Muslims & Their New Home

          

Recent conviction in Manchester (UK) of nine Muslims - eight from Pakistan and one from Afghanistan - of 'grooming' young and under aged girls for sexual exploitation is a matter of great shame. They have been convicted for a total of 77 years.

 Syed Neaz Ahmad tries to look beyond the headlines.

THEY say it takes patience, perseverance and pragmatism to build something but misplaced enthusiasm and sheer ignorance can destroy it all in a short time. The image of British Muslims as a peace loving community is an example. Muslims have been a part of the British scene for centuries but it was not until the late 1950s that they came in large numbers in search of better prospects.
The Commonwealth cousins toiled day and night, worked on weekends and progressed from factory floors to the boardroom. It was a long journey for those who had focused themselves on one goal: economic prosperity. But man doesn't live on bread alone.
With time the enterprising community of Muslims from south Asia and the Middle East established its own institutions like schools, cultural centers and mosques. Today you find Muslim doctors, engineers, lawyers, accountants, journalists, parliamentarians, businessmen, footballers and athletes - all contributing to a healthy and harmonious society. The sheer number of Muslim children in some areas compelled the education authorities to amend their dress code to accommodate Muslim sensitivities.
You may have read in newspapers some years ago about the case of a 15-year-old Luton Muslim girl - Shabina Begum - who took her school to the High Court for not allowing her to wear jilbab - the full-length gown that covers all of the body except the face and hands. Shabina has not attended her school - Denbigh High in Luton - since September 2002 when she was sent home for turning up in jilbab. Instead over the last two years she has been busy fighting a legal battle with the school authorities. For this very Islamic cause Shabina and her friends made good use of the funds available from the great British institution, Legal Aid!
At that time The Sunday Times reported that an extremist group known as Hizb-ut-Tahrir influenced Shabina. Begum was regarded as a promising pupil, was orphaned last April with the death of her mother. Her father died in 1992. The group is legal in Britain but banned in Germany and much of the Middle East. The aim of the group is to establish an international Muslim state based on the concept of Khilafah (Caliphate). Out of necessity or whatever some members fell out and formed their own group, Al-Muhajiroun headed by Omar Bakri Mohammad.
He styled himself a Sheikh, a Mufti and a Judge. It is alleged - and reported in authoritative newspapers - that for long he has been on the dole - receiving social security benefits for his backache. Right or wrong, sheikh or not Hizb-ut-Tahrir or Al-Muhajiroun has done little to enhance the image of Islam. Their confrontational style sometimes wins them people of impressionable age who in the process end up as confused persons. They are often seen around mosques on Fridays trying to sell their ideas and engage people in discussions. Their literature describes all Muslim leaders and countries as corrupt and these self-appointed guardians consider themselves the judge, jury and executioner.
Late as it may be let's try to understand the situation at Denbigh High School at Luton, a town between London and Birmingham. There are some 1,000 pupils at this school and the overwhelming majority - about 80 percent - is Muslim. The Luton Education Authority in consultation with the local Council of Mosques amended school dress code for girls - from skirts/trousers and tops to shalwar-kameez. Shabina Begum until the beginning of the academic year in 2002 wore shalwar-kameez to school.
Khalid Mahmood, then Member of Parliament from Birmingham said: Hizb-ut-Tahrir had a record of targeting young people in schools and universities to lure them away from the mainstream Muslim community in Britain. It is important that social services look into that role.
Attorney Simon Berks who appeared for the school said Shabina had never been excluded but had stayed away. He said Denbigh did not let pupils wear jilbab because it would create the impression that those who wear one might be regarded as better Muslims than those who wore shalwar-Kameez and because pupils wearing jilbab ran the risk of tripping and slipping.
Mona Bauwens, an Arab and a Muslim writer said that Shabina has to understand that in a free society a school s rules and regulations are there for the benefit of all the students and the rules should be respected. What if the 20 percent of non-Muslim students in her school objected to her wearing a jilbab?
Shabina demanded to wear jilbab because wearing the school uniform was eroding her human rights. She claimed shalwar-kameez was too revealing and the denial of school authorities to wear a jilbab violated her right to an education and her human right of religion. Nice words. However, most of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir activists go around in designer jeans, joggers and fashionable clothes bought from up-market shops. That I suppose is their right of self-expression.
But when will this craze of so-called human right of religion end? It may be a joke but I was told that some enthusiastic people are thinking of starting legal actions against British authorities that do not provide Muslim showers in WCs.
For this noble cause they intend to ask for Legal Aid funds. This will surely keep the British judicial system busy for decades and in the process dry up Legal Aid Funds. We use the system when it suits us and abuse it when it suits us. Great Muslims we are! (first published The Saudi Gazette).