Can everyone carry the water to Ed Husain’s burning ‘house of Islam’?

House of Wisdom or Bait al-Hikma) in Baghdad, a research centre named after the Abbasid era Bait al-Hikma

“The house of Islam is on fire. The water needs to be carried by everybody, regardless of race or religion,” wrote Ed Husain in The Guardian.

Yes. If they would be allowed to do so.

Let me explain. Soon after the #charliehebdo attacks, a young woman contacted me with the offer of a penetrating piece on Muslims in France. “I lived there,” she explained, “I have some understanding of the situation, I want to say that Muslims must not get into a victim mentality. I’m a Muslim so I can say it”.

Quite so.

It’s a moot point that Islam will accept everyone carrying the water. Or even that “house of Islam is on fire”, but that is another issue.

It’s a good line, though, and common sense too. As Mr Husain says, the prominent French-speaking Muslim theologian Shaikh Abdullah bin Bayyah often who says that if there is a house on fire, everybody works towards putting out the fire. You don’t ask why is this or that person carrying the bucket of water. You just put out the flames.

But I return to the original point: If only they were allowed to do so.

(Tomorrow: It’s important to recognize that some people think Charlie Hebdo was ‘asking for it’)