Scott Burgess weighs in on BBC Channel 4’s program Who Speaks for Muslims?, and the UK government’s continuing confusion over what constitutes a “moderate” or “mainstream” Muslim.
“March of the Moderates Continues,” from The Daily Ablution (thanks to Hugh Fitzgerald):
Print media continue to provide welcome publicity for tonight’s Channel 4 documentary Who Speaks for Muslims?, which lays open the extent of the links between the Foreign Office and Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and their south Asian co-ideologues, Jamaat-i-Islami – whose founder, Maulana Maududi, wrote:
“The objective of Islamic ‘jihad’ is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system and establish in its stead an Islamic system of state rule. Islam does not intend to confine this revolution to a single state or a few countries; the aim of
Islam is to bring about a universal revolution.'”
[…]
The picture is quite clear: these groups, allied by ideology, seek to establish a worldwide Caliphate under Sharia law. “Martyrdom” is one tool to be used to that end.
Today’s press coverage, in the Times and Daily Mail (apparently not online), concentrates on the current trip to the UK by Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, an official of J-i-I in Bangladesh (and a member of the Bangladeshi parliament). Maulana Sayeedi, who
compares Hindus to excrement and feels that the US “deserve all that is coming to them” for fighting the Taliban, visits as the guest of the East London Mosque, where he’ll be preaching. Later he’ll be addressing “a rally in a nearby park alongside the MP George Galloway” (Times).
Though not at the government’s invitation, Mr. Sayeedi’s admission into the country reflects a split in the Foreign Office concerning how such individuals should be treated (as it’s in that department’s power to deny the necessary visa application).
Those Foreign Office officials who objected to his visit were, however, overruled by the increasingly influential Mockbul Ali, the 25 year old Islamic issues adviser; who, after a perfunctory statement that “we would not endorse [Sayeedi’s views] in any way”, insisted that the Bangladeshi was “viewed as a mainstream Muslim figure”.
Read it all.