A day before the official launch of the Quilliam Foundation on Tuesday, Islamists have stepped by their attacks against the new organisation - composed of former members of Hizb ut-Tahrir - which aims to tackle radicalisation among British Muslims.
Potentially one of the most damning attacks comes in the form of a new blog 'Quilliam Foundation Exposed!' (www.quilliamexposed.blogspot.com) which says it is "dedicated to exposing the fraud of an organisation going by the name of the Quilliam Foundation".
The blog launches a barrage of attacks against the key members of the group, describing its director, Maajid Nawaz, as "a night-clubber who runs a facebook page promoting hippop nightclub parties".
Ed Husain, Quilliam's deputy-director, is described as "a verifiable fraud - an absolute unknown who turned up out of nowhere 10 years after his brief, inconsequential association with a few supporters of Hizb-ut-tahrir (HT)."
Rashad Ali, the third-most prominent member of the group, is likewise accused of "dealing in stolen cars along with other criminality!"
Accompanying the verbal attacks are photographs (apparently taken from facebook) of Nawaz dressed as a pirate (perhaps at a party). Other pictures show Jemima Khan (a prominent supporter of Quilliam) kissing Kate Moss.
While these such "exposes" may seem trival to the average reader, they are designed to discredit the group in the eyes of British Muslims. There is evidence that this is already happening.
On the website of Muslim group, MPACUK, readers have reacted to the pictures of Majid with amusement and disdain.
"i don't need to say anything a picture tells a thousand words as they say!!!!" writes one reader.
Co-inciding with these attacks is an article in the Guardian's website by Seamus Milne. He wrote that "The Quilliam Foundation's leading lights could not be less representative of mainstream Muslim opinion in Britain."
This may be true. However, this does not mean that the Quilliam Foundation's aim of creating a pluralist and tolerant British Islam is wrong or misguided. Indeed, the very fact that the group's members are criticised simply for apparently going to nightclubs, mixing with women or wearing pirate costumes is a sign of how urgently groups like the Quilliam Foundation are needed.
Comments (9)
So the Quilliam Foundation are moderates as they agree with the status quo? Should the title not be, rebels against lackeys?
A more balanced and sensible critique of the Quilliam Foundation appears on:
http://islamic-considerations.blogspot.com/
Posted by critic | June 26, 2008 9:00 PM
Posted on June 26, 2008 21:00
I just want to extend a Welcome to Inayat Bunglawala (Bungles)who is contributing in the comments section above however misguided his views are. Although I am dissapointed that he feels that his views are sooo crazy that he doesnt want to use his real name.
Will the real Abdul Aziz (Bungles/Slim shady) please stand up!
Posted by Abu Adul Aziz | April 25, 2008 3:02 PM
Posted on April 25, 2008 15:02
There has to be something seriously questionable about a body that has the self-confessed NeoCon, Islamophobe, and "expert on Islam" Michael Gove MP as one of its Patrons. "By their friends ye shall know them".
Posted by macshealbhaich | April 24, 2008 9:14 PM
Posted on April 24, 2008 21:14
Maajid and everyone involved really have a stiff challenge and anyone who knows the workings of HT and its supporters will understand. I am disgusted at Seumus Milne. It is easy for any one not muslim or touched personally by this group to sit and be-moan Ed. Any opposition to HT is met with smears and threats, bullying and imtimidation. Many want to leave husbands associated with this group due to the pressures membership with HT places on families. The reverberations are felt by wives and families who often buckle. This group is more than the alleged non violent political party ;it is a cult and its supporters vary from affable to horrid.Trust me I know.
Posted by Anonymous | April 23, 2008 4:40 PM
Posted on April 23, 2008 16:40
This is yet another failed mission by the powers that be in Britain to sanitise true Islam and to subtley change the semantics of cause and effect.
Unknown puppets like Ed Hussain and Majid Nazaw and other imposed individuals who lead intellectually bankrupt and defrauding organisations will never be accepted by mainstream Muslim in Britain or elsewhere.
Posted by zaki hammaad | April 23, 2008 3:48 PM
Posted on April 23, 2008 15:48
its strange if you need more like "Quillian foundation" then you have to change Islam completely even its important source Quran and i think its never gona happen that Islam will be changed for exremist like HT or apologatics like Quilliam foundation and Sufi Council
Posted by A Muslim | April 23, 2008 11:53 AM
Posted on April 23, 2008 11:53
A Muslim I work with puts it like this:
"For us, Hizb ut-Tahrir is extreme in one direction, but the Quilliam Foundation is extreme in the opposite direction."
Posted by Andrew | April 23, 2008 8:38 AM
Posted on April 23, 2008 08:38
The anti-Quilliam Foundation campaign has already begun within the community. Thousands of organisations, Mosques, grass-root forums and community e-lists are being contacted and information circulated. This group will be filed under FARCE along with the Sufi Muslim Council, remember them(lol. The community are not naive, only genuine, sincere and principled individuals can apply, not those who tarnish and attack respected and established, movements which have voluntarily toiled and struggled to actively serve their respective Muslim and non-Muslim communities for nearly 50 years and have histories dating back hundreds. Come on gentlemen, get with the programme, you are going to have to play ball with the real stakeholders and they aren't the monsters that you continually make them out to be...must go have an election campaign to pursue!!
Posted by Abdul Aziz | April 22, 2008 6:50 PM
Posted on April 22, 2008 18:50
Just interested in knowing why those who set up the quilliam exposed website are labelled 'extremists'? I mean i know the said blog seems to dissaprove of the lifestyles of those associated with the quilliam foundation, but why are they termed extremists, unless Msulims who do not socialise in that particular manner are regarded to be extremists now as well???
Posted by A Muslim | April 22, 2008 4:59 PM
Posted on April 22, 2008 16:59