My investigations were originally centred on Jamaat’s links to Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and a charity front called KOMPAK which is based in Indonesia. Some of the al-Qaeda hijackers attended a final planning session for the 9/11 attacks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2000. Riduan Isamuddin (a.k.a. Hambali), a senior KOMPAK leader attended the conference. Intelligence officials now believe that the al-Qaeda attack on the USS Cole in Yemen was also planned at the meeting. The core leadership of KOMPAK have been arrested for having ties to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah, a radical jihadi group which is believed to be behind the Bali bombings and other atrocities. KOMPAK was funded by Muslim Aid UK.

Muslim Aid is run by Jamaat sympathisers and former members of the movement from Pakistan and Bangladesh. It came as no surprise that after the 9/11 attacks Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the atrocities was arrested in Pakistan, which is over 3000 miles away from where the Malaysian summit was held in 2000. He was arrested in the home of a Jamaat-i-Islami figure. There have also been many other cases of al-Qaeda leaders being arrested from Jamaat safe-houses in Pakistan.[3]

So, it has not been a great surprise that since 2006, some of the UK’s leading commentators and journalists have been uncovering the links between radical Islamists in South Asia, and the Middle East, and organisations they have helped to setup in the UK. Nick Cohen, Andrew Gilligan, Melanie Phillips and Martin Bright have been slowly uncovering the Jamaat-i-Islami’s ties to high-profile figures within the British Muslim community.[4] They have made accusations that organisations such as the MCB and the East London Mosque are suffocating British Muslims who are not generally affiliated to Jamaat politics. Jamaat affiliates connected to the MCB portray themselves as mainstream rather than a minority movement both in the UK and South Asia.

Jamaat has powerful allies. They have been funded by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and have received money from the Gulf States, most notably Saudi Arabia.[5] The movement has been flush with petro-dollars allowing it to spend money on Dawah activities which have included public relations with academics, diplomats and senior politicians from the West who have been blinded by Jamaat’s duplicity. It has had a devastating effect on social cohesion and security policy. Academics such as John Esposito and Bob Lambert have even touted Jamaat as being a moderating solution to al-Qaeda/Salafists. Many have been misled to believe that Jamaat’s participation in elections as being a sign of the movement being committed to democracy.

Jamaat have been used by the Pakistani military as a recruiting agent for jihad. Hussain Haqqani, the Pakistani Ambassador to the USA’s made the following analysis of Jamaat’s ties to terrorism:

“Islamist liberation movements seeking redress of perceived and real grievances in places remote from Pakistan, such as Chechnya, Bosnia and Southern Philippines congregated in Pakistan. The Jamaat-e-Islami raised funds for these groups and provided military training for their members, in addition to allowing its own younger members to participate in Jihad around the world.”[6]

Haqqani is not the only Pakistani official to question the connections between Jamaat-i-Islami and global militancy. In 2004, Former Minister of the Interior of Pakistan, Faisal Saleh Hayat publicly asked Jamaat why their members were sheltering al-Qaeda leaders.[7]

Jamaat follows the programme of Maulana al-Mawdudi one of the godfathers of modern Islamism and fundamentalism in the Muslim world. Mawdudi wanted Pakistan to be the centre of a new Islamic Empire. It is, perhaps, contradictory or even hypocritical, that Jamaat has often run on a campaign of anti-Imperialism for the majority of its existence. However, the movement is not averse to being involved in conquest and domination. Jamaat wants its member and affiliates to be the vanguard of an Islamic revolution. Their leaders such as Qazi Hossain Ahmed and Prof. Khurshid Ahmed have recently called for a, “Glorious Islamic Revolution,” in Pakistan. Jamaat’s student wing the Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) has also been uncovered aiding and fighting alongside al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban in North Waziristan.[8]

Muslim Aid trustees such as Tanzeem Wasti, Chowdhury Mueen Uddin, Ghulam Sarwar, Manazir Ahsan and Zahid Ali Parvez have connections to Jamaat figures and organisations. Wasti and Parvez are both connected to Muslim Aid and UKIM, which has been is described by Q News as, “…an organisation inspired by the Jamaati Islam party in Pakistan working with the Islamic revivalist teachings of Abul A’la Mawdudi and others.”[9] Tanzeem Wasti was even seen as Jamaat’s London figurehead by Pakistani newspapers in the 1990s.[10] He had previously served as the head of the Agency Afghan Press during the Soviet-Afghan war. In 1994, Tanzeem Wasti, who is also one of the founders of the UK Islamic Mission, gave the following interview where he believed governments in the Muslim world would be toppled by Islamic revolution:

“Today, Muslims have won the intellectual battle; Western intellectuals are afraid because they are seeing Islam rising all over the place… The West does not know how to tackle the march of Islam and is bankrupt morally and intellectually. The Muslim masses are changing and their un-Islamic governments cannot stay in power much longer. I am sure all over the world Islam will get much stronger…The Muslim community in Britain now has deep roots and the infrastructure to go forward. It is up to succeeding generations to pass on the message of the Prophet.” [11]

Jamaat-i-Islami’s Zarnoor Afridi (FATA) distributing Qurbani meat in front of a Muslim Aid and AKF banner

Muslim Aid UK is closely tied to the Al-Khidmat Foundation (AKF) which is based in Pakistan. AKF is a branch of the Jamaat-i-Islami movement which has its headquarters in Mansoorah, Lahore, Pakistan. In 2005, AKF listed its major donors as the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and Muslim Aid UK. Muslim Aid has built schools and hospitals with AKF.[12] In 2007, Muslim Aid built a diagnostics centre in Chitral, Pakistan which is maintained by AKF.[13] Muslim Aid and UKIM have also donated ambulances to AKF. Muslim Aid is also instrumental in AKF’s annual Qurbani campaign to raise money.[14] AKF is controlled by Jamaat-i-Islami’s central working committee in Lahore. Masooda Bano recently published a paper on Jamaat’s welfare wings for the UK Department for International Development (DFID) he explained Al-Khidmat’s relationship with Jamaat and why they tried to hide the linkages:

“It did this in order to protect itself from international pressure after September 11 as international analysts suspect Jama’at of having links with fundamentalist groups… During interviews with the current board members of the Al-Khidmat Foundation, they were keen to present the Foundation as regular NGO, which no longer has a formal affiliation with the Jama’at, even though Jama’at members are still running the organisation.”[15]

Muslim Aid and Al-Khidmat’s Zabiha/Qurbani campaign in Pakistan, 2009

Muslim Aid Australia states that Al-Khidmat is a “non-political welfare entity,” on its website; however, its ties to Jamaat-i-Islami are apparent. [16]

Jamaat-i-Islami’s Qazi Hossain Ahmed at a wedding ceremony paid for by AKF

Muslim Aid, UKIM and AKF charitable work is generally good; they do provide services for the needy and the poor throughout the world- which is commendable. However, Jamaat designed their charitable fronts to bring political support to the Jamaat-i-Islami movement and their ideology. One senior leader of Al-Khidmat said the following:

“Members are also required to put forward the Jama’at philosophy to other people they know and to make those who are inclined towards this thinking join the Jama’at. Those who are inclined towards Jama’at thinking but are unable to take the full responsibility of a member should be encouraged to join the bigger pool of Jama’at sympathisers.”[17]

In hospitals which Al-Khidmat controls it indoctrinates its patients with DVDs of Maulana al-Mawdudi’s radical thought.[18] The fact that Muslim Aid helped finance KOMPAK in Indonesia raises serious questions that Jamaat’s charitable organisations are possibly overlapping with its support for global jihadi groups. Pakistan’s Ambassador to the USA, Hussain Haqqani, pointed out that Jamaat has a long history of providing military training to foreign jihadis. It even has a militant wing called the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. Russia’s Supreme Court has already banned the Jamaat-i-Islami for its global support for terrorism. Which leads to the question- why hasn’t Jamaat been added to the UN Security Councils list of proscribed terrorist organisations?

Muslim Aid and Al-Khidmat opening a diagnostics centre in Chitral, Pakistan

The cross-pollination of religion/politics/social work is very common within revolutionary organisations. The Nazi Party in Germany had the Winter Aid (Winterhilfswerk) and the Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt/People’s Welfare Organization (NSV) which were designed to spread the message of the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler’s ideals of an Aryan superior race. Josef Goebbels, the chief Nazi propagandist saw such organisations as being instrumental for furthering the aims of the Third Reich. Goebbels even made his wife, Madga, a patron of the charities. Mawdudi, the godfather of Jamaat, was known to have carefully studied the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. The comparisons between the Nazi Party and Jamaat-i-Islami’s charitable fronts are eerily similar; both ideologies also draft wild conspiracies theories about foreign and domestic threats which have often helped their supporters to practise genocide, violence and hate.

[2] Chris Blackburn and Carter-Ruck, Muslim Aid and Terror, Frontpagemag.com, February 14^th 2006, http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=5556

[3] Syed Saleem Shahzad, Pakistani students prefer guns not books, Asia Times Online, July 27^th, 2010, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LG27Df01.html

[4] Andrew Gilligan, Muslim Aid: Hopeless Charity Commission whitewashes yet another Islamist group, The Telegraph Online, December 17^th 2010, http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100068829/muslim-aid-hopeless-charity-commission-whitewashes-yet-another-islamist-group/

[5] Affidavit names politicians who took money from the ISI, The Daily Times (Pakistan), August 27^th 2009, http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20098\27\story_27-8-2009_pg1_12

[6] Hussain Haqqani, The Ideologies of South Asian Jihadi Groups, The Hudson Institute, Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, http://www.currenttrends.org/research/detail/the-ideologies-of-south-asian-jihadi-groups

[7]Govt asks Jamaat to explain Qaeda links, The Peninsula, Qatar, http://archive.thepeninsulaqatar.com/component/content/article/347-pakistan-sub-continent/40847.html

http://www.ribt.org/nuke/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=153

[8] Syed Saleem Shahzad, Pakistani students prefer guns not books, Asia Times Online, July 27^th, 2010, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LG27Df01.html

[9] UK Islamic Mission Conference, British Muslims Monthly Survey for August 1994 Vol. II, No. 8,

http://artsweb.bham.ac.uk/bmms/1994/08August94.html

[10]Pakistani politicians in Britain condemn terrorism in Karachi, DAWN NEWS International, Karachi

31 August 1998, http://www.karachipage.com/news/aug98/083198.txt

[11] Peter Sookhdeo, Islamic Fundamentalism: Back to Basics, Vol. 17, No. 8, Third Way, October 1994, Pg. 9

[12] http://alkhidmathospital.com/milestones.htm

http://www.onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?id=89097

http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1349.htm

[13] Muslim Aid Pakistan will construct a Diagnostic Center in Chitral, Chitral Times, http://www.chitraltimes.com/english07/newsedetail86.htm

[14] Muslim Aid Asia, Qurban Campaign, http://muslimaidasia.com/content/view/45/9/lang,en/

Al-Khidmat Foundation, Qurban Page, Zabiha Project 2010, http://al-khidmatfoundation.org/qurban_page.php

[15]Masooda Bano, Marker of Identity: Religious Political Parties and Welfare Work- The Case of the Jama’iat Islami in Pakistan and Bangladesh, Religion and Development: Research Programme, Funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), http://www.religionsanddevelopment.org/files/resourcesmodule/@random454f80f60b3f4/1254137609_working_paper_34.pdf

[16]Jamaat-i-Islami Punjab, http://www.punjabjamaat.org.pk/home/dep_Detail/10

Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan, showing that Al-Khidmat is Jamaat, http://www.jipvideos.com/?cat=102

Profile of Jamaat’s Dr. Fareed Ahmed Paracha, Pakistan Herald, http://pakistanherald.com/Profile/Dr-Fareed-Ahmed-Paracha-494

Qazi holds junta liable for miseries of quake-hit people, Pakistan Tribune, Lahore, http://www.paktribune.com/news/print.php?id=156566

[17] Masooda Bano, Marker of Identity: Religious Political Parties and Welfare Work- The Case of the Jama’iat Islami in Pakistan and Bangladesh, Religion and Development: Research Programme, Funded by the Department for International Development (DFID)

[18] What Is Pakistan Reading: An Alternative Tour of the Karachi International Book Fair, December 30 2010, http://pakistaniat.com/2010/12/30/books-karachi-book-fair/

****

There is a common misconception that the roots of radical Islamism stem from grievances in the Middle East i.e. Israel/Palestine. This is actually not true. The Indian Sub-continent is just as responsible for radical Islamism as the Middle East is thanks to one man in particular, largely ignored in the Western media, Maulana Mawdudi. In this article I will be looking at Mawdudi’s personality and ideology.

Mawdudi was the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), an Islamist party in the Indian sub-continent (the counterpart of the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt). In the early part of his life he was a newspaper editor. He had no theological grounding as a scholar, rather he was a self-taught man with a passion for political authority. He was a key influence on many Islamist ideologues.

According to historian Philip Jenkins:

Egyptian Hassan Al Banna and Sayyid Qutb read him. Qutb ‘Borrowed and expanded’ Mawdudi’s concept of Jahilliyya (pagan ignorance) being a modern as well as pre-muhammadan phenomena, and for the need for an Islamist revolutionary vanguard movement. His ideas influenced the young Osama bin Laden during the anti-soviet war in Afghanistan. The South Asian Diaspora, including “significant numbers” in Britain, were “hugely influenced” by Mawdudi’s work. Mawdudi even had a major impact on Shia Iran, where Ayatollah Ruhoallah Khomeini is reputed to have met Mawdudi as early as 1963 and later translated his works into Farsi. “To the present day, Iran’s revolutionary rhetoric of ten draws on his themes.

(tnr. com The New Republic “The Roots of Jihad in India” by Philip JENKINS, December 24, 2008)

Mawdudi‘s ideas are laid out in the 120 books he wrote. In his book Al-Jihad fil-Islam (Jihad in Islam) he explains his interpretation of Jihad:

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 confine his rule to a single state or a hand full 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 world revolution

(Jihad Fi Sabillilah: Jihad in Islam by Sayyid Abul Ala Mawdudi “– Chapter 3, Pg 10)

In another book he says:

Human relations are so integrated that no state can have complete freedom of action under its principles unless the same principles are not in force in a neighbouring country. Therefore, a, ‘Muslim Party’ will not be content with the establishment of Islam in just one area alone –both for its own safety and for general reform. It should try and expand in all directions. On one hand it will spread its ideology; on the other it will invite people of all nations to accept its creed, for salvation lies only therein. If this Islamic state has power and resources it will fight and destroy non-Islamic governments and establish Islamic states in their place.

(Maulana Mawdudi, Haqiqat-i-Jihad ,Pg 64, Taj Company Ltd, Lahore, Pakistan 1964)

It is not difficult to see the influence Mawdudi’s ideas had on Islamist ideologues (Syed Qutb for example) as they swiftly became widespread in various parts of the world.  To propagate his ideas Mawdudi set up his group Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in 1941. He describes his group as:

It (JI) is not a missionary organisation or a body of preachers or evangelists, but an organisation of God’s troopers.

(Mawlana Mawdudi, Haqiqat-i-Jihad, Pg 58, Taj Company Ltd, Lahore, Pakistan 1964)

The vision of this group was to destroy all man-made political systems and to establish an Islamic state in their place where non-Muslims would not be allowed to propagate their faiths. This state would then wage a Jihad against other countries.

In our domain we neither allow any Muslim to change his religion nor allow any other religion to propagate its faith.

(Mawlana Abul Ala Mawdudi, Murtad ki Saza Islami Qanun Mein, Pg 32, Lahore Islamic Publications Ltd, 1981, 8th Edition)

Women’s role in society would be restricted:

..the real place of women is the house and she has been exempted from outdoor duties…She has however been allowed to go out of the house to fulfil her genuine needs, but whilst going out she must observe complete modesty. Neither should she wear glamorous clothes and attract attention, nor should she cherish the desire to display the charms of the face and the hand, nor should she walk in a manner which may attract attention of others. Moreover she should not speak to them without necessity, and if she has to speak she should not speak in a sweet and soft voice

(Sayyid Abul Ala Mawdudi. Purdah and the status of Women in Islam, Taj Company Ltd, Pg 140)

In Pakistan, JI protested against women’s rights and supported the Hudood bill of 1979. This bill made it difficult for women to receive justice for rape as, if they failed to bring four male witnesses to the crime, they risked having their accusation against the man turned into an admission of guilt to fornication. The woman would be flogged and the rapist would walk free.

Mawdudi himself was arrested in 1953 for inciting violence against the minority Ahmadiyyah community and sentenced to death, which was later commuted. In total Mawdudi was jailed four times before his death in 1979.

In Pakistan, members of JI have gone on to join Pakistan’s military and intelligence departments in large numbers. This was a factor in the military coup in the 70’s which overthrew the government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and brought the dictatorship of General Zia into power. Zia then went on a campaign to Islamicize the country. He supported, trained and funded JI-inspired Islamist fighters in Afghanistan and India; the birth of the Taliban was a direct result of JI influence in the Pakistani Intelligence services.

In the UK today there are many organisations which have links to JI or actively support and propagate Mawdudi’s ideas. They include the Islamic Foundation in Leicester, East London Mosque, UK Islamic Mission, Islamic Forum Europe and leading figures in the Muslim Council of Britain. It is a shame that today in Britain we have organisations promoting Mawdudi’s hate-filled works and, if we are serious about defeating extremism in the UK, they must be exposed and challenged.

Charity Principal of the Year:

Catriona McPhee-Smith, CEO, Inspire

Ed Bracher, CEO, Riding for the Disabled Association

Emma Jayne Cross, CEO, Beatbullying

Dilowar Hussain Khan, executive director, East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre

Jane Davis, Director, The Reader Organisation

Jeanette Allen, CEO, MedicAlert Foundation

Howard Sinclair, CEO, Broadway Homelessness & Support

Steve Kirk, CEO, St Lukes Hospice

And also:

Trustee Board of the Year:

Broadway Homelessness & Support

East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

Tyneside Rape Crisis Centre

You can admire the list of trustees of this fine Jamaat-e-Islami linked establishment here.

Now, the East London Mosque, with Dilowar Husasin Khan at its helm, may well have done some good work in 2009, but it’s also managed to trip up on more than the odd occasion. Whilst the recent Fitzpatrick affair was an overblown egotrip for a minister nobody had ever heard of, there are genuine concerns about the influence Jamaat-e-Islami influenced Islamists Islamic Forum Europe are gaining through East London Mosque. The mosque also found itself in the papers recently after playing host to the Antisemitic Imam of Mecca, Abdur Rahman al-Sudais.

Before that there was the iEra “Dawah” (propagation of the faith) tour, which saw Malaysian bigot Hussein Ye, Bilal Philips and Abdur Raheem Green come to East London Mosque (and other locations around the country) to spread their particularly conservative and intolerant strand of Islam.

Going further back, on January 1st 2009, East London Mosque hosted an event called The End of Time. Publicised with pictures of a burning New York skyline, it featured a video address by Anwar al-Awlaki, whose views Kensington and Chelsea Council has recently condemned as “not appropriate for broadcast in [council] premises”. Apparently East London Mosque was untroubled by his stated support for terrorist groups and the killing of innocent Israeli women and children.

So, despite all of these goings on at East London Mosque this year, its executive director and trustees have been nominated for awards at the Charity Times Awards. How must the other charities on the shortlists feel to be in such inauspicious company?

****

There is a common misconception that the roots of radical Islamism stem from grievances in the Middle East i.e. Israel/Palestine. This is actually not true. The Indian Sub-continent is just as responsible for radical Islamism as the Middle East is thanks to one man in particular, largely ignored in the Western media, Maulana Mawdudi. In this article I will be looking at Mawdudi’s personality and ideology.

Mawdudi was the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), an Islamist party in the Indian sub-continent (the counterpart of the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt). In the early part of his life he was a newspaper editor. He had no theological grounding as a scholar, rather he was a self-taught man with a passion for political authority. He was a key influence on many Islamist ideologues.

According to historian Philip Jenkins:

Egyptian Hassan Al Banna and Sayyid Qutb read him. Qutb ‘Borrowed and expanded’ Mawdudi’s concept of Jahilliyya (pagan ignorance) being a modern as well as pre-muhammadan phenomena, and for the need for an Islamist revolutionary vanguard movement. His ideas influenced the young Osama bin Laden during the anti-soviet war in Afghanistan. The South Asian Diaspora, including “significant numbers” in Britain, were “hugely influenced” by Mawdudi’s work. Mawdudi even had a major impact on Shia Iran, where Ayatollah Ruhoallah Khomeini is reputed to have met Mawdudi as early as 1963 and later translated his works into Farsi. “To the present day, Iran’s revolutionary rhetoric of ten draws on his themes.

(tnr. com The New Republic “The Roots of Jihad in India” by Philip JENKINS, December 24, 2008)

Mawdudi‘s ideas are laid out in the 120 books he wrote. In his book Al-Jihad fil-Islam (Jihad in Islam) he explains his interpretation of Jihad:

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 confine his rule to a single state or a hand full 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 world revolution

(Jihad Fi Sabillilah: Jihad in Islam by Sayyid Abul Ala Mawdudi “– Chapter 3, Pg 10)

In another book he says:

Human relations are so integrated that no state can have complete freedom of action under its principles unless the same principles are not in force in a neighbouring country. Therefore, a, ‘Muslim Party’ will not be content with the establishment of Islam in just one area alone –both for its own safety and for general reform. It should try and expand in all directions. On one hand it will spread its ideology; on the other it will invite people of all nations to accept its creed, for salvation lies only therein. If this Islamic state has power and resources it will fight and destroy non-Islamic governments and establish Islamic states in their place.

(Maulana Mawdudi, Haqiqat-i-Jihad ,Pg 64, Taj Company Ltd, Lahore, Pakistan 1964)

It is not difficult to see the influence Mawdudi’s ideas had on Islamist ideologues (Syed Qutb for example) as they swiftly became widespread in various parts of the world.  To propagate his ideas Mawdudi set up his group Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in 1941. He describes his group as:

It (JI) is not a missionary organisation or a body of preachers or evangelists, but an organisation of God’s troopers.

(Mawlana Mawdudi, Haqiqat-i-Jihad, Pg 58, Taj Company Ltd, Lahore, Pakistan 1964)

The vision of this group was to destroy all man-made political systems and to establish an Islamic state in their place where non-Muslims would not be allowed to propagate their faiths. This state would then wage a Jihad against other countries.

In our domain we neither allow any Muslim to change his religion nor allow any other religion to propagate its faith.

(Mawlana Abul Ala Mawdudi, Murtad ki Saza Islami Qanun Mein, Pg 32, Lahore Islamic Publications Ltd, 1981, 8th Edition)

Women’s role in society would be restricted:

..the real place of women is the house and she has been exempted from outdoor duties…She has however been allowed to go out of the house to fulfil her genuine needs, but whilst going out she must observe complete modesty. Neither should she wear glamorous clothes and attract attention, nor should she cherish the desire to display the charms of the face and the hand, nor should she walk in a manner which may attract attention of others. Moreover she should not speak to them without necessity, and if she has to speak she should not speak in a sweet and soft voice

(Sayyid Abul Ala Mawdudi. Purdah and the status of Women in Islam, Taj Company Ltd, Pg 140)

In Pakistan, JI protested against women’s rights and supported the Hudood bill of 1979. This bill made it difficult for women to receive justice for rape as, if they failed to bring four male witnesses to the crime, they risked having their accusation against the man turned into an admission of guilt to fornication. The woman would be flogged and the rapist would walk free.

Mawdudi himself was arrested in 1953 for inciting violence against the minority Ahmadiyyah community and sentenced to death, which was later commuted. In total Mawdudi was jailed four times before his death in 1979.

In Pakistan, members of JI have gone on to join Pakistan’s military and intelligence departments in large numbers. This was a factor in the military coup in the 70’s which overthrew the government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and brought the dictatorship of General Zia into power. Zia then went on a campaign to Islamicize the country. He supported, trained and funded JI-inspired Islamist fighters in Afghanistan and India; the birth of the Taliban was a direct result of JI influence in the Pakistani Intelligence services.

In the UK today there are many organisations which have links to JI or actively support and propagate Mawdudi’s ideas. They include the Islamic Foundation in Leicester, East London Mosque, UK Islamic Mission, Islamic Forum Europe and leading figures in the Muslim Council of Britain. It is a shame that today in Britain we have organisations promoting Mawdudi’s hate-filled works and, if we are serious about defeating extremism in the UK, they must be exposed and challenged.

****

Last week, a blogger on the website of Islamic Forum Europe, a Jamaat-e-Islami front organisation based in East London, weighed into the debate about the ethics of assisted suicide. Unfortunately the writer, one Nahid Mortuza, only showed succeeded in showing themselves hopelessly confused about what secularism is. Mortuza wrote:

“The news of Sir Edward Downes’ and his wife’s decision to end their lives at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland has once more brought forward a discussion on whether an individual should have the freedom and right to die at a time of their choosing, with assistance from others. Although I disagree with the notion, I understand the basis of the argument that the right to die should be as fundamental as the right to live.

“This argument is usually put forward within a completely secular logic with no concept of a Giver/Taker of life, and no belief in an afterlife – where people are rewarded or punished, forgiven or chastised, elevated or debased according to the trials, tribulations and actions in this life. Theology aside, even those with their secular hats on have to admit that it’s difficult to see beyond the problems any change in the current law would cause.”

It looks to me as if Nahid Mortuza has confused secularism (the separation of religion from politics) with atheism (disbelief in God). Mortuza clearly seems to think that a secular person is one with “ no concept of a Giver/Taker of life, and no belief in an afterlife” and to imply that “those with their secular hats on” are likely have difficulties comprehending any difficulties in the practice of “assisted suicide”.

It is possible that Mortuza genuinely does not understand the difference between atheism and secularism. Alternatively, however, it is possible that Nahid Mortuza does understand the difference but has deliberately conflated and confused the two in order to pursue Jamaat-e-Islami’s goal of persuading Muslims that it is impossible to be a practicing both Muslim and to be secular (i.e. to believe in the separation of religion and state).

Such deliberate deception, if that is what it is, would be yet more evidence of the desperation of Jamaat-e-Islami and its front groups.

British Islamists are aware that more and more Muslims are now saying that Islam is not a political ideology but rather a religion that is best lived through a secular public space. They also know that increasing numbers of Muslims are now also increasingly thinking that the sharia is simply a guide to Islamic behaviour and not a manual for persecuting others – and that ‘forbidding wrong and encouraging right’ is better done through writing newspaper columns than through Saudi-style ministries staffed by ill-educated thugs.

If Jamaat-e-Islam think it is necessary to start lying about secularism, this is a sign that they know that they’re in trouble. This is something that we should all celebrate.