A tweet from @ELMarchives honours the life of Professor Crane. A warm and unassuming personality, he held high office in the United States: Deputy Director of the US Security Council and advisor to President Nixon. He found the path to Islam in 1980, and subsequently served as director of the Da’wa Islamic Center in Washington DC and director of publications at the International Institute of Islamic Thought. He was active in the launch of the American Muslim Council. His last formal academic appointment was at the Hamad bin Khalif University, Qatar.
At a visit to the East London Mosque’s archives in March 2018 he left a warm message,
I am so happy to be here since my last visit 10 years ago, and what has happened is remarkable. . . preserving the history of the East London Mosque and all the outstanding people is amazing. Many of the best leaders of the last 100 years were here and I never knew that. This must be preserved and I hope that people in other countries – maybe in America – can preserve some of our heritage there. There are sides to everything; we should be aware of what is bad and preserve the best, and build on it for the future. I am hoping that insha Allah, Allah will guide people here to continue the growth of the East London Mosque, and my particular interest also is in this Archives project. I think this is a great idea, probably the first one in the world. Therefore it is important to keep it going – and the whole Mosque!
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajiun.
JS
