I have experienced the perils of trying to convince racists. My conclusion from that experience is that one should not pay much attention to them. Rather, one should concentrate on giving out positive message to others. Complains should be occasional, and only when absolutely unavoidable.
One such situation seems to have come up. With Britain’s Channel Four, which is not a very small enterprize, becoming a racist, one hardly can ignore. Muslim bloggers all over seem to be disturbed.
So here is a brief, but strong, refutation and clarificatins of the Channel Four program.
It seems you’ve given a wrong link of things for “becoming a racist”.
I can’t repay your debt, Diganta, you have corrected me again. I will find out and post the correct link, inshaAllah (God Willing).
I saw the video. I amaze what’s really going on … the program attacks wahabism and says that it opposes the classical tolerance in Islam. If such message is spreading throughout, we’re in danger. I saw a single reference to India – “to attack Indian Business”. Thank God I am not a Jew, the speeches are almost all against them. How to stop spread of this messages is a concern to me.
How this mosque and the preachings were not brought forward by some Muslims is the first question to me. Had I been a Muslim, and participated in any of these meetings, I would have straight away gone to the Police Station and reported against the preacher. It was needed to protect the religion from these people, the same way India should be saved from Modis.
Your concerns of growing racial hatred is true, but the same time you can see the imams preachings the same. With a little knowledge in Islam, even I can tell you (and you can confirm) what was told by the Imams are not supported in Islam or by Muslims. Jews and Christians are infact given a special status in Islamic viewpoint as “people of the book”.A lot of Jewish scholars, who had to flee Church-led Europe, were given place in Arab kingdoms. Who’ll get these message to the otherwise ignorant UK common people?
It is quite clear to me, that the majority of anti-Jewish sentiment that is being spouted by some Imams and their followers, is directly linked to the action of the Israelis. It would be interesting to compare the rhetoric of Imams before and after the imposition of the State of Israel upon the Arab world. I wouldn’t be surprised if attitudes became increasedly racist after the 1940s.
Zionism and Judaism are not meant to be the same thing, according to many orthodox Jews. However, i find there are a significant population of Jews (and even greater number of Christians) living outside of Israel who blindly support its existance and its actions. They have been somewhat brainwashed by the Zionist propoganda machine, which constantly reminds them that the Jews are an endangered species, and thus any atrocities they carry out, are for the sake of survival and self-defence.
However, i feel that there are few governments in the world who can justifiably speak out against the actions of Israel, without being labeled as hypocrites. What gives the Arab governments any rights to be lecturing Israel about human rights abuses, and who are the US & UK to be telling Israel off (if they’d dare) about the indiscriminate killing of civilians during war offensives?
Diganta
I have corrected the link. Thanks once again for pointing out.
iMuslim
thanks for saving me a lot of typing!
P.S., before i am accused of racism, i’d like to point out my explanation for the probable/possible cause of increased anti-Jewish sentiment by certain Muslims, does not mean i condone this kind of black & white attitude to world affairs. It is obvious that not all Jews are the same, just as not all Muslims are the same. To fall into that trap of thinking is to give victory to terrorists on both sides of the Muslim:Jewish fence.
“Had I been a Muslim, and participated in any of these meetings, I would have straight away gone to the Police Station and reported against the preacher.”
From an Islamic perspective, it would be better if the individual Imam was first reprimanded by his peers, such as fellow Imams or members of the congregation. If he ceased to change his ways, then tougher actions should be take by the community to educate him. If he still refuses to budge, he should be shunned and the people warned against him (though is he still considered a Muslim) until he sees sense. If all else fails, and he is inciting acts of hatred and violence, then the Police or other authorities should be called in.
I would not involve the Police immediately as that would cause more harm than good, unless, of course, there was some kind of imminent danger that needed their urgent attention.
I don’t have a statistics of how many Jews do support Israeli offensive against Palestein/Lebanon, but accusing all Jews for that this too much. And of course, killing a single innocent is against humanity. There are sevaral thousand reasons can be spawned of to justify any of the racist remarks by these Imams, but none will justify it.
The suggestion you’ve given to rectify the individual Imam is absolutely perfect, but is there an effort already in place? Or the entire energy is been invested to protest against the media?
I am worried because it asks to target ‘Indian business’ also. May be you’d say that it is linked to Kashmir. But, I can tell you, that targetting Indian business will not damage the people who are behind Kashmir problem rather complicate it. And the victims would again be more innocents.
I’m afraid i didn’t hear the part about Indian businesses.
Considering that a significant proportion of Muslims in the UK, are of Indian origin, i don’t see what sense it makes to target Indian businesses. In what way did they say to target them?
There was an attempt a few years ago to boycott Hindu businesses, in response to the troubles in Gujarat, i think. It was highly unsuccessful. My mother informed me that one reason for its failure was because the Muslim businesses hiked up their prices when they knew that they would be receiving more custom from the boycott! Sometimes, i just despair of our community… May Allah guide us!
“The suggestion you’ve given to rectify the individual Imam is absolutely perfect, but is there an effort already in place? Or the entire energy is been invested to protest against the media?”
To be honest, i have no idea… us Muslims are a large heterogenous group, even though we are a minority in the U.K. I imagine there has been some kind of “clean up”, especially after the 7/7 bombings. I do attend many gatherings these days, as i have become more tied down by my project. Even then, the majority of talks given are on non-political issues. Rather they concentrate on ways to improve one’s character and belief. I am not sure what happens at the khutbahs (sermons given at Friday prayers), as i rarely attend them, except on Eid.
There was an attempt a few years ago to boycott Hindu businesses, in response to the troubles in Gujarat, i think. It was highly unsuccessful. My mother informed me that one reason for its failure was because the Muslim businesses hiked up their prices when they knew that they would be receiving more custom from the boycott! Sometimes, i just despair of our community… May Allah guide us!
- I donno why exactly you are looking for help from God in this regard, but I can tell you that Hindu business in UK has no way contributed towards the Gujarat case!! Hindus business in UK includes Bangali Hindu business, Keralite Hindu business and may be a large section of Punjabi Hindu business. Even though I cannot bet that Gujrati businessmen in UK did not support Modi, the others as I mentioned, were certainly out of Modi loop.
Even then, the majority of talks given are on non-political issues. Rather they concentrate on ways to improve one’s character and belief.
– That is the way it should be.
If you think this video is not enough you can go through the Saudi Textbook review :
http://www.gulfinstitute.org/IGA051605/IGA-FH-SaudiReport.pdf
You’ll see a lot of remarks against Jews are made irrespective of Israel, even quoted the Holy Qu’raan and Hadeeth.
Diganta, the remark “May Allah guide us” was in relation to the dodgy business ethics of certain members of my community (which is Gujarati Muslim).
I have little knowledge of the Gujarat problem, and what i have read, has horrified me. When it comes to community matters, i have even less idea what is going on, because it is pretty much a “boy’s club”…
I haven’t read the pdf file yet, but i know there are many quotes in the Qur’an, where God reprimands the Jewish nation for their mistakes. He is reminding them of the covenant which they made with God, to be a believing nation that adheres to the straight path. He also calls them back to this path, by accepting Muhammad and His message, which is the same message that was sent down with Moses, and all the intervening Prophets (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon them all).
Both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible contain similar verses, which strongly rebuke those believers (which are now known as Jews & Christians) who commit great sins, and yet arrogantly call themselves “Children of God”. This style is nothing new, as Islam is nothing new.
I didn’t want you to explain you why they were like that but I wanted you to see how they are taught. If they were taught with a context like what you are giving to me, it would have been the best possible textbook.
Sorry Diganta, i didn’t mean to go all defensive on you! Perhaps, in this current climate, you can understand why i did.
I will read the pdf asap… thanks.
Diganta,
I looked at the website of the Institute for Gulf Studies. It looks very interesting.
Let me quote the Iraq’s profile from the website:
Sounds intersting, especially if you know the background in a bit more detail.
Iraq attacked Iran not due to some border dispute. Rather, it wanted to occupy Iran, just as it did Kuwait later. The attack was actively supported by US, who provided them with arms and ammunition. Above all, the chemical and biological weapons. One million people died, mostly Iranians, during the war. The UN kept quiet when chemical weapon was being used on Iran. Does that make things a bit more intersting?
If not, there is more to it. After Saddam turned rebel, UN became worried. The UNSC placed demands that was not acceptable to any sovereign nation.
Oh yeah, and it did not mention the human and infrastructural cost of the war on Iraq. And it does not mention that Saddam Hussain was an elected leader (the UN monitored the elections in the hope of finding evidences of corruption in the process, I somewhat remember).
It does not mention, also, that after the occupation (or if you insist, liberation), US oil companies…( er… well… do I really need to complete the sentence?)
By not saying all that, the paragraph proves that it is not written by an ‘independent’ group, but a pro-US group.
About us page is also quite intersting: the institute
And what understading? The US actively helps the non-democratic government in UAE, so that they have an upper hand. They fund and promote people who talk about the women being denied driving license in UAE. At the same time they supply UAE government with arms.
Strange world, this is.
Okay now let us take on the report.
At page 10:
The twelfth grade text for boys on Hadith and Islamic Culture, 2005-6, states:
Well… umm… what exactly is offensive in that?
Of course it is very offensive. It asks one to fight against oppression. The very fruit upon which the US is living on.
And what the hell is Jihad against unbelief? Is it not a call to fight all non-Muslims?
It is ‘Jihad against unbelief’ and not ‘Jihad against unbelievers’. I hope it does not require further clarification.
So, does it not ask you to spread the religion?
Is trying to spread one’s faith a crime? It would be wrong if one tried to convert by force. But Qur’an(2:256, Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s translation) says “There shall be no force in matters of religion”. So Islam does not aim at forced conversions. In fact it forbids forced conversions: (Qur’an) “don’t you realize, that if your Lord had so willed, everybody would have believed. Will you then force others to believe?”
Yes, fight of good and evil will be ever present! It sounds odd when presented in Islamic language to a non-Muslim audience.
If you’ve gone through the PDF (I won’t comment on the former, the site, because I didn’t go through it), you’ll find several bad statements made. My point was especially towards anti-Jewish statements those we were discussing. See Page 24-25 of the PDF.
“Some of the people of the Sabbath were punished by being turned into apes and swine. Some of them were made to worship the devil, and not God, through consecration, sacrifice, prayer, appeals for help, and other types of worship. Some of the Jews worship the devil. Likewise, some members of this nation wo rship devil, and not God.”
““Narrated by Abu Hurayrah: The Prophet said, The hour [of judgment] will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. [It will not come] until the Jew hides behind rocks and trees. [It will not come] until the rocks or the trees say, ‘O Muslim! O servant of God! There is a Jew behind me. Come and kill him.’ Except for the gharqad, which is a tree of the Jews.””
I understand your point of mistaking identity of Jihad. By now, I have understood the concept and Jihad and don’t see it to be equivalent with suicide bombing. It was pathetically used by some anti-socials for their purpose and them made famous by know-all media.
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