{"id":21603,"date":"2026-10-29T06:49:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T06:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/?p=21603"},"modified":"2026-10-29T07:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T07:56:07","slug":"britains-earliest-muslim-thinker-challenging-the-lie-of-modernity-ahmed-paul-keeler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/society\/britains-earliest-muslim-thinker-challenging-the-lie-of-modernity-ahmed-paul-keeler\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain&#8217;s Earliest Muslim Thinker Challenging the LIE of Modernity | Ahmed Paul Keeler"},"content":{"rendered":"<amp-jwplayer layout=\"responsive\" height=\"500\" data-player-id=\"bKajWAhe\" width=\"600\" data-media-id=\"4WtHrbKH\" class=\"wp-block-amp-amp-jwplayer\"><\/amp-jwplayer>\n\n\n\n\n<p>Fifty years ago, a young Englishman educated to run an Empire that no longer existed staged the largest celebration of Islamic civilisation the West had ever seen. Six months before it opened, he became Muslim. In this OnePath Podcast, Ahmed Paul Keeler sits down with us to tell that story, and to deliver a warning for a world in crisis. Raised to believe Britain was the greatest civilisation in history and brought up a Zionist, how did one of the British establishment&#8217;s own find his way to Islam? Why does he describe modernity as a cult, a creation of the human imagination cut off from reality? And why does he believe the Golden Age story Muslims love to tell may be doing us more harm than good? We explore the Mizan, the divine balance at the heart of his work, why so many Muslims blame their own weak faith for the decline of their civilisation, and what it means to see our history through the eyes of the conqueror. Ahmed Paul Keeler argues that Muslims must recover their own story before they can offer it to anyone else, and that in an age of storms, our task is to bear witness to the truth and provide a refuge. Ahmed Paul Keeler was born in 1942 and was the founder and director of the World of Islam Festival, held in London in 1976 and opened by Her Majesty the Queen, the most comprehensive exposition of Islamic culture ever staged in the West. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge, and the author of Rethinking Islam &amp; the West: A New Narrative for the Age of Crises, in which he introduced the Mizan Thesis, and A Life&#8217;s Journey: The Story Behind the Book.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fifty years ago, a young Englishman educated to run an Empire that no longer existed staged the largest celebration of Islamic civilisation the West had ever seen. Six months before it opened, he became Muslim. In this OnePath Podcast, Ahmed Paul Keeler sits down with us to tell that story, and to deliver a warning [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":21604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow4-bBDA:productID":"","content-type":"","newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[],"series":[],"speaker":[],"coauthors":[402],"class_list":["post-21603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","entry"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/M2JJFXXak80-HD.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/onepathnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Mums-on-the-RunV3.jpg?fit=2160%2C2160&ssl=1","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":[],"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/feed\/podcast\/mums-on-the-run","embedCode":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"gyII1tE7yh\"><a href=\"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/society\/britains-earliest-muslim-thinker-challenging-the-lie-of-modernity-ahmed-paul-keeler\/\">Britain&#8217;s Earliest Muslim Thinker Challenging the LIE of Modernity | Ahmed Paul Keeler<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/society\/britains-earliest-muslim-thinker-challenging-the-lie-of-modernity-ahmed-paul-keeler\/embed\/#?secret=gyII1tE7yh\" width=\"500\" height=\"350\" title=\"&#8220;Britain&#8217;s Earliest Muslim Thinker Challenging the LIE of Modernity | Ahmed Paul Keeler&#8221; &#8212; OnePath Network\" data-secret=\"gyII1tE7yh\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\/* <![CDATA[ *\/\n\/*! This file is auto-generated *\/\n!function(d,l){\"use strict\";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&\"undefined\"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!\/[^a-zA-Z0-9]\/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),c=new RegExp(\"^https?:$\",\"i\"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display=\"none\";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute(\"style\"),\"height\"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):\"link\"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute(\"src\")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener(\"message\",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll(\"iframe.wp-embedded-content\"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute(\"data-secret\"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+=\"#?secret=\"+t,e.setAttribute(\"data-secret\",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:\"ready\",secret:t},\"*\")},!1)))}(window,document);\n\/\/# sourceURL=https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/wp-includes\/js\/wp-embed.min.js\n\/* ]]> *\/\n<\/script>\n"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/onepathnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/M2JJFXXak80-HD.jpg?resize=600%2C400&ssl=1","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/onepathnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/M2JJFXXak80-HD.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1","author_info":{"display_name":"Osama Ramlawie","author_link":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/author\/osama-ramlawie\/"},"app_featured_thumbnail":false,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21603"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=21603"},{"taxonomy":"speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker?post=21603"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onepathnetwork.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=21603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}