The GPU festival – my weekend with the devil

Tweeted this morning by Brian of London. David Collier attended the Global Peace and Unity Festival at the Excel exhibition centre in East London this weekend 

The first GPU festival in eleven years was just held at the Excel London exhibition and convention centre. Organised by the Islam Channel, it is a reboot of the near-annual festival that was held six times between 2005 and 2013 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). Historically this festival has given a platform to a range of extremist speakers – and this year certainly did not let that tradition down.

Although it bills itself as the ‘largest multicultural event in Europe’, there is only one real culture on show, and as 50,000+ Muslims entered its halls, the Excel London was turned into a radicalisation chamber for two whole days.

The way this works is quite clever. On the surface, this is a cultural festival, set up to entertain the whole family. As you walk around the large exhibition hall, there are activities for everyone (similar to the way the PalExpo operated in 2017). This year they even set up a fun fair for young children, with numerous fairground rides keeping them happy. There is ample place for eating – and a few places selling tasty halal meals. Then there are endless stalls – offering everything from Halal travel, to help with your religious wedding arrangements.

So if you attack the festival – this mask of decency will be used to attack you in return. After all, if you have a problem with Halal food and Muslim children having fun – then surely you must be an anti-Muslim bigot.

But it isn’t all set out to entertain. Underneath it all there is an extremist drumbeat. In fact – because of the number of Muslims who arrive specifically to enjoy a family day out – the cultural side of the ‘festival’ could be considered akin to a well designed trap.

One of the most visible parts of the exhibition hall, is the amount of pro-Palestinian items on sale . . . ‘Palestine’ is a real money maker.

Given that it is mostly fake news that is behind the hysteria driving the sales of these items – some people in that hall were making a real profit off the back of lies, an easily duped clientele, and the misery of people who are actually suffering in wartime.

Other stalls of this type were more problematic – there was one for the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM). This is a new Marxist driven student group in the UK, that has been imported from America. . . There is no way this type of group should be allowed to promote itself inside the Excel London.

Yet even more troubling stuff was occurring away from the exhibition hall.

The Excel London is a big venue – and it took a while to walk from the exhibition hall to the conference centre where the speeches were taking place. The auditorium is massive, and when I arrived early, it looked empty – but as the day progressed the room became far busier.

On the stage there were dozens of speakers spread over the two days – most given about ten to fifteen minutes each. Because of other things I needed to see I didn’t sit through them all, but chose which ones I wanted to hear.

One of the first up was Mahathir Mohamad – the former PM of Malaysia. A man known for making disgusting antisemitic remarks. His inclusion gave me an indication of what to expect, so I sat back and prepared myself for what was to follow.

Ilan Pappe told a fictional tale of history (as he often does). He spoke of a time before the colonial era – where Muslims, Jews and Christians lived in peace and equality in the Middle East. This isn’t history – it is fiction. How this man is ever permitted to lecture in history is beyond me. . . Pappe paints this ‘goal’ (pre-colonial Middle East) – as what we need to strive for today. Which basically means he is calling for Islamist supremacy – and a return to a time when the Jewish and Christian populations had to kneel before their Muslim masters.

Ben Jamal – head of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign did not miss the opportunity to spread hate and lies. Ben Jamal is an accomplished speaker, he has a powerful voice and he easily works up the crowd. Yet as he spoke to the hall, almost everything that came out of his mouth was a lie. It was a tale of a demonic state full of evil people singing songs about burning Palestinians alive. Then (importantly because it was a recurring message on the stage) he said this:

“Israel has no right to defend itself… it is the Palestinian people that have a right to resist – including, as enshrined within international law, through armed resistance“.

There was no qualification to Jamal’s statement – or from any of the other speakers who pushed the same message. It is left to the audience to decide whether this support for terrorism includes the atrocities of Oct 7 or not.

Fatima Barkatulla had this to say:

 “I have six things that I want each and every one of us – Muslims of Britain – to do, because we are the future of Britain. We  are officially the future of Britain, because, we are the fastest growing religious group in Britain. We are the ones who have the biggest and strongest families….and also we are sharing the message of Islam”

Fatima Barkatulla – the face of the future of Britain – was one of those who on the 8th October 2023 posted that the Palestinian resistance is ‘100% legitimate’.

Norman Finkelstein actually said on the stage that condemning the Hamas atrocities of October 7 was ‘giving more ground than ought to be given’.

As a sign of even darker times ahead, there were various references by speakers painting themselves as the enemy within – descriptions of what it is like for them living in the ‘belly of the beast’ (either refering to the UK or US) – and how the Ummah needs to take action against the global north which (because of Zionist dependence) is unable to stop the ‘worst of mankind’ (unspoken – but they mean Zionist Jews). It is not difficult to read between these lines.

Are the counter-terrorist police really not paying attention to any of this?

Which brings us to the seminars

I headed to the third floor where Latifa Abouchakra was due to speak on a panel. Latifa Abouchakra is a presenter at the Iranian PRESS TV channel. Some may recognise her name because on the 7 October she published an Instagram post in total awe of the Hamas attack. And they call this a peace conference?

Abouchakra’s input was predictable. She suggested that the October 7 atrocity was a ‘biblical battle of good (Hamas) vs evil (the innocent Israeli victims). Even suggesting the attack had restored pride in the Ummah:

I sat and heard this open admiration for atrocities committed by a proscribed terrorist group at the Excel – one of London’s premier venues – and nobody bats an eye. At this point it really is difficult to see how London can offer a safe future to British Jews.

Also being handed around at the Excel London was printed material to support the ‘pro-terrorist’ message. A pocket-sized ‘reclaim the dictionary’ booklet. It was only large enough for three examples. But sure enough people were instructed that instead of ‘terrorism’ – they should use the word ‘resistance’:

The pro-terrorist message was everywhere. And the more you listen to the careful statements – and coded messages – the more you realise how widespread these sentiments are in this community. Nobody questions the pro-terrorist drumbeat.

And this is not hidden away in some local hall in Bradford or Dewsbury. It is taking place at the Excel London. If the UK cannot see the problem – if even London’s greatest venues are willing to play host to all this – there really is not much left to discuss.