A letter published in Saturday’s Guardian, purporting itself to be from ‘a cross section of the Muslim community’, has criticised the Quilliam Foundation for being unrepresentative.
The signatories claim to represent ‘a cross section of the Muslim community’ seems disingenuous. The letter is the combined effort of Anas al-Tikriti, Yvonne Ridley, Ihtisham Hibatullah, Ismail Patel and Roshan Muhammed Salih. The signatories say they represent a plethora of different organisations, however the letter fails to point out their extensive links.
Anas al-Tikriti joined the Respect party in 2004, of whom Yvonne Ridley is a key member, when he stood as the party’s candidate in Yorkshire and Humberside in the European Parliamentary elections. He is also the former president of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), the group to whom Ihtisham Hibatullah used to belong. MAB themselves are the parent group of the British Muslim Initiative (BMI), whom Ismail Patel is a spokesperson for. Roshan Muhammed Salih, whom is not listed on the letter as representing any specific organisation, in fact has extensive links with Yvonne Ridley. They worked together at al-Jazeera, and are now colleagues at Press TV, the Iranian sponsored state television channel.
Therefore while the signatories claim to be representing a cross section of opinion and organisations, they are in fact all strongly tied to one another and minority Islamist groups; ironic, considering their accusations that Quilliam themselves are unrepresentative.
The letter dismisses the Quilliam Foundation as “just another establishment-backed attempt to divert attention from the main cause of radicalisation and extremism in Britain: the UK's disastrous foreign policy in the Muslim world, including its occupation of Muslim lands and its support for pro-western Muslim dictators.” They also say that Quilliam has no “proven grassroots support within the Muslim community” and equate “all forms of political Islam with extremism and terrorism.”
While I applaud the aspirations and goals of the Quilliam Foundation, I also think they are probably unrepresentative of the Muslim community in the UK and probably much of the Muslim world. Most of the people attending the launch, including myself, weren't Muslims. I think sympathy for Islamism is probably the mainstream now.