Liberté, Charlie Hebdo and Islamic Reform

It was terrible news from France. 

The attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, with so many dead and injured, shocked people around the world. No sooner had the bodies of the slain gone cold, their names not yet released, than the vultures came to gloat and peck over the carcass of our freedoms.

We offered our thoughts and prayers with all involved and affected. After prayer and reflection, I could do no more other than, as after the Woolwich killing, to ask people to stand united against the terror, against the hate and intolerance which seeks to divide us. To oppose those who fuel, carry-out and exploit such attacks on our freedoms.

There is no justification in Islam for taking innocent life. These ISIS style "Khawarij" are barbaric people who reject Islam. They reject the commandments of the Prophet (pbuh). In fact, some 1400 years ago, the Holy Prophet and final messenger of God, Muhammad (pbuh), described in detail these these merciless barbarians and said they are not from Islam. They are condemned. They are the "Khawarij". He foretold that black-clothed Khawarij under a black flag will leave Islam like "an arrow shot from a bow".

Also disturbing was seeing the exploitation of the situation by various interests. The rapidity of this disgraceful behaviour is seemingly increasing with each and every tragedy. Social media plays its role here. It comes at the cost of our humanity. Hysteria develops. Today we saw political candidates standing for election like Maajid Nawaz and his supporters, exploit the murders in Paris, to bolster their own political causes and ambitions. It was stomach churning. The bodies were barely cold, the families were in mourning and the names had not even been released. These people then spent the rest of the day trying to explain their callous and gratuitously self-serving actions. The vessel spills what it carries. At the same time we saw sympathisers for the attackers, claiming that Charlie Hebdo brought this on themselves, for provocation, for extremism for peddling hate and prejudice. These people, just as misguided and extreme as those at the other end of the spectrum exploiting the situation.

Whether or not you agree with the actions and methods of Charlie Hebdo, Islam requires the Muslim to defend the rights of others. The rights of human rights violators were being upheld millennia before the West would consider doing so. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) upheld the freedom of speech - even of his detractors. Subject to our laws, we must do the same. There is never a recourse to violence. Never.

I have always stated that I do not like cartoons the likes of which published by Charlie Hebdo but I have always maintained they are entitled to and have a fundamental right to, publish them. They have a right to freedom of speech, subject to the law of the land. As do we all. Whilst saying this, it was ironic to see a well known cabal of my detractors joining ideologies with the Charlie Hebdo killers, by looking to deny my freedom of speech as they attempted to block my interviews with the BBC and other broadcasters today. When you sit at home feeling uncomfortable that voices are not represented, you are absolutely right. They are actively suppressed. In time, questions will need to be asked about how Hebdo continue to see themselves as equal opportunities offenders, whilst taking action against the smallest of slights on some communities, and having open season on Muslims. Former editor, Phillippe Val saw fit to sack cartoonist Maurice Sinet over complaints from Claude Askolovitch and others, that the Sarkozy-Sebaoun cartoon was anti-Semitic. Questions will have to be asked about why threats from the Jewish Defence League and Muslim extremists were ignored and treated so complacently, about the fatal lack of intelligence, security and protections afforded to Charlie Hebdo. The Muslims of France, a 6 million strong community, have complained for decades about marginalisation, alienation, joblessness, failed by the education and social systems. The inhumanity of the social conditions of the banlieue. About detention centres and disproportionate rates of incarceration and severity in sentencing. Regardless of how over-simplified people wish to make this, the repeated and terrorising outbursts from angry young Muslims in France is no simple matter. There are many rivers flowing into this lake. As a friend of mine one said, people do not break for no reason, it is because pressure is placed upon them.

The fact is, no one was 'avenged' today. Certainly, no Prophet of Islam. The killers of innocent people, who may well have mocked all religions and people from all walks of life, are utterly offensive to Islam, the teachings and message of the Prophet (pbuh) and against the morality of all good people everywhere of all race, religion and belief.

What happened today, what did the killers achieve?

Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far right FN in France, and her anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant policies are stronger than ever before. Anti-fascist activists at Charlie Hebdo (yes, they were leftist anti-far right, did you not know?) have been slaughtered. There is more hate against Muslims. There is more fear. There is more anger. Twelve people died, many injured. Families destroyed. And as for the cartoons... the cartoons have been spread across the world like never before.

Ahmed Merabet, was one of the brave policemen who gave his life to defend Charlie Hebdo. He was a Muslim. He was a Muslim defending Charlie Hebdo. This is Islam. And the mainstream media will not tell you this, or you will find it in the small print on page seven. The debate will rage about Islam, when the issue is not Islam. It is a surreal irony that it always appears that terror attacks are committed by those not following Islam. Not by those who are following a complete and authentic Islam. And yet all the while, and increasingly so, people believe this is to do with Islam. This is the fitna, the great mischief, that needs addressing.

On part of the solution is the authentic Islamic education of the Muslims - otherwise they will continue to be misguided and acting against the wishes of the Prophet (pbuh) and the teachings of the Quran. Either out of Nordic pragmatism or enlightenment, nations like Finland have long funded this. Britain has responded with paranoia, witch-hunts and PREVENT. Anyone would think that the powers that be do not wish to either Muslims, or non-Muslims, well informed about Islam. If that was what you wanted, maintaining the ignorance and providing disinformation is precisely what you would do. An Islamic re-education and a return to the Light, can only be lead by Muslim scholars and educators who seek to reform our knowledge, intellects and the Muslim heart. That is the model of reform within Islam. The processes and systems are in-built, they do not need to be created. They merely need to be supported. Reform has never come from the likes of the Sam Harris funded McCarthyist Quilliam Foundation, or hate preachers like Hirsi Ali, faux reformists like Zuhdi Jasser, or Tom Holland, Islamophobes like Douglas Murray and his ilk. It never has and never will. Reform of our hearts and minds will come from within the Muslims. The texts are not in need of reform. If a child cannot read a book, we do not rip out the pages of the book; we educate the child. Reform is certainly needed of Muslims. The heart is considered the centre of human consciousness in Islam, from which all healthy and peaceful behaviours radiate. If people are not at peace, how can they ever live in peace?

Those who thinks 2.4bn people representing the fastest growing and most discussed religion in the world, will reform through outside influence, share an exceptionalism and arrogance that is costing us lives and tearing at the fabric of society. History asks us not be so naive as to forget that there are those who would see us at each others throats, whilst they fill their coffers. A casualty of 150 years of Western funded and supported, industrialised mass slaughter, invasion, usurpation and tyranny in Muslim majority nations has been knowledge, understanding and enlightenment. But if you have ever met someone from a conflict-zone, you will know why that is. The horror of war does not create peace in the heart. It does not create enlightenment in societies. The eyes and heart become dead and await new life to be breathed into them. Communities become battle weary, and hardened by the toils under tyrannical despots. By drones. By ethnic cleansing.

Whatever will be the outcome of today, communities cannot turn against one another. This cannot be an excuse to put pressure on to Muslims. This cannot be used to put pressure onto the people of the West. This cannot be used to create more fear and intolerance. There is already too much hate. We can change this. We just need to exert our collective will and place peace at the top of our priorities. Above profit. Above self interest.

We are all so very much in need of peace. Let it come sooner.

Cake, Cardiology and Christianophobia

The morning I had my heart attack, I was preparing to head off to New Broadcasting House to do BBC World News that afternoon.

In that huge list of ridiculous things that happened that morning, I had first tried dealing with the chest ache with a small glass of milk and a lemon fancy. No. Cake is not the answer to a heart attack. Aside from my woeful misdiagnosis of 'some acidy thing', the fact that I had anticipated still making the 11.08 to Waterloo, having just been dropped off at the hospital by ambulance at 8am, I hope speaks to my optimism more than anything else.

Its odd what you think about whilst sat in a hospital bed waiting to hear about troponin levels. For me, I was keen to rip the line out of my arm and was badgering my wife on the logistics of getting out of Dodge and upto London. She seemed unimpressed. I had wondered whether she had actually listened to my mad rantings at 5am about how I was going to tackle Rupert Shortt that afternoon on his book 'Christianophobia'.

As lovely as she is, I wasn't sure how Rabbi Glasner was going to get a word in edgeways. Attacks on Christians are heinous and to be completely condemned, however the figure being banded around of 200 million persecuted faithful was appalling. Not for the scale, nor for what it says about our current geopolitical situation but for the fact it was utterly nonsensical. I was going to tell him how that figure had been regurgitated since the early 90s and how Ken Roth from Human Rights Watch had discredited it. How the figure was based on a late 80s estimate of a Chinese Christian population which was anywhere between 14m - 100m. I was also going to tell him that Shea (whom he called a civil rights activist)  was a neocon GOP stooge and how she with Michael Horowitz had been outed as wanting to not only wage war on 'the liberal elite' in the US, but they had admitted and Jeffrey Goldberg had established in the New York Times in Dec 1997, that the Christian Coalition was working to lobby Congress - the persecution narrative was entirely political. Even Nelson Graham (Rev Billy Graham's son) had called it a 'destructive political tool'.

Shortt was peddling a 20 year old narrative that we had imported from the US, based on a flawed and politicised narrative from Paul Marshall via the World Evangelical Alliance feeding the fundamentalist far right of US Christian politics, which had been used to devastating effect in train-wrecking legislation and ousting the Democrats to bring GW Bush into office. It was the precursor to the Tea Party and a golden period for the GOP and neoconservatism. Aside from that I wanted to hear from Shortt on his speech at St Michaels College, Cardiff a couple of weeks previous, where he had repeated the same mantra of attacking the liberal elite media. I thought it was about human rights.

And where was God, tolerance and bridging the gap with the Muslim world in amongst all of this? Working towards understanding and peace, not using the insidious, dangerous and reckless language of division and absolutism. I had wanted to know about connections, philosophical or otherwise to Nina Rosenwald and Gatestone, a spin off from the Hudson Institute. Rosenwald had been called the 'Sugar Mama of anti Muslim hate' by Max Blumenthal, was hugley influential in funding pro-israeli and anti-Muslim organisations, and had previously rolled out the red carpet for Geert Wilders. I had wanted to know what Shortt thought about his work being commented on by as varied luminaries such as Pepintster but also Frank Gaffney Jr.

I had wanted to know how he felt being a poster boy for this unholy alliance of anti-Muslim activists and intolerant Christian fundamentalists, and how even the US National Council of Churches had warned about this persecution complex giving rise to pre holocaust Nazi ideology. I had wanted wanted to know how he responded to the idea of widespread anti Muslim action, a hardening in the West and how there is almost no populous country on the planet where Muslims are able to live free and unfettered by either political  social or economic oppression.

But that was rather a lot to squeeze into a small discussion slot and I wasn't entirely convinced Mishal Hussain was going to allow it. In fairness, this stuff is enough to give anyone a heart attack, let alone a morbidly obese political commentator of Asian extraction. I had better take my meds. Visiting hours soon.

Baroness Warsi and the EDL join hands on grooming

Copyright. Getty Images

Baroness Warsi should be respected for her achievements; however on the grooming cases, she is dangerously wrong.

There is no place for sexual abuse in civilised society. Baroness Warsi's comments over the weekend highlighted the excellent response from a number of different community organisations. However, having been largely silent on the issue for so long, to then come out prompted neither by a sense of political leadership nor civic duty, but due to prompting from her father no less; the belated response has been less than satisfactory and is potentially dangerous and reckless.

If we look at the national picture, we know that 93% of the perpetrators of paedophilia in the UK are white whilst demographically constituting 87% of the UK population; this is to be compared with Black and Asian perpetrators being responsible for 7% of national cases whilst they make up some 13% of the UK population (H.M. Prison Service 2007a report).

Now let's see how this compares to the local picture. The Guardian reports that the ethnic breakdown of West Yorkshire as follows: White British 81.55%, Mixed 1.81%, Asian / Asian British 10.21%, Black / Black British 1.90% and Chinese 0.46%. A recent FOI request relating to West Yorkshire reported that there were 53 grooming cases over the last 3 years. Of these, 5 were committed by Asians putting the issue approximately en par with the mix of the local community. However, white grooming cases accounted for 47 of the 53 cases which makes it disproportionately higher for the white community, compared to the local demographic mix.

This tells us a number of things; firstly, that it is utterly wrong to conflate the issue of grooming or paedophilia (or claim it it be a disproportionately big problem) with a specific minority community for reasons of ethnicity, race or religion and belief. If this is going to be done, as arbitrary as it might be and as loathe as one might be to want to accept it; the evidence indicates that the broader problem is overwhelmingly a white male one. Two weeks ago we waded through the commentary rebuking that it was a race issue. Worse still, it is now being touted as a religious one - both by bigots on the far right and the Chairman of the Conservative party.

There is no doubt that a spike in convictions of Asian men - either by targeted policing or a variation in criminal behaviour - does not mean there is a relation between religion and sexual criminality. To suggest this is the case, takes us back to the dangerous hate rhetoric of the 1930s directed at the Jewish populations of Europe. Let us remember that also at that time, Governments were complacent and naval gazing.

It is a damning indictment that it needs to be said that Islam condemns without reservation such criminality and any oppression of people in society. In fact, social justice is at the heart of the resurgent Islamic message. It is utterly a non sequitur to hold a faith responsible for the actions of misguided individuals, who have been acting in complete contradiction to the rules and core values of that faith.

The English Defence League are proposing to demonstrate in Rochdale on 9th June 2012 - citing in a promotional video that they are protesting against "Muslim Grooming Gangs" and that these crimes are "mostly religiously motivated". There could be nothing further from the truth. The Baroness has inadvertently and quite clumsily given her full support to the far right and Islamophobes who are looking to peddle misinformation and hate based on religion. The far right have for a number of weeks, already been suspected of posting on Twitter the home address and name of one of the convicted criminals. Arguably, a public order offence and incitement to violence.

Our political leaders have a responsibility to look at issues reasonably and to address the complex factors which go hand in hand with increased criminality: diminished socio economic standing, social deprivation, moral decline, child poverty, young people who are NEET, general low employment and low educational attainment, low aspiration and reduced social mobility. The black community in the US have long been unjustly labelled as "more likely to be criminal" whilst their accusers have also failed to look at the social indicators that lead to black crime.

Sexual crime is heinous. The UK is home to 122 adult rapes per day, in addition to 60 child rapes each and every day. We also have the unwelcome privilege of being the sex trafficking and teenage pregnancy capital of the world. Tell me we don't have a problem. Scape goating either the Asian community, or worse still, the Muslim community is both reckless and demeans the seriousness of these issues.

Unfortunately, it seems the Chairwoman of the Conservative Party is unable to think outside of her limited field of view; instead feeding into continuing Tory, right wing anti-Islam rhetoric and a xenophobic discourse which fuels the far right. Dangerously so.

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post script - if the name was Wilders, Le Pen or Robinson perhaps those claims would have been seen in a different light. Sarkozyesque. Cynical.

The Evening Standard requested a response and this article was provided on 21st May 2012 

The Ethnic Cleansing of Our Streets

The coalition government intends to bring into being a new strategy on Housing Benefits; and these changes are going to crush ethnic minority families and force them out of the cities into ghettos.

I can hear you shouting it’s a little melodramatic – absolutely. However, before you rush to judgement with perverse claims of racism and bigotry, consider this; Her Majesty's Government all but admits it.

On 23rd January 2012 the Conservative MP for Chingford and Woodford Green appeared on all manner of media channels, a junket of sorts, extolling the virtues of the Welfare Reforms which the coalition government is pushing through.

In particular, Mr Duncan Smith was here to do something. Spin the impact assessments which came out that morning. Distraction is always a good political strategy. Mr Duncan Smith went further to say categorically “we don’t believe there will be any increase in child poverty” live that morning on Radio 4’s flagship Today Programme. He utterly refused to accept any of the challenges that were thrown at him. In response of course (and this is why we get the government we deserve) broadcasters get cocker hoop with excitement and blood lust as they strain painfully, diligently but stupidly, to try and pull him up on the figures.

Why not go further by refusing even your own Department of Work and Pension's figures which state up to 100,000 children are going to be affected. Even The Children’s Society say that the proposed cap on benefits will cut support for more than 200,000 children – in fact kids are around nine times more likely than adults to be affected.

But this is all by the by and has been discussed ad nauseam. This article isn’t going to make easy reading and its not the usual mix of libertarianism and blue Labour thinking. It’s about lifting the rock and realising some uncomfortable truths.

What should really interest us is the idea of deflecting from the impact assessments. Why has no one been talking about the impact assessments? If you look at them, they tell you the Government is utterly clueless about impact on race, religion and belief. I believe intentionally so. The figures are there for all to see. The Government wishes to convince us that it cannot breakdown figures any further than race, for example into religion and belief. They would also have us believe that the Welfare Reforms are fair.

Masters of the political distraction, whether forests for sale, or cat deportations, we have to give credit where credit is due; the coalition government is playing us like the suckers we are turning out to be. And so let’s look at one of their latest fastest gun in the West trick, windmill punch and palmed card.

Back to those figures that all the world can see - let’s join the dots.

Number One: Higher priced housing. The government is expressly stating that they wish to move people (large families) out of expensive i.e. London and other cities, higher priced commuter areas, to make way for workers. Hash tag: workers deserve nice houses and the poor should move out and give them their homes.

Number Two: The largest families will be affected the most. We need to be absolutely crystal clear who this means. Asian families, in fact Muslim families at that have the highest age profile. Whilst the average age of the non-Muslim English population is around 46, the average age for British Muslims is nearer 26. The largest demographic slice of the cake for Christianity in the UK is with the over 70 age bracket. With Muslims, it is with the under 4s.

Proportion of large families (3 or more dependent children), by ethnicity

 

(from www.jrf.org.uk)

Number Three. Hitting the poorest. There isn’t much question that the least able, those with the least capacity to absorb change, enter the employment market or to access education (or adequately to higher education), are going to be the hardest hit. The poor. And so who are the benefit based, or low income poor. A recent reportby the Muslim Council of Britain stated that 75% of all Pakistani and Bangladeshi families live on or below the poverty line. This needs to be compared with only 20% of the white British population.

Figures suggest somewhere in the region of between 95% - 98% of the British Pakistani and Bangladeshi population are Muslim. Whether you want to slice the equality cake down lines of Race (a statutory area for impact assessment), or Religion and Belief, we have major matter of disproportionate impact.

Number Four. Those getting hit, are somehow deserving of it (aka the benefit scroungers). Poor is not about income, it is about opportunity, aspiration and capacity.

In 2006, the TUC and MCB issued a joint statement on the fact that 69 per cent classified as poor compared with 22 per cent of the country as a whole. Overall British Muslims are three times more likely to be unemployed than the population as a whole. Islamophobia is a real and present threat, fuelled by misunderstandings, prejudice and the characterisation of whole communities.

Discrimination keeps the poor at arm’s length.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation tell us that more white Muslims than those from other ethnic backgrounds reported they were suffering prejudice. The Report’s co-author Arzu Merali said she believed discrimination had become "normalised" in a backlash after the 11 September attacks. According to the report, Muslims from all backgrounds were now experiencing far higher levels of prejudice than in previous years. In its survey asking people to record their experiences, the Islamic Human Rights Commission, a campaign body, said eight out of 10 respondents said they had suffered discrimination.

Baroness Warsi says Islamophobia has passed the dinner table test. And Tariq Modood, University of Bristol has contended that by most socio-economic measures Asian Muslims are amongst the most disadvantaged of the ethnic minorities.

And the cherry on the cake is that even the Government’s own Home Office Research Study 220, 'Religious discrimination in England and Wales' stated a consistently higher level of unfair treatment was reported by Muslim organisations than by most other religious groups; unfair treatment in every aspect of education, employment, housing, law and order, and in all the local government services covered by the questionnaire. And that was 6 months before 9/11.

The IFS has made it clear, time after time, especially in its report by the Family and Parenting Institute that the child poverty gap between Black and Asian families and white families is going to increase by 2015. Just to be clear, for the poorest in society, for those large families, the white population is going to be come (relatively speaking) less poor, and the ethnic minorities, more poor.

The axe is not going to fall equally on the poor.

Number Five. Location location location. So we have defined those most disproportionately hit. Those with big families, those who are least able to respond, those who struggle to access education, employment, training. Blacks, Asians and Muslims.

So precisely where are all these undesirables meant to go. Enter Sarkozy stage left. The Tories and Sarkozies have been comparing notes on their social engineering experiments for sometime now. We know in France, discrimination in housing and public services has lead to the ghettoisation of Muslims, the unemployed and immigrants, particularly those of North African origins. Steve Connor, the science editor of The Independent wrote in 2010 that Muslims faced "massive discrimination" when applying for jobs, according to the first scientifically validated study of anti-Muslim bias among employers in France. All indications show we have the same in Britian.

What flows eerily naturally too often, is high crime, social disorder and marginalisation from mainstream society. There is no question we are pushing out the great unwashed, the breeding minorities, out-out-out, and into what must, by any definition, be called ghettos. Modern day workhouses where Britain will learn to compete on a levelled global playing field where cheap labour is the new black. Or where black...

As frightening as a thought as it must be, can we afford not to draw parallels with conditions in the 1930s. We saw the treatment of the Jews in Europe in the early part of the 20th century. At that time, the only way the world was able to stimulate its way out of the economic crisis was through extraordinary and extortionate funding for WW2. Every major economist tells us that no federal or governmental stimulus has ever been shown to work in a great systemic economic crisis. Watch out Iran.

But back to our shores, those of perfidious albion. We know the PMs stance on all this equality, lefty, libertarian mumbo jumbo:

“The cap is right and the cap is fair.”

Perhaps we can start by defining ‘right’ and ‘fair’. I can’t help but think that ‘right’ as Mr Cameron defines it means something very insidious, even more than the rhetoric of benefit claimants living the Life of Riley. As for ‘fairness’; a millionaire who has never held down a proper job a day in his life, Eton educated, a Bullingdon Club old boy, a fifth cousin twice removed to our Queen Elizabeth II (making him apparently 13th in line for the throne), would need to wield these terms very carefully indeed.

The claim continues to echo that never in the history of this country, has there been a more out of touch Prime Minister.

And deny it all you want but we have the greatest civil rights crisis this country has ever seen. The Muslim Civil Rights Crisis. And welcome to a new chapter of this crisis

               - the government mandated ethnic cleansing of our streets.

Follow me on Twitter, @MoAnsar

Women - WMDs for a new generation

The secularist movement in Egypt and across the Middle East is taking shape. They have a new weapon of mass destruction, something so deadly that no one will be beyond its reach. 
Women.

The bitter sweet irony is that traditionalist Islam and those scholars supporting a clear understanding of the religion, have long been accused of supporting misogyny, suppression of women, inequality of rights whilst issuing dictat after dictat requiring Muslim women to live in the couturier's equivalence of a cardboard box, save for a few hastily pounded air holes.

Burqas and misconceptions aside, there is something significant which the secularists are missing. There is on the horizon, an enlightened approach to a new and progressive Islam; one which is inclusive, promotes social justice, equality, fair trade, accountable governance and uphold the rights of other faith groups. It is one which is in fact not new but the adherents (so often the absolute worst measure of any faith) are coming to a better understanding and implementation of their faith. All that it is required for this desert rose to bloom, is that they be left to do so in peace.

The world is changing and so are the people in it. The fragments which remained of the Islamic world - left shattered and broken after the terror waged during World War I and almost a century of interventionism - have become so easily malleable and manipulated, so weakened has the state of Muslim affairs become. Being able to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific, across Muslim territory sans frontières would now be something resigned to the history books. A history children in the West will never be taught; moreover, a chapter of a book which must not be allowed to see the light of day or affect the public consciousness of Europe and America.

Yet hope springs eternal. We have seen a spate of attempts to civilise, modernise, nay Westernise, the barbaric retardations of the Muslim world through the secularly progressive movements of enlightenment: art, pornography and the neo-suffragette movement. Thank God, I had wondered precisely where the Muslim world had been going wrong for all these years. I shall to the artistes studio go, daughters suitably disrobed. Or there again, perhaps not... not just yet.

The absurdity of Pakistani celebrity Veena Malik's claim that her thong being airbrushed from the cover of Indian FHM has disgraced her (no, really) is eclipsed only by the greater absurdity of her being labelled a 'threat to Islam'. Against the backdrop of Malik's father calling for her incarceration, we had crowing senior government officials and all the while the situation said more about Pakistan's international standing that neither its reputation, nor that of the ISI, was any further diminished by such a story. Nevertheless, this new movement has highlighted something which we became aware of earlier this year when Deniz Ozgun attempted to make a pornographic film as part of his dissertation at Istanbul University. Unwise is the one who pokes a stick at a sleeping tiger. In a country where 75% of women wear the headscarf (including the utterly elegant Mrs Erdogan), for decades their repression was not at the hands of islamist salafis (definition anyone?) but at the hands of secular western ideologues who kept them from places of study, work and public engagement. Here Islam is seen as a religion of tolerance, moderation and of modesty. Most importantly for the West, Islam is seen as a force which delivers in real terms, desperately needed social change. And we would do very well to note that its influence in public life there and here, is on the rise. And trending (Sarkozy take note).

For the Muslim world, public displays of promiscuity and nudity is an anathema, considered degrading and debasing. Islam clearly defines areas of first the male and then the female body which should be covered ('aura') outside of which a person is considered in a state of nakedness. The methodology by which Abu Ghraib became so horrifyingly effective was not by co-incidence but by design (caution advised). Contrary to modern developments in almost all major world religions which depart from directives enshrined in their scriptures, the Islamic obligation of covering a woman's head is maintained as essential part of faith, image and identity. Many non-hijabis recognise it is a thing which proportionate to the strength of their belief. And it is for this reason that amongst people you will find little fascism in its implementation, or intolerance for those who do not wear it. Alongside Fabriano's depiction of the Madonnna and the holiest women in the Christendom, the Muslim female form is modesty ('haya'), chastity and virtue. Yes, even to some degree, shyness, why not. But this modesty cannot be state sanctioned. Where done so it is just as reprehensible as those women who degrade the khimar (head covering) by using it as a moral fig leaf for their indiscretions. 

However, this disposition seems to have been misconstrued by those critics of Islam as weakness, a lack of deep thought, or ignorance on matters of sexuality or identity. It could not be further from the truth. The time and tendency to apologise for speaking of virtue and morality is over, the world has moved on. There is a shifted public sentiment. Sex is not selling. It's no longer unfashionable to talk about both men and women living modestly, non-promiscuous and virtuous lives. Between the lines, its the kind of morality that keeps families and societies together. Do the math.

There are few as outspoken on such matters as Egypt's answer to Millicent Fawcett, Mona Eltahawy. No one should doubt her passion in her belief that feminist secularism is progressive and the answer to Egypt's woes. Her broken arms and outright courage in the face of the sexual abuse she received from the security forces is testament should anyone need it. However even a broken clock is right twice a day. Her view that Egypt's naked blogger, atheist Aliaa Mahdy, was a "bomb aimed at the patriarchs in our minds" was completely and utterly vacuous. The idea posited that

"When a woman is the sum total of her headscarf and hymen 

– that is, what's on her head and what is between her legs – 

then nakedness and sex become weapons of political resistance" 

is something that intelligent Muslims in the West don't buy - it's old news. And arse-manglingly boring, old news at that. We've seen it, lived through the aftermath of the bra-burning 60s, seen the spectre of that ambitious superwoman sold a lie. She who became the Tantalus of the 20th century, never able to have it all, with that final indignation - the gift of self-realisation that her broken marriage, glass ceilings and dysfunctional children bore witness to the sheer cruelty of the joke on her. It's a tried, tested and galactically failed model. It perhaps says something about the diminished capacity of pseudo-feminists in the region if they equate debasement with empowerment. It's not even clever thinking. Travelling patiently down the wrong road looking back at the mistakes the West made decades ago, is not progressive. Well not last time I checked. This is not the liberation of women but enslavement, sexualisation and objectification. Those in such a hurry to pursue this most futile of routes should try pressing the <<fwd>> button on the social engineering remote control. 

In the West we have seen the rise and rise of white, European-born, well-educated, erudite and professional women converting to Islam. They are the fastest rising demographic of converts in the West. The likes of journo, author, presenter Lauren Booth or MTV presenter Kristiane Backer are not oppressed Saudi, Egyptian or Afghan doormats. They come to Islam not by subjugation but by spirituality and empowerment. This story isn't even a new one, since a century ago we know of Valentine de Saint Point's own journey from staunch feminist, to leading luminary in the art world penning the Manifesto of Futurist Women, and to her conversion to Islam in 1918.

To those sisters - Muslim and of other faiths - for the love of God, choose your friends carefully. All feminists are not your friends, aka known as oranges are not the only fruit. Not that it is needed, but I present to you exhibit A, the sickest part of the secular progressive feminist narrative being sold to us

"When Mohammed Bouazizi, fed up with humiliation, repression and poverty, set himself on fire in Tunisia last January... he ignited the revolutionary imagination of the Middle East and north Africa. Aliaa Mahdy, fed up with hypocrisy and sexual repression, undressed. She is the Molotov cocktail thrown at the Mubaraks in our heads – the dictators of our mind – which insists that revolutions cannot succeed without a tidal wave of cultural changes that upend misogyny and sexual hypocrisy."

The veil drops. And like a disgusting parasitic virus, the Machiavellian agent provocateur moves in to claim the corpse of the dead martyr, to play realpolitik and in doing so they reveal their true selves and their greater goal. Anarchy. Cognitive dissonance.

And if by now you have resisted the spiritual gag reflex to up-chuck, well done you.

The Image of Islam - Part I

I was once asked this question:

"If the image of Islam is as God would have it be, then there is no reason for concern. If the image has been tainted, because Islamist Fascists have hijacked and perverted the faith, then where is the Jihad against that?"

image n. 1 representation of an object, e.g. a statue. 2 reputation or persona of a person, company, etc. 3 appearance as seen in a mirror or through a lens. 4 mental picture or idea. 5 simile or metaphor [Latin imago imagin-]

The question raised an important issue - that of the image of Islam.

How Islam is represented and perceived is a complex issue; an issue which should be looked at in context. First, Islam - the basics.

Islam in the form which it was delivered from God, via the archangel Gabrial, to the holy Prophet Muhammad is said to have been absolutely perfect. The holy Prophet is considered to be the final in a long line of messengers and accordingly his position is that of the Seal of the Prophets. The Qur’an as the final Testament completes the covenant between God and Mankind; the same covenant agreed upon with Abraham and the same message as conveyed by all the Messengers of God. Islam is therefore considered by Muslims as the culmination of thousands of years of Prophethood and the final windows update - the last in the trilogy of the Torah, the Bible and Qur’an. A perfection of God’s chosen religion for mankind.

If there is one thing that is clearly common ground amongst the People of the Book, it is on the treatment that those Messengers received throughout their lifetimes. In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, Jesus outlines the traits of the believers and states

"...for thus did they persecute the prophets who were before you..." [5:14]

From the earliest examples, true believers have been persecuted and oppressed - the greater the degree of belief (Iman) seemingly, the greater the proportionate persecution. From the times of Cain and Abel, through Abraham, Moses, Jesus to Muhammad (peace be upon them all). Since the earliest of times, Islam and the Muslims have been misrepresented, denigrated and persecuted.

The Truth About Islam

God willing, I always try to have fruitful, polite discourse about the truth of Islam. Dispelling myths and misconceptions is no small task.

The contributions of Islam to the modern world are not to be underestimated. The misinformation needs to be exposed. Here is a small example of the influence of Islam in the modern world, although far from being comprehensive, provided by the University of South California:

Mathematical Sciences and Physics; Astronomy; Mathematics; Algebra; Geometry; Trigonometry; Number Theory; Physics, Balance, Projectile Motion, Optics; Experimental Method; Medical Sciences; Pharmacology; Natural History and Geography; Botany, Zoology; Geography; Chemistry; Technology; Man and Nature; Architecture

In fairness, it is worthy of several books of study to look at these issues in any depth. When having any interfaith dialogue with Christians, we use their scriptures. So let's have a little theology 101. According to the Gospel of St. John, Jesus is reported to have said


"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, [that] shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew [it] unto you"
[John, 16:12-14]

Uncontroversial you might think. Well that is until you hear what the position of Muslims is on this verse. Scholars have taken the view that the ‘spirit of truth’ in this verse can only relate to the Holy Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) as the object of the male pronoun references in this verse. The verse itself is utterly unique from all other verses of the Bible in this regard. Similarly the Qur'an states

"He has taught you that which [heretofore] you knew not" [2: 239]

This accords with John 16:12-14 and gives us a focal point for new advances in science, medicine and the arts made by the Muslims that followed the revelation of the Qu’ran.

The image of Muslims in the modern day is something which results from a systematic re-writing of history. For the believers, world history is viewed as one continuous chain of events: the propagation of knowledge and true belief from the time of Adam through Abraham, Moses, Jesus and finally to Mohammed (pbut). We compare this to what is sometimes considered the oppression of truth, purveyance of ignorance and persecution of those challenging the status quo (of the West). As Muslims we state that Christians and Jews are our brethren, as we are the People of the Book; it is of great benefit to us to have open discourse about our beliefs. Events come into sharp focus when we look at these issues in the full context of world history.

Let's take one easy example of how history has been skewed, censored and misrepresented to the detriment of the Islamic world and to create a new, sanitised narrative. Few Americans and even fewer Christians know that Muslims from Spain and West Africa arrived in the Americas at least five centuries before Columbus.

9th Century: During the rule of the Spanish Muslim Caliph Abdullah Ibn Muhammad (888 - 912 CE), a Muslim navigator known as Khashkhash Ibn Saeed Ibn Aswad of Cordoba, sails from Delba (Palos) in Spain in 889 CE. He crosses the Atlantic reaching ‘Ard Majhoola’ (the unknown territory) and returns with ‘fabulous treasures’. This is recorded in a book written by Al-Masudi (871 - 957 CE) called ‘Muruj Adh-dhahab wa Maadin al-Jawhar’ (The Meadows of Gold and Quarries of Jewels).

10th Century: During the rule of Abdul Rahman III (929-961), Muslims of African origin sail westward again from the Spanish port of Delba again into an “Ocean of darkness an fog.” They returned after a long absence from a “strange and curious land.”

15th Century: Under King Ferdinand and Queen Isabela, the so-called ‘Christian’ armies of Europe persecute and commit genocide of the Muslims of Spain. Granada falls in 1492 CE. This is part of an ongoing war against Islam by Greco-Roman Europe from centuries earlier, in fact since Islam spread throughout the Roman Empire after the time of the Holy Prophet (pbuh). The European crusades are fuelled by false propaganda, misinformation creating hatred and mistrust for the Muslims (who are demonised as barbarians and Satan worshippers) which is then spread throughout Christendom.


Popes encouraged, launched, and led the Crusades. They have vilified Islam as a false religion. Pope Innocent III (1161-1216) identified the Prophet Muhammad as the Anti-Christ. Such pronouncements by successive popes created a climate of hatred among Christians toward Muslims. In 1099, when the Crusaders took Jerusalem, they massacred 40,000 Muslims–men women, and children. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the holiest church in Christendom, the site of Calvary, was a pool of blood. The Crusaders found Jews huddled in the main synagogue in Jerusalem and burned them to death, dancing around the pyre and singing Te Deum. After the killing, the looting started. The mosque of Umar was sacked; the tomb of Abraham was destroyed. Raymond of Aguilers, an eyewitness chronicler of the First Crusade said

"In the Temple and the porch of Solomon, 

men rode in blood up to their knees and bridal reins"

He continued by reporting that even women were not spared. He observed: 

"The Franks did no other harm to the women whom they found in the enemy camp, 

save that they ran their lances through their bellies."

Although 'The Crusades’ normally refer to the battles in the Holy lands this was only part of a much wider campaign of war against the Muslims which covered: Asia, North Africa, Europe (the Balkans, Serbia-Montenegro-Bosnia, Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria, Italy etc) the wider Mediterranean, the Middle East, Central and Southern Africa and the Far East. At the exact same time as ‘The Crusades’ are ongoing in the Holy Lands, we see de facto crusades against Muslims in Spain (the ‘Reconquista’) with the battle for Toledo in 1085 CE. After 1492, Spain comes under Christian control and this now leads to the Spanish Inquisition aimed at killing or converting the true believers to Christianity - it is primarily targeted at Muslims but also includes smaller populations of Jews living peacefully under Islamic rule. The propagandised war against Islam spreads to the Americas.

2nd August 1492 CE: Granada falls to the King and Queen of Castile and Aragon, Ferdinand and Isabela. The murdering Christian Armies of the North including the Kings of Leon, with other sponsors from the royal families of Europe descended on the Siege of Granada resulting in surrender by Abu Abdullah.

3rd August 1492 CE: Columbus sails to the Americas again from Delba (Palos) in Spain. Under the authority of the Ferdinand & Isabela, Columbus sets out on a Christian Crusade as part of the ongoing war against Islam occurring in his home country and throughout Europe and the Middle East. His arrival in the Americas is far from the ‘accidental’ discovery it is made out to be. He sets sail from a port which has well established Muslim links with the Americas, he uses the exact same maps which were draughted by the Muslim navigators (NB: Columbus’ brother is a cartographer) and in his hands are the reports and manuscripts written by the Muslim scholars.

He heads for ‘Gomera’ (the Canary Islands and ‘Gomera’ being the Arabic word for ‘small firebrand’). Here he falls in love with Beatriz Bobadilla who is the daughter of the first captain General of the island (the family name Bobadilla being derived from the Arab Islamic name Abouabdilla). The Bobadilla family was related to Abbasid / Islamic dynasty of Seville (1031 -1091 CE). Francisco Bobadilla later puts Columbus in chains and transfers him from Santo Domingo back to Spain in November 1500 CE.

12th October 1492 CE: Columbus lands on a little island in the Bahamas called ‘Guanahani’ by the natives. Guanahani is derived from Mandinka and modified Arabic words. Guana (Ikhwana) means ‘brothers’ and Hani is an Arabic name. The original name of the island was ‘Hani Brothers’. Columbus renames this as San Salvador. Columbus reports that the natives have no religion, they are peaceful and he states that the conversion to Christianity of the peoples of the Americas would be achieved through love, not force. This ends up being one of the biggest flacies in history.

At the same time in this same region, live a tribe of Muslim natives known as Almamy. In Mandinka and Arabic languages, Almamy is the designation of ‘Al-Imam’ or ‘Al-Imamu’ (the leader of the Muslim prayer, or sometimes also the chief of the community). A renowned American historian Leo Weiner from Harvard University wrote a book called ‘Africa and The Discovery of America’ in 1920. He wrote that Columbus was well aware of the Mandinka presence in the New World and that the West African Muslims had spread throughout the Caribbean, Central, South and North American territories, including Canada, where they were trading and intermarrying with the Iroquois and Algonquin Indians.

Instead of co-existing and trading, what followed Columbus’ arrival was the wholesale massacre and genocide of the natives and Muslims of the Americas by European crusader / invaders coming across the Atlantic in fleets of armed galleons. American history states everything before 1492 is ‘Pre-Columbian’ – in the text books of the U.S. there is little or no reference to the spread of Islam to the Americas some 500 years earlier. In California, there even exists an early American petrogyph (rock carving) which states in Arabic: ‘Yasus ibn Maria’ which means ‘Jesus (son) of Mary’, which is taken from the Qur'an. British historians such as Gavin Menzies, state that there was an earlier discovery of the Americas but in only in 1421 and made by the Chinese!

The image of Islam must be viewed in the context of world history: the demonisation of the Muslims and Islam is not a new phenomenon. In truth, it makes very difficult reading for those of us who have been systematically misinformed for centuries.