MacShane said Muslims have to choose between the British way or the terrorists' way

LONDON, November 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A British Minister has come under sharp criticism Sunday, November 23, for telling Muslims in Britain they had to choose between democracy and terrorism.

"This type of language will simply drive Muslims who believe that once again they are being stereotyped into the arms of extremists," the head of Britain's Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

He was referring to the text of a speech by Minister for Europe Denis MacShane, which he delivered Friday, November 21.

MacShane said in his original speech: "It is time for the elected and community leaders of the British Muslims to make a choice -- the British way, based on political dialogue and non-violent protests, or the way of the terrorists, against which the whole democratic world is uniting."

But in the face of an outpouring of protests by Muslims, MacShane modified the speech slightly, replacing "the British way" with "the British, or Turkish or American way".

Phillips commented: "It is a little undiplomatic for a Foreign Office minister to suggest that the British have a monopoly on rational and civilized behavior. Anybody who hails from a colony could adduce several centuries of evidence to the contrary."

"It would have been smarter if Denis MacShane had found out what British Muslims have been saying since, before and after September 11 on the issue of terrorism."

Home Secretary David Blunkett has also criticized MacShane's remarks, saying that leaders of the Muslim community in Britain had always made their opposition to terrorism clearly known.

'Extremely Disgraceful'

"It is a little undiplomatic for a Foreign Office minister to suggest that the British have a monopoly on rational and civilized behavior," Phillips

Muslim leaders in the U.K. angrily condemned MacShane's remarks as "extremely disgraceful". 

"It is an outrage and extremely disgraceful…Such comments divide and antagonize a community," Anas Altikriti, director of communications for the Muslim Association of Britain, told the BBC.

"We do not need lessons from the representative of a government that has conducted an illegal war against Iraq," added Inayat Bunglawala, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain.

The latest bombings in Iraq "only emphasize that the disastrous war in Iraq has not reduced the risk of terrorism, as our own governments had us believe beforehand, but has exacerbated it," he added.

Earlier in the week, the council had condemned bomb attacks against British interests in Istanbul that killed at least 25.

It also said the "war against terrorism" was not working and it was necessary "to seriously address the root causes of injustice behind the dreadful phenomenon of terrorism".

And Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, labeled the minister's remarks "outrageous".

"The majority of Muslims have consistently condemned violence against any individual no matter what the source," he said.

On MacShane's call for a clearer condemnation of extremism, Shadjareh said: "It is ridiculous.

"What does he want us to do? Apologize so much as to give an indication that somehow we are all responsible when we are not?"

In a speech in his northern English constituency of Rotherham, MacShane said: "I hope we will see clearer, stronger language that there is no future for any Muslim cause anywhere in the world that validates, or implicitly supports, the use of political violence in any way."