Tahirul Qadri’s Advisor who is known as a Defence and Security Advisor to several institutes and government institutions in the United States, United Kingdom and Israel. This was revealed by Daily Ummat, an Urdu newspaper from Karachi in its issue dated January 21. Columnist Md. Yunus Alam said the website minhajuk.com had made an announcement to this effect some time ago. The website is registered in the United Kingdom and publicises the activities of Minhajul Quran, an outfit affiliated to Allama Tahirul Qadri.
Joel Hayward was born in a Christian family of New Zealand and graduated in Military History. He became an active member of the ‘New Zealand Friends of Israel’ organization and went to Israel for higher studies. He had been named Stewart Andrew Hayward at birth but he adopted the name Joel Hayward upon arrival in Israel and converted to Judaism at the behest of his Jewish grandmother. He began to write articles on history and strategic issues in the American journals. He took bachelors degree in military history from Israel and later shifted to the US where American Aviation Research Academy granted him a fellowship. Title of his Ph.D thesis in the US was ‘A Study of German Air Force during the Second World War’. He was later appointed in Massey University and was promoted senior lecturer within three years. His articles and review took him to the United Kingdom where he was appointed a lecturer in Joint Services Command and Staff College in 2004. Shortly thereafter he was appointed the head of the Air Power Studies Division and also became a guest lecturer in Britain’s Royal Air Force and Kings College. He is currently Director of Air Force Centre for Air Power Studies. He has recently been taken as a visiting lecturer in the Khalifa University of the United Arab Emirates.
What one wonders is that how does he find a place as an advisor in Allama Tahirul Qadri’s organization Minhajul Quran which has nothing to do with Defence and Strategic affairs. How does he find time to advise this organization amidst his busy schedule?
Joel Hayward has been instrumental in organizing several seminars in the Middle East on pacifist nature of Islam and extremism and has been found quick to condemn extremist activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is surmised that he has been enlisted for securing loyalty of gullible Muslims under the guise of recruiting people on ‘Sharia-based projects’. One of these topics is Sufism which has come for aggressive promotion by the think tanks in the UK and the US on an agenda set by the UNO. This responsibility was assigned to Cheryl Benard, wife of Zilmay Khalilzad, the American envoy in Afghanistan and a leading light of the State Department. Benard heads the Rand Corporation, a think tank in the US and has been instrumental in setting up Sufi Council in Pakistan under the leadership of Pervez Musharraf. Under the project, the former US ambassador to Pakistan visited several mazars and shrines and soon the mutawallis there were seen zipping in MUVs and SUVs. What is clear is that it was not Tahirul Qadri who needed Joel Hayward but the other way round to implement a project in the subcontinent that carries the stamp of US strategic interests. Are we listening?
Rejoinder from Joel Hayward
The article on me in the February 2013 issue of Islamic Voice contains many errors of fact and interpretation. As Muslims we are obliged to tell the truth and to avoid all falsehood. I am sure you will thus remove the article or post my correction to it.
Let me be clear: I have never been a security advisor to Israel. I never went to Israel for higher studies. I have never converted to Judaism. The only religion I have converted to is Islam. I am not a Sufi. To this day I am an orthodox Sunni Muslim. I am not currently a Director of the Centre for Air Power Studies. I am a Professor at Khalifa Universzity, not a “visiting” academic there. I have never organized a single seminar in the Middle East on the pacifist nature of Islam. Indeed, I have never organized any seminar there on any subject. Why would I be interested in “implementing a project in the subcontinent that carries the stamp of US strategic interests.” I am not American. I think America’s presence in Pakistan has become unhelpful.
Please post my correction, or remove your wildly inaccurate post.
Professor Joel Hayward
Professor of International and Civil Security
Institute for International and Civil Security
Khalifa University, P.O. Box 127788
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
E: [email protected]
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