Lord Pearson's new initiative: "Shall we talk about Islam”

The Times (£) today reports on a new guide about Islam that former UKIP leader, Lord Pearson of Rannoch, is hoping to launch in October.

Lord Pearson, no stranger to controversial comments about Islam and violence, is reported in today’s paper as saying that the guide is intended to begin a public conversation about “integrating Muslim communities better” because they are “very segregated and with very high birthrates”.

The Times reports that the guide is part of an initiative backed by Lord Pearson called “Shall we talk about Islam” because, he maintains, “you may have noticed we are not allowed to talk about it”.

The claim is plainly nonsensical given the huge volume of media coverage on Islam and Muslims; the majority of it negative. The idea that Islam is a ‘protected species’ is ridiculous given the incendiary articles and comment pieces that have been published over the years.

His comments are also invalidated by his own interventions in the House of Lords, whether the invitation to Geert Wilders to screen the film Fitna in 2009 or the debates he tabled in the Lords in 2013 questioning the PM’s statement after the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby that “There is nothing in Islam that justifies acts of terror”.

In November 2013, Lord Pearson suggested verses from the Qur’an were progressively violent stating, “…as Muhammad went through life, he became steadily more of a conquering warrior, and the messages that he received and what he said and did became progressively more bellicose and violent.”

Last year, on the publication of the Intelligence and Security Committee report into Lee Rigby’s murder and the work of the intelligence agencies, he repeated much the same stating, “My Lords, are the Government aware that Fusilier Rigby’s murderers quoted 22 verses of the Koran to justify their atrocity? Therefore, is the Prime Minister accurate or helpful when he describes it as a betrayal of Islam? Since the vast majority of Muslims are our peace-loving friends, should we not encourage them to address the violence in the Koran—and, indeed, in the life and the example of Muhammad?”

In today’s paper, Lord Pearson returns to the subject of the Qur’an and the sequence of revelation stating “We have to stop saying that [Islam is a religion of peace] because it clearly isn’t.”

According to the paper, Lord Pearson is working with “three Koranic scholars” to explore the “abrogation” of verses in the Qur’an and the Hijra, marking the distinction between verses revealed in Mecca and those later revealed in Medina.

Classifying verses in this way to denote a difference in orientation in the message of the Qur’an is not new. The former are deemed to be more concerned with the tenets of religion, the latter, more concerned with statecraft.

It is no surprise that the distinction is one entertained by ‘reformers‘ like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a self -professed atheist who thinks herself well-placed to engage in Islamic theology. She too builds on the Mecca/Medina periods arguing “The Medina Muslims pose a threat not just to non-Muslims. They also undermine the position of those Mecca Muslims attempting to lead a quiet life in their cultural cocoons throughout the Western world.”

And there is the nub of it. Focusing on the Meccan verses is considered congenial to the secularisation of faith with Muslims preoccupied with religion as belief over religion as lived experience.

It would be most interesting to learn who the “three Koranic scholars” engaged in Lord Pearson’s new venture are. And how they profess to address the verse 3:7 from Surah Imran which speaks of the totality of revelation:

“He it is Who has sent down to you the Book: In it are verses basic or fundamental (of established meaning); they are the foundation of the Book: others are allegorical. But those in whose hearts is perversity follow the part thereof that is allegorical, seeking discord, and searching for its hidden meanings, but no one knows its hidden meanings except Allah. And those who are firmly grounded in knowledge say: “We believe in the Book; the whole of it is from our Lord:” and none will grasp the Message except men of understanding.”