Going to Extremes: Muslims in the News: Collected Writings of a British Muslim Leader 2011-2017

By Dr. Muhammad Abdul Bari

A digital four volume aeries of Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari’s most salient articles over the last decade. These volume explore what it means to be British and Muslim in the context of the 21st century War on Terror; progressing from Britain’s Muslim communities to the wider British society as well as regional and global politics. Expanding on conversations covering counter-extremism to spirituality and Muslim world politics to the rise of the far-right - these prolific articles shed light on contemporary issues of importance. 

In this volume, the author explores the post 9/11 society, where extremism has become a hot button topic. He examines the rise of terror group ISIL in the Middle East and its impact on the globe, the issues of countering extremism through the government’s Prevent strategy that was having negative impact on certain communities and the steady rise of far-right extremism. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kube Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Dec 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781847741837

Dr. Muhammad Abdul Bari

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari is an educationalist, community activist, author, parenting consultant and commentator on social and political issues. He has written for various newspapers, blogs and journals including The Huffington Post and Al-Jazeera English, and is the author of a number of books on marriage, family, parenting, identity and community issues from contemporary British Muslim perspectives.

Book preview

Going to Extremes: Muslims in the News – Collected Writings of a British Muslim Leader (2011 – 2017) by Muhammad Abdul Bari

PART TWO

GOING TO EXTREMES

MUSLIMS IN THE NEWS

Collected Writings of a British Muslim Leader 2011-2017

MUHAMMAD ABDUL BARI

Going to Extremes: Muslims in the News – collected Writings of a British Muslim Leader (2011 – 2017)

First published in England by

Kube Publishing Ltd

Markfield Conference Centre, Ratby Lane,

Markfield, Leicestershire, LE67 9SY,

United Kingdom Tel: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

Website: www.kubepublishing.com

Copyright © Muhammad Abdul Bari 2021 All rights reserved.

The right of Muhammad Abdul Bari to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

CIP data for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-84774-183-7 Ebook

Cover Design by: Nasir Cadir

Typeset by: LiteBook Prepress Services

CONTENTS

Author’s Biography

Chapter 1: Radical right, Radical religious

The Woolwich Murder: With Universal Condemnation Comes the Need for Wise Action

Islamophobia and Violent Extremism: Tackling the Twin-Menace Head on

The UK Government’s Weak Response to Attacks on Muslims

A New ‘Battle of Cable Street’

‘Britain First’: Tackling the Menace of Far-right Intolerance

If We Only Knew What Prophet Muhammad Stood For!

The Religious Middle Way Is Extremism’s Antidote

Chapter 2: Preventing Extremism

No Section of British Society Should Be Treated with Suspicion

British Universities Need Radical Ideas, Not Bigotry

Preventing Extremism, Protecting Institutions: Universities UK Guidance on External Speakers

The Government Should Initiate a Public Inquiry on the Birmingham ‘Trojan Horse’ Plot

Politicisation of Alleged ‘Islamist Plot’ to Take Over British Schools Is Dangerous

The ‘Trojan Horse’ Controversy and British Muslim Children’s Education

The Trojan Horse Debate Spells Trouble for Faith Schools

The ‘Trojan Horse’ Hysteria Demonised Muslims: Will there Be any Redress?

Chapter 3: The Global War on Terror

Counting the Cost of Political Opportunism

Extradition and the Rights of British Citizens

Babar Ahmad Case Tramples on Law and Fair Play

The ‘War on Terror’ Is Dead … Long Live the ‘War on Terror’?

The ‘Islamic State’ Monstrosity: Can the Middle East Rise Up From the Ashes?

‘The Muslim Faith Is not to Blame for ISIL’

Where Is the End of This Cycle of Tyranny, Terrorism and War?

AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari is a noted civic leader, educationalist, parenting consultant and author. He has served Britain’s diverse communities in various capacities for over three decades.

A former Bangladesh Air Force officer, trained at the Royal Air Force College in Lincolnshire (1978-79), Dr Bari worked as a physics researcher in the University of London in the 1980s, before moving into teaching in the early 1990s, completing his PGCE (postgraduate certificate of education). He worked as a specialist teacher for those with behavioural needs before taking an early retirement in 2011.

Throughout and alongside his professional career, Dr Bari has been deeply involved in civil society organisations. He was a founding member of The East London Communities Organisation (TELCO), which is now the national organisation Citizens UK. He was a member of the British Government’s Inner Cities Religious Council (ICRC) in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain from 2006-2010, and Chairman of Britain’s largest Muslim community complex, the London Muslim Centre, from 2002-2013. He was also a non-executive board member of LOCOG (the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) from 2006-2013. Today, he remains involved in a number of charities such as East London Mosque, London Catalyst and the Islamic Foundation Leicester.

Since retiring, Dr Bari has been working with diverse communities to promote fuller engagement in public life, as well as writing on current affairs and his areas of expertise for various media outlets, including Huffington Post and Al Jazeera English. In recent years, he has worked with Muslim youth, including the three talented editors of this publication, to encourage their full participation in public life in the UK. He worked with Citizens UK and advised its Commission on Islam, Participation and Public Life (IPPL), which was chaired by former Attorney General, Dominic Grieve. The Commission’s final report The Missing Muslims: Unlocking British Muslim Potential for the Benefit of All, was published in the summer of 2017.

He has authored a number of books on family, parenting and identity as well as one on the Rohingya Crisis. His memoir, A Long Jihad: My Quest for the Middle Way, offers an insider’s perspective on the Muslim experience in modern Britain, presenting his blueprint for the middle way of life.

In recognition for his services to the community, Dr Bari was conferred an MBE in 2003; he was also made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2005, an Honorary Fellow of Queen Mary University of London in 2008, an Honorary Doctor of Education by the University of East London in 2012, and Deputy Lieutenant of the Greater London Lieutenancy in 2016. He was also awarded the Community Cohesion Champion by the organisation Sikhs in England in 2006.

Dr Bari lives in London with his wife, four children and three grandchildren.

Part 2

Going to Extremes

In a post-9/11 society, extremism is a hot button topic – though of course the world has a long history of extremist groups, from a wide variety of religious and political philosophies.

CHAPTER 1

RADICAL RIGHT, RADICAL RELIGIOUS

In the 2010s, politics across Europe became increasingly polarised, with a general trend towards the right following general elections (with some notable exceptions) – as such, far-right extremism became more pronounced and recognised, alongside the extremist acts of some Islamic groups and Muslim individuals. While there is often pressure on Muslim commentators to condemn the extreme acts of their co-religionists, Dr Bari goes beyond this, by looking at violence perpetrated both against Muslims and by them, as well as placing today’s dynamics in the context of traditional religious teachings against violence, and Britain’s pre-9/11 history of racial tensions.

The Woolwich Murder: With Universal Condemnation Comes the Need for Wise Action

(29 May 2013, Independent)

The former leader of the Muslim Council of Britain calls for a wise, evidence-based and inclusive strategy to tackle the causes of Islamic terrorism

British Prime Minister David Cameron (C) and London Mayor Boris Johnson (R) met with members of the local community during a visit to Woolwich, southeast London on May 23, 2013. Prime Minister David Cameron vowed that Britain would be resolute against violent extremism following the gruesome murder of a soldier by two suspected Islamists on a London street. After chairing a meeting of security chiefs the day after the