by Andrew Bostom
Regrettably, Husain, since his much ballyhooed "moderation," espouses dishonest Islamic apologetics that never acknowledge such disturbing data. Simultaneously, he ignores the authoritative Islamic jihad and Jew-hatred that animate these widely prevalent Muslim attitudes.
The most basic unresolved question about Husain's metamorphosis, is why he chose to name his "Muslim anti-Islamist extremism organization"— since disbanded — after William "Abdullah" Quilliam, a lunatic, late 19th century British convert to Islam. Quilliam, a Sharia supremacist, was appointed "Sheikh ul-Islam of the British Isles," sought the re-creation of a global Caliphate, and, in a March 1896 fatwa, supported the jihadist Sudanese Mahdist state against "infidel" British soldiers.
Husain wrote an anti-Zionist diatribe in 2007, punctuated by these immoral equivalences: "Zionism and Islamism are both political perversions of ancient Abrahamic faiths of Judaism and Islam.... Disregard for the sanctity of human life is a hallmark of both Zionism and Islamism... Just as Zionists claim territory based on notions of 'Jewish land' and God-given rights, Islamists wish to reconquer India and Spain as 'Muslim land,' once ruled by Muslim monarchs..."
Husain's presentation at the [July 8-10, 2024, fourth National Conservativism Conference] re-stated his boilerplate apologetics, and taqiyya ("sacralized" Islamic dissimulation). An example from that talk illustrates Husain's approach: silencing informed opposition to his assertions as "Islamophobic."
Husain hectored the audience over their assumed concern that, broadly, "we [Muslims] don't recognize Israel." That viewpoint, Husain insisted, was "giving the Muslim Brotherhood victory over 1.8 billion Muslims." Yet Husain ignored the concrete evidence that validates the audience's presumptive trepidation, which he tarred as "Islamophobia."
Regrettably, Husain, since his much ballyhooed "moderation," espouses dishonest Islamic apologetics that never acknowledge such disturbing data. Simultaneously, he ignores the authoritative Islamic jihad and Jew-hatred that animate these widely prevalent Muslim attitudes.
Husain conveniently ignores all such materials from Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's most authoritative teaching institution, given how they demolish his weak and deceptive "arguments." Concurrently, he demonizes those who do not accept his strict distinction between Islam and "Islamism" as somehow "threatening civilization." As a result, sadly, "moderate" Muslim Ed Husain is incapable of an honest discussion about the global scourge of Muslim Jew-hatred.
British Muslim Ed Husain is currently a professor at Georgetown University. Previously, he was a member of the Islamic Caliphate revival organization Hizb ut Tahrir. Husain later drifted into various Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups (which included people affiliated with Hamas) and circles within the United Kingdom before allegedly disavowing all of them. Once "de-radicalized," Husain chronicled his experience (in 2007), and subsequently created the ostensibly "anti-Islamist extremism" British organization, The Quilliam Society.
The most basic unresolved question about Husain's metamorphosis, is why he chose to name his "Muslim anti-Islamist extremism organization"— since disbanded — after William "Abdullah" Quilliam, a lunatic, late 19th century British convert to Islam. Quilliam, a Sharia supremacist, was appointed "Sheikh ul-Islam of the British Isles," sought the re-creation of a global Caliphate, and, in a March 1896 fatwa, supported the jihadist Sudanese Mahdist state against "infidel" British soldiers.
As noted previously in these pages, Husain spoke on a panel entitled, "Islam, Israel, and the West," at the July 8-10, 2024, fourth National Conservatism Conference (NATCON-4), "founded in January 2019 with the aim of strengthening the principles of national conservatism in Western and other democratic countries." A triumphal Husain wrote in advance of this appearance at his Twitter/X account, possibly savoring the opportunity to address the conservative audience:
"Come and join the conversation on why Islam is not Islamism. Why the West and Islam should be allies. Why the far-right and far-left threaten civilization."
Husain wrote an anti-Zionist diatribe in 2007, punctuated by these immoral equivalences:
"Zionism and Islamism are both political perversions of ancient Abrahamic faiths of Judaism and Islam.... Disregard for the sanctity of human life is a hallmark of both Zionism and Islamism... Just as Zionists claim territory based on notions of 'Jewish land' and God-given rights, Islamists wish to reconquer India and Spain as 'Muslim land,' once ruled by Muslim monarchs..."
Husain's vicious and unrepentant anti-Zionism should have made him an obvious ideological mismatch for the National Conservatism Conference.
Ed Husain now recognizes Israel's right to exist. His recognition is contingent, however, on one (or more) contiguous Palestinian Muslim state(s), in addition to the 78% of the original Mandate for Palestine which comprises Jordan, which is officially Judenrein (Jordanian Nationality Law, 1954, Article 3, #2). Husain, nevertheless, to this day, has failed to publish a formal mea culpa renunciation of his vitriolic 2007 anti-Zionist commentary.
Husain's NATCON-4 presentation re-stated his boilerplate apologetics, and taqiyya ("sacralized" Islamic dissimulation). An example from that talk illustrates Husain's approach: silencing informed opposition to his assertions as "Islamophobic."
Consistent with his pre-conference post on X, "Why Islam is not Islamism. Why the West and Islam should be allies," Husain hectored the audience over their assumed concern that, broadly, "we [Muslims] don't recognize Israel." That viewpoint, Husain insisted, was "giving the Muslim Brotherhood victory over 1.8 billion Muslims." Yet Husain ignored the concrete evidence that validates the audience's presumptive trepidation, which he tarred as "Islamophobia."
Below, I have tabulated the concordant results from two large, rigorously conducted population-based surveys of Muslims in the Middle East and North African (MENA) — one by the Anti-Defamation League, the other by a respected academic Muslim data collection center. The prevalence of extreme Antisemitism, defined as agreement with at least 6 out of 11 Antisemitic stereotypes, as determined in 2014, ranged from 74% to 93%. These alarming findings were closely associated with the refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist, assessed in late December 2023 through early January 2024, which ranged from 68% to 99% of the sample populations in the same MENA countries.
Regrettably, Husain, since his much ballyhooed "moderation," espouses dishonest Islamic apologetics that never acknowledge such disturbing data. Simultaneously, he ignores the authoritative Islamic jihad and Jew-hatred that animate these widely prevalent Muslim attitudes. Sunni Islam's Vatican equivalent, Al-Azhar University in Cairo, for example, is an authoritative font of anti-Israel jihadism and Jew-hatred, which Husain refuses to criticize.
Mere hours after the October 7, 2023 attacks, Al-Azhar University, and its Papal equivalent Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayyeb, celebrated (here; here; here; here) Hamas' jihad carnage, on Al-Azhar's social media platforms. During October 7 itself, ignoring Hamas' murderous atrocities, Al-Azhar, with al-Tayeb's imprimatur declared officially:
"Al-Azhar salutes with utmost pride the resistance efforts of the proud Palestinian people..."
October 18-19, 2023, Al-Azhar issued a fatwa declaring that all Israelis, including non-combatants, were legitimate targets of jihad terror: "the term 'civilians' does not apply to the Zionist settlers of the occupied land." This sentiment is entirely consistent with the Islamic legal logic of Al Azhar fatwas, or the resolutions of Al-Azhar Conference Proceedings, issued for the past 76-years. That "Islamic legal logic" has always been rooted in jihad, and sacralized Islamic Jew-hatred. Consider, the resolutions from Al-Azhar's 1968 Fourth Conference of the Academy of Islamic Research. Historian David Littman's pioneering 1971 analysis of that conference, summarized their key "recurring themes"—a prelude to annihilation—as follows:
"Jews manifest in themselves an historical continuity of evil qualities... as described in the Qur'an...
"The State of Israel is the culmination of the historical and cultural depravity of the Jews... It has to be destroyed by a Jihad."
Al-Tayyeb embodies that living legacy of annihilationist Jew-hatred. (here; here; here; here; here; here). Formerly Egypt's Grand Mufti, and since 2010, until now Al Azhar Grand Imam, al-Tayyeb has sanctioned suicide-bombing murder of Israeli Jews, including non-combatants, and twice (here; here) publicly condemned Jews eternally, while invoking Qur'an 5:82— "You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers [to be] the Jews and those who associate others with Allah;" — a central Antisemitic Qur'anic verse—for causing "Muslim distress... since the inception of Islam 1400 years ago."
Al-Tayyeb's immediate predecessor, the late Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi (d. 2010), was one of the most revered modern authorities on Qur'anic exegesis. Tantawi's Ph.D. thesis, "The Children of Israel (Jews) in the Qur'an and Traditions," provided a summary gloss on the "degenerate" characteristics of the Jews in the Qur'an (3:112; 4:46; 4:161; 3:120, 5:79; 2:109; 3:113), emphasizing their timeless relevance, and denouncing Jews who rejected Islam as "maleficent deniers," even granting Muslims license to commit violence against them, to extirpate Jewish "evil."
Husain conveniently ignores all such materials from Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's most authoritative teaching institution, given how they demolish his weak and deceptive "arguments." Concurrently, he demonizes those who do not accept his strict distinction between Islam and "Islamism" as somehow "threatening civilization." As a result, sadly, "moderate" Muslim Ed Husain is incapable of an honest discussion about the global scourge of Muslim Jew-hatred.
Andrew Bostom, MD, MS, is the author of The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History, Sharia versus Freedom: The Legacy of Islamic Totalitarianism
and other books and essays on Islam. His research focus has been on the
impact of Islamic conquest, colonization, and governance on
non-Muslims.
Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20815/ed-husain-muslim-jew-hatred
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