LONDON, 11 November 2007 — This past week has once again been a bad week for Muslims in the news in the UK. This has been partly out of the control of British Muslims and partly due to the utterings of so-called British Muslim leaders.
Muhammad Abdul Bari, the secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), following an interview in the Daily Telegraph yesterday precipitated a strong reaction from various organizations and individuals when he warned that the British government and officials are stoking up tensions in society which put Muslims in a negative light and equating them as terrorists.
The 52-year-old Dr. Abdul Bari, who is a Special Needs teacher in Tower Hamlets, a London borough with a large Bangladeshi population, stressed that "there is a disproportionate amount of discussion surrounding us. The air is thick with suspicion and unease. It is not good for the Muslim community, it is not good for society."
The interview drew strong response from ministers who reiterated that Britain in its anti-terrorism policy is not stereotyping or stigmatizing on the basis of race or religion. It was the duty of the British government to protect all its citizens and if the police and intelligence services, MI5 and MI6, warn that they have identified about 2,000 potential 'Islamist' radicals who could end up as suicide bombers, then it is up to the authorities to act to pre-empt outrages as the 7/7 bombings targeting the London transport system two years ago, in which 52 innocent people were killed.
Perhaps Dr. Abdul Bari and the MCB could have been more refined in their timing. The interview was published on the day of the annual Lord Mayor's Show in the City of London, when parades and floats pass through streets and when all those linked to the City showpiece their involvement, links and contribution to it.
It was published a day before Commemoration Sunday, the annual event when the British nation remembers its dead in the past wars including the Great War (1914-1918); the Second World War; The Korean War; The War in the Far East; The two Gulf Wars; and the current campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. To raise such politically charged issues at a time when the nation was reflecting on its war dead, which included many Muslims fighting against the Nazis and the Japanese, perhaps reflects the inexperience of the leadership of the MCB.
"Whilst the MCB has a point about the British media going on about what some 'Muslims do wrong', they have not done enough to articulate the good things Muslims have and are contributing to this country," explained Raficq Abdullah, a well-known Muslim lawyer, commentator and Shariah Finance Advisor.
"The MCB, an umbrella organization which is not representative of British Muslims, could help to do more about engaging in the positive aspects of Muslim life in the UK. The MCB, for instance, could have participated in the Lord Mayor's Show with a float highlight the role of Muslim communities in London," he added.
The NCB claims to have 500 affiliate organizations in the UK but is regarded as representing only about a third of such organizations.
Dr. Abdul Bari was outspoken when he attacked Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, for painting a bleak picture of the so-called 'Islamist terrorist threat' within Britain, when he warned that a few British Muslim children as young as 15 are in danger of being groomed by the radicals to carry out suicide attacks. This was done on the eve of the Queen's Speech at the Opening of Parliament last Tuesday. He warned that such utterances together with those of politicians could poison the atmosphere in the UK akin to that in the 1930's in Germany about Jews just prior to Hitler and the Nazis coming to power.
"Every society has to be really careful so the situation doesn't lead us to a time when people's minds can be poisoned as they were in the 1930s. If your community is perceived in a very negative manner, and poll after poll says that we are alienated, then Muslims begin to feel very vulnerable. We are seen as creating problems, not as bringing anything and that is not good for any society."
Perhaps this was an unfortunate analogy, betraying Dr Abdul Bari's lack of sense of history. The Jews, as one Muslim leader, who wished to remain anonymous, stressed, did not form suicide bombings against the Germans let alone the Nazis. "We need more able Muslim leaders who are media savvy," he added.
Dr. Abdul Bari, perhaps as many British Muslims would agree, had a point when he said that there is no such thing as Islamic terrorism.
"Terrorists are terrorists, they may use religion but we shouldn't say Muslim terrorists, it stigmatises the whole community. We never called the IRA Catholic terrorists. I think it is creating a scare in the community and wider society. It probably helps some people who try to recruit the young to terrorism. Muslim young people are as vulnerable as any others. Under this climate of fear they will begin to feel victimized."
On another point - the extention of the time police can question terror suspects beyond the current 28 days - as the Brown Government proposed to legislate in the Queens Speech - the MCB is in line with the Opposition Conservatives and Liberal Democrats and many civil liberty organizations including Liberty and Amnesty International.
"Even the police haven't asked for more than 28 days. As far as we know there is no clear evidence of the need for more time."
Control orders and stop and search powers are further increasing the sense of alienation among Muslims, Dr. Bari says, and the Metropolitan Police are not helping matters either.
"There was institutional racism and institutions as massive as the Met find it hard to change. They need more Muslim police officers. I'm not going to use the term trigger happy - sometimes the police can make mistakes - but they need to do their job in a better way."
The current 28 day limit of detention without charge is already seven times the pre charge detention limit for someone suspected of murder. Further, points the MCB, the threat facing the UK is global and not dissimilar to that facing many other countries yet no other EU country or Western state seeks such a drastic measure and it is difficult to understand why this is exceptionally the case in the UK.
"The MCB support extending police powers to bring suspects to justice by using post charging questioning (with the presence of a lawyer). The MCB also support the use of intercept evidence, albeit not without appropriate safeguards. These go a long way to eliminating the need to extend the limit a person can be held without charge," says the Council.
The fact that the interview covered such a wide range of issues from the knighting of Salman Rushdie to the encouragement of the UK adopting Muslim marital and family cultures to the selling of extremist technological literature even at mosques affiliated to the MCB, has exposed Dr. Abdul Bari and the MCB to a spate of vitriolic from the liberal establishment and a motley of secular and anti-Muslim organizations.
"At a stroke he has united all those who are against Muslims and Islam. Muslim personal law is faith-based. One has to be careful to make sure that the rhetoric of religious morality is not undermined by the lack of real ethical behavior and experience," said Raficq Abdulla.
Already the detractors of the MCB are talking about the intolerance of Muslims countries; the treatment of women in Muslim societies; and other stereotypes.
