British Muslims Against Terror AND Democracy

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13th September, 2008

WHOSE SIDE ARE THESE PEOPLE & GROUPS REALLY ON?

Terror or Democracy – you can’t have it both ways  – DEMOCRACY rules, OK?

The letter below, sent to Tony Blair in August 2006, urging … no, bullying him into changing British foreign policy, was TWO YEARS AGO! Two years ago when these people were working on terror attacks. Including, possibly, though as yet not satisfactorily proven, a plot to blow up seven planes on their way to North America. The terror activities of some of these and their associates went back long before 9/11 – long before Blair or Bush came to power. It is time the truth was aired and understood.

Please check these people and groups out. If you leave it to someone else, and we have further attacks, more complaints to politicians, and increasing radicalisation of susceptible Muslim youth, DON’T blame a politician. BLAME YOURSELVES.

Opposition politicians, those with no current power or responsibility and the mouthy opinionated weasel-worded press are the enemy within, in my humble opinion. If they were in the same position as any prime minister would they really succumb to this kind of influence on our democratically elected government? Of course not. The opposition and press are disingenuity personified on this issue, and should be recognised and condemned as such.

In our democracy and in any worthy of the name, we hand over the decision-making process to government. Then we expect them to study the fine detail, incorporating and enacting policies, whilst we get on with our lives. We may not always agree with their conclusions, policies and actions, but it is through general elections that we show our disapproval, NOT by intimidation or barely disguised threats to blow us all up.

Beloe follows the entire text of the letter to Mr Blair and list of signatories, as it appeared in the print edition of The Times newspaper, page 43, 12th August 2006. I have to thank Western Resistance for this. Despite a search through The Times archives, it seems not to have been published online.

I just ask the press, who are so keen on publishing critiques and opinion of Blair policy, why not. Who or what do they think they are protecting by this omission? It is clearly not for the greater spread of public understanding of the issues!

You will notice at Western Resistance that the writer refers to the ‘arrest of 21 for the planned bringing down of “nine aircraft”‘

This is the “plot” and these include the people whose trial ended this week. In the end only 8 men were tried and three were found guilty of some charges. The charges relating to seven aircraft were not specifically upheld by the jury. This is a developing story. A retrial is highly possible.

Letter to Mr Blair from ‘British’ 44 individuals and groups, follows:

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‘Prime Minister,

As British Muslims we urge you to do more to fight against those who target civilians with violence, whenever and wherever that happens.

It is our view that current British government policy risks putting civilians at increased risk both in the UK and abroad.

To combat terror the government has focused extensively on domestic legislation. While some of this will have an impact, the government must not ignore the role of its foreign policy.

The debacle of Iraq and now the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to attacks on civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to ordinary people in that region, it is also ammunition to extremists who threaten us all.

We urge the prime minister to redouble his efforts to tackle terror and extremism and change our foreign policy.

Attacking civilians is never justified. This message is a global one. We urge the Prime Minister to redouble his efforts to tackle terror and extremism and change our foreign policy to show the world that we value the lives of civilians wherever they live and whatever their religion.

Such a move would make us all safer.’

Sadiq Khan MP, Shahid Malik MP, Mohammed Sarwar MP, Lord Patel of Blackburn, Lord Ahmed of Rotheram, Baroness Uddin, Association of Muslim Schools, British Muslim Forum, Bolton Mosques Council for Community Care, Confederation of Sunni Mosques, Midlands Council for Nigerian Muslim Organisations, Council of Mosques – London & Southern Counties, Council of Mosques – Tower Hamlets, Da’awatul Islam UK & Eire, Federation of Muslim Organisations (Leicestershire), Federation of Students Islamic Societies (FOSIS), Indian Muslim Federation, Islamic Forum Europe, Islamic Society of Britain, Jama’at Ahle Sunnat UK, Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith UK, Jamiat-e-Ulema Britain, Lancashire Council of Mosques, Muslim Association of Britain, Muslim Council of Britain, Muslim Council of Wales, Muslim Doctors and Dentists Association, Muslim Parliament, Muslim Solidarity Committee, Muslim Students Society UK & Eire, Muslim Welfare House (London), Muslim Women Society (MWS), Muslim Women’s Association, Northern Ireland Muslim Family Association (NIMFA), Sussex Muslim Society, The Council of European Jamaats, UK Action Committee on Islamic Affars, UK Islamic Mission, UK Turkish Islamic Association, World Federation of KSIMC, World Islamic Misssion, Young Muslim Organisation UK, Young Muslim Sisters (UK), Young Muslims UK

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This article, at The Times, refers to the (unfindable) Times Article:
Aug 14th 2006

Sir, Inayat Bunglawala (Comment, Aug 12) asserts that it is “undeniable” that British foreign policy is “endangering us all”, and other Muslim representatives (advertisement, Aug 12) blame the “debacle in Iraq” for “fuelling terrorism”.

As a Muslim I find the logic of this argument puzzling and their conclusions dismaying. It cannot be denied that many Muslims are angry about aspects of British foreign policy, but the question is to what extent this anger is justified and, more importantly, why this anger is translated among a small minority into an excuse for terrorism. Neither traditional Islamic theology nor Muslim precedent justify resorting to terrorism in any circumstances.

The Muslim Council of Britain cannot pose the right questions, let alone provide answers, because its membership includes organisations which, while eschewing terrorism (at least in the West), promote a politicised version of Islam or a very unthinking piety. Anyone who has attended British mosques will be well aware of the condemnations of democracy, the denunciations of imperialism and the warnings against the kuffar (unbelievers) that are the staple of these groups’ propaganda. While such views are not peculiar to Muslims and do not inherently encourage terrorism, they do foster a sense that the Muslim community is put upon and beleaguered.

When the MCB takes a full-page advert to condemn the Iraqi “resistance” or the massacres in Darfur we might take its protestations about British foreign policy more seriously.

HASSAN SCOTT
Aberdeen

Related Links

• The enemy within

• Divided Britain makes a tempting terrorist target

• The ‘hearts and minds’ battle for British Muslims that failed

Sir, Can we paraphrase Inyat Bunglawala’s article as “Do what we tell you and nobody will get hurt”?

JAMES DAVIDSON
Copplestone, Devon

Sir, The great and good of British Muslim opinion suggest that our foreign policy should be adjusted to reduce the terrorist threat. In proposing that UK policies should be influenced by some psychopathic leaders and their credulous followers, they are advancing the same argument put forward by the appeasers of Nazism and by communism’s fellow-travellers — a proposition as mistaken then as it is now. Indeed it seems close to being a criminal offence under the new law on justifying terrorism.

CHRISTOPHER CRABBIE
British Ambassador to Algeria, 1994-95,
St Jeannet, France

Sir, I write to express my outrage over the open letter from three Muslim MPs, three peers and 38 Muslim groups in the UK. If their view is that current British government policy puts civilians at increased risk, then they are apologists for terror and support murderers.

I would have thought that they would stand up and say clearly: “Whatever your difference with British government policy, the way to deal with that is the political process.”

I think that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were a bad mistake. That does not mean that I express my opinion by blowing up people travelling by Tube or plane — that would simply make me a murderer.

It is regrettable that these Muslim leaders do not understand politics. Yes, protest against British policy, but write letters to editors, demonstrate in the streets, support antiwar candidates in elections and campaign in forums. I find their supine behaviour and willingness to pander to medieval feudal and autocratic thought processes totally unacceptable.

DR BHASKAR DASGUPTA
North Harrow, Middx

Sir, The more than 30 leading Muslim politicians and organisations who signed the advertisement urging Tony Blair to change his foreign policy in order to make us all safer are engaging in historical revisionism: 9/11 occurred well before Afghanistan and Iraq were conceived; 7/7 occurred well before Britain’s position in relation to the current Hezbollah-Israel crisis.

M. WILLIAMS
Wembley, Middx

NOTE: I find it interesting and heartening to read the comments from other Muslims. But it is also interesting to note that so few commenters are as concerned about this as are constantly concerned about “civil and human rights”. You only need to read the Guardian/Independent/even right wing Daily Mail for confirmation of this.

What a world we live in when so many anti-democrats (and perhaps Islamist sympathisers) can dominate our internet forums and thought processes.

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