A senior Muslim cleric from the UK was threatened with arrest by an extremist in Saudi Arabia last month.
Dr Usama Hasan, a physics lecturer at Middlesex University and Senior Researcher of the Quilliam Foundation, a Muslim counter-extremism group, was on a pilgrimage in Mecca, when a former president of the Muslim Society of London’s City University confronted him.
Hasan said: “I was accosted by one of these extremists after I bumped into him and he tried to call the Saudi police on me. He was a part of some of the narrow-minded scholars who issued a death threat against me.”
Three years ago, this same society was banned from the university due to their views on extremism and for intimidating members of other religious groups on campus.
Hasan’s views on religion and science have pushed his belief in both a creationist and evolutionary explanation of the universe. This has brought him under fire from Muslim extremists who have made threats towards him and his family.
In early November, City University withdrew Friday Prayer facilities from campus because the Islamic Society didn’t provide a list of its preachers and description of content, which is now required for security reasons.
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