Nearly a week after Channel 4's disturbing undercover report on the Green Lane Mosque, the unwillingness of our elected representatives to speak out has shocked many. So, why the silence?
I believe that it's a direct result of a concerted campaign by Muslim pressure groups which began a week before the hour-long report was broadcast. In an effort to discredit the programme senior Muslims used threats of prosecution, allegations of Islamophobia and even a wild claim from the Muslim Council of Britain that programme makers were attempting to "forment sectarian divisions".
Were MPs lobbied, intimidated and bullied in the same way? I suspect they were. But until I see a copy of one of the e-mails, faxes, or letters sent to MPs by the campaigners I can't confirm it.
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The Campaign
The various Muslim groups began organising a week before the show went out on the 15th January. A threat of legal action (pdf) against the programme's producer, Andrew Smith, was made by Shouaib Ahmed, Secretary General of Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith UK, and published on the MCB website:
7th January: "I must remind you that if I or any member of my staff or anyone who worships at the Green Lane Mosque or the Mosque itself are subjected to any form of physical attack as a result of your programme then you, HardCash Productions Ltd and Channel 4 will all be liable to prosecution for incitement to commit a criminal act."
The following day The Federation of Student Islamic Societies published this call to arms on their website:
8th January: "URGENT ALERT: CONTACT CHANNEL 4 TO PROTEST AGAINST ISLAMOPHOBIC PROGRAMME: The time has come for us to say enough is enough. We must unite in order to defend ourselves from this onslaught, any debate regarding Islam, should be had by the Muslim community and not by those who seek to divide the Muslims and pit one group of Muslims against the other."
Two days later the Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK (MPAC UK), urged their readers to do the same:
10th January: "MPACUK urge you to contact Channel 4 and raise the following concerns:
A documentary like this could have damaging effects on community relations and cohesion.
There is fear of potential backlash and attacks on Mosques with heightened Islamophobia."
On the same day the UK Islamic Mission (UKIM) posted this on their website:
10th January: "To malign and slander a responsible and moderate Muslim organization and to portray it as representing the extremist views or of indulging in double talk is highly reprehensible. Such attempts will strengthen those who preach extremism to the detriment of our society."
Finally, in what I believe to have been a last desperate attempt to bully Channel4 into pulling the show, the Muslim Council of Britain released a press statement which included these inflammatory comments:
12th January: "From the latest transcript it is clear that Monday's heavily hyped 'Dispatches' is an attempt to forment sectarian divisions among British Muslims and misrepresent some leading UK Muslim institutions."
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As I mentioned yesterday, West Midlands police are now investigating allegations made in the programme. But is it too much to ask for our elected representatives to do the same? Because, let's face it, without an honest and open debate about the problem of radicalism and extremism in a small number of UK Mosques, the problem won't go away.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
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19 comments:
Keep up the pressure -- nice posting...
Soccerdad de LGF
Nice post. However, I think the "honest and open debate about the problem of radicalism and extremism" would be more effective if you trashed the "in a small number of UK mosques" mantra. Look around. How many mosques or Islamic organizations have published letters asking the government to look into these abominations? (crickets chirping...)
Anonymous: You've got a point. Some conservatives believe that the problems lie with a 'sizeable minority' of UK Muslims. I'm yet to be convinced of that. But I am convinced that unless the UK government makes it clear that 'preachers of hate' and Muslim extremists won't be tolerated then the problem will grow. And that scenario benefits no-one.
News to the MCB: the word is "foment" not "forment".
Soccerdad: cheers.
"the problem of radicalism and extremism in a small number of UK Mosques"
Are you sure it's only a small number?
I'd like to think the bigotry and hatred that we saw being preached in the Green Lane Mosque was an isolated incident. Some may say I'm being naïve in thinking that. Maybe I am. But unless the authorities take decisive action against so-called preachers of hate then the problem of extremism within the Muslim community will only increase.
"Some conservatives believe that the problems lie with a 'sizeable minority' of UK Muslims."
Well, I guess that makes me an ultra-conservative because I believe the problems lie with a "sizeable majority" of all Muslims since the basis for this extremism is the Koran itself. Many are calling for reform in Islam; but I fear that the extremism we are witnessing is, in actuality, the reformation itself--bringing Muslims back to a truer, more fundamental form of Islam as outlined in their Koran. What is truly needed is for the purported (yet remarkably silent) "vast majority of peaceful Muslims" to condemn the vicious and violent passages of their holy book. Unfortunately, it is impossible for them to do so since they believe the Koran to be the actual word of God, and to deny its integrity would make them apostates and mark them for death along with the rest of us infidels.
I am not trying to stir up trouble; I just think it's time to pull our heads out of the sand and call a spade a spade. Channel 4's "Green Lane Mosque" has revealed that many of these imams speak with forked tongues, and their rhetoric is not to be trusted. Far better for the rest of us to read the Koran, Hadith and Sura and see for ourselves.
Hellpig, you'll never win the argument with comments like that. Incidentally, it's good to see you made it out of Waco in one piece.
I must say that I am not terribly shocked at their response. I was pleasantly pleased to see that Channel 4 was willing to face the inevitable backlash to their program.
I agree. It was a brave decision on Channel 4's part.
This was not "a tiny minority of extremists, who do not understand their own religion" nor was it radical islam. It was islam, plain and simple.
One of the "exposed" had apparantly attended a "university" course on islam in medina for 6 years.
When these people say they want to take over our country, you had better believe them, so we will need to get used to sharia, or we will have to defeat them.
I prefer option 2
I've been away in the US and had to watch this over the net. It was a good program, which leaves you asking if on every pccasion the footage is out of context and the filmed preacher is normally committed to the rule of British law and against terrorism or if they just lie to us because some of us are stupid enough to believe them.
That and the trial of Tony Blair (4oD again) and really Channel 4 looked good for the week - if they could ignor Big Brother.
Not too sure what you're looking for from MPs. I know that the Green Lane Mosque's MP Roger Godsiff did call for police action. Other MPs from outside the area aren't obviously going to get involved.
The suggestion that the other 650 or so have been intimidated is highly unlikely. I know all of the country's main Muslim organisations quite well, and the maximum their lobbying reaches is sticking something up on their website - which MPs do not log onto daily.
So good luck in finding those emails or faxes, because I doubt very much they exist except in your imagination.
I can not believe it has been allowed to come to this. Surely the philosophy of "multiculturalism" can be conclusively labeled a disaster.
The UK needs to wake up. Unfortunately the leftists in your media still blame everything on the USA and Israel. (At what point does it become the responsibility of the fool that straps the bomb on his back? Rather then the "foreign policy" that the terrorist wishes to have a veto over?) The smug fools at the BBC are particularly guilty of this deliberate mis-direction.
Anon 5.58: I completely agree.
Osama: I think you'll find that a number of high profile anti-British, anti-US, anti-Semitic Labour and Lib Dem MPs were lobbied by the so-called spokesmen for the Muslim community. Who in reality speak for no-one but themselves and their exorbitant salaries and extravagent lifestyles.
This is what moderate Islam is up to:
"But do the media and people of the Western world also know that there is a deceptive strategy in Islam which is called Taqiyya, which comes from the time of Prophet Muhammad himself? Taqiyya is a deceptive strategy for damage control. When Muslims are in trouble for the comments or actions of a member or community of theirs, the rest must take recourse of lies and deception to chide the culprits even if he/she was correct according to Islam. This is to ameliorate tensions, to divert attention, to conciliate and to persuade the offended party against harsh actions. Taqiyya would apply so long Muslims are not in a position to win a confrontation."
From a posting on US Neverdock
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/01/24/171157.php
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