Muslims must take charge of artificial intelligence or “be damned” as a marginalised community, the head of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has said in a leaked video.
Dr Wajid Akhter, the general secretary of the MCB, said Muslims and their children risked missing the AI revolution in the same way as they had been left behind in the computer and social media revolutions.
He added that while Muslims had historically been at the forefront of civilisation and were credited with some of the greatest scientific advances, they had ended up as the butt” of jokes in the modern world after failing to play a part in the latest technological revolutions.
“We already missed the industrial revolution. We missed the computer revolution. We missed the social media revolution. We will be damned and our children will damn us if we miss the AI revolution. We must take a lead,” said Dr Akther.
Speaking at the MCB’s AI and the Muslim Community conference on July 19, he added: “AI needs Islam, it needs Muslims to step up.”
Scientists ‘made fun of’ faith at computer launch
Dr Akther recalled how at the launch of one of the world’s earliest computers, the Mark II , US scientists brought out a prayer mat aligned towards Mecca.
“They were making fun of all religions because they felt that they had now achieved the age of reason and science and technology and we don’t need that superstition any more,” he said.
“And so to show that they had achieved mastery over religion, they decided to make fun and they chose our faith.
“How did we go from a people who gave the world the most beautiful buildings, science, technology, medicine, arts to being a joke?
“I’ll tell you one thing – the next time that the world is going through a revolution, the next time they go to flip that switch, they will also pull out a prayer mat and they will also line it towards the Qibla [the direction towards Mecca] and they will also pray, but this time, not to make fun of us, they will do so because they are us.”
Government eases stance on MCB
Dr Akther also told his audience: “We lost each other. And ever since we lost each other, we’ve been falling. We’ve been falling ever since. We are people now who are forced, we are forced by Allah to watch the genocide of our brothers and sisters in Gaza.
“This is a punishment for us if we know it. We are people who are forced to beg the ones who are doing the killing to stop it. We are people who are two billion strong but cannot even get one bottle of water into Gaza.”
Dr Akhter said Gaza had “woken” Muslims up and showed they needed to unite.
“We will continue to fall until the day we realise that only when we are united will we be able to reverse this. Until the day we realise that we need to sacrifice for this unity,” he added.
British governments have maintained a policy of “non-engagement” with the MCB since 2009 based on claims, disputed by the council, that some of its officials have previously made extremist comments.
However, Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, is drawing up a new official definition of Islamophobia, and last week it emerged the consultation has been thrown open to all groups including the MCB.
Earlier this year, Sir Stephen Timms, a minister in the Department for Work and Pensions, was one of four Labour MPs to attend an MCB event.
The MCB has been approached for comment.
