27th October 2009

WE TURN OUR BACKS ON THE PREACHERS OF HATE

The intended march by a tiny minority group is an affront to almost every British citizen.

We believe:

• It is a flagrant misrepresentation of the teachings of a beautiful religion that is dear to 2 million British Muslims.
  
  
• It hijacks noble religious traditions and institutions by stealing Arabic and religious terminology and grossly misrepresenting it.
  
  
• It throws mud at every community mosque across Britain, as well as at Britain’s churches, synagogues and other places of worship.
  
  
• It insults the legacy of all the Messengers of God, and most of all, the legacy and sunnah (way) of the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless them all and grant them peace.
  
  

The handful of followers of Islam4UK do not preach peace or decency; they do not preach Islam. Their actions cause social unrest, anxiety and hate.

We turn our backs on the preachers of hate. It is our firm belief that through this message, We are also the vast, almost complete majority of British Muslims. We are the overwhelming majority of British citizens. And together, We must come together to reject the distortions, misrepresentations and hate messages of 31st October 2009.

Who are Islam4UK? They are essentially the very few remaining followers of Omar Bakri Muhammad – a group that will be accompanied on the day by a small crowd of gullible invited individuals caught up by the event. ‘Islam4UK’ is the latest name in a line of names used by Omar Bakri’s supporters (names that have included 'Hizb-ut-Tahrir' under Omar Bakri, 'Al-Muhajiroun', 'Party of the Future', 'the Saved Sect' and 'Al-Ghurabah'). None of Britain’s hundreds of mainstream scholars and imams endorse their attitudes or antics. 

The event’s promotional material says such an event has never taken place before – that is not correct: Omar Bakri and his followers have been putting on this kind of event at Trafalgar Square almost every year since the mid 1990s. But this year, things are different. The same few individuals behind this event were the ones holding offensive placards when British soldiers returned home from their duties in Iraq. This touched a raw nerve with many of us, non-Muslims and Muslims alike, and has provoked an aggressive reaction by far right groups. There has been an increase in violence against ordinary Muslims and mosques. Ironically, both sides continue to abuse Islamic terminology on placards and internet blogs. Both sides peddle hate and social unrest: they are two faces of the same crooked coin.

The event’s promotional material defaces historical English buildings, plants foreign flags on top of them in mock photos and insults customary traditions and the central place of civil democracy in our society. These are insults designed to maximise agitation, anxiety and alarm – some fall for this agitation whilst others take full advantage of it to justify their own prejudices against Muslims. The tactics by Omar Bakri’s followers are a perversion and misrepresentation of Islamic teachings and good practice – they also once again demonstrate how uninformed the followers are about even basic Islamic teachings on decency and social and political thought.

This handful of people use Arabic words stolen from Islamic traditions to give an impression of their ideas having religious merit . They will use words like ‘Shariah’ (a path), ‘Allah’ (God), ‘Deen’ (religion), ‘Haq’ (higher truth), ‘Khilafah’ (a nation state) and so on. Why? Because they want their messages to appear Islamic, because they know most people (including Muslims) cannot normally grasp what these words mean and many citizens feel threatened by the use of these words.

• To our fellow Muslim Britons:  Do the actions of Omar Bakri’s supporters on 31st March represent your beautiful religion?
  
  
• To fellow people of faith: You can help by standing against the tide of anti-Muslim hatred in all its ugly forms.
  
  
• To our fellow countrymen and women far and wide: We have a precious country people have lost lives for and we have a well earned reputation for fair play. Will we allow these extremists to tarnish our perception of ordinary, decent Muslims, railroading our valued tradition of tolerance and fair-play?
  
  
• To the handful of supporters of ‘Islam4UK’:  We urge you to think about the many consequences of your actions. Is this really what the blessed prophet Muhammad taught us?  

Islamic Society of Britain

 

Attachment

A short note on the Shariah

Islam4UK have called their event the ‘March 4 Shariah’. The Sharia is a broad and complex historical development in Islamic scholarship and no short piece (let alone a rally) can do justice to its richness and depth. Nevertheless, we feel it is important some immediate ideas concerning the Shariah are addressed. 

The word Shariah is one of the most provocative words - it is greatly misunderstood amongst Muslims and society as a whole. This allows the word to be abused as a powerful political tool by religious parties and groups from the Islamic world, including by far right supremacist groups.

The word Shariah originally meant ‘a path to the water source’ such as to a lake. It also means a pathway generally – in fact motorways are often called that where Arabic is spoken. The Muslim scripture (Quran/Koran) uses the term when it describes God’s guidance to humanity as a path for humanity. This is where the term comes from when it comes to the area of law.

The Prophet Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace) lived during the sixth century – he never expressly used the term ‘Shariah’ to pronounce a series of legal judgements. In fact he hardly used it at all to mean law, if at all. That is because he was much more concerned with achieving justice amongst people and when it came to disputes, not with trumpeting a name. The same is true for his successors. It was not until about 100 years after the Prophet Muhammad that the area of Justice came to be named the area of Shariah – any just legal system is after all civil society’s path to justice among citizens.

The immediate point is that where there is justice, there is ‘Shariah’. Where a legal system provides justice, there is already a ‘Shariah system’ in place. Where there is good law, there is a ‘Shariah law’. It is not something that is ‘implemented’ in the way ‘Islam4UK’ (and others) talk threateningly about. It is not about medieval laws in 2009 or Arabian laws in Great Britain – it is a concept of legal thought that looks for the most just laws for any society. And you can be assured there are more just laws (that is, Islamic laws) present in our English legal system than in Syria, Saudi Arabia, and so on. Using foreign words and foreign imagery does not make something more Islamic or religious.