Hotmao

Amongst an explosion of death threats, outraged letters from the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and bandied accusations of neo-conservatism, the Quilliam Foundation got off to a promising start.

The counter-extremist think-tank, fronted by former Hizb ut-Tahrir members Ed Husain and Maajid Nawaz, aims to use theological arguments to dismiss the religious justifications for terrorism and to bring with it the sort of media-savvy approach which so far seems only to have been used successfully by the extremists.

At the launch on Tuesday, the foundation brought together Islamic thinkers from throughout the world, as well as a collection of British imams, Oxford academic and Guardian columnist Timothy Garton Ash, politician Paddy Ashdown and socialite Jemima Khan.

The initial presence of Taliban-style black turbans, several feet of beards and Julie Burchill’s favourite hijabed white-girls would not normally inspire confidence in such an initiative, but to hear men with names like Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Bukhari and Dr Ali al Saleh al-Najafi state that Muslims have not done enough to counter extremism, and it is up to ‘us’ Muslims to find an Islam comfortable with itself in Britsh society, was positively exciting.

The biggest ovation of the day came when 7/7 survivor Rachel North explained that God was there 70 feet under Russell Square, London, on 7 July 2005, but not in the way the young man who blew himself up thought. ‘He was there in the people holding hands in the dark, not knowing if the person next to them was black, white, Muslim, Christian or Jewish.’ Timothy Garton Ash, arguing the secular liberal viewpoint that he ‘couldn’t give a fig for a fiqh’, also raised a few giggles/groans.

But does Britain really need a Muslim counter-extremist think-tank? Is it, as Muslim commentator Ziauddin Sardar argued in the Guardian, ‘another attempt at the marginalisation of the overwhelming majority who never had a moment’s doubt that Islam gives no sanction for such murderous and misguided perversion of belief?’  Well, no, actually, particularly as Sardar, a self-proclaimed member of this overwhelming majority, stated in the same article that all Muslims are duty-bound to challenge our current, Iraq-war waging government.

The truth is that with people like Sardar dominating the debate, British Muslims will carry on being portrayed as a monolithic bloc who cannot separate their identity from their religion. As Maajid Nawaz correctly pointed out at the launch of the Quilliam Foundation, this is a form of political Islamism in itself. It also helps give the impression that any British Muslim has to have a strong opinion on a particular issue – whether it be the Iraq war, Danish cartoons, or misnomered teddy bears.

The fact that any opposition to this idea is seen as heresy by self-proclaimed Muslim community leaders like Sardar and the MCB is precisely why there is such a need for the Quilliam Foundation.

What the launch of the foundation showcased to the media was not only that British Muslims are going to take a proactive role in combatting extremism, but also that the guy with the scraggy beard and bulging rucksack next to you on the Tube isn’t thinking about checking into heaven’s best brothel while simultaneously sending you to hell like the kaffir you are.

The experiences of Quilliam’s members, its backing, and its positive message of hope mean that it has a good chance of appealing to its target audience of ‘Joe Muslim in Bradford’. However, this message of hope, and the foundation’s plan to upstage the clowns currently dominating Muslim debate in Britain, may also help to defuse the rhetoric of Timmy BNP in Barking.