Will London burn too?

12 November 2005

Patrick Sookhdeo on the Islamic doctrine of sacred space

Radical Muslims hope for the re-establishment of the Caliphate, abolished by Atat�rk in 1924. The possibility of a Southern Europe Caliphate and a North Sea Caliphate has been raised.

The other important principle is the classic Islamic division of the world into Dar al-Islam (the house of Islam), where Muslims rule, and Dar al-Harb (the house of war). The sinister name for non-Muslim territory indicates that Muslims have an obligation to wage war until it becomes Dar al-Islam. There is much debate within Islam today as to whether or not the West is Dar al-Harb. Non-Muslims can be thankful for alternatives such as Dar al-Sulh (House of Truce) and Dar al-Ahd (House of Treaty).

Some radical British Muslims used to believe in a ‘covenant of security’ which forbids Muslims living in the UK from engaging in military action within the country. Preposterous though it seems, they believed that, were it not for this ‘covenant’, they would be duty-bound to attack the majority community. Most now believe the covenant to be null and void because of the UK’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But the most radical of all hold that the covenant of security applied only to Muslims who had sought refuge in Britain, not to those who were born here. In the words of Hassan Butt, ‘They [the British-born] owe nothing to the government. They did not ask to be born here; neither did they ask to be protected by Britain.’

In Britain we already have many examples of Muslim violence. Some are within the community — ethnic violence such as Kurds against Pakistanis in Peterborough or so-called ‘honour killings’. Some are between Muslims and other communities such as the blacks vs Asian Muslims in Birmingham or the armed black Muslim gangs in south London threatening to kill those who will not convert to Islam. Will we see the same patterns of sectarian violence as in Pakistan, the homeland of so many British Muslims? Shias and Sunnis killing each other, and the persecution of Ahmadiyyas by Sunnis?