Tragedy at the Doorstep of the Liberator

By Majed Iqbal and Waseem Aslam

"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions" was the reaction of Charles Steger the President of Virginia Tech yesterday where 32 students were shot dead by what seems was a lone gunman. Never could the word's 'monumental proportions' be more apt for any incident than this. It is indeed an indictment of the world in which we live in today that students aspiring to learn would find their lives ended in a hail of bullets.

The shootings at Virginia Tech are not an isolated incident. Ever since the Columbine High School Massacre in April 1999 where 15 High School pupils were shot dead, the number of shootings at educational and other institutes in the US has been an all too regular occurrence. In fact the term "going postal" which refers to taking revenge on your former work colleagues was coined because of a shooting incident by a former postal worker in the US.

The responses to these shootings have been quite predictable with debate over the motives for the shootings. The initial response of the police being inadequate and the gun laws in the US . In the hysteria of trying to explain this tragic incident the real debate will be forgotten and ignored.About the shootings The Rev. Jesse Jackson said "It's one of the biggest modern day tragedies we've known. We must double our efforts to reduce easy access to guns and take more seriously the need to address mental disorders and mental depression."

There has been no evidence to suggest that the gunman was mentally depressed or that the hundreds of other shootings that occur everyday in America are all linked to some kind of mental disorder but this is an easy get out clause when confronted with incidents that shake the very fabric of the society in which you live, in reality it is the safety blanket of a failed society.It may be fair to say that there are too many guns in America just like there are too many knives in London ; but is this the real cause for the spree of shootings that plague everyday America and the recent knife attacks in London ? Will stricter gun laws put an end to murder and violence in modern day Western Society?

It is very interesting to observe that there is little genuine interest in trying to understand the causes for such violence. However, European Countries as well as America have been heavily engrossed into rationalizing the causes for ‘extremism' amongst Muslims.

This has simply not been confined to research but active policies have been implemented to ‘root out' such ‘intolerant' views. Hence, Muslim groups and individuals have been ‘bargained' with by governments to carry out the ‘work' on the ground to tackle the issues with great financial rewards as well as acquiring some form of status.

Why is there not an approach to understand what ‘radicalises' a young person with a decent up bringing, stable family and who adopts liberal values in a free and democratic society? Surely, American and British Ideals must be the best. In fact, there is so much confidence in these principles that this is what is being sold internationally to countries like Iraq and Afghanistan .

So why is there no debate in Western Societies as to what ‘radicalises' a youth to behave in such a way?
It is time for the Capitalist societies to stop burying their heads in the sand and wake up to the fact that this self professed great liberator of man has in fact imprisoned the American people to those carrying guns.

Eliminating guns from a society can only temporarily hide the problems which lie under the surface. The American people need a coherent and consistent premise from which to solve life's problems. Where Capitalism has failed and has only created misery Islam can succeed and give hope to the American people.
A look at Muslim communities throughout the world shows that despite having a great proliferation of guns very rarely are disputes solved using them, rather more traditional values of Islam are often referred to.

Men want more family time !

By Majed Iqbal- Men are increasingly yearning for a better work-life balance and want their partners to share the role of breadwinner so they can spend more time with their children, according to a survey published today. Male Magazine FHM commissioned a study, questioning 2,000 men around the UK with an average age of 30 about their views on Work life, equality and family.



Surprisingly, findings showed that men feel women have now changed their minds and want to go back to old roles. Half of men with a baby or young children say their partner "now wants him to earn enough so she can be a full-time mother", while 38% say their partner wants them to earn enough to allow her to work part-time.

Another study, published yesterday by the government's digital information and advice service Directgov, found that almost a third of UK parents feel their greatest stress is not spending enough time with their children.

The studies conducted highlight an attempt to understand the pressures being faced in modern British Society in tackling changing gender roles, achievement of both career goals and fulfillment, and a happy family life.

Britney SHEARS in Trouble

By Majed Iqbal- Just last weekend the world was exposed to yet another tantrum of celebrity misfits; once again it was Britney Spears who came to the limelight, but with the least expected behaviour. Earlier last week she was reported checking into Eric Clapton’s Crossroads rehab clinic in Antigua before checking herself out 24 hours later.

She flew back to Los Angeles ‘economy class’ on American Airlines and immediately drove to a hair salon and demanded that staff shave her head. When they refused, she picked up some clippers and did it herself

There are increasing fears that the shocking new look from the singer is the latest stage in an escalating pattern of wild behaviour that resembles a breakdown. The incident has grasped attention internationally with internet sites, blogs and news stations, each attempting to present an ‘explanation’ of the ‘unexplained’ incident.

Forest Gate Misadventure

FOREST GATE, The IPCC and the Muslim community

On Tuesday 13th February 2007 the long awaited Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) report into the Forest Gate incident of 2006 was finally released. Although given much media fanfare the report fails to address the key issues which the Muslim Community not only in Forest Gate but throughout the UK want answered. In short the IPCC report found that the Metropolitan Police had a failing of intelligence, that there needs to be better conditions for suspects being held at Paddington Green for longer periods, that the Police must wear better markings to identify them as Police and that there must be a direct apology to the Families involved in the Forest Gate raids.The fact that the police briefed the media about certain aspects of the investigation such as the presence of a "bomb factory" in Forest Gate, the plan create a "Chemical Suicide Vest" and a "Plot to attack fans watching the World Cup" has been conveniently ignored by the IPCC.

Also ignored is the wider political agenda under which these raids took place; an agenda which is making the Muslim community the scapegoat to hide foreign policy failings in Iraq and Afghanistan . What better way to hide the failings of an illegal war then to create a demonic monster on your very own door stop; the monster being the Muslim Community.

We as a community mustn't see incidents such as Forest Gate in isolation but must understand the wider context of these failed terror raids and failed intelligence. There is a deliberate and systematic attempt to create a sense of fear amongst the Muslim Community where one Muslim will suspect the other of being a terrorist, where as John Reid requested, Father spies on Son and Son spies on Father, where the growing of a beard is seen as a sign of impending radicalisation in our Youth.

The following points are worth considering:

• The Muslim community as all other communities in the UK want to live in peace and security


• Muslims have on numerous occasions condemned acts of terrorism in the UK and abroad as having nothing to do with Islam. Both Media and government have ignored this and continue to play the scaremongering and blame game.


• Despite what has happened and a recommendation from the IPCC for a direct apology to the family involved in the Forest Gate incident, the Metropolitan Police have failed to do this for over 8 months.This speaks volumes for the government calls for integration when it is clear the Muslim community are not even given the dignity of an apology for being beaten, falsely accused and even shot.


• The governments 'latest adventure' of plowing £5 Million into Muslim areas across the UK in the hope of "rooting out Extremism" is nothing more than a ploy in attempting to convince Muslims of a problem that doesn't exist, whilst at the same time shielding the government from criticism of it's foreign policy.

One has to question the sincerity of any action taken by the Police, Media or Government vis a vi the Muslim community, whilst the Police have a duty to protect the public they have a greater duty to at least accept failings when injustice is done. When it comes to the Muslim community there seems to be no willingness to accept responsibility.

Is it little wonder that some would call this country a "Police State" for the Muslims?

BIG BROTHER Issue

By Majed Iqbal- The Channel 4 programme Big Brother sparked a national debate off and a minor diplomatic incident last month after Indian contestant Shilpa Shetty was subjected to allegedly racist bullying by white housemates. Whilst certain segments of the population voiced their opposition to such behaviour to broadcasting watchdog Ofcom, which took a total of 45,100 complaints and Channel 4 fielding more than 10,000, National newspapers took the opportunity to cashing into the whole discussion.

The Daily Mirror's exclusive interview with the Celebrity Big Brother winner boosted sales by at least 160,000 copies daily, paying in the region of £60,000 for its exclusive interview, whilst the Sun gave away free Bollywood film DVDs of the actress.But away from the media frenzy stood an important discussion which had surfaced from the entire debacle which even the Prime Minister was not exempt from.

The Government's equality chief, Trevor Phillips attempted to home into the discussion accusing Channel 4 of failing to take responsibility for the race row. "It was prejudice, and should have no place in our society ... what took place was a noxious brew of old-fashioned class conflict, straightforward bullying, ignorance and quite vicious racial bigotry."

DISPATCHES PROGRAMME-

DISPATCHES PROGRAMME- A Grassroots Response

By Majed Iqbal

Monday 15^th 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:

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  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.

REPORT- Integration of Faiths under the Islamic Civilisation

The following report below was written as part of the Islamic Awareness Day hosted in the Rochdale Town hall In September 2006. The report covered the various discussions on a stall that i was doing which celebrated the Scientific, Educational, Technological and Societal achievements made under the Islamic civilisation- more better known as the Caliphate.

The report was also presented to the Rochdale Mulit-Faith forum during inviting them to attend the forthcoming Event. The report broke away many misconceptions on the treatment of minorities under Islam and set forward a promising future for the various regions and countries in the world.

Please click on link to view the report

Faiths and Islam- The Integration of Of Faiths and People under the Islamic Civilisation

Cartoon Controversy- The Man Behind the Message

A draft article written for the Rochdale committee for Islamic Affairs (RCIA) for submission to the Rochdale Observer Newspaper

What started off as a little local difficulty about community integration in Denmark following the publication of the famously controversial cartoons has now escalated into a worldwide chasm. It would be naive to suggest that the journalists involved did not know what they were getting themselves into. On the contrary, they knew that it would spark off some form of controversy, as the man who was in the spotlight was none other than the bearer of the Message of Islam, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). A man, whose influence covers over 1.3 billion people in the world today.

News stations have beamed in images to our living rooms of protests in the Muslim world; venting utter disgust at the freedom which allowed such an act to take place. The UK saw mass mobilisation of people, addressing the matter at hand in local communities, newspapers, media and organised demonstrations.

It may seem surprising for everyone. What’s the big deal? Don’t celebrities get ridiculed in the press at their antics, their love and sex lives exposed on the front sheets of the tabloids, footballers wives spilling out their venom against their husbands, politicians getting caught in sleazy deals. This is the way the world works doesn’t it? So why make an exception when Cartoons of the Prophet of Islam are published in Europe. Its as the Editor of the newspaper put it, “Caricatures are part of European Culture”. Britain’s own newspapers can testify to that too.

Rochdale Muslims unite against Cartoons Defaming Prophet of Islam

Official Statment From Rochdale Committee for Islamic Affairs

Muslims around the world have took to the streets protesting and boycotting Danish products following a series of satirical cartoons ridiculing the prophet Muhammad (saw). The Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen's, has refused to meet the ambassadors of 11 Muslim countries to discuss censuring the Jyllands-Posten paper.

Carsten Juste, the editor of the newspaper, has apologized on but emphasizes that he apologizes for offending people, but not for publishing the cartoons. Muslim organisations have demanded an apology, but the editor has rejected this idea. He said “We live in a democracy. That’s why we can use all the journalistic methods we want to” he said.

The following points are what we would like the Muslims of Rochdale to observe

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  The rank of the Prophet of Islam in the heart of a Muslim cannot be described in words. This love and admiration for him can only be tasted when a person enters the fold of Islam and works to emulate his actions. The publications have deeply offended Muslims throughout the whole of the world who share these sentiments.

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  The caricatures of the Prophet of Islam, is an insult and abuse about a people’s beliefs. Such behaviors are not the characteristics of a people who value tolerance and wish to create civilised societies.

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  Muslims have played a pivotal role in Europe for decades, living side by side, peacefully with all members of society, as this is their Islamic duty. The repeated publication in many European countries has not served to recognize this, but has worked to strike discord amongst communities and the 20 million Muslims residing in Europe .

  
  

• How can the publications be justified under the pre-text of entitlement to free speech but at the same time laws are being designed to curtail any discussion about illegal occupation of Muslim lands like Palestine and Iraq ? Muslims living in the west are highlighting these discrepancies

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  Muslims of Rochdale will air their feelings within the framework of the law against such distasteful publications

  
  

Written and Submitted by Majed Iqbal on 8th Feb 2006