Ed Husain of the government-funded Quilliam Foundation writes in the Guardian's Comment is Free website about the Taxpayers Alliance report on the allocation of Prevent funds by Local Authorities.
			He writes: ‘…the report also reveals that many groups that have received handsome grants of taxpayers' funds are groups whose leading members include supporters of hardcore Islamist ideologies.

'Such organisations include the Islamic Society of Britain (with some exceptions), the UK Islamic Mission, the Islamic Foundation, the London Muslim Centre and Da'watul Islam.

'All these named groups are directly inspired by Abu Ala Mawdudi, the godfather of Islamism in the Indian subcontinent and the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami.'

Husain’s terming of Mawdudi as the ‘godfather of Islamism’ is interesting given that a post of just that title guest featured recently on the notoriously anti-Muslim (and rabidly Zionist) blog Harry’s Place. So we know where Husain appears to get his inspiration, if not his ideas.

He goes on:

‘To my knowledge, none of them have explicitly disavowed Mawdudi's ideas. Here is what Mawdudi had to say about the role of jihad in Islam:

‘It must now be obvious that the objective of the Islamic jihad is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system, and establish in its place an Islamic system of state rule. Islam does not intend to confirm this rule to a single state or to a handful of countries. The aim of Islam is to bring about a universal revolution. Although in the initial stages, it is incumbent upon members of the party of Islam to carry out a revolution in the state system of the countries to which they belong; their ultimate objective is none other than a world revolution. (Jihad in Islam by AA Mawdudi, chapter 3, p10)

‘The challenge is simple: do the above organisations, along with the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), reject this Mawdudite world view, in letter and spirit? If not, why not? And if not, then why are they receiving government funds under the Prevent programme? Surely a minimum criterion of receiving such money should be to be able to disavow the ideas that lead directly to Islamist extremism and violence?’

Leaving aside the fact, reiterated in our response to Matthew Sinclair’s comment yesterday, that the MCB does not receive Prevent funds at all, there is much in Husain’s argument to contest.

Firstly, has it been established, either from the three Muslims convicted yesterday of terrorism or from those before them similarly tried and sentenced, that Mawdudi’s work has been in part or whole a source of inspiration for their actions?

The hard truth is that there is no evidence whatsoever that the three men convicted in the airliner plot had ever read Mawdudi or that he had been the source of their desire to commit mass murder in the skies. The BBC’s Dominic Casciani – who actually attended court and listened to the hearings - found that:

“Ali and Sarwar went to deliver aid to the refugee camps - and their experiences radically altered their world view.

"Abdulla Ahmed Ali, the ringleader of the group, was shocked by the appalling conditions. His anger was compounded by the failure of the 2003 mass protest against the Iraq war.

"The anger felt by men like Ahmed Ali turned him against the UK and America and he turned to radical Islamists who were increasingly calling for attacks on Britain."

As someone who in his book ‘The Islamist’ admits to having supported the extremely foolish decision to invade Iraq it is unsurprising that Ed Husain doesn’t seem very keen on considering the possibility that our disastrous actions abroad and the killings of tens of thouands of innocent civilians and leaving hundreds of thousands of children orphaned in Afghanistan and Iraq may have played a role in worsening the domestic terror threat.

Furthermore, the quote taken from Mawdudi's book, on religion inspiring a different order, is similar to notions of a 'Kingdom of God' on earth. And the inference that jihad in the paragraph is necessarily violent ignores the fact that jihad can take many forms and it is frankly disgraceful to try and imply that Mawdudi would have approved of the terrorist airliner plot. Ed's select quote highlights the problem of plucking a passage out of many pages, stripping it of context.

Ed's demand that Muslims renounce Mawdudi's writings reminds one of the wonderfully demented character called Captain Black in Joseph Heller’s magnificent anti-war novel Catch 22 who - obsessed with unearthing communists in the US army – launches the ‘Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade’. Soon all enlisted men and officers on combat duty have to sign a loyalty oath to get their map cases, a second oath to receive their flak jackets and parachutes and a third loyalty oath to be able to ride from the squadron to the airfield in one of the army trucks under Captain Black’s command. With each passing day, Captain Black thinks up new ways – and new loyalty oaths - to get soldiers to ‘prove’ their loyalty to the United States.

After getting his way on Mawdudi, we wonder what Ed might dream up next? Perhaps finding a controversial passage or two from Sayyid Qutb’s books and demand that Muslims renounce them too. Or maybe even, bits from the Qur’an? Fortunately for Ed, there is no end to the number of such mad schemes that could be thought up and the number of hoops to ask Muslims to jump through.

Second, in both the Western and Islamic academic traditions and history of ideas is there evidence of radical theorists, think of Nietzche or Schmitt. One would not conceive of destroying the work of these thinkers, merely of understanding the circumstances and contexts in which they wrote and the ideas that they advocated. Both Nietzche and Schmitt have been described as fascist ideologues and intellectual inspirers of the Nazi regime, but their work is still taught and read around the world.

Is Husain advocating that Muslim thinkers and their work be banished, physically (book burning?) or ideationally, by not engaging with their writings and thoughts? And isn’t intellectual inquiry and deeper comprehension the means of divesting books and authors from the misuse to which their works may have been subjected?

It seems superficial to suggest, as Husain does, that Muslims today reading Mawdudi are incapable of discerning between his context specific subject matter and ahistorical ideas.

Decontextualising ideas and randomly selecting paragraphs to present a ‘holistic picture’ of a writer is the work of an impoverished intellectual and, sadly, extremists intent on abusing Islamic teachings. One would think Husain particularly sensitive to the latter.

Which leads to our final point, which is that it is precisely through accurately identifying and understanding the ideas that propel individuals towards violent extremism can we hope to challenge them and those that fall under their sway.

Husain's targeting of these organisations brings us no closer to that objective or to an appreciation of Islam’s history of ideas and a vigorous intellectual encounter with them.

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eastlondoner  - Ed judges by his own shortcoming   |2009-09-10 09:00:04 Quote: It seems superficial to suggest, as Husain does, that Muslims today reading Mawdudi are incapable of discerning between his context specific subject matter and ahistorical ideas. I think this is because Ed himself is incapable! Thanks for a good response.

naushad  - a loose cannon   |2009-09-11 00:22:23 assalaam, ed has a loose tongue and a loose pen. this loose canon will soon be a cause for regret for his supporters when dons his new avatar. however, i pray, may allah return him around for good. in the meantime, do all these organizations really need the government money, when it is arousing so much suspicion and hate among the non-muslims? just a thought!

Ibrahim   |2009-09-11 22:31:57 Maulana Mawdudi inspired a generation and his work will Insha'Allah continue to mobilise the Muslim masses towards the holistic vision of Islam as revealed to and practiced by the Prophet (pbuh)

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