Brummie Criminal locked up - Where next?
Totally understand where you are coming from Hoque and many people feel the same as your man Rachel. Let me try and explain where my thoughts come from...
Islam has almost 1500 years of profound theological, legal and social scholarship. Never in that time has there ever been a 'branch' of thought that promoted the indiscrimate taking of life. 'Extremism' as we now term it, is probably best described as a post post modernist 20th century ideology. It has no roots in ANY faith - no matter what it claims.
This is important to understand because, as I said on Midlands Today last night and again this morning on Radio WM, the Muslim community is as bewildered as you are and has no more to do with violent extremism than anyone else. And yet, the focus and expectation to 'solve' it is laid squarely, if not wholly, at their feet.
The problem of violent extermism is a shared one. If we took the time to listen we would find a Mulsim community that desperately wants to be a part of the solution and not just a mere adjunct to it as the Councils top down approach and your comments, Mr Hoque, seek to promote.
My thanks however to Rachel for caring enough to offer a positive contribution to this debate and providing my inspiration for this entry. The only way to move forward is to get people meeting and talking...its not easy though. Many communities lack confidence in their ability to connect with people of other faiths and backgrounds. There is a lot of fear, mistrust and myth to break down but it can be done....it must be done!
There are lots of groups that have sprung up over the last few years to do just this. Birmingham Citizens for example, is arguably one of the most successful of these. Led by Sajida Madni, they have managed to not only bring together but keep together an amazingly diverse group of people that are actively working to better their communities.
Rachel is reaching out her hand to someone from another community to get in touch. Anyone willing to take it and prove that Im not just making all this up? Leave a comment and we'll take it from there....
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Faraz Yousufzai - Birmingham’s leading voice on Muslim youth.
lets face it and stop all this in denial, the muslim community in this country are the most racist bigoted hate filled fascists i have ever had the displeasure to live amongst,the racism and hatred inbedded in the muslim mind towards other religions and races borders on nazism, i know i have faced the in your face racism at the hands of muslims in small heath and they say there are no go areas in birmingham well thats a joke if your white and live in birmingham we all no where they are why do you think why all the whites left areas like small heath,alum rock, saltley etc. etc, to excape thec racism and violence of muslim gangs,and the sexual assaults.rapes of white women and girls commited by muslim men on them. so lets stop all this pretending everybodys living in harmony and holding hands its far from that,here is the simple thruth like it or not the intolerant cant live side by side with the tolerant and muslims are the most intolerant people bringing racial tension and religious hatred to every corner of these lands but of course muslims are always in denial arent you........ peter from northfield in birmingham
Goodness. I understand what you mean. I used to feel the same in Sutton and Mere Green at home time coming back from school. The NF boys were often out and about hurling insults at me trying to provoke a reaction. Unitl one day, that wasnt enough for them. So a chap by the name of Peter Goodman decided to surprise me and attack me from behind. Gotta give it to him though. It was a good clean shot that knocked me right out. I came to about 30 seconds later and not a soul came to my defence. The parade was full of people, white people, just standing there, waiting for their bus, old and young, and no one even came to help me up or ask me if I was OK. Actually, no one would even look at me.
I hated white people for a while, how could they ignore someone who needed help. Was it really just because of my colour or my faith?
I dont know why nobody saw fit to help me and I dont too much care now. What I do know is this:
I have met many beautiful Muslims, Christians, athiests, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus and Rastarfaris in my time, but equally, I have also met some of the most horrid Muslims, Christians, athiests, jews, Sikhs, Hindus and Rastas as well.
Peter. I have always been at the forefront of criticising the Muslim Community. Perhaps too much sometimes. But dont let your anger towards a small but horid group of people who want to do terrible things, prevent you from being just.
I used to be a street trader on Northfields high st when I was 16...I got used to the abuse but I didnt let myself hate...If you want to meet up sometime to talk...the offer is there...
Peter: Your approach disgusts me and makes me wonder why on earth I'm living in the community I am in. You sound like my husband on a bad night and I feel revulsion.
Extremism amongst Muslims today is very similar in thought to The Khawarij of the past. The only thing that differs is the modern means of warfare by which they can wreak their havoc.
As Muslims we need to move away from such simple readings of history, only taking the warm fluffy stuff which suits us. We can never hope to stop repeating the mistakes of the past if we don't learn from it and we can't learn from if we won't even acknowledge it!
Almost Every time my wife and I visit Birmingham city center we are verbally racially abused and occasionally threatened with physical abuse, 99% of the time this is at the hands of young Muslim men.
I am a white English man and my wife is a non Muslim Punjabi. Before I met and married my wife I naively thought that nearly all racism was committed by white people, which to be honest sometimes made me feel ashamed to be white, as this is pretty much the only racism we hear of.
We now only feel safe together in predominantly white or "non Muslim areas" even though my wife is not Muslim as these incidents are becoming more and more frequent the most recent being a few hours ago which almost resulted in me having to fight off 4 young Muslim men in order to try and defend and protect my now pregnant wife.
We are both becoming sick of this, and are becoming concerned that this will eventually make us anti-Muslim, which is very sad.
We feel that this abuse must happen to other people in mixed marriages or relationships but we never hear about it.
Regards,
Martin & Kiran.
Hello,
Loved the grace with which you answered Peter, that's what we need to find with each other these days, when suspicion is promoted in (most of) the media, grace. Dialogue is important, people speaking to each other of their hopes and fears reveals our shared humanity. When we realise we are together on the planet we can take time to work it out together, rather than promoting one view or another. We're working on a PVE project ourselves which seeks to do just that, by creating a safe space where people can ask questions of each other, through interacting with art. Try and come to the Mailbox between 7th and 28th of November for the first outing of the work, before it tours to community venues next year. Let's have a dialogue, rather than a series of monologues!
"Islam has almost 1500 years of profound theological, legal and social scholarship." Oh yes? I read the Koran. I agree with whoever it was that said the Korna was a disorganised ramble. I've found a hundred other books from around the World more inspiring, wiser, more logical, and more informative.
"Never in that time has there ever been a 'branch' of (Islamic) thought that promoted the indiscrimate taking of life." Apart from the occasional loony gunman (usually in America) "indiscriminate" killing is almost unheard of. For example Hitler's killing of six million Jews was not indiscriminate: it was carfully planned and precisely targeted - at Jews.
Islam's taking of life has been very comparable to that perpetrated by other movements, political and religious (including Christian). How did Islam spread from a tiny area in what is now Saudi Arabia to the whole of North Africa, most of the Middle East and Spain: it wasnt just sweet reason, I suspect. A fair amount of killing was involved.
"'Extremism' as we now term it, is probably best described as a post modernist 20th century ideology". Oh go on. Every religion and politial movement for the last three thousand years has had its extremist fringe. Although the latter point is questionable on the grounds that "all things are relative" - that is, if the extreme elements in every movement in the world became less extreme, would we see them as less extreme? Difficult point to answer because there are no objective units to measure the extrent of extremsism.