Shiraz Maher is one of a large group of “moderate” Muslims in the UK who pretend that the core texts and teachings of Islam are peaceful, and fool the UK government and media into thinking that therefore jihadis can be “de-radicalized” once they’re introduced to the true, peaceful teachings of Islam.
Apologies for the personal note, but actually this isn’t really personal: Maher is also one of a group of “moderate” Muslims in the UK, a group that also includes Usama Hasan and Maajid Nawaz, who have been viciously abusive and arrogant toward me personally on Twitter. Once Maher challenged me to name five Muslims I admired; I told him I wasn’t going to jump through his hoops and didn’t need to prove myself to him, but then supplied him with five names anyway (people such as Ahmed Assid). Maher nonetheless dishonestly trumpeted this as evidence substantiating his claim that I hated all Muslims. In reality, all my work has been in defense of the freedom of speech and the equality of rights of all people before the law — and in light of that I continue to believe that any Muslim who believes in those principles will have no objection to my work.
That Maher, Hasan and Nawaz profess to stand against everything I stand against, and to stand for everything I stand for, and yet still go out of their way to excoriate me, makes me doubt their sincerity and good intentions. And in this case, Maher apologized “for his ‘ill-advised and misjudged’ comments ‘given the circumstances of Asad Shah’s murder and the political context thereafter,'” and “told the Sunday Times that he had often said Ahmadis should not be targeted for their beliefs.” Yet he also knows, and knows very well, that Ahmadis are persecuted in Pakistan, Indonesia and elsewhere because they’re considered non-Muslims, and so his words could easily be taken as incitement to violence against Ahmadis. But don’t be concerned: he is a “moderate”!
“Top expert on Islamist radicalisation is investigated by university for saying slain Muslim shopkeeper was ‘not a real Muslim,'” by Julian Robinson, MailOnline, April 17, 2016:
A top expert on Islamist radicalisation is being investigated for saying that a slain Muslim shopkeeper was ‘not a real Muslim’, it has been reported.
Shiraz Maher, a researcher at King’s College London, wrote on Facebook that he does not ‘regard Ahmadis as Muslims’ – days after a taxi driver admitted killing Asad Shah because he ‘disrespected’ Islam’.
Mr Shah, part of the Ahmadiyya community, was knifed to death in his shop in what was feared at the time to have been a sectarian attack against the peace-loving branch of Islam he followed.
Earlier this month, taxi driver Tanveer Ahmed, accused of his murder, said through his lawyer that he killed the much-loved family man because he had claimed to be ‘a prophet’.
Days later Mr Maher, a senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, reportedly wrote on Facebook: ‘I really wonder if I’m missing something here but I don’t regard Ahmadis as Muslim.’
According to Richard Kerbaj of the Sunday Times, the Sunni Muslim added: ‘Obviously this does not mean I think they should be persecuted or suffer for their beliefs … yes, condemn the murder and, more long term, suck up the heat out of Muslim hostilities directed towards them but that still doesn’t mean that they should then be accepted as Muslim.’
The newspaper reports that he has since apologised for his ‘ill-advised and misjudged’ comments ‘given the circumstances of Asad Shah’s murder and the political context thereafter’.
He told the Sunday Times that he had often said Ahmadis should not be targeted for their beliefs….