I wrote my book The Islamist last year to try to break the hold of closet extremists over British Muslim discourse. One year on, the debate is in far healthier shape. Thoughtful young Muslims are becoming more boisterous in their rejection of Islamism as a political model—much to the frustration of Islamists and hard-left dinosaurs.
Last month’s Prospect essay by Brunel academic Anshuman A Mondal was a reasonable attempt to assess the Quilliam Foundation, Britain’s first counter-extremism think tank, which I co-founded last year. But there were several factual and analytical inaccuracies that I want to put right.
Mondal suggests that Quilliam “represents” moderate or liberal Islam. In fact, Quilliam has argued that British Muslims should now move away from the first-generation Islamist immigrant game of “Muslim representation,” and engage with mainstream civil society as full citizens. Bodies such as the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) were established by a Tory government, and others have been promoted by Labour. They have done more harm than good, putting emphasis on religious identity above the other factors which shape human identity. Quilliam seeks to provide new thinking for western Muslims, and does not wish to play “community leader.”
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