Recordings › Unanswered Questions- An interview with Mufti Abu Layth · 6 Apr 2015 › Segment 5 of 15
Is working with the government or Prevent a form of serving false gods?
imam imaam prayer leader muftis ulama ulema ulamaa ummah umma ummatCounter-terrorism officers worked against him; against treating the authorities as false gods
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This segment17:09 to 21:06 · 3 min 57 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenNo: he categorically rejects the view of some political groups that any association with the authorities is serving a false god, calling it unscholarly. He accepts that elements within the programmes, including counter-terrorism officers who he says worked against him, need reviewing.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth says countering radicalisation is something imams, scholars and community leaders do anyway, before and after Prevent, without a government programme. He then says that, strangely, despite work the counter-terrorism unit knew to be good, he found certain counter-terrorism inspectors colluded and worked against him as an individual, which he says was part of what led to his imprisonment; it made no sense to him then or now, and he has pursued formal complaints, which took over a year to go through, so he has himself been a victim of the process. He repeats his agreement with the former Chief Superintendent that Prevent has become toxic and that he would not advise engagement, while Muslims should independently counter radicalisation. He then distinguishes his view from that of politically active Muslim groups who treat any association with the government as serving a false, monstrous god: he says this is not a correct scholarly interpretation, that assisting non-Muslim authorities does not make them false gods besides Allah, and that classical, traditional and true modern Muslim scholarship does not see things that way, though he accepts that negative elements within these programmes have worked against the Muslim community, himself included, and that the whole thing needs to be reviewed.
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says the view of politically active groups that any association with the government is serving a false god is not a correct scholarly interpretation, since assisting non-Muslim authorities does not make them gods besides Allah, while accepting that elements within these programmes have worked against Muslims, himself included, and that Prevent needs review.
“I completely disagree categorically that these are Nots these are not false gods but I do accept that there are negative elements that are within these strategies”
Category: teaching
Kind: general teachingTranscript
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personal experience was that I um it was it quite strange actually that I found despite you know doing let's say good work and and this and I just want to say as a side note and I know I'll come back to this but um the Dr radical or counter off like countering the radical narrative is something all duat and imams and Scholars and Community leaders are meant to be doing anyway and most people are engaged in that without I mean being they're not necessarily involved in a government program but they're doing it on their own anyway which is something we were doing on our own regardless of prevent and we were
doing this much before prevent was even introduced and much after we actually left prevent we continued to counter these type of any of these uh what may be cancerous elements within the community so so I mean I just thought well look I'll shed some light on this was my role I did actually find um well strangely that there were people within the counterterrorism unit despite doing even maybe good work for the community and good work that they were aware of that they from my personal experience I found them that they worked against they worked against me as an individual uh I
found that certain inspectors at the time who were counterterrorism inspectors kind of colluded and work and uh and and they did all sorts and which actually the their type of working against me was part of what led to my imprisonment and it didn't really make any sense to me at the time it still really doesn't why they were doing that because I mean I I mean I I don't know what angle they were playing on that but I mean Allah and I have actually I mean for that I have pursued the you know the right Avenues of made formal complaints and just for my complaints to go through it took over a year and and so there's there's been certain things which uh you
know have been going on so I myself have been a victim as well of this this process um I do agree as I said with the the for the former Chief superintendent who was a Muslim uh D that that this has become toxic and therefore I wouldn't advise Muslims to engage in it at this stage I but on their own Muslims should be involved in countering radicalization so that's their own independent Duty regardless of this that said I don't feel I think it's important to say as well that we have some
politically uh active Muslim groups and you see their perspective on this is although I might say look I don't advise people to engage now seeing what it is and the way it's led to this type of toxicity or whatever this suspicion now although they may say a similar thing but I disagree with their their ontology where they're coming from a lot of these type of groups feel any association with the government is working for the it's working for this false monstrous type of God out there that you are I don't believe that to be true at all I mean that's not a scholarly
um you know interpretation in that sense or not a correct scholarly interpretation anyway that that if a person Works assists let's say any of the authorities and they happen to be non-muslim that it is a that itself I mean to me is a concerning ideology I don't feel that you know just setting up all of a sudden whether it's going to be the local authorities or whatever they are as d as false gods uh besides Allah that is not how um true Muslim scholarship whether classical scholarship traditional scholarship and today modern true Muslim scholarship sees these things so I completely
disagree categorically that these are Nots these are not false gods but I do accept that there are negative elements that are within these strategies and within these programs that unfortunately for some reason um contrary to their objectives are working against the Muslim Community and I mean they're working against sometimes Muslims I myself have been a victim of that as well so I do feel that look that that is true and so I would accept that and I would also say that this whole thing needs to be reviewed but Muslims themselves do need to remain engaged in
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Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2015-04-06-S05, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vzrrlx3livk/s/5/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2015, April 6). Is working with the government or Prevent a form of serving false gods? [Video, segment 2015-04-06-S05, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vzrrlx3livk/s/5/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2015. "Is working with the government or Prevent a form of serving false gods?" Video, segment 2015-04-06-S05, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded April 6, 2015. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vzrrlx3livk/s/5/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2015-04-06-S05, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Is working with the government or Prevent a form of serving false gods?}}, year = {2015}, month = {4}, date = {2015-04-06}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vzrrlx3livk/s/5/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vzrrlx3livk/s/5/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2015-04-06-S05, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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