This is a post by Amjad Khan
Debate and challenge the ideas you disagree with?
Not according to MPACUK’s Raza Nadim, who instead advocates for witch-hunt like tactics in attempting to bully those he disagrees with into submission.
Raza Nadim is the leader of MPACUK – an organisation that is on the NUS no platform list because of its incitement of hatred and violence to Jews, mentioned here in the Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism . Unfortunately Jews are not the only ones in the cross-hairs for Raza Nadim’s intimidation, but frankly anyone who is seen to provide rational arguments against him and his cousin Asghar Bukhari – from students to scholars.
Sheikh Salah, an Al-Azhar University trained imam, has joined Quilliam, and aims to use the organisation as a platform to demonstrate the beauty of Islam – a premise that Raza Nadim himself publicly stated on Facebook he disagrees with doing. If Raza Nadim’s intended aims is to help drive Islamophobia and negative perceptions of Islam, he has most definitely succeeded. This is because the events that took place thereafter had helped catalyse the negative perception of Muslims being void of holding rational dialogue.
Using social media, Raza Nadim made a public outcry to the fact that the (accused) “Islamophobic” Al-Azhari trained Islamic Sheikh was joining Quilliam, and called on everyone to put immense pressure on the Mosque Sheikh Salah was the imam. Nadim’s followers, including those with Jabhat Al-Nusra (al-Qaeda) flags as cover photos, had proclaimed their support for his message.
The Mosque had reported that phone calls were made that had made direct physical threats against them and Sheikh Salah. Raza Nadim and MPACUK, who claim Mossad stole their previous leaders, Asghar Bukhari’s shoe, refused to condemn these threats and instead insinuated that these threats were fiction.
Unfortunately young undergraduate students do not escape this same treatment. Students interested in facilitating a lecture with Sheikh Usama Hasan stated on social media that they feel threatened that Raza Nadim publicly issued a Facebook status calling for a coalition of FOSIS and others alike to find their names, find them and put pressure against them in person.
Tactics of intimidation are used on speakers/organisations that publicly state they are trying to demonstrate the beauty of Islam in a universal human rights context. If Raza Nadim disagrees that this promotion should take place – as he so publicly stated
– then he must prioritize debate and free dialogue over intimidation and coercion. Behaving in the manner that he and others have been doing is nothing short of bigotry and the use of these pressure tactics could regrettably result in physical harm against someone who just wants to make a positive contribution to our society.
It is about time civil society called these bullies out!
