In the early part of his career Lillee was an extremely quick bowler, but a number of stress fractures in his back almost ended his career. Taking on a strict fitness regime, he fought his way back to full fitness, eventually returning to international cricket. By the time of his retirement from international cricket in 1984 he had become the then world record holder for most Test wickets (355), and had firmly established himself as one of the most recognisable and renowned Australian sportsmen of all time.

On 17 December 2009, Lillee was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. Dennis Lillee has done great service to the art of Fast bowling by contributing immensely at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai, India.

Test career

Debut

Back injury

There was speculation that his bowling career was nearly over. Lillee persevered, undergoing an intensive physiotherapy routine and remodelling his bowling action. In 1974–75, he returned to Test cricket for the Ashes series and was paired with New South Wales fast bowler Jeff Thomson to form one of the most effective opening bowling combinations in Test cricket. The pair was a major factor in Australia's emphatic 4–1 victory. In 1975, the University of Western Australia timed Lillee's bowling at 154.8 km/h.

Lillee and Thomson

Another 27 wickets (at 26.37 average) followed in the summer of 1975–76 against the West Indies. At this time, Lillee was one of the most marketable personalities in Australia, but he was frustrated by the small amounts that he earned from the game. Outspoken in his opinions, he came into conflict with the game's administrators. Lillee suggested that a made-for-television exhibition series could be played each season with profits given to the players. John Cornell, his manager, took this idea to Kerry Packer, who later fashioned it into World Series Cricket (WSC).

An injury to Thomson early in 1976–77 forced Lillee to take on a greater workload during the six Tests of the season. He responded with 47 wickets including match figures of 10/135 against Pakistan at the MCG and 11/123 at Auckland against New Zealand. In the Centenary Test, his 11/165 was the decisive performance in Australia's victory. However, the extra exertion created "hot spots" in his back and not wanting to reaggravate his previous condition, he made himself unavailable for the 1977 tour of England.

World Series Cricket

Cutting down his pace and the length of his run up, Lillee now concentrated on moving the ball off the seam with an occasional faster or slower ball for variation. During the season of his return to official cricket, Lillee collected 35 Test wickets in six matches against the West Indies and England, and gave Australia's bowling attack stability while the selectors experimented with the team. In the World Series Cup, his changed style helped to bring him 20 wickets (at 12.7 average) in eight ODIs, including 4/12 against West Indies and 4/28 against England, both at the SCG. However, the tour of Pakistan that followed was ruined for Lillee by flat batting pitches prepared by local curators to blunt his effectiveness. He managed just three wickets in three Tests.

Australian and world records

Granted a testimonial for 1981–82, Lillee's season got off to a poor start when he was involved in the infamous incident with Javed Miandad (see below) in the first Test of the summer. Suspended for two ODIs, the level of his on-field aggression was again criticised. However, he continued taking wickets: 15 in three Tests against Pakistan and 16 in three Tests against the West Indies. Against the latter, his 7/83 and 3/44 at the MCG in the first Test took him past the world record for the most Test wickets held by Lance Gibbs. His ODI season was less successful, with 12 wickets in 12 games. His best effort was 2/18 in ten overs against the West Indies during the third final of the World Series Cup, the only match in the final series Australia was able to win.

Retirement

His wicket-taking capacity was diminishing. During Australia's brief tour of Sri Lanka in 1983, Lillee took three wickets at Kandy in the inaugural Test between the two nations and went wicket-less in two ODIs. Later in the year, his ODI career finished during the third World Cup in England when he conceded 52 runs from 12 overs in the match against the West Indies at Lord's. Dropped from the team, Lillee acknowledged that he was not fully fit, but he remained motivated to continue in Test cricket by the number of people who had written him off.

During the first two Tests of 1983–84 against Pakistan at Perth, he took only one wicket and looked set to be dropped from the Test team as well. Fate intervened when Carl Rackemann, the man of the match from the second Test, was injured. This allowed Lillee to play the rest of the Test series and he finished with 20 wickets at 31.65. Along with Greg Chappell he announced his retirement during the final Test at Sydney, and took eight wickets, including a wicket with his last delivery in the match.

Caught Marsh bowled Lillee

Controversy

Aluminium bat incident

During a Test at the WACA Ground in December 1979 between Australia and England, Lillee went to the crease with an aluminium bat manufactured by a company owned by a personal friend. There were no rules against using such a bat, but trouble began when Lillee hit a ball that went for three runs. Australian captain Greg Chappell thought that the ball should have gone for a four, and instructed Rodney Hogg to deliver a conventional wooden bat to Lillee. As this was happening, English captain Mike Brearley complained to the umpires that the bat was damaging the ball.

Lillee refused to change the bat. Brearley, Lillee, and the umpires held an animated discussion for almost ten minutes, before Chappell insisted that Lillee should change bats. In a fit of pique, Lillee threw "the offending lump of metal fully 40 yards towards the pavilion", and grudgingly took the wooden bat. He was not disciplined by the ACB for this incident. After the game, sales of the bat skyrocketed for a few months, before the laws of the game were amended, specifying that bats had to be made from wood.

Betting

Lillee vs Miandad

Miandad turned Lillee behind square for a single, and in completing an easy run, he collided with the bowler. Eyewitnesses agreed that Lillee was to blame and most observed that he had deliberately moved into the batsman's path. The two players' versions of events differ ... As Lillee turned to go back to his mark he maintained that Miandad struck him from behind with his bat; Miandad countered with the claim that Lillee had kicked him as he passed. What isn't in doubt is that Lillee then turned to confront Miandad, and Miandad lifted his bat above his head as if to strike him. The unedifying images of Tony Crafter, the umpire, stepping in to hold back Lillee while Miandad wielded his bat like a deranged javelin thrower were beamed around the world.

... The media were in no doubt where the blame lay–with Lillee. Bob Simpson, the former Australian captain, wrote that it was "the most disgraceful thing I have seen on a cricket field". Keith Miller, in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph, added that Lillee "should be suspended for the rest of the season," and Ian Chappell added that Lillee's actions were those of "a spoiled, angry child".

But Greg Chappell, Australia's captain, supported Lillee and ... even suggested that it has all been part of a plot by Pakistan to entrap Lillee.

The Australian players–who sat in judgment on such matters in those days–announced that Lillee would be fined A$200, a decision which attracted almost as much anger as the incident itself. The two umpires complained at the leniency of the punishment, and the Australian Board acted swiftly, reducing the fine to A$120 but adding a two-match ban. Cynics noted that the punishment ensured that Lillee missed two fairly low-key one-day internationals, and none of the Tests.

After retirement

During the 1990s and in the early years of the 21st century Lillee has dedicated himself to educating and improving young fast bowlers, working closely with bowlers from all around the world. He is currently considered one of the finest fast bowling coaches in the world. Lillee continued playing competitive cricket until 1999 for the traditional ACB President's XI match against touring sides at Lilac Hill. In his final match he took three wickets and played alongside his son Adam.

He has also appeared in many TV commercials for items as diverse as carpets, work boots, glucosamine tablets to relieve osteoarthritis symptoms and solar power companies.

Since 2004 he has been the president of the Western Australian Cricket Association.

Honours, awards, records and accolades

Footnotes

References

External links

Category:Australian Cricket Hall of Fame inductees Category:Australia One Day International cricketers Category:Australia Test cricketers Category:Western Australia cricketers Category:Tasmania cricketers Category:Northamptonshire cricketers Category:Wisden Cricketers of the Year Category:World Series Cricket players Category:Cricketers at the 1975 Cricket World Cup Category:Cricketers at the 1983 Cricket World Cup Category:Australian cricket coaches Category:Western Australian Sports Star of the Year winners Category:People from Subiaco, Western Australia Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:International Cricket Council Hall of Fame inductees Category:Wisden Leading Cricketers in the World Category:Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal Category:Members of the Order of Australia Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire

Brett Lee (born 8 November 1976 in Wollongong, New South Wales) is an Australian cricketer.

After breaking into the Australian Test team, Lee was recognised as one of the fastest bowlers in world cricket. In each of his first two years, he averaged less than 20 with the ball, but since then has mostly achieved figures in the early 30s.

He is an athletic fielder and useful lower-order batsman, with a batting average exceeding 20 in Test cricket. Together with Mike Hussey, he has held the record for highest 7th wicket partnership for Australia in ODIs since 2005–06 (123).

Style

Lee ranks behind only Pakistani bowler Shoaib Akhtar as the fastest bowler in contemporary cricket during most of this decade. Akhtar's delivery at 161.3km/h (100.2mph) stands as the fastest recorded to date.

Early in his career, Lee was reported for a suspected illegal bowling action, but was cleared. He was also criticised in early 2005 for bowling a series of beamers at batsmen during ODIs, at a rate which lead some to claim he was deliberately bowling illegal head high full tosses at batsmen.

Early career

In March 1994, Lee was forced out of the Australian under-19 team to tour India due to stress fractures in his lower back. He recovered and made his first-class debut for New South Wales against Western Australia in a Sheffield Shield match as a 20-year old in the 1997–98 season, playing one match and taking 3/114.

One month later, Lee was chosen to represent the Australian A team on a tour to South Africa. He claimed two wickets but in that very match, stress fractures in his back from the previous injury had re-opened and Lee was in a back brace for over three months.

During the 1997-98 season, he played in five of the ten Sheffield Shield games, taking fourteen wickets at 30. He finished outside the top 20 in both the wicket taking list and the bowling averages.

Test career

Early Test career

Bowling first change, Lee took a wicket in his first over in Test cricket when he bowled Sadagoppan Ramesh with his fourth delivery. He also captured Rahul Dravid in his first spell before returning to take three wickets in six balls to finish the innings with figures of 5/47 from 17 overs. Lee took thirteen wickets in his opening two Tests at the low average of 14.15.

Lee won the inaugural Donald Bradman Young Player of the Year Award at the Allan Border Medal award ceremony in 2000 soon after his debut.

Lee took 42 wickets in his opening three series, the most by any Australian bowler in the seven matches he played. However, in his seventh Test, where he took seven wickets including a five wicket haul in the second innings against the West Indies, he suffered a stress fracture of the lower back which kept him out of three following Tests. He returned against Zimbabwe but soon suffered another setback a month later when he broke his right elbow and was sidelined until May 2001.

Return from injury

Lee only took five wickets in a match on three occasions between the New Zealand series and the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Lee came under pressure for his position after taking only five wickets at 46.50 in the three-Test series against Pakistan in 2002. Andy Bichel, who was filling for the injured Jason Gillespie, took eight wickets at 13.25. With the other frontline bowlers all taking wickets at less than 13, Lee was dropped when Gillespie returned for the first two Tests during the 2002–03 Ashes series. He returned for the Perth Test, after claiming a five wicket haul in a Pura Cup match against Queensland for New South Wales. He took thirteen wickets at 41.23 in three matches, compared to Bichel's ten at 35.1. After the 2003 Cricket World Cup, Lee took 17 wickets at 28.88 in four Tests against the West Indies. It was the first series in two years where he averaged under 30, and only the second in that period where had averaged under 40.

After a mid year break, he participated in a Two Test series against Bangladesh in northern Australia. He took six wickets at 31.66, and was Australia's most expensive bowler, with the other specialist bowlers averaging 15.55 against the lowest ranked team in Test cricket. He followed this with six wickets at 37 in a comfortable 2–0 Test series against Zimbabwe, in which the other specialist bowlers averaged 23.15.

Against the Indian batting lineup in the 2003–04 home series, which ended in a 1–1 draw for Australia, Lee was out of the first two Tests recovering from a torn abdominal muscle, an injury which he sustained during the Zimbabwe series.

Loss of Test position

He was subsequently replaced by fellow fast bowler Michael Kasprowicz in 2004 during the tour of Sri Lanka when Lee's ankle injury worsened, forcing him to return home to have surgery. This injury would force Lee out of the game for 4½ months to ensure his full recovery. Lee's form in the Test arena had been ineffective, and from July 2001 to January 2004, he had a Test bowling average of 38.42, compared to an average of 16.07 in his earlier career.

Lee was unable to reclaim his position for eighteen months, when Kasprowicz took 47 wickets at 23.74 in thirteen Tests, taking his wickets at a much lower cost than Lee had done in the previous three years. This included 17 wickets at 26.82 on the spin friendly pitches of the Indian subcontinent, helping Australia to its first whitewash in Sri Lanka, and its first series win in India for 35 years.

Test return

After 18 months on the sidelines and a plea to the selectors and media regarding his constant position as 12th man in the team, Lee returned to the Test team in the 2005 Ashes series. With Michael Kasprowicz and Jason Gillespie both struggling for form, Lee returned to take the new ball with Glenn McGrath. He averaged 40 with the ball for the series, which some commentators have put down to having to bowl longer spells than he was accustomed to at the time , but was retained, in part because of his defiant batting which yielded runs at an average of 26.33. Despite his high bowling average for the series he was considered by many as one of Australia's best players along with leg-spinner Shane Warne and batsman Justin Langer.

Part of Lee's difficulty at Test level is that the benefits of his high speed, which give the batsmen less reaction time, also results in more erratic bowling. In recent times he has tried to concentrate solely on accuracy by reducing speed. During the first Test against the West Indies in late 2005 at the Gabba, after declaring that he would sacrifice pace and focus on 'line and length', Lee reverted to his initial style of bowling, based on the advice of his captain Ricky Ponting after his new method of bowling failed in the first innings. This saw him take 5/30 his fifth five-wicket haul in Tests, his first in four years.

In the 2005-06 Australian cricket season, Lee's Test figures improved from his 2001–04 difficulties, with a season bowling average of 25.74.

During South Africa's 2005–06 tour of Australia, Lee's form saw a steady improvement, with figures of 5/93 in the first Test at Perth. He finished the three Test series with 13 wickets and of the Australian bowlers, was second only to Shane Warne's 14 wickets in the series. Three Australian players including Lee, who was reprimanded in the Third Test in Sydney for showing dissent towards umpire Aleem Dar.

With the unavailability of Glenn McGrath for the tour of South Africa in March–April 2006, Lee became the spearhead of the Australian bowling lineup. In the second Test of that series, at Durban, Lee captured his 200th Test wicket in his 51st match and also captured figures of 5 for 69, on the back of 49 Test wickets in 2005. He was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year. He was unable to maintain his performance when Australia visited Bangladesh for a two Test series, taking two wickets at 93, coming bottom of Australia's bowling averages.

In the first three tests of the 2006–07 Ashes series, he only took eight wickets and was fined for excessive appealing in the Third Test in Adelaide when a LBW decision was not in his favour. However during the week period between the Adelaide and Melbourne tests, he worked with Troy Cooley, Australia's bowling coach, to adjust his run up and came back in the 4th and final tests with more wickets. He finished the series with 20 wickets, with his best bowling figures being 4 for 47 at an average of 33.20. His performance was bettered by the other three major Australian bowlers: Stuart Clark with 26 wickets, Shane Warne with 23 wickets and Glenn McGrath with 21 wickets were ahead of him. Lee was however the fourth highest wicket-taker in the 2006/07 Ashes series ahead of all the English bowlers.

Post McGrath-Warne era

Lee seemed underdone in the 2008 Australian tour of the West Indies, taking only 5 wickets in the first Test match, during which he seemed exhausted. He returned to productivity, taking eight wickets in the Second test, including a 5 wicket haul, and 6 in the Third Test.

During the Indian tour, Lee picked up a stomach virus and was unable to find his best form throughout the series. Lee showed glimpses of his best form when the team returned to Australia for a two test series with New Zealand, but generally seemed down on pace. However, he struggled in the two tests he played of the series with South Africa, which Australia lost 2–1, likely due to a niggling ankle injury and then a stress fracture he developed during the series (both in his left foot). The fracture broke completely during the second innings of the Boxing Day Test-match, Lee has since had surgery to repair his ankle and foot and is expected to be out for up to ten weeks.

By the time he returned to the Australian team for the Ashes in 2009, his position as spearhead had been usurped by the left armer Mitchell Johnson. Additionally, the arrival of bowlers like Peter Siddle, Ben Hilfenhaus and Doug Bollinger ensured that Lee had to fight for a position in the team. However, he took six wickets in the first innings against the England Lions team in a practice match leading up to the Ashes. Lee was the only bowler to get reverse swing in this match and appeared to be in line for selection for the First Test at Cardiff. However, he picked up a left side strain and a sore rib in this match and he was ruled out of the first three Tests. He was then overlooked for a recall and never played test cricket again, announcing his retirement from test cricket at the beginning of 2010.

One-day International career

In One-day Internationals, he was ranked by the ICC as the No. 1 ODI bowler in January 2006 and has been ranked among the top ten ODI bowlers since the start of 2003. He has a wide array of deliveries including a dangerous in-swinging yorker. His bowling strike rate of around 30 puts him amongst the most incisive in this form of the game. He also has a One-day International hat-trick to his name, achieved in the 2003 World Cup against Kenya. Lee was the first Australian and fourth bowler to ever achieve this feat in World Cup history.

In the matches Australia played in the 2005-06 triangular one day series, Lee gave a display of his useful batting abilities by making 57 in the second game in a 100 run partnership with Michael Hussey to pull Australia out of a middle order collapse. However, he is yet to consistently contribute with his batting, and his current ICC ranking hovers around the 90–100 region.

Lee finished the series with 15 wickets, the third highest tally behind Nathan Bracken and Muttiah Muralitharan.

While Lee's average and strike rate in ODIs rank him as one of the best strike bowlers in ODI history , he can still be erratic occasionally, as shown by his relatively high economy rate.

Lee also has the ability to take wickets very early in the innings, often removing batsmen in the first over of the innings. The delivery he bowled to Marvan Atapattu in the semi-final of the 2003 Cricket World Cup, reached 160.1 km/h (99.5 mph).

Cricket World Cup 2003

Lee earned six of his 22 wickets during the group stage, 11 wickets during the Super-six stage, 3 from the semi-final and 2 wickets from the final. He took one five wicket haul, 5 for 42, during this World Cup which was against the Australians' Trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand during their super-six encounter at Port Elizabeth. He also earned his first international hat-trick with figures of 3 for 14 against Kenya during the last match of the super-six stage.

Brett Lee peaked during this tournament in terms of his bowling speed. It was at this world cup Lee bowled his previous fastest recorded delivery of 160.7km/h against England at Port Elizabeth during their group match.

One day international comeback

Batting

On 2 April 2006, Lee hit his highest Test score of 64 in 68 balls against South Africa at Johannesburg. His previous highest score in Tests was 62 not out which he made against the West Indies in 2000 at the Gabba. Lee nearly surpassed this score on 3 January 2008 against India when he made 59 off 121 balls. Lee had also once again nearly surpassed his highest test score when he had made 63 not out, but unfortunately Ricky Ponting had declared the innings in the 2nd test against the West Indies. As a result of this, he fell one run short of his highest test score.

Lee's highest score in ODI matches is 57 against South Africa at the Gabba in January 2006.

Retirement from Tests

His friend, English cricketer Andrew Flintoff suggested that he should take retirement from Test Cricket in order to extend his ODI and T20 career.

Awards

Personal life

The brothers enjoyed soccer, basketball and skiing and were encouraged to play the piano by their mother (Grant is a qualified pianist). At sixteen years of age, Lee began playing first grade cricket for Campbelltown, where he managed to claim the wickets of a few New South Wales cricketers. He later joined Mosman, where at one point, he shared the new ball with Shoaib Akhtar.

Lee launched his own fashion label 'BL', in 2001.

Lee married Elizabeth Kemp in June 2006. They have a son named Preston Charles, born 16 November 2006. However, after two years of marriage, on 21 August 2008, Lee confirmed his separation from Kemp. They divorced in 2009.

At the time of the split, media speculation cited Kemp was having an affair with a rugby player in Brisbane; however, this was later disputed, with extended periods of loneliness due to Lee's off-season commitments keeping him away from Kemp and his young son Preston given as the reason for the marriage breakdown.

Lee is part of the rock band Six & Out. The band is made up of his brother Shane and former New South Wales cricketers Brad McNamara, Gavin Robertson and Richard Chee Quee. Lee plays the bass guitar or acoustic guitar for the band.

During the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy in India, Lee recorded a duet with India's music diva Asha Bhosle called ''You're the One For Me''. The song reached a peak position of number two on the Indian and South African charts. In 2008, he filmed scenes for his first Bollywood movie ''Victory''. He once hosted a short-lived TV program called "Personal Best".

Endorsements

On the field sponsorship includes uvex Safety Eyewear. He is currently not sponsored by any cricket equipment manufacturer. Travelex has also developed the game Brett Lee's Backyard Cricket in which a caricature of Lee is featured.

Owing to Lee's popularity in India, he has a number of major sponsorship deals there, including for Timex watches, New Balance shoes, Boost energy drink and TVS Motor Company.

Charity work

Career highlights

Tests

One-day Internationals

Other

References

External links

Category:Australia One Day International cricketers Category:Australia Test cricketers Category:Australia Twenty20 International cricketers Category:New South Wales cricketers Category:Wellington cricketers Category:Wisden Cricketers of the Year Category:Cricketers at the 2003 Cricket World Cup Category:Cricketers at the 2007 Cricket World Cup Category:Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup Category:One Day International hat-trick takers Category:People from Wollongong Category:1976 births Category:Living people Category:Punjab (Indian Premier League) cricketers Category:Cricketers who have taken five wickets on Test debut

Ahmad Thomson is a British barrister and writer and a member of the Murabitun movement.

Career

Background

Following his support of Dar Al-Taqwa’s successful complaint to the Press Complaints Commission concerning a deliberately misleading and inflammatory attack by the Evening Standard in July 2005, a group of British journalists (including Toby Helm, David Cesarani and Daniel Kahtan) who had never met or interviewed Mr Thomson, retaliated by alleging that Thomson's 1994 book, ''The Next World Order'' (which had, by then, been out of print for several years), contained allegations that Freemasons and Jews control the governments of Europe and America, and that it was a "big lie" that six million Jews died in the Holocaust.

In fact Thomson had simply stated that it is a “big lie” to assert that those whom Arthur Koestler has described as “the thirteenth tribe” are descended from the Tribe of Israel (Jacob the son of Isaac) when in fact they are not descended from Shem, the son of Noah, but from Yapheth, the son of Noah and are accordingly turkic. It is the Arab Palestinians who are descended from Shem and accordingly 'semitic', this adjective being derived from the word 'shem'. Thomson had allegedly written that Jews have no right to live in what he called "the Holy Land," because they are not a "pure race," and are therefore not biblical Israelites. In fact he had simply pointed out that the homeland of the descendants of the Khazars is between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, not Palestine.

Elsewhere it was alleged that Thomson has said that Saddam Hussein was used as an excuse for U.S. troops, "including thousands of Jews," to occupy Saudi Arabia and that the invasion of Iraq was "part of a Zionist plan, " to realise the publicly declared Zionist aim of establishing the Greater Eretz between the Nile and the Euphrates.

By using each other as their sources, these journalists created the impression that their articles were thoroughly researched and were therefore eligible to be regarded as “reliable sources” by newspapers and internet bloggers alike.

Asked about Thomson's role as an informal advisor to the government, a government spokesperson told the ''Daily Telegraph'': "We talk to a lot of people, including many whose views we do not necessarily agree with," – and some whose views are deliberately distorted by the media in order to encourage involuntary disagreement with them from the outset, just in case they might possibly have something worthwhile to say.

Thomson responded to the reports by saying that the story was "grossly distorted." He said that he had not denied the Holocaust and that: "I have always said that one unjust death is one too many." At present only the slaughter of Muslim civilians requires independent verification. He also wrote, “To be anti-Zionism is not to be racist or anti-Jewish”, and, “To be anti-Zionism is not to be anti-Semitic”, and, “To be anti-Zionism is not to be a conspiracy theorist.”

Since then, in partial confirmation of some of the allegations made by Toby Helm about Mr Thomson, former Prime Minister Tony Blair was appointed UN advisor to the government of Israel and became a grateful beneficiary of lucrative oil contracts in Iraq.

Views on Islam

Thomson has also been quoted as saying: “Islam is not just a matter of words. As the Prophet said, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ‘The Shahada is easy on the tongue, but much flows from it.’ Ever since I said Shahada, I have lived every moment of my life finding out what it entails. It is a process that never ends.” The Shahada is to bear witness that there is no god other than Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

When describing his first pilgrimage to Makka, Thomson wrote: “When I had first embraced Islam some four years earlier, I had known next to nothing about it, other than the fact that the community of Muslims whom I had joined were more knowledgeable and radiant and better behaved than any other human beings that I had ever met during my life up until then. I had embraced Islam in the hope of acquiring that knowledge and radiance and courteous behaviour, and as time passed my hopes were gradually fulfilled, as, little by little I learned about and tried to embody the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, may the Blessings and Peace of Allah be on him.

In a personal face-to-face FiveBooks interview with Tom Dannet in 2010, Thomson said, "We’re 14 centuries-plus from the time of the Prophet now, and if you look at the history of Islam there have been high points and low points. As within any religion, you find people of wisdom and also people of great ignorance who use Islam for political expediency, who distort it knowingly or unknowingly. And so, for anyone who wants to follow in the dust of the footsteps of the Prophet Muhammad, blessings and peace be on him, you have to get to the point before there are any schools of jurisprudence, before Sunni and Shia – and if you go to that point there's no argument, just knowledge … As they say, the nearer you get to the source, the purer the drink. If you go to the source of the Thames it doesn’t taste the same as where it reaches the sea."

In 2009 Thomson gave a talk at Cambridge University entitled ''Shariah Law: A Stairway to Heaven''. In 2011 he participated in an interfaith event hosted at the House of Lords honouring Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Views on Islamic Finance

Book Reviews

Notes

References

Further reading

Category:English barristers Category:English philosophers Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:English Muslims Category:British Muslims Category:Converts to Islam Category:Converts to Islam from Christianity