“Sectarian, conservative leadership is driving confused young Muslims into the arms of radicals.” Thus the standfirst to Ed Husain’s scaremongering piece in the Times.

The Quilliam report Mosques Made in Britain, on which the article is based, predictably dismisses the work of the Mosques and Imams Advisory Committee, and in a footnote accuses two of MINAB’s constituent organisations, the MCB and MAB, of failing to condemn suicide bombing. But generally speaking, and admittedly on a first quick reading, the report is otherwise quite measured.

But that wasn’t good enough for Ed Husain. He had to spin the report to fit the Islamophobic agenda of the Murdoch press, feeding into the right-wing myth that the entire Muslim community in the UK represents an extremist threat to wider society. And this is a man who is in receipt of large sums of public money, supposedly to fund his efforts at building social cohesion. He really is an utter disgrace.

Cf. “British mosques promote community cohesion”, MCB press release, 23 February 2009

Download the Charity Commission report here.

Update:  See also “Young Muslims at the mercy of extremists because of out-of-touch Imams” in the Daily Telegraph, 25 February 2009