Ed Husain’s Among the Mosques explores our diverse and divided Muslim communities.
“… However, towards the end of Among the Mosques, Husain reaches a sober conclusion. He concludes that it is the literalists who have gained the upper hand:
‘After travelling the length and breadth of Great Britain, meeting Muslims from every denomination, it is clear to me that blind reliance on scripture and the clerics is overwhelmingly strong within British Islam. Adherence to the seventh-century Koran, ninth-century hadith and 10th- and 11th-century Islamic scholarship is deeply embedded.’
He feels that three distinct trends are at work among Britain’s Muslim communities. First, communalism, whereby what might have been a private, religious identity is becoming increasingly public and political. Second, clericalism, in which the power of clerics is subverting the authority of the state. And finally, caliphism, which encourages Muslims to believe that secular Britain is flawed and failing…”
