Rolled-up Trousers

Hassan Butt: I wasn't a terrorist

Astonishing turn of events chronicled by this Channel 4 video.

It turns out that reformed terrorist Hassan Butt isn't reformed at all - because he never had the links with Al-Qaeda he claimed to have.

A bit of questioning by the boys in blue had Butt singing like a canary.

He even arranged to have himself stabbed to show how he lived in fear from those he supposedly once fraternised with. This led Ed Hussain to write an article based on it:

In Manchester in April, Hassan Butt, a one-time jihadist who is now opposed to extremism, was stabbed and beaten for speaking out against fanaticism. He now lives in hiding. Why was this not reported in the mainstream media?

All of which must make us wonder - why would anyone want to make themselves out to have been an idiot terrorist? He and journalist Shiv Malik were planning a book about his 'experiences'. Must be some amount of money in this game.

Most Muslims desire democracy

I'm really looking forward to getting hold of a copy of John Esposito's book "Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think".

The data was pulled together with the aid of polling organisation Gallup, and blows apart the normal theorising about Muslims from a distance. It should come as no surprise that Muslims, like anyone else, want to live in freedom rather than despotism. But it will come as a shock to some.

Now we need a foreign policy aligned with this thought in mind. Stop encouraging rancid dictators like the King Abdullahs, Gaddafis, Mubaraks and Musharrafs of the world.

Has political participation failed Muslims?

I took part in a debate last week organised by the Cordoba Foundation on "Has political participation failed Muslims?".

Apparently the event caused a bit of controversy in the East End of London because one of the panelists was the head of Hizb-ut-Tahrir Britain, Abdul Wahid. Indeed, David Cameron has since picked up on this, claiming that somehow HT were set to financially benefit from this event, which is complete nonsense.

Anyway, I was blown away by the level of cynicism about the political process from the audience. I thought these kind of debates had been put to bed years ago - we need to be involved. Maybe it's a geographical thing - certainly Lord Nazir Ahmed who was my fellow opponent of the motion, thought things would be different in Rotherham too. In the end, the motion was passed 78% to 14%. I didn't demand a recount.

Mehdi Hasan on the media

One of the rising stars in the media is interviewed in the Independent:

Hasan believes that television is less hostile towards Muslims than the print media, and is keen to lay the blame for Islamophobia at the door of ignorance rather than racism. "Over the years, at the BBC, ITV and Sky, I have worked with countless producers and reporters who had never met a Muslim before they met me," he says, "or if they had, it was invariably an unrepresentative and loony extremist who they were interviewing or profiling for a story."

Hasan calls for more moderate Muslims in Britain to abandon traditional career paths towards medicine or engineering and to instead join the media and help influence the industry's coverage of issues such as terrorism and integration. "I see people like myself – who happen to be both a professional journalist and a practising Muslim – as a bridge between the Islamic community and the media, and by extension between Muslims and wider society," says Hasan.

Salmond hosted at Glasgow Central Mosque

A couple of weeks ago now something quite unthinkable happened. A dinner was held at Glasgow Central Mosque in honour of Alex Salmond upon his becoming First Minister.

It was put on by the Jamiat Ittihad-ul-Muslimeen, the organisation that runs the mosque. In years gone by this body has been the most pro-Labour of any Muslim organisation in the country.

The now standard praise of the First Minister is his response to the Glasgow Airport attack when he came to the mosque the day after and pledged his solidarity with the Muslim community in front of the world's waiting media. What's not spoken about anymore was that two years ago, he offered to do exactly the same thing after the July bombings, but was remarkably refused entry by the management committee.

Brass Crescent Awards

The annual gongs for the Muslim blogosphere are under way. Nominations for the various categories have been announced. Rolled-up Trousers is in the running for "Most Deserving of Wider Recognition". You can vote for me or not here.

Not too sure this can strictly be categorised as a Muslim blog anymore. Bit of everything here now. Depends how it's defined.

I missed the nomination process otherwise I would have added to the excellent blogs that did actually get on the final list. I have to confess that despite running a blog, I'm not the best at keeping up with what's new in the blogosphere. There are a number of omissions though - Suhaib Webb and Blogistan. Islamophobia Watch on the 'blog run by non-Muslims' category, as well as Conflicts Forum.

Bradford Muslim when he posts is always worth a read, the Tasneem Project, and Gabriele Marranci. Best series must be The Islamicist which was just hilarious - for some reason it's not in that section though and is competing against me!

A few sandwiches short at this teddy bear's picnic

Meet Adam the Prayer Bear. This toy is owned by hundreds of Muslims up and down the country. He happens to share the name of a Prophet. If this is a crime, then there are a lot of Muslims guilty of it.

He's called a 'prayer bear' because he recites various lines when any of his limbs are pressed. As I was putting him away after taking his photo, I accidentally pressed down on one of his paws. He said "In the name of Allah, the most Merciful, the most Kind". Appropriate.

Why I won't be moving to Dubai

Earlier this year I visited Dubai for the first time in five years. The change in such a short space of time was astounding. The speed at which development takes place is truly breakneck.

It’s said that a quarter of the world’s cranes reside in the area. It’s as if they take an area of desert, plan the most ambitious development of its kind in the world, and just slap it up. The place oozes money, you can see it dripping on the streets.

Everyone says Dubai is a sign of the Day of Judgement. I definitely caught sight of proverbial barefooted, naked destitute herdsmen doing their thing. The ordinary people of Dubai invariably curse the place. One taxi driver, always the fount of knowledge in any city, brought his family over from Pakistan in 1982. Such has been the rise in prices due to Europeans and American moving in, that he’s had to send his family back recently.

It is still undeniably true though that Dubai would be the city of choice for many UK Muslims if they had to pick somewhere else to live. That isn’t a fantasy wish either – many have left and are considering leaving. The Guardian in 2005 found two-thirds questioning their future in this country due to the political situation.

Mosque Factor

This cheesy title is enabled by X factor no longer being known as Pop Idol - otherwise I would have got into trouble. I'm talking here about Islam Channel's competition to discover Britain's top mosque.

The mosques are being assessed on their interfaith work, women's facilities, youth services and their transparency on finances, policies and management.

As much as I love it, I was surprised to see my local Glasgow Central Mosque on the final short leet. I'm even more surprised to see Edinburgh Central Mosque not on it. There can't be many more progressive mosques. On the basis of their annual Islam Festival alone, they should be winning the competition hands down. And particularly because I'm fasting at the moment, don't get me started on the Mosque Kitchen mmmm....

Labour friends of Muslims?

A glance at the Electoral Commission's latest report into party finances shows that the Muslim Friends of Labour donated over £300,000 to Scottish Labour's election campaign this year.

When the group was set up a few years ago with a dinner at Glasgow Central Mosque, the obvious problem was not whether Muslims were friends of Labour, but whether Labour were friends of Muslims.

The Herald reported that the "Muslim community" had donated £300,000 to Labour. While not strictly true, what MFL does is give cover to those giving donations by it not ending up on the Electoral Commission's web site. Noman Tahir calls for a naming and shaming (UPDATE: More in the Sunday Times).

Over the last few years, the decline in Muslim membership of the Labour Party has been well documented. What hasn't been reported however was a corresponding drop in donations from Muslims - probably because there wasn't much in the way of Muslim philanthropy of this sort in the first place. MFL is an attempt to recognise that money can buy you love in politics.

Time for Muslims to cry freedom

Extract from my speech to the MAB and UKIM Scottish conference held on 5-6 August in Glasgow.

It’s been a tough year for the Muslim community. But when is any particular twelve months not tough for Muslims?

The good news is that the mendacity of the Blair era is at an end. There are new administrations in Westminster and Holyrood, a chance for a fresh start.

Tony Blair believed that the focus had to be kept on the Muslim community in order to divert attention from his foreign policy. The calls for Muslims to do more couldn’t be substantiated – as much as we’d love to be heroes we cannot do more - and thus descended to attacks on our beliefs and practices. We had regular initiatives from his government such as asking Muslim parents to spy on their children, for teachers to spy on their pupils, and government ministers telling their Muslim constituents to wear clothes that would make the minister feel more ‘comfortable’.

What was forgotten was the idea in our society that you can do as you please, as long as you do not bring harm to others. These principles have been all too easily forgotten in recent times. It led us to the remarkable situation where Muslims were having to dole out lessons to the government about liberalism.

But it is these notions of freedom which should be guiding lights for Muslims in the times ahead. And these liberties are not disconnected from the terror threat we face.

Leadership is not title

Sunny Hundal gives us an update on how the New Generation Network is going.

Main thing he seems to have realised is that he's going to have to do some work. Indeed, leadership is not about title, it's about function and performance. There's been too much debate for too long about who has the right to do what and speak to whom, and precious little actually happening.

As far as the Muslim community is concerned, it's been fascinating to see how quiet groups like the Sufi Muslim Council have gone. As Inayat Bunglawala said recently:

A final observation: interestingly, tomorrow's Glasgow rally and the London conference are both being organised by avowedly Islamic groups. The fact is, as the special branch officer quoted in [Seumas] Milne's article correctly observed, "Islamists have the best antidotes to al-Qaida propaganda".

The favoured Muslims

In the last week we've seen yet again the blurring of the lines between Islam and terrorism, not it has to be said by Muslims themselves. But those that want to play this game can just as easily be tarred by association as many Muslims are. At the Cambridge University conference a few weeks ago where Tony Blair spoke (and set the programme depending on who you believe), Shaikh Ali Goma from Egypt was a chief guest as a example of moderation from the Muslim world.

Shortly before the Grand Mufti travelled he'd issued advice that there may be blessings in the Prophet's (peace be upon him) urine. I'm not a scholar, but I can imagine if some had wanted to demonise him, there would be plenty of opportunity. And others found evidence not disimilar to what Shaikh Qaradawi is pilloried for. I also see that Shaikh Goma allows Muslims to sell alcohol and pork in the West. An example of enlightened moderation and integration some would say. But it is only because he sees the West as dar-ul-harb (house of war).

HT

Young and old in the Muslim community need to unite. The aftermath of the failed bomb attack on Glasgow Airport brought two distinct reactions. The mosque elders did their press conference bit, while the second generation wanted to go a bit further and organised Saturday's rally.

There's a tendency on the part of some of the youthful elements to scorn all that our elders have achieved, while it's apparent that some of the older generation see us as something resembling a threat to the current order. It rumbled a bit in the last week, but I was shocked to see an article in the Daily Record claiming that Hizb-ut-Tahrir tried to stand in the elections for the Glasgow Central Mosque committee.

Islamic mortgages the solution to Scotland's housing crisis?

From the Herald:

Nicola Sturgeon, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, said it was "possible" that the private sector could get involved in so-called shared equity schemes, where housebuyers pay for a proportion of the property and another party pays for the remainder.

Ms Sturgeon's comments came just a week after she ruled out any expansion of private sector involvement in the NHS. So far, only the public sector has been involved in the shared equity scheme, with housing associations providing part of the capital to help people buy their first home.

But appearing before the local government and communities committee for the first time since the election, Ms Sturgeon said she was relaxed with the scheme being extended to involve the private sector.

She said: "We are keen to talk to mortgage lenders and others about how to lever in financial support to help people get on the property ladder."

The scheme as described above sounds very much like the ijara system of mortgages. To date, no one offers these in Scotland, despite many providers like HSBC having done so in England for many years.

If it is such a system, this is finally very good news for the country's Muslims. I get calls every week asking if there are any developments in the area yet, and despite murmers of some of the Scottish banks doing something, nothing tangible has appeared.

However, it may be something entirely different. I'm not clear how any of this would help get people onto the property ladder - normally the requirements are pretty much the same as the conventional market.

Muslims and Canada

Thought provoking observations from Ehsan Masood on a visit to Canada, the country that has consistently shown in various polls has the best relations with their Muslims:

One of the first things that grabs a visitor from Europe is the absence in Canada of an aggressive popular media. There is a tabloid press, but it concerns itself with the celebrity world, and the domain of the weird and the wacky. Canada's newsagents and supermarkets lack the familiar (to a visitor from Britain) sight of a long row of newspapers screaming alarmist headlines in capital letters that frequently exude scepticism (at least) and outright hostility (at most) towards people of non-western religions or new arrivals from other countries.

Furthermore, Canada's media (both popular and broadsheet) will not do anything to disturb the national consensus on diversity. So, for example, members of the Canadian far right, or Muslims who support violent extremists, will not automatically make the front pages, nor will they be invited to the top news shows as routinely happens in Britain. 'We just don't do that kind of thing in Canada', says Nazim Baksh, an award-winning producer and filmmaker for the CBC, Canada's public-service broadcaster.

The terrorism monkey is off the MCB's back

Ruth Kelly, the Communities Minister, recently announced that £5m of funding would be allocated to fighting extremism. It would be directed at local projects, which was interpreted as another slap for the MCB. In an Observer article last week, other groups were mentioned positively such as the "Muslim British Forum", which is presumably meant to be the British Muslim Forum.

The mistake hasn't been seized upon, but betrays the desperate groping at the centre of government for something resembling a strategy. I don't think the MCB should be overly concerned at being looked over. Rather, many have argued for ages that there is nothing more that the organisation can do with respect to the terror threat. Plausibly, all that can be asked for is to renounce the killing of innocents and say it has no place in Islam (which they have done), and to call for people to cooperate with the police and security services (which they have done).

The wisdom of Taj Hargey

“How can you swim properly if you wear a hijab?” - in the Sun

FIFA bans hijab

Readers may have been following this story from Canada. A 12-year-old girl was not allowed to participate in a  football match last Sunday because she was wearing a headscarf. Asmahan Mansour's team mates walked off with her in solidarity.

The issue was discussed at FIFA's meeting in Manchester this week where the world's governing body upheld the decision. English FA chairman Brian Barwick said:

“If you play football, there's a set of laws and rules, and law 4 outlines the basic equipment ... It's absolutely right to be sensitive to people's thoughts and philosophies, but equally there has to be a set of laws that are adhered to, and we favour law 4 being adhered to.”

Here's the key passage in law 4:

A player must not use equipment or wear anything that is dangerous to himself or another player (including any kind of jewellery).

It hasn't been demonstrated that the hijab is a threat to the player or to others. I think that would take quite a bit of imagination. And a reading of law 4 says it outlines the "basic compulsory equipment of a player". It isn't clear from reading it that it is to the exclusion of anything else. Indeed players are regularly seen wearing caps and gloves which are not in law 4, so it's clear Barwick is talking nonsense on that point.

My feeling is that the decision has been rushed. Asmahan was only sent from the field last Sunday (after playing on Saturday in the tournament without sanction) and already FIFA have apparently sat and deliberated the issue on the back of that. It's hardly enough time for research to be done, papers to be submitted and the ramifications to be considered.

Before the usual suspects start to drone on about "integration of religious minorities" - football is a global game. FIFA's decision sends out a signal to Muslim women everywhere that wear the headscarf that their participation in the sport is not welcome.

The headteacher who took the decision to ban a 12-year-old girl from wearing the niqab at school, has said in the resultant court case that she did so to promote equality between men and women:

As a girls' school for over 100 years, we are very conscious of our duty to educate girls to regard themselves as equals to men and to gain the self-confidence to live and work in British and international society on the same level as men.

I've been wary of the politics of this issue, where it should actually be about what the rules are and how they're enforced. Either the niqab is, or is not, part of the uniform. The court needs to decide whether it is legitimate for the school to enforce the ban. It should not be deciding whether or not it promotes equality between men or woman. That kind of subjectivity could open a can of worms on all sorts of articles of clothing.

Nor should it be deciding whether it is an integral part of Islam. Taj Hargey (head of the hugely representative Muslim organisation MECO) has been championed by the Daily Telegraph for saying he will - thanks to international donors (presumably not Saudi) - put up £500,000 to help the school's battle. Given Hargey's clear ideological position on this, I can't see how the school can in all good conscience accept this loaded money.

The iWitness have some news as to why Yvonne Ridley has been dropped by the Islam Channel.

These are the days of Eid

Congratulations to all the hajjis this year, including my brother who is among them. My parents wanted to go too, but missed out due to a mixture of incompetence on the part of the group they were going with and the Saudi embassy issuing visas.

It's a familiar story. I'd love to see someone do a thorough analysis of the way that Hajj is organised, as clearly there is a lot left to be desired. There's the normal civil service bureaucracy, but then consider how bad the accountability and sense of impunity is in one run by a dictatorship. It's astounding that people can be denied performing their once in a liftime religious obligation without any rhyme or reason due to visas.

And that's just on this end. I've not been yet, but can well imagine organising a two-million-strong event is not easy. But in the decaying atmosphere that sums up the state of affairs in the Muslim world, there doesn't appear to be a "suggestions box" as to how things can be improved. As I wrote after the 300 deaths at Jamarat last year, in a healthy situation there would be a proper independent inquiry into what went wrong. People asked questions of and made recommendations to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and the righteous Caliphs. This tradition should be renewed.

I've also heard that Eids are a rather drab affair over there. Couldn't the Saudi authorities put on some entertainment? We know from the life of the Prophet that a good time was had on these days. If they wanted to remain literalist about it, at least get some kids to do songs with drums and some Ethiopians in to perform acts with spears and shields at the Prophet's Mosque. However, live open air concert at Arafat featuring Sami Yusuf and Native Deen anyone?

Eid mubarak to all.

Muslims refusing MRSA gel

The Sun have today uncovered instances where Muslims visiting people in hospital would not wash their hands on entry to wards because the handgel provided contains alcohol.

It would have been a good idea for the Sun to actually ask some Islamic scholars for some rulings on the matter. It is forbidden to consume alcohol, but there is no such prohibition on its external use.

This goes back to reasoning. Any course of action which would lead to the mind being impaired in intoxication is considered haraam. This is why drinking alcoholic beverages is prohibited, but even if you had to consume the soap, it would leave you ill yes, drunk no.

Normally you would take what the Sun says with a pinch of salt. However, I can believe this one as this kind of petty misguided scrupulousness is present amongst all too many Muslims. Ignorance would be putting it mildly when we come to an issue where rather that look at what their faith actually says, they would risk spreading vicious hospital bugs.

Islam favours community benefit, making this an especially sad story. For more info, see this fatwa about the external use of perfumes (not even something with a health benefit) containing alcohol.

Memorialising the Holocaust

Salma Yaqoob has written in today's Guardian that the MCB should attend the Holocaust Memorial events on January 27th. She's not out to lynch the MCB and clearly isn't an Uncle Tom. As such the words need to be taken seriously.

Factions within the MCB have been pushing this view for a while now. An attempt was made to put this through at the weekend, but what was voted for was a motion that a "wider consultation" of British Muslims should be made.

Speaking to people who are involved with the MCB, the debate seems to either go along the lines of maintaining the MCB position since the inception of HMD that it isn't inclusive enough and that we need a "Genocide Memorial Day" instead, or adopting a complete u-turn and just deciding to take part all of a sudden.

Channel 4's Women Only Jihad

I wrote a few weeks ago about MPAC's campaign to get access for women into the country's mosques. No one can argue coherently against it. Moaning about MPAC's tactics will not cut it, especially when the side that wanted to exclude women denied themselves any evidence by demanding that the TV cameras be switched off.

Any theological arguments to justify the status quo are contrived to justify the situation back in Pakistan and other countries which was imported over here. The first generation accepted it, the second though, as with so many things have not.

There is a danger of overstating the impact of mosques opening up will have though. The argument in the film at one point that the outlook of the institutions would be more integrated and outward looking with women being admitted is itself actually a sexist one, as if Muslim men are incapable of running mosques.

Reality: Muslim parents are clamping down on any political activity

Yesterday the Home Secretary could be accused of grandstanding when he used the Sun newspaper to tell Muslims to watch their children.

Today he stepped into a mosque. He was given a fairly heated reception during the Q&A, though Muslims really must learn about the art of questioning. Heckling came from the Anjum Chowdhury/Abu Izzadine axis. I do wonder who invited them. Visits like this are not publicised in advance. Who told them? George Galloway puts it thus:

The man who harangued you - Abu Izzadine - is a well-known and violent extremist from an organisation your own government has proscribed. Yet he was allowed within punching distance of the British Home Secretary. How ? Why ?

... There are only two conceivable explanations as to how this man, at this sensitive time, was allowed to hijack your Potemkin Village performance today.

Either our police and security services are so fantastically incompetent that Bin Laden himself might have slipped in to beard you at your podium. Or someone somewhere wanted to engineer precisely this confrontation to show you in a certain light and to portray the Muslims of Britain in the most aggressive violent and extreme way possible, as a justification for the utterly counter-productive policies you are following.

Reid did take it all in his stride. He's a smooth public performer, and I doubt anyone else in the government would have been able to pull that off. Totally unflappable. What the headlines tomorrow will all be about though is the insinuation that Muslim youth are planning terror outrages, and their parents aren't doing anything about it. As such this is libellous.

Woman attacked for wanting to pray in mosque

MPAC highlight the disturbing story of a Muslim woman who was "physically attacked" for having the cheek of wanting to pray at a Blackburn mosque.

It was the same mosque that invited the female Condoleezza Rice for a visit earlier this year, and if I'm not mistaken, the same mosque that we saw MPACers being attacked on TV at the last General Election for distributing leaflets. Obviously, on top of the individual issue here, there is the wider one of female access to mosques.

Our mosques in this country are by and large gathering places for elderly males. What is the point of Islamic rules on hijab and keeping a modest gaze if our women aren't going to be allowed out of the house? Did women pray in the mosque of the Prophet, peace be upon him, or not?

What would constitute a real apology

I have to confess that I've found it difficult to warm to the new Pope since he aired his opposition to Turkey's membership of the EU on the grounds that it was a Muslim country. The implication to Muslim communities already living in Europe is not good. The meeting with Oriana Fallaci, of "Muslims have been told to come here and breed like rats" fame also sent out all the wrong signals, to say the least.

Which is why it's difficult to believe that the latest statements are entirely out of sync with his views. He's apologised, but only for the "interpretation" of what he said, not what he said in itself.

And then he only mentions what the media have latched onto - his quoting of Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus. Let's put aside the irony of a quote about the violence of Islam at a time when Christian Crusaders were rampaging through the Holy Land. This wasn't all that Ratzinger said. In his "apology" he said people wouldn't be complaining if they had made a "complete and attentive reading" of his text. Well, I have, and it's on my blog if anyone else wants to as well.

Background on Pope Benedict and Islam

Well worth reading this article by Abdul Hakim Murad about Pope Benedict. It was written a year after he took up the position, and not after the recent controversy.

He points to a number of early indicators of the Pope's intent towards Islam - and it's not good. There was the meeting with the extremely rightwing Oriana Fallaci.

There was the insistence at a meeting with German Muslim leaders that he only wanted to discuss terrorism, and not discrimination that Muslims were facing. He opposed Turkish entry into the EU as it is a Muslim country.

During his time as a Cardinal, there is his "Islam is not simply a denomination that can be included in the free realm of a pluralistic society" comment and others airing his belief that Muslims cannot be "assimilated". Time report that in 1997 he said Islam features "a very marked subordination of woman to man". He's also on record saying that Islam "simply does not have the separation of the political and religious sphere that Christianity has had from the beginning."

Then there is the shuffling of key staff, including pro-Israeli appointments:

No Muslim orgs on Commission for Integration

"The government is marginalizing major Muslim organizations, including the MCB, and it seems that new organizations are being brought up in the house of parliament where they don’t have any base," Muhammad Abdul Bari told IslamOnline.net in an exclusive interview...

He said the government is now reaching out to obscure Islamic organizations and shunning the representative one.

"So the government now is talking to something called Sufi Muslim Council founded a month ago," Abdul Bari said.

The MCB leader, a specialist teacher in behavior support, added that the newly established Commission for Integration and Cohesion included unknown Muslim faces.

"Not a single Muslim rep was taken from any of the national Muslim organizations," he said, noting that the Hindu representative is the secretary general of the Hindu Forum UK.

From IslamOnline

Much has also been made of the Abdul Bari's "warning of 2 million British terrorists" in the Sunday Telegraph. Except that he didn't say that, with the newspaper distorting his comments.