Open letter to all Muslim Leaders and Organisations.
from
Massoud Shadjareh
Islamic Human Rights Commission.
Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim
For some time I have felt the urge to write an open letter to Muslim community
leaders, activists and indeed the community at large.
During the last year, in particular the last few months and weeks, it has become
quite apparent to all of us that we are the target of vicious campaigns to
undermine and demonise our community and Islam, to equate us and the Deen with
the imagery of terrorism. This has gone so far that we now get the sacred day of
Eid ul-Adha equated and linked directly to terrorism. However, this is not being
done by the motley far-right, but by the Metropolitan Police Service and senior
Government Ministers. And I am afraid that our responses to these events and the
so-called 'War on Terror' and the pernicious 'War on Iraq', are totally
inadequate, not focused, ad hoc, reactionary, and leave a lot to be desired. For
example, on the day of Eid ul-Adha, after the announcement by the Metropolitan
Police Service, the first opportunity by the Muslim community to respond to this
came on Nicky Campbell's Radio 5 show. Representatives from the Muslim community
saw fit, rather than challenge the inj
ustice of the Metropolitan Police Service's and the Government's erroneous
link between Eid ul-Adha and terrorism, to attack one another as not being the
valid representative of the Muslim community. This type of 'War on Who
Represents the Muslim Community' has to stop.
I cannot remember any time in my life and indeed in recent history where Islam
and the Muslims are being targeted in this way, almost on a daily basis, not
just by the far-right or Zionists, but by mainstream media, the Metropolitan
Police Service, and even justified in the apologetic tone of so-called
representatives from our Muslim community. Even now on the day before the huge
demonstration under the banner of Stop The War coalition, we are witnessing
sections of our community arguing that it is haram to go to such a
demonstration, because you are accepting and marching under the banner of
Socialism, Communism and the other -isms. On the other side, another section of
the community is reportedly saying that we are only against the war on Iraq
without the second UN resolution.
My respected brothers and sisters, where is our focus? What are we doing? Whose
interest are we serving? If we continue to go on like this, our enemies will
continue to laugh at us. They do not have to divide and rule, we are doing that
for them. We are even doing a better job for them, than they could ever imagine!
The reality is, those of us who go to the march tomorrow, are going to challenge
injustice and stand as Muslims, to invite others to join us in the stand against
hypocrisy and the flagrant double standards of the UN and other institutions
which serve the interests of our enemies and legitimise injustice, be it
Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya, Kosovo, etc. Of course as Muslims if we do
anything other than that or indeed stay at home and do nothing, we have not been
true to our faith and covenant with Allah subhana ta'ala.
What our community has experienced in the recent months and years, no matter
what level of demonisation or humiliation thrown at our community, there are
always at least one or two organisations and or individuals willing to
legitimise these actions by going to dinner and tea parties at government
departments and embassies. They justify their attendance by the often repeated
mantra of "we need to communicate and represent the interests of our
community'. This has created the perception in the minds of Islamophobically-orientated
institutions that they can do anything and what they face in the aftermath is
little more than token remonstration.
How many of us realise the precedent that has been set by the raid at Finsbury
Park Mosque? Regardless of the views we hold as Muslims, we needed to take
a clear stance that the violation of any mosque is unacceptable, just as a raid
on a church or any other place of worship would be. Instead we have allowed the
British authorities to feel complacent that they can attack our sacred places
with impunity.
Likewise the actions of the Charity Commission. We cannot be insensible to
the fact that they are not only targetting Finsbury Park mosque, but also have
written to a number of mosques, complaining about the political nature of many
khutbahs and campaigns against Israeli goods, on the basis that these actions
are contradictory to charitable status. This contradicts their policy with
regard to other communities - we know that in churches, synagogues, Hindu and
Sikh temples, people are campaigning against war in Iraq, or in support of
Zionist Israel, or the fascist Hindu BJP etc. Yet mosques are the only
institution being targeted by the Charity Commission, prompted by amongst
others, the Community Security Trust and Andrew Dismore MP. Do you really think
that any other community would allow itself to be manipulated like this? We need
to be organised, we need to be focussed and we need to stop this race for
self-appointed representation of the community.
Let me make it quite clear, this level of demonisation of our community we are
experiencing, if it is allowed to continue will lead to genocide and ethnic
cleansing as witnessed in Nazi Germany and Milosevic's Serbia. History has shown
that this level of demonisation precedes ethnic cleansings and genocide. This
country is in danger of becoming a type of democracy that uses the demonisation
of a visible minority community to garner support for unpopular policies and
agendas. This resembles the same deplorable tactics used in the so-called
democracies of Hitler and Milosevic. We should understand that we are heading
down dark alleys of civil liberties curtailment, which if left unchecked could
result in facets of the above societies. Hence, our options are quite clear -
either we get our act together and save our community and the community at
large, or we continue to allow the predominance of the status quo and pay the
ultimate price.
I pray to Allah subhana wa ta'ala to guide us all onto the right path, and I for
forgiveness if I have been too harsh. But, I feel that our community deserves
more and our responsibility is to guide the community better than what we are
currently doing.
Your brother in Islam,
Massoud Shadjareh
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