By Mutazil | Published:
November 27, 2009
The struggle against Islamism in this country is a long war, with all that entails. It unfolds in a world of skirmishes, false-starts and minutely shifting power balances.
Every now and then, however, comes a set-piece moment:
“The Trustees of Policy Exchange are delighted to report that Mr Justice Eady yesterday struck out the claim brought against us by the North London Central Mosque.
North London Central Mosque commenced an action against Policy Exchange and Dr Denis MacEoin for libel, following publication of our study “The Hijacking of British Islam” in October 2007.
Six trustees who had advanced the claim on behalf of the North London Central Mosque were ordered to pay Policy Exchange’s costs of defending this action.
The High Court made a further Order that £75,000 of those costs be paid by North London Central Mosque within 28 days.”
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.
By Guest | Published:
September 1, 2009
This is a guest post by Raziq
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The Muslim Brotherhood is the largest Islamist party in the world today. It also claims to be a democratic party. In this article I will be looking at its founder Hasan al-Banna, the reasons why he established the Muslim Brotherhood and his Nazi sympathies.
Hasan al-Banna was born in 1906 to a poor family in Southern Egypt. During his teenage years he took part in demonstrations against British Rule. He later went on to become a school teacher and in 1928 founded the ‘The Muslim Brotherhood’ (MB), the world’s largest Islamist group.
Although the end of the Ottoman Empire was brought about by Turkish secular Muslims, some Muslims, like Banna, blamed “the West” and thus he established the MB with the aim of creating an Islamist State in direct antithesis to western ideals. Banna was able to recruit from a large cross-section of Egyptian society by manipulating issues such as social inequality, public health and the growing conflict in Palestine. Banna claimed his group would solve all these problems and thereby resurrect lost Arab glories.
Articles here at the Spittoon tend to be quite controversial. For this we make no apologies. Normally this provokes the ire of members of Hizb ut-Tahrir, Jamaat-e-Islami and other Islamist groups, but on one particular occasion I guest posted a piece written by ‘Al-Qanaas Al-Masri’. It investigated links between the City Circle and IIIT, a group whose US branch is closely linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, and was entitled ‘The City Circle – Not So Moderate After All?’
This sent certain individuals into a tailspin. Not because of what was suggested by the article (none of its many critics attempted a refutation of the points it made) but because its author had the audacity to pick on moderates. These critics missed the point. The post was not a bitter attempt to blacken the name of people doing good work, rather it sought to point out to a moderate organisation that some of its allies were letting the side down.
By Faisal | Published:
July 3, 2009
Abdullah Hasan writes his views on how the government can tackle Islamic extremism on the Islamic Forum Europe (IFE) blog:
The ways the government can eradicate extremism is by acknowledging that their foreign policy and their draconian laws against Muslims play an immense part in radicalising Muslims. They need to work with mainstream Muslim organisations such as MCB, IFE, MAB etc. These organisations are working at the grassroots level and have the support of many Muslims. They need to be provided more resources and room to carry out their work. They also need to allow the existing mainstream Imams in Britain to do their job effectively by providing them resources and platforms to preach a balanced Islam.
Hasan’s views are not particulalry novel or unique or even mildly groundbreaking. His statement is important, however, because Hasan is himself a textbook Islamist and here he is articulating an Islamist’s view of the political lay of the land. His explanation of how “extremism” can be eliminated, if deconstructed, amounts to: