Being desperate to stop the radicalisation of British-born Muslims, the government turned for expert advice on how best they may be taught about Islam so that they would learn that only moderate versions of their religion were, if not authentic, then at least palatable.
To be their adviser, the government chose Dr Ataullah Siddiqui of the Markfield Institute of Higher Education. Well, however conversant Dr Siddiqui might be with moderate versions of Islam, he certainly should know his stuff about the other forms of that religion, given the institution at which he works.
A companion organisation to the Markfield Institute is the Islamic Foundation with which the Markfield Institute shares its ten-acre campus to which they moved in 1976 from nearby Leicester, having both been created there a few years earlier.
Some indication of just how moderate Markfield’s own favoured version of Islam is may be gauged by the following piece of information about the official names of its campus buildings supplied by Giles Kepel in his 1997 book, Allah in the West: Islamic Movement in America and Europe.
Kepel observes that the ‘buildings [are] named after leading Islamist figures (“Mawdudi Hall”, “Hassan el-Banna Hall”, “Ibn Taimiyya Block”). (p. 132)
As Kepel adds in an explanatory footnote: ‘Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the model for contemporary Islamist movements. Ibn Taimiyya is the major ideological reference for the Muslim Brotherhood and for [Abul A’la] Mawdudi and his followers as well as for the Saudi leaders.’ (Fn 15. p. 252)
As for Mawdudi, we are informed, in 1941 he founded Jama’at –I Islami, an organisation Kepel describes as the ‘only re-Islamizing movement originating in the [Indian] subcontinent’ (p.92). Its founder, we are told, ‘became one of the constituent parts of the Islamist movement worldwide…. Mawdudi and his disciples set themselves the immediate objective of restoring a state which would apply sharia.’ (p.92)
No wonder, as Kepel ominously states: ‘The [Islamic] Foundation is today one of the most important centres for the propagation of militant Sunni thinking in the world.’ (p.133)
It is from the head of a Muslim educational institute whose buildings bear as their own the names of the august trio mentioned above that the government has sought advice on how best Muslims students should be taught that only moderate versions of Islam are acceptable.
Little wonder is it that Siddiqui’s report fails to deliver what was asked of it. Instead, it is merely a blue-print for the Islamification of Islamic Studies in British universities, as is made clear by a damning summary of the report's main recommendations offered by the Barnabas Fund.
We might sum up the situation so: Oh, Brother!
Comments (4)
It makes me laugh when I see cultural conservatives parading as liberals and pretending their sectarian prejudices are 'social cohesion'.
I am an Australian Muslim who started reading Maududi after attending an Anglican Cathedral School in Sydney Australia, and being exposed to the works of Protestant fundamentalists like Francis Schaffer.
I could see little difference between Maududi's message and that of Schaffer's "How Then Should We Live". Both authors argue that religion and politics are inseparable, and that religious activists must enter the political scene.
What made Maududi more effective is that Islam, like Judaism, actually has a sacred law. Further, Islamic sacred law has actually been implemented in recent times.
I personally regard Maududi's approach as heterodox in the extreme. However, for allegedly conservative thinktanks to be attacking someone about whose Christian equivalent they remain strangely silent is the height of hypocrisy and double-standards.
The day think-tanks like yours are honest enough to face up to the Jewish and Christian Maududi's in your midst is the day Western Muslims can take you seriously.
As Christ said, there's little point looking for specks in your brother's eye when your own eye is filled with logs.
If you choose not to allow this comment on this blog, I'll be placing it on my own.
Posted by Irfan Yusuf | July 2, 2007 2:31 AM
Posted on July 2, 2007 02:31
The very idea of teaching any religious person not to be "Fundementalist" is surely crazy. To live by the FUNDAMENTALS makes total sense... it is the non fundemantalists in any religion who need to be re- educated? I say this as a non-religious observer with a strong sense of irony as I was brought up in a fundemantalist Christian family and have now re-educated myself to realise quite how crazy ANY and ALL religions are.. fundemantal or teetering on the edge!
Posted by AcidDrip | June 27, 2007 7:46 PM
Posted on June 27, 2007 19:46
Sacred bovine excreta might be another summary: I trust you will circulate this alarming post to news media throughout the English-speaking world. America in particular needs to know what has happened to the cradle of free thought. Fox News usually gives air play to fun facts like this.
Posted by Palladio | June 26, 2007 6:33 PM
Posted on June 26, 2007 18:33
Ah, at long last we have some examples of moderate muslims.
Posted by Mike | June 26, 2007 12:19 PM
Posted on June 26, 2007 12:19