DISPATCHES PROGRAMME- A Grassroots Response
By Majed Iqbal
Monday 15th January 2007 saw the airing of a Dispatches programme entitled “Under Cover Mosque”. The program was aired after a week or more of frenzied advertising during prime time slots to draw attention to the forthcoming documentary.
The contents of the program for any of those who watched it centered around an unknown undercover journalist using a secret camera to film in various mosques across the UK . The often darkened scenes and short sound bites of DVD’s and speeches inside Green Lane mosque , Birmingham amongst others created a sense of a dangerous and threatening environment being created in the mosque(s).
One must question the necessity of using secret cameras in public gatherings which were being filmed by the organizers and videos of them sold openly afterwards. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that this was done for dramatic effect.
The dispatches film is a long line in programmes and documentaries aimed and maligning the Muslim community in the UK over the last Year and so. The timing of such programmes during a period of heightened tensions and scrutiny of the Muslims community can not be seen as accidental but just another way to create a sense of hysteria in the minds of Non-Muslims towards Islam.
It is clear that any comment or action carried out in the public sphere will have a direct affect on the existence of communities living side by side; a prime example is the spate of attacks on Muslim women after Jack Straws comments about the Veil. Attempting to create a sense of being under siege by a Jihadist Saudi inspired Ideology on the streets of the UK is not responsible or investigative journalism but scare mongering and the creation of hysteria.
The Muslim community needs to respond to such attacks not as individuals or organisations but as a unified community. We must understand an attack on the UKIM or Ahle-Hadith is an attack on the community; the aim of the programme was not to malign a group or individuals but to create a sense of an existence of extremists in the community.
The following key points should be noted to form a correct understanding and response to the Dispatches program:
The program was not just an attempt to malign particular individuals and organizations but a clear and systematic undermining of Islam and its rules. With clear reference to traditions of the Prophet, Hadith and Ayhas of Quran an attempt was made to misinterpret the rules of Islam and present them in a backward and barbaric manner. This included the Hijab, women seeking permission before leaving the house, taking the last resort of light beating (which creates no scars or marks) if a child does not pray by age 10, two female witnesses equivalent to one male witness and rules homosexuality. There should be no doubt this was not a case of disagreement with the rules of Islam but an attack on the very evidences from which these rules are derived.
- The program re-enforced views similar to many others expressed in the media and by politicians of breeding a version of Islam which is palatable to western tastes; an Islam which operates under the parameters of ‘Europeaness’ and ‘Britishness’ and undermines the deep rooted Islamic concept of Ummah. The concept of Ummah and brotherhood is a central tenant of Islam. An Islam devoid of such concepts would render redundant Islamic Charity organizations like Islamic relief and Muslim Hands, and they could easily be accused of as cultivating false bonds or disloyalty to this country.
- The idea of the existence of an Islamic state as expressed by Maulana Mawdudi and many other individuals and organizations is not an extremist view but the desire of millions of Muslims across the Muslim world to live under the rules of Political Islam. The publicising of an alternative Political philosophy does not render a person to be extreme or fanatical, but rather a thinker with an independent world view. The only problem this serves is a direct threat to the corporate interests of the Capitalist nations whose sole aim is not world justice but a control of the world’s resources. Continuously attacking the concept of an Islamic state whether it be Tony Blair, Gordon Brown or Dispatches shows a sense of panic and desperation at Western ideas being able to prevent the growing call for the Caliphate in the Muslim world.
- The calls for integration of the community, on the back of an active campaign of demonisation of the Muslim community is tantamount to enforced assimilation by the government. Just because the Muslim community may hold different values to the host community does not mean they cannot contribute to the society in which they live. Over the last 50 years the Muslims community has contributed more towards building bridges than any other community in the UK as pointed out by many individuals in the documentary. It is farcical to create community cohesion projects up and down the country whilst at the same time demonizing a whole community.
- By carefully hand picking individuals for interviewing, the documentary played into the hands of the Governments agenda of creating a wedge between the Muslim community into the ‘moderate’ and ‘extremist’ camp; a ploy which is clear in the Governments white paper entitled “Contest”. Such attempts have failed and have only drawn Muslims together in brotherhood and agreement at the existence of Islamophobia in the UK .
- Supremacy of Shariah Law is touched upon in many Ayaats of the Quran and abundant Hadith which articulate a brighter future for the World. Even the well known verse of the Quran “The messenger was sent as a mercy for all mankind’ is a description of this. Muslims cannot compromise the meanings of Islamic texts just to please others.
- Muslims have the right to objection to fighting in the British Army and engage in its illegal and immoral wars. Whether these wars are in Afghanistan , Iraq or anywhere else, Islam forbids Muslims to fight and kill in the name of and for the sake of multinational companies who reap the spoils of war. Conscious objection to illegal wars is not a sign of extremism.
- Suggestions that the Muslim community is being radicalized by Saudi funding at a time when Tony Blair actively hushed up legal proceedings at the behest of the Saudi government are laughable. The Saudi Royal family has contributed more to the coffers of British Aerospace than Mosques in the UK , maybe it is time the media questioned the government over links with a tyrannical regime rather than portray our Mosques as foreign funded houses of terror.
- The rejection of Democracy as a political system is not extremism but a political view that should allow people to engage in debate and dialogue about the future of humanity. The views of Ijaz moin, a speaker at the UKIM Annual Conference last year are echoed by many who have lost trust in electoral politics otherwise termed as ‘Voter apathy’ amongst both Muslim and non-Muslim quarters.
- The Muslim community should have no doubt that the Government is more interested in discussing Big Brother rather than tackling the growing trend of Islamophobia in the UK. It is up to us to be able to respond to the media attack in a intellectual and intelligent manner. It is not acceptable for the community to be silent, isolated or defensive under the barrage of attacks but we must be proactive and unified in our response.
Muslims must support one another, regardless of their backgrounds, philosophical differences and Fiqhs; this is a time for unity and brotherhood.
Muslims must engage in True Islamic political work with the agenda of the Muslim community as the highest priority. Even personalities like Lord Nazir were not spared despite their ‘liberal’ views which were fashioned to present a ‘tamed and behaved’ Muslim living in Britain.
