The full video is available here: TVNZ Ondemand
Recently TVNZ’s Sunday program screened an article on Wiremu Curtis a former Black Power member, also known as ‘Haroon’. Haroon who insisted he was going to the Middle East to get an ‘education’ was allegedly stopped at the airport by SIS agents, and according to Haroon allegedly shown papers that show he had in what he describes in his own words “weapons of mass destructions.”
Now I’m going to be honest, I didn’t actually watch the program when it screened at the time, but after having my attention drawn to it from other sources prompted me to watch it and analyse it a little closer. Immediately things struck me as a bit odd, such as his comment that the SIS showed him papers proving he had ”weapons of mass destructions.” It is all well and good asserting these types of comments in the public domain, as the SIS will never publicly comment on operational matters.
“But I’m not saying everyone should go over there and fight, but is it really wrong to go over there and fight for them? Is it actually wrong, but instead people would rather use soldiers to go over and fight and be used for other things. In those sort of countries you can see what’s happening. But still people deny it and say no, it’s not right to fight for them, you’re a terrorist if you’re going to go and fight for them. It’s wrong, I reckon it’s wrong, but I myself like I said I wouldn’t fight.
This is where he makes a significant mistake in his statement. “But I’m not saying everyone should go over there and fight, but is it really wrong to go over there and fight for them?” then later says ”It’s wrong, I reckon it’s wrong”.
He can’t quite seem to make him mind up where his stance is. I am no expert on body language or human behaviour, but the way he reacts with his eyes and his awkward movements when John Hudson asked him if he was a terrorist to me seems very telling that perhaps there is something he is not being up front and honest about.
Hudson went on to narrate that Haroon denies being radicalized by Jihadist propaganda, then went on to ask him:
Hudson: What about ISIS fight in Syria and Iraq? If you could, would you go and fight with them?
Haroon: No not for them, not at all. Not for these people, they’re extreme in what they do and kill people like their own, I would never go and fight with someone like that.
“No, not for them, not at all. Not for these people, they’re extreme in what they do and kill people like their own, I would never go and fight with someone like that. So who would he fight for? What did he mean by that, was it just a poor choice of words or is there someone else he would actually fight for just not ISIS? Or maybe we could put it down to nervousness due to the bright lights and cameras.
But this is where a small problem lies.
Haroon claims to be a man of peace, that he doesn’t support ISIS in anyway, yet he is seen wearing ISIS merchandise which ISIS have been selling themselves and through other sources online such as websites in Indonesia among others. This is not a general ‘I just like wearing this stuff because it’s arabic looking’, this is specifically ISIS merchandise. The flags are paraded as ISIS tears its way through Iraq, Syria and Libya, and also shown at mass executions of Christians, homosexuals, Iraqi army soldiers, and anyone they deem expendable to their cause.
Recently Haroon was spotted at the Auckland protest for Palestine, proudly sporting his ISIS top while holding a placard calling Israel terrorists. Is this the behaviour of a man of peace who denounces the actions of a terrorist organisation whom even Al Qaeda have disowned because they are so extreme?
Via the tipline: As seen at the Auckland protest
As you see here, the same emblem of ISIS that Haroon is wearing being held up at an execution. This is one of the tamer pictures I could find, most are too graphic to post but for the sake of evidence:
Or perhaps he doesn’t support the wider ISIS doctrine and maybe just particular parts of it relative to current events going on in the world somewhere:
?The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) has told the Palestinian people that it is “only a matter of time” before they reach Palestine to join the fight against “barbaric Jews”.
The Islamic militant group, who last month announced a “Caliphate” straddling the Iraqi-Syrian border and renamed themselves the Islamic State, released the provocative statement on an Isis-affiliated Twitter account.
“It is only matter of time and patience before it [Islamic State] reaches Palestine to fight the barbaric Jews and kill those of them hiding behind the gharqad trees – the trees of the Jews,” the statement read.
The group said it would do “everything within its means” to continue the fight against any obstacle on the way to “Palestine”, alluding to the Middle Eastern territory before the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.
“As for the massacres taking place in Gaza against the Muslim men, women and children, then the Islamic State will do everything within its means to continue striking down every apostate who stands as an obstacle on its paths towards Palestine,” the group said.
The group and its “Caliph”, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, have faced criticism from some quarters for not coming to the aid of Palestinian civilians being killed in the Israeli Defense Forces’ Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
The comments issued was not to be taken lightly as the group do not offer “empty” words like other Arab nations who speak and do not act, the statement said.
“It is not the manner of the Islamic State to throw empty, dry and hypocritical words of condemnation and condolences like the Arab tawaghit do in the UN and Arab League.”
The group stormed across Iraq, capturing key Sunni cities such as Mosul and forcing more than a million people to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.
The UN claims 225,178 Palestinians are now taking refuge in 86 shelters while the Gaza health ministry said 1,364 Palestinians have been killed, 315 of those children.
The Israeli military has confirmed the deaths of 56 soldiers while two Israeli civilians and one Thai national have also been killed in the conflict.
Given he was wearing it at the protest one could imply he was making some kind of anti Semitic gesture that “we’re coming for you” or something along those lines. It is not ideal to be making assumptions like this, but the question of his motive needs to be asked.
So what exactly IS his stance. He claims not to be supportive of terrorism or radical Islam, yet glorifies it at the same time by parading in clothing sporting the logo of a terrorist organisation that is sweeping through Syria, Iraq and Libya indiscriminately murdering civilians for being Christians, homosexuals, intellectually handicapped, Iraqi soldiers, or even driving the wrong car.
For someone that is trying to convince us he doesn’t support terrorism, he’s not doing a very good job. If John Hudson was paying better attention he would have raised the subject of his clothing, and asked some harder questions instead of cuddling him and asking him questions he already knows how he will answer, ?he is a journalist after all. Maybe he’d be better off helping Russell Brown with his blogging.
The Security Intelligence Service didn’t quite nail the job properly here. They should have let him go THEN cancelled his passport.
Is Wiremu Curtis a terrorist, fanatical dreamer or a genuine man of peace?
