The American Spectator

At Large

Voices of Muslim Moderation

By Hal G.P. Colebatch on 8.23.06 @ 12:07AM

Ali Miraj is a young British Muslim who may go places in the British Conservative Party. He has been twice endorsed by the Conservatives to contest Parliamentary elections and is a board member of the Conservative Party Policy Review on International and National Security. He has written an article in the conservative Daily Telegraph in the immediate aftermath of the airliner bombing plot, headlined: "Muslim anger must be recognized." He says a recent poll indicates more than 100,000 of 1.6 million Muslims in Britain see nothing wrong with terrorism against Britain such as the 7/7 train bombings (some others put the number higher).

He continues that in many mosques up and down the country,

We are constantly reminded that there is a perpetual battle between the righteous (Muslims) and the "kuffar" (non-believers). You will find no "love thy neighbor" sermons of the kind I heard as a child at an Anglican primary school.

In addition to this, anti-Jewish sentiment appears to be hard-wired into a number of Muslims I meet. At the last general election, I remember being told by some of Watford's taxi drivers, slurping the froth from their pints of lager, that they could not vote for me as the leader of my party, Michael Howard, was a Jew.

He then got down to what might be seen as the nitty-gritty:

But it is the foreign policy pursued by the US and Britain, not deprivation or a clash of values, in my view, that is the principal catalyst of radicalization. A leaked Home Office report on relations with the Muslim community from 2004 itself recognized the 'perception of double standards in British foreign policy.'

Tony Blair argues that Muslims have a "false sense of grievance" towards the West. He is wrong. The overwhelming majority of Muslims find themselves on a continuum ranging from "deeply upset" to "extremely angry."

The sense of frustration at the injustice faced by Muslims across the world as a consequence of the foreign policies of the West (principally the US) is palpable. Mr. Blair's refusal to call for an immediate ceasefire in response to the current war in Lebanon only reinforces the view held by more than half of British Muslims that the war on terror is a war on Islam ...

So, surprise! Surprise! Islamic terrorism is the West's fault. In Britain it is also, it seems, Tony Blair's fault for being insufficiently opposed to Israel. Mr. Miraj continues: "There is no doubt that all British Muslims, not just their self-proclaimed leaders, must to do more to combat intolerance in their midst. That task is made more difficult when, despite all the mass protests against the war in Iraq, the Government is seen not to have listened."

While he acknowledges that Blair did call for the intervention in Kosovo to save Muslim lives, this evidently does not win him or his Government much gratitude: "The Government must recognize the anger that its foreign policies arouse. There is much talk of strengthening the [Muslim] moderates and rooting out extremists, but policy-makers should be aware of how rapidly the moderates are becoming frustrated. The disturbing reality is that as their frustration grows, so will the fringe prepared to resort to violence."

Shortly after this, James Chapman reported in the Daily Mail on the outcome of talks between about 30 prominent moderate Muslim leaders and British "Communities Secretary" Ruth Kelly aimed at defusing extremism and encouraging Muslim moderation. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott also attended. Some of the Muslim leaders at this meeting of minds, for their part, made a series of demands including official Muslim religious holidays in Britain and Sharia law.

Chapman reported: "Dr. Syed Aziz Pasha, secretary general of the Union of Muslim Organizations of the UK and Ireland, said: 'We told her if you give us religious rights, we will be in a better position to convince young people that they are being treated equally along with other citizens.'"

This of course implies that Moslems are not being given religious rights at present, though how this fits in with "Mosques up and down the country" (there are now several thousand) I am not sure. I have written elsewhere of such bizarre recent cases as an English lady being forced by police to remove a collection of toy china pigs from her front window in case passing Muslims saw them and were offended, and prison officers being prohibited from wearing Cross of St. George badges because of alleged Crusader associations -- I have a thick file of things like this. Chapman continued:

Dr. Pasha said Miss Kelly had agreed to look at the proposals, though her spokesman insisted later that she did not favor any legal change which would give 'special treatment' for the Muslim community.

Some of the moderate Muslim leaders told Miss Kelly that important days in Ramadan and Eid-ul-Adha should be made public holidays for Muslims. Some (not all) the Muslim leaders attending also said Sharia law should also be introduced in Britain. While this specifies stonings and amputations as criminal punishments, Dr Pasha said moderately that he wanted it only for family, not criminal, law.

"We are willing to co-operate but there should be a partnership," Dr Pasha was quoted as saying. "They should understand our problems then (sic) we will understand their problems."

There was apparently no suggestion that countries like Saudi Arabia should in return publicly recognize and celebrate Christian festivals and holidays, or that Westerners or Christians in Islamic countries should be given their own courts too.

A statement by three Muslim MPs, three peers, and 38 community groups said the alleged "debacle" of Iraq, combined with the recent failure to do more to bring about an immediate end to the Middle East conflict -- presumably a reference to the Israel-Hezbollah fighting -- had encouraged Muslim extremists in Britain.

In another development, Britain's most senior Muslim police officer, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, has blamed racial profiling at airports for adding to tensions and Muslim resentment -- this at a time when, according to the Telegraph, British police are involved in more than 70 anti-terrorist investigations involving more than 100 suspected Islamic extremists.

Let us step back and consider briefly what Britain has apparently done in the way of foreign policy to earn the homicidal, suicidal hatred of so many Moslems who have been born in Britain and lived their lives with the protection, benefits, and opportunities it has provided.

Well, Britain has supported the U.S. in Iraq in overthrowing Saddam Hussein, a ruthless, aggressive dictator who threatened to destabilize the whole region. Since then it has, like the U.S., spent lives and treasure keeping the peace and preventing or attempting to prevent massacres and genocide between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, and in trying to build a more normal civil society. Many Iraqis have expressed very emphatic thanks.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Foreign Policy, Religion, Islam, Law, Iraq, Israel, Oil