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Extremism, crime and justice
37 segments in 23 recordings · 2015 to 2024 · 0 verified · 23 checked positions · society/extremism-crime-and-justice · Feed
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Click a year to jump to itLatest answer · 29 Sep 2024
29 Sep 2024On Current Events
LatestHow scholars' rhetoric fed Pakistan's blasphemy killings, in Mufti Abu Layth's view
Mufti Abu Layth says scholars who long told the public to kill blasphemers, Mufti Tariq Masood once among them, helped build the culture now threatening him, and must teach mercy for everyone.
machine5 min 05 s9:46on YouTube
Earlier answers · 36 · newest first
2022 · 2
16 Dec 2022video
Is someone who prays but commits major sins better than someone who doesn't pray?
Mufti Abu Layth says it is categorically wrong that someone who prays, however evil, is better than someone who does not, and calls the idea dangerous.
machine7 min 08 s0:00on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
Does Islam allow attacking Salman Rushdie?
No: he condemns the attack on Salman Rushdie as cowardly and contrary to Islam, saying ideas must be answered with speech and that the attack only demonised Islam and revived Rushdie's fame.
machine5 min 16 s0:01on YouTube
2021 · 6
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does the Mufti think of Islam in Malaysia and Indonesia?
His impression is that Malaysians and Indonesians have absorbed Islam naturally into daily life, though he feels extremism has risen there in the last fifteen years.
machine1 min 06 s23:34on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What is Birmingham really like for Muslims?
Mufti Abu Layth defends Birmingham but calls drugs a cancer in its Muslim community, and says cannabis should be legalised and regulated.
machine6 min 13 s1:29:06on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why is Pakistan so full of religious extremism?
Mufti Abu Layth says religious militancy in Pakistan was boosted by the CIA-backed Afghan jihad against the Soviets and is still mass-produced by madrasa networks.
machine8 min 16 s1:55:56on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What was Mufti Abu Layth's madrasa in Pakistan like?
Mufti Abu Layth says his madrasa's head was not hot-headed, and that Barelvi radicalism is recent while militancy has long existed in parts of the Deobandi world.
machine5 min 07 s2:05:32on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What do you think of a particular online activist?
Mufti Abu Layth warns that anyone who says Muslims need to take over the world should set alarm bells ringing.
machine3 min 12 s2:19:51on YouTube
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
How can we stop Salafi ideas from dominating how people see Islam?
Denounce every preacher of hatred, Shia or Salafi, and spread a reasoned narrative; he feels the Salafi dawah is already losing ground.
machine6 min 25 s54:50on YouTube
2020 · 11
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does traditional orthodoxy lead to extremism?
The guest says today's orthodoxy promotes reactionary conservatism that can mutate into groups like the Taliban and ISIS, and proposes reviving the philosophers, Mu'tazila and modernists; Mufti Abu Layth agrees some non-violent groups create a springboard for extremism.
machine3 min 11 s19:28on YouTube
29 Oct 2020video
Does Islam justify killing someone for showing cartoons of the Prophet?
No: the killing was barbaric and unacceptable in Islam, and the teacher was within his rights, though being killed does not automatically make him a state hero.
machine3 min 17 s1:55on YouTube
4 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Will there be a discussion with someone from Hizb ut-Tahrir?
Mufti Abu Layth says he does not respect Hizb ut-Tahrir but respects one of its members personally and will reach out for a discussion.
machine54 s1:23:35on YouTube
4 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does Mufti Abu Layth think of preachers linked to extremism?
Mufti Abu Layth says extremist sympathisers are poison and that he retracted earlier praise of one preacher after learning of his past.
machine3 min 49 s2:19:29on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
What do you think of the Wayfair trafficking rumours and Epstein?
Mufti Abu Layth suspects Epstein was blackmailing powerful figures and was protected by the CIA in return for that leverage; the Wayfair rumours he cannot confirm but hopes are investigated.
machine6 min 59 s24:29on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Should Muslims expose the private lives of religious figures?
What consenting adults do privately is their business, but abuse must be reported through proper channels; and do not meet anyone, even a famous reciter, in a car park.
machine3 min 03 s2:17:52on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
What does defunding the police mean in practice?
The guest describes police in his area withdrawing after criticism and a country too polarised for real conversation.
machine2 min 32 s38:47on YouTube
26 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why was Rashad Khalifa assassinated?
The guest says Rashad Khalifa was declared an apostate by a 1989 Madinah gathering under Ibn Baz and killed within a year by a group linked to al-Qaeda, and he lists coincidences of the number 19 around the murder, Y2K and the 9/11 attacks.
machine5 min 12 s1:56:52on YouTube
26 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Closing: how to reach the guest, conferences, peace with Sunnis and Shias, and parliamentary speeches
The guest invites contact through his website and proposes Zoom sessions and conferences with Sunni and Shia scholars, saying he debates fiercely but bears no animosity and defends anyone's rights; he points viewers to his parliamentary speeches and his refutation of ISIS.
machine3 min 56 s2:45:14on YouTube
19 Apr 2020video
What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab?
On balance Mufti Abu Layth places Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in the negative: a puritan dogmatist who demolished tombs, killed pilgrims and inspired the Salafi movement, which he feels did more harm than good and is a springboard for extremism. He adds that the movement also revived hadith and challenged blind following and superstition.
machine3 min 29 s0:00on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does watching porn fuel sex trafficking?
Mufti Abu Layth says saying pornography is not categorically haram is not condoning abuses in the industry and does not in itself aid the market; the guest says people should be told its harms and follow the majority who forbid it.
machine8 min 52 s2:46:28on YouTube
2019 · 2
3 Nov 2019Responding to Refutations
Did the Salafi movement play a part in producing modern extremism?
Mufti Abu Layth says Salafis now oppose terrorism but their movement helped produce it, from the 1970s Salafi group to the 1979 Kaaba seizure, and that Qadhi's teachers belonged to that past.
machine6 min 20 s40:39on YouTube
4 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Is capital punishment, including for apostasy, justified?
Mufti Abu Layth opposes capital punishment as absurd, killing to stop killing, and calls justifying death for apostasy as treason a stupid argument. He welcomes Mohammed Hijab's apparent move away from the classical ruling to kill apostates.
machine7 min 25 s29:52on YouTube
2018 · 4
20 Oct 2018Responding to Refutations
What is Yasir Qadhi's background, and where does the Salafi movement come from?
Qadhi's arguments stem from a hard-line Salafi formation, and Wahhabism in Mufti Abu Layth's account is a doctrine of literalism hostile to reason founded by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, whom he calls a deviant for permitting the killing and enslavement of Muslims. He traces the Salafi scholars of the 1970s to the movement behind the 1979 seizure of Mecca.
machine10 min 29 s14:22on YouTube
20 Sep 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
If a mutawatir hadith has to be reinterpreted, what does that say about hadith transmission?
Mufti Abu Layth says that because its defenders must reinterpret a report they call mutawatir, the transmission system itself is shown to be fallible rather than airtight.
machine7 min 49 s7:54on YouTube
3 Sep 2018Responding to Refutations
Is the world today dar al-harb, the land of war?
Mufti Abu Layth rejects the teaching that the whole world is dar al-harb, saying it puts people one step from treating their neighbours as enemy combatants.
machine2 min 33 s9:31on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Can a life be taken on the basis of a doubtful hadith?
There is no verse and no conclusively established hadith for killing apostates, and a life, whose sanctity is conclusive, cannot be taken on isolated reports that carry doubt; defending it while demanding religious freedom in the West is a double standard.
machine5 min 17 s48:25on YouTube
2017 · 1
9 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Why is the call to restore the khilafah dangerous for young Muslims?
Mufti Abu Layth says the nostalgic 'Bollywood version' of Islamic history, in which a perfect khilafah existed until 1924, is a fantasy, since the khilafah rashidah never went beyond Ali. Guilt-tripping young Muslims with it and with Dar al-Harb rhetoric breeds the extremist narrative and needs tackling.
machine3 min 38 s5:11on YouTube
2015 · 10
6 Apr 2015video
Why was Mufti Abu Layth sent to prison?
Mufti Abu Layth was charged with aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office after contacting a police officer to arrange mediation for a friend whose children were missing, and served about seven weeks of a six-month sentence. He says he did nothing wrong and was treated unfairly for refusing to testify against the officer.
machine2 min 38 s0:10on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
What was Mufti Abu Layth's time in prison like?
Contrary to expectation it went well, and he is grateful for the insight it gave him into people from all walks of life whom he would never otherwise have met.
machine2 min 35 s2:48on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
Should Muslims engage with the Prevent programme?
No, not at this stage: he says Prevent began with good objectives but has become toxic and lost its purpose, as a former Met Chief Superintendent said, so engagement is now counterproductive. Tackling radicalisation itself remains a duty of Muslims.
machine2 min 37 s5:23on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
What did Mufti Abu Layth actually do as a Prevent mentor?
Mufti Abu Layth met, only with their consent, people the council or police had flagged, offered to discuss Islam with them and helped clear up misunderstandings; most were not radicals. There were no covert operations, and he says spying on Muslims would be haram.
machine9 min 09 s8:00on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
Is working with the government or Prevent a form of serving false gods?
No: 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.
machine3 min 57 s17:09on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
Did Mufti Abu Layth call a Birmingham school the Trojan Horse school?
Mufti Abu Layth says the quote was aimed at the police, not the school: he was asking why counter-terrorism officers shared confidential data about him with a school they themselves were calling a Trojan Horse school. He was not validating the allegations but questioning the officers' sincerity.
machine5 min 13 s21:06on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
What does Mufti Abu Layth think of ISIS?
ISIS is a ruthless takfiri threat to everyone, Muslims most of all, and he signed the first British fatwa against it. He rejects collective guilt for Muslims and says Western foreign policy and the Iraq prisons helped create it.
machine3 min 54 s27:36on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
Should Muslims deny that jihad exists in Islam to counter extremism?
No: he says denying jihad or reducing it to self-defence feeds extremists, who use it to call scholars sellouts. The answer is to reclaim traditional Islam and own the concept with its context and conditions.
machine3 min 55 s31:30on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
Is extremism among Muslims really on the rise?
In one sense yes, since groups like ISIS did not exist in this form two decades ago, but he says the far greater rise is in Muslims awakening to traditional Islam, with some bad elements awoken alongside it.
machine3 min 56 s35:25on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
What does Mufti Abu Layth plan to do next?
Continue teaching and counselling, start some form of voluntary work in prisons for people abandoned by society, and pursue international projects once travel restrictions after his release allow.
machine2 min 29 s55:04on YouTube