Ed Husain Has Gone Off The Deep End

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I recently highlighted the fact that Ed Husain chose Darwin Day to out himself as an evolution denier. This was particularly disappointing as I had considered Husain to be an ally of secularism and enlightenment (he co-founded Quilliam with Maajid Nawaz). Many had hopes that this would prove to be a temporary ailment and Ed would ‘get well soon’ so to speak.

Well, in response to the public drubbing he received for his evolution comments, Ed appears to have now completely gone off the deep end. Or ‘gone full Werleman’ if you will:

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I find it odd that Husain would imply that only atheists are able to understand science, but I suppose we should take the compliment. This has led to people digging up the following tweet from October 2014.1 Ed takes a swing at ‘Militant atheism’ and Sam Harris et al:image

 

I hear a lot about this ‘militant atheism’ from believers whenever their opinions or religious privileges are challenged. It’s a desperate tactic with no substance to it whatsoever.

Ed is free to insult the memory of Charles Darwin (and our intelligence) and tweet out images mocking him. The only thing he will receive for it is a bit of tweet-based ridicule. I wonder what sort of response he would receive for tweeting out images of a certain other historical figure called ‘Muhammad’?

Once secularism or atheism reaches that level of tribalistic, violent barbarism, then he can start throwing around words like ‘extremism’ in our direction.

I’ll now be apostatising Ed from my list of sensible Muslim voices. Don’t worry though, the atheistic punishment for apostasy is just a bit of light tutting whenever we see you.

Stephen Knight is host of The #GSPodcast. You can listen to The Godless Spellchecker Podcast here, and support it by becoming a patron here.

  1. 14 Feb –  I originally thought the tweet about ‘militant atheism’ was a response to the criticism received for Ed’s evolution comments, rather than an old tweet dug up from 2014. I have now corrected this in the main article

2 comments

  • The whole concept of militant atheism is clearly silly. Although I have some sympathy for Husain and others on this. Some people were being a bit cultish on this issue. Almost no muslims believe in evolution: was it really such a surprise that he didn’t?
    Most people without a science background never even bother looking into it. And yes that is a sad state of things that people are so uninterested in the nature of reality, but it’s demonstrably true for large numbers of people.
    Stuff like this, and Dawkins saying “why is a creationist getting this job?”, really turn me off. This is not the way to go about improving things. It shouldn’t have been “lets mock him”, it should’ve been “lets politely try and introduce him to the evidence.”

  • Firstly;
    Genius. “The atheistic punishment for apostasy is just a bit of light tutting whenever we see you.
    Second;
    Gary, I think you are missing the point. The timing of the tweet was deliberately provocative. Yes, the idea of militant atheism is silly, as is the reality for many of moderate Islam.I really hope Quilliam get this right because I am sure many Muslims are sick of the ridicule that comes their way when prominent members of their community make such silly statements.
    I agree with your comment re Richard Dawkins and Dan Walker. That was a silly mistake but to be fair I find RD to be patient and thoughtful most of the time.
    See the above quote for a bit of perspective.Cheers, Peter.

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