Nuruddin Sabir, Editor, Redress Information & Analysis, writes:

Hardly a day passes nowadays without an atrocity being committed somewhere in the world by Islamists of one kind or another – the “Islamic State” group, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, Army of Islam, Army of Conquest, and many others.

Muslim-majority countries – Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Somalia, to mention but a few – are the prime victims, and then there is Nigeria and Kenya, and, lately, we have the Paris massacre of 13 November, and the 20 November attack on a hotel in Bamako, Mali.

Behind these atrocities lies a whole infrastructure of hate. This ranges from the Muslim Brotherhood, which has long been recognised by some as forming a critical part of the swamp from which Islamist terrorists emerge, to the bigoted preachers who glorify trivia and inculcate hate and violence into the young and the lost souls in search of an identity and a purpose.

While Western politicians have not yet woken up to the pernicious role played by the Muslim Brotherhood in their societies, the subject of hate preachers is spoken of only occasionally and, even then, mostly by non-Muslims.

So, it was somewhat heartening to hear Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic and Inter-religious Studies at New College, Edinburgh University, address this problem head on.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s “Thought for the Day” programme on 19 November, she reminded Muslims that the hate preachers are fulfilling the Prophet Muhammad’s prophesy that a time would come when nothing would remain of Islam but its name, nothing of the Quran but its word, and that many “Mosques would be splendidly furnished but destitute of guidance”.

Here is a recording of what she said (there is a short pause at the beginning):