Here in the United States, as you might be well aware of, there are active and effective muslim youth organizations which are engaging the muslim youth and giving them opportunities. thus they are mostly sticking to the mainstream muslim society and not attracted to fringe groups and their ideologies. Are there similar muslim youth organizations (not just smaller, but really strong and effective) in the United Kingdom who can attract the muslim youth and keep them from falling in the trap of fringe groups.
Answer
Wa `alaikum Assalam
Yes there are in fact many Muslim organization that work on the large scale with youth and aim at protecting them from extreme ideologies and engage them in useful activities. Actually, some of these organizations were established long time ago and have been active for long years now. To name some we can mention the Young Muslim Organization (YMO), Young Muslim UK, the Islamic Forum Europe (IFE) and some of these are actually pan-European which means they are working in Europe at large and are very active and accredited.
Name
abdi
-
Profession
Question
do you suppor manchester united. please answer
Answer
I do love football like any other guy but in fact, I am not siding with any sports team. The Arsenal stadium is located very close to my place and thousands of people block the streets when there is a match. :)
Name
Mohamed Ismail
- United Kingdom
Profession
Student
Question
What was the reaction of the MCB or City Circle towards this offensive report?
Answer
Well, I am not a spokesman of the MCB to be able to speak in their name. However, as far as I know Dr. Dawud Abdullah referred as every one of us did that the report is part of a series of ongoing attacks against Muslim community and denial of their active contribution to the society. The report is helping in raising the level of Islamophobia and is not helping in any constructive dialogue.
Name
Moataz Karty
- Austria
Profession
Question
Salamu Alikum,
I want to ask, how did this researchers attack the British mosques, and isn't there any security available in British mosques that can prevent them from doing so?
W Salaam
Answer
Salamu Alikum,
Well, the attack here is not a physical attack, I mean by force. What happened is that some researchers wrote a report that the British mosques are hijacked by extremists and full of hate literature, which is actually untrue. In fact, generalization is a big problem specially when it comes to contexts like these. To say that all British mosques are hijacked or even the majority is completely wrong and unfair. Finally, if someone wants to fabricate something no security can prevent him from doing so; only his conscience and fairness can do so.
Name
Salma Tomy
- United States
Profession
Question
Salam,
I am from united states, and I don't agree with what they did, even if there are some books that hold wired ideas, they are Islamic ideas and Muslims do nothing with the non-Islamic ideas, so how come Muslims in UK accept such an attack on their mosques?
Answer
Salamu Alikum,
Well, Muslims do not accept such attacks. In fact, Muslims are defending themselves and explaining to the public that what is being said is not true. I believe one of the main challenges facing Islam in the West in general and Europe in particular is reaching out to people and changing the image which is drawn by the biased media in their minds. This necessitates that Muslims should have their very active media channels that reach out to people and address the misconceptions that have been created by the biased media all over these years. The situation in the United States is not better though as far as my knowledge is concerned. The core and the crux of the whole issue is a two part process:
1- Muslims should initiate an internal dialogue and establish a system to stop any loop holes that cause problems like these and deal with the issue of extremism within their circles which I believe will end soon as they are very capable of doing this.
2- The media should help Muslims in that job by being objective rather than destructive. Instead of making a story on an evil thing that has not happened, activities that help the society and success stories should be brought to the limelight. If this cannot happen at the hands of the existing media, then let it happen at the hands of strong Muslim media.
Name
Sameera
-
Profession
Question
What exactly is the think-tank organization, and does it get support from the British government?
Answer
Salamu Alikum,
Think-tank is in fact an institution or organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas like political strategy and social policy and similar areas. Many of these are non-profit organization and some get paid in return of the consultancy they offer. I am not sure if it gets support from the British government or not if you are speaking about funds. However, I know that the funds for combating extremism and creating useful activities are available for everyone and are very helpful. One of the well known think-tank in Europe is Dr. Tariq Ramadan.
Name
Daud Mohamed
- Canada
Profession
Question
Salamu Alikum,
I hve heard about this report and I want to ask what are you and the other British imams are planning to do in respond to this report?
Answer
Wa`alaikum As-Salam Wa-Rahmatullah
In fact, coordination between British Imams, although not covering all Imams, is good. The Muslim Council of Britain does regularly organize meetings to discuss issues like these. At the moment there is nothing feasible which I can speak about. Yet, we are planning to do something very soon to write a declaration or something like that in response. The MCB is normally supervising and supporting these things as it speaks in the name of the majority of Muslims in Britain.
Name
Samy El-Mogreq
- United Kingdom
Profession
Mechanical Engineer
Question
The report said that they found in the mosques some literatures call for executing apostates and banning inter-faith marriages, is that true and is there any book who speaks on that in the british mosques, as i have never come across such an issues?
Please reply back
Answer
Salamu Alikum,
I am not sure about other British mosques in fact. One of the important things we should stress is that no one can deny or claim the existence of such literature. Yet, I am sure it is very small and minimal as much as the literature written by some extreme Christian writers and supports racism against the non-Christians and kicking them out of Europe is also minimal. The problem is when the media focuses on such things and make a mountain out of a molehill, then give weight to such insignificant things. No one can stop people from writing anything; but we should not exaggerate things. Secondly, mosques' administrations should practice scrutiny on what is in their libraries and never allow a flow of books without looking into them as the purpose is not just filling in the shelves. This does not mean again that the mosques are having these books not that they are purely clean of some of such books, the point is we as Muslims should be cautious and the media should be fair and draw no real images. It is exactly as when you are walking on the street and you found some books speaking about Nazism, does that mean that someone in the street is a Nazi or the whole street is supporting Nazism? Of course not, we need to be just and realistic.
Name
Sadia
- Australia
Profession
Doctor
Question
SA,
I would laugh to ask you about your authority as an Imam in UK, and to which extent would you sue thank-tank for this report and this clear encroachment?
Jazakom ALLAH khayran : )
Answer
Salamu Alikum,
Why should you laugh about it, in fact we can do a better job if we allow our Muslim think-tank and surely there are many of them to write a contra report and prove the reality. Another way of action is speaking to specialized Muslim organization that can do something about this. I think it is not Imams who should take a political step; rather, there should be coalition between all organizations within the Muslim community to do a contra campaign to stop the happening of such alarming and dangerous reports that put the whole society at risk and leave it insecure. The court is one of the places that can be used but the media is much more effective I believe.
Name
Mohammad
- Canada
Profession
Engineer
Question
Assalamu alaikum Sh. Ahmad,
Jazaka Allah khair for your time, may it all be rewarded. While the media plays a huge role in the portrayal of Muslims as an extreme group, having people, especially in places of authority, who have an "extreme" (I don't mean violent) understanding of Islam also hurts the image of Muslims. This is, unfortunately, still the case in some religious institutions. While they are our brothers and sisters in faith, can you please comment on the importance of having this balanced and moderate understanding of Islam rather than having the extreme understanding thereof? Jazaka Allahu khairan.
Answer
Wa`alaikum Assalam Wa Rahmatullah Br Mohamed,
Jazaka Allah Khairan for this important question which is very relevant to our case here in Britain. As I said earlier, while we are putting a great blame on the media for creating unnecessary fuss about what is being minor or what could be imaginary, we should also put some blame on some Muslim organizations that are still bound by brining un-adaptable Imams who either do not speak the language at all or do not understand the context and live in Britain with the mentality of someone living in Saudi Arabia, for instance, although there is a deep gulf between the two places. If we can tolerate that such Imams can stay in their respective societies and say what they want there and be dealt with there, we cannot take it when they come here and start destroying what Muslims have been building in this countries for decades now. We live in a different context and moderation is the only acceptable and viable method of tackling and handling what we have at the moment. This should be born in mind and taken into action.
One of the good things that is starting to apply here is that four Islamic organization amongst them is the MCB will be responsible for accepting Imams who want to come the country or rejecting them; this will lessen the chances of individual choice of Imams without looking into their background or suitability. Another good thing is the condition now put by the Home Office that an Imam has to sit for a test in English language in order to see their ability to work within this context. I believe this along with a committee from moderate Muslim organizations to help in Imam selection, will help a lot at the moment until home grown Imams proper projects start functioning.
Name
Salamu Alikum
- Bahrain
Profession
Question
Do you think that (as an Imam of Egyptian origin) Muslims in UK who are of different origins are the problrm and are the ones who replace a new extrimist ideas to the original Islamic ones that British Muslims are quite aware of?
Answer
I do not think so indeed, in fact what is proven is totally the opposite. It has been proven that younger generations are the ones who are more subject to extremist ideas and that the people coming from somewhere else in the world are more integrating. As far as I think, it has nothing to do with the origin rather than the injustice and the lack of proper sources of knowledge. Our younger generations here in the UK lack religious authorities that listen to them or guide them in a moderate way, they lack someone who can fill in the vacuums of their souls and that is why they will be resorting to such half-scholars or uneducated people who play with their minds and emotions.
The wars in Palestine and Iraq and other parts of the Muslim world aggravate the problem and such stupid media reports are even worsening it as they are stressing the idea that there is an international coalition against Islam, this affects these young people regardless of whether they are from overseas or born and raised in the British soil. In fact, the young ones are more affected as they do not have the opportunity to be subject to various ideas and perspective as it could have happened with their fathers who came from somewhere.
Name
Khadega Mohamed
- Egypt
Profession
Question
Salamu Alikum,
I guess you have been in UK for a long time as an Imam, so have you ever faced any physical attacks or something, and have you ever heard about Salamony's attack, and was that due to his nationality as Egyptian or position as Imam? JAK
Answer
I have not been subject to any attacks so far alhamdulilah and hopefully nothing bad will happen in the future. Yes, I heard and in fact was visiting the Imams in Regent Park Mosque the place of Sheikh Salamony a few weeks before the attacks. I do not think it has anything to do with his nationality; rather, it has much to do with the Islamophobia that is drawn by the media and placing fear in the hearts of many Britons as well as the racial hatred that is being instigated as well as heated against foreigners in general. The media is doing the larger part of this evil thing.
Name
Immigrant
- France
Profession
Question
Salamu Alikum,
A lot of talks on Immigration have been recently spreading over UK, How do you see this will effect the status of immigrants especially Muslims later on? Do you think that stand for any internatonal guidance as France also facing the same debates on immigrants?
Answer
I am not quite sure what is going to happen in the future but yes, there has been a lot of tightening and restrictions and changes started to be placed on immigration issues. Let's hope it is not directed at Muslims in specific. No one can predict the future, but I strongly feel that if things continued like this nothing good will show. However, let's hope that things get better as it all depends on our reaction as a community and ability to stand up to challenge.
Name
Anonymous
- Turkey
Profession
Question
What exactly are the obstacles that face British Muslims and British Imams nowadays? I mean every category….
Answer
The obstacles facing the larger community include the following:
1- Owning their financial establishment the contribute immensely to the British economy
2- Political participation and representation in the Parliament as well as in the government
3- Owning their media bodies that reach out to the larger British community
4- Educating others as well as Muslims themselves about the status and showing them the importance of showing the brightness of their religion
5- Imams have to relate to the context, speak the language and appeal to the young people and stop the stereotyping of Imams as someone who is old with a long beard and does not speak English at all or speaks with a heavy accent.
Name
Asmaa
-
Profession
Question
Salamu Alikum,
I have just seen a live dialogue in this website that has made with Yasmin Qureshi, Do you think Muslims MPs or candidates could play a role in that regard?
Answer
Absolutely yes, in fact the representation of Muslims in the Parliament if compared with the representation of other communities is very weak. This is one of the areas that we should fill in order to have a say in any decision taking in this country and show that they are there.
Name
Taher Abdullah
- Ukraine
Profession
Question
What is the think-tank organization, i want to know what is its image, founders and mission, and whether it is just in UK...? Thank you.
Answer
I have answered this question before. The think-tank is a term rather than a name of an organization. It is composed of the words "think" which simply means to the use the mind and the other one is "tank" which means big. It signifies thinking in high standards and intellectual level.
Name
Abu Umar
- United Kingdom
Profession
Admin
Question
I would like to point out that these books and pamphlets are all available on Amazaon and other recognised websites to buy. Why doesn't this 'think tank' include them in the report?
Wassalamu'alikum
Answer
As I said before, you cannot stop the flow of some emerging extreme views because constraining ideas is almost impossible. Yet, the best way of dealing with them is educating people about their danger, disregarding them and looking at them as insignificant and they will surely die out. When reports like these come out, they are actually doing the best job to such extreme ideas by promoting them in an indirect way. These extremist ideas are everywhere in every religion and even non-religious ideology. It is only through constructive and purpose-built dialogue that they can be eradicated.
Name
Editor
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Profession
Question
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Answer
This session has come to an end.
We would like to thank Ahmad Sa`d for speaking to IslamOnline.net viewers today, and we also thank all those who participated in this dialogue.
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