Saturday, April 07, 2007
Muslims must take responsibility
Muslims must take responsibility
Telegraph.co.uk, UK
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/06/nplot406.xml
Muslims must take responsibility
By Zia Haider Rahman
Last Updated: 1:22am BST 06/04/2007
Yesterday saw three men charged with the July 7 bombings. Chillingly, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command, said "I firmly believe that there are other people who have knowledge of what lay behind the attack in July 2005 - knowledge that they have not shared with us, in fact I don't only believe it, I know it for a fact." What he is referring to is the rotten truth that sections of Britain's Muslim community are shielding terrorists.
With eerily good timing, characteristic of this government, Ruth Kelly yesterday announced an action-plan to "win the hearts and minds" of the Muslim community in the fight against extremism. Appended to a report brimming with the usual soundbites and worthy sentiments is a considerably more illuminating study by the academic Tufyal Chaudhury, commissioned by Ruth Kelly's department, examining the causes of radicalisation of Muslim youth. While the study identifies the perceived public disparagement of Muslims as one cause, any Muslim reading the report should focus on the observations about the Muslim community's own failure: "The appeal of radical groups reflects, in part, the failure of traditional religious institutions and organisations to connect with young people and address their questions and concerns."
In no small measure, responsibility for the actions of the July 7 terrorists must fall upon those institutions and organisations, the mosques and madrassahs, and, most importantly, the homes. Responsibility lies not only with the extremists but also with those who have failed to answer the young Muslim's search for identity and who must now urgently build a solid and capacious identity for their youth that honours religious claims but puts integration squarely in the centre. It must be a workable identity that is lived and breathed in Muslim homes and is large enough to accommodate the nuances of identities that differentiate us as individuals.
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This work can only be done if British Muslims take responsibility for what is going on in their midst rather than persisting in pointing the finger of blame at external causes. Radicalisation might well owe something to a perceived culture of criticism of Islam, but a Muslim culture of victimhood will obscure the need for Muslims to take responsibility for those things that they - and they alone - can actually change.
Not before time, the self-appointed leaders of the Muslim community (the Muslim Council of Britain, to name one), have come under fire, but it will be necessary for Muslims to organize under a leadership that has a mandate and therefore authority not only to voice the concerns of the community but also to lead the community in the direction of integration and of making Britain home.
The shielding of terrorists belies the uncomfortable truth that many Muslims of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin do not regard Britain as home. Those who are civically engaged in these communities, as I am in London's East End, know all too well that many Muslim parents teach their children that home is elsewhere, a hamlet in Pakistan or a village in Bangladesh. Against that upbringing, what possible hope is there that a young Muslim will grow up with a faith that he has a British identity, that his place is here and not in some imaginary homeland?
Unless British Muslims recognise their responsibilities and act to develop new identities with a demonstrated commitment to Britain and manifest that commitment in the messages they impart to their children, Islamic extremists, determined to terrorize, will flourish among us.
Zia Haider Rahman is a writer and lawyer
Telegraph.co.uk, UK
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/06/nplot406.xml
Muslims must take responsibility
By Zia Haider Rahman
Last Updated: 1:22am BST 06/04/2007
Yesterday saw three men charged with the July 7 bombings. Chillingly, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command, said "I firmly believe that there are other people who have knowledge of what lay behind the attack in July 2005 - knowledge that they have not shared with us, in fact I don't only believe it, I know it for a fact." What he is referring to is the rotten truth that sections of Britain's Muslim community are shielding terrorists.
With eerily good timing, characteristic of this government, Ruth Kelly yesterday announced an action-plan to "win the hearts and minds" of the Muslim community in the fight against extremism. Appended to a report brimming with the usual soundbites and worthy sentiments is a considerably more illuminating study by the academic Tufyal Chaudhury, commissioned by Ruth Kelly's department, examining the causes of radicalisation of Muslim youth. While the study identifies the perceived public disparagement of Muslims as one cause, any Muslim reading the report should focus on the observations about the Muslim community's own failure: "The appeal of radical groups reflects, in part, the failure of traditional religious institutions and organisations to connect with young people and address their questions and concerns."
In no small measure, responsibility for the actions of the July 7 terrorists must fall upon those institutions and organisations, the mosques and madrassahs, and, most importantly, the homes. Responsibility lies not only with the extremists but also with those who have failed to answer the young Muslim's search for identity and who must now urgently build a solid and capacious identity for their youth that honours religious claims but puts integration squarely in the centre. It must be a workable identity that is lived and breathed in Muslim homes and is large enough to accommodate the nuances of identities that differentiate us as individuals.
advertisement
This work can only be done if British Muslims take responsibility for what is going on in their midst rather than persisting in pointing the finger of blame at external causes. Radicalisation might well owe something to a perceived culture of criticism of Islam, but a Muslim culture of victimhood will obscure the need for Muslims to take responsibility for those things that they - and they alone - can actually change.
Not before time, the self-appointed leaders of the Muslim community (the Muslim Council of Britain, to name one), have come under fire, but it will be necessary for Muslims to organize under a leadership that has a mandate and therefore authority not only to voice the concerns of the community but also to lead the community in the direction of integration and of making Britain home.
The shielding of terrorists belies the uncomfortable truth that many Muslims of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin do not regard Britain as home. Those who are civically engaged in these communities, as I am in London's East End, know all too well that many Muslim parents teach their children that home is elsewhere, a hamlet in Pakistan or a village in Bangladesh. Against that upbringing, what possible hope is there that a young Muslim will grow up with a faith that he has a British identity, that his place is here and not in some imaginary homeland?
Unless British Muslims recognise their responsibilities and act to develop new identities with a demonstrated commitment to Britain and manifest that commitment in the messages they impart to their children, Islamic extremists, determined to terrorize, will flourish among us.
Zia Haider Rahman is a writer and lawyer
Labels: moderates, muslims, responsibility
