Embellishment of Maajid Nawaz by Maajid Nawaz

In the world of Maajid Nawaz, he is the man of the moment. He has got a show with LBC radio and is one of the panellists on the Sky News programme the Pledge. He is sharing stage and appearing in blogs with Sam Harris, Ayaan H Ali, Douglas Murray, etc. He has co written a book with Sam Harris and has appeared in a movie, produced by Islamophobes, about his trip to Australia with Sam Harris. He has received a “humanitarian award” from “UN Watch”. He addressed a gathering of people who claimed to be Zionists against the annual Al-Quds March in support of Palestinians. The crowd included Tommy Robinson supporting Football Lads Association members who were also there to protest against the Al-Quds march. He claimed that he was outraged by the Hezbullah flags at the Al-Quds march. He has never spoken against Nazi flags, gestures and Israeli flags at anti Muslim rallies by EDL, Pagida, etc. organised by Tommy Robinson.  

On top of the above Maajid has been offered a settlement of 3.375 million dollars by the Southern Poverty Law Centre. SPLC says that they have been “persuaded” by some influential figures that Maajid has done some work countering anti Muslim bigotry. We are yet to learn of this compelling evidence.

What we know is that all the evidence points to Maajid Nawaz being associated with the Islamophobic activity. Let us start with his radio show on the LBC, he hasn’t presented a single show in which he hasn’t criticised Muslims calling them bigots, extremists, etc. and he promotes his show telling listeners to expect exactly that. that. His treatment of Muslim callers to the show is well rehearsed, his tone becomes aggressive, he talks about things not relevant to the subject i.e blasphemy, sharia, capital punishments, etc, etc. This also gives him opportunity to criticise “the left” for working supporting Muslims like Islamophobia. On the other hand pre arranged callers i.e. Ex Muslims, etc are given every opportunity to criticise Muslims/ Islam. Furthermore, Maajid Nawaz cleverly and shamelessly uses his racial, cultural and religious heritage as a licence to shut down his critics in the mainstream white community and other panellists on the programs such as the Pledge. Maajid doesn’t hesitate to compare Islamism and what he calls regressive left to Nazis.

Maajid Nawaz repeatedly tells exaggerated stories about himself and own importance. He claims that as a teenager he was chased by the Combat 18 thugs armed with knives and hammers but he never came to any harm. The combat 18 wasn’t a street fighting racist group but a highly secretive group with aims to target prominent politicians and other public figures, not teenagers. He claims that he went to Pakistan as a recruiter for Hizbul Tehrir but nothing is disclosed about his success. He also makes a lot about his arrest and time spent in prison in Egypt today. The reality is that he was part of a group of four British prisoners, one of whom was released. The other two were white British and because of them there was pressure on the authorities to do something. Their case was taken up by Amnesty International because they all made allegations of torture. Maajid now says that he wasn’t tortured and he has now fallen out with Amnesty over their criticism of the atrocities committed by the state of Israel against Palestinians in the occupied territories and Gaza. Furthermore, Maajid is a committed critic of those who were actually tortured and held without charge in Guantanamo Bay.

Maajid Nawaz is unashamedly associates, collaborates and supports those active in the field of anti Muslim bigotry, correct term for which is Islamophobia. Maajid Nawaz used to call himself a moderate Muslim and not a reformer. However, he now calls himself a reformer Muslim and claims that he is influencing people like Sam Harris and Ayaan etc. There is no evidence that supports his claims instead his own activities and rhetoric has become similar to his company and he seems to have adopted Islamophobic tropes. Furthermore, he consciously supports racist and far right figures like Tommy Robinson, etc. Maajid’s friend Douglas Murray calls European, far right, Islamophobes, racists, supremacists, like Geert Wilders, Victor Orban his friends. Geerat Wilders recently sent this message to Free Tommy Robinson rally in London. By the way the rally & Tommy Robinson's legal costs are being borne by an Islamophobic, anti Arab/ Palestinian, Zionist and anti refugee organisation called Middle East Forum . The Maajid himself sent a tweet to the British Prisons Minister re his concerns about the safety of Tommy Robinson. He says his concerns were on humanitarian grounds. Similar cconcerns were sent by Geert Wilders & Breitbats Raheem Kassem. Furthermore, he used the imprisonment of Tommy Robinson to blame Muslim and Pakistani communities for Tommy Robinson, ignoring the fact that Tommy has been a racist who turned #Islamophobe. Muslims are neither responsible for his xenophobia or repeated imprisonments for which he pleaded guilty.

Maajid Nawaz is quick to speak in support of white far right, racists, Islamophobes, and new Nazis but never in support of Brown Muslims subjected to the same treatment. Instead he calls Anti Fascist groups to be named as extremists. Recent example of his support for the far right is his at detention of Laura Southern by UK Border Force and subsequent denial of entry to UK. Without checking Maajid said that she was a Christian conservative. He claimed that she was being barred for distributing “blasphemous leaflet "blasphemous leaflet" during her previous visit to the country. Day before coming to the UK Laura Southern had posted a video about her friends being detained by the UK Border Force. She was talking about Generation Identity’s Austrian co founder Martin Sellner and his girlfriend. Generation Identity is a pan-European movement which is anti immigration and want to deport non whites from Europe. Laura Southern herself doesn’t claim to be Christian but says she is agnostic. Incidentally they were all coming to UK for a meeting with Tommy Robinson.

Both Maajid and the Quilliam foundation, which he says he founded, work to exaggerate negative stories about Muslims and undermine positive ones. Their work is more about self promotion for sake of keeping their backers, partners and followers happy and to give cover to anti Muslim rhetoric. Furthermore, financial rewards remain a motivator in their work. Initially they worked with the government and allegedly produced a list of Muslims for the security agencies. Then they worked with the Henry Jackson Society and Douglas Murray in return for financial support. Later Sam Harris enticed them with a donation of thousands of dollars. Sam them took Maajid to Australia so he could say he has a Muslim friend who agrees with him. Now Quilliam gets funding from the Templeton foundation and in return Israel gets full support from Maajid and Quilliam.    

You may say that Islamophobic rhetoric is in the DNA of the Quilliam Foundation and people working for it. It is not just Maajid who has alliances with the Islamophobic people and organisations but most people attached to the Quilliam have the same work ethics. Here is Haras Rafiq grovelling to notorious Islamophobe Tommy Robinson and saying that Tommy is not racist or white supremacist. Here is Maajid Nawaz statement on the issue. Haras Rafiq and Tommy Robinson were brought together by the BBC’s Daily Politics programme presenter Andrew Neil and Tim Marshal of Sky news , told Haras and Tommy that they need to sort out their issues by talking and shouldn't they be on the same side. Andrew Neil acts as media godfather for the right and has provided platform to many anti Muslim and other right wing activists including Britain First,BNP, UKIP, etc. Andrew Neil is also responsible for introducing Douglas Murray,  Maajid Nawaz to the British public. 

Maajid and Quilliam continue to attack Muslims by manipulating data and presenting as research.For example their report on so called grooming gangs has been debunked in this Twitter thread by Luke Wilson and this article byJ Spooner & J Stubbs. Now Maajid's own colleague at LBC radio Matthew Stadlen is asking why Maajid & Quilliam hasn't publicly responded to this criticism. They, however, continue to quote dodgy surveys as factual information. As far as I know Quilliam has never conducted any research or surveyed Muslims themselves and rely on third party work to make outrageous claims about Muslim minorities in the west. Maajid Only person who had conducted a genuine research at Quilliam was Julie Ebnar in the rise of the far right but she found that Maajid and Quilliam distanced themselves from her research. After the above mentioned Tommy Robinson affair Julia left Quilliam and wrote a book on the subject of the rise of the far right and racism disguised as criticism of Islam.    

Despite Maajid’s claims of working against anti Muslim Bigotry and apparent change in his twitter activity, he remains committed to his alliances with Islamophobes. He celebrated his “win” over SPLC with some of these people. He is like a teenager who wants to be with the clique of cool but cruel kids. To please the clique he says things which sometimes even surprise them. This can be seen in his podcasts with Sam Harris where he made a  joke at the expense of the Prophet. Maajid also agreed with Sam that like him Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch had suffered unjustified reputational damage and that he would have no trouble in working with him. His immaturity could be seen in the reaction on Twitter to the offer of settlement from SPLC.

Maajid Nawaz cleverly and shamelessly uses his racial, national, cultural and religious heritage as a licence to shut down his critics in the mainstream white community. He probably applied the same tactics with SPLC and used his friends such as those who gave him “humanitarian award” (I call it bribe) through UN watch, for his criticism of the UN Human Rights Council. UN Watch employs people who are anti Arab, anti Palestinian and Islamophobic. One such person is Richard Kemp, who was successfully sued for libel by Muslim politician, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, for calling her supporter of extremists and Jihadists. Maajid Nawaz has also criticised Baroness for working with grassroots organizations& for asking for investigation of Islamophobia in the Conservative party. Fault of the Human Rights Council, criticism of Israel for the atrocities being committed in occupied territories and Gaza against the Palestinian people and continuous land grab for illegal settlements occupied by mainly by North American Jewish people. I sincerely hope that SPLC haven’t been hoodwinked as Maajid’s employer LBC radio had been who thought that Maajid had received humanitarian award from the UN. Although it is curious that Maajid received SPLC offer approximately a month after his speech after receiving the award. Notice the usual reference to Combat 18, etc.    

Only silver lining in this sorry affair is that the settlement money will be paid by SPLC insurers and comes with strings attached that money to be spent on fighting anti Muslim bigotry. Hope that means community based projects and not those sponsored by the establishment. It is probably the conditions of settlement which are making Quilliam and Maajid anxious and he is desperate to meet with Mr Cohen of the SPLC. After very public pressure he seems to have secured a meeting with the SPLC and he is taking director of Quilliam Haras Rafiq with him. Maajid has even started to tweet differently but it is not going down well with his followers and he started to losing twitter followers. He is back to his usual style of tweeting now.  

Despite Maajid’s claims of working against anti Muslim Bigotry and apparent change in his twitter activity, he remains committed to his alliances with Islamophobes. He celebrated his “win” over SPLC with some of these islamophbic people & tweeted "I don't fuck around". As usual he exaggerated (lied) about effects of his listing by Thompson Reuters. He is like school teenager who wants to be with the clique of cool but cruel kids and to please the clique he says things which even surprises them. This can be heard in his podcast with Sam Harris where he made fun of the Prophet of Islam and agreed that another Islamophobe, Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch wasn’t a bad man and he would have no trouble in working with him.

From the actions of Maajid Nawaz a reasonable person will conclude that he is involved in politics of distraction, deflection, division and destruction. He distracts people from real issues by making strawman arguments to protect Israel and her supporters, who happens to be all the people he associates with. He deflects people by providing cover for people like Sam Harris, Ayaan, Tommy, etc. by supporting their arguments and by saying no such thing as Islamophobia. He acts to destruct communal harmony in the Western society by sowing seeds of suspicion against minorities and their struggle for equality. 

I do hope that SPLC would see the ugly truth and reconsider their offer.

Rhetoric or Something Sinister

Fifth Column v Fourth Reich

Life had barely started to normalise after the dreadful tragedy in Manchester, we were faced with another horror in London, where three men went on rampage killing seven and injuring dozens more. This slaughter of innocents, who were going about their life has been condemned and sympathies offered by all, whatever their race, religion and political leanings. This incident has united people from all communities who showed defiance in  face of such horror and terror.

However, this condemnation is not universal and people have tried to make capital out of the tragedy and hurt of the families affected by this tragedy. These people neither condemned nor offered condolences or sympathies to the families of the victims. Families who despite loss of their precious loved ones refuse to adopt the hateful rhetoric and appeal for unity.

We saw their beautiful and emotional tributes to their lost family members. For example sister of James McMullen who lost his life in the London Attack said “hatred is the refuge of small minded individuals and will only breed more. This is not the course we will follow despite our loss." Such beautiful views only get one airing during the live broadcast. After that they are edited out by the Media like BBC, Sky etc. The printed press does not publish such views at all.

The people who do get airing and column inches are the one who incite and hate and divisive agenda. These people are like vultures who feed on the human misery and excrete poisonous bile. Their poisonous rhetoric doesn’t need any excuse as it has been going on for years. However, to make fun of the grieving families and communities for lighting candles and standing together is a new low even for these ultra right individuals and their sponsors.

Their rhetoric has now got traction and support from new faces as well as the usual quarters. The fully fledged attack on Islam and Muslims has moved from the internet based blogs and “magazines” to the mainstream print media. Richard Littlejoh, Rob Liddle are all writing about it. Their articles are heavy on rhetoric and full of inaccuracies and false rhetoric. They have been published in the Daily Mail, Spectator etc. some been copies and published in full on sites like exposingislam.blogspot.co.uk .     

People are openly talking about internment and British Guantanamo Bay. Even our political leaders like Theresa May are talking about removing Human Rights, liberties, disproportionate sentences and more. Then we have the intervention by the President of the United States criticising the Mayor of London. This intervention is not the first one as he did the same during the Westminster attack. As previously Trump did not offer any condolences to the families.

The question is why the President criticise the Prime Minister or the Mayor of London for terrorist attacks. The answer has to be that his extraordinary attack is based solely on the religion and race of the London Mayor. The other reason may be why Trump didn’t react in same manor to the Manchester tragedy was because he was away from his advisors like Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka who hold neo Nazi views.      

This rise of these purveyors of hate and white supremacy to the echelons of power should worry us all whatever your race religion. Anyone thinking that these people are simply criticising Islam should consider the associated rhetoric. When these people and their allies like Geerat Wilders talk about Moroccan scum and attack people on the bases of the ethnic or nationality heritage of their citizens they are not criticising a religion or any ideology but they are attacking wider ethnic minorities.

You expect religion based white supremacists like KKK to have disparaging views about the non whites but when new atheist’s views merge with such people, you know the dangers of their rhetoric. For example Sam Harris is currently promoting work that suggests that blacks have lower intelligence than the whites. He is not the first one to suggest such abhorrent “science”, Richard Dawkins has also made similar comparisons that Jews and Christians have won more Nobel prizes than Muslims. Richard Dawkins is of course talking about white Western and not African, South American, Middle Eastern or Asian Christians or Jews.  

Then there is the role of the media and Prime time airing of hateful views of people like Bill Maher. Here we have people like Douglas Murray of Henry Jackson Society and the Gatestone Institute and an ally of Geerat Wilders, who has secured a regular slot on BBC’S political and news programmes. He has made a career out of anti Muslim/ Islam rhetoric and writings. Then we have so called historian, Tom Holland, who is benefiting from a mixture of fiction and work of others to call himself a historian. These people are supported by organisations like Quilliam and so called reformer and ex Muslims, who in my view are victims of self interest and doesn’t realise the gravity of their naivety.

We must not forget people like Paul Nuttal, who propose including religion as aggravating factor for sexual crimes committed by minority communities and not the majority community or child abuse by priests These people talk about culture erosion of Western culture erosion which cant be based on 3% Muslims in the European Union or 1% Muslims in the US. It must be based on general non white population of these countries. The previous leader of the UKIP made it easier for people to refer to Islam and Muslims being a “Fifth Column” midst of the Western society. Nigel Farage also has the ear of the President of the United States.

Increasingly I am finding it difficult to ignore the rise of the far right and neo Nazi ideology and the rise of people near to the highest office of the Western world. I wonder if we are seeing the rise of the “Fourth Reich”, not in Germany but all over the Western world. What gives me comfort is that the ordinary people are not being fooled by this sinister ideology and are rejecting the hate from all quarters.

Please read this with the this which I wrote few days ago.

Feminism, Misogyny in "Context" and Deflective statements

If you, are in the public eye, want to be in public service, grandstand on serious issues, lecture people on issues of morality and claim to be above the ordinary person in the street then you must be beyond reproach. If you want to be taken seriously, you must have a strong character. Without the depth of character and conviction to what you preach you can’t expect to people to listen to your preaching. Without the right characteristics you are just a shallow person with no principles.

On Saturday 11^th April 2014 the Daily Mail published an expose' of the Liberal Democrat candidate for the London constituency of Hampstead and Kilburn and the Chairman of the Quilliam Foundation, Maajid Nawaz. The Headline read : “Caught on camera: Married Lib Dem 'feminist' who is running for Parliament is filmed with stripper in drunken night of temptation”.

The Manager of the establishment told Daily Mail that “he (Maajid Nawaz) was ‘very drunk’ and bouncers threatened to throw him out several times. He was asking her to touch him and he was touching her,’ he (Manager) said. ‘In general he was quite persistent with her, asking to take her out and for her number.’ ” 

The article raised important questions about the character and behaviour of the self proclaimed “extremism expert”, “feminist” and “religious reformist ”. His spokesperson said that Maajid Nawaz was a "feminist in the context of Islamic extremism" only. Everyone want to know what that means, and we are still waiting. You are either a feminist or you are not, this convoluted definition of his feminism doesn’t wash. While Maajid tweeted that he had a stag night last summer others were left scratching head at his blasé' attitude. 

     

Maajid's supporters were in a quandary, they didn’t know how to react to these serious allegations. No one had the courage to outright condemn his behaviour and some try to deflect the matter by pointing to the religion of the manager of the strip club. While others made degrading remarks about strippers and that they should expect groping and unwanted touching. And Maajid's friend and protégé Tommy Robinson tweeted the following.  This laddish behaviour is no different from Maajid's own behaviour who also tweeted this about his wife. 

   



The only blog which came close to condemning Maajid's behaviour was by J P Sargeant, although even he asked for clarification from Maajid thann outright condemn it. 

Others who join the Maajid's chorus of Islmaist and Misogyny decided to go with the deflection. For example Sara Khan of Inspire wrote this to attack Muslims in general than condemn Maajid's actions. Its seems that like Maajid's feminism in the extremist context, Sara's feminism and misogyny rhetoric is also in the Muslim extremist context. While it may be hard for her to condemn Maajid's behaviour, she could still have condemned the behaviour of his supporters who justified Maajid's behaviour by saying that strippers should expect harassment from punters like Maajid. 

Another friend of Maajid, Iram Ramzan, used the Left Foot Forward platform (not stranger to attacking Muslims in general) to write this , again mainly to attack those who condemned his behaviour. She reiterated that Maajid wasn't a "devout" Muslim and not a spokesperson for Muslims. The other ridiculous defence being made is that Maajid wasn’t married at the time and that his son lives with his first wife. As thought morals and character only applicable in certain circumstances and if those conditions are not met then its ok to be lecherous towards females.

The real hypocrisy is that Maajid and his followers have always said that you don’t need to be religious to be a good person. They always claimed a high moral ground over those they call "Islamists". Furthermore, Maajid Nawaz, while appearing on the media, all over Europe and the North America, claimed that he wanted to reform Islam to bring in line with the values of today. He and his supporters always blamed the criminal behaviour and bad behaviour within the minority Muslim communities on their heritage culture and religion not the society they grew up in. Today, however, they are moving the goal posts and saying it is normal and legal to visit a strip bar and allegedly harass the women who are trying to make a living. As though they don’t have the right to a dignity. Some of these women and girls are students trying to pay for decent education and hopefully a better career.

Maajid Nawaz finally issued a statement titled, A planned and sustained attack campaign against reform-minded Muslims. While he offers a kind of apology to his wife, while stating that she was aware of his actions, and his son, he spends the rest of the statement claiming victimhood and attacking others. He claims that he is a victim of a sustained attacks to dehumanise him but the proceeds to defame others by calling them regressive and that they aspire to stone people. This in reality is the real dehumanisation campaign, Maajid and his fellow phobes are involved in on daily basis. He perpetuate myths created by people like Ayaan H Ali and Sam Harris that Muslim and Islam are not compatible with the western values. He gives credence to Ayaan H Alis's assertion that only way to solve the Muslim problem is by the use of  force. She is not satisfied with the deaths of 4 Million Muslims and claims there are 400 million dangerous Muslims who need to be targeted. His friend Sam Harris dehumanises Palestinians by agreeing with Israeli assertions that they use their children as human shields. 

The common theme in the statements of Maajid Nawaz, Sara Khan and Iram Ramzan is, the attacks on one the whistle blowers and the attacks on one individual, Dilly Hussain. The other common rhetoric is to attack Muslim men in general and to ignore the women who also commented and condemned his behaviour. So it seems that they want to present this myth that the Muslim societies are mainly patriarchal societies. This ignoring of the role of the strong Muslim women in the society is in itself sexist and Misogynistic and need to be challenged.   

 

Whether Maajid Nawaz likes to drink or to visit "gentleman's clubs is not the issue, the issue is the character and attitude of selective morality. The issue is, whether such person has the credibility to lecture people on the important issues of liberalism, extremeism and religeon.       

     

2014 The Year When, .....

Islamophobia became Institutionalised

2014 is the year in which world experienced both natural and manmade disasters. There is very little you can do to prevent natural disasters but prevention of manmade disasters like wars, is entirely feasible. However, they require courage determination and will to understand and change. It requires ability to learn lessons from past mistakes and history. It requires ability to resist the pressures by self interest groups and to stand up to the agitators. Unfortunately our political leaders and masters lack such courage, determination, understanding and ability to learn the lessons.  

It is shameful that in the year that marked 100^th anniversary of the start of the First World War, we had to remember millions more deaths through wars, along with the lives lost in that war. To keep the populations on side, all wars require propaganda and disinformation to justify the sacrifices in blood and treasure. Especially, when politicians use the rhetoric of fight for decades, they need to have a scapegoat. Our politicians tread a fine line they don’t want unrest at home, so they play lip service to the minority communities while their actions give clear signal to the agitators to continue to spread hate. It seems that the politicians think its a price worth paying.

The mainstream media like the BBC plays its part as government’s mouth piece for propaganda. After all it is dependent on the government funding along with the licence fees, a tax we all must bear. Foreign and Commonwealth office uses BBC to spread propaganda throughout the world stoking fires of conflict, which create refugees. At the same time it continues to spread propaganda against the migrants, asylum seekers and minorities. Furthermore, BBC remains one of the major employers of asylum seekers to spread propaganda in their former home countries. As far as the minorities at home are concerned BBC fails to employ/ promote black and minority ethnic communities. The problem is so deep that comedian Lenny Henry openly came out to criticise BBC, Mainstream Media, and the entertainment industry of institutionalised racism.

The BBC Board and the Executive Board remains almost exclusively white and from the elite classes. BBC entertainment programmes remain exclusively for the majority community. It has failed to interests of the minority communities, not only the migrant communities but also the Celtic minorities of Scotland, Wales and Ireland and the regional communities of England. Despite moving some of its operations to the Manchester, the management stranglehold of the South and the privileged communities remains. It has failed to promote the role models for the minority communities instead it propagates caricatures of ridicule and sides with the hate preachers.  Despite remaining the public and taxpayer funded organisation BBC is exempted from the Freedom of Information Act. You might say that because of its secretive policies, procedures and agendas, BBC is the North Korea of the Main Stream Broadcast Media.  

The BBC kick started the Islamophobic year, by allowing Nicky Campbell to conspire with so called Humanists and probably also with the Chair of the Quilliam Foundation, Maajid Nawaz, to start the cartoon controversy. Since then it has conspired with the outside agencies and individuals to ban the voices of reason. It has bowed to the social media and twitter campaigns to block mainstream Muslim voices from appearing on TV. Social media campaigns have targeted many of the mainstream Muslims speakers commentators and writers. The campaign also targeted the various scholars in an attempt to pave the way for Quilliam Foundation to claim to be the only authoritative voice on Muslim issues.   

After the cartoon controversy media attention shifted towards the conflict in Syria and a sudden turn by the media from portraying British Muslims, who had gone to help refugees and support the fight against the regime, from humanitarians to branding them Jihadist, terrorists and threat to the UK security. There was very little investigative or probing journalism or efforts by the Media, the Government and her contractors, to assess or investigate the factors behind the attraction or reasons for the young teeage Muslims boys and some girls taking such drastic and life changing action. Instead a campaign to demonise the whole of the community commenced giving excuses to frame new regulations and creating new powers which will affect not only the minority community but the whole UK population.

Then came the so called Trojan Horse story based on a fake letter. The story ran and ran culminating in the ofstead inspections and reports. At that point institutionalisation of Islamophobia started to become clear. Despite the protests from the teaching community, pupils, the parents and the governing bodies, schools were downgraded and some put in special measures. These actions were contradictory to the Education Secretary, Michael Gove’s stated position of parental choice and free schools. It seemed a deliberate attempt to deny minority communities, the same choices available to others. Instead of offering solutions, such as support and training for the governing bodies the government’s actions seemed designed to stop minority communities from gaining the position of authority or having a say in the education of their children. We have seen this kind of attacks on Muslim authority figures in the Met and on an elected Mayor in London. 

In between we had the so called anti Halalification campaign on the media and social media. There was opposition to the Law Society’ guidelines on drawing up Islam compliant wills, now withdrawn. There were continuous efforts to link FGM, forced marriages, and honour killings with Islam. Also any criminal activity by a Muslim was disproportionately highlighted and linked to religion. There was a campaign to remove Islamic books and literature from schools. Although, books and literature regarding colonialism, slavery, etc remains available. We seem to be on a dangerous road to eliminate diversity of knowledge to having a monolithic state provided knowledge (similar to the system in the China and North Korea). It is dangerous because we now live in a global village and we need knowledge good and bad to interact with our neighbours.

Then we had the grooming cases and the reports which highlighted the failures of the care system, police and local authorities but the media remained fixated on the colour, race, ethnic heritage and religion of the offenders. In the year when well known faces mainly celebrities connected to the media in general and BBC in particular have been prosecuted and convicted of sexual offences and paedophile activity of the powerful and ruling classes is being investigated , it seemed convenient deflection  to highlight  minority and Muslim offenders. Then we have the Maajid Nawaz’s friend Tommy Robinson who continues to tweet his bigoted views against Muslims. His recent appearance at the Oxford Union clearly brought out the ugly side of Islamophobia and even those who campaigned for Tommy to appear at the Oxford Union seemed disappointed. However, the Islamophobes and some bloggers seem still willing to give him benefit of doubt and tweet and retweet his vile propaganda.

With the rise of the UKIP and the immigration debate, some individuals and organisations have started to move the debate of immigration towards Muslim migrants. Especially towards the settled communities and second and third generations who are born and bred in the western culture and are oblivions of the culture of the countries of their forefathers. This is where the xenophobia and racism meets Islamophobia and the racism of Islamophobes starts to come through.

Any Islamophbic review of the year can not be complete without the mention of the chief Richard Dawkins and his friends. As usual Mr Dawkins continued his Islamophobic tweets claiming it to be satire. He also continued to retweet stuff clearly recognised as bigoted by others. Here is an Article by Tom Owolade . Dakins friend Sam Harris continued on the mission of spreading Hate. His appearance on the Bill Maher show, where he was confronted by the actor Ben Affleck for his bigotory, made international headlines. Sam Harris found support from the obvious quarters but even he didn’t expect support from the Chair Maajid Nawaz of the Quilliam Foundation. Maajid Nawaz made few dollars in the process. After his failure to make any real money out of his encounter with the “ex-EDL” Tommy Robinson, Maajid Nawaz intend to make more money from this new relationship by writing a book about his encounter with Sam Harris.

Quilliam also provided one of the funny moment of the year by issuing a Fatwa against travel  to Syria. As though these young men knew the meaning of a Fatwa and what it stands for. Majority of the young teenagers who had gone to Syria did'nt have any deep religious beliefs or upbringing. By issuing a Fatwa, Maajid Nawaz and Quilliam exposed themselves to be an organisation without a clear idea how to relate, understand and tackle issues of young Muslims growing up with continuous demonisation and dehumanisation.of Muslims. This year Maajid Nawaz and Quilliam has moved the goal post again. They started with radicalised to extremist to Islamist to current position that anyone who believes in Islamic scriptures is a threat. This evolution reflects Maajid Nawaz’s journey from Hizbe Tehrir to the ideology of the ex muslims, atheists, humanist and now partnership with Sam Harris.   

The most worrying development in 2014 has been the Institutionalisation of Islamophbia by the government through its actions. After the spat with Mr Gove the Home Secretary, Theresa May started to act tough in her words and deeds. This year new legislation and regulations have been introduced, which have been framed to frame individuals leaving them no option but to plead guilty. In other cases the prosecuting authorities doesn’t need to prove anything except that the individuals had travelled to Turkey and possibly to Syria. This has already resulted in youngsters being jailed for unreasonably lengthy times.

Theresa May, who has ambitions to be the leader of the conservative party, made a dramatic announcement at the Party conference in September, to introduce Extremism Disruption Orders which would prohibit individuals considered to be extremist and hate speakers from appearing on Radio, TV, Protests and posting messages on the social media, without permission. Its telling that the opposition to the proposals came, not from the Muslim community but the Islamophobe community who felt that their hateful activities would come under scrutiny. People like Maajid Nawaz, secularists, atheists and humanists who had been demanding ban on Muslim speakers and those who had made career out of spreading hate and fear, suddenly became supporters of free speech. These people never raised a voice about loss of liberty and freedom of people on the bases of suspicion, alleged and perceived extremist activity and not actual crime. Suddenly they remembered the value of free speech.

On 26^th November the Home Secretary Theresa May introduced the Counter Terrorism and Security Bill. The Bill is being fast tracked and could become law at the beginning of 2015. In summary the bill will powers to seize passports of people suspected of travelling to Syria etc, could exclude citizens from the country (It has a serious potential of abuse), move people from their hometown to another place. It would stop insurance companies from paying ransom payments. It would place statutory duty on the public institutions, including Schools, Colleges and Universities, to stop people from becoming radicalised. Even Nurseries for 2 Year Olds feel they will have obligations under the bill. The Bill directly contradicts the 1986 Education Act , which places a duty on the Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges to ensure freedom of speech. Furthermore, the Bill includes extensive powers regarding monitoring of social media and other communications. 

We musnt forget the assault on the Muslim operated charities. Charity is one of the main pillers of Islam and every Muslim must pay a certain amount from his/her income and assets to help those in need. Muslim charities are involved projects to provide safe water, sponsoring orphans, education and development projects all over the world including at home. They help refugees and victims of conflict from Palestine to Syria, Syria Sudan and Yemen. Because of their humanitarian work in the conflict zones, and pressures from the Israeli lobbies, they are being put under suspicion.     

So we welcome the New Year with new definition for the British Values which restricts right to freely speak, travel and communicate. Furthermore, the big society means, Employers and Landlords checking your immigration status and Educational and other Institutions restricting freedom of discussion, debate and learning. The Young Muslims are already facing an uphill struggle to obtain employment due to the stigmatisation by the hateful rhetoric and crude language used by the Mainstream and Social Media and now their travel, holiday plans will also be affected by the new powers of seizing passports and exclusion orders.

Happy New Year     

9/11 and Other Anniversaries

Another anniversary of the 9/11 has passed with another President of the US using the occasion to declare another war. The terminology and the rhetoric of evil, barbaric, genocidal, etc is also back. There is no change in the belief of exceptionalism of the America and the Americans in particular and the west in general. It seems no lessons have been learnt from the tragic events of the 9/11 and the actions prior to and after the event.

Like most people my day on 9/11 began as normal, a bus journey followed by train ride and a walk to work. As usual I had a scone and cup of tea for breakfast at my desk. Just before I was to go out for a sandwich a colleague approached me and said that he had heard the news on the radio that a plane had crashed into one of the high rise buildings of the World Trade Centre. We were both anxious about the safety of the passengers and the people in the building. That was just the start and as the second plane hit the second tower we started to wonder if this was accidental or deliberate act. When towers fell we were aghast like everyone else in the world. Everyone was saying that they didn’t expect towers to crumble the way they did.

Whatever the motives of the people who allegedly carried out the attacks, it has had a lasting effect on all but especially the lives of Muslims settled in the West and the Muslim in the world at large.

While we don’t know the motives of the alleged hijackers what we know from the information available is that the majority were from Saudi Arabia and all were Arabs. There is no evidence that they had visited Afghanistan or Pakistan. They were students who had studied in the Europe and had freely visited US. They were from well off backgrounds and there were no signs of any disaffection from society. Furthermore, there were no signs of any abnormal affiliation with so called extremism. Everything points to a political motive not the alleged religious extremism.

It is often said that the attack on the twin towers was an unprovoked attack. Furthermore, it’s claimed that it is more to do with religion than politics. I don’t see this in these simplistic terms.

Because the West continues to blame Muslims and their religion, Let us look at the Muslim world before 9/11 and what had happened in years preceding. The US and the West had interfered in the internal affairs of many countries and supported the suppression of people by unelected dictators. They had used countries like Pakistan and Iraq to fight proxy wars without caring about the effects of such wars on the ordinary people. No consideration is given to the lasting effects of wars on the population in terms of social, economic and the loss of life.

In Afghanistan, during the proxy war between Russia and US 1979-1989, an estimated 1,500,000 civilians plus 100,000 fighters were killed. Furthermore, around 3 million Afghan civilians were wounded, most of them children. Also 7 million Afghans had been displaced of which 5 million refugees are hosted by Pakistan to this day.

This proxy war also set the precedent of using religion, private funding and the use of foreign fighters / Mujahidin, sponsored by US and Saudi Arabia.  

Afghanistan historically had been closer to the USSR than the US. USSR had heavily invested in Afghanistan during the 70’s, building Kabul University, civil infrastructure, power plants and local schools. They also established universities in other provinces. In contrast when the proxy war ended in 1989, the US and their allies left Afghanistan in the hands of warring warlords. There was no development or rebuilding. The foreign fighters were not encouraged to go back to their countries. There was no help for them to go back and readjust to normal life. The void was filled by the Taliban who had come out of the religious madrassas (A form of basic schooling) in the refugee camps, only form of education available to the refugees..  

Let us not forget the ongoing impact of this war on Pakistan, economic, political and social. Before the Afghan war Pakistan’s elected Prime Minister, Zulifqar Ali Bhutto had started to distance Pakistan from the West by leaving SEATO (an equivalent treaty to NATO in the Asia) and the Common Wealth. He looked towards East and the Middle East. He had laid the foundation for a movement of united Muslim block with economic and political power. He was instrumental in the use of oil power of the Middle Eastern OPEC to resolve the outstanding disputes in the Middle East between Israel and the neighbouring countries. Furthermore, he supported the idea of punishing the US and other Western powers for their military support of Israel and their failure to resolve the Palestine issue. This resulted in the 1973 stoppage of the oil supply to the US. This forced West to arrange the evacuation of Israeli forces from the Sinai and promise to facilitate return of the Golan Heights to Syria 

Soon West resorted to the old tactics of divide and rule and find ways to remove obstacle. Bhutto had said that the “white elephant” was after him for not cooperating with them. The white elephant had a long memory and soon engineered the removal of Bhutto from his elected position. The military dictator who removed Bhutto not only supported the US’s proxy war in the Afghanistan, he divided the nation. He fuelled the communal politics in the country and sowed the seeds of sectarian violence. He also experimented with Saudi and Taliban style government in Pakistan. The Middle Eastern Unity was fractured by the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.       

The Iran/ Iraq war which began on 22^nd September 1980, may have started as a dispute between the two countries but  by 1982 US openly came to support Iraq. The US support to Iraq came in the form of technological, intelligence, the sale of chemical and biological warfare technology and satellite intelligence. No objections were raised at the use of such chemical and biological weapons by Iraq during this war. By the time the war ended, in 1988, there were between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 casualties on both sides. Furthermore, the economies of both countries had suffered an approximately $1,000 billion loss. No wonder Iraq invaded Kuwait to make up for the losses. We know that US ambassador had given a nod to this invasion but it seems that Kuwait’s wealth had a bigger allure and soon US switched sides, which lead to the first Iraq war.

The first Iraq war in 1991 was seen as humiliation of the Iraqi people and massacre of its armed forces described as Turkey shoot, only added to the frustration of Middle Eastern population. The Saudi population was unhappy about the use of their territory to attack Iraq. Their anger got worse when US forces were allowed to station at a base in the Kingdom. While the war was over in days, what followed had a profound effect on the populations of the Middle East. While the people had little objections to the dismantling of the chemical weaponry, they objected to the crippling sanctions which had reduced the oil rich modern developing society to a poor third world country.

The sanctions are nothing but a modern version of the medieval siege of people to force them surrender. This siege of Iraq caused deaths of 5000,000 children from malnutrition and curable diseases.  

Then came Bosnia conflict, from 1992-95, which resulted in loss of life of a minimum of 2,000,000 including 12,000 children. Deaths include victims of genocide and massacres as well as starvation and exposure to the elements due to living in hiding.  At least 50,000 Muslim women were the victims of organised campaign of rape. Mass graves are still being discovered and this year remains of 284 victims have been discovered and 10,000 people are still missing. The conflict forced 2,200,000 to flee their homes. There was resistance to Muslims being given refuge in the West. Suggestions were made to ship them to Pakistan and the Middle East but eventually they were allowed in.

The Bosnian conflict had a profound effect on the young Muslims living in the West including students. They saw how the West was treating the European Muslims and they wanted to help. The Second and third generation Muslims who were trying to find their identity, found a cause they could relate to and in the process found their identity. They became active in raising funds, visited Bosnia and helped refugees to settle in the West.

Then there is the ongoing plight of the Palestinians who have now lived under occupation for more than 60 years. Israel has massacred Palestinians, not only in Palestine but in the refugee camps in other countries. Anniversary of one such massacre has just passed. This massacre also happened in September in 1982, in the camps of Sabra and shatila, Lebanon.  In just 3 days, from 9/16-18 appr. 3,500 men women and children were massacred by Israel. Israeli forces were lead by Aerial Sharon, who was never brought to Justice for the inhumane war crimes. Instead he held ministerial posts and became Israeli Prime Minister. He was welcomed with open arms in the US. This is just one example of the most heinous monstrosities committed against the Palestinians by Israel supported by the West in general and the US in particular.  Despite continuous suppression of Palestinian and other minorities in Israel and medieval style siege of Gaza, there are no sanctions against Israel.

Apart from the above there are other conflicts where Muslims face suppression, oppression, murder and rape. They include Kashmir, Philippine, China, Burma, Sri Lanka but find no support from the West. On the other hand Muslim countries are forced to relinquish territory e.g. East Timor, South Sudan. Since the 9/11 rise in Islamophobia and attacks on Muslims and mosques has made life difficult in the West. The term terrorist has lost its original meaning and now every country is using it to suppress political opponents, freedom fighters, insurgents and more. Apart from the West, where its used to curtail freedoms and justify draconian legislation, prime example are Palestinian and Kashmiri resistance.    

If there is anybody who has benefited from the tragedy of 9/11 it is Israel. This has been stated by none other than the Likud leader and the current Prime Minister of Israel. Netanyahu is of course right and its evident from the actions of Israel. Israel has, grabbed more and more land from the Palestinians, build more settlements, killed more civilians, demolished more Palestinian homes, waged wars on PA and Gaza, scuppered all attempts to reach a peace deal, etc. More importantly Israel has developed an Islamophobic narrative and spread it through alliances. These alliances include the normal suspects like AIPAC and new alliances with the neo-Nazi, nationalist, racist, atheist and neocon groups in the US and the West. While spreading hate of Muslims and Islam, Israel has openly promoted Judaism and used the first Testament to recruit Christians on her side. Israel has declared itself as a Jewish state that mean all new laws are influenced by the Jewish Law which is used to apply the two tier Judicial system.

While spreading lies about the Mosques, Israel has successfully used Synagogues in the West to recruit young men to enlist in its armed forces. These young men are radicalised in Israel and sent back to spread the hate and intimidate the dissenting voices in the Jewish community. We are already seeing the effects of this on the streets of Britain in form of attack on George Galloway MP and intimidation of a Rabbi in Manchester .      

Tony Blair often speaks about the Kosovo conflict and how he saved Muslims from ethnic cleansing and possible genocide. He was fully aware of the resistance in the Europe to Muslim refugees from Bosnia. He acted in self preservation and wallowed in the popularity he received in the bargain.

Coming back to 9/11 and its aftermath, I don’t think I need to talk about the occupation of Iraq or Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, Human rights abuses, war crimes, torture and loss of over 1,000,000 lives. I don’t need to mention millions of refugees and its impact on the region. I don’t need to highlight the emergence of sectarian, communal and divisive politics and conflicts. I don’t need to remind people about the creation of failed state in Libya and economic impact on the neighbouring African nations. I don’t need to state the rise and fall of the Arab Spring and Democracy and the military coup in Egypt. Syria is an ongoing problem for the last 3 years with a death toll nearing 200,000 and millions of refugees and now another conflict in Iraq.   

I don’t even want to question the flimsy and false evidence used to wage wars in the Afghanistan and Iraq. You all know about the false evidence used to invade Iraq but generally believe that Afghanistan was responsible because it hosted former friend of the US Osama bin Laden. Question is whether any evidence exists of his involvement. All we know is that the crime was pinned on him on the flimsy line in a conversation in a wedding video. The line was “we didn’t expect the towers to fall”. As I said at the beginning that everyone was asking the same question. The media spent a great deal of time in analysing and speculating about the same question.

Finally, on the basis of the list of suspects provided by the US and the evidence pointing to the political motives of the alleged perpetrators. The evidence also suggests that, neither Afghanistan nor Iraq had anything to do with 9/11. Why then both countries were attacked, invaded and  occupied. It is clear that US acted in own interest to make an example but not because they were guilty but because taking action against the Saudi Arabia and its citizens, was not in her interest. Instead both Saudi Arabia and the US had worked jointly in Afghanistan and were aware of the devastation they had left behind. Saudi Arabia and possibly Israel persuaded US and the West about the danger of perceived influence of Osama Bin Laden in the Muslim world. This was then used to attack and occupation. However, they didn’t expect this adventure to turn into a nightmare. Attack on Iraq was also part of the strategy to protect allies Saudi Arabia and Israel.  

It seems to me that diplomacy and negotiations are dead and every dispute is resolved by threat or actual use of force. Even so called alliances of the willing are created by threats like, "you are with us against us". There are no thinking political leaders and we and the politicians are being lead by the mainly incompetent media with their own interests. Everyday more and more people are falling victim to this policy which says I will let my fist do the talking. Everyday more children, women, men are being killed and everyday is an anniversary of the increasing number of victims of the new reality.       

You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover But....

You Can Judge a Person by the Company they Keep

I was away for couple of months and returned back home to UK towards the end of May. As I landed at the airport I could feel the change in the air. My first clue was the change of attitude of the UKBA staff at the airport. I was with a wheelchair bound person, therefore we were the last to leave the plane. When we got to the passport control I expected it to be empty but there was crowd still waiting. They were mainly relatives who had come to visit their families or retired who had come on a tourist visa. Some like us had returned after visiting family abroad. The staff which is normally friendly and professional were more harsh and unfriendly. There was a translator present, probably to help with UKBA questions. However, he was not standing by the officers but had been told to stand away and was only called after humiliating remarks about people not being able to speak/ understand English. This is clearly not a great advertisement for the Great Britain.  

I later learnt that I had missed the UKIP victory in the local and European Elections. Furthermore, UK media, especially the BBC, had been giving disproportionate amount of time to the UKIP and Nigel Farage and the racist and anti immigrant rhetoric. While Nigel Farage mainly talks about the European Union and the policy of freedom of movement, the real victims of his rhetoric are the settled non European communities. This is reinforced by our colour blind media, who doesn’t differentiate between European and non Europeans. Whenever, there is discussion about immigration, they always show clips showing long settled Asian communities.

Then came the so called “Trojan Horse” story giving media another chance to target the minority communities, not only in Birmingham but nationally. What I found interesting was that the Chairman Maajid Nawaz and Quilliam Foundation were getting exclusive air time on issues affecting the Muslim communities. Often it seems that Quilliam and Chairman Nawaz are mainly there to reinforce the government, media  and Henry Jackson Society line. There seems to be no room for the alternative point of view. In the recent conflict in Gaza the BBC insisted on having Israeli voice. At times it seemed that Mark Ragev worked for the BBC and other media, repeating the same lies without question. However, BBC doesn't apply the same principal of proportionality when it comes to the issues related to the minority communities in the Uk.  

• The question is that why Chair Nawaz, a prospective Parliamentary canditate for the Liberal Democrats, gets so much air time. We know when it comes to the Muslim and Asian immigrant communities, BBC and other media are in breach of their own code of conduct of impartiality and fair reporting. This is made worse by exclusively employing Quilliam and Chairman Nawaz to speak on issues affecting the Muslim and Pakistani communities. Furthermore by giving Chairman Nawaz air time, who is a prospective parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats, BBC is probably in breach of the electoral rules.

Chairman Nawaz is neither a member of the government nor a spokes person for the Liberal democrats. He should either resign from the Quilliam Foundation or step down as the Prospective Parliamentary candidate. He neither speaks for the Muslim community nor does he represent their views. His and the Quilliam Foundation views are are more reflective of their supporter organisations like Henry Jackson Society, British Humanist (Atheist) Society and the Neocon- Gatestone Institute. The Liberal Democrats must also decide whether his views reflect the views of the Liberal Democrats. They were quick to punish David Ward for his support for Palestine but have failed to take action against Chairman Nawaz for his support for Israel and attacks on the Palestinian resistance movements. He showed no sympathy for the victims of indiscriminate and targeted bombings in Gaza. He probably agrees with Douglas Murray, who described vast number of people who protested in London, as anti-Semites.  

By the way Chairman Maajid Nawaz has been on a VIP trip to Israel while Palestinian Americans and Palestinian Britons are refused visas to visit their homeland.

It is no accident that Chairman Nawaz and the Quilliam Foundation got free reign in the media. They had a little help from his friends including David Aaronovitch, Ian Dale, Nicky Campbell, Nick Cohen, etc. and of course the Atheists, Humanists and Ex Muslims. These people have been hounding the few voices in the media and the social media including Mehdi Hasan, Mo Ansar, Salma Yaqub and Mo Shafiq. While this clique had been after these prominent Muslims for some time, they needed a brown face to front their agenda. When they saw Chairman Nawaz under pressure, after his ill judged remarks to change the wording of Quran, during the Tommy Robinson affair, they offered him help and a protocol which he gladly accepted. They however, wanted to judge his "liberal and secularist" credentials, which was tested during the cartoon affair in January.      

I want to understand that how a cartoon, which had been around for several years, suddenly became a symbol of freedom of speech. Was it really about freedom of speech and liberalism or there was a sinister agenda. It seems to me the whole thing was staged through the BBC programme the Big question and a deliberate provocation. The host of the programme, Nicky Campbell is often found involved in Islamophobic activity on twitter. He likes to quote, out of context, translated passages from Islamic text. Its not that he is a scholar of Islam, he is just reading from the selected texts, supplied by a cell in Israel. Such texts are often used by the anti Muslim organisations. I have asked him and Tommy Robinson to tell me where I can buy a copy of the books they quote from but to date I have had no response.   

Coming back to the cartoons and why I think the whole thing was staged. I want you to consider the following twitter conversation, on 3^rd February 2014, between Chris Moos (one of the t-shirt wearers), Nicky Campbell and LSS (Lawyers' Secular Society) :

Chris Moos to Nicky Campbell:

Hi @NickyAACampbell could you please clarify that u were aware we were wearing @JandMo t-shirts #bbcbq and, consented to us uncovering them?

LSS to Nicky Campbell

Nicky, LSS is also hoping you can clarify this asap, Thank you @ChrisMoos_ @NickyAACampbell @JandMo

Nicky Campbell response to the above

@LawSecSos @ChrisMoos_ @JandMo have Dmd Chris

In light of the above and on the balance of probabilities, I would say that the whole thing was staged.

Now you decide whether or not Chairman Maajid Nawaz also had an advance notice of the planned spectacle and whether his act of tweeting the cartoon was deliberate. Before you decide one more thing to consider, Chris Moos and his accomplice, who wore the cartoon bearing t-shirts, are both members of the humanist society and so is Chairman Nawaz.Furthermore, Chair Nawz is still following him on twitter.

Following are some of the statements and claims Chairman Maajid Nawaz has made:

·         He was not radicalised in any mosque and in fact he was forcefully removed from outside a mosque for distributing HT leaflets;

·         He joined HT in search of identity (due to severe racial harassment) and for the Political reasons (due to situation in Bosnia);

·         He had a prominent role in HT

·         He is fluent in Arabic

·         After the cartoon affair he claimed that he did it for Salmaan Taseer and Malala Yousufzai

·         He set up an organisation called Khudi in Pakistan

The question is if he knows that radicalisation doesn’t take place in mosques, why doesn’t he confront those who say it does?

If he joined HT in search of identity and for political reasons then why doesn’t he give benefit of doubt to the young people of today, who may be going through the same struggle. Why does he dismiss them as Islamists and extremists? Why does he say that situation in Gaza, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Egypt etc. is not relevant?

His claims about his role in HT and his claims about fluency in Arabic language were exposed as lies by a young atheist called Layla Murad. 

His claims that he had tweeted cartoons for Salmaan Taseer and Malala is nothing but exploitation of his Pakistani heritage. The supporters of Salmaan Taseer and Malala don’t want anything to do with him.

As far as the establishment of “Khudi” is concerned, it was a back door revival of the failed organisation called "Laltain" and "Roshani", which were sponsored by Richard Dawkins. In any case, Khudi severed links with him after the cartoon affair.

Now consider, what his new friends and sponsors say about him:

• In a Richmond Forum organised debate Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who had nothing intellectual to contribute apart from attacking Quran and the prophet, she liked the “evolution Chairman Maajid Nawaz had gone through;

Another atheist, Taslima Nasreen tweeted (tweet now deleted on Maajid Nawaz’s request:

• It was nice to meet fellow Pakistani atheist Maajid Nawaz (It was only when others latched on to the tweet, Chairman Nawaz asked her to delete the tweet and stated that he had decided not to disassociate himself from Islam). Her next tweet doesn't clarify the situation but leaves it open to interpretation. She tweeted:

@auddin76 , @MaajidNawaz is probably a progressive Muslim, not an atheist. Thought he is as everyone is atheist in world humanist congress.



Whether or not Maajid is a Muslim is not the issue, it is his evolution which Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Taslima Nasreen are fan of that exposes his insincerity and hypocrisy. He says that he want to work from within to reinterpret Islam but he will not do the same to counter the Islamophobia and the hate preaching from his friends. I must admit I was a fan of Chairman Nawaz but as his “evolution”, language and ideology became closer to people like Tony Robinson and Douglas Murray, I became suspicious of his motives. 

The sad thing is that Chairman Nawaz and his colleagues do not understand the agenda of their new found friends. They don't see the effects of Islamophobia, hate speach and racism, all rolled into one strategy of his new chums, that causes severe damage to the community relations. As a man who claims to be a victim of brutal racial harassment, chairman Nawaz seem to be blind to the fuelling of hatred on a larger scale. He doesn't see the stereotypes he is promoting with a limited knowledge. He doesn't know that Pakistani Muslims are a minority in the South Asians living in the UK but this fuelling of hatred against brown Muslims effects all brown people, be it Hindu, Sikh, Christians, etc.

The atmosphere of fear created by these, mainly South based organisations and individuals, affects disadvantaged communities of all backgrounds in the country. It causes divisions in those disadvantaged white and migrant communities and gives rise to the ugly racism and Islamophobia. The result, people are abused attacked, children are bullied, women are subjected to molestation. People are threatened and are forced to install secure fences, cctv cameras for the safety of their children, Homes, businesses and places of worship are attacked. 

In light of the perceived increase in the extremism, I recently posed a question on twitter about the achievements of the Quilliam Foundation and Chair Nawaz. The only answer I received was from Jeremy Duns. He said:

I will name 3: exposing Mo Ansar, Ibrahim Hewit, Adnan Rashid   

I was surprised at the answer which made no sense as I did not see the relevance to the question posed. Chair Nawaz claims that the Quilliam Foundation is an Anti Extremism organisation. I am not familiar with all the names but understand none of them have been associated with any extremist activity. They are all articulate, intelligant and self assured people who expose Islamophobia. If they have no link to extremism then what the expose was all about. Jeremy Duns then sent me link to his website and an article he had written about Mo Ansar. During the of writing this, I also found articles by Ian Dale and Nick Cohen and it became clear that the Quilliam Foundation can't claim credit for the work of others. 

I am not familiar with Jeremy Duns's work but his profile says he is a writer of fictions but he is trying his hand to write non fiction. If his article, regarding Mo, is anything to go by, he be better of sticking to the non fiction. There is nothing in any of the articles about Mo which suggests that he has done anything wrong, apart from speaking up on the issues affecting the Muslim community. Nobody is questioning his intelligence or self assured assertiveness. The only thing they question is that how Mo rose to such prominence position in the Muslim community and in the media. It seems that these people can't stand that a man from the North, not educated at any prestigous institute and a Muslim broke through the fences.

• Ian Dale's gripe is that Mo Ansar made a complaint against him for his behaviour towards an old Imam. We know how he treats old men, we have seen him on live TV  wrestling an old man who came into the shot during a book promotion shoot.   

• Nick Cohen's writings are about supporting neocons and opposing liberal left. In particular he is angry with the liberal left for supporting Muslims against Islamophobia. He is an ardent supporter of Israel. He is also friends with many of the BBC's producers and editors.
• Nicky Campbell is a presenter with a gift of gab, he needs that as he has no qualifications. He was often involved in arguments with Mo Ansar mainly on twitter. He holds strong anti Muslim views and am surprised he is allowed to host programmes like the BBC's Big Question where he broadcasts his personal prejudices.

Coming back to the Chairman Nawaz and the Quilliam Foundation, I am astonished and amazed at the naivety of the government to use an organisation which has zero percent support in the Muslim community. I am less surprised at the BBC using Quilliam and Chairman Nawaz on issues related to the Muslim community. Their bias is abundantly clear to the public who demonstrated in their 1000's outside the BBC, during the Gaza conflict. Furthermore, you can not expect better from the organisation, which employs bigots like Jeremy Clarkson and Islamophobes like Nicky Campbell.

Due to the company he keeps and the view he holds, I have no hesitation in calling the Chairman Nawaz an Islamophobe. He follows people like Maryam Namazie, Tarek Fatah, Ex Muslims and other Islamophobes, who are alaways looking for negative stories in Muslim countries/ communities. Some of such stories are found to be untrue but are never withdrawn. They, including Quilliam associates, share and tweet these stories. He, increasingly reminds me of “Jaffar”, a character from the cartoon film Aladdin, who’s ambition seems to be power and gold and he would do anything to achieve his ambitions.   

  

Update 01/09/2014

On Sunday Maajid Nawa was busy publicising so called "British Fatwa" and bigging up his colleague Dr Usama Hasan as Islamic Scholar. Usama Hasan has no qualifications, apart from ability to translante Arabic into English, to qualify him as an Islamic scholar. How is this different from individual Taliban Imams issuing fatwas in Afghanistan. 

It seems that as more and more people are questioning Quilliam's claims of countering extremism and are seeking prooof and they in desparation are doing anything to get headlines. Unfortunately, these headlines raise more questions.

Its time for the Quilliam to come clean and explain, reasons for their failure to connect to the Muslim population of Britain, especially the younger generation. Could it be that they only rely on promotion of negative images of Muslims and Islam and perpetuate stereo types.

Whatever the reasons it is clear that Quilliam has failed to make an impact on the British Muslim population and the wider public.