Luton: Imam appeals for racial harmony

BBC LookEast has just carried a report from Friday Jumma prayer of the Islamic Centre that was driven from its building by an arson attack this week. The Iman at the Islamic Centre, Abdul Qadeer Baksh, made an impassioned appeal for moderation, peace and non violent response.

Its to be found at Imam appeals for racial harmony   (for seven days I guess), but this is most of what he said:

"... We the community of Luton, and specifically those that attend the Islamic Centre have faced this trial in our religion. We have faced an attack that has no doubt lifted away the security that we felt, and has no doubt created fear in the hearts of many of those who attend this community. The question we have to ask ourselves is how we should deal with this trial that we have faced. As a community, as Muslims, as a minority community living in a non-Muslim majority, let us make it absolutely explicity clear right now that in times of tribulation and trial like this news comes and news goes, people say things, people do things, reactions occur to certain events based upon information that is passed around the community and sometimes this information is incorrect, sometimes it is correct, but at times of trial information constantly changes.

So it is imperative that we act as Muslims should act in times of tribulation, in times of tests. But one things that is clear is something we witnessed on many of the right wing websites claiming that this attack was in response to the Muslim extremists who carried out the protests against the British army after they returned to UK from Iraq. Based upon this we reply to them, to those right wing extremists, and those who may support or are in agreement with such a cowardly attack against this community. We say that we at the Islamic Centre wish to make it clear that we have nothing to do with that tiny minority of Muslim extremists who carried out that protest without correct islamic guidance. No member of our Masjid, of our Islamic community, of our Islamic Centre had promoted that event or took part in that event. Rather we would go so far as saying that no one from this Islamic Centre associates himself with such a protest, not do they condone any type of protest against the British Army on their return.

(However saying that we do hold the war in Iraq as an illegal war, and we hold that Muslims were grossly oppressed in Iraq, just as many non Muslims hold this opinion also.)

Secondly, we will not retaliate in any violent manner whatsoever to this cowardly attack upon our community which was so dangerous that if the timing was changed it could havekilled or maimed or injured many children and adults. We at the Islamic Centre are the flag bearers of peace, of submission to this religion of al-Islam, whose meaning is  peace and submission. This is why we have called ourself the Islamic Centre. Islam means peace, it means submission. It does not mean terrorising, it does not mean maiming and killing, its does not call to protests and clamour and noise and rebelling, it does not call to commotion and division, but rather it calls to cohesion and unity.

We at the Islamic Centre, and I know I mediaam speaking for every member of this community here today, we free ourselves from that tiny minority of Muslims who carried out that protest.

It is believed that some of the extreme Muslim group were members here at one time, but the Islamic Center as so many mosques, has been working hard to control its membership. All credit to them, for while as the Iman said there is fear evident there in Bury Park, it is clear to those of us who work in the community that Luton is not the hotbed of terror or no go zone that some in the popular media regard it to be.

That is the message that I came across today in a blog post by CNN London reporter Andrew Carey: The media loves extremists – and extremists love the media.  I missed the article at the time it came out a week after the 10th march Army march, but it says all that I have been wanting the media to acknowledge.  Speaking of extremist preacher Anjem Choudary's "symbiotic relationship with certain sections of the media" Carey  looks at how  "... a small, though provocative, demonstration, ... garnered acres of coverage in the press and on TV. He conclude his article:

There will be plenty of winners from this. The papers, presumably, were happy with their stories. Choudary and his followers must be absolutely delighted: they can mine this one for weeks, if not months. And the far-right British National Party, the BNP, are exploiting it heavily as well: the story is all over the front-page of its Web site.

The main losers are the vast majority of people — Muslims and non-Muslims alike — who are getting a highly-skewed picture of what constitutes Muslim opinion in the UK. Because no matter how sincerely Choudary and his acolytes may hold their views, their support within Muslim communities is paltry.

Indeed, it’s been suggested to me by people intimately involved in de-radicalization that Al-Muhajiroun is losing ground, its followers’ heightened public presence over the last six months or so actually born out of frustration over lost momentum.

This is what is happening. Yes its not pleasant to hear Anjem Choudary and friends on the streets, but they are increasingly isolated in their community. That is why we could hear what we heard in the message above and believe it.

And lets try to isolate the English nationalists, BNP, whoever as well.   

Finally back to the Iman's words. They are a credit to the community and we can only pray that all parties seek such moderation. For peace only comes as we resist the very human urge to revenge and refuse to get drawn into the endless cycle of violence. 

There is more commentary on issues here over the past two months linked from here: Seeking Peace in Luton -- and Multicultural UK