This unlovely assortment of speakers will be touring the UK in April with a view to countering both ‘external threats’ and ‘internal doubts’. You can read more about Omar Suleiman here. If you need to be reminded of Yasir Qadhi’s views, here’s a handy compilation. Paul Berman is very good on Tariq Ramadan – and, perhaps less predictably, Mehdi Hasan’s takedown is worth a watch too. Here’s habibi on Abu Eesa Niamatullah.
The publicity material for this event, sponsored by MEND, warns that Muslims are under threat:
As Muslims come under pressure to maintain their creed in this difficult period of history, the numbers being lost as they succumb to ideological challenges is frightening.
People are confused about their identities. People are losing their religion.
But some people may not be losing their religion so much as abandoning a puritanical or ‘normative’ interpretation of Islam. I suspect these speakers are just as worried by the many British Muslims who – in a range of ways – are following an Islam which is broadly secular, liberal and tolerant, as they are by Muslims who have left their faith completely.
