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Usama Hasan

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For Egyptian footballer, see Osama Hassan

Usama Hasan
Hasan speaking at Army and Navy Club, Saint James, London
Born26 October 1971
London, England, UK
CitizenshipBritish
OccupationCommentator
OrganizationQuilliam
Personal
MovementLiberal progressivism[1]
Websiteunity1.wordpress.com

Usama Hasan is a British Senior Analyst at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and has described himself as a "a full-time counter-extremism practitioner since 2012".[2][3] He was also a senior researcher in Islamic Studies at the Quilliam Foundation[4] until it was closed down in April 2021.[5] He is a former senior lecturer in business information systems at Middlesex University,[4][6] and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.[7][8]

Career

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Hasan who comes from an Indo-Pakistani family holds no formal qualifications in Islamic Studies or Arabic language from any Islamic university but states he was taught personally by his father, Suhaib Hasan, who is a Saudi Arabia-trained Islamic scholar, while his grandfather, Abdul-Ghaffar Hasan Al-Hindi (d. 2007), was a scholar as well, having taught at the Islamic University of Medina at the request of the influential Salafi scholar Al-Albani.[9]

Jihadist claims

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He has claimed that he fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet occupation.[10][11]

Quilliam Foundation

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Hasan was Senior Researcher at the Quilliam Foundation, whose activities have been heavily criticised by commentators and academics for their "deplorable work towards the institutionalisation of Islamophobia and the destruction of civil liberties...and the far-right thugs that they have empowered as well as legitimised through their work".[12] During this time Hasan was involved in talks with Tommy Robinson of the English Defence League in which context he stated that "Robinson has always been against Islamism — political Islam — rather than Muslims".[13][14]

British government counter-extremism agenda

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Hasan was a member of the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Projecting British Muslims delegations to Egypt in 2008[15] and to Afghanistan (Helmand) in 2010,[16] was a Keynote Speaker at the Anglo-Syrian government-sponsored conference "The Message of Peace in Islam" in Damascus in 2009,[17] and is a Patron of both the Forum for the Discussion of Israel and Palestine (FODIP)[18] and Friends of the Bereaved Families Forum.[19] Usama was also a speaker at the Google Ideas/Council on Foreign Relations Summit Against Violent Extremism (Dublin, 2011).[20]

Media appearances

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He has appeared on television programmes, including BBC Hardtalk,[21] CNN,[22] and has also written various columns for The Guardian and The Washington Post.[23][24]

Views and controversies

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Hasan has expressed a number of views on Islam which have provoked strong reactions among Muslims and others.

Evolution

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Hasan has previously argued in favour of a compatibility between Islam and human evolution, arguing the mention of Adam and Eve in the Quran is purely symbolic.[25]

Hasan has argued that Islam is compatible with the theory of evolution, describing the story of Adam and Eve as "children's madrasa-level understanding" of human origins while pointing to antecedents of the modern theory of evolution among medieval Muslim philosophers like Ibn Khaldun (d.1406) and Ibn Miskawayh (d.1030).[25] His lectures have been disrupted by hecklers and has reportedly received death threats.[8][26]

Hasan later retracted some of his views on evolution.[8] Several British Muslim writers, including Inayat Bunglawala and Yahya Birt, backed his right to free speech.[27][28] On 5 January 2013, he was featured in a debate against Yasir Qadhi titled Have Muslims Misunderstood Evolution?, in which he argued in favor of human evolution.[29]

Power struggles at the Masjid al-Tawhid

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Hasan complained to British state authorities about "extremism" at the London Masjid al-Tawhid mosque and, in May 2012, as part of the arbitration process, he and all other trustees voluntarily stepped down from their positions as Trustees of the mosque.[30] In June 2012, the new Trustees of the Trust changed the locks of the Mosque doors and employed security guards.[31] According to the website of the Masjid al-Tawhid, the Hasan family "want to ... regain personal control of the mosque" and the vice chair Mehmud Patel said that "the mosque has 'effectively been run as a family affair, not a charity' by Usama Hasan and his father Suhaib Usama, and conflict as a result of the trustees' attempts to move away from this model of operation was inevitable".[32][33]

Al-Shabaab video threat

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In October 2013 Hasan was alerted by anti-terrorist police that he and other Muslim figures in the UK who had spoken out against Islamist extremism had been targeted by a propaganda video created by Al-Shabaab, the terrorist group responsible for the attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya.[34][35]

Fatwa against ISIS

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In 2014 Hasan and others issued a fatwa condemning British Muslims fighting for the "oppressive and tyrannical" Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Their fatwa "religiously prohibites" would-be British jihadists from joining the Islamic State and orders all Muslims to oppose ISIL's "poisonous ideology".[36][37]

Summer fasting times

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Hasan believes that Muslims in the UK should fast shorter hours – rather than the dawn-to-sunset hours that most Muslims do – as summer days at such latitudes can run for up to 19 hours.[38]

Tony Blair Institute for Global Change

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Hasan's reports for the Tony Blair Institute with the foreword by Michael Nazir-Ali have been criticized by Salaam as "hegemonic project to save the Muslim world from itself and coax it towards 'a model of Muslim civil religion that mirrors the United States'...it is a repackaging of Neo-Con wisdom 16-years on".

References

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  1. ^ Hamid, Sadek. Sufis, Salafis and Islamists: The Contested Ground of British Islamic Activism. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.
  2. ^ Hasan, Usama (20 September 2021). "Extremism needs to be fought at every level for inclusive Islam to succeed". Alarabiya News. Archived from the original on 7 September 2023. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
  3. ^ Hasan, Usama (20 September 2021). "Usama Hasan author profile". Alarabiya News. Archived from the original on 7 September 2023. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
  4. ^ a b "Quilliam. Usama Hasan: Senior Researcher". Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  5. ^ "The Charmed Life and Strange, Sad Death of the Quilliam Foundation". 11 May 2021. Archived from the original on 5 October 2021. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
  6. ^ Middlesex University Staff directory. Usama Hasan. http://www.mdx.ac.uk/aboutus/staffdirectory/Usama_Hasan.aspx |accessdate=2012-07-15 Archived 19 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ Muslim academic forced to retract evolution claim - The First Post http://www.theweek.co.uk/people-news/7269/muslim-academic-forced-retract-evolution-claim Archived 15 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 15 July 2012}
  8. ^ a b c "Imam fears 'nutters' could kill him for preaching evolution". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 11 March 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  9. ^ John R. Bowen, On British Islam: Religion, Law, and Everyday Practice in Shariʿa Councils, Princeton University Press (2016), p. 58
  10. ^ "Hardtalk - Usama Hasan". BBC News. 30 August 2007. Archived from the original on 15 February 2009. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  11. ^ Dr Mathew Guest, Dr Elisabeth Arweck, Religion and Knowledge: Sociological Perspectives, p 36. ISBN 1409471160
  12. ^ Bouattia, Malia (20 April 2021). "The Quilliam Foundation has closed but its toxic legacy remains". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 7 September 2023. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
  13. ^ Murray, Douglas (29 October 2013). "'When Tommy met Mo' revealed how far we have to travel before Islamism is uprooted". Church of England Newspaper. Archived from the original on 7 September 2023. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
  14. ^ Neather, Andrew (10 October 2013). "The odd couple: has an ex-Islamist turned former EDL leader Tommy Robinson?". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 7 September 2023. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
  15. ^ Dina Rabie (10 July 2008). "Projecting British Muslims". OnIslam. Archived from the original on 5 May 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  16. ^ "British Muslims visit Afghanistan". Gov.UK. 6 September 2010. Archived from the original on 5 May 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  17. ^ Usama Hasan. The Balance of Islam in Challenging Extremism Archived 2 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Quilliam, 2012: p. 4
  18. ^ "What is FODIP?". FODIP. Archived from the original on 13 January 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  19. ^ "Contact UKFBFF". Friends of the Bereaved Families Forum. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  20. ^ "Summit Against Violent Extremism (SAVE)". Council on Foreign Relations. Archived from the original on 15 November 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  21. ^ "Usama Hasan". 30 August 2007. Archived from the original on 15 February 2009. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  22. ^ CNN http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/21/cleric-evolution-compatible-with-islam/?iref=allsearch Archived 18 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ "Usama Hasan | The Guardian". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 18 September 2012. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  24. ^ Adam, Karla (1 January 2010). "British universities sometimes seen as breeding grounds for radical Islam". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 14 August 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  25. ^ a b Hasan, Usama (11 September 2008). "Knowledge regained". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 15 March 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  26. ^ Rowenna Davis (6 March 2011). "London imam subjected to death threats for supporting evolution. Mosque suspends engineering lecturer Usama Hasan for 'antagonising' community and backing women's rights". TheGuardian.com. Archived from the original on 18 January 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  27. ^ "Pickled Politics » A growing campaign to defend Usama Hasan and free speech". Archived from the original on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  28. ^ Inayat Bunglawala. (9 March 2011). "Islam must engage with science, not deny it. Pressure put on a London imam to retract statements supporting the theory of evolution does Muslims a disservice". TheGuardian.com. Archived from the original on 29 January 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  29. ^ "politicus.org.uk". www.politicus.org.uk. Archived from the original on 1 February 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  30. ^ Arbitration Report May 2012. MUSLIM ARBITRATION SERVICE Masjid & Madrasah al-Tawhid Trust http://www.masjidtawhid.org/management/55-arbitration-report-may-2012 Archived 4 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine accessed 15 July 2012
  31. ^ Masjid & Madrasah al-Tawhid Trust. Trust asserts control over the Mosque. Statement on events of Monday 18 June 2012. http://www.masjidtawhid.org/management/59-trust-asserts-control-over-the-mosque Archived 3 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine. accessed 15 July 2012
  32. ^ A Response to the Statement of Sr Nazima Sheikh. Masjid & Madrasah al-Tawhid Trust http://www.masjidtawhid.org/management Archived 31 December 2012 at the Wayback Machine accessed 15 July 2012
  33. ^ End of Arbitration, WFCOM Meeting, Disruption of Friday Announcement Masjid & Madrasah al-Tawhid Trust http://www.masjidtawhid.org/management Archived 31 December 2012 at the Wayback Machine accessed 15 July 2012
  34. ^ Shiv Malik; Duncan Gardham & Vikram Dodd (17 October 2013). "Prominent UK Muslims under police protection after al-Shabaab threats". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  35. ^ Simon Hooper (26 October 2013). "British Muslims defiant over al-Shabab threat". Al Jazeera English. Archived from the original on 31 October 2013. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  36. ^ Davies Boren, Zachary (31 August 2014). "Isis terror threat: Leading British Muslims issue fatwa condemning terror group". The Independent. Archived from the original on 23 June 2017. Retrieved 31 August 2014.
  37. ^ "FATWA ON THE SO-CALLED "ISLAMIC STATE" (FORMERLY "ISLAMIC STATE IN IRAQ & SYRIA")" (PDF). The Sunday Times. 12 September 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 September 2014.
  38. ^ "Ramadan fast in UK 'should be shortened' says scholar". BBC News. Archived from the original on 9 June 2016. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
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