Recently Asghar Bukhari of MPACUK posted online that he had lost a shoe from him home. The twist was that he thought it was some sort of intimidation campaign by zionists who wanted to show that they could get to him,
The twittersphere exploded with ridicule from The Quilliam Foundation's Majid Nawaz who started a twitter hashtag "#MossadStoleMyShoe" to other zionists who found it easy to capitalise on this conspiracy theory.
Asghar Bukhari then followed this all up with his response where he stuck to his guns, stated that other activists have also suffered such things and even a former US senator who was pro Palestine documented such behaviour.
Naturally this has just increased the ridicule, exposing a level of paranoia that seems unreal.
Afterall why would some zionist organisation break into someone's house and stead a show and a pair of slippers in order to intimidate?
Besides, in a house with children (I spotted a toddler in another of his video blogs), who knows where the child would decide is the best place to put a shoe. Washing machine would be a good guess.
So case closed? Not entirely.
In all of the ridicule, the two main issues are the claim of being targeted by zionists and that the show was stolen as a form of intimidation.
I would suggest that there can be another possibility other than something innocuous.
We do have a large intelligence aparatus in the UK. It's job is to keep a tab on many groups and individuals, especially anyone who may hold some sort of influence.
There have been other reports of people being followed, monitored, having their homes broken into etc. Most of these people are not campaigning against the oppression of Palestinians.
As an example, those individuals working in the field of information security have long reported various methods that have been used against them. A watch of the two videos in this forum topic is enlightening.
Removing a shoe or moving items about would not be the end game in such a scenario. The main aim would be to install or remove surveillance equipment. Any movement would either be accidental or a "signature" of someone too full of themselves.
Ofcourse, the fact that the current technology is totally and utterly compromised when it comes to security (watch the videos in the above link) makes this less likely.
If your computer/laptop has a camera, congrats, you can be seen even when you don't want to be. If you have a phone, or a mic on your computer, you can also be heard. Even if you don't, a speaker can be used as a low quality microphone.
Security services have in the past caught and convicted people who used unsent emails to communicate and even people who simply typed messages into Word and then deleted them when the person sitting next to them had read them.
With such level of control over our technology, why would anyone need to break in?
If the security services wanted to surveil me, breaking into my house to install and remove apparatus would be harder than simply monitoring any connections that exist and I think right now in my room I have 3 cameras and three microphones (any surveiling organisation can now calculate a percentage scorercard!). Who needs more?
Another possibility is insanity. Maybe like David Shaylor.
A remaining question is how should we respond?
Asghar Bukhari in his video blog attacked the Musli leadership for their silence and maybe ridicule of him.
Currently the Muslim world is in chaos. From Libya to Egypt to Syria, Iraq and Burma, countless Muslims and being killed daily, many more suffering. Without proof of anything untoward, the Muslim community, while remaining vigilant, must focus on the bigger fish to fry.
