"I would call this imported radicalisation into the British society and I have always said that the responsibility of growing radicalisation lies with us Muslims. We must introspect the reasons of us failing to integrate in to the British society." Lord Tariq Ahmad.
Source/Credit: The Asians |
By Adil Shahzab | June 14, 2013
On a cloudy May afternoon, terror struck in the UK. Justifying his barbaric act of murdering a British soldier, the British born Nigerian Michael Adebolajo, one of two men suspected of carrying out the attack, spat these words to an eyewitness filming on a mobile phone. "We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day. This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth."
People from all walks of life belonging to every community were horrified by the killing of British soldier Lee Rigby on the streets of London. British Muslims in particular were left in shock as well as with growing fear of being attacked by anti Islam extremists groups. British Prime Minister David Cameron in his furious reaction said that it was an attack on entire Britain and the killers have betrayed the British Muslims and Islam. While condemning the killing of a soldier, Muslim community leaders, politicians and academics blatantly denounced the barbaric act but at the same time, strongly urged the community for introspection.
Khalid Mehmood is a member of House of Commons from Birmingham, the Asian dominated city which has witnessed the most terrorism related arrests in the past few years. On the growing radicalisation of British Muslim youth, he says there is no real reconciliation of the religious meetings that take place within the mosques and madrassa teachings. Currently, what happens in mosques in the UK is predominantly that you have 50 to 60 children being taught by one teacher who has very little understanding of English so basically teaching in Arabic where children don't get to learn the true meaning of Islamic teachings, says Mr Mehmood.
"When these kids grow up and go in to colleges and universities, they get influenced by these Salafist organisations, who easily covert them to the extreme form of Islam. Because these young people have little or no understanding of the basics of their own religion therefore they are an easy pick for radical Islamists," he says.
Renowned scholar and professor of Islamic Law at Middlesex University Dr Tahir Wasti acknowledges that there are flaws in the religious education being delivered in British mosques.
"The first thing is to accept that yes there is a minority within the Muslim Community here in Britain which unfortunately promotes or highlights such events or legitimises these killings. The problem is that mosques in Britain must know what humanity is about and how Islam works across communities. In the West, Muslim scholars have to teach humanity and they have to teach the kids tolerance and to accept the existence of other religions," says Dr Wasti.
British Minister and Whip for the Ministry of Faith and Communities Lord Tariq Ahmad has a different opinion on growing radicalisation in British Muslims and says that the problem lies with those foreign Muslim Imams of the British mosques who migrated to the West with their own brand of Islam. "I would call this imported radicalisation into the British society and I have always said that the responsibility of growing radicalisation lies with us Muslims. We must introspect the reasons of us failing to integrate in to the British society," says Lord Tariq Ahmad.
Community leaders do urge the British Muslims for introspection but analysts also acknowledge that British authorities have somehow failed in their efforts to combat the radical Islamists. Woolwich incident's main suspect Michael Adebolaju was reportedly known to the British intelligence. He was filmed standing behind the radical Islamist preacher Anjum Chaudhry in a protest few years back. Michael Adebolaju was also detained by the Kenyan authorities in November 2010 for allegedly trying to join the Al-Shabaab in Somalia - an Islamist militant organisation inspired by Al Qaeda.
Although British Home Secretary Theresa May has admitted that there are lessons to be learnt from the Woolwich incident, many still question how long it would take the West to adopt a long term approach to curb extremism.
Not only British authorities but the West in general has failed to adopt a long term approach in countering radical Islamists as well as Islamophobia. This incident in particular has highlighted the flaws and failure on part of the West as well Muslims, says Dr Ishtiaq Ahmad, Quid-e-Azam fellow at Oxford University.
The murder of a British soldier in Woolwich has prompted a dramatic increase in attacks on British Muslims, amid a series of arrests linked to the backlash. According to Faith Matters, an organisation that works to reduce extremism, more than 160 incidents had been reported to its helpline since the Woolwich incident. The Muslim Community has expressed concern on growing Islamophobia, especially the reported attacks on mosques and protests by anti-Islam radical group English Defence League, says senior British journalist and analyst Anna Reitman.
The growing incidents of hate related crime do indicate that in the West, there is a presence of Islamists as well as those who promote Islamophobia. However, Muslim community leaders do accept that in order to come out of the viscous circle, the primary responsibility - as this latest incident in the UK tells us - is on the Muslim immigrant community. If Muslims have consciously chosen to have the West as the place where their children should grow up, their primary responsibility is to try to assimilate and integrate into the wider Western society, says Lord Tariq Ahmad.
Read original post here: UK: Ramifications of the Woolwich attack - Lord Tariq Ahmad cautions about 'imported radicalisation"
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