Ed (not) "The Islamist" Husain

Here are some late comments on the author of the book "The Islamist", Ed Husain. First off, i know that Ed is an assumed name because i went to college with him.

"Ed" is typical of the rabble that Omar Bakri Mohammed, an ex-leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir, always drew to himself. Always with Ed it was, in the words of a mutual acquaintance, "all show and no substance" and in writing this book he has really made himself out to be more influential than he ever was.

For instance in this clip around the 5:30 mark, Ed claims that he radicalised all of his college resulting in the locality being full of women wearing the veil and men putting up posters. I'm sorry, but i know and he knows that his influence in bringing this about was very little.

At that time, and all the way through to the end of the 90s, there were two competing Muslim ideologies in the major London universities & colleges: the salafi and the HT. I can't think of a single campus where HT had a greater following than the salafis, and therefore, it was standard to see the salafis running the official college's "Islamic society". This gave them the position of selecting who delivered the well-attended Friday sermons, and also the main Wednesday afternoon lecture. By the time i was at university HT members were so desperate to gain power they resorted to paying Muslim students to vote for them in the student elections so that they could wrest control from the salafis.

Thus, if anyone is responsible for persuading the women to wear veils, it was the salafis and not Ed and his buddies. And a testament to this is that till today i see those same women who started wearing veils at college, still in veils, and still rejecting the empty sloganeering that Ed was known for.

For me the most important lesson is to continue to rely on Allah for His guidance. I could never have imagined that Husain would reject so much of Islam, the integration of religion with government, hadith from the Messenger of Allah, and more.

One final thing is that i find it interesting that very soon after OBM was discharged of the leadership of HT, this organisation matured alot more easy to have dialogue with; those that stayed with it have grown up to become very educated and nice people who i still have some contact with. On the other hand, AlMuhajiroon, the group that OBM then formed is marked by the wacky, separationist slogans that its followers still chant and almost unanimous dislike by the rest of the Muslim community. There's something about Bakri...

Link: a more in-depth look at the book (read the comment made by Kashif Nawaz)
Link: Excellent post by Sumayyah Evans who also has links to comments on this book posted by other bloggers.