Sam Solomon

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Sam Solomon is the pseudonym [1] of a British former Muslim author who specialises in Islam and Sharia law. He is a Christian convert, and is known for "A Proposed Charter of Muslim Understanding", [1] [2] as well as the Al Hijra-theory of Muslim immigration. [3] [4]

Contents

Biography

According to his own account, Solomon was an imam in Khartoum [5] who was "born and raised as a Muslim, had trained in Sharia law for 15 years before converting to Christianity. He was imprisoned and questioned; and was to be put to death, whereupon he chose to go to exile on the pain of death." [6] He has testified before the US congress and has been a consultant to the British parliament for matters regarding Islam. [6]

Writings

In 2006, following the 7 July 2005 London bombings, [7] Solomon was commissioned by UK Independence Party MEP Gerard Batten to author "A Proposed Charter of Muslim Understanding", which among other things proposes for British Muslims to sign a declaration against promotions of violent jihad in the Quran. [8] [9] [10] Although at first supported by the party, the charter later proved controversial, and UKIP leader Nigel Farage in 2014 distanced the party from it [8] [11] after Batten continued to call for Muslims to sign it, [12] and again after the Charlie Hebdo shooting. [13]

Solomon, with Elias Al-Maqdisi, is also known for the Al Hijra-theory, published in the book Modern Day Trojan Horse: The Islamic Doctrine of Immigration, which claims, based on the hijra (migration) of Muslim Prophet Muhammad, that the modern-day immigration of Muslims is a deliberate strategy of Islamisation. [3] [4] [14]

"Hijra or migration is binding on all Muslims for numerous reasons; the most important being that migration is preparatory to jihad with an aim and objective of securing victory for Islam." (Solomon, Al-Maqdisi, 2009) [15]

They also assert that taqiyya (deception) is a key strategy in the Islamisation of the UK. [1] Together with Atif Debs, another former Muslim, Solomon has written the book Not the Same God: Is the Qur'an Allah the LORD God of the Bible?, which argues, drawing on Quranic scholarship, that the Muslim Allah and God of Christianity are not the same. [16]

Solomon and Al-Maqdisi's book Al-Yahud: Eternal Islamic Enmity and the Jews was banned in Malaysia in 2017. [17]

Other activities

Solomon is the Islamic Affairs Adviser to Christian Concern, [16] and in 2004 worked with the group against the Religious Hatred Bill. [8] In 2007 he participated in the international counter-jihad conference in Brussels, [18] [19] and later played an important role in the counter-jihad movement. [20] He attended the International Legal Conference on Freedom of Speech and Religion together with among others Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer in 2009, [8] and was invited to speak in the Israeli Knesset by MK Aryeh Eldad the same year. [5] In 2011 he spoke at the Geert Wilders "A Warning to America" event at Cornerstone Church in Nashville. [8] He has also been on the advisory board of the International Free Press Society. [21]

In 2023, it was revealed by Hope not Hate that Solomon had been one of the individuals active in the New Issues Group, a secret group of anti-Muslim activists that had operated out of the House of Lords for over a decade, hosted by Lord Pearson and Baroness Cox. [20] It was also noted that he had written for the former Sharia Watch UK website of another group member, Anne Marie Waters. [20]

Works

Related Research Articles

The following list consists of notable concepts that are derived from Islamic and associated cultural traditions, which are expressed as words in Arabic or Persian language. The main purpose of this list is to disambiguate multiple spellings, to make note of spellings no longer in use for these concepts, to define the concept in one or two lines, to make it easy for one to find and pin down specific concepts, and to provide a guide to unique concepts of Islam all in one place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UK Independence Party</span> British political party

The UK Independence Party is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of parliament and was the largest party representing the UK in the European Parliament. The party is currently led by Nick Tenconi.

Political aspects of Islam are derived from the Quran, ḥadīth literature, and sunnah, the history of Islam, and elements of political movements outside Islam.

Qutbism is an exonym that refers to the Sunni Islamist beliefs and ideology of Sayyid Qutb, a leading Islamist revolutionary of the Muslim Brotherhood who was executed by the Egyptian government of Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1966. Influenced by the doctrines of earlier Islamists like Hasan al-Banna and Maududi, Qutbism advocates Islamic extremist violence in order to establish an Islamic government, in addition to promoting offensive Jihad. Qutbism has been characterized as an Islamofascist and Islamic terrorist ideology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yusuf al-Qaradawi</span> Egyptian-born Qatari imam (1926–2022)

Yusuf al-Qaradawi was an Egyptian Islamic scholar based in Doha, Qatar, and chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars. His influences included Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn Qayyim, Sayyid Rashid Rida, Hassan al-Banna, Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi, Abul A'la Maududi and Naeem Siddiqui. He was best known for his programme الشريعة والحياة, al-Sharīʿa wa al-Ḥayāh, broadcast on Al Jazeera, which had an estimated audience of 40–60 million worldwide. He was also known for IslamOnline, a website he helped for establishment in 1997 and for which he served as chief religious scholar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerard Batten</span> Former leader of the UK Independence Party

Gerard Joseph Batten is a British politician who served as the Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2018 to 2019. He was a founding member of the party in 1993, and served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for London from 2004 to 2019.

Takfir is an Arabic and Islamic term which denotes excommunication from Islam of one Muslim by another, i.e. accusing another Muslim of being an apostate. The word is found neither in the Quran nor in the ḥadīth literature; instead, kufr ("unbelief") and kāfir ("unbeliever") and other terms employing the same triliteral root K-F-R appear.

Takfiri is an Arabic and Islamic term denoting a Muslim who excommunicates one of his/her coreligionists, i.e. who accuses another Muslim of being an apostate.

<i>Milestones</i> (book) 1964 book by Sayyid Qutb

Maʿālim fī aṭ Ṭarīq, also Ma'alim fi'l-tareeq, or Milestones, first published in 1964, is a short book written by the influential Egyptian Islamist author Sayyid Qutb, in which he makes a call to action and lays out a plan to re-create the "extinct" Muslim world on strictly Quranic grounds, casting off what he calls Jahiliyyah.

Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi —Abu Muhammad Assem al-Maqdisi, in full—is the assumed name of Assem ibn Muhammad ibn Tahir al-Barqawi, an Islamist Jordanian-Palestinian writer and Salafi jihadi ideologue. Al-Maqdisi is known for popularizing a handful of significant themes within radical Islam, including the theological concept of Al-Wala' wal-Bara'. He is regarded as one of the earliest public Islamists to openly denounce the Saudi royal family as apostates from Islam. Al-Maqdisi believes that democracy functions as a religion in its own right and has accused Muslim advocates of democracy of apostasy. Additionally, he is recognized as the spiritual mentor of Jordanian jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who served as the initial leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. In 2004, a significant ideological and methodological divide emerged between al-Maqdisi and al-Zarqawi due to the latter's proclamation of takfir against all Iraqi Shīʿites. Al-Maqdisi took a more cautious approach: he preferred targeted killings of Shīʿites, aiming to prevent al-Zarqawi's ideology from becoming counterproductive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jihadism</span> Islamist movements for jihad

Jihadism is a neologism for modern armed Islamic movements that seek to base the state on Islamic principles. In a narrower sense, it refers to the belief that armed confrontation is a theologically legitimate method of socio-political change towards an Islamic system of governance.

Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion teaching that there is only one God (Allah) and that Muhammad is His last Messenger.

Jund Ansar Allah was an armed Palestinian Salafi-jihadist organization operating in the Gaza Strip. It was founded in November 2008 by Sheikh Abdel Latif Moussa. On 14 August 2009, Moussa announced the establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. The group criticized the ruling power, Hamas, for failing to enforce Sharia law. In response, Hamas attacked the organization, resulting in 24 people killed and a further 150 wounded. After the battle, Jund Ansar Allah ceased to exist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1988 Hamas charter</span> 1988 statement of Hamas values and positions

The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement, referred to as the Hamas Covenant or Hamas Charter, was issued by Hamas on 18 August 1988 and outlines the organization's founding identity, positions, and aims. In 2017, Hamas unveiled a revised charter, without explicitly revoking the 1988 charter.

The use of politically and religiously-motivated violence in Islam dates back to its early history. Islam has its origins in the behavior, sayings, and rulings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, his companions, and the first caliphs in the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries CE. Mainstream Islamic law stipulates detailed regulations for the use of violence, including corporal and capital punishment, as well as regulations on how, when, and whom to wage war against.

The Quran contains verses believed by Muslims to be revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad at different times and under different circumstances – some exhorting violence against enemies and others urging restraint and conciliation. Because some verses abrogate others, and because some are thought to be general commands while others refer to specific enemies, how the verses are understood and how they relate to each other "has been a central issue in Islamic thinking on war" according to scholars such as Charles Matthews.

Counter-jihad, also known as the counter-jihad movement, is a self-titled political current loosely consisting of anti-Muslim authors, bloggers, think tanks, street movements and so on linked by beliefs that view Islam not as a religion but as an ideology that constitutes an existential threat to Western civilization. Consequently, counter-jihadists consider all Muslims as a potential threat, especially when they are already living within Western boundaries. Western Muslims accordingly are portrayed as a "fifth column", collectively seeking to destabilize Western nations' identity and values for the benefit of an international Islamic movement intent on the establishment of a caliphate in Western countries. The counter-jihad movement has been variously described as anti-Islamic, Islamophobic, inciting hatred against Muslims, and far-right. Influential figures in the movement include the bloggers Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer in the US, and Geert Wilders and Tommy Robinson in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Marie Waters</span> Far-right politician in the UK

Anne Marie Dorothy Waters is a far-right politician and activist in the United Kingdom. She founded and led the anti-Islam party For Britain until its dissolution in 2022. She is also the director of Sharia Watch UK, an organisation launched in April 2014. In January 2016, Waters launched Pegida UK in conjunction with activist Tommy Robinson and far-right politician Paul Weston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jaysh al-Ummah (Gaza)</span> Palestinian and Salafi jihadist militant organization

Jaysh al-Ummah al-Salafi fi Bayt al-Maqdis, also known as Jaysh al-Ummah fi Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdis or simply Jaysh al-Ummah, is a small Palestinian Salafi jihadist militant organization based in the Gaza Strip. The group is supportive of al-Qaeda and critical of Hamas.

Ann Corcoran is an American conservative blogger and political activist known for the anti-refugee and anti-Muslim blogs Refugee Resettlement Watch and Fraud, Crooks, and Criminals. She has worked with several far-right organizations and publications.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Guest, Mathew; Arweck, Elisabeth (2016). Religion and Knowledge: Sociological Perspectives. Routledge. p. 120. ISBN   9781317068051.
  2. ↑ Legrand, Vincent (2014). "Anti-Islamization of Europe' Activism or the Phenomenon of an Allegedly 'Non-racist' Islamophobia: A Case Study of a Problematic Advocacy Coalition". In Toğuşlu, Erkan; Leman, Johan; Sezgin, İsmail Mesut (eds.). New Multicultural Identities in Europe: Religion and Ethnicity in Secular Societies. Leuven University Press. p. 149. doi:10.2307/j.ctt9qdzxj.9. ISBN   9789058679819. JSTOR   j.ctt9qdzxj.9.
  3. 1 2 Bracke, S.; Hernández Aguilar, L. M. (2022). "Thinking Europe's "Muslim Question": On Trojan Horses and the Problematization of Muslims". Critical Research on Religion. 10 (2): 200–220. doi: 10.1177/20503032211044430 .
  4. 1 2 Hodson, Margaret (2022). ""Baby Jihad": Analyzing White Nationalist Fears of Changing Western Demographics". Islamophobia Studies Journal. 7 (1): 111, 113. doi: 10.13169/islastudj.7.1.0108 . JSTOR   48676240.
  5. 1 2 Miskin, Maayana (3 May 2009). "Anti-Jihad Scholar Angers MK". Israel National News. Archived from the original on 24 February 2024.
  6. 1 2 Solomon, Sam (14 April 2010). "The Role of the Mosque and the Challenge to the Church". Westminster Institute. Archived from the original on 28 August 2023.
  7. ↑ Goodwin, Matthew (3 February 2019). "Angry Brexiteers are splitting into factions as Ukip is taken over by far-right extremists" . The Times. Archived from the original on 2 August 2020.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Rose, Steven (16 May 2014). "Sam Solomon, Christian Concern and Gerard Batten". Tell MAMA. Archived from the original on 27 August 2023.
  9. ↑ Paul, Jonny (14 December 2006). "EU Parliament charter asks Muslims to reject extremism". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 25 February 2024.
  10. ↑ Thomas, Cal (27 December 2006). "Charter could help marginalize extremists" . South Florida Sun Sentinel. Archived from the original on 28 August 2023.
  11. ↑ Mason, Rowena (5 February 2014). "Nigel Farage distances himself from MEP over 'Muslim code of conduct'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 August 2023.
  12. ↑ Mason, Rowena (4 February 2014). "Ukip MEP says British Muslims should sign charter rejecting violence". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 25 July 2023.
  13. ↑ Gander, Kashmira (14 January 2015). "Paris attacks: Ukip MEP Gerard Batten renews calls for Muslims to sign charter against violence". The Independent. Archived from the original on 28 August 2023.
  14. ↑ Matthew (2014). Doublespeak: The Rhetoric of the Far Right since 1945. Columbia University. p. 178. ISBN   9783838265544.
  15. ↑ Kilpatrick, William (2012). Christianity, Islam and Atheism: The Struggle for the Soul of the West. Ignatius. p. 330. ISBN   9781681490977.
  16. 1 2 "Not The Same God: Is The Qur'anic Allah The Lord God Of The Bible?". Wilberforce Publications. Archived from the original on 28 August 2023. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  17. ↑ Soong, Kua Kia; Ramananthan, Joyce, eds. (2018). Malaysia Human Rights Report 2017: Civil and Political Rights. Suara Inisiatif Sdn Bhd. p. 41. ISBN   9789671426357.
  18. ↑ Hannus, Martha (2012). Counterjihadrörelsen– en del av den antimuslimska miljön (PDF) (in Swedish). Expo Research. pp. 18, 67, 92. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2024.
  19. ↑ "Counter Jihad Brussels: 18-19 October 2007". International Civil Liberties Alliance. 20 October 2007. Archived from the original on 24 October 2022.
  20. 1 2 3 Mulhall, Joe (24 February 2023). "Corridors Of Power: The Secret Anti-Muslim Group In The Heart Of Westminster". Hope not hate. Archived from the original on 29 August 2023.
  21. ↑ "International counter-jihad organisations". Hope not hate. 11 January 2018. Archived from the original on 5 December 2023.
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