Ed Husain The House of Islam

‘In essence, Muslims are expected to be people of shukr, or gratitude. The Quranic opposite to shukr is kufr or disbelief. As a community of gratitude, it is among the greatest acts of ingratitude to burn the bridges of pluralism and secularism that allow for Muslims to observe their faith in the West’. That bridge burning is addressed head on in this topical book by a former Muslim extremist now passionate for the recovery of Islam’s mainstream. ‘The House of Islam is on fire – and the arsonist still lives there. Neighbours can bring water to put out the fire, but Muslims must also expel the fire bombers in their midst’.

Londoner Ed Husain helped found Quilliam, the world’s first counter-extremism think tank, in Britain. His latest book is a highly readable history of Islam giving insight into how things have come to be as they are and inviting strategies like the founding of a Middle East Union to improve a dangerous scenario. That scenario is traced back to the attempt by Saudi Arabia to impose one form of belief, worship and dress upon the broadness of Islam fuelled literally by oil wealth. This form held by Salafi–Wahhabis, less than 5% of Muslims, has gained ground since Saudi Arabia emerged 1932 with British help out of the detritus of the Ottoman Empire. Husain gives demonstration of its narrowness and infidelity to the Quran explaining how it rides on the back of the crisis of confidence among Muslims. ‘The Russian end of empire produced communism; Germany produced Nazism; and Ottoman decline produced Islamism...whose prevailing political ideology - the zeitgeist among young Muslim activists - says that being a Muslim, a believer in Islam, is not sufficient. Islamists yearn for something deeper: to bring back the Caliphate as the perceived restorer of Muslims’ lost dignity and end the feelings of loss and humiliation inflicted on Muslims’.

This book is a credit to Islam, the simplicity of worship of one God, honouring the Quran and the Prophet, celebration of family life and emphasis on the world to come, all of which are well illustrated by Ed Husain. Terms like Sharia are explained, meaning ‘path to water’ echoing Islam’s nomadic heritage but now bearing fearsome meaning as a result of the culture war fuelled by literalistic Islamism.  This deadly movement distorts the historic breadth of interpretation within Sharia Law virtually forbidding everything not sanctioned by the Quran, something Husain exposes for the infidelity it represents. ‘In Islam, if a Muslim drinks alcohol, consumes pork or steals, he or she is still considered a Muslim, albeit a sinful believer who is expected to have to face God to account for these acts in the next life. If, however, that same person then attempts to justify those sins, then she or he becomes a disbeliever, a kafir, because they have committed an open act of disbelief … what then of someone, nay an entire movement, committed to the worst acts of inhumanity - killing innocents, enslaving women, murdering Muslim believers and destroying historical sites? If consuming and defending the consumption of a bacon sandwich puts a Muslim outside the faith, then why not murder, rape, enslavement and the demolition of antiquities?’

In this global history Sufism is given special place for its mystical charism and inclusivity counter to the Islam preached by Salafi–Wahhabis . ‘The Sharia specialists are intent on explaining the Quran; the Sufis are, in their words, ‘not interested in the love letter, but the lover Himself’, and so immerse themselves in love, miracles and pious devotion’. The author sees recovery of these depths allied to diversity as one answer to current extremism and its violent outcomes. Quran interpretation - the business of Sharia - is pivotal and Muslims need to take fresh note of Quran verses like ‘God intends felicity and ease for you and he does not want to put you in hardship’. The idea of umma fuelling a ‘them against us’ narrative also needs renewing in the light of Mohamed’s idea of community which included non-Muslims especially Christians and Jews. Appealing to the experience of Muslims like himself thriving in countries run without Sharia Law Husain boldly notes that ‘any government that upholds the higher aims of the Sharia is, in fact, Islamic by default. By that definition, Britain and America are fully Islamic because they conserve life, faith, family, property and the intellect. The West is already Quran-compliant’.

The book concludes with a reminder of how the West has helped Israel but done little to help Arabs help themselves. ‘Is the West going to wait until the Islamists and radicals are powerful enough to create a Middle East in their own image, one hostile to the rest of us? A Middle East Union would not be the Caliphate of the literalists or the secular democracy of liberals, but a pluralistic political and economic union true to the reality of the region, where the Sharia is honoured through… preserving life, freedom, intellect, family and property. In short, conservatism, capitalism and coexistence should be the forces behind creating a new Middle East order that provides dignity, security and stability for the region and the wider world’. This charter is followed by an appendix of leaders’ speeches appealing for unity among the nations and peoples of the Middle East as they face problems like terrorism, poverty, unemployment, sectarianism, refugees and water shortages that need regional answers.

In its portrait of the counterfeiting of Islam’s riches in this age ‘The House of Islam - A Global History’ is an eye-opener for non-Muslims and a call to action for Muslims and all who seek the world’s good.

Ed Husain  The House of Islam - A Global History
Bloomsbury Publishing 2018 £13.65 (Kindle Edition) ISBN 978-1-4088-7226-0  pp336

Reviewed Canon John Twisleton 6 September 2018