A few years ago I wrote about an organisation called the Quilliam Foundation, when it was a freshly dumped turd on the face of this ummah. I still hold those values even if it gets harder to summon the language as we grow older and as the fools get socially closer and more embarrassing.
Bleadership and Mistakeholding
Bleadership and mistakeholding are damaging phenomena that are quite pronounced around here. Who do they think they are? Who do we think we are? Are we safe from eachother's tongues?
Quilliam-talk is a powerful way of accessing this dysfunction in the evolving Ummahstructure and Jamarchitecture. Through it we see how some Muslim people totally mess up and are captured in the face of power.
Their tales of capture vary, some faced difficulty and suffering, others saw opportunity, but to be charitable to them, the delusion of positive impact is common. Like the development worker regurgitating contrivances for his imperial (mi)stakeholders in the air conditioned breeze of a five star hotel. Or the crop scientist genetically mutilating wheat in Middle England in the belief he is enabling food security.
Conference of the Fools: From Majid to Usama
Majid came from the HT quadrant, Ed Husain from pretty much nowhere, Tariq Wilkinson from the posh white convert section and Usama Hasan from Salafistan, that is the community of many vowels and heavy exclusivist self identification with the Prophet's companion. Salafi's are under the most pressure now and that sufi's and others are exploiting and endangering them is a deep shame. To be fair, pro status quo salafis are doing their bit to sell the more political down the river too.
It is not that their arguments are thick, 'problematic', neoconfeed, or that they are 'native informants' or fools of the highest degree, its the betrayal that I want to dwell on here, how it is jointly produced and how it might be reduced. After all, its hard to be loyal to a social, political ummah that's quite badly led, suffocating and unimaginative. It takes some belief and spine!
Perhaps we are happy to simply append Usama to the Quilliam cussathon. Fair enough but I want more, to reflect on how we help produce these characters, in unwitting partnership with forces, events and fiddlers we cannot see.
I remember when Majid returned from prison in Egypt, he was having an isolating time and appealing internally for Hizbut Tahrir to change. Clearly this was a badly negotiated interaction and he took his nasty methods and ego elsewhere. If HT (UK) devoted half as much time to the secrets of the heart as they did to the secrets of the Islamic state...
Ed Husain was of east London and talked to some of the people he mentioned in his dreadful book. If you were lucky he'd change your name. Most tried to dissuade him, none have tried to sue him yet. He has moved from Quilliam to the Council of Foreign Relations (or something) in the USA.
Though not Quilliam, Tariq Wilkinson's contribution touches a similar spot. His knees went weak when the CPS wanted him to bear witness against a salafi sector bookseller. Most Sufi types I know cringed, though one of the more imperial ones tried to use it launch a broadside against 'Qutbism'. What a waste of resources.
With Usama (who joined the Quilliam Foundation most recently) its been a more gradual alienation/capture. Majid tried early on to capture him to his cause, but officially this didn't work as Usama would distance himself even as he drew towards an analysis that ummahtic spastication and terrorism were the same thing.
Bollywood Musalmelodrama
But white power had him in a bind, he didn't have the wit/skill/will to get out and we didn't really help. They had him by his roots, his father and the mosque they used to help run. Shayk Suhaib Hassan is the kind of scholar who would run a tafsir class that ran across decades. He would not pansy up at the first mention of #creepingshariah either.
I recall Usama's discomfort at being dropped in it amongst white liberal guardianship early on by an apa who shares my initials of the Sufi sector, which started the post 9/11 era with a similar position to The State.
He didn't really help matters by using ibn Arabi to talk evolution to a crowd including many psychosalafis baying for takfir. I'll call it Epistemic Autism. His community estrangement following the Evolution Imam car crash was probably a determining factor, determined by himself, ourselves, white structures of power and Shaytan.
Now what
These empowered actants of imperialism make new relationships in spaces unfamiliar to us. They do not operate by very many rules and are themselves acted on by powerful market forces. Look where bad decision making got them and look where nondecision creating gets us!
As well as meming on facebook with the wit of a dull four year old and making dignified political options possible we must investigate the resistability of capture/betrayal. As a dirty mirror, I figure that the salafi sector really needs to buck up its ideas and stop being dejected. That screechy scholar is not fit to guide my loves and you preserve and hold onto mistakes too firmly. Islam is huge, and the virtues of courage fellowship, spine and fealty can be awesome all over it. No one expects you to become a Sufi fashionista.
Bleadership and Mistakeholding
Bleadership and mistakeholding are damaging phenomena that are quite pronounced around here. Who do they think they are? Who do we think we are? Are we safe from eachother's tongues?
Quilliam-talk is a powerful way of accessing this dysfunction in the evolving Ummahstructure and Jamarchitecture. Through it we see how some Muslim people totally mess up and are captured in the face of power.
Their tales of capture vary, some faced difficulty and suffering, others saw opportunity, but to be charitable to them, the delusion of positive impact is common. Like the development worker regurgitating contrivances for his imperial (mi)stakeholders in the air conditioned breeze of a five star hotel. Or the crop scientist genetically mutilating wheat in Middle England in the belief he is enabling food security.
Conference of the Fools: From Majid to Usama
Majid came from the HT quadrant, Ed Husain from pretty much nowhere, Tariq Wilkinson from the posh white convert section and Usama Hasan from Salafistan, that is the community of many vowels and heavy exclusivist self identification with the Prophet's companion. Salafi's are under the most pressure now and that sufi's and others are exploiting and endangering them is a deep shame. To be fair, pro status quo salafis are doing their bit to sell the more political down the river too.
It is not that their arguments are thick, 'problematic', neoconfeed, or that they are 'native informants' or fools of the highest degree, its the betrayal that I want to dwell on here, how it is jointly produced and how it might be reduced. After all, its hard to be loyal to a social, political ummah that's quite badly led, suffocating and unimaginative. It takes some belief and spine!
Perhaps we are happy to simply append Usama to the Quilliam cussathon. Fair enough but I want more, to reflect on how we help produce these characters, in unwitting partnership with forces, events and fiddlers we cannot see.
I remember when Majid returned from prison in Egypt, he was having an isolating time and appealing internally for Hizbut Tahrir to change. Clearly this was a badly negotiated interaction and he took his nasty methods and ego elsewhere. If HT (UK) devoted half as much time to the secrets of the heart as they did to the secrets of the Islamic state...
Ed Husain was of east London and talked to some of the people he mentioned in his dreadful book. If you were lucky he'd change your name. Most tried to dissuade him, none have tried to sue him yet. He has moved from Quilliam to the Council of Foreign Relations (or something) in the USA.
Though not Quilliam, Tariq Wilkinson's contribution touches a similar spot. His knees went weak when the CPS wanted him to bear witness against a salafi sector bookseller. Most Sufi types I know cringed, though one of the more imperial ones tried to use it launch a broadside against 'Qutbism'. What a waste of resources.
With Usama (who joined the Quilliam Foundation most recently) its been a more gradual alienation/capture. Majid tried early on to capture him to his cause, but officially this didn't work as Usama would distance himself even as he drew towards an analysis that ummahtic spastication and terrorism were the same thing.
Bollywood Musalmelodrama
But white power had him in a bind, he didn't have the wit/skill/will to get out and we didn't really help. They had him by his roots, his father and the mosque they used to help run. Shayk Suhaib Hassan is the kind of scholar who would run a tafsir class that ran across decades. He would not pansy up at the first mention of #creepingshariah either.
I recall Usama's discomfort at being dropped in it amongst white liberal guardianship early on by an apa who shares my initials of the Sufi sector, which started the post 9/11 era with a similar position to The State.
He didn't really help matters by using ibn Arabi to talk evolution to a crowd including many psychosalafis baying for takfir. I'll call it Epistemic Autism. His community estrangement following the Evolution Imam car crash was probably a determining factor, determined by himself, ourselves, white structures of power and Shaytan.
Now what
These empowered actants of imperialism make new relationships in spaces unfamiliar to us. They do not operate by very many rules and are themselves acted on by powerful market forces. Look where bad decision making got them and look where nondecision creating gets us!
As well as meming on facebook with the wit of a dull four year old and making dignified political options possible we must investigate the resistability of capture/betrayal. As a dirty mirror, I figure that the salafi sector really needs to buck up its ideas and stop being dejected. That screechy scholar is not fit to guide my loves and you preserve and hold onto mistakes too firmly. Islam is huge, and the virtues of courage fellowship, spine and fealty can be awesome all over it. No one expects you to become a Sufi fashionista.
Ummahtic Technique is more than management consultancy-speak and NGOism. It is the collective craft that enables us to resist capture and co option, imagine and deliver. Please promote technique and people with technique: through your Isoc elections, organisational AGMs, Umbrella group interactions and most crucially in your every day judgement.
The production of Bleadership is social, every time we promote something stupid in the name of jamat-logic we shoot ourselves. The irresponsibility of mistakeholders is clear as we assign value to the wrong qualities and yet are shocked when we are found in the situation of leadership capture and cooption.
The production of Bleadership is social, every time we promote something stupid in the name of jamat-logic we shoot ourselves. The irresponsibility of mistakeholders is clear as we assign value to the wrong qualities and yet are shocked when we are found in the situation of leadership capture and cooption.
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