During a Q&A session, U.K.-based clerics Nahiem Ajmal, also known as Mufti Abu Layth Al-Maliki, and Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwi were asked if Muslims should aspire to establish a caliphate. Al-Maliki responded that certain people present a “Bollywood version of Islamic history, with fantasy nostalgia,” making Muslim youths feel responsible for the suffering of Muslims worldwide. This guilt, he said, helps breed radicalization. Dr. Nadwi responded that if India, Great Britain, or the U.S. opened their doors, people from Pakistan would rush to emigrate, despite the sacrifices made by their forefathers to establish a Muslim country in Pakistan. He said that having a Muslim ruler in Great Britain would ruin the country.
“Lead a caliphate? We can’t even run a madrasa,” he said.
A video of the Q&A session was posted on Mufti Al-Maliki’s YouTube channel on September 9, 2017.
Al-Maliki, who grew up in the U.K. and studied Islam in Syria and Pakistan, currently lives in Birmingham.
Dr. Nadwi, who was born in India and currently lives in Oxford, is the founder and dean of the Cambridge Islamic College, the principal of the Al-Salam Institute, and a former research fellow at Oxford University.
