More Moderate Muslims

Whenever the spectre of Muslim terrorism and Jihad is raised, two things happen.

The person raising such questions is invariably dismissed as an "ignorant bigot", no matter how much he knows about Islam, and he is told that "moderate Muslims" will eventually win the day - if we just make the effort, concessions, etc, to reach out to them and let them know how tolerant we are.

This is flawed thinking, of course, as two recent revelations indicate.

Firstly, Osama Saeed, the founder and head of the Scottish Islamic Foundation, has been revealed as an adherent of Anwar al-Alwaki, a preacher who praised Major Nidal Hasan and the recent Fort Hood massacre in Texas.

Of course, Saeed is now back-pedalling and claiming he feels "cheated" by the cleric:

A radical Muslim cleric alleged to have inspired the Fort Hood gunman has been praised in the past as “a preacher of peace” by a prominent SNP candidate with close links to Alex Salmond.

The FBI is investigating communications between Major Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at the US Army base in Texas, and Imam Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born Muslim cleric now based in Yemen. Mr Awlaki has a large following in Britain and counts prominent mainstream Muslims among his supporters.

In 2006 Osama Saeed, who has been selected as the SNP candidate for Glasgow Central for the next general election, wrote that Mr Awlaki “preached nothing but peace”.

Last night Mr Saeed, who was researcher to Mr Salmond before he became the Scottish First Minister, distanced himself from Mr Awlaki, saying that he now felt “cheated” by the cleric.

Saeed is reportedly very close to Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond and the socialist Scottish National Party. His organisation has received British taxpayers' cash, including some before it was legally established and "entitled" to do so.

The Times also reveals that more "mainstream" British Muslims were adherents of al-Awlaki:

Despite his extremist reputation, the cleric has attracted widespread support from mainstream British Muslim groups and individuals.

Azad Ali, president of the Civil Service Islamic Society, wrote last November that Mr Awlaki was “one of my favourite speakers and scholars”.

Mr Ali, whose society’s patron is Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, distanced himself from the cleric’s views last night. He said: “I reject them and disassociate myself from them completely.”

Of course he does, now - publicly, at least. That pension is far too lucrative to lose.

In the article's comments section, a Muslim accuses the critics of these men of hypocrisy - isn't someone entitled to change his mind?

Well, maybe - but would a former BNP member, for example, be given the same courtesy? I think not. In fact, if someone like Salmond was known to have associated with such people, that would probably be the end of his career, however innocent he was of any wrongdoing or impeccable his own credentials.

The second story to confirm the folly of 'out reach' concerns David Cameron's new, cuddly Tories. Desperate to win their share of the Muslim vote, the party sanctioned a website called the "Conservative Muslim Forum" in 2005.

Now they are A) trying to distance themselves from the project, and B) track down the man who designed it for them, because it features large chunks of text from Islam Online, written by hate preacher Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is banned from both Britain and America and has called the slaughter of Israeli civilians "a necessary Jihad":

Officials were trying to contact the man they had employed to create the Conservative Muslim Forum's website to ask why it features chunks of text from IslamOnline, which was established by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who was described as "dangerous and divisive" by David Cameron.

"That particular piece you mention, about charity, was, indeed, lifted from a website, but they can't tell for sure which one," says a spokesman for the Tories. "It is reasonable to assume that it is from the website [IslamOnline]. It should have been attributed."

The spokesman points out that the passage was "in line with mainstream Muslim thought".

Al-Qaradawi, who helped set up IslamOnline in 1997, has been banned from America since 1999 and from Britain since 2008 because of his extremist views.

In 2003, he expressed his support for suicide attacks against Israeli civilians, which he called a "necessary Jihad". He is held to be the unofficial leader of the Muslim Brotherhood by a number of informed authorities.

The Conservative Muslim Forum was established in 2005 to increase the Tories' understanding of Muslim issues and encourage Muslim involvement in the party.

It seems that the Conservative Party, like many of the rest of us, have genuinely failed to "understand Muslim issues" - like the fact that a significant portion of the Muslims we are "reaching out" to wish to subvert our society and our values in favour of their own.

Pandering to them only helps that, it in no way hinders it. That won't matter, however - governing our society has simply become a competition as to who can be most politically correct and who can sell us out the fastest.