Professor Anthony Glees, Director of Brunel University's Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies has accused Dr Ataullah Siddiqui, the government's chief adviser on Islamic Studies, of having ideological links to extreme Islamic groups. Questioned by the Sunday Telegraph, Dr Siddiqui, who is the Director of the Markfield Institute of Higher education set up by the Islamic Foundation, denied this, saying :
"I deny completely that I have any organisational or ideological links with extreme organisations. I also deny that the Markfield Institute has any such links with extreme organisations."
That sounds a bit rich coming from a man who is a senior member of the Islamic Foundation, the UK's largest overtly Islamist organisation and the organisation which kick started the radicalisation of a proportion of British Muslim youth during the Rushdie affair.
But, there's a deeper issue here. What exactly do WE mean by 'Islamic extremism' - AND do the likes of Dr Siddiqui mean the same by it...?
When most of us - including the majority of ordinary British Muslims - refer to 'Islamic extremism', we mean 'extreme' in relation to western ideals of democracy, freedom of speech and religion, equality for all under the law etc.
However, when Dr Siddiqui speaks of 'Islamic extremism', I suspect that he means 'extreme' in relation to historic - mainly 'classical' interpretations of Islam.
Classical Islam follows the interpretations of the Qur'an and Hadith that were 'fixed' in medieval times - and of which (thankfully!) most ordinary British Muslims have at best very limited knowledge. However, as we have recently seen on Centre-Right, classical Islam seeks to subject the whole world, Muslim and non Muslim alike to an Islamic government and Islamic law (sharia), with countries being 'invited' to submit to Islamic government, with military jihad used where necessary to impose it. Islamists - who bypass the medieval interpretations and go directly to the Qur'an and Hadith themselves - have broadly similar aims. Some seek to achieve these aims violently. Others, such as Dr Siddiqui and his fellow members of the Islamic Foundation seek gradually to bring about an Islamic state in Britain, by means of a step by step alignment of British parliamentary law and case law - with sharia.
So, in relation to the historic teaching of Islam, Dr Siddiqui can 'genuinely' claim not to be an 'extremist'. There are in fact, a few Islamic groups that are 'extreme' even in relation to classical Islam. For example, Hamas, unlike most Islamic groups, interpret certain verse in the Qur'an to mean that all Jews alive today are not really human beings - they just appear to be so. Consequently, according to Hamas, Israel can legitimately be quite literally annihilated. The likes of Dr Siddiqui, can easily claim to have no links with 'Islamic extremism' in this sense.
However, let's be clear on this, the vision of an Islamic Britain that Dr Siddiqui and the Leicester based Islamic Foundation espouse is wholly incompatible with a free democratic society. Two facts alone should suffice to illustrate this.
1) Dr Siddiqui is Director of the Markfield Institute of Higher Education, an Islamic training school offering degree courses that was set up by and shares a campus with the Islamic Foundation. The Islamic Foundation's main ideological inspiration is the writings of Abdul A'la Mawdudi - the ideological inspiration behind the Islamic state of Pakistan and the Indian sub continent's most influential Islamist writer. The Islamic Foundation is also the main translator and publisher of Mawdudi's works in English. The following extract of his writing well illustrates Mawdudi's ideology:
"The purpose for which Muslims are required to fight is not as one might to think to compel the unbelievers into embracing Islam. Rather, their purpose is to put an end to the sovereignty and supremacy of unbelievers, so that the latter are unable to rule over men. The authority to rule should only be vested in those who follow the true faith; unbelievers who do not follow the true faith should live in a state of subordination. Unbelievers are required to pay jizya (poll tax) in lieu of security provided to them."
Abdul A'la Mawdudi 'Towards Understanding the Qur'an' (Leicester: Islamic Foundation,1997) vol.3:201-202 - a text which we may reasonably suppose to be used in academic courses taught at the Markfield Institute of Higher Education led by Dr Siddiqui...
2) As far as Dr Siddiqui himself is concerned, anyone in doubt of his own views should read the report he wrote for the government last year 'Islam at Universities in England', which was publicly welcomed by the Prime Minister. Amongst other special privileges exclusively for Muslims, this urged that only Muslims should be allowed to teach the main Islamic subjects in British universities - non Muslims Dr Siddiqui - urged should be banned from doing so...
When is an Islamic extremist not an Islamic extremist? - when he's this Labour government's chief adviser on Islamic Studies it would seem...
