Reforming Islam

I wrote about the murder of three young Muslim Americans on the blog site the other day which was a senseless, unprovoked crime.

But I don't see how the terrible Chapel Hall killings can be compared with events in Paris or Copenhagen where religious fanatics who were egged on by an organised network of religious fanatics set out to attack 'enemies' of the Muslim faith, and in particular Jews.

Of course Muslims in general are not responsible for the behaviour of the Islamic State and other terror groups, but in recent memory we have witnessed the religious leaders of Islam, i.e. the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, issue a 'fatwa' against Salman Rushdie which called on all good Muslims to murder the author for the 'crime' of writing a book.

So the tendency towards violence and committing murder in a just 'cause' is an issue that modern day Islam has got to confront because my reading of the Koran (Qur'an) is that if a Muslim chooses no longer to follow Islam or to follow another faith, then that is a 'crime' under Sharia law and is punishable by death.

Now that can't be acceptable in the 21st century surely and if so, why doesn't the Muslim Council for Britain stand up and say so because that would be a good start to a debate about the role of religion in a modern, secular democracy.    

We must stamp out hatred wherever we see it

Media reactions to the killings in Copenhagen and Chapel Hill have shown some worrying inconsistencies
 

British Muslims campaign outside the BBC headquarters in London against negative media portrayals of Muslims. Photograph: Guy Corbishley/Demotix/Corbis

By Shuja Shafi - secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain

I have been a hospital doctor for almost 40 years, mostly in the NHS, and have seen the impact of bereavement on families at close quarters. Grief transcends the boundaries of race and creed and it is with great sadness that we see how mindless violence has filled the last week.

It began with the murder of three young Americans in Chapel Hill in North Carolina, apparently because of their Muslim faith, and ended on Saturday night with shootings at a cafe and synagogue in Copenhagen. Muslims killed in Pakistan and Egyptian Christians in Libya only add to the rising death toll. These attacks reflect the worst in our society and I worry that the actions of a few who are intent on killing for no obvious reason other than hatred for the victims’ background, beliefs or points of view is creating fear that divides communities.

Copenhagen attacks: Danish police charge two men

The Muslim Council of Britain, of which I am secretary general, has consistently condemned violence, regardless of the identity of the perpetrator or victim. Our faith, like all faiths, is clear that no amount of dislike for a person’s belief ever justifies the taking of a life. Such acts of terror should face the full force of the law. But simply bringing the criminals to justice is not enough in itself.

The best way to defeat their hatred is to bring even stronger bonds between communities here in Britain. This is why, while we were deeply offended by the deliberate insults of Charlie Hebdo magazine, we condemned without equivocation the brutal attack in Paris. Our response to these insults was instead to mobilise imams (Muslim theological leaders) across the UK to express our deep sadness at the caricature of the Prophet Muhammad in newspapers in the UK for the first time, while exemplifying his ideals by rejecting any violent response. In addition, we organised an interfaith solidarity summit to show the world that terrorists should never divide us, and launched the #VisitMyMosque open day which sought to break the negativity around Muslims by demonstrating openness and transparency. To celebrate the United Nations Interfaith Week 2015, our major affiliate, Muslim Council of Wales, demonstrated historic brotherhood between Jews and Muslims by organising a dinner reception to Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis at Cardiff City Hall on 4 February.

However, it is with great sadness that we seem to observe a lack of consistency in the response by senior politicians and the media to these violent attacks. When a perpetrator is assumed to be Muslim and the victims are not Muslim, there is, and in our view rightly, extensive coverage of such crimes and condemnations at the highest level of government. Yet when Muslims are the victims of such crimes, the same sense of outrage is not visible. A case in point is the murder in Chapel Hill of three young Muslims, where only after the intervention of President Erdogan and sustained outrage on social media, was there any response by the establishment and little coverage in the UK.

This inconsistency from bodies that are meant to represent us all, breeds mistrust and an increased sense of being seen as the “other” – a key factor in the radicalisation of young people.

But these incidents have also demonstrated the danger posed by the growth in hatred. As the sister of one of those murdered in Chapel Hill highlighted, it may be inevitable that the relentless negative characterisation of Muslims within the media leads to these acts of violence.

In just the past two weeks in the UK, a mosque has been attacked in Norwich, a lady wearing a headscarf was threatened on the London underground without anyone coming to her aid, a headteacher let us know that parents were removing their children from religious education class because Islam was being taught, a school governor informed us of a growing trend of Islamophobia among children in a school – and this is over and above the consistent hate mail, verbal abuses and media excesses that seem to form part and parcel of life, as hatred against Muslims has become normalised.

To combat the evolving threat we face from such increased hatred, I believe we need both a top-down and bottom-up approach.

FBI opens inquiry into North Carolina shooting deaths of Muslim students

At the national level, the government and senior politicians must be consistent in raising the profile and tackling all hate crimes equally, through a strategy fully co-ordinated with all those communities impacted. In particular, the Department for Education must act to counter anti-Muslim prejudice in schools, and all hate crimes must be recorded by the relevant authorities and appropriate protection and support provided where needed. The media’s portrayal of Muslims is hugely negative and inconsistent – but only through self-reflection from journalists is this likely to change.

At the grassroots level, we must work hard to change the discourse of hate, and drive it away from the dinner table – it should no longer be seen as socially acceptable to speak about all adherents to a particular faith in such a derogatory manner. And while great interfaith work is being done up and down the country, communities still need to deepen their growing ties by working more closely together, as we have tried to do, for example, through a joint statement with the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which called for constructive dialogue.

In the end, it is only through a consistent and unified approach across all levels of society that we have a chance of combating the scourge of Islamophobia, antisemitism and hate that seeks to sow division and fear in our society, and which provides fertile ground for further violent attacks here in the UK.

I believe we have the goodwill and the opportunity to ensure that divisive forces are defeated. A safer and stronger Britain would be the result.