The Butler did it
Temporising with terrorism

By Ted Lapkin

For someone who claims to be a devotee of free speech, Muslim leader Amir Butler has a funny way of demonstrating respect for open expression.

In recent months, The Age and Herald Sun have both published opinion pieces by the executive director of the Australian Muslim Public Affairs Committee (AMPAC) that proclaim his dedication to democracy. Yet, Butler’s pledge of allegiance to liberty rings rather hollow in light of his support for a convicted terrorist with self-confessed al-Qaeda links.

The public face of this story began in October 2002, when Amir Butler co-founded a weekly Islamic web magazine entitled A True Word with American Muslim political activist Randall (Ismail) Royer. The narrative reached its climax last April, when Royer pled guilty to terrorist-related firearms offences in a US Federal Court and received a 20-year prison sentence.

It turns out that Ismail Royer was an agent of Lashkar-e-Toiba, an al-Qaeda-affiliated radical Islamic terrorist group that is outlawed by both the US and Australia. Not only did Royer volunteer to undergo military training at a Lashkar-e-Toiba camp in Pakistan, but he later took up arms and fought with that organisation in Kashmir.

While all this took place prior to September 2001, Royer’s reaction to the al-Qaeda attacks on American soil was even more damning than his previous combat record. Rather than sever his terrorist connections, Ismail Royer instead redoubled his efforts on behalf of the al-Qaeda network, recruiting additional jihadists to fight against US forces in Afghanistan.

In essence, when Osama bin Laden declared war on the United States, Ismail Royer was faced with a choice. And, without any hesitation he adopted the cause of Islamic extremism and violent global jihad.

The conviction of his friend and collaborator presented Amir Butler with a choice as well. And, without any hesitation Butler adopted Ismail Royer and his cause.

In the service of that cause Butler has presented a litany of flimsy legalisms, distortions and outright prevarications. Thus, in the 20 July 2003 edition of A True Word, Butler argued that Royer’s stint as a frontline jihadist combatant is irrelevant because it occurred before Lashkar-e-Toiba was banned. Of course, he conveniently neglected to mention that Lashkar is an al-Qaeda affiliate, and that Royer confessed to recruiting fighters to kill American troops after 11 September 2001.

Instead of the die-hard Islamic zealot that Royer acknowledged himself to be in court, Amir Butler portrayed his "friend and co-editor" as a pacific soul. A 26 April 2004 article by "admin" on Butler’s website contends that Royer "consistently argued for peaceful coexistence with the West."

Yet, actions speak louder than words, and Ismail Royer’s warlike deeds belie whatever verbal assurances of non-violence that he may have uttered.

While the imprisonment of Ismail Royer neutralized a radical Islamic conspiracy in the United States, Amir Butler’s attempt to deny the undeniable is cause for concern here in Australia. Despite an abundance of evidence linking Ismail Royer to the global al-Qaeda network, Butler continues to stand by his man in the best Tammy Wynette tradition.

Amir Butler’s website even tried to diminish the significance of Royer’s conviction, claiming that the plea bargain "speaks volumes" about the weakness of the prosecution’s case. Yet, Ismail Royer voluntarily accepted a term of 20 years in prison when he copped that plea. It seems very likely that Royer’s lawyers recommended such a drastic step because they faced a compelling case that would incarcerate Royer far longer.

An impassioned defence might not necessarily justify guilt by association, but Amir Butler’s enthusiastic endorsement of Royer’s actions clearly suggests culpability through ideological affinity.

The world is currently under sustained terrorist assault from Muslim zealots who seek to force a dark medieval theology upon us all. Absolute victory in the conflict to impose those benighted values is the only acceptable outcome to bin Laden and his minions. And that is a completely unacceptable outcome to any self-respecting democracy. Like it or not, this is a war.

By pledging his continued allegiance to a self-confessed terrorist, Amir Butler calls into question where the Australian Muslim Public Affairs Committee stands in this conflict — with democracy, or with al-Qaeda.

But, Amir Butler’s activities are not always so open and above board. Case in point — Butler’s key behind-the-scenes role in one of the most tawdry displays of "gotcha" journalism in recent Australian media history.

In his book The Electronic Whorehou$e, journalist Paul Sheehan wrote about the king hit against newspaper columnist Janet Albrechtsen that was conducted by ABC television’s Media Watch program. The chapter entitled "Anatomy of a Smear" described how Amir Butler provided grist for the mill of Media Watch host David Marr as the Butler/Marr tag team inflated a minor transgression by Albrechtsen into what Media Watch described as a "capital offence."

The Media Watch attack on Albrechtsen constituted a declaration of open season on the conservative columnist, with a feral chorus of newspaper opinion writers joining David Marr in demanding that Albrechtsen be fired.

Yet, Marr neglected to mention on air that Amir Butler was the primary source of his material on Albrechtsen. The only acknowledgement of the Marr-Butler link was consigned to the Media Watch website, the journalistic equivalent of the fine print on an insurance contract.

It was a collaborative relationship that served both partners well. Marr garnered plaudits from the left for cutting a conservative voice down to size, while Butler employed the ABC as a surrogate to attempt to silence a woman he detested as a "plagiarising, hate-mongering liar."

Thus, Amir Butler is someone who stoops extremely low to attack his enemies and defend his friends. But, shabby tactics aside, what is really troubling is that, despite his rhetoric of democracy and free-speech, his friends are the enemies of liberty, democracy and freedom.