May 30, 2009
Moderate Muslims Take on Islamists in UK
Will June 30th be the day which goes down in history when Muslims in the West finally had enough from the Islamist traitors in their midsts and began to clean house? Or is this just a one time deal where the Muslim community in Luton had enough of the bad press and just wanted Omar Bakri Mohammad's followers to shut up because they don't enjoy being in the lime light? Hope springs eternal, or so they say:
The latest violence erupted as arguments raged between fellow Muslims shortly after Friday morning prayers in the Bury Park area of the town...Awesome.As the radical Muslims began to set up their stall, they were surrounded by a crowd shouting 'we don't want you here' and 'move on, move on'...
Angry words were exchanged and scuffles broke out between members of both groups, with the extremists shouting 'Shame on you' and 'Get back to your synagogue'.
The moderates chanted 'Out, Out, Out', and after an uneasy stand-off, police officers were able to persuade the extremist group to leave the area.
Over at the Islamic Awakening forum -- where British Islamists like to hang out online -- the big fight is over whether to declare the "moderates" apostates or to give them a pass -- forgive them for they know not what they do.
Ironically, the commenter who posts the most rational defense of the "moderates" who opposed the Islamists also reveals the depth of the problem Europe has with its Muslim population. Umar Khaleel writes:
Firstly it is important for all the brothers and sisters to understand that at the end of the day this is the UK. They have allowed you to live in this country, they have given you the same rights as they have given their own people, they have allowed for Islamic Shops to be open, they have allowed to keep your own Islamic identity, they have allowed Mosques to be constructed, and yet; how do we, as Muslims, thank them back?While he is arguing against Muslims protesting British troops, notice the duality he assumes between Muslims, as a separate nation and identity vs. the British. Thus he claims that all Muslims living in Britain are, in fact, foreigners.Secondly, if you do not like the British troops, fair enough, but at the end of the day this is their country and if their people have a commitment to a mission in Iraq or anywhere else it is not appropriate for any Muslim, who lives in their country under their laws, to come up and 'demonstrate' by humiliating the Troop's families and friend and thus harming the image Muslim community in that manner. [emphasis mine]
To reiterate the point he ends with this:
Finally I would like to remember everyone that we are in this country as guests. How would we react if some white people (I'm not being rasicst or something) would come, live in our streets, and chant abusive language at our brothers and fathers? And Allah knows best. [emphasis in the original]So, while I welcome the position of UmarKhaleel, I must reject the argument's premise. British Muslims are not guests in the UK, they are British.
The root of Britain's problem with home-grown terrorists is that even so-called moderates in the UK often take the position of UmarKhaleel: Muslims are not and cannot be British.
The same problem exists all over Europe. It is not so prevalent in the United States where assimilation has been the norm.
If one begins the premise that the Ummah is your nation, Muslim is your nationality, and that the place and the people you reside with are aliens then you are one step closer to supporting violence against your fellow countrymen. If sociology has taught us one thing it is that people are much less likely to commit acts of violence against other people of the same "tribe".
As long as Muslims see themselves as part of the "tribe of Islam" rather than as fellow citizen of the nation state they live in, then the efforts of non-Islamist moderates will be in vain.
Thanks to Jen.
