Rasheed Gonzales

Many thanks to brother AbdulHaq for sending this link out. Pretty interesting video on Saudi Arabia’s rehab program for rehabilitation of jihadists and excommunicationists (takfîrîs).

With the recent death of Aqsa Parvez, may Allah have mercy on her, a number of issues have been raised with regards to the various details surrounding her death that have been reported in the media. In my earlier post regarding it (linked to above), I mentioned that not enough is known yet regarding what happened and the circumstances leading up to the killing to justly comment on it. For that reason, I’ve tried to refrain from commenting on the “right” and “wrong” of those involved and throughout the various comments I’ve posted to other blogs about it, I have maintained that we shouldn’t jump to any conclusions with regards to what happened. By this I do not mean that we shouldn’t say her death was wrong, because it was; her life was taken unjustly, whether it was done intentionally (i.e., murder) or unintentionally (i.e., manslaughter). In an authentic hadîth, Prophet Muhammad said that «the blood of a Muslim person [who] testifies that there is no god [worthy of worship] except Allah and that I am Allah’s messenger is not lawful except for one of three: the deflowered adulterer (i.e., one who is or has been married), the soul [of the murderer] for the soul [of the murdered], and the abandoner of what he has—the opposer of the Congregation (i.e., the apostate).»[1] There are other justifications for when a life may be taken (defending yourself from an attacker, for example), but none of them include the possible motives behind Aqsa Parvez’s death that have been mentioned in the media thus far—and even if there were a justifiable reason behind her death (i.e., some sin or some infraction of Islamic law she committed), the punishments legislated in Islam are only to be carried out by the authorities (e.g., government, Islamic courts, etc.) after trying the accused and getting a conviction for the offence. The law is not to be taken into our own hands; vigilanteism is not condoned in Islam.

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Dr. Marranci talks of A lesson to learn regarding the whole Policy Exchange Fiasco (also see: More on the Recent PE Report and Policy Exchange Exposed). The Dr. states,

As some of you may have noticed, I usually do not comment immediately upon events and news. There are two main reasons for this, firstly I am very slow in updating my blog, secondly I believe that to have a detached view and analysis of what is going on, you need to have some time for reflection. This is even truer when you, yourself, have been involved in the story.

As you can read in some of my previous posts, I was one of the first academics to question and criticise the formerly media-acclaimed Policy Exchange’s report on extremist literature in British mosques and Islamic institutes authored by Dr MacEoin. This led to a couple of exchanges with the main researcher and author of the report, who often had a certain goliardic attitude towards legitimate methodological questions. Finally, what was at first an academic analysis and criticism of a flawed methodology, a dodgy research ethic, and a sensationalist (politically driven) report, ended in being shamed by the same mass media which used to praise it.

On the 13th of December, Newsnight’s journalist, Richard Watson, has shown during the Newsnight program, how the researchers involved in the collection of the material for the report faked and falsified the receipts, the same ones which Dr MacEoin guaranteed, in his comment on my blog, would have proven the ethical basis and trustworthiness of his report.

Dr MacEoin argued that my criticism of his flawed work and his possibly undercover, unethical, and forged research brought ‘nothing but shame’ on myself since my criticism was actually tacit approval of the material ‘discovered’ in the mosque. I suppose that now Dr MacEoin has to work hard to clean his name for shamefully using his academic title for a what appears to be nothing more than a scam. Of course, we can only judge from what we have, the report, Dr MacEoin’s comments, and Newsnight’s investigation.

Read on … A Lesson to Learn.

Much thanks to brother AbdulHaq for bringing this BBC Newsnight programme to my attention; may Allah reward and bless him with good.

From “Mimaro” on Dr. Marranci’s blog:

and the latest unravelling of the ‘anonymous Policy Exchange researchers’ flawed methodology has been exposed on newsnight[12/12/07] by a forensic scientist showing that several receipts for ‘inflamatory’ literature were forged receipts - same handwriting for different institutions, even the institutions addresses on the forged receipts were erroneous as were the letterheads…

Watch the programme. It’s well worth the time.

Related Links: 

• Policy Exchange Interview - Jeremy Paxman interviews Dean Godson, Research Director of the Policy Exchange, following an investigation by Richard Watson. (This one’s quite amusing).

From Dr. Marranci’s blog:

• Policy Exchange hijacks professional research
• Open letter to Dr Denis MacEoin
• Dr MacEoin clarifies his methodology and the real reasons behind the report

From your’s truly:

• The “Experts” are at it Again …
• More on the Recent PE Report

On the way to work yesterday morning, as is usual, I was listening to AM680 News to check on the the traffic situation. There was a report about some domestic incident where a man had called 911 saying that he had killed his daughter. There weren’t a lot of details given, but when I checked the City News website last night after getting home, I was sad to learn that the incident involved a Muslim family out in Mississauga. I immediately thought, “Great. More negative press for Islam and Muslims.” Browsing through the various websites belonging to local news outlets, one can easily see how this incident will bring Islam back into the main spotlight in terms criticisms and debates. Case in point, this morning on the way to work, tuning into today’s John Oakley show on AM640, my ears were assaulted by accusations from an Evangelical Christian that misogyny and abuses against women were something “common” to Islam (this came during Oakley’s 9am segment which featured two reverends—I’m not sure which of the two made the inflamitory comments).

Here’s just a sampling of the various articles I’ve come across this morning:

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His Lineage:
The imam,[1] the great scholar,[2] the memorizer,[3] the jurist,[4] shaikh and scholar of the Hanâbilah,[5] Abū Bakr Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Hârūn bin Yazîd al-Baghdâdî al-Khallâl.

His Birth:
He was born in the year 234H.

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