Category Archives: Your View

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Imam Ahmad Reza Khan (1856-1921): A Great Scholar of the 20th Century

By Guest | Published: October 13, 2009

This is a guest post by Raziq

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Imam Ahmad Reza Khan was born in 1856 in a town called Bareilly, India. Because of the name of his place of birth his followers are commonly referred to as “Barelewis”.  Imam Ahmad Reza began writing fatwas at the age of fourteen then he went on to become a Hanafi scholar and a spiritual follower of Pir Abdul Qadir Jilani al-Baghdadi.  He was a prolific writer and his fatwas are still used today.  In this article I will be looking at some of the key rulings and issues he dealt with.

British India Dar al-Harb or Dar al-Islam?

According to Imam Ahmad Reza Khan’s fatwa, India under British rule was still Dar al-Islam (land of Islam).  This was because:

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Also posted in Sufism | Tagged , | 45 Comments

Spittoon Exclusive: Dalia Mogahed’s letter to the Sunday Telegraph

By Guest | Published: October 13, 2009

This is a guest post by Al-Qanaas Al-Masri

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Through a source, who must for obvious reasons remain anonymous, I have received a copy of a letter that Dalia Mogahed, an advisor to Obama, wrote to The Telegraph in response to their coverage of her decision to appear on the Islam Channel on a programme run and hosted by Hizb ut-Tahrir. The letter reads:

Dear Sirs;

I am writing in response to the 8 October article “Barack Obama adviser says Sharia Law is misunderstood” by Mr. Gilligan and Mr. Spillius.

I was on the Muslimah Dilemma program as a pollster, not a pundit. I did not take issue with the objectionable remarks of the host or the guest because as a Gallup analyst my job is to explain the opinions of others, in this case Muslims around the world, and not to present my personal opinions. I do not in any way endorse Hizb ul Tahrir.  My participation in the program does not serve as endorsement of any group or cause.

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Also posted in International Affairs, Islamism | Tagged , | 15 Comments

Obama’s Advisor and the Promotion of Hizb ut-Tahrir

By Guest | Published: October 8, 2009

This is a guest post by Al-Qanaas Al-Masri

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Since taking office, President Obama’s administration has tried hard to break with Bush-era ‘them and us’ rhetoric and reach out to ordinary Muslims around the world.

However, I don’t think that anyone thought this policy would include publicly sucking up to Hizb ut-Tahrir, a group which, much like al-Qaeda, aspires to create a global, totalitarian and expansionist Caliphate.

And yet, as Counter Terrorism News website reveals, this is precisely what has now happened.

On Sunday, Dalia Mogahed (pronounced ‘mujahid’), a high-profile member of President Barack Obama’s Faith Advisory Council, spent 45-minutes on the Islam Channel’s programme ‘Muslimah Dilemma’ alongside fellow guest, Nasreen Nawaz, HT’s national women’s media representative (the video is available here).

There are some initial problems with this:

-          The Islam Channel is a hardline wahhabi/Islamist outfit run by Mohammed Ali Harrath, a convicted terrorist who is wanted by Interpol.

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Also posted in International Affairs, Islamism, Media | Tagged , , , | 39 Comments

Tories will ban Hizb ut-Tahrir

By Guest | Published: October 8, 2009

This is an extract from the speech delivered by Chris Grayling, shadow Home Secretary, at the Tory party conference in Manchester yesterday.

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The Home Office has another key responsibility.

The security of our people and of our nation.

To take the lead in the battle against terrorism.

And the fight against an ideology of hate and violence.

An ideology that damages the reputation of decent, law abiding British Muslims as well as threatening life and limb.

And let’s be clear. That ideology wants to destroy the civil liberties that make this country what it is. No Government should allow them to do so, and the way this Government has eroded those liberties is shameful and must be reversed.

Our police and security services have done a magnificent job in protecting us against the terrorist threat.

We owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

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Also posted in Feature, UK Politics | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Little Lolitas?

By Guest | Published: October 8, 2009

This piece by Laurie Penny is cross-posted from Penny Red. It also comes with this warning from the author:

[This entry comes with a trigger warning for mention of rape and abuse involving young girls. It's also possibly the angriest post I've ever written.]

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Thanks to a new book, ‘The Lolita Effect’, and a kiddy-sized pole-dancing kit marketed to six year olds that got attention on both sides of the pond and, of course, Miley Cyrus, the ‘sexualisation of young girls’ is in the press again. Cue a great deal of handwringing and think-of-the-children-isms in the same international press that, this same week, gave a good deal of coverage to child-rape apologists.

All of these stories are just begging, just laying back like the wanton little semiotic nymphets they are and begging to be illustrated with faux-naive photos of young girls in suggestive states of undress – or, more frequently and legally, parts of young girls. Merely, of course, to demonstrate how awful it all is.

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Also posted in Feminism | Tagged , | 3 Comments

A revolution in Saudi Arabia!

By Guest | Published: October 6, 2009

This is a cross-post by Shiraz Maher from the Standpoint, Focus on Islamism blog.

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Is it just me or has the whole world gone mad?

Yesterday the Spittoon revealed that Inayat Bunglawala – the Mr Bean of modern Islamism – wrote an article promoting gay rights and calling for greater tolerance of homosexuality within the Muslim community. Now, I’ve got news of a remarkable story from Saudi Arabia.

Last month the Kingdom inaugurated the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal, a coastal town on the Red Sea about 50 miles north of Jeddah. There’s lots to marvel at, as their slick English language website reveals.

The entire 14 square mile site was built in two years, hosts one of only fourteen supercomputers in the world (named Shaheen after the Peregrine Falcon) and has invested $1.5 billion in state of the art technology including three-dimensional imaging facilities.

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Posted in Your View | 30 Comments

Why aren’t judges protecting us from terrorists?

By Guest | Published: October 5, 2009

This is a guest post by Shiraz Maher from the Standpoint blog, Focus on Islamism

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Blogging about the law is not really my remit – not least because my fellow blogger here at Standpoint, Joshua Rozenberg, is the resident expert. That said, I couldn’t help but comment on the news from yesterday’s Sunday Times that about thirty ‘high risk’ terrorist suspects are due for release soon. I’ve long been opposed to our sentencing guidelines which, it seems to me, impose only the weakest of tariffs for some quite horrendous crimes – but that’s a different topic for a different day.

For now, the issue must be why we’re releasing terrorists who adopt an ideological hatred of our country and its people. These are not individuals engaged in crimes of opportunity where they just happened to chance upon an open door. These are men who believe they have divine sanction to launch terrorist attacks against this country.

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Posted in Your View | 2 Comments

Syed Qutb: The Philosopher of Militant Islamism

By Guest | Published: October 2, 2009

This is a guest post by Raziq

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What’s wrong with Syed Qutb? I’ve heard this said many times by different people. Some see him as a hero, others the inspiration behind terrorist movements like al-Qaeda. There are even those, like Inayat Bunglawala, who see him as nothing more than a little controversial.  In this article I will be taking a brief look at Qutb’s life and ideas, and why he is still admired by militant Islamist movements today.

Early Career

Syed Qutb was born in 1906 in Musha in the Asyut province of Upper Egypt.  In his early twenties he moved to Cairo and worked as a teacher for the Ministry of Public Instruction. During this period he was also interested in literature and became known as a literary critic. It is noted that Qutb was liberal in the early part of his life, at one point he even advocated nudism:

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Also posted in History, Islamism | Tagged | 13 Comments

Paying for Political Islam

By Guest | Published: September 30, 2009

This piece by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens is cross-posted from the Standpoint blog, Focus on Islamism

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This November, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) will be holding its course on political Islam and, like the last one, it is not without its controversial speakers.

I don’t have many fans in the SOAS political Islam Course; this is mainly because the think tank for which I work was instrumental in preventing the entry into the UK of one of its prominent invitees, Ibrahim el Moussawi.  Moussawi, the head of Hezbollah’s propaganda station al Manar TV, was due to address the same course in March of this year until the Home Secretary refused him an entry visa at the last minute.  SOAS, for their part, were more than happy to play host to a man who heads a TV channel which is banned in most of Europe because of its extreme antisemitism and promotion and incitement of violence.

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Also posted in Islamism | Tagged , , , , | 22 Comments

Women: Cover up and shut up

By Guest | Published: September 30, 2009

This is a guest post by Ibn Khaldun

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niqabi robberThe Times recently gave space to Fatima Barkatulla to present a hopelessly misleading defence of the niqab (or, as the Times fawningly describes it, “[a]n insider guide to common misconceptions”). Fatima attempts to address seven issues that have been raised around the Niqab.

The piece is here for all to see. I would like to respond to her points one by one.

1) The Niqab is a symbol of female subjugation.

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Also posted in Fashion | Tagged | 45 Comments

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