Adam Deen and the Birmingham Islamic Society Issue (a clarification) Salam alaikum brothers and sisters, two weeks ago Adam Deen put up a statement online claiming that Birmingham University Islamic Society (BISOC) had cancelled a female speaker for presenting a lecture on Islam and Women. This was cited as an example of women speakers being denied a platform to speak about Islam in UK universities. When I first heard this, I attempted to contact BISOC to confirm if this had happened - I also looked at all their events schedules that I could find. I had spoken at BISOC in 2013 and know them to be an ISOC that does not prevent women speakers for speaking. BISOC confirmed that no such cancellation of any female speakers had happened. I also found a testimony of an former student who had worked with BISOC for the last 5 years, who testified that BISOC have never cancelled any female speakers because they didnt want them to address a mixed audience. I wrote a post on the matter (https://facebook/abdullah.andalusi/posts/10152257594952517) and this led to strong worded tweets and facebook posts, with many on social media accusing people of lying and deceit, whether myself or Adam Deen. I have managed to speak to Adam Deen one-to-one since then, and have been able to ascertain the source of his claim. Adam genuinely believes I was the one who told him about the incident many years ago; which I have no knowledge about, but since any humans memory can be mistaken, the bottom line is, there was no lying involved. I believe that Adam Deen ACTED BASED UPON WHAT HE THOUGHT WAS TRUE. Perhaps it would have been better to confirm with BISOC before putting out his post, and perhaps I should have asked him for his source before I wrote my article - however, whats happened has happened, and I would like to apologise to Adam Deen if anyone understood from my post that I claimed he was a liar, or had invented the story. I DO NOT claim that Adam Deen is a liar or that he invented the claim. I would like to clarify again that BISOC do not prevent women from speaking at their events. The purpose of my original post was to clear BISOC of any insinuation against their reputation. I also wrote the post to express that because the Muslim community in the UK is under a lot of pressure from intolerant government policies, Islamophobes and meddling Liberals (like Maajid Nawaz) - we should be careful in how we all engage issues amongst the Muslim community, to ensure we do not add fuel to the fire against us. However, we should also not ignore that there are many un-Islamic practices and mindsets that we need to change too. The issue at hand is the approach we should take, not whether or not to accept there are problems within the Muslim community. While me and Adam Deen may disagree about many ideas and concepts, we should all engage those we differ with, with husn ul dhann, respect and prevent misunderstandings and personal attacks. Id like to ask everyone not to use personal attacks, insults, derogatory language or pejorative labels against myself or Adam Deen, or against anyone they disagree with. Let the intellectual debate continue...
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 15:42:46 +0000
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