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British
Muslims Don’t Trust Blair’s ‘Hearts’ Plan
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"The timing of this is not innocent and to treat it as innocent it will be naïve," said Tikriti
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By
Ahmad Maher, IOL Staff
CAIRO,
June 2 (IslamOnline.net) - A number of leading British Muslims cast
doubts Wednesday, June 2, on the motives of a new British
government’s plan to "win the hearts and minds" of young
British Muslims, saying there is more to this than meets the eye.
Pointing
to potential political gains by British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s
Labour, Anas Al-Tikriti, the former president of the Muslim
Association of Britain (MAB
), said the timing of this
presumed strategy is "extremely questionable".
"We
are approaching the local elections, which the government knows and
recognizes that it will get a very heavy defeat and they are aware of
a vote shift among the Muslim community, who traditionally vote labor.
Now they are going away from labour," he told IslamOnline.net
over the phone from London.
The
Whitehall plan, which was leaked to The Sunday Times,
reportedly seeks to address the underlying causes of what it called
"extremism".
Encouraging
moderate imams and outlawing "radical" ones who refuse to
"sign up to the British way of life", the plan is primarily
designed to win the "hearts and minds" of young Muslims in
Britain.
Tikriti,
who will run for the June European parliamentary elections under a new
political party called Respect, said one cannot take such plans at
first glance.
"The
timing of this is not innocent and to treat it as innocent it will be
naïve. If I were shallow, very-selfish, well I would think this is a
very good step."
A
Guardian/ICM poll showed that the traditional Muslim support for
Labour slumped
from 75 percent at the last general election to only 38 percent now
due to the Iraq war, which has also tarnished the image of Blair in
the eyes of the Muslim community.
Iqbal
Sacranie, the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB
), said though the objective
is good, the method is highly questionable.
"We
are not sure of the paradigm which seems to inform this important
policy document," Sacranie said in a press statement e-mailed to
IOL.
Patronizing
Muslims
Tikriti
said the motto of winning "the hearts and minds" of the
young Muslim generation is really a "patterning one".
"The
premise upon which this plan was based is a flawed one, namely, the
assumption once again that Muslims and terrorism go hand in
hand," he added.
The
Muslim activist continued: "It is a very offensive manner to
patronize any community and if we assume this is true, we have a very
big problem with its format, content, structure. Actually, we have to
look at this plan more profoundly."
Tikriti
stressed it is also extremely offensive for the British government to
always parrot about imams as being the main reason behind extremism.
"It's
extremely offensive that the government wants to re-educate our imams,
because they are well-educated and they know what the challenges are
and they are extremely troubled by the problems the government
cause," he said.
The
activist accused the government of looking for a scapegoat.
"They
always look at someone and something to lay the blame at, it never
looks at its policies, and now it considers the imams basically,"
he said.
Tikriti
went on: "From where the government got the idea that we have
problems with imams up and down the country preaching war and
terrorism.
"Many
of the imams and Muslims fear to delve into politics or criticize the
government otherwise they would have their residence permits, for
instance, withdrawn. The vast majority of Muslims, in a nutshell,
condemn and denounce terrorism wherever it happens."
"I
myself go on for the past ten years speaking with young Muslims,
speaking in Friday sermons and say that we are people of peace and
construction."
Tikriri
also criticized the government for sidelining Muslims while outlining
its new strategy, adding none of the leading Muslim organizations in
Britain was involved in the process.
He
said the real problem lies in the manner in which the government is
behaving, home and abroad.
He
Muslim activist stressed that the government must translate its plans
and promises into action and scrap the anti-terror legislation.
"It
[the legislation] has till now targeted the Muslim community almost
exclusively, it has arrested hundreds without charge, without legal
representation."
British
Muslims have repeatedly complained of maltreatment by the police and
the stop-and-search operations
under the Terrorism Act for no apparent reason other than being
Muslims.
More
than 35,000 Muslims were stopped and searched last year without
reason, with fewer than 50 charged, whereas before the 9/11 attacks
only around 2,000 Muslims were stopped and searched.
Tikriti
said the Muslims in Britain will not be appeased by a few prayer rooms
in their work places and universities for which the government’s
plan calls.
Exclusively
For Muslims
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"The phenomenon of extremism is a direct result of very such attempts to occupy Islam," said Sacranie
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Sacranie
agreed that the new strategy is designed exclusively for Muslims.
"At
a time when the Muslim community is already moving towards greater
integration and active participation in the national and political
life of the country, such sharp and exclusive focus on one particular
community can only detract from this natural and ongoing process of,
repeat, integration and participation," he told IOL.
Sacranie
added that Muslims are very much part of the British community and
they would hate to be treated as a "problematic community".
Muslim
organizations have recently embarked on a nationwide anti-terror campaign
to "isolate and stop tolerating those spreading hatred against
the country using the name of Islam".
Sacranie
underlined that British Muslims cannot accept the new plan as a fait
accompli.
"We
believe that the preparation of such policy document required a full
and prior consultation with the community itself. It is never useful
to begin any consultation about a fait accompli."
Kamal
Al-Helbawi, a researcher in strategic and Islamic studies, agreed it
is "foolish" to concentrate on the Muslim community as the
fertile ground for extremism.
"Do
you want me to believe that Tony Blair doesn't know that there are
social problems in non-Muslim communities as well," he told IOL.
He
said socialists and professors from each community in Britain should
put their heads together to find a proper way to address the social
ills of society and not the other way round.
"I
underline and underscore that concentrating on one community is not
acceptable. When Blair drafts a plan, he must draft a plan to the
entire country," Helbawi said.
"There
are, for instance, Hindu and Sikh communities. And all communities,
not the Muslim one in particular, need to be re-oriented and
re-directed as well."
Official
Islam
Helbawi
believes that Blair wants to impose "his own official version of
Islam" on the younger generations.
"The
young Muslims are very cautious and they look with suspicion to these
plans. No one party can do a plan without involving the good young
Muslims in the U.K. to discuss them [plans] and see whether they are
good or not," he said.
Sacranie
warned that imposing an "official Islam" will prove
"terribly counterproductive".
"The
phenomenon of extremism is a direct result of very such attempts to
occupy Islam, creating instead an extreme backlash. I do not think we
need to repeat a failed experiment in Britain.
He
went on: "We believe that on the contrary the taxpayers money
will be better spent by addressing the root problem which affect the
community at large and the youth in particular.
"These
are in brief education, employment, equality, social and political
inclusion, tackling Islamophobia and none the least correcting the
recent lurch in foreign policy. It is glaringly obvious that the 10
Downing Street foreign policy of Liberal Imperialism has terribly
misfired."
The
Blair's strategy promises to address the marginalization of the Muslim
community in comparison with other communities and the British
"double standards" in the Middle East.
"Institutionalized
Islamophobia"
The
Runnymede Trust's Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia said
in a report released on Monday, May 31, that the unemployment rate
across Muslim communities was currently 15% while for the population
in general it was 1%.
It
said that Muslims were being "demonized" and little was
being done to help them.
The
report further said that local authorities have done nothing since a
previous study in 1997 to address burning issues such as religious
discrimination, power sharing, resource sharing and consultation or
inclusion in race equality schemes.
The
commission said that Muslims as a whole were being blamed for the acts
of a few, which is called an "institutionally Islamophobic
society".
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