Rochdale Central Mosque 'Investigated'
By Majed IqbalA new Report released by Policy Exchange, an independent think tank, titled “the Hijacking of British Islam” has targeted the central (Idara) Mosque in Rochdale, labeling it as a promoter of extremist ideas. The mosque was mentioned out of a list of 100 organisations and institutions that were visited and cited as a worrying problem of extremist penetration of mosques and other key institutions of the British Muslim community.
The Research was conducted During 2006 and 2007 by four Muslim research teams traveling to towns and cities across the UK. They visited a large number of important Islamic religious institutions, including leading mosques, to determine the extent to which literature inculcating Muslim separatism and hatred of nonbelievers was accessible in those institutions - both in terms of being openly available and also being obtainable 'under the counter'.
The report belittled the achievement awarded to Hafiz Ikram in May 2007 by the local MP, Paul Rowen, for ‘Services to the Community and to young people over the past thirty years at the annual ‘Rochdale Sport For All’ awards with taints of hypocrisy after, what the researchers believe, was the finding and availability of ‘Extremist’ literature. Here references were being made to books of Islamic knowledge, Shariah rules regarding women’s issues and questions pertaining to the celebration of western festivals and traditions.
The effort to stigmatise the Muslim community as problematic and in need of reformation has been consistently propagated over the last couple of years. In the last year, Ruth Kelly’s misadventure of formulating what she called a “British version of Islam” was met with bitter resentment and seen as a guise to ‘revise’ aspects of Islam which does not fit to the bubble of Britishness. David Cameron, leader of the opposition, sparked off a similar storm after his recent statements on appropriate terms and language that should be used for Islam and Muslims and his personal disgust of using words like “Islamist”. However, in his leadership launch speech mentioned, made in August 2005, it was he that used the same terminology saying: "The driving force behind today's terrorist threat is Islamist fundamentalism. The struggle we are engaged in is, at root, ideological. During the last century a strain of Islamist thinking has developed which, like other totalitarianisms, such as Nazism and Communism, offers its followers a form of redemption through violence."
The Policy Exchange Report follows the systematic agenda of the British government in its efforts to draw a wedge between the Muslim community into those who are ‘moderate’ Muslims and those who are ‘extremist’. This was the same agenda behind the unsuccessful attempt to ban Hizb-ut-Tahrir as well as the maligning of UK Islamic Mission, MCB, MAB, Sheikh Riyadh ul Haq, Ahle-Hadith, Tableeghi Jamaat and many other organisations which were ‘investigated’ in press and television documentaries in the attempts to promote ‘representative’ and ‘modern’ groups like the Sufi Muslim council.
Rochdale Muslims need a platform to unify their voices and air their concerns in a concentrated effort to combat the misinformation and organised propaganda by the British Government and the alleged ‘independent’ institutions.
The report can be downloaded here
I think Muslims all over need to unify their voices to air their concerns in a concerted effort as do the Muslims of Rochdale.
ReplyDeleteThe attempt to label Muslims as Islamists is an additional step to widen the net of labelling Muslims who have voiced their opinion about the government's stance on various political issues domestic and foreign.
The government should realise these opinions are not manufactured in Mosques alone around the country but are formed around the coffee and dinner tables whilst watching Channel 4 News and if you missed that then Newsnight every evening.
As Muslims living in Britain, it's becoming more and more difficult to have plausible opinions if they differ from the establishments and acceptable if held by Muslims who can articulate their point, in most cases you’re a criminal before you know it.
Muslims should not be defensive and that does not mean a license to be intolerant either..... Accounting the government of a country you live in, on issues that penalise a community for not sharing the same views, a government that has double standards in its foreign policy and is quick to go to war for political and material interests should not be considered extremists.
Why is it the case that Muslims who are politically inclined, want to engage, want to promote cohesion and are tolerant, non-violent all because they are concerned about their domestic interests and share a global concern for Muslim brethren where ever they may be are now labelled Islamists. Their right to live according to their values in their respective countries doesn’t mean you give up your right to live in the country you was born in as resident citizen who pays his taxes and lives a normal life, why is such a person now considered an Islamist? Where as on the other hand those Muslims who have jumped shipped, equally engaged with the view that is in line with the government’s agenda are encouraged to come out with the blessings of the establishment?