aliases in order to hide his real identity (1). I provide here extracts from various Usenet postings, by Myatt and others. These postings do seem to confirm Myatt's retort that such journalistic allegations - which he calls "dishonourable character assassination by dishonourable individuals" - are incorrect. But each reader must make their own assessment.
1) On the matter of using different e-mail accounts to post to Usenet:
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"My previous posting addresses - before this one - were all shutdown by Hotmail. Hence the changes (nothing dubious). Abdul Aziz"
Message-ID: <f7c320c4.0302182001.3f712a6a@posting.google.com>
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: New Message from Sheikh Usama Bin Muhammad Bin Ladin (hafidhahullah)------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I shall henceforth [be] using this e-mail address instead of the aaziz@hotmail.com address which has now been closed down by the US authorities.
Message-ID: <a0gnfc$o96$1@samba.rahul.net>
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Masquerading as an Islamic scholar:
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"I have read many of Abdul Aziz's articles and he never claims to be "or masquerading as an Islamic scholar". He always refers to Muslim scholars mainly from the Arabian Penisula and the middle east..."
Poster: saifu90210@yahoo.com (saifu)
Message-ID: <ef863243.0308241938.2f7be1c9@posting.google.com>
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Martyrdom Operations Are Lawful------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> It is you who chose to come to these newsgroups and represent yourself as a scholar,
I have not done this. I have never claimed to be such. All I have tried to do, InshaAllah, is express a certain viewpoint, and counter - as best as I could given my limited understanding - the arguments of those who opposed that viewpoint...
> you may continue posting your rulings without further impediment. Those who now choose to be guided by you - that is their own affair.
I give no *rulings*, for I am not qualified to do so. All I have done - to repeat myself yet again - is try to present one side of what is a very important argument. My Allah (SWT) forgive me for my mistakes and errors.
Message-ID: <ae6tpi$2df$1@samba.rahul.net>
From: al_haqq@hotmail.com (Al-Haqq)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Is this law OK in Islam?------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The way you escalated this thread into a campaign agaisnt AbdulAziz is also revealing. It started based on your objection to his position, "Martyrdom Operations Are Lawful". Note that his position is widely supported by the majority of Muslims - Just visit the Arabic websites, and chat rooms...
From: saifu90210@yahoo.com (saifu)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Martyrdom Operations Are Lawful
Message-ID: <ef863243.0309110849.2c14dc24@posting.google.com>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More Allegations:
In addition, another more recent journalistic article (from the same newspaper as the one quoted) contains other unsubstantiated allegations against Myatt, specifically relating to his alleged involvement with Satanism. As I have indicated elsewhere (2). none of these journalists have ever provided any hard, or even circumstantial, evidence to substantiate the allegations they make about Myatt in regard to his alleged involvement with Satanism.
Myatt's reply to one of the accusations made in this recent article is as follows:
"In your article you made mention of involvement with Satanism - malicious allegations which has been repeatedly made against me for many decades without the slightest proof ever being offered, apart from referring to a hackneyed, now discredited "interview" I allegedly gave some decades ago, which "interview" was mostly fiction invented by the journalist in question in order to make a good story and sell more newspapers...
As for me praying in the way you scurrilously mention in your article - I have only ever in my life prayed to God: prior to my conversion to Islam, as a Christian (and more especially when I was a Christian monk) and, more recently in the last six years, to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala..." (A Reply from Abdul Aziz, dated 15 Jumad Al-Thaani 1425)
Julie Wright
Oxford
October 2004 AD
(1). See, for example, http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/page.cfm?objectid=12645580&method=full