As-Salaamu Alaykum,

This event has been advertised - 'invitation-only' - by the 'exclusive" Oxford University Islamic Society as a bang and whistle Daz commercial with every hackneyed sales-pitch expression thrown in for good measure, just in case we British Muslims thought we were too poor-sighted to notice. The 'official Islamic Society' of Oxford University promises an event of quite epic proportions: "Invitations have been sent to senior government officials, scholars and media representatives, and public interest is growing daily. To be part of this one-off historic event, register NOW! Details of this ground breaking event, and our other notices, can be found below."

This one-off historic event, this once-in-a-lifetime 2-for-1 Megadeal of the century is worth savoring by us only because it features not ONE but TWO of the most troubled Muslim scholars today. If you did not yet get your fill from Hamza Yusuf's notorious flings with "top government officials" like George Bush (personal advisor) and Tony Blair (Faith Foundation) then you can try your luck with Tariq Ramadan instead with his own brand of incoherent continental euphemisms like "Islam is a European religion" (no Abrahamic religion is European, they are all semitic and middle-eastern). This self-branded duo stand posed to "bring the noise" to the quite and tranquil Oxfordshire countryside; the rethinking islamic reform website, www.rethinkingislamicreform.co.uk, features a video advertising the event complete with a vulgar hypno-urban soundtrack set against the gently soothing and architecturally beautiful profile of the Oxford Divinity School. The video is a one-off because it beautifully illustrates just how careless this new kind of Islamism is, not only for serious cross-cultural sensibilities, but for the British Muslim community itself as parts of it gently sinks into the dark abyss of an instant 'cash-and-carry' culture and uncritical, mindless self-glorification. The rapid commercialization of religion and Muslim public life by skilled entrepreneurs and "street Imams" is a symptom of the speedy decline to which some of our young British Muslims have permitted themselves the luxury. The "by-invitation" only attitude observed during many of these supposedly free-thinking Islamic University events is no doubt designed to limit or curtail the threat posed by traditional voices from within the Muslim community itself. If there is anything worth rethinking, it is the use of religion by scholars with motives and aspirations that are clearly different from mainstream Islam. It is Muslims like Ramadan and Yusuf who need to be re-thought, not Islam.