Addressing Differences Between UK Muslims

Britain can boast a truly colorful mix of different traditions, opinions, and arguments

The answer should be relatively simple; the Prophet told the believers to fast and break their fast upon sighting the moon. Yet considering that some roads in London have over five mosques with each mosque claiming authority over a certain congregation, it is no wonder that the Muslim community in Britain is divided over a simple issue of when to start and end the fast.

Yet this lunar disagreement is only the surface of far more serious and disturbing differences within the Muslim community that sometimes lead to accusations, takfir (excommunication), and tension between the multitude of Islamic schools and sects to be found in Britain.

A colorful mix

People are worried about expressing their faith in ways they used to.

Britain can boast a truly colorful mix of different traditions, opinions, and arguments! I consider it as a fruitful and eclectic mix. I could go into one mosque and see pictures of the Ka`bah surrounded by Christmas tree lights and then leave and walk on down the road into another mosque that consists of four walls, two shelves, and not much else. Praying in two different mosques could mean either listening to the ramblings of an old man in a language I don't understand, or listening to a moving speech given by a well-spoken and thoughtful person who has planned what exactly he is going to say. You could attend one wedding that would deafen you with different kinds of music, whereas another would deafen you with different kinds of praises and religious poems! One imam might have to go and redo his wudu' (ablution) if he accidentally touched a woman while another might shake her hand and apologize.

Yet I don't see these differences as a problem. One of the beautiful things about religions — and Islam in particular — is the differences of opinions that exist within its context. This in itself is a most productive factor within a Britain that is now more diverse than it has ever been throughout its history of cultural exchange with almost every major European civilization, African and Asian migrants, and of course its trans-Atlantic adventure. British Christian sects even show many parallels with Islamic sects — the Pilgrim Fathers with their conservative counterparts in the Muslim world, Jehovah's Witnesses with groups that travel to preach Islam, and many other striking similarities.

Differences within the church helped develop Christian thought to a very important degree, and while there is no concept of a centralized authority within Islam, differences did in the past lead to the flourishing of legal, philosophical, and cultural fields that paved the way for a superior kind of society that saw different religions, different schools, and different cultures all live together in harmony, promoting love and tolerance as the essence of successful human living.

The problem of difference

How to deal with the problem of difference in Britain is something that bugs me. It isn't a situation where a group of people will cover their faces and others gather on a Sunday night to read dhikr; it's about whether or not to use the bus because maybe, just maybe, someone will decide to blow it up. The very notion would have made people laugh a few years ago, but now people warily agree that it's not so safe anymore. People are worried about expressing their faith in ways they used to. Colorful fashion statements, heated university debates, and even friendly banter are all overshadowed by a sense of paranoia and fear of the violence and extremism that so recklessly changed the character of the Muslim community.

But then one can't be defeatist in dealing with such phenomena, otherwise you will be defeated. You also cannot let it change your own principles of justice and freedom lest you too become tainted by its intolerance. What you must do is argue it out to the end and raise the illegitimacy of its arguments for all to see and show how dangerous and wrong extremism is. Now, I fear, the differences over when to begin and end the fast appear to be the least of our concerns this Ramadan.

Abdurrahman Al-Shayyal is a young British Muslim writer, some of whose writings appear in national newspapers. He is writing a book on the Arab world that is a humorous look at different cultural and traditional practices. He lives in London.