Ghayasuddin Siddiqui

Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui is leader of the Muslim Parliament and of the Muslim Institute and has been active in the Stop the War Coalition and the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC). More recently, he has become an advisor to the Quilliam Foundation.

He was one of the first prominent Muslims to give his support to the Stop the War Coalition. He also supports the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC) and was a key contributor to the CAMPACC report "Terrorising Minority Communities" submitted to the Privy Council in August 2003. He spoke in defence of civil liberties at a public meeting organised by Scotland Against Criminalising Communities (SACC) in Edinburgh in December 2003.

In the period 2001-2005 Dr Siddiqui's approach to civil liberties and the "war on terror" fitted very comfortably within organisations like the Stop the War Coalition. But the Muslim Parliament, of which he is the leader, is more in the nature of a think tank than of a representative body. Partly for this reason, Dr Siddiqui's support was of limited direct value in encouraging the participation of the wider Muslim community in the Stop the War Coalition. Muslim involvement in the Stop the War Coalition was subsequently widened with the support of the Muslim Association of Britain and through links built between local Stop the War groups and mosques.

Dr Siddiqui seems to have been deeply shocked by the involvement of British Muslims London bombings of 7 July 2005. But in a "speech" given the at the 'Together Against Terror' conference organised by the Metropolitan Police Authority on 12 December 2005 he was highly critical of policing strateqy, commenting:

"the police failed again to receive any cooperation from the Muslim community in Leeds, where the terrorists came from. It became apparent that the police had no contacts, good-will or trust that might have enabled them to penetrate a terrorist network."

He added

"The politicisation of police forces is characteristic of dictatorship."

Since 2005, Dr Siddiqui appears to have become increasingly willing to engage in a critically constructive way with government counter-terrorism policies, and has become increasingly forthright in his criticism of some tendencies within the Muslim Community.

Speaking at a conference held by Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford shortly before the first anniversary of the 7/7 bombings, he said of the British Muslim community:

"By insisting on living a 7th century life-style in a 21st century society they cannot expect a welcoming response. Their use of oriental dress, the way they want to run their educational institutions, their traditions of marrying their children abroad and, above all, their belief that their main reason for coming to Europe was to convert the heathen to their faith, require a major re-thinking."

In the same speech, Dr Siddiqui welcomed the recent setting up of a forum called Muslims for Secular Democracy.

Dr Siddiqui is currently listed as an advisor to the Quilliam Foundation, publicly launched on 22 April 2007

External links

• "Quilliam Foundation", Accessed May 2008.
• "The Muslim Parliament", Accessed May 2008.
• "The Muslim Institute", Accessed May 2008.
• "The Muslim Parliament of Great Britain 1992-1998", Accessed May 2008.
• "British Muslims for Secular Democracy", Accessed May 2008.