Mo Ansar

Mo Ansar
Born	England
Nationality	British
Ethnicity	British Pakistani
Occupation	Political commentator
Religion	Islam

Mohammed "Mo" Ansar is a British Muslim commentator, whose profile was particularly raised by the 2013 BBC documentary When Tommy met Mo.

History

Ansar was until 2006 a planning manager at Lloyds TSB in Winchester. In 2011 he opened a Twitter account and published his first tweet on 8 August: "Mo Ansar: Open for business".^[1] Though Ansar had "no qualifications, experience or credentials", he presented himself as a potential commentator on Muslim matters, claiming for himself what Jamie Bartlett (a director of the think tank Demos) later described as "a vague but believable list of job titles"; Ansar subsequently appeared increasingly as a pundit on British radio and television.^[2][1]

In April 2012, Ansar first met the then English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson when both men participated in the BBC programme The Big Questions.^[3] At Ansar's invitation, they began a dialogue about their opposing views which became the subject of a BBC documentary.^[4] In this, Ansar was presented as the first Muslim to address an audience of English Defence League (EDL) members, when, at his request, he talked about Islam to one of the group's gatherings.^[3][5] Later in the documentary he was challenged by Maajid Nawaz, a Liberal Democrat candidate and head of the Quilliam Foundation, a think-tank that tackles Islamic extremism, about his claims of moderateness. On leaving the EDL in 2013, Tommy Robinson ascribed his decision to Maajid Nawaz and the Quilliam Foundation, and pointedly excluded Ansar (whom he had dubbed "No Ansar" on account of his equivocation) from the press conference in which his resignation was announced.^[3] Ansar's views in the documentary were criticised: writers Nick Cohen and Douglas Murray noted Ansar's evasiveness and reluctance to condemn the amputation of hands for theft, a Sharia practice.^[1][6]

In 2014, Ansar vigorously criticised Nawaz and campaigned for his deselection as a Liberal Democrat candidate, after Nawaz had tweeted a cartoon featuring an image of the Islamic prophet Muhammad with a comment that he was not offended by it. Nawaz received death threats following his tweet and Ansar's repeated criticisms of his action. BBC broadcaster, Nicky Campbell, cautioned Ansar: "take care you don’t come over as whipping this up my friend" and Nick Cohen speculated that Ansar's conduct was his taking revenge against Nawaz for having upstaged him on the BBC documentary.^[2][1]

In 2012, Ansar criticised author Tom Holland's depiction of early Islam in his book, In the Shadow of Sword, referring to him as a fraud. In turn, Holland asked Ansar, who presented himself as an expert on Muslim culture, to name the first Muslim philosopher to condemn slavery, to which Ansar responded, "You're doing the beating wife thing again, Tom. It's not the same discussion." He eventually responded, "If slaves are treated justly, with full rights, and no oppression whatsoever… why would anyone object, Tom?"^[1][7][8] After LBC presenter, Iain Dale dropped Ansar from his show, Ansar accused him of "anti-Muslim prejudice" and reported him to the Hampshire Police and the Tell MAMA organisation.^[1] The allegation was dismissed by both organisations.^[1][7]

In October 2013, the police alerted Ansar that he and other prominent Muslims in the UK had been threatened in a propaganda video by Al-Shabaab, the Islamist group responsible for the attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya. The video urged jihadists in the UK to attack Ansar and others, citing the murder of Lee Rigby as an example to follow.^[9]

Criticism

In May 2014, he was criticised by a number of journalists, radio presenter, Iain Dale, and author, Jeremy Duns regarding his views and his conduct.^[2]

In May 2014, the journalist Nick Cohen wrote a highly critical article about Ansar in The Spectator in which he questioned Ansar's credentials, reiterating broadcaster Iain Dale's view that Ansar had "invented himself as a rent-a-quote commentator" and said Ansar had a Twitter alias account that denigrated those he disagreed with.^[1] Jamie Bartlett wrote of claims that Ansar's "language of tolerance and moderation" belied his stance on homophobia and amputation of limbs in Islamic states and that he had fabricated claims about his professional experience – including falsely claiming he was a lawyer.^[2] Haras Rafiq, former director of CENTRI, a counter-extremism organisation, described Ansar as a "Frankenstein's monster that's been created by the media" who "lies blatantly".^[10] Douglas Murray described him as a "fraudulent faux-moderate" who "makes stuff up", referring to Ansar's claim that Muslims had been trading with Native Americans centuries before Christopher Columbus came to America.^[10]

See also

List of British Pakistanis

References

External links

• Mo Ansar on Twitter