Birmingham: Opposition to Saudi imams

If Saudi clerics are sincerely opposed to al-Qaeda, is this enough to make them role models?

An instructive row has broken out between the Quilliam Foundation, British Muslims for Secular Democracy, humanists, and progressive rabbis on the one hand, and the Green Lanes Mosque in Birmingham, over a couple of visiting Saudi imams who will preach there this weekend.

The Quilliam/BMSD complaint is that these people are well-documented anti-semites and preachers of hate; the mosque responds indignantly that the preachers are thoroughly opposed to al-Qaeda and to terrorism, and that the objectors are unrepresentative stooges.

The first question is whether the original charges are justified. Here, I think that the mosque has been caught bang to rights. The letter objecting to the preachers" visit lists some pretty hair-raising statements on their site. The links are to Arabic sound files, but I don't see any reason to doubt their authenticity, which has not in any case been denied:

(..)

On the other hand, the mosque defends itself against the charge that it is sponsoring terrorism: "These speakers are academics who have specialised in Islamic sciences and are well respected in scholarly circles. It is grossly unjust to suggest that they belong to some fringe ideology rather than orthodox Islam."

Is anti-semitism of this sort really mainstream, orthodox Islam?


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Source: Guardian (English)

With thanks to Islam in Europe

Moderate Muslims in UK Warn of Prison Radicalization

From CAN:

A moderate Muslim organization in the United Kingdom called the Quilliam Foundation has published a report warning about the infiltration of radical Islam into the country’s corrections system, BBC News reports.

“Prominent pro al-Qaeda ideologues such as Abu Qatada have been able to smuggle messages out of prison to their supporters,” the report states.

“Other convicted extremists have issued pro-jihadist statements from prison while others have appeared on Islamic TV stations from within prison.”

The report also warns that radical Muslims have been allowed to lead prayer services in prisons and acted as liaisons between the prison authorities and Muslim inmates. Some are even allowed to act as religious teachers to other inmates.

An increase in Muslim prison gang activity and the presence of extremist texts in Islamic libraries for prisoners is also warned about.

It also concludes that it takes 5-7 years after a prisoner is indoctrinated into extremism for him to partake in acts of violence.

“This means that prisoners leaving prison today may ‘graduate’ into terrorism around 2015,” Quilliam’s press release states.

The website of the Quilliam Foundation describes the organization as “the world’s first counter-extremism think tank.” It is led by former members of Hizb ut-Tharir, a radical Islamic group that seeks to resurrect the Caliphate and establish Sharia Law. The organization says it opposes such efforts to establish Islamic doctrine as a form of governance and is staunchly against terrorism and extremism.

World Threats

Terrorists smuggle fatwas out of secure prisons

SOME of Britain’s most dangerous Al-Qaeda leaders are promoting jihad from inside high-security prisons by smuggling out propaganda for the internet and finding recruits.

In an authoritative report, Quilliam, a think tank funded by the Home Office, claims “mismanagement” by the Prison Service is helping AlQaeda gain recruits and risks “strengthening jihadist movements”.

Abu Qatada, described by MI5 as “Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe”, has published fatwas — religious rulings — on the internet from Long Lartin prison, in Worcestershire, calling for holy war and the murder of moderate Muslims, it reveals.

Abu Doha — said to be Al-Qaeda’s main recruiter in Europe — has taken courses in Belmarsh prison, south London, enabling him to mentor other inmates.

Abu Hamza, jailed in 2006 for inciting murder, has preached radical sermons to followers using water pipes in his Belmarsh cell, and Rachid Ramda, the Algerian leader of the Paris Métro bomb plot, led Friday prayers in the same jail.

Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, shadow security minister, said prisons risked becoming “incubators of extremism”.

Qatada, a radical Islamist cleric who is wanted on terrorism charges in Jordan, is held in the the “supermax” segregation wing of Long Lartin. Built at the height of the IRA’s bombing campaign and designed to house dangerous inmates, it should be one of the most secure buildings in the country.

Like other jailed terrorist leaders, Qatada is meant to be cut off from his supporters outside. Yet it is said that last year, under the noses of warders, Qatada and Adel Abdel Bary, leader of the UK branch of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, were able to smuggle out a series of fatwas legitimising attacks by AlQaeda and endorsing the murder of moderate Muslims.

Qatada and Bary are two of about 100 Islamist terrorists in UK prisons. Many are held in supposedly top-security jails such as Belmarsh, Frankland in Co Durham and Woodhill in Milton Keynes, for inciting or plotting attacks in which hundreds of people could have died.

More at Times Online

Radical Imam Linked to Fort Hood Suspect Has Support in Britain

A radical preacher who allegedly inspired the Fort Hood gunman has a large following in Britain and counts prominent mainstream Muslims among his supporters, The London Times reported.

The FBI is investigating communications between Major Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at the Texas army base last week, and Imam Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Muslim cleric now based in Yemen.

al-Awlaki, 38, who described Major Hasan on his blog as "a hero," has been a regular visitor to Britain and delivers frequent lectures to British audiences by video or via the internet.

Counter-terrorism sources said yesterday that al-Awlaki was barred from entering Britain on security grounds while the anti-extremist Quilliam Foundation said he was "perhaps the most influential pro-jihadist ideologue preaching in English today."

Despite his extremist reputation, the cleric had attracted support from mainstream British Muslim groups. Azad Ali, president of the Civil Service Islamic Society, wrote last November that al-Awlaki was "one of my favorite speakers and scholars."

Ali, whose society's patron is Sir Gus O'Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, distanced himself from the cleric's views last night. He said: "I reject them and disassociate myself from them completely."

Source: FoxNews

Ed Husain and me

On Friday, I wrote about the confused message being put out by the various groups which were taking to London’s streets yesterday, including one led by Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain, to oppose the ‘sharia now’ demonstration by al Muhajiroun.


My post provoked an unexpected reaction – an extraordinary ad feminam attack upon me, on the Guardian’s Comment is free blog, by the ‘reformist’ Muslim Ed Husain which accuses me of displaying

zealotry and ignorance

and being filled with

anger, venom and hatred

not to mention also being

demented.

Such fame! It could turn a girl’s head.

The first question is why Ed Husain was so exercised by what I wrote. After all, this was not his fight; I had made no mention of him or his ‘anti-Islamist’ Quilliam organisation. Much more astonishing was that he was leaping to the defence of none other than Inayat Bunglawala and the MCB. The MCB is an Islamist body which wants to theocratise Britain according to the precepts of Islam.

Last March, the government suspended links with it after its deputy Secretary-General, Daud Abdullah, signed a declaration that was seen as calling for violence against Israel and condoning attacks on British troops in Iraq.

Earlier this year, it boycotted Britain’s annual Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration ceremony. Its Secretary-General, Dr Abdul Bari, has said Britain should adopt Islamic practices such as arranged marriages and that Britons should follow the teachings of Islam. Moderate it is not.

As I reported below, Bunglawala told me himself that he wants Britain to become an Islamic state. Yet Ed Husain, whose Quilliam organisation receives a great deal of money from the government in order to oppose Islamic extremism, actually extols Bunglawala for having moved to embrace liberal attitudes.

Ed Husain, who in 2007 vividly described in his own book Bunglawala’s anti-Jewish attitudes, now says Bunglawala should not be held to account for remarks he made in 1993 in support of Islamist extremism and from which he has now ‘distanced himself’.

People must decide for themselves whether Bunglawala’s apparent conversion to the causes of gay rights and freedom of speech is genuine. But what about his declared aim of turning Britain into an Islamic state? Does Ed Husain now think this too is evidence of Bunglawala’s ‘liberal’ attitudes? Or must we assume that Ed Husain too must not be held to account for his previous opposition to this Islamist goal?

Now let’s look at what Ed Husain says about me. His article sits underneath a strapline, almost certainly written by the Guardian rather than by him, which says:

In her McCarthy-style paranoid parallel universe, the Spectator columnist views every Muslim a potential Islamist terrorist.

You really do have to rub your eyes at this. In my blog post which provoked Ed Husain’s article, I praised and welcomed those truly moderate Muslims who were mounting a counter-demonstration against al Muhajiroun, particularly the group British Muslims for a Secular Democracy.

I have never said or implied that ‘every Muslim’ is a ‘potential Islamist terrorist’.

On the contrary, in everything I have ever written about the subject I have emphasised that there are many Muslims who sign up to secular western values and who are themselves victims of the jihadis.

Read more here,,,,

Source: Melanie Phillips

Islamic group slams 'out of touch' imams for causing drift towards extremism

Imams are accused of being out of touch and
pushing young Muslims towards extremism

Young Muslims are being pushed towards extremism because their mosques are run by elderly and out-of-touch cliques, a report by an Islamic think-tank said yesterday.

The Quilliam Foundation, an anti-extremist Islamic organisation, accused imams of failing to teach and preach in English and of shutting women out of their mosques.

Only about 3 per cent of Muslim clerics were born in this country and most do not have full command of English, the study said.

The report said that mosque leaderships did not promote British values and allowed young people to drift towards jihadists who speak their own language.

The group called on the Government for stricter limits on visas for Islamic clerics coming to Britain and for an end to state grants for mosques that do not have at least one imam who preaches in English and supports the principles of democracy.

The Quilliam Foundation - which has been backed with almost £1million of taxpayers' money and attacked by some Islamic groups as being a mouthpiece for the Government - also said madrassas, mosques' equivalent of Christian Sunday schools, should be fully inspected by local children's services officials.

The survey was based on responses to five questions given by 512 mosques last autumn.

It found 97 per cent of imams were born overseas and 92 per cent were trained abroad, while more than half of the Muslims in Britain were born here.

'The religious leadership in the vast majority of Britain's mosques are not in full command of the English language, and are likely to be ill-equipped to address the real concerns and everyday experiences of young British Muslims,' the report found. Read more ...

Source: Daily Mail

Islamists at UK's Quilliam Foundation Receive Major Funding From UK Government

By Beila Rabinowitz and William Mayer

January 20, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - The Quilliam Foundation, a UK organization purported to be a think tank which combats "extremism" and is made up of self-proclaimed "ex" terrorists has just gotten a $1 million pound grant from the British government. As the TimesOnline notes, "Almost £1 million of public money is being given to a think-tank run by two former Islamic extremists, despite reservations being expressed by members of the Government and the Opposition..."

Counter-terror researchers question the relationship, wondering if those whose ultimate goals are inimical to Western ideals and values are being funded by a government blinded by its adherence to a perverse sense of multiculturalism. Read more ...

Source: Militant Islam Monitor