Posted on 07/13/2005 7:22:32 PM PDT by 1066AD
Deep-rooted problems, Muslim MPs warn Education the key to eradicating extremism
Thursday July 14, 2005
Guardian
The four Muslim MPs who went to see Tony Blair told the Guardian what political response was needed in the wake of the attacks. Sadiq Khan, Labour MP for Tooting and formerly a civil liberties lawyer, warned: "Just as it had taken a generation for these problems to develop, so it would take a generation for them to be solved.
"In the short term the Muslim community must - and has - unequivocally condemn these acts, but it is also clear that people have been ringing the anti-terrorism hotline and cooperating with police.
"Some of the solutions need to come from the Muslim community, but they cannot all come from it. I don't think a community 30, 40 or 50 years old here has the skills or resources or infrastructure to deal with these things on their own. There is a role for government, but we have to recognise that some previous efforts to help have ended up with the money not ending up with local government, and not the right neighbourhoods.
"I am not criticising the Muslim Council of Britain. It has 400 affiliated in the grassroots, but it's the Heineken factor - we need to reach the parts of the community previous infrastructures and other leaders cannot reach. It is excellent the Muslim Council are bringing together international scholars to explain that those who carry out these heinous acts are not going to heaven but to hell. This has got be said in clear, direct language."
Mr Khan warned against treating the Muslim community as something separate from wider society.
He added: "There needs to be an examination for how we deal with the atmosphere and conditions that lead to educated middle class young men and disenfranchised, disillusioned young men doing these things.
"One place we know all these people went to is not youth clubs or mosques or madrasas. They all went to our schools from four to 16. So why aren't our schools giving positive role models or teaching them about the history of Islamic mathematicians and artists? Why are their role models mujahideen in Afghanistan? The loss of identity does not happen when you are 16, but over a period of years."
Mohammed Sarwar, Labour MP for Glasgow Central, said: "First of all we Muslims are all in a state of shock and disbelief that these suicide bombers are British-born. It is very important to find those who masterminded this vile act and perverted and then poisoned the young minds of these bombers. So it is vital we find the perpetrators to the highest level, and everyone in the Muslim community must cooperate. The message is that we cannot tolerate these people in our midst and, if we have in the past, we have to be stronger.
So far there is no sign that the Islamic centre in my constituency has been attacked and there has been calm, but there is obviously a danger that the BNP will exploit this, something we discussed with Tony Blair.
"Yes there are problems of deprivation, unemployment, lack of skills in the Muslim community, but there is no sign that these people involved in these crimes come from such estates.
Khalid Mahmood, the Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Bar, and a figure who has faced fierce criticism from religious extremists in his community, said: "We have to recognise these people are in the equivalent of a religious cult. They are brainwashed. Many of them go into higher or further education where they have a thirst for knowledge and religion, and are seized on by these people. They are a cult in just the same way as some of these American cults that end up suffocating one another.
"The extremists have no negotiating demands. They are not like Hamas or the IRA. They don't have a foreign policy agenda save hate and some kind of revolution. These organisations are not just operating in Britain. They are in Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. They have been operating well before the invasion of Iraq. Many of the organisations that get hold of these youngsters are involved in criminal network though corruption or credit card fraud. We need more people to confront these organisations and challenge their thinking. It is too easy to go [with] the flow, so all Muslim leaders have a responsibility.
"We also have a big problem with much of the religious education that goes on in mosques after school. It is totally unregulated and much of it is of low quality. None of the teachers are subject to any normal child protection regulation, yet this is where many people's minds start to be shaped.
"I have argued for many years that we need to do something about the incitement to religious hatred and the quality of the religious teaching in mosques. We can do that through the current legislation if necessary. Abu Hamza and Bakri Muhammad need to be dealt with.
"At the very least the Home Office should press ahead with a requirement that the teachers in mosques face tests about speaking English and have an understanding of British culture. Speaking half intelligibly to young people helps no one.
"I have got no reason to think that this stems from economic deprivation. In my constituency I have Afro-Caribbean, white and Muslim poverty."
Shahid Malik, whose Dewsbury constituency contains two of the properties raided by the police, said: "We are still in a state of shock. Many people are quite numb, they can't believe that it has happened, but it has happened.
"So far it's had the impact of increasing the appetite for unity and cooperation. The monsters who carried out this atrocity can't have any faith."
He said there was "a determination not to allow people to exploit the situation".
"Condemning alone, however, is probably insufficient. What I'm saying is we need to go beyond that. We need also to confront."
He later told MPs that the present situation represented "the most profound challenge yet faced by the British Muslim community".
"Rather than divide us, these evil voices will serve to unite the British people in our resolve to deal with them."
"This is a defining moment for this country and do you share my confidence that the Muslim and wider community will play its role and is equal to the challenge?
"I can assure you that my constituency of Dewsbury will not be found to be wanting either."
The Independent has good coverage too (on this subject at least). www.independent.co.uk
Say what? I thought it was all about poverty? Poverty breeds terrorists and all that.
SNORT.
Send them back to Pakistan. There is no room for islam in a civilized society. It is a death cult, pure and simple.
Sadly one of the bombers was a teacher.
Oh, sure, blame the beer. The problem is the religion.
Oh, sure, blame the beer. The problem is the religion.
Britain now has Muslim MP's? It's further down the slope than I thought!
all this from the red guardian.
it's easier to destroy than to build.
Maybe there is. But what really needs to be addressed is why London seems such an attractive locale for various extremist-type gatherings. Just what kind of nonsense have the Brits been putting up with over the years, anyway?
Those who raise children to carry bombs to destroy civilization must be eradicated. They are beyond retraining, as are their offspring. It's just that simple.
It will regrettably take much more destruction of the civilized culture, likely until it is considered uncivilized, to destroy this pox, this virus upon humanity.
So... is this just a bump in the road?
Or the endgame?
You bet your life.
But... but... but....
Sadiq Khan is part of the problem.
Young Islamic males are blowing themselves up on crowded buses, in an effort to kill as many people as they can, and if this is to stop, the British people have to make some changes ...
A better idea: Young Islamic males should stop blowing themselves up on crowded buses, in an effort to kill as many people as they can.
The same form of mental illness we have here. I cannot belive Ward Churchill still has a job. Fire that bastard, now !
Yes, the death cult known as ISLAM. They are simply following the words and deed of their so called Prophet. People like Mahmood are the apostates, which is why they will never succeed in ending terrorism. They should leave Islam entirely. It can't be saved.
I must have missed this. Mostly I've hear the Bombers parents express denial and unequivocally proclaim that they were nice young boys who helped little old ladies across the street.
Evil. They were evil people willing to blow up innocent people, and they were incredible fools who listened to madmen who told them that they should die for Allah.
You know what really frosts my beer? The way that the network newz people always translate "Allah" into "God" when they report Muslim preaching or recovered paperwork. They are afraid to say on the news that "the documents said that the bombers should not be afraid to kill for Allah" and "translate" it into "the documents said the bombers should not be afraid to kill for God." My people stopped killing to advance their faith four hundred years ago; please don't tar my God with that brush. Lay the killing at the feet of Baal.
Good catch. Great call.
They all may seem reasonable now, they are in a minority. What rules will prevail when they are in the majority? Look at Canada, Sharia Laws are in place in that country, without a majority.
It is their (the Muslims) mission in there religion, it's their reason for being, to make the Islamic Religion, the Dominent Religion of the world.
Yo, wake up. Most of the Lord Mayors of the Midlands are Muslims, have been for years. Extreme Political Correctness and their own daffy version of Affirmative Action have turned the UK into a parody of its former self.
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