What are you planning to do in order to:
1. inform the western community about islam?? I mean BBC and other western medias have given radical muslims almost monopoly in the media. ( people like omar abeld rahaman).
2. how will you work to protect the intigrity of british muslim who now can loose their citizenship.
3. How do you interpret the new lows as to the possible qonsequences it might have, giving the british muslims the feeling of beeing ad hoc citizen who, can loose theri citizenship?
Answer
This question is mentioning Dr. Omar Abdur-rahman, may Allah bless him who is not involved in this crisis, as he is in prison now, in USA. Those who believe in violence are very few and many of them change but very few will never change, because of lots of problems in the Muslim society in particular and the whole society in general. Our means is to have dialogue with them and to try to explain the middle way of Islam and explain to them that Islam is the religion of peace and the religion of middle stream and middle way. We refer them to the sirah of Prophet Muhammad and the opinion and fatwas of the great scholars of Islam.
Again, this can be done through many means, and this is just a trial, and we have dialogue and consultation with the government and the security forces with the mayor of London and with the media, and with the representatives of Muslim community, who travel around Britain to explain about Islam and to condemn the attacks and the bombings. The most important organization in doing that is MCB (Muslim Council of Britain) and MAB (Muslim association of Britain). So there are also some seminars and meetings of scholars. Also there is a campaign through the internet to explain the aims and objectives of Islam. There are also some explanations to the Muslim community to help them to integrate into the society. The Muslim leaders and scholars also visit different places to have consultations with each others and to have more insight about what is going on. But in any case, I believe that the government will exercise some pressure on the Muslim community. I know that the prime minister yesterday proposed twelve anti-terror proposals and he even explained that he is prepared to amend the human rights act.
The prime minister is discussing now his proposals with the government and many other circles concerned. After these consultations, they will be taken to the parliament, and we hope that the parliament will not agree and will not approve the prime minister's proposals. There are many human rights organizations who are against the proposals of Blaire. It is unfair for any one to punish a whole community or minority because of some few terrorists or extremists.
Name
Ahmed
-
Profession
Question
Assalamu alykum..Are the new laws designed to fight terrorism or to fight the islamic strong persence in Britain? As we know, the British muslims are very active and such new laws can minimize their civilized role in Britain. Thanks
Answer
I do not believe that the new law.. they are not laws; they are still proposals. I don’t think they will stop violence and the clear example is Egypt and Saudi Arabia and other countries in the third world. They have many laws in effect and they cannot stop violence.
I do believe that Blaire has borrowed these proposals from the third world. These laws in the third world did not and will not stop terrorism. In my understanding, terrorism is like a virus: If you treat it harshly it will spread more: it needs proper treatment. I proposed to the mayor of London to establish houses for extremists, because I do believe that extremists are sick, and the deportation of these people to other countries after stripping their nationalities will not solve the problem but will spread the disease to another place, a new area.
I must confirm that the people who would like to treat violence and terrorism should work more efficiently and wisely with this phenomena. If we are going to discuss the reasons and cause of violence in any society, we have not to exclude outside and international reasons plus the domestic ones.
Name
Khadijah
- Australia
Profession
Psychology student
Question
Salaam wa alaykum,
I would just like to ask if you feel that the new Anti-terror laws in London are going to lead in time to new laws like in France where they have banned Hijab wearing women from attending schools ect, in your opinion do you think that the laws in London will become that extreme? If so what can the Muslims do? thank you Wasalaam
Answer
Dear Sister, i appreciate your worries about your sisters in UK. The British government did not propose so far any laws regarding hijab. They are more wise than the government in France. But unfortunately, they found one Muslim scholar in Britain who issued a wrong fatwa regarding hijab.
The government may depend on such wrong fatwas, but the assembly of Protection of Hijab on UK and in Europe is following up this matter with great concern. I do not believe in any case that the government in UK will prevent hijab.
Name
Fikri Sadik
- Belgium
Profession
Question
British anti Terror laws could push thousands of muslims to leave Britain because they will be seen as a suspects of any strange doing which could be done by any ethinc group... what is the role of the Muslim Community's leaders to prevent any negative side effects of these laws on Muslims?
Answer
It is the same we have said before. I would like to say to brother Fikry in Belgium that Muslims do not think of leaving UK. We are citizens of this country. The majority of Muslims are citizens and born in UK. They do not know and do not think of any other country. There are some rumors which are not good and may be from the enemies of Muslims and enemies of Islam. What is the use of democracy and freedom in the West? After Oklahoma bombing in America, did the family of Temothy think of leaving US? Did the US government ask them to leave America? Muslim community in UK should be aware of their rights and their duties. They should be happy with the freedom here and they should work to protect the society not to run away without valid reasons.
Name
Haris Hussain
- United States
Profession
CPA and Lawyer
Question
Do you believe that banning Hizbutahrir will be counter-productive?
Answer
My dear brother Harith, I do not believe that the government is right to ban any party or any group, and they have laws that can deal with every situation. I have seen some young members of Hizbutahrir and Al-Muhajirun who do not behave properly. But this does not mean that they should be banned, and I think that banning Hizbutahrir and Al-Muhajirun is not the proper solution. Blaire's government regime will be considered as a period of dictatorship more than a period of protecting security of UK.
I would like to say here it is the media in UK that promoted the leaders of Hizbutahrir and Al-Muhajirun. I hope that the government in UK will reconsider these proposals and that the parliament will not endorse them or adopt them as laws. If Hizbutahrir or Al-Muhajirun think or behave violently, they will bring more damage to the achievements of Islam and Muslims in the West.
Name
Bassam Gundi
- United Kingdom
Profession
Question
British Government has said it will deport what he described Muslim radicals to their homes without defining the measures which will be the base to determine who is radical or who is not.. so what do you think in dealing with this issue?
Answer
Again, the proposals of Blair were not defined properly, even the word "terrorism" is not so far defined or interpreted properly. There is no one definite interpretation for the word "terrorism". So when Blaire says "glorifying terrorism", this is a very vast undefined term. Most of the proposals are undefined properly. So, they need to be well-defined to have a genuine meaning. Anyway, any thing could be expected since Blaire and his government are prepared to amend the human rights act.
Name
syed
-
Profession
Question
Assalamalaykum,
The issue of integration has come up again. Having witnessed the rise of anti-Muslim sentiment in the USA, and now seeing some of the same happening in the UK, it seems to me that Muslims are being pushed into accepting that integration into the majority society will alleviate their suffering and build trust.
Islam, which does not accept, and sometimes explicitly rejects, some of the basic tenets of British, American or Western society would prevent this "integration". How do Muslims, who want to remain followers of their way of life protect their interests in non-Muslim lands? Should we try and integrate, loosen our morals, or just stick to the firm path of Islam, and leave the warmongers and haters alone?
Answer
Let me explain to our brother that the point raised by Blair in regard to integration is a valid point. Some of Muslims live in this society as if they are in isolated island.
So the government will review the threshold for people who will become British citizens. And the will set up a commission with Muslim leaders to ensure there is better integration from the less integrated sections of Muslims. It has nothing to do with religion, and would like to confirm here that those who do not integrate in the society or continue to live as they were in Dakka or Cratchy or Kabul, or even Cairo and Riyadh, do not serve da`wah properly, and their life in the West is useless. It is better for them to search for another place to live in.
I give them the example of the Prophet's Companion Mus`ab ibn `Umair who went to Medina, and after almost two years, he sent a message to the Prophet Muhammad informing him that there is hardly any house in Medina that did not see the light of Islam. Do you think that Mus`ab ibn Umair (may Allah be pleased with him) achieve this great aim without properly integrating into the society?
Name
Anwar
- United Kingdom
Profession
Engineer
Question
salaam
First of all what are your views on these anti-terror laws and will the future of muslims be good or bad in Britain?
Answer
I do always believe that the future of Muslims anywhere is good. Their future is not related only to this world; their future is related to the hereafter as well. As it is said in the Qur'an: "O those who have believed, have piousness and look into what you do in the future and have piousness." So working for the future for Muslims always starts with taqwa and ends with taqwa. The future for Muslims is extended to the Day of Judgment, and so short as others may think. It is not one hundred years or one thousand years, and even not one million years. It is more than that; it is up to the end of the world and the Day of Judgment.
It is also beyond that, in paradise but without work. So Muslims in any case will have a good future, but in this world and in UK the future is to find and to write their names in different encyclopedias as inventers and great philosophers than to write their names in the records of terrorists and extremists. We have very good examples of Muslims, Arabs and non-Muslim Arabs in the West, like doctor El Baz In NASA, USA, Dr. Ahmad Zuwail in USA, and Dr. Magdy Yaqub in Britain. We need more of these good examples. It is easy to become a terrorist or an extremist but it needs a lot of work, training and education to build a good character and become a moderate Muslim. Good future for Muslims should be built on more education and more better integration.
Name
Qomarudeen
- Nigeria
Profession
Student
Question
Do you realy believe that all the act of terrorism is been done by muslims, most expecially the Al qaidah or they are just trying to make people hate islam?
Answer
Brother Qomarudeen, thank you very much for your question. I do not believe that terrorist acts are done always by Muslims and I'm sure that some of them cannot be done by Muslims or by a Muslim organization like al Qaeda. Terrorist acts need more sophistication in planning and equipment, as well as in communication.
As we said earlier, Oklahoma bombing was not done by Muslims, and IRA (Irish Republican Army) for many years was practicing terrorism, and they are not Muslims. In Italy and Spain and other areas there are very famous terrorist groups that are not Muslims. Muslims are not responsible for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Muslims are not responsible for the holocaust, old and present. Best regard.
