An unlikely alliance

Wednesday, 01 October 2008 12:30

In yet another example of a Muslim doing the fashionable thing and slating other Muslims the better to present himself as progressive, enlightened and most importantly, ‘one of us’, Ghaffar Hussain in the Guardian’s Comment is Free section utters the usual nonsense and half truths in an article on the Muslim-Left Alliance.

‘Westophobia’ is the new phobia Hussain would like to introduce to readers, a phobia he claims is shared by what might to others seem ideological opposites, Islamists and the Hard Left.

‘Having a common foe in western capitalism, which they conveniently blame for all of the world's ills, they have developed a marriage of convenience against the odds’, he writes, referring to the co-operation enjoyed by the Respect party, the Muslim Association of Britain and the Stop the War Coalition.

The ‘unlikely alliance’ is united on the basis that both are ‘ideologically driven to view the west and western capitalism as "the enemy"’, Hussain asserts.

Hussain presentation of ‘facts’ is perhaps to be expected given his Quilliam Foundation credentials; a ‘think tank’ that purports to ‘revive Western Islam’, but which is known more for its ideological agenda than for any credible research and analysis. And his article further proves the point.

He claims that ‘In Islamist thought the west is viewed as the very embodiment of evil itself, the great satan to be opposed and fought at all costs in the struggle of good versus evil. The west is presented as one great unified body whose sole purpose is to destroy Islam and humiliate Muslims.’ He then goes on to quote the late Abdul Qadeem Zalloom, the former global leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Has Hussain (conveniently) forgotten from his days in HT that the group never represented the views of the majority of British Muslims and that while he, and fellow QF members, might well have imbibed HT tracts as gospel truths, most other Muslims sought answers to their grievances on British foreign policy, individualism and materialism, environmental damage and sustainable development through partnerships with other groups in ‘the west’ that believed and supported these same objectives?

He claims that ‘both [Islamists and the Left] promote bizarre James Bond-villianesque conspiracy theories, and a westophobic world view’, although no examples are forthcoming. And he asks ‘how do people who believe that homosexuals should be thrown off high buildings build coalitions with those who promote gay rights? How do people who believe in strict gender segregation and face veils work with people who support women's lib?’

Has Hussain even done the cursory thing and read the websites of the organisations he criticises to check his facts? Well, of course not. Have the images of Muslim women, veiled and unveiled, marching alongside the million and more that protested against the war in Iraq quietly retreated in his consciousness? Which of the groups he mentions have ever spoken in favour of gender segregation? And would some of their most recognised Muslim faces, Salma Yaqoob and Soumaya Ghannoushi, be women if this were indeed the case?

Hussain’s piece breaks the first rule of journalism – get your facts right. But with ideologically inspired nonsense such as this, perhaps the problem of Hussain’s weak contribution rests not so much in identifying phobias for his readers as in creating them?

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