moses

MAB this is my fave muslim group in the uk, not the uncle toms of islamic society of britain and the muslim council of britain

they have their heads up blairs ****

mab r awesome



Back to you, Mr Blair

It is wrong to put the onus on British Muslims to defeat terror

Osama Saeed
Saturday July 23, 2005
The Guardian

Faced with the events of the past two weeks, it would be the easiest thing in the world for me to say the Muslim community must do more to combat terrorism. Many community figures have done just that.



Shahid Malik MP told the Commons: "The challenge is straightforward - that those voices that we have tolerated will no longer be tolerated." This raises the question: did we really hear people planning violence in this country but do nothing about it?



The position of Muslim organisations and mosques has been consistent for years. Killing civilians is murder, and a crime in Islam. We have consistently said that Muslims must help the police to track down those responsible.



This is why I've found it strange that many Muslim leaders have offered to look deep within our community now. It's a tacit admission of negligence that I simply do not accept. The prime minister has of course welcomed this attitude. Indeed he has led from the front, ratcheting up the rhetoric against Muslims, laying the responsibility solely on us. "In the end, this can only be taken on and defeated by the community itself," he said last week.



Mr Blair has attacked the idea of the caliphate - the equivalent of criticising the Pope. He has also remained silent in the face of a rightwing smear campaign against such eminent scholars as Sheikh al-Qaradawi - a man who has worked hard to reconcile Islam with modern democracy. Such actions and omissions fuel the suspicion that we are witnessing a war on Islam itself. If there is any thought that Muslims are fine but their religion can take a hike then Mr Blair should know that we will never be in the corner, in the spotlight, losing our religion.



By putting the onus on Muslims to defeat terror, the prime minister absolves himself of responsibility. Muslims are not in denial of our duties, but who are we meant to be combating? The security services had no idea about all that has gone on in London, so how are we as ordinary citizens to do better?



It is not Muslims but Mr Blair who is in denial. He was advised that the war in Iraq would put us in more danger, not less. Silvio Berlusconi has admitted Italy is in danger because of his alliance with Bush; Mr Blair should do the same.



Jack Straw has just apologised for Britain's role in the Srebrenica massacre. This is a welcome development, but these apologies need to be extended to Britain's explicit roles in creating the injustices in the Muslim world - from the mess that colonial masters left in Kashmir to the promising of one people's land to another in Palestine. We need to recognise our past mistakes and make a commitment not to repeat them. Western leaders are outraged about London but show no similar anger for other atrocities across the world. What happens abroad matters to British Muslims as much as what happens here.



The British Muslim response is to engage politically, as we did in our opposition to the Iraq war, when we tried to keep our country, as well as innocent Iraqis, safe. We'll continue to try to win the arguments.



Unfortunately, a handful of individuals have eschewed this to carry out the attacks in London. You can regard these acts as part of Islam, or as an irrational reaction to injustice taking place in the world. If it's the former you have to explain why this started only 12 years ago and not 1,400. To us it is evident that it is the latter, so we're batting the ball back in your court, Mr Blair.



· Osama Saeed is a spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain

aceman_uk

FINALLY!!!!

An article which gets to the point...rather than all the biatching that is going on here on SN and all media, the points stated above is what really requires attention......

Too much hypocracy in BLAIR/BUSH policy

Aceman

moses

true osama saeed is educated and went to college and uni, i left when i was 15 school sucks


osama saeed is a fellow scot, im a southside boy, he is a west end boy, same age as me and very famous when he was a wee lad , when he and his mates were teenagers they ran radio ramadhan shows along with other glaswegian muslims


osama and his mates used to get into trouble from the first and 2nd generation old generation r old farts and dont understand what fun is so osama and his mates used to make jokes about them in revenge on the radio

its sad they werent really political at all till chechnya hit their minds and the duel with israeli friends of palestine, osama and louise ellman labour mp had a war

then osama went political and he and his buds created mab coz the rest of the muslim leaders will puppets

u will see their placards all the time with the cnd and others in the big demo's they work together

AsifScoob

Well, I totally agree with the piece, especially as it seems to echo things that I have said myself.

Not trying to big myself up, just that I am of the same viewpoint.

Asif

unclebuck

Blair is still refusing to take any responsibility for the consequences of his actions. Until he is removed from office I can't any progress being made.

Suresh

I think the article is very well written. Thanks for posting it moses.

The fact that captain hook et al preached their hatred from places of worship tends to blow a hole in the 'how could we possibly know it was going on' argument though.

Also there is little explanation behind this seemingly innocent comment "What happens abroad matters to British Muslims as much as what happens here"

All imho, so please feel free to flame as I'm used to it by now...

Suresh

moses

dont worry suresh i wont flame u coming from south india u probably a bit too dark anyway
just a joke dont take it serious

dij

Have to agree with the above also,it does help when an educated muslim gives a balanced and intelligent statement,instead of some of the crap that is spouted out of so many self proclaimed muslim leaders nowdays.

moses

so called muslim leaders can kiss my glaswegian irn bru ****

big upto MAB the real representers of the muslims

and also if u can do watch the agenda programme monday to friday 11.05 islam channel 836

it comes on in the morn life and repeats at night

yvonne ridleys programme, she is away doing other press stuff at the mo so the other chap is looking after her show

it was very good yesterday