Long before the 7/7 attacks took place some of us had been warning of the inevitable tragedy but to no avail. The authorities - blinded by their own make-believe world of British Islam constructed with the help of their chosen ‘community leaders’ - preferred to ignore all the signs.
Now, a year after the tragedy, it is time for reflection - and introspection. Both, by the way, are an integral part of the Islamic message. Despite all the pressures and obstacles the majority of British Muslims - 1.8 million of them - have been engrossed in these processes already. The result is that today we are among the most engaged, plural and aware communities in the country.
Only Makkah and Madinah are more diverse than London, the Muslim capital of the West. London is home to Muslims from over 60 countries speaking in more than 100 languages. Its 300 mosques represent all kinds of madhhabs (schools of thoughts) and the dozen or so Muslim bookshops give a fascinating insight into the intellectual struggle for hearts and minds within the community.
Ours is a young community full oomph - critical, cynical and combative. The more than half who are under 25 years of age are more British than anything else. Proof of this is widespread: the dogged determination to more than survive the climate of racism and Islamophobia that engulfs them every day, their passionate opposition to injustice and oppression in the world and the willingness - amongst a few - to participate in foreign conflicts that are perceived as genocide (Bosnia-Herzegovina) or ruthless occupation (Iraq). Koestler and Orwell did it in Spain, so why not Ahmed or Sadeq in Afghanistan?
Okay, we may be Britain’s new underclass with problems in employment and housing, underachievement in schools and public representation, a faltering voluntary sector and suffering from years of neglect by social service providers. But the victim mentality displayed by some of our umbrella organisations and ‘leaders’ is erroneous. We are as apt as any other community when it comes to economic and social enterprise: there are more than 5,000 Muslim millionaires (Muslims give more to charity than the average Briton) and we have no significant partners when it comes to the ownership of our intricate infrastructure.
All of our 1,500 mosques - roughly valued at £500m - and our more than 100 schools have nothing to do with either the CRE or any government funding. Our mosques are fiercely independent. They are everything except havens for terrorism. Our mosques are also run by spiritual warlords accountable to no one. Nevertheless, the vast majority of our imams are valiant warriors trying to juggle with the issues facing communities.
The so-called “Muslim Task Force” invited to Windsor Castle for a two-day summit was a commendable step in the right direction. It raised a lot of expectations. It was by far the most inclusive consultation of British Muslims and the recommendations adopted quite reasonable. But we weren’t expecting miracles.
It was with this sense of realpolitik that I accepted the offer to implement one of the critical recommendations agreed upon by members of the Preventing Extremism Together working groups. Looking back the unquestionable success of the Radical Middle Way Project has depended on several factors, the key one being the exploratory, innovative and imaginative way in which the partnership at different levels have been forged. You could not get a more powerful - and inclusive - partnership than the quartet involved: the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, the Young Muslims Organisation (UK), Q-News and Mahabba Unlimited, a not-for-profit cultural charity.
From the beginning it became obvious that the Project was going to be a delicate process of engagement and building both arguments and trust. We improved on the original terms of reference: ours became a community-led programme aimed at articulating the mainstream understanding of Islam and to provide intellectual space so that issues pertinent to young people could be mooted by qualified scholars of the faith.
Our job is to create a tent big enough to embrace every opinion and nurture a culture of tolerance and civilised powwow. We refuse to be judgemental - only imaginative. We trusted the sensibilities of our communities and the different people we give platform to. The result has been an unprecedented outreach exercise that has touched the understanding and passions of tens of thousands of people, old and young, men and women.
The Radical Middle Way is no ‘sham’: the title is the product of imaginative Muslim minds, the phenomenal success is the outcome of a partnership between relevant Muslim groups and civil servants who have trusted them. We are proud that we are showing the way ahead on how government has to work with Muslims in Britain. The openness, candour and confidence shown to us by officials at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, our partners in government, have been invaluable. The result has been a success story that is the envy of governments in the West and in the Muslim world.
Halfway through the Project’s term the effect of our strategy is obvious to all. The speakers we invite and the diverse platforms we have created have only one thing in mind: consolidating and strengthening the understanding of the teaching of mainstream Islam which are based on co-existence, tolerance and love. Not for us the red herrings of identity politics: instead we prefer to deal with the real issues of foreign policy and the fact that British Islam is to be borne out of more tangible issues than beards, scarves and halal meat.
The thousands who flock to our meetings and visit our website seem to agree with our call to go back to the basics. This means combating ignorance by spreading and empowering arguments for the ‘middle way’ - a strategy of inner transformation as old as Islam itself when faced with extremist ideas.
Part of our challenge has been to define leadership in terms of an Islamic understanding. Not surprising critics of the Project have included intellectually challenged ‘representative umbrella bodies’ and self-appointed reformers and specialists of Islam. All continue to fantasise from the margins as we move forward in our ambitions to nurture an Islam that is true to its traditional understanding, relevant to its present situation and an asset to British society. From the cockpit those leading - qualified in the sciences of navigating the choppy theological and moral waters we are passing through - keep shouting down at us: “remember, we are not desperately seeking to be European Muslims - only intelligent believers.”

Fuad Nahdi