Posted on 07/14/2008 4:36:35 PM PDT by forkinsocket
The government is to sponsor a theological board of leading imams and Muslim women in an attempt to refute the ideology of violent extremists.
The committee, to be announced this week, will issue pronouncements on areas such as wearing the hijab and the treatment of wives and is part of a government strategy to counter radicalism.
It will rule on interpretation of the Koran and promote the moderate strain of Islam practised by most British Muslims. It will also comment on controversial issues affecting Muslims living in Britain, including whether or not they should serve in the armed forces.
Its members have been recommended by leading moderates in the Muslim community and will be technically independent, although the government is expected to provide civil service support, a secretariat and members’ expenses.
Hazel Blears, the communities secretary, will announce the committee as part of an anti-extremism strategy called Prevent, devised following the 2005 London bombings. It tries to foster close contacts between Muslims and the rest of society to combat the glorification of terrorism.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
The fact this board will include women gives me a little hope that it might actually be worthwhile
Besides, the RoP followers are so fragmented not just by sects, but also by cultural background, and given a multitude of mosques to select from, will often pick one with a congregation of the same ethnic background (Arab, Paki, Somali, Persian, Indo-Malay etc) simply because they enjoy stories from "back home" and enjoy the same ethnic food after jummah, so any central "authority" has limited impact.
Perhaps they should be looking into restricting the proliferation of the multitude of salafi materials published and distributed from the KSA first, instead of attempting to anoint one RoP group over another..
In many eyes, the Brits are just paying more jizya to their mohammadan overlords, reinforcing muslims own beliefs in the powers of their "allah," even over the filthy kuffar.
Now the RoP are free to spend this portion of their zakat $ on other things instead of dawah for dummies... things they don't have to account for.
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