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Rise Extremism in UK Linked to Ideology of Wahhabism

The exclusiveness and snobbishness of Ibn Taymiyah(founding father) coupled with violence promoted by modern Wahhabists such as AlQaeda and ISIS  have given rise to cells of extremists outside Saudi Arabia ready to commit despicable terror acts such as we witnessed in Manchester, London ,Brussels ,Paris.

In July 2013, The European Union recognized and declared Wahhabism as the main source of Global Terrorism. Because of their immense wealth and petrodollars the wahhabis managed to export their poisonous ideology far and wide, from Indonesia to US radicalizing ignorant Muslims and consequently terrorist attacks have aggrandized because of hatred preached by radical clerics. Islamic Extremism is oxymoron as Islam calls for peace deriving from its name while Extremism is a toxic and deviation from righteousness and tolerance for diversity. Surely, Islamophobes might ridicule and thwart me due to their wrong perception, ignorance of texts and misinterpretation of context and comprehending cultural differences between 7th century and 21th century because they perceive Religion as a problem.

Britain emerging as hotbed of Wahhabist Extremism
In Britain we are losing the battle against extremism. . Approximately 24000 extremist jihadis are living in Britain with each considered to pose a “potential risk”, indicates the magnitude of the challenge facing us, Britons. Anjem Choudary with his associates radicalized hundreds of Muslims freely over 20 years in London, Luton and Birmingham. As a result, he influenced 100 of Brits with its fundamentalist teachings in carrying out or attempt to carry out terrorist attacks at home and abroad. All this thanks to leniency and support of Al Saud and their support of Saudis.
A report written in 2007 by Dr Denis MacEoin, former Islamic Lecturer, with his team of researchers uncovered a hoard of vicious literature inside a quarter of Britain’s mosques. All of it had been published and distributed by agencies linked to the government of King Abdullah.
Almost half of the literature was written in English, probably targeting at younger British Muslims who do not speak Arabic or Urdu.  Not only this, there have been hundreds of British graduates who had studied at University of Medina and have returned to the UK espousing an intolerable, puritanical and extremist Saudi worldview.  Our inability to recognize and acknowledge the ideological nature of extremism, in particular that of Salafis(actually wahhabis) and radical Barelvis, concluded in not understanding about the key extremist groups, websites and preachers. We clearly lack the basic vision into how such groups influence British Muslims and deviate them from sublime teachings of tolerance, mercy and co-existence.

Wahhabism today in Britain and worldwide
The exclusiveness and snobbishness of Ibn Taymiyah(founding father) coupled with violence promoted by modern Wahhabists such as AlQaeda and ISIS  have given rise to cells of extremists outside Saudi Arabia ready to commit despicable terror acts such as we witnessed in Manchester, London ,Brussels ,Paris . The focus of Extremism has shifted from Wahhabis in Saudi to anti-Saudi Wahhabis in Iraq, Syria   and other conflicting zones where radical jihadists implying the methodology of Khawarij(extremist group in early Islam)such that if you are brutal and ignorant then you can swarm a large part of sovereign country and declared so called caliphate and implementing laws which are inhuman and oppressive and contradict Islamic principles. But the western governments like of UK and US will look in all direction except Saudi Arabia when finding the root cause of terrorism. President Trump blatantly accused Iran of sponsoring Terrorism in his visit to Saudi even though he claimed and whole world know by now that 15 out of 19 hijackers complicit in 9/11 were Saudis but he dismissed it thanks to $350Billions deals made with Saudis. As for UK, well we have 3 terror attacks in 75 days but still the Home office has refused to release an investigation into funding extremist jihadis across Britain. Why hiding such crucial info? Huh, because  it might upset the Saudis and people supported by them here and if it was released before UK GE then it might upset Tories who have sold $4.2 Billion worth of Arms to Saudis thereby backing their aggression on Yemen indirectly. So while Theresa May gave lovely smiles and benevolent handshakes in Riyadh to king Salman, Saudis keep on expanding extremist centers and sending hateful preachers to radicalize Muslims youth in Britain.  But only either innocents suffers like in Manchester or London attacks or peaceful and tolerant Muslims who are at forefront of combating the disease of extremism.
According to an article published in “The Intercept” Tory MPs received expensive gifts, lavish trips to the palaces to the highly premium watches and even food baskets worth around $644.But at the cost of what? I think we know the answer.

How Muslims can combat with extremism in UK?
Inevitably, a great responsibility falls on Muslim leaders and organizations in UK. Condemnations and vigils doesn’t plummet threats we face from these extremists nor aimed at eradicating means of radicalization. Arguably, such leaders have a religious obligation to preach true teachings of Islam which counter indoctrination by extremist ideology, while providing contextualized interpretation of Islam in UK and expand ways to offer Ethics and Humanity profoundly mentioned in Islamic literature.
Second, we need to invest time and money into Muslim organizations that have assimilated into British society and advocate for Interfaith dialogue and organizing counter-extremism programmes. Currently, these are nowhere and lack essential support, funding and resources to run it. Government must come on forefront, cut relations with nations sponsoring global terrorism and try to explain hazardous menace emanating from Extremism to their communities and other people. And all this require trust which has to be built with Muslims so we can work together in countering extremists. Such an initiative must be supplemented with strategies that bring communities closer and empower them through programmes of engagement, inclusion and integration. And Media should stop playing blame game and intimidating people fuelling hatred and division. Like recently, in a deliberate attack on Muslims, an Islamophobe ran a van into people killing and injuring them near Finsbury Park mosque but Media look perplexed over condemning it as a terrorist attack.

Consequently, all this require us to defend our values over and above blame game, political correctness and religious sensibilities in order build the united Britain we all want. Extremism is on peak, hatred is prevalent and this weaken us to stand up in solidarity to combat Extremism.

About Ali Teymoori

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