Anne Marie Waters

Anne Marie Waters

Anne Marie Walters is the founder and spokesperson of Sharia Watch UK, was briefly a UK Independence Party (UKIP) parliamentary candidate and remained a member as of January 2015.

History

Water previously worked for One Law For All which has since issued a statement condemning her.

She was formerly a Labour Party member and in summer 2013 was nearly selected as a parliamentary candidate. After failing to be selected as a Labour candidate she joined UKIP.

In April 2014 she launched the organistion Sharia Watch UK and in May 2014 announced that she would stand as UKIP's candidate for Basildon and Billericay.

Activities

UKIP candidacy

Following the announcement that Waters would stand for election with UKIP, she held a public meeting in the constituency on 22 October as 'UKIP Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Basildon and Billericay'. But on 7 January 2015, it was reported that UKIP had announced George Konstantinidis as the party's candidate in that constituency.

Waters ceased to be UKIP's Basildon and Billeracy candidate at least a month before this, however, because on 9 December 2014 it was reported that she had put herself forward for selection as UKIP candidate in South Basildon and East Thurrock following the deselection of Kerry Smith.. She appears to have lost out as on 14 January 2015 it was reported that UKIP had announced Ian Luder as its chosen candidate to replace Smith.

However, after Spinwatch reported that Waters appeared to have been 'de-selected', she published a statement on the Sharia Watch UK website in which she denied that this was the case. However, she did not give any alternative explanation for the fact that she had ceased to be a candidate in Basildon and Billericay nor name another constituency for which she was a candidate. As of 28 January 2015, her name did not appear on any official UKIP website as a candidate. The party's press office said no comprehensive list of its candidates was available and declined to confirm the status of specific individuals.

Sharia Watch UK

Waters registered the domain name for Sharia Watch UK in April 2014, the same month its launch event took place in the House of Lords, hosted by Baroness Cox, a peer who has previously invited far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders to show his anti-Islam film Fitna in the Lords. Charlie Klendjian of the Lawyers Secular Society also spoke.

Counterjihad connections

Ex-EDL donor and strategist Alan Ayling watching Anne Marie Waters talk at Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park, October 2014

Lars Hedegaard

In June 2014, Waters shared a platform in Copenhagen with Lars Hedegaard, the man behind the anti-Islam organisation the International Free Press Society. A video of the event- the launch of a Swedish edition of Hedegaard’s book Muhammad’s Girls: Violence, Murder and Rape in the House of Islam - shows her sitting next to the Dane, who was convicted of hate speech in 2011 after stating that ‘Muslims rape their children’, though he successfully appealed this conviction, on ‘free speech’ grounds, the following year. Chairing the event was Ingrid Carlqvist, a key member of the Swedish counterjihad network. Also on the panel was psychologist Nicolai Sennels of the far-right Danish People’s Party and the video was produced by Dispatch International (DI), a mouthpiece for the counterjihad movement – for which Waters has written extensively – founded by Hedegaard and Carlqvist.

Waters has described Hedegaard as 'a friend of mine'. She has stated that he does not donate any money to Sharia Watch UK..

Alan Ayling

In a series of videos taken in October 2014 at Speakers’ Corner in London’s Hyde Park, which show Waters and others delivering diatribes against Islam, former English Defence League financier and strategist Alan Ayling (aka Alan Lake) could be seen in the group that appeared to be supporting her. During a Spinwatch investigation, Waters did not respond to repeated requests to clarify her relationship with Ayling.

However, after the publication of a critical article, she wrote on the Sharia Watch UK: 'I do not know Alan Ayling; he has certainly never given me any money.'

University talks

Founder and spokesperson Anne Marie Waters and Charlie Kelndjian of the Lawyers Secular Society were due to speak at the University of West London in November 2014 but the scheduled event was cancelled, after complaints, though the pair later spoke at the University of Manchester.

Views

<youtube size="medium" align="right" caption="Anne Marie Waters delivers an anti-Islam diatribe at Speakers Corner in London's Hyde Park, October 2014">G27Ln9fWSiE</youtube>

In an Oxford Union debate in February 2013 she spoke against the motion 'This house believes Islam is a religion of peace'.

Islamophobia as 'feminism'

In her speech at Lars Hedegaard's book launch in June 2014, Waters linked Islam to child abuse, saying (16:08) ‘it’s all linked to Islam’, which she characterised as a dangerous ‘ideology’ being ‘appeased’, adding (17:45): ‘it is exactly the same appeasement that is allowing young girls to be raped in Britain, it’s got nothing to do with race, it’s got to do with the fact that we will not confront the misogyny at the very, very heart of this religion’.

'A deal has been struck'

In a speech delivered in October 2014 at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park, Waters claimed:

A deal has been struck. It’s not a written deal, it’s not a spoken deal, it’s an unspoken deal between your leaders, your political leaders and the Imams of this country. And that deal is: deliver us your block vote and we’ll let you treat women however the hell you please. That was the deal that was struck, it was struck years ago.

That is why we have FGM. We have hundreds of thousands of girls in this country having their genitals mutilated. We have sharia courts in this country treating women like shit. We have honour killings, forced marriage, underage marriage, it is because our leaders have struck a deal with the imams...Sharia law allows men to beat their wives. It allows little girls to be raped and tortured and mutilated and that is why we have, across England, little English girls being raped, while the Labour party and their Islamist friends look away.

The idea of a secret deal being struck between 'Western' and Muslim political leaders bears some comparison to a conspiracy theory popular in the counterjihad movement developed by Bat Ye'or called Eurabia, a word she coined. According to the Institute of Race Relations, she argued that a 'secret project exists between European politicians and the Arab world for the "Islamisation of Europe"'.

Affiliations

• Sharia Watch UK - spokesperson
• UKIP - member and former parliamentary candidate in 2014
• One Law For All - former employee
• Labour Party - former member
• Lawyers Secular Society
• National Secular Society

Contact

• Website http://www.annemariewaters.org/

Resources

• Sharia Watch UK and the Metamorphosis of Anne Marie Waters, Institute of Race Relations, 21 January 2015