In line with the Stand for Islam Campaign launched over two weeks ago, Hizb ut-Tahrir organised a seminar in Rochdale on the subject "Calls to ban the Quran" to address the concerns and the form of activism muslims should undertake to tackle the discussions.
[slideshow id=432345564256775738&w=470&h=200]
The crowd was addressed by Media Representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir, Taji Mustafa and Mazhar Khan who deliberated upon the topic and questioned the climate that is being created by Politicians under the guise of tackling "radicalisation" and "extremism" under the pretext of "War on tERROR".
Mazhar Khan drew comparisions with the Salman Rushdie affair and asked how did Insulting the Prophet of Islam and his wifes contribute towards any cohesion of communities in this country by hiding behind Freedom of Speech and drew similrarities to the Dutch MP calling for the ban of the Quran.
He argued, both cases rest upon the "sacred" concept of Freedom of Speech which in fact is a fanciful idea which does not exist in reality, citing examples of cases where denial of the Holocaust is punshible in Austria, calling a black person rudely can land you in jail for incitement of racial hatred and abusing other religions can be punshible under incitement to religious hatred. Hence, Freedom is a selective concept used to further Political goals and resigned to the dustbin when not favourable for a people or nation.
Mazhar also tackled Dutch MP Geert Wilders comments that Islam is a religion of Terrorism that was spread by the sword. The Speaker detailed Islam's historic just Foreign Poilcy and compared that with the History of colonisation and bloodhsed with Two major world wars, use of atomic and nuclear bombs, ravaging of Africa, wiping out the Red-indian population in the Americas, support for brutal dictatorships, and illegal wars waged on flimsy evidence and heresay- all of this led by the Free world, namely America and Britain.
Taji Mustafa explained the role of the Muslim community in bringing out the correct Intellectual responses back to the propoganda made and refusing to entertain the option of silence which the Government has fostered to quell any link with the rise of Terrorism as a direct result of British Foreign Policy.
Taji Mustafa detailed that engagement with wider society is instrumental to voicing our concern and an aid to washing away the images created by politicians and media of Islam and Muslims. In fact, this was the most important aspect of Dawah, in which we can highlight how Shariah tackles problems like crime, Teenage pregnancies, Youth dis-order, Political corruption and immigration, especially when there is a miserable failure in this society to tackle these growing problems.
No comments:
Post a Comment