The untold 9/11 story | Dr Asim Qureshi | Unscripted #61
In today’s episode, Dr Salman Butt is joined by CAGE research director, Dr Asim Qureshi for a relatively rare perspective on 9/11.
#MuslimPower: can Muslims do their own politics?
Do Muslims need to rely on non-Muslims for their political activism and alliances?
Critique of ‘Jihadi John: The Making of a Terrorist’
The Muhammad Emwazi I met in 2009 was indeed a polite and friendly young man as the author Robert Verkaik and many others attest to, but by the summer of 2014 he was executing innocent Muslims and non-Muslims in the name of the so-called “Islamic State” and I could not recognise the man I had once known. One year on from a difficult period my organisation and I encountered due to my inappropriate description of him once being a "beautiful young man" – one that I am regretful of due to the impact this insensitivity had on all families who…
Reflecting on ‘Between the World and Me’
Reflecting on Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates “When I finished reading this book, I realised that I’m still actually quite racist.” These were the words spoken to me by a white doctor of Anthropology who has spent her life defending black men facing the death penalty in the South of the US. Her own story is one full of racism, having grown up in a racist house that despised her for rejecting their ‘ways’, in having a sister who married a member of the KKK in order to have a pure blood child, and being generally surrounded in…
Sikhs: Victims & Proponents of Islamophobia
Asim Qureshi reviews the book, Unsettling Sikh and Muslim Conflict by Dr Katy Sian “I wonder what happened to her? I think the last I heard was that she was in Pakistan…” At the centre of Dr Katy Sian's book, Unsettling Sikh and Muslim Conflict, lies the question of Sikh identity, and particularly, what being Sikhni means in modern day Britain. Sian effectively charts how Sikhs in the UK have largely built an identity that is based on the politics, history, folklore and myths surrounding their intersection with Muslim communities dating back to their formation during the Mughal period of…
Doubt in Islamic Law – a history of avoiding punishment
Book Review - Doubt in Islamic Law: A History of Legal Maxims, Interpretation, and Islamic Criminal Law "Avoid imposing criminal sanctions in cases of doubt" - idra’u ‘l-hudud bi’l-shubahat - is the juristic maxim at the centre of Professor Intisar Rabb’s phenomenally well-researched work, Doubt in Islamic Law: A History of Legal Maxims, Interpretation, and Islamic Criminal Law. I came to this book largely due to my own lack of insight into the detail of how traditional Islamic jurisprudence viewed evidence and determined guilt or innocence within criminal law cases. Even where guilt was ascertained, was punishment to be taken as a final consequence? Rabb…
How the government makes you a terrorist without ever arresting you
In this piece, Asim Qureshi Research Director at CAGE takes us through how a routine stop under Schedule 7 and its specially engineered questions, can lead to oppressive civil orders leaving the individual having been declared guilty without judicial oversight, left to prove their innocence. Further, concerns about the implementation of the new Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill which seeks to arbitrarily impose orders under the elusive idea of “extremism”. I want you to imagine going through an airport where you are subjected to a Schedule 7 stop under the 2000 Terrorism Act. This stop results in you being taken away…
Life in Britain is about to get MUCH worse…
1984 in 2015: Counter Terrorism & Security Bill A new piece of legislation currently being rushed through Parliament called the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill carries serious implications for communities across the UK. In particular, the Muslim community is brought under particular scrutiny as Part 5 of the Bill seeks to make reporting on those on pathway to terrorism (through ‘extremist’ actions, beliefs of statements) a statutory requirement. This means that nursery teachers, university lecturers, doctors, nurses and even opticians, will all be under a mandatory duty to inform to Prevent police if they feel one of their students, patients of…
An Alternative Christmas Message
An Alternative Christmas Message: The ummah's first extradition request Living in the western world, we sometimes fall into the trap of thinking of rights and due process only within the context of an international framework established through key documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Often by doing so, we miss the history and importance that other cultures, communities and societies have brought to these modern day formulations. Currently the Muslim community in the UK has become the victim of a number of policies where due process has been removed completely. The cases of the five men who were…
Guantanamo Bay: Oxygen for ISIS
In light of the CIA Torture Report said to be declassified today, Asim Qureshi, Research Director of CAGE examines the use of the iconic orange jumpsuits from the detainees in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib to the hostages kept by the Islamic State. Islamic State's tactics have been taken directly from the American government in their use of torture techniques such as waterboarding and mock executions. Evidencing that the War on Terror and the impact of these torture policies affect mostly those who the they claimed they sought to protect. In 2003, I completed my Masters dissertation on the treatment of…