ENGAGE Exclusive: Quilliam Foundation Advisor Dr Musharraf Hussain calls on QF to apologise for smearing the Islam Channel

We have been forwarded the following fascinating email exchange between Dr Musharraf Hussain (pictured left), advisor to the Quilliam Foundation and a concerned Muslim rebutting the QF’s reprehensible ‘alert’ on Islam Channel and its presenters, and the foundation’s disgraceful tactics in general.

Notice how Dr Musharraf Hussain calls on the QF co-director Maajid Nawaz to apologise for the ‘alert’ the  Foundation issued about the Islam Channel.
 
We wonder when the tiny group of other Muslims who also naively endorsed the Quilliam Foundation at their launch will also publicly dissociate themselves from the Quilliam’s disgracefully divisive and sectarian antics?

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RE: qf foundation rebuttle‏
From:  honestmuslimah
Sent: 13 May 2009 22:44:43
To:  Musharraf Hussain, Maajid Nawaz

In the Name of Allah the Beneficent the Merciful
 
Dear Dr Musharraf, Assalamu’Alaikum,
 
I pray you are in good health. I commend your attempts, however misplaced, to rectify and advise this grouping of agitators and defamation specialists. I am hopeful that you have also been advising these people on the various other ‘critiques’ they have been circulating over the past 18 months. I would like to correct your suggestion that these people will ‘lose credibility’, their modus operandi and public attacks on the honour of all and sundry, from the off-set, has meant they never had any credibility in the first place, how can they lose something they never possessed. J
 
I can assure you that they wil never be careful in the future, they have to be seen to be making life difficult for grassroot Muslim workers, activists, organisations and Masjids (unless of course your Barelwi or Sufi- then your likely to get less flack from them) otherwise their contaminated funding will dry. Sources have revealed that this has now been extended to grants from various local authorities who will be consulting these charlatons for advice on community matters, we all know what this advice will comprise. May Allah (swt) protect us from their evil whispers and conspiracies, I am confident the real community will respond to these developments.
 
Alhamdu’Lilah, rest assured these ex-extremists Insha’Allah will be brought to book by fate one day, in this life and the next, for their years of belittlement, slander and decisiveness they perpetuated within our communities, first as executive members of HT and then as turncoat conspirators, in a plan to pacify and reform the Deen of Allah.
 
Insha’Allah true practicing, moderate yet principled British Muslims will intellectually fight tooth and nail and until their dying breath, to expose and defeat the machinations they plot under the deceptive pretense and in the name of fighting radicalism, if only people knew that they are but fermenting further discord and alienation amongst the practicing Muslim youth, the vast majority of whom have never had trouble reconciling their Deen with their British identity.
 
Wasalam
 

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From: Musharraf Hussain
To: honestmuslimah
Subject: q foundation rebuttle
Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 19:00:41 +0000

salaam
thanx for your rebuttle i have advised them to make apology and b careful in future.
jazakallah 4 you effort
 
 
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From: Musharraf Hussain

To: Maajid Nawaz

Subject:
Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 18:57:21 +0000

dera majid, salaam
i hope and pray u r well. the q foundations critique of islam channel has been  rebutled. it clearly shows that your comments about their presenters were outdated and inaccurate. my sincere nasiha is brother check th efacts first and then publish them. otherwise u lose credibility.
i hope u have read th erebuttle from sister honest muslimah. if what she said is true u owe an apology.
plz always b careful when u criticise others, what would a non muslim organisation have done to u if u had published such un substantiated critique?
may Allah guide us all
ameen
waslm
musharraf
your nasih
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BRIEF INFORMATION ABOUT THE QUILLIAM FOUNDATION – AIMS, BELIEFS AND THEIR CRIMINALISTION OF THE BRITISH MUSLIM COMMUNITY

The critical government minister said that the foundation was receiving so much public money because it was perceived to be toeing the government line. “Ed and Quilliam have very little support in the mainstream Muslim community,” the minister said. “They have much more enemies than friends. But he’s loved by some ministers, which is why his organisation is having so much money thrown at it. And the Government knows that if you want a Muslim to say pro-government things, then Quilliam is the answer.”
[The Times, 20 January 2009]
 
The QF is effectively a creation of certain elements of the British Establishment to corrupt, intimidate and divert the Muslim community into rejecting Islam and remaining silent on British foreign policy atrocities. Their funding is from diverse sources, mainly government money but they have also been supported by right wing neo-con groups in America as well as Zionist financiers in the UK.
 
Their most prominent backers are the neo-conservative Michael Gove and neo-con Douglas Murray of the Centre for Social (in)cohesion. Both are well known to be vigorously anti-Islam/ Muslim and pro-Zionist. QF also visits and calls upon Muslims to co-operate with pro-Zionist think tanks such as the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the American Jewish Institute.
QF are mainly used to whitewash the government foreign policy for any blame for the events of 7/7 and other isolated events that have taken place such as the attempts on 21/7 or the Glasgow bombings. In addition to this it is also intended that the QF and similar organizations stem the growth of Islamic feelings and understanding amongst the Muslim community in the UK, through a mix of bribing and intimidation in order to push their Government sponsored version of Islam.
 
This “Western” Islam is in effect an Islam where the Muslim no longer believes that Islam has any real relevance today. The average Muslim should also think no further than his local borders and should not be concerned about events to Muslims anywhere else in the world. As such -they propagate against Muslim unity and shared sentiments. They blame these ideas for causing the few terror acts seen in the UK, rather than laying the blame firmly at the door of foreign policy which is known to be the case by the Muslim community and is also the position of the vast majority of neutral minded academics and analysts.
 
They are part of the attempt to tie Islamic ideals to “terrorism”, and as such they are part of the push of the latest “Preventing Extremism” policy of the government (having dropped the “Violent” from the title) which seeks to demonize and criminalize Muslims for believing in Islam as a deen. In conclusion, they can be seen as one of the manifestations of the RAND reports recommendations to encourage “local” versions of Islam that are subservient to Western Government interests that can then be sent to influence other Muslims in the Greater Middle East.
 
This grouping of stooges spent over a decade peddling the rhetoric of hate and division, w
hile many principled moderates in the community challenged their isolationist message at the time. It is therefore bewildering to observe their hypocrisy, double-standards and duplicity when they now audaciously label those same moderate groups who fought against them, in their days of extremeism, with terms such as ‘Islamist’. Equity would argue that they should first be investigated and brought to book for their years of ‘extremism’. The truth to any observant, sincere and relatively knowledgeable Muslim is obvious, this agenda-ridden group has been formed to erode many of the core ideals, values and beliefs of Islam and its obstinate, dictatorial and deceitful figureheads are just as extreme today as they were 10 years ago. Except today they are singing from the ‘politically correct’ hymn sheet, with a £1million purse.
 
POLITICAL STANCE
 
Here are a selection of the stances they have taken:
 
1. Grievances are not the causes of terrorism, Islamic beliefs are. And to talk about Grievances as being a cause for terrorism is to play into the “extremists” hands and therefore should be avoided “The grievance argument also gives Islamists the chance to cloud their political agenda in public and use it as something to hide behind when they feel the heat. Therefore, to suggest that grievances cause radicalization plays into Islamist hands and allows them to present a more acceptable version of their position in public discourse”- [Ghaffar Hussain, Guardian, 17/10/2008]
 
2. Equating Islamic governance and politics with terrorism, and deliberately blurring the lines in this respect to blacken the call for Islam “In the Islamist camp, there are political Islamists, who wish to establish Islamism through the electoral process, revolutionary Islamists, who want to instigate military coups but do not target non-combatants, and jihadists, who are militant Islamists that use terrorism and target noncombatants.  The danger lies in assuming that jihadists and terrorism are the only threats. The Quilliam Foundation believes that ideology is the real threat”- [Majad Nawaz, Policy Watch 16/7/2008]
 
3. Excusing IDF killing of hundreds of women and children in Palestine in the events of January 2009 as unintentional (whereas heavy blame is apportioned to a Hamas spokesman in the face of these atrocious and deliberate actions) “Israel does not have an active policy of deliberately capturing children to murder them, or even deliberately murdering civilians for that matter.”- [Majed Nawaz, Guardian, 07/01/09]
 
4. Excusing British Government policy on Israel during the same conflict “What I did not expect to hear were threats of “another 7/7, 8/8, 9/9 and more, with blame falling squarely on government policy, not on anyone else”. How dare anyone issue veiled threats to hold the foreign policies of my country hostage to the whims of terrorists?” So obviously the government policy on funding the Israeli military is not blameworthy according to this member of the QF.
 
5. Equating mainstream Muslim TV Channels (Islam Channel) and exhibitions (Islam Expo) with Fascism and the BNP These people are “Muslim versions of the BNP”, and “are every bit as fascist as any far-Right party” – [Ed Husain Evening Standard 7/7/2008]
 
6. Wearing ethnic clothes is a source of alienation In their document “pulling together” of April 2008 they advised that the government should “Encourage students and imams to wear clothes that ensure belonging to mainstream society, and not Pakistani ethnic are designed for a different climate”
 
7. Rejecting cultural history and Islamic ideals while embracing British Heritage is something to be praised, whereas other beliefs lead to terrorism “Normal Muslims, those not influenced by Islamists, are increasingly more comfortable in rejecting notions of a single Caliphate, ruling by one interpretation of Shari’ah law, and accepting their indisputable British heritage”
 
8. The call for a “Western” Islam (in which the Muslim would leave any connection to their lands of origin or to the Muslim causes around the world that every Muslim should be concerned with) Ed Husain in his aptly titled “British Subjects, not God’s” article, September 2009, Prospect Magazine
ISLAMIC STANCES
 
They are not content with merely stating that they disagree with Islamic rulings and the Islamic beliefs, but instead contend that Islam is completely open to unorthodox methods of interpretation resulting in many heretical beliefs
 
They are not happy to simply state that as Muslims we should live within the law in the West, which in any case the Muslim community has been doing for generations now, but rather they are pushing that Islam itself should be changed to fit the Western Government narratives. This is why they are trying to infiltrate mosques in order to affect Islamic teachings and curriculum.
 
Their claims include –
 
1. Islamic ruling as revealed in the Qur’an is barbaric, medieval and inhumane if applied today “We can relieve ourselves of ancient and outmoded punishments, such as ‘flogging’ and ’stoning’ as not being consistent with the actualizing of the Maqasid”- [Ed Husein – Today show – 28/11/07]
“….and therefore Muslims should go far as to say that other modes of reaching the noble aims of the Shari’ah, in other words protection of life, property, reason, religion and so on, if we can attain those aims by other means, i.e. imprisonment and so on, then why we do we need to go down that barbaric, inhumane and outdated mode of stoning and flogging people“- [Rashad Ali in his article “Addressing Islamist Grumblings”]
2. Islamic ruling on inheritance and witnesses are unjust today “….I don’t want [my daughter’s] generation to suffer the indignities of scripturally justified attitudes of domestic violence, or her testimony to be worth half that of a Muslim man in court, or her legal inheritance in a Muslim country to be one-third of a man’s.”- [Ed Husein in his article “The Gender Agenda” 23/10/07]
 
3. The idea that the Rule is for Allah is actually alien to Islam “Islamism is an ideology that believes sovereignty belongs to God, that legislation belongs to God…Those notions are alien to Islam” “notions such as sovereignty belongs to God, or notions such as this state is Islamic and this state is not Islamic, are notions that are alien to Islam” – [Majid Nawaz in his talk on the city circle forum entitled “In and out of Islamism”]
 
There are several other examples of their opinions and those of their close advisors which are too many to list, but amongst them are their views on hijab not necessarily being obligatory, that certain alcoholic drinks are permitted, that the proscription of homosexuality is “medievalist” and so on.
 
STANCE ON MISINFORMATION
 
This Foundation is characterized by insincerity and deceit. It deceives the British public by telling them what the government wants them to hear to secure funding on the one hand. On the other it deceives every Muslim they come across to try to gain legitimacy to maintain that funding from the government. The prime reason for this document is to let you know what their real stance is since it may be that they try to hide this or tell you otherwise. All the information contained in this document is easily found in the public sphere now that you have been alerted to it.
 
Amongst their other deceptions and lies:

1. Misleading a group of Ulama as to their intentions and aims of this foundation. A number of ulama initially agreed to back the foundation until it was revealed to them what the true position of these people was. Once it was made clear to them they all withdrew – except for one Usama Hasan. It should be noted that Usama Hasan also now believes that we maybe descendants of an ape, that the hijab is not obligatory, that Islam is completely secular, but has recently declared his detachment from th
e Quilliam Foundation.
 
2. Claiming numerous scholars to have “inspired” them Even though their stances are rejected by even the most moderate scholars in the Middle East. To be clear – the only people who endorse the QF are either misled into doing so or are equally deviated.
 
3. Misrepresenting their activities.  In order to impress their funders they regularly exaggerate, lie, and scaremonger with the Muslim community being the main victims in their escapades to earn more illicit money.
 
4. Distorting classical Islamic Texts. They also have a tendency to fabricate and twist Islamic sources in order to give themselves an “Islamic” and “academic” face.
 
A Fully Documented Short List of Excesses Against the Community- References Available on Request
 
-Ed Hussain declared his detestation of young Muslim girls wearing the headscarve, he favours general, open free-mixing and promotes the accommodation of homosexuality in Islam. (Disclaimer: This statement is not intended to discriminate against respected fellow citizens who lead such lifestyles, it just states the theological perspective as edicted also in orthodox Christianity)
 
– Ed Hussain agreed with the abominable invasion and death by causation of nearly one million Muslims in Iraq. Along with this he has continually attempted to deconstruct the concept of the Islamic Ummah as ingrained in the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh)
 
– Ed Hussain typically objected to the building of the House of Allah (swt) aka the Mega Mosque project in East London
 
-Ed drives the debate on the misnomer and alarmist term ‘Islamist’, exactly when one becomes an Islamist nobody knows. He has recently advocated the CONTEST 2 draft government  proposals for revising the term ‘extremist’, to include those who believe in the Sharia, believe homosexuality to be a sin, believe in any type of physical defence of the person in Muslim lands or believe in the concept of a just & equitable form of Islamic governance.
 
-Directors openly indulge in immoral nocturnal behaviours (fisq) whilst preaching about Islam. Pictures of one director in night clubs cuddling up to ex-girlfriends early last year, not long before his sudden U-turn have been in circulation for some time.
 
-They have attacked and vilified respected thinkers and scholars from our Islamic history.
 
-Ed does not believe in Islamophobia and believes this is an Islamist concoction to fool the public.
 
-They regularly abuse and defame the names of upstanding British Muslim community organizations and leaders, who have dutifully served their respective Muslim and non-Muslim communities for decades, a recent example being Dr Daud Abdullah who Ed called a fanatic.
 
-Ed Hussain committed takfir (to judge somebody to be a kafir) when he said about the Egyptian cleric Yusuf Qardawi, call them jihadist or Islamist but don’t call them Muslim…
 
-He deliberately wrote a disproportionate and scathingly harsh article against the Islam Expo and GPU events, comparing the Expo to a BNP rally!
 
-They have been mutually and incessantly supportive of right-wing neo-con think tanks such as Policy exchange and with the likes of Michael Gove and Melanie Phillips.