Quilliam Director “Supports” the Construction of Nuclear Weapons in Muslim Countries.
Ok, Ok is the site winding people up ? How in the world can a Counter “extremist” think tank have an “Ahmadanijad” figure as a Director especially when the whole project is closely linked to the Policy Exchange. Would a Director be this daft ? Well….. Sources have sent the site an interesting link courtesy of Maajid’s “adventures” in Pakistan. While he was avoiding the “assassination attempts” by “Islamists” Maajid had the time to go on a local Pakistani Satellite Channel for a Debate!
A bit of background to the debate (for all those who cannot speak Urdu) the topic of the debate was about relations with the West. Should we have them or not? Maajid, of course, was on the side that encouraged more relations (or at least a relation) with the West. The opposing side started by the usual hostility towards Islam, the hypocrisy and the disdain for any genuine independence. Then we have this ayah (2:120)
Never will the Jews nor the Christians be pleased with you (O Muhammad Peace be upon him ) till you follow their religion. Say: “Verily, the Guidance of Allâh (i.e. Islâmic Monotheism) that is the (only) Guidance. And if you (O Muhammad Peace be upon him ) were to follow their (Jews and Christians) desires after what you have received of Knowledge (i.e. the Qur’ân), then you would have against Allâh neither any Walî (protector or guardian) nor any helper.
It was Maajid’s turn and we have our first shock! 17 minutes and 50 seconds into the debate Maajid says
We are not here to debate about whether the West is hypocritical. We are not here to debate about whether the West hates Islam. We are not here to debate about whether Muslims will never be accepted or they want us to leave Islam….Jho apne baat kiya Allah ta`la ki ayaat jho apne pesh ki (‘the verse of God Most High you mentioned earlier…’) … ye baat nehi (‘this is not the topic [of discussion]) “.
The verse he is talking about is the one in Surat al Baqarah. (2:120). Fine, but did Maajid refute these premises ? What does he say? I quote
“We know this…….(after reciting the Arabic) This is the word of God! They will not be satisfied until you leave your religion but the topic is not this…”
Wait a minute here! No, no no! We must have a Quilliam Alert! Maajid is telling us that the Jews and Christians will never be satisfied until we leave our religion ? No, perish the thought. How can this be? Is he accepting the premises and using the ayah to confirm these facts by saying “We know this!” ? (Later on in the debate, he allowed the Western Media a more privilaged position. That is a funny point. Publishing Ed and Maajid’s rants is not an argument against an anti-Muslim bias in the press)
What I find particularly funny is that Maajid while in the UK rants and raves about the false construction of something called a “Muslim World” (this is nothing original and is just following the current “advice” given by neo con think tanks ) but in Pakistan he talks about the “West” as an entity in its own right. In fact he believes that the Jews and Christians will not be satisfied until we leave our religion. Did Maajid contextualise it in the debate to those that are at war with the Muslims? Was that his criticism towards the opposing party? Actually his only concern was this. The ayah is informative, Maajid tells us, and it does not provide a Hukm ( a legal verdict ). “Allama” Maajid to the rescue again. Thanks for that. He also did not restrict it! Maajid was particularly worried about the “unrestricted” nature of the topic of the debate. As per Maajid’s “rhetoric” we are using your premises against you heretic!
Oh, it does not stop here Maajid goes on later in the debate to provide examples that have benefited Pakistan with it’s relationship with the West. I mean Benazir Bhutto went to Oxford and Muhammad Ali Jinnah was educated in London but the third example is the cherry on the cake! This example should really worry those Neo Con Zionist outfits that maybe funding the Quilliam Foundation. In fact the Home Office and the Foreign Office should be concerned. So what was the example that was put forward by our local “counter-extremist” Director ? Mr AQ Khan the Father of the Pakistani Nuclear Bomb! Maajid thinks that Muslim Countries (ok, ok, just for you Maajid countries with a Muslim majority) should get an education about weapons of mass destruction and ship it back home! If this isn’t the case then why oh why mention it as an example for the debate?
Look, personally I find it obvious. The guy is a hypocrite and will change his persona depending on the crowd he is addressing. In my eyes he is just out there to make a career for himself and he will do anything and I mean virtually anything to keep it alive.
Who Shall we Really Believe?
Looking at the Quilliam Alert of the Quilliam Foundation we have this “poetic” intervention into the episode. I quote
Muqeem then lunged forward to continue his attack on Maajid but restaurant staff and others physically stopped him. As he was forcibly removed, Muqeem threatened Maajid, saying ‘this is only a slap compared with what I am going to do to you’.
Now the Quilliamite (supposed “independent consultant” )”Khurram” in a comment (probably Rashad Zaman Ali who is also very likely to be FLARI on the MPAC discussion boards ) thinks that and I quote
…Witnesses in Pakistan are a ‘dime a dozen’.
Interesting that when we have in the very same press release a reliance on anonymous witnesses from Pakistan. I quote
Eyewitnesses say Maajid promptly stood up and offered ‘salam’ or ‘peace’ to his attacker
Maybe these eyewitnesses were not Pakistani. Maybe they where English Neo Con Gove supporters on Holiday in Lahore. Who knows these days ?
What makes this more preplexing is that the same staff that “physically removed” Tayyab for being rather “obnoxious” testify that he was a peaceful man that was a regular at the Cafe! In fact the cafe owner agrees with Tayyib’s account! So according to the Quilliamite conspiracy theory, we cannot depend on local testimony from Pakistan unless it is a Quilliam Alert. We also have to believe that the very staff that “booted” him out of the Cafe later were given money to testify for him
Wonderful, the fairy tales that we get from the Quilliam traitors!
Eye Witness Account of the Owner of Jave Cafe!
Salaam Alekuum again from the traditionalislamism site. Another exclusive! We have the eye witness report from the owner of the Java Cafe itself! An email account is provided for all those who want to double check the information. We must remember that the eye witness testimony of the other witness is from someone that is a British national who is independent and not affiliated to any Muslim group. Anyway, here is the account by the cafe owner.
My name is Shazad Baig, I own Jammin Jave Coffee Chain in Lahore, I was present on the night of the 14th May when the incident took place between Maajid Nawaz and Tayyib Muqeem. I can say with certainty that Mr. Muqeem was sitting alone doing some work on his laptop with his coffee at the table in the dining area. Maajid Nawaaz was sitting in the patio area. Maajid Nawaz got up and approached Mr. Tayyib Muqeem and stood over his table for some time, I could see that Mr. Tayyib Muqeem was clearly troubled and was gesturing the former to leave him alone. I don’t know what discussion took place between them but I saw Mr Nawaz with his hand outstretched for an unusually long period of time, Mr. Muqeem got up out of his seat and it was then that Maajid Nawaz went face to face with him. At this Tayyib Muqeem attempted to push Maajid Nawaz away, but unfortunately Mr. Nawaz lost balance and fell onto the settee beside him. Tayyib Muqeem is one of my regular customers and I was shocked to see the distorted press release about him on the Quilliam Foundation Website the next day.
baig.shahzad@gmail.com
Now this is starting to get ridiculous and we may even have more up our sleeves. Are these people all part of an “Islamist” conspiracy against the Quilliam Foundation ? Given the history of sensationalism in this foundation and , let us just say , an interesting concern for accuracy what do you think ?
Interestingly I was just looking at the so called “retraction” against Yasir Qadhi as well. The Quilliam Foundation still accuses him of initially denying the holocaust. He never did!
Personally, let me give my view. We have Maajid getting involved in a silly incident in far off Lahore at the Jave Cafe. Now most people would think that this is something not to be concerned about.
But oh no, we have a national Quilliam Alert that the whole of the United Kingdom if not the whole world should be concerned about. I bet, if Maajid had his way some lost tribe in the Amazon would be also chased about the “shock” news (ok, ok, using the “poetic license” of Quilliam. I will return it by special delivery). Sigh, may Allah help us all! They are clearly getting desperate!
Eye Witness account to the alleged attack on Maajid Nawaz
Statement:
My name is Iftikhar, I am a British National doing business in Pakistan. I also frequent Jammin Java Cafe, as it is one of my favourite haunts. About the night in question I saw the gentleman, Mr. Nawaz approach the table of Mr Muqeem, I was at a distance of about 20 yards and in the outside section of the cafe, whereas the incident took place inside (it is separated by a glass partition). It seemed by Mr Muqeem’s gestures that he was asking Mr Nawaz to go away, As these gestures become more animated, I felt that in the interest of harmony I needed to intervene, so I hurriedly approached Mr Muqeem’s table at which time I clearly heard Mr Muqeem asking Mr Nawaz to go away. However, Mr Nawaz didn’t seem to heed the request. I then saw Mr Muqeem push Mr Nawaz away resulting in Mr Nawaz falling onto the sofa next to him. Mr Muqeem DID NOT PUNCH Mr Nawaz, AS CLAIMED BY THE QUILLIAM FOUNDATION. And by the way, let me make clear that I am NOT a member of Hizb ul Tehrir and have no role in the organisation whatsoever- I am just a neutral onlooker who is defending the honour and reputation of an innocent man, Mr Tayyib Muqeem.
ibukhari@gmail.com
Statement by Tayyib Muqeem on his alleged ‘attack’ on Quilliam Foundation director Maajid Nawaz
May Allah be my witness, along with the two other witnesses with me, and the scores of customers & staff present at the ‘Jamin Java’ cafe in Lahore, Pakistan. None of them are Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) members, and the media are free to verify the facts from them. I speak from the heart and I speak the truth, being a Northerner from the UK, I’m a frank person and don’t like to mince my words. My name is Tayyib Muqeem, I’m proud to announce that I’m a member of Hizb ut Tahrir and currently live and work in Lahore, Pakistan as an English Language Teacher.
On the 14th May very late at night I was working on my laptop computer in the Cafe, when somebody who I had never met or spoken to in my life, namely Maajid Nawaz, approached me unexpectedly. Contrary to his claim, I was not waiting to attack him. Maajid was in the Cafe with a girl, and because of what I know of him from the news, his renowned scaremongering and exaggerations, not to mention his £1 million a year backing from the British authorities and likely collusion with British intelligence; I did not want to entertain a conversation with him and didn’t want to reply to his greetings. I believed his greetings were a cynical, insincere and an opportunist attempt to trap me into some sort of debate that he would later use for his own ends. I knew very well that Maajid Nawaz was touring Pakistani universities on a Government funded mission to continue a malicious campaign against Islam and to spread confusion amongst Muslim students, being an educationist I was infuriated, but helpless nevertheless.
I also feared for my safety because Maajid’s business partner at the Quilliam Foundation, Ed Husain, proudly admitted when he was in Damascus, Syria, that he reported two members of Hizb ut-Tahrir to the notorious Syrian Baathist dictatorship. Like all Baath Party regimes, e.g. under Saddam Hussain, the Syrian secret police are known to routinely torture, and they acted quickly to arrest those two individuals, all thanks to Ed. In the café Maajid continued to arrogantly, rudely insist on talking to me and shaking my hand, making a scene, goading me and gesturing me haughtily. I asked him to leave me alone at least three times, so that I could continue with my work.
In the end I stood up frustrated with his harassing of me at my table, and asked him to leave me alone again. Maajid provocatively came into my personal space, into my private comfort zone, in an acrimonious way. I then attempted to merely push him away from me, but in his cowardly reaction he moved towards me and one of my hands intended to push him away slightly pushed the side of his head, which made him loose balance and he fell onto a nearby sofa. I was in control of my emotions and again asked him to leave me alone. I soon left the café before he did, freely and without coercion.
So contrary to the Maajid Nawaz’s Quilliam Foundation press statement & their briefing of the media which sadly didn’t decide to check the facts, I didn’t approach him, I didn’t wait for him outside, I didn’t follow him from Britain, I didn’t punch him, He didn’t go to the floor, It wasn’t premeditated, I wasn’t forced out of the Café by the staff, and Hizb ut-Tahrir does not need to renounce violence because since the founding of the party, it has been avowedly against using violence to achieve it’s aims, and has condemned 9/11, 7/7, the Madrid bombings, and other such activities as Haram.
I find it highly suspicious, considering I had never met or spoken to Maajid before, how he knew me, and recognised me in a Cafe in Lahore? How did he get all of the information about me which he released in a press statement within a couple of hours of the incident in the middle of the night?
Furthermore, my students at the university where I teach are now being contacted by Quilliam’s hosts in Pakistan (a ‘Ms Sabeeha’, Director of Bargad a local NGO originating from Gujranwala, Pakistan) to confirm my designation at the establishment and requesting to hold talks here! So rather than ‘violent, vigilante’ members of the Hizb going after Maajid, it is HE who is in fact hounding us! All to fulfill the anti-Islam agenda of his backers in the West.
What is laughable is the duplicitous ‘challenge’ in the Quilliam Foundation press statement “to meet ideas with ideas”; this is clearly designed to appeal to fair minded people, and liberals. If they really believed in this; why did Ed Husain loose his nerve & refuse to participate on BBC radio interview, when the BBC also invited a HT member to respond to his (false) accusations? If they wanted “to meet ideas with ideas” why did Ed Husain report 2 British members of HT in Damascus to the Syrian authorities? If they wanted “to meet ideas with ideas” why did they campaign to Ban Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi from entering Britain, but campaigned to allow Geert Wilders (who made the Danish film ‘Fitnah’) to enter Britain? If they wanted “to meet ideas with ideas” why they refuse to sit in a discussion on Islam Channel with Azad Ali from East London Mosque, and demand Azad Ali is banned from the show if they are to attend? If they wanted “to meet ideas with ideas”
Qulliam’s constant stream of manipulative, exaggerating, attention seeking, Muslim bashing, sycophantic public statements are full of fear mongering about the ‘Islamist’ threat, and is aimed not at sincere discussion but malicious typecasting or pigeon holing of all Islamic activists into the “potential terrorist” category, without recognizing the fact that 99% of all Islamic movements are peaceful and actively discourage terrorism since it is clearly a prohibited (haram) method in Islam. Their real target is to achieve the British Government’s stated aims in the Contest 2 policy document, namely to eradicate political Islam and to discredit Shariah Law, Jihad and the call for the reestablishment of the Caliphate as extremist ideas.
Finally, their trigger happy press releases were exposed when they had to retract information in their press release attacking Islam Channel & Sheikh Yasir Al-Qadi, after what I suspect was a legal threat. My character has also been attacked in the media thanks to these liars, Maajid Nawaz approached me, he harassed me, he entered my private space so I too am seeking legal advice and they may soon be hearing from my lawyers.
Sufi Academy Launched by Blears Facebook …
It was a “Happy Birthday” Quilliam Foundation !
Firstly, we at the Traditionalislamism site would like to thank our fans for their support. We have a fan base ha ha! That is right, a facebook is dedicated to us
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=82628615519&ref=mf
Oh dear, we are almost closing in on the Quilliam support group. I think we have more Muslims supporting us though. Just a hunch. Back to the Birthday “party” of the Quilliam Foundation. I am writing this with an Islamic version of Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday” in my head. Happy Birthday to yaa Quilliam Foundation!
Let us recap now. Maajid came in with a bang at the City Circle forum looking for grass root support and now they are a think tank with “glittering attendances” at their precious “golden ticket” events not looking for “grassroot support”. Pictures of the event are available on the facebook site! I think we will also dedicate a post to you next year as well, because, that is all you are worth now.
Haapppy Birthday!
Quickly we need another Quilliam Alert!! NOW!!
Of course we all know of the “Fox News” like “Quilliam Alert”. I wonder will they give us colour coded build ups as well? That would be “impressive” . Still one Quilliam Alert has an SNP candidate in trouble. He supports the idea of a Caliphate! I quote
Support for the Caliphate
Saeed has written of the need for Muslims to re-create the Caliphate. The re-creation of the Caliphate is promoted by a range of extreme Islamist groups which include Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda. Saeed however attempted to put a positive spin of the re-creation of the Caliphate which he describes as the “idea of a united political leadership of the Muslim world” as an “economic bloc” which will “bring down trade barriers” and allow the “free flow of people across Muslim states”. In the IWitness, a now defunct online magazine for Scottish Muslims that Saeed previously helped run, this same article was entitled, “Caliphate should be our vision”.
Unfortunately, as we remember the very scholars that inspired them supported the Caliphate as well! Supposedly they like Abdul Hakim Murad, but will they now issue a Quilliam Alert for him and the Radical Middle Way? Tsk Tsk we can’t have “twisted” readings of Islam from people like that now can we? Oh it gets worse. Shiekh Jihad Brown gave a lecture that can be found on none other than the Blog of Abdul Hakim Murad!
http://cambridgekhutbasetc.blogspot.com/2009/03/purpose-of-sacred-law.html
You can also find links to this talk on the Radical Middle Way site on the blogroll! Who is Shiekh Jihad Brown ? Well he is the director of the Tabah Foundation that is closely associated with Bin Bayyah and Shiekh Buti.
http://www.tabahfoundation.org/ar/
You cannot get more mainstream than that! Unfortunately he was asked about Hizb ut Tahrir and the Caliphate. You can get this roughly 1:20 and 50 seconds into the talk. The questioner asked
I have been in discussion with a certain group….there are always propagating the establishment of the Khliafah…
The Sheikh intercedes and says
I guess you do not need to mention what group it is then..
Of course, this was followed by laughter. Everyone knew it referred to Hizb ut Tahrir! Anyway, the questioner went on, and the Shiekh replied
Well.. there are different senses of Khalifa. Ok there are different modes of Khilafah. The head of state so long as he is applying Islamic law..right..can be called Caliph just like he can be called Sultan or he could be called any number of things and probably will be called any number of things..But the head of state can be termed Imam al Athaam. In fact, the core principle of it is Imam al Athaam or at the heart of it is al Imama…which is a particular discussion in the books of Tawhid…
He then goes on to say that there are other modes which include a more individual aspect of Khilafah (in the sense that Prophet Adam (pbuh) was called). He insisted, though, that there was no contradiction between this individual mode and the social mode i.e. that of Imam al Athaam. In fact he considers the social mode an obligation! Anyway, to finish it off he says and I quote
…I hope the group (i.e. Hizb ut Tahrir) have success in the project
Until then, of course we should concentrate on the individual aspect as well. So let us look at this again. We have a Sheikh invited to speak by Abdul Hakim Murad and linked on his blog that supports the following
A-The Obligation of an Imam al Athaam, a Caliphate
B-This “secular” obligation is the obligation to establish Islamic Law
C-It is in the books of Tawhid i.e. the bab of Imama contrary to Maajid who introduces a stupid red herring to say that it is not in the books of fiqh, i.e. the title. It is obvious why it is generally not so. It is in the books on Tawhid like Taftazani’s commentary on Nasafi’s Creed among the umpteen others!
D-This group, Hizb ut Tahrir, have at least an Ijtihaad ( I assume) and he wishes them success!!
We are not talking about support for Hizb ut Tahrir here. It is more an issue of consistency. Really, I implore you Quilliam Foundation, you must have a Quilliam Alert now on Abdul Hakim Murad, the Radical Middle Way and the Shiekh Jihad Brown (who by the way has close links to Abdullah Bin Bayyah and Buti). Don’t you disappoint me.
Quilliam Alert!
We just want to alert everyone to the fact that “we” at the Quilliam Foundation are finding new ways to do very little.
Please QF, you have delighted us long enough!
It is one (albeit unabashedly disrespectful) thing for one of the co-founders of a think-tank to dominate the spotlight for himself by distancing himself from the others (recall). But, it is another to have supporters and critics alike draw this line of division for you.
What I’m referring to, of course, is this. The manifesto on the home page of this blog that gives itself the title muslims-against-the-shariah states that “sharia law must be abolished, because it is incompatible with norms of modern society” and it calls for certain ‘objectionable’ verses of the Qur’an to be “either removed from the Koran or declared outdated and invalid”. Right. Okay then. Moving on…
The blog includes the following in its list of official aims:
-
to educate Muslims about dangers presented by Islamic religious texts and why Islam must be reformed
-
to educate non-Muslims about the differences between moderate Muslims and Islamists (a.k.a. Islamic Religious Fanatics, Radical Muslims, Muslim Fundamentalists, Islamic Extremists or Islamofascists)
-
to educate both Muslims and non-Muslims alike that Moderate Muslims are also targets of Islamic Terror
So basically, it wants us all to do away with the shari’ah, it wants the kuffar to welcome policy shifts like contest 2 and it wants both camps to feel some pity for wandering souls like Maajid Nawaaz. Fair enough. Doesn’t sound very different to what Maajid himself calls for. Centuries of Islamic Scholarship got it wrong, but why fret? Don’t you know that Maajid and muslimsagainsttheshariah got it right?! They will enlighten us all, no need to call upon scholarly aid!
Anyways, since no one will actually take the first two points seriously at all, I don’t see the point of addressing them in any greater detail. As for the third point, I’ve got to say, I actually agree! Maajid is the real target of Islamism!! As for why he spent 14 years not only denying he was an Islamist, but actually working side by side with the Islamist extremists, beats me! If anyone has a clue (including you maajid) please feel free to drop a comment 
The real problem is, I don’t know how to react to the declassified information on this blog. I don’t know if it’s a pleasant surprise or a nervous shock… but the blog has maajid nawaz in the list of moderates, while, oddly enough, it appears that “Ed Hussain & the Quilliam Foundation” are in the list of Islamic Islamist Fundamentalists who are at the same time pretending to be moderates …
If the ambiguity of it all is leaving you scratching your head, then join the club. Responsibility. Organisation. Vision. Clarity. It seems these terms were not clarified for Maajid when he undertook his studies at school (nor in his tertiary studies at Newham College.) Honestly, how many indispensible characteristics can one “counter-extremism think tank set up by former Islamist activists” lack? Well, as we’ve recently come to learn, it appears the answer is all!
So have certain figures from amongst the quilliam boys lost touch with their roots, or have they perhaps realised where they truly belong? Is the long-rumoured split in the Quilliam Foundation finally surfacing ?? Oh my, the saga continues…
Maajid, my sincere advice to you is this: when you engage in what you term “counter-Islamist thought-generating”, please first define what this means to your friends, and then consult them so that, at the very least, you guys are on the same page. For an organisation that boasts itself as “the world’s first counter-extremism think tank” you’d do well to be inclusive of your co-directors! I suggest that you care about the feelings of those whom you work with. If you show care and compassion, your cronies will feel a sense of belonging. Statistics show that those who feel cared about are 22% less likely to leave an organisation. We know there may be a superiority complex serving as an obstacle to this end (which is more and more apparent when one compares your history to Ed’s “traumatised past”), but bro, you guys are meant to be a team. Be real! Show humility!
If you’re reading this (and I know you are), the please tell me, have we perhaps misjudged you eddie?? Yes, we know that the feelings of inferiority in your specific complex are often brought on by real or perceived (but most likely real) social rejection, but it seems that in your attempts to fight the Islamists, you’ve been classed as one too! In your extreme hatred for Al-Qaradawi et al, have you perhaps taken the expression “if you can’t beat them, join them” rather literally? Whatever the case, please make up your mind. I suggest you ask Maajid to do a press release clearing the air for us all. Our offer to clear your history and help you start afresh still stands.
Yeah, it’s fun to sit back and laugh at the internal discord, but please QF, you have delighted us long enough!
