A coterie of ex-HT members, including Ed Hussain and Maajid Nawaz, have formed a “think tank” called the Quilliam Foundation. The entire focus of the organisation appears to be bickering with Hizb ut-Tahrir, challenging members and leaders of the group to “open debate”.
The problem, of course, is that it’s hard for many of us to take them seriously. If they were once weak-minded enough to be captivated by an ideology they now scream from the rooftops (rightly or wrong) is “extremist” and “wrong”, what guarantee do we have that this same weak-mindedness hasn’t persisted across to the post-HT phase of their “journey”? Surely, rather than this motley crew of easily led and easily hoodwinked spiritual show ponies, the best people to be talking about ‘extremism’ are the people who were smart enough not to be drawn into it in the first place.
In other words, pretty much everyone except them.
(And given they are supposedly against Islamism, isn’t it curious that they chose the name of the Ottoman Sheikh ul-Islam for the British Isles and reportedly England’s first Islamist?)
5 comments ↓
You don’t get to the level that these guys got to in HT without having serious issues. The HT head honchos would want to see a certificate from your psychiatrist proving you have got what it takes (paranoia, delusions of grandeur…) to be an HT big wig.
Reminds me of the Monty Python sketch - is that the Judean People’s Front or the Popular People’s Front? Splitters!!
Ed Husain claims that his parents’ Bengali murshid had absolutely no involvement in politics. That Sheik, Abdul Latif Fultali, was the leader of what for all intents and purposes sounded like an Islamist organisation in Bangladesh. I wrote about this in the comments section of AltMuslim.com on 16/06/07 as follows …
“I have started reading the Islamist and was interested with Ed Husain’s description of his family Pir Abdul Latif Fultali as being allegedly apolitical. I did some googling and found this site …
http://www.fultali.com/
I then went to the website of an organisation he founded, which can be found here …
http://www.fultali.com/leadership/al-islah.htm
… and here we find that among the “aims” of the body is “to make politics and society to be symmetrical with the Islamic orders”. Their focus is on welfare and service provision.
I ask myself what is the difference between this and FIS or HAMAS which started in the same manner?”
If you go to these websites now, you will find these items mysteriously removed.
There is nothing in the world as self-righteously inflexible and an ex-smoker. Ex-Islamist might come in second place; it’s hard to say ,there is a lot of competition for the second slot.
There is nothing in the world as self-righteously inflexible and self-righteous as an ex-smoker. Ex-Islamist might come in second place; it’s hard to say ,there is a lot of competition for the second slot.
Sorry, my post got scrambled somehow.
Leave a Comment