Today, Maajid Nawaz of the Quilliam Foundation posted on social media the following statement:-
This pathological jihadist obsession with “the Jooz” in Europe isn’t born from lack of religiously justified sanction.
Here’s an example of a piece of scripture that is problematic:
Allah’s Apostle said, “The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. “O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.”
Saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad in the Sahih of al-Bukhari.
This, among many others, is a problematic religious text. With texts such as this, there exists juristic (أصولي) tools of reconciliation of scriptural conflict (جمع), examination of authenticity (تحقيق), prioritising moral aims (مقاصد) over legal means (وسائل), abrogation (نسخ), restriction (تقييد), specificity (تخصيص), blocking harm (سد الذرائع), classification as informative not prescriptive (أدلة خبرية ليست أدلة شرعية) and many other such juristic instruments.
Islamic clerics should not only accept openly the need to reform the way Islam is read today, and the way its tradition is seen to be finalised after the medieval period without further scrutiny – but they must also actively encourage such reform. The doors of re-interpretation (اجتهاد) must remain open.
Firstly, Maajid Nawaz is himself an extremist by the real meaning of the word, not an ex extremist. Formerly he claims he was an “Islamic extremist” due to him hearing about Muslim suffering in Bosnia during his time as a member of Hizb ut Tahrir where he became a “politicised Muslim”. Later Maajid Nawaz ended up in prison in Egypt during his compulsory study year there as a SOAS student. According to Maajid Nawaz it was at that time he realised that the kind of politicised Islam he was following was incorrect. Being well educated and articulate he was exactly what the Government wanted when they needed to be seen to be doing something after 7/7 but at that time they did not have a clue where to begin. So a lucrative career opportunity led Maajid Nawaz on a 180 degree turn around from an “Islamist” sitting in an Egyptian prison to where he is about to be sitting, in a synagogue discussing the topic of rising European anti-Semitic alongside vicious xenophobes Douglas Murray and Alan Mendoza at this upcoming panel discussion. [1]
Read our latest article; Worried about Non Muslims in Britain? Response to Telegraph by Sheikh (Dr) Haitham al Haddad
Douglas Murray and Alan Mendoza are part of the Henry Jackson Society. I have written about Alan Mendoza previously when he gave a speech to AIPAC [2] Douglas Murray operates as an Islamophobe on two levels, one where he speaks as a representative of the Henry Jackson Society in which he tries to sound reasonable on television or radio whilst peddling fear of Islam and then more clandestinely as a contributor on the lesser known but much more Islamophobic and hawkish Gatestone Institute where his articles are more openly hostile about Islam and Muslims. [3]
No doubt there are more than a few Muslims who are enjoying very lucrative careers out of being “moderate Muslims” (and ex-Muslims) and have managed to persuade the Government that they know how to solve the problem of acts of violence committed by Muslims. Despite the fact that acts of violence by Muslims are invariably accompanied by their own videos stating that foreign policy is the basis for their anger, Nawaz and others like him are willing to deflect all attempts at getting to the real issues by promoting nonsense about Imams radicalising our youth in the masājid and the now fully-discredited conveyor belt to radicalisation theory. [4]
Prevent strategy began by encouraging Muslims to start up youth groups with government funding, which of course seemed a great idea as we are always looking for ways to engage the youth. Once set up the police might ask to attend one of the meetings and we heard of cases where the police would ask youths present what their opinions on Palestine were and get them really fired up about it. It was said that the youths who were loudest in their condemnation of Israeli policy would have their names noted by the police and perhaps come on their radar as potential terrorists. Very sneaky strategy and Muslims learned very quickly that Government funding does not come without strings attached. I would be very suspicious of any mosque or any group who accepts any funding from the Government no matter how attractive it may seem.
It is clear that fear of anti-Semitism has been in the news everyday recently, figures collected by the Community Services Trust [5] show an increase in hate crimes against Jews in the UK over the last year, particularly during the period where Israeli military forces were killing Palestinians in Gaza. However, despite the obvious proof that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands is cited regularly as one of the main drivers of Muslim acts of violence and statistics presented by the CST bear that out, nothing will persuade the Cameron government that something needs to be urgently done to end the dire situation that Palestinians face, because it would mean applying pressure on Israel and we plainly cannot do that, least of all with a general election coming up.
We are about to witness a whole new chapter in Maajid Nawaz’s career, as Government funds dried up for Quilliam Foundation a new source of income had to be found, on the Quilliam website it says you can email them for a copy of their accounts and that they are now funded by private donations. It appears that Maajid Nawaz is ready to walk away from Quilliam and Prevent and embark on a political career. As Liberal Democrat member standing for election in Hampstead and Kilburn Maajid Nawaz believes he is onto a vote winner when he talks about the root causes of anti-Semitism. There are probably many Muslims living in Kilburn but since founding Quilliam Foundation Maajid Nawaz knows he has zero credibility with Muslims so I doubt if he factors in the likelihood of support or votes from our community.
Politicians need money to campaign and it would be very interesting to see where Maajid Nawaz’s funds will come from. In America and the UK being pro-Israel has always brought in donations and in the last few months left before the general elections we have been seeing David Cameron and other members of the lobby group “Conservative Friends of Israel” giving speeches where they pledge their total commitment to Israel’s “security” and also their admiration of the contribution of Jews to British society. [6]
Could we be seeing the next level of the continuing demonisation of Muslims in Europe and the West? I feel sure it is exactly that which we are about to encounter as the latest initiative. Whilst it becomes increasingly more difficult to stem the tide of criticism against Israel and its policies in Palestine there is the start of a new drive by pro-Israel lobby groups to remove Israel and its genocidal actions from the discourse and to focus people on the religion of Islam itself. Already we have seen our Orthodox scholars being harassed and prevented from speaking at events particularly on university campuses in the UK where they go to carry the message that is written in our scripture. Our scripture is not different from Jewish scripture on the very issues that the Islamophobes call Muslims “extremists” over, yet only Muslims are demonised for following normative or Orthodox Islam.
I noted a very interesting post by brother Asim Qureshi a few days ago where he wrote
Hunter Commission report of 1876 looking into the loyalty of Muslims under the Empire. In the report, WW Hunter says,
“The Musalmans of India are, and have been for many years, a source of chronic danger to the British Power in India. From some reason they hold aloof from our system, and the changes in which the more flexible Hindus have cheerfully acquiesced, are regarded by them as deep personal wrongs.”
“It is more than doubtful whether the Muhammadan Law should be taught as a regular study, incumbent on all. It certainly should not be made the chief object of instruction. For the Muhammadan Law means the Muhammadan religion – that religion, too, at a time when its followers looked upon the whole earth as their lawful prey, and before they had learned the duties of modern Musalman States in alliance with, or in subjugation to, a Christian Government. It would not be wise to do away altogether with the teachers of the Law, for its total abolition would imperil the popularity of the College with the present generation of Musalmans. […] In this way we should develop a rising generation of Muhammadans, no longer learned in their own narrow learning, nor imbued solely with the bitter doctrines of their medieval Law, but tinctured with the sober and genial knowledge of the West.”
There explained in a nutshell you have exactly what Maajid Nawaz is talking about in the text at the top of this article. The way to control Muslims is to deviate them from the Quran and Sunnah so clearly policy has not changed.
What Maajid Nawaz is saying is in reality very dangerous for Muslims as he is now indicating that not only are “politicised Muslims” problematic but ALL Muslims are inherently anti-Semitic due to Islam being a religion that promotes the hatred of Jews and he mischievously quotes the above hadith—devoid of its context and therefore meaning—as an example to back his false claims up. So just as individual Muslims or deviant groups justify acts of hate or violence against others by using a hadith or verse from the Quran selectively, Maajid Nawaz does the same. I really hope that some scholars might write and speak about the clear error of what Maajid Nawaz is doing. Maajid Nawaz is not a scholar of Islam.
Worryingly, just as Nawaz wants to imply that all Muslims are to blame for the rise in anti-Semitism due to our understanding of Islam, Israeli leader Netanyahu wants to implicate worldwide Jewry in Israeli actions by calling the State of Israel the “Jewish State”. By claiming Israel is the “Jewish State” he is giving the false idea that Israel represents all Jews. After the attack on the kosher supermarket in France and yesterday on a synagogue in Denmark Netanyahu is calling all Jews to move to Israel so they can be safe from European anti-Semitism. European anti-Semitism caused in no small part by the actions of the State of Israel yet he doesn’t explain how Jews might be more secure inside the State of Israel when he is always begging the USA to pledge millions more American tax dollars to ensure the safety of Israel because he claims they are hated, under attack and in danger from every direction in the Middle East and beyond.
Clearly the discourse is becoming increasingly polarised in such a way that it is hard not to believe there is some deliberate attempt to pit Muslims and Jews against each other.
And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided. And remember the favor of Allah upon you – when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favor, brothers. And you were on the edge of a pit of the Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make clear to you His verses that you may be guided. [7]
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Source: www.islam21c.com
Notes:
[3] http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5200/obama-crusades
[4] https://www.islam21c.com/politics/new-study-extremism-does-not-cause-terrorism-2/
[5] http://blog.thecst.org.uk/?p=5235
[6] http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/189029#.VODYhLCsXlQ
[7] Al-Qur’ān 3:103
21 Comments
Look Israel is one issue. The formation of Israel is a complex matter arising from the end of the second World War and the fracture of the British empire amongst other things. Many countries, eg Pakistan were formed after the second World War.Israel exists and you have to try and work with it and stop delegitimizing it. Try and see things from both points of view. There are grievances and issues on both sides and I really don’t wish to discuss it.You see it in black and white – Israel evil and Palestine good when clearly any intelligent person can see that it is much more intractable than that. Anti – Semitism is another issue. You cannot condone anti – Semitic attacks by saying it serves us right for supporting Israel. The hostility of most of the current Muslim world unfortunately shows us why we need a safe haven.Europe is increasingly hostile to Jews, Jews have been kicked out of all Arab countries
( you never mention this) and you don’t want us to live in Israel.Are Jews allowed back into Iraq or Yemen.No! It is hard not to come to the conclusion that you just don’t want Jews to exist.
What do you mean “you”??
You are the one who keeps saying Jews do not have the right to exist, no one else has said that. I said CST statistics bear out that hate crimes against Jews increased during Israels slaughter on Gaza. Perhaps the Board of British Deputies of Jews should issue a statement condemning Israeli land theft, ethnic cleansing and murder like Muslims do when the so called Islamic state operates outside of all laws.
So you are effectively saying that we deserve all we get because of Israel. Look, many Muslim countries have an atrocious human rights record (far worse than the democratic Israel ). Does that mean that Muslims in the Uk deserve to face Islam phobic attacks? Many,many, many more Muslims are murdered by other Muslims. Do you not care about that? The Israeli army are not murderers – they are an army doing a very difficult job and they sometimes get it wrong. There is no ethnic cleansing. In fact the population of Palestine has increased. This does not normally happen during ethnic cleansing. Maybe Hamas needs to stop their rocket attacks, using human shields and brutal repression of their population. The Palestinians deserve better but constantly blaming Israel for ALL the problems of the Muslim world is bonkers!
A nice bit of whataboutery there John Smith. I think if the Israelis gave back what they stole and then stayed within the boundaries of International law that everything would start to look much better.
I think there is a serious issue of islamic knowledge by young generation of muslims and an intentional subversion of truth by Israel and its supporters. The truth is there is no way one will read the Quran and not fall in love with “Israel (Person), his Family and some of his descendants”. Majority of the role models Allah has mentioned for muslims in the Quran are Israelites and todays Israelites are descendants of the previous ones. It is true that Allah scolds the disbelievers among the children of Israel, so did David and Jesus; this maybe because of the abundant favor Allah has given them and yet they disbelieved in him or twisted the scriptures to favor the times they lived in. A muslim cannot be anti-semite, it does not make sense, when the names of great Israelites are mentioned like Musa, Haroon, Dawud, Suleiman, Ilyas etc. Only Muslims will mention “Peace be upon these great men”. Yet a muslim will have to stand for justice even against his own self, so when crimes are committed by the state of Israel or by Saudi Arabia or by anyone, it must be called out. I call on some muslims to stop the blanket Address of Jews or Israelites while at the same time Jews and Israelites must understand their greatest ally is Islam since there is no book I have read that put some of their ancestors in better light than the Quran.
Indeed the hadith is an informational one only, IE a narration of a future event, not a command to bring it on, and subject to the process of interpretation with some of the tools Maajid mentions, by scholars of Islam. This hadith in no way justifies any bad behavior towards Jews. But the problem we have is that has already been stated and interpretation done years if not centuries ago, and for Maajid to imply otherwise about Muslim’s generally is misinformation at best. Maajid is addressing a straw man, raising a red herring for his own agenda while in the process implying the Muslim community as a whole takes such ahadith as commands for action or behavior. Not only is this bad for Muslims, but must also scare the Jewish community.
Laura- I quite your article -European anti-semitism is caused in no small part by the actions of the State of Israel . You would rightly be disgusted if I said that attacks on Muslims in England and France could be justified because of Isis or the Syrian state or the actions of the repressive Saudi Arabian government. You need to think about your argument more carefully and STOP BLAMING INNOCENT EUROPEAN JEWS for being the victims of terrorist atrocities. .
In fact hate crimes against Muslims have doubled and the reason for that is clear i.e. the media blanket coverage of any violent act perpetrated by any criminal who happens to be Muslim anywhere in the world. Muslims are always condemning the acts of ISIS, perhaps we need to hear more Jewish voices condemning the “Jewish States” criminal acts?
Hi everyone, I’m not very knowledgeable in this area so correct me if I am wrong but I don’t know the full ins-and-outs of the situation in Israel but the actions of Israel and Hamas should not be an influence to muslims and Jews outside this region in fuelling hatred for one another. By that I mean, there is no reason for a muslim to hate a Jew and vice-versa just because of this conflict. There are many sincere Jewish people who fear Allah and there are many muslims who aren’t sincere about Islam and who are ignorant. But what we can take from Islam is that there is no reason why we cannot care for a jewish person and that we should think lesser of them. However, if muslims are attacking Jewish civilians in the West based on circumstances occurring in the middle-east then this is not from the religion of Islam. You should be good to your neighbour no matter whether he is Jewish, Christian or of no designated faith. Likewise, people need to be careful of what is known in epidemiology, as ‘ecological fallacy’ when making associations between two things which are on the rise, for example if in North America consumption of deer meat increased and over the same period the number of cases of bowel cancer increased one cannot simply create a correlation of the two based on the notion that it sounds plausible and the trends correlate, saying that eating deer meat is increasing bowel cancer, this would be classed as ‘ecological fallacy’, unless proper research and epidemiological studies had been carried out to deduce whether deer meat is a risk factor for cancer (e.g. case-control studies and cohort studies). Likewise some people in the West seem to be coining on to the fact that certain radical groups are rising in number claiming to be doing what they are in the ‘name of Islam’ and the increased number of attacks on Jewish civilians and forming a correlation between the two when in reality these events may be completely unrelated and due to other far right groups.
What a lot of people in the West don’t understand is that the society in the West is orientated around secularism but this is opposite to what the sincere muslim, who is following the pure Islam, orientates his life around. For him, Islam is foremost and determines what he says, what he does, what he wears etc. before what society deems ok to say, do and wear. However, this does not mean that he is ‘extreme’ he is simply following the pure Islam. Just because the sincere Muslim doesn’t hold the same views and enjoy the same activities as those in a secular society doesn’t deem him ‘radicalised’. So I would just like to spread this awareness.
I greatly recommend a video for all to watch for more information on where the scholars of Islam and the knowledgeable muslims stand on ISIS and these other radical groups. The video is a podcast featuring a notable Islamic scholar of our current time, Dr. Yasir Qadhi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gGYVsbRvDQ
Irony and hypocrisy aside, there is a serious issue here.
Nawaz is profiteering from the fact that there is an increase in attacks on Jews and their establishments in Europe (and yes, this is a fact). What he fails to mention is that the vast majority of these attacks are carried out by extreme right wing thugs, and not Muslims. But then he does not have it in for their ‘ideology’ like he does for the Islamists. If he really hated these attacks he would do some proper research and then work towards ridding Europe of the racist menace that is the real cause of that problem; but in reality he is part of that menace.
He paints himself as an anti-extremist who is needed in order to fight a necessary ideological battle and will twist facts and skew findings to suit his agenda. He is not the only one like that but is certainly one of the worst.
That is so true, thank you for your comment. Attacks against Muslims have increased too but we don’t have an organisation like C.S.T. to guard our schools and places of worship. Maybe we need one?
Laura,I have read a number of your article with dismay. Your hatred of Jews is almost pathological. Feel free to organise your own security for Muslims but we all know that you don’t really need it.When Jews start shooting European Muslims in their own Mosques and in their supermarkets and schools then you might need it. But this never happens. As much as you would like to be the victims, you don’t need such stringent security. FACT: Jews do not want to live in siege like conditions. We don’t want to have to pay for security. We don’t want to worry that a madman is going to shoot our children We don’t want to live in fear. The fact that you are partially blaming anti -Semitic attacks on Jews is a disgrace. A Jew in Copenhagen and a Jew shopping for food in a Kosher shop in Paris, have nothing to do with Israel.They are not Israeli citizens and cannot vote in a democratic election. I fear that your hatred of Israel has blurred into some kind of vile hatred of all Jews. The fact that you are given licence to publish such views is deeply tragic.
Thank you for reading my articles. I don’t hate anyone, you have had right to publically disagree with my views here.
I respectfully disagree, All your articles, vilify Jews and are obsessed with Palestine, the Israel lobby and a perceived conspiracy theory of Jews. The terrible anti- Semitism that is rearing its head in Europe is not justified. Islamophobia is also not justified. The situation in Israel/ Palestine is a separate and very complex issue- it is not black and white and needs compromise on both sides.. You seem to have a problem with Jews being given extra security by the British Government. I think your articles exacerbate the problems that Muslims seem to have with Jews. It is almost an obsession (I never see any articles on any other religions) and offers no solutions for a peaceful co- existence
Is it not true that “Tell Mama” was set up to record hate crimes against Muslims based on and with advice from CST? Yet despite Muslims generally not reporting hate crimes their statistics show hate crimes have doubled but there was a campaign to discredit Tell Mama’s work just as if Muslims are not relevant and Tell Mama had their government funding cut. I don’t see security guards outside mosques despite much of the hate crimes on both Jewish people, Muslim people and their places of worship coming from the far right.
You can’t build a Jewish nation on usurped land simple
I agree, sadly the policy of land theft and occupation is ongoing.
“You can’t build a Jewish nation on usurped land simple”
..but it’s OK to build muslim nations on usurped land?
Everyone knows the Zionists reach goes way beyond the borders of Israel.
Many other Middle East events have been orchestrated in coordination with Zionist interests in mind, included the illegal invasion of Iraq. Using the powerful lobbies to influence US and UK foreign policies towards the Middle East.
It would not surprise many if ISIS was a creation of Mossad, using a pyramid scheme mechanism to take advantage of angry young Muslims.
In the 21st century, your family has developed a very high Machiavellian level. Solomon would be disappointed that your political leaders haven’t a ounce of his wisdom between them.
In a similar manner, your cousins, the Arabs, have become a dumb people, too busy building skyscrapers, shopping malls and buying gold taps to realise what’s happening to their humanity.
Hate Jews? Not really, but yes hate the behaviour of people who spread mischief across the land, be they Jew, Muslim or disbeliever.
Jenny, large numbers of muslims were killed in Hebron whist praying in a mosque by a Israeli army general (rBaruch Goldstein) around 15 years ago!
The mosque was then part converted in to synagogue. The Palestinian worshippers not only paid with their lives but also their land. This is a real example of the treat Muslims face both at an individual and state level.