Bismillah. This is to say a huge “Thank you!” to everyone who’s contributed to public letters, petitions & statements of support over the past few days. My family and I have been extremely touched by your kindness, and we hope that we are able to repay it in some way.
Archive for 2011
A huge “Thank you”
March 10, 2011A Further Clarification and Retraction
March 4, 2011With the Name of Allah, All-Merciful, Most Merciful
A FURTHER CLARIFICATION &
RETRACTION
Further to my detailed statement dated 15th February 2011 about evolution, I would like to state, after reflecting on the matter and listening to the advice of others:
1. I regret and retract some of my statements in the past about the theory of evolution, especially the inflammatory ones.
2. I do not believe that Adam, peace be upon him, had parents.
3. I seek Allah’s forgiveness for my mistakes and apologise to others for any offence caused.
4. This does not excuse the cowardly and fraudulent campaign spreading lies and slander against me over the last two months.
5. Neither does it excuse those who have continued their mediaevalist, hair-splitting theological and jurisprudential discussions whilst remaining silent about the clear incitement to murder uttered by some in their midst. “Slaughter the people, but worry about killing mosquitos.”
Usama Hasan
London, Friday 4th March 2011
Tawhid Mosque – statement
March 3, 2011Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim
A STATEMENT FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF MASJID & MADRASA AL-TAWHID TRUST
To all those concerned about Masjid al-Tawhid and the wider issues affecting Muslims in Britain,
as-salamu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullah.
I am writing in response to the letter issued by Mr. M. I. Sethi, Secretary of the Trust, dated 24th February 2011 that contained a number of untruths and was circulated via notoriously fanatical websites. I am therefore obliged to address this matter publicly.
I would like to confirm that Dr. Usama Hasan remains Vice-Chairman of the Trust.
The meetings held by some trustees on 26/1/2011 & 23/2/2011 were unconstitutional for several reasons, including the fact that there are 12 members of the trust and the quorum of 7 was not met. Therefore, any decisions made in those meetings are null and void.
The ridiculous attempt by this faction of trustees to remove Dr. Usama as Trustee, despite his clear statement dated 15th February 2011, only shows that they were bent on pursuing their vicious, predetermined agenda.
Mr. Sethi failed to mention that Dr. Usama’s lecture on 22/1/2011 was disrupted repeatedly and he was not allowed to clarify his position, something that he had to do later via his blog. He also failed to mention that most of the people who disrupted the lecture were not from the Masjid Tawhid community, and that some of them clearly incited murder against Dr. Usama, both verbally and by distributing a cowardly, anonymous leaflet. It would therefore appear that Mr. Sethi approves of their behaviour.
Mr. Sethi also failed to mention that the controversy caused by Sheikh Sadlan’s fatwa was hugely inflamed by a website called “Save Masjid Tawhid” and associated petition that was launched around January 3rd 2011, and that spread lies and slander around the world directed against Dr. Usama. This website was fraudulently registered using the name and address of the Masjid without the permission of the Trust, and Mr. Arif Saleem, a trustee, was allegedly involved in the setting up of the website. Rather than addressing this sensitive matter directly via the Masjid Trust, it is extremely unfortunate that Mr. Saleem appears to have chosen to spread fitnah in this way, actions which directly resulted in the attempted disruption of Friday Prayers on 14/1/2011 and in the above-mentioned death threats directed against Dr. Usama. I had repeatedly mentioned to Mr. Sethi and other trustees that this behaviour of Mr. Saleem was to be discussed in the next full meeting of the Masjid Trust, but again they have conveniently ignored this issue.
The “Investigative Report” mentioned by Mr. Sethi contains a number of further untruths. For example, strong statements against Dr. Usama and myself were attributed to Sheikh Wasiyullah al-‘Abbas, a close friend of mine who graduated many years after me from the Islamic universities of Makkah and Madinah. I spoke to him on the morning of Monday 28th February 2011 after Fajr Prayer, and he expressed his astonishment as to how his statements had been totally distorted by a man called Muhammad al-Maliki, upon whose testimony the report depends.
O you who believe! If a wicked person comes to you with any news, ascertain the truth, lest you harm people unwittingly, and afterwards become full of repentance for what you have done. (Qur’an, 49:6)
In any case, none of the people who claim to have authored the “Investigative Report” are qualified religious scholars, are therefore unfit to author such a document. Note also that the report is clearly largely the work of one man, i.e. Mr. Arif Saleem, who is himself accused of fraudulent behaviour as stated above.
Finally, I would like to warn those who engage in clandestine activities to harm our mosque, that their efforts will ultimately fail, in sha’ Allah.
Who is more unjust than he who forbids that in the places for the worship of Allah, Allah’s name should be celebrated, whose zeal is in fact to ruin them? (Qur’an, 2:114)
Verily, Allah will defend those who believe: verily, Allah loves not any that is a traitor to faith, or shows ingratitude. (Qur’an, 22:38)
Dr. Suhaib Hasan
Chairman, Masjid & Madrasa al-Tawhid Trust
26th Rabi’ al-Awwal 1432 / 1st March 2011
6 Billion Ways: Making another world possible, Sat 5 Mar 2011
March 3, 2011Bismillah. 6 Billion Ways: Making another world possible
Saturday 5 March 2011, 9.30am-Midnight, Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1
Organised by: Friends of the Earth, War On Want, World Development Movement, People & Planet, City Circle & others
Don’t fund another Gaddafi
March 2, 2011Bismillah. Received from ONE.org – work like this is of course promoting goodness & correcting evil:
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We’re all appalled by Gaddafi’s oppression of the Libyan people – and wondering what we can do to help. Well, one thing we can do is help stop the flow of funds to such oppression.
Gaddafi has been able to fund his regime in part because of a lack of transparency in the deals between the government and the oil companies operating in Libya. Mubarak’s regime in Egypt also exploited this lack of transparency. It is for precisely this reason that we need to call for a law requiring companies to disclose how much they pay governments to extract natural resources. It’s a critical measure to help people hold their governments to account on how money is being spent.
Please click on the link below to ask George Osborne to ensure all European oil and gas companies must disclose their payments to governments:
http://one.org/international/actnow/uk/transparency/o.pl?id=2174-5297101-y_b5efx&t=2
Dear George Osborne,
Please make a public statement in support of laws across the EU that will require big oil, gas and other extractive companies to declare exactly how much they are paying developing country governments.
Gaddafi has clung on to power by using the proceeds from hidden international oil deals. Companies that have wanted to extract oil in Libya have had to deal with him for years and as a result some of the payments they’ve made have gone to help finance his oppression of the Libyan people.
Due to the wider work that ONE has been doing as part of the Publish What You Pay coalition, real momentum is building to get this payment information made public. The United States has already passed a law requiring its companies to publish what they pay other governments and French President Sarkozy recently declared his support for similar laws across the EU.
Thank you for taking part.
Stuart McWilliam, ONE.org
Can Religious and Secular Values Complement each other in the Public Arena?
February 17, 2011Bismillah. Received from the Christian-Muslim Forum.
*Can Religious and Secular Values Complement each other in the Public Arena?*
A Conversation between Julian Bond (Director, Christian Muslim Forum), Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra (MCB and President, Christian Muslim Forum), Peter Cave (Chair, Humanist Philosophers)
The evening began with a welcome from Marianne Zeck to the beautiful and atmospheric St Ethelburga’s Centre .
Each of the three panellists then set the scene, giving their own initial response to the question.
Julian Bond
As a Christian, Julian was optimistic that as both religious and secular communities have their share of visionary people and activists, they can work together to propose change. Concern for issues of justice and care for the marginalised is central to Jesus’ message, and his ‘manifesto’ issued at his sermon at Nazareth proclaiming the words of Isaiah ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor, ..liberty to the captives….sight to the blind’ is one which suggests that social justice ought to be at the heart of Christian action.
Read more here.
Peter Cave
Peter was next to speak, and picking up on the question of values asked ‘does the meta-value which enhances the quality of our society come from the secular humanist or the religious side?’ For Peter this was a rhetorical question. He asserted that we should have some values imposed on us (if we are not be at the mercy of rape, pillage, murder etc), and was keen to disassociate Humanism from any charge of relativism, subjectivism or nihilism. Peter went on to explore ‘What are religious values? What are secular values?’
Read more here.
Ibrahim Mogra
Ibrahim’s response was a strong assertion that he feels that as a Muslim he has a slight advantage in following the common universal human values we all share, as he is encouraged to put these into practice and encouraged that his Creator commands him to do this. Ibrahim argued that the belief in reward for doing this, is the push and some people might need this when tempted to overlook the needs of their fellow human beings.
Read more here.
Barbara Usher
Some Reflections
I am grateful to Barbara Usher (one of the Forum’s volunteers) for producing the above account which captures much of what was said. I am all too conscious that the conversation was only beginning and that we are not quite on a level playing field together, in fact sometimes we are trying to argue the other team off the pitch!
Read more here.
Julian Bond
Director
Christian Muslim Forum
A STATEMENT ABOUT RECENT EVENTS
February 15, 2011With the Name of God, All-Merciful, Most Merciful
A STATEMENT ABOUT RECENT EVENTS
My lecture on “Islam & Evolution” at Al-Tawhid Mosque in Leyton, London, Saturday 22nd January 2011, was disrupted by a small mob of fanatics who added weight to Darwin’s theory by behaving like a bunch of baboons. They did not allow me to finish what I was saying, and one of them said openly and publicly that I should be killed.
I would like to reiterate the following for the umpteenth time, since many vicious lies and slanderous statements are circulating in some sections of society:
- As Allah revealed to us in the Qur’an, He created Adam, peace be upon him, the first human, from earth, or clay and water. He created Him with His Two Hands, breathed His Spirit into him, taught him the Names of everything and asked the angels to bow down to him, thus confirming Adam’s pre-eminent status in creation. All of humanity is honoured by being descendants of such a noble and dignified soul. The creation of Adam, peace be upon him, was miraculous like that of ‘Isa b. Maryam (Jesus Christ), peace be upon him. There is a consensus of the Muslims on these matters.
- Science only deals with the “how” of creation, based on empirical evidence. The theory of evolution, like any scientific theory, cannot be conclusively proved, but is open to falsification. Scientists may adduce evidence in favour of one theory or the other. Such issues remain a matter of debate amongst scientists. It should be noted that, as asserted by Professor Jim al-Khalili in his newly-released book Pathfinders, the father of the scientific method is probably the great Muslim scientist al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham (known to Mediaeval Europe as Alhazen) rather than Roger Bacon who came centuries after him. Muslims should be aware of the arguments about the scientific method and the philosopy of science that have continued ever since, including empiricism, positivism, Popper’s falsification test and Kuhn’s theory of paradigm shifts.
- Therefore, since any scientific theory must be debated on its own merits, the above disagreement is about interpretation or exegesis (tafsir) of the Qur’an, and not about fundamental matters of iman or ‘aqidah. It is not a matter of iman or kufr, and people are free to accept or reject a particular scientific theory. In particular, theologians who have no grounding in science, have no right to pronounce upon scientific subjects. Any such fatwas about science from people ignorant of the subject matter are null and void.
- I have never rejected the Qur’anic concept of Hijab (Veiling), contrary to certain lies, and have always argued that men and women must dress decently and modestly in public. I have devoted at least one Friday sermon at Al-Tawhid Mosque to the subject in recent years. When the Foreign Secretary of the time Mr. Jack Straw made inflammatory remarks about the niqab (face-veil) some years ago, I penned (roughly, quoting from memory) the following tongue-in-cheek poem, touching on the issue of Hijab (Veiling) at many levels, that was published by The Muslim Weekly, based in London:
I say to the minister with a brain of straw,
Complicit in Iraq’s blood-bath:
Already devoid of any moral law,
Now you stray even more from the path.You wish the women to remove their veils?
By God, this is really rather dim:
For the problem is not that they’re veiled from you,
The problem is that we’re all veiled from Him.
May Allah guide us all to The Truth, which is one of His Beautiful Names. Let Allah be our Witness.
Usama Hasan
London, 15th February 2011
The Imam of Peace
January 31, 2011Bismillah. From a friend (John Butt is well-known to many Cambridge University students over the last decade, since he served there as Muslim chaplain):
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Please listen to this excellent Radio 4 programme http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xpng0
“Nadene Ghouri profiles John Butt, an Englishman who travelled to South Asia on the hippy trail, converted to Islam and trained as an imam. For the last few decades his mission has been to spread a message of peace and tolerance across Pakistan and Afghanistan. He set up a series of radio stations across the Swat Valley in Northern Pakistan and established a madrassa in Jalalabad in Afghanistan, preaching his own version of a moderate inclusive Islam. Now this work is getting tougher. The Swat operation was hit by last year’s flooding while militants attacked his madrassa, burning down a building. The jihadist threat means it is too dangerous for John Butt to travel to the Swat Valley or to visit his project in Jalalabad. Nadene Ghouri asks who’s winning – John or the extremists?”
Lecture today – Islam & the theory of evolution
January 22, 2011Bismillah. Apologies for the short notice, but this has been announced via the mosque website, email list & Friday prayers over the last few days.
Lecture + Q&A: Islam & the theory of evolution
By: Dr. Usama Hasan
Saturday 22nd January 2011
5-8pm, al-Tawhid Mosque, 80 High Rd, Leyton, London. E15 2BP
The Particle Zoo
January 19, 2011Bismillah. Remember the Standard Model?
See http://www.particlezoo.net – soft toys for physicists! 🙂
With thanks to the wonderful people at the Cambridge Institute of Astronomy for pointing us to this.
UNITY 