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Friday 9 January 2009

Ken’s mega-mosque will encourage extremism

Irfan al-Alawi and Stephen Schwartz warn that the Olympic mosque has been conceived by Islamic radicals, supported by politically correct politicians, and will add to divisions in Britain

The Markaz mosque, meanwhile, is intended to promote a separatist cult, rather than the general interests of Muslims; there is no need for it as a service to the existing London Islamic community; it will use money collected from non-Muslims by taxation, which is neither ethical nor prudent, especially now.

Ken Livingstone is very much at the heart of the problem. For all his eagerness to reaffirm his multicultural credentials, he has shown little sensitivity to the differing trends within the Islamic community, and especially to the battle between moderates and radicals. Mr Livingstone is apparently happy with the idea of a ‘Muslim quarter’ at the Olympics, or a ghetto-style ‘Islamic village’, or put plainly, a fundamentalist enclave. Indeed, UK officials such as the Labour MP Mike O’Brien have expressed the absurd belief that ‘radical’ Islam is acceptable, in contrast with ‘extremist’ Islam, because the first is supposed to be merely rhetorical and the second is violent. The same officials have tried to reinvent Deobandis and other British Muslim jihadists as purported ‘moderates’.

As Muslims, we reject such thinking. We know the difference between moderate Islam and fundamentalism, and we know there is no significant distinction to be drawn between radicals and extremists. Further, we object to non-Muslim but ‘politically correct’ British politicians, experts, and media commentators trying to define the situation within our faith for us, without any consultation — except with known radicals spuriously legitimised as ‘community representatives’. We believe London authorities should reject approval of the Tabligh Markaz mosque, that the British government should cease trying to placate radical Muslims, and that moderate and mainstream Muslims should stand up and defend their long record of success in Britain by repudiating Deobandism and all other forms of Islamist separatism, radicalism and extremism.

Irfan al-Alawi and Stephen Schwartz are, respectively, Western Europe director and executive director of the Centre for Islamic Pluralism (www.islamicpluralism.org).

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