Indigo Jo Blogs

We live in Britain. We speak English so I agree that we should have more English speaking British Imams. Arabic can also be taught but English must be the primary language of communication. From personal experience, when I have attended a Friday prayer where the sermon was given by some who speaks English effectively, it really got the younger people listening.

Surely most of the problem "clerics" (Bakri, Qatada, Hamza etc) have all come from abroad anyway? An attempt to actively re-engineering the political landscape of British Islam is well underway. Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi "village imams" are much less likely to protest at the continuing occupation of Iraq,the dispossession of the Palestinians or the colonial conquest of Iran.

My understanding is that most (South Asian) mosques in the UK, and hence most Imams, are controlled by the mosque committee. Such committees not infrequently tell Imams to avoid politics because of the problems it stirs up. So surely this proposal is a white elephant, or a red herring, or some species of oddly coloured fauna.

You can go grab the most "moderate" aka sellout "imam" you can to give PC khutbas, it won't make a difference. People coming to the masjid are not stupid, they know the difference style and substance. All you have to do is watch the news to be radicalized.

A much better idea would for Britain to scrap its extremist foreign policy.

Yeah, yeah, like there is some mutant strain of Islam that pathologically hates the west , and it has nothing whatsoever to do with foreign policy and getting even. The problem with these politicians is that they have to at least act like they believe their own propaganda in order to put bread on the table.

I'm sure a lot of these Indian Imams are nice guys and would really like to teach the youngsters to address these issues via the civil engagement that is (still) available to us here. Well I know for a fact that many of them do. But they are in no position to give them the skills required. Another generation grows up inarticulate, frustrated, soon to be made a tad upset by ** foreign policy** and at that point someone else can show them "another" way of dealing with the problem.

It keeps them all in business.

Why the objection to government plans to bring in scholars from the sub-continent? Many of those that are now raising concerns were pretty silent when the government invited non-English speaking Ulama from the Middle East through the Radical Middle Way.

Extremism breeds extremism, as we all know.

I am not a Muslim and I am outraged at the insane foreign policy this country has been pursuing, which does no one at all any good.

I am running a campaign to vote against anyone who has voted for the war but with an added twist.

http://www.1party4all.co.uk/Home/Account/TopicForm.aspx?topicsId=105

Vote: Should Londoners vote BNP [as well as for Ken] on 1 May 2008 to upset and alarm our ruling classes?

My recommendation on how to make the best use of your second vote, ie to vote for Ken and BNP, is based on the fact that they are both anti-establishment and AGAINST INVADING IRAQ FROM THE START, which is good enough for me, and perhaps for any Muslims.

Personally, I do not see why Islam could not become the happy medium between capitalism red in tooth and claw and an overweening nanny state, the happy compromise between a male-dominated society and the over-feminised society we have become, mutatis mutandis.

DO EUROSCEPTIC MUSLIMS EXIST?

If so, they may wish to read this with particular attention.

If the BNP do well, they will be keen on doing even better.

If they become keen on maximising their support, they would have to consider lifting their colour bar, if to do so would significantly increase membership and win over those who are currently in UKIP and voting for UKIP.

The local elections last year (or was it the year before?) revealed that the BNP commanded 14% of the vote. UKIP had 12% and the LibDems 28%. If UKIP and the BNP merged and became a party that no longer operated a colour bar or wished for the repatriation of non-white citizens, they would very probably receive around 26% of the vote, if not much more, AND BE IN A POSITION TO INFLUENCE EVENTS.

If support for UKIP collapses after the BNP modernises itself, then the voter would at last have ONLY ONE Eurosceptic party with which to demand a referendum, rather than the current vote-splitting choice of two. (Unless there is a revolution, the BNP will have to play by the rules of the current system, and there is no imminent danger of a BNP government in any case.)

If the UK leaves the EU as a result of a referendum, then there is a chance Britain will once again become a sovereign nation state operating commonsense government, rather than remaining part of the EU, led by a discredited and ineffectual out-of-touch liberal elite, who are too dishonest and disorganised to tackle the urgent problems facing us now.

REASONS TO VOTE BNP EVEN IF YOU ARE MUSLIM

Because they were against invading Iraq from the beginning. Anyone who was at the anti-war demo in Hyde Park 2003, as I was, will know that the BNP marched with the Muslims, Jesse Jackson, Ken Livingstone and assorted groups, including the Socialist Workers' Party against the Iraq invasion.

Had there been a BNP government it would not have invaded Iraq - not in the national interest and "none of our business", you see!

Neither would a BNP government have supported the Israeli government unconditionally at the expense of the Palestinians. Many in the BNP cannot decide between whom they dislike more - Jews or Muslims. Therefore a BNP government would have been isolationist and non-interventionist.

What is important is that Boris (who voted for the war and has made Islamophobic comments) does not become mayor.

Muslims can safely vote for Ken and BNP because

(1) both were against the Iraq invasion

(2) both are anti-establishment (Ken is supposedly Labour but that is only because they know any rival Labour candidate would be a dead duck, as Frank Dobson was in 2000 -Ken had 40% of the vote, Dobson around 12%)

(3) it will upset and frighten all those of our ruling classes who pursue insane foreign policies that do no one any good

Any Muslims who can bring themselves to do what might be described as "suicide voting" should have the courage to declare his intentions and let it be known that this is what they have done, by posting a comment here and joining http://www.1party4all.co.uk/ where there is a poll on precisely this issue.

http://www.1party4all.co.uk/Home/Account/TopicForm.aspx?topicsId=105

Vote: Should Londoners vote BNP on 1 May 2008 to upset and alarm our ruling classes?

Manchester: "Many of those that are now raising concerns were pretty silent when the government invited non-English speaking Ulama from the Middle East through the Radical Middle Way."

Personally I had various concerns about that, but at least we should note a very key difference: at least in that case their speeches were translated by volunteers.

Does this happen, from your experience, in a typical mosque with a barely-or-not-at-all-English-literate imam? Not in mine.

Don't know where to post this, but I would like to examine the question of usury and Islamic banking.

In my non-Muslim, opinion, usury really means

(1) irresponsible borrowing (2) irresponsibile lending (3) loan sharking (4) living beyond our means (as Western nations have been doing for decades) (5) not running a stable economy if you are a government

Therefore, the comeuppance of ignoring all these rules, which Western nations have been doing for decades, is the Credit Crunch.

I think not paying and receiving interest is a rather simplistic and literalist way of interpreting usury, which was in any case never properly defined in the Koran.

I hope to learn your views on these issues soon!

"Personally I had various concerns about that, but at least we should note a very key difference: at least in that case their speeches were translated by volunteers.

"Does this happen, from your experience, in a typical mosque with a barely-or-not-at-all-English-literate imam? Not in mine."

In my mosque and the mosques I attend this does happen. The Imams speak Urdu and English. And some mosques often have two imams - one English speaking and one Urdu speaking.

I also visit some Arab mosques, and I can say that all too often the Arab Shaykhs only speak in Arabic. I'm fine, I speak Arabic, but some of my friends have serious problems.

The issue is not about translating or not. I'm sure the government will arrange translators - they've thrown a lot of money into this type of project. In addition, educated and upper class Imams from the sub-continent, lo-behold, are pretty different tot he village imams we often see (especially in the Kashmiri communities); they speak English and are university educated.

I find it strange that people are express concern at the invitation of Indo-Pak Ulama; while they remained indifferent, or rather supportive, of the Radical Middle Way's inviting of non-English speaking Arabic Ulama. I wonder why this is?

"Islam - our enemy?"

Lecture by Sean Gabb, Director of the Libertarian Alliance

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-4288936354899104985

Manchester: you obviously have a theory, so why not just come out with it? :-)

I would also simply suggest that bringing prominent guest lecturers for one-off events is a completely different matter from bringing over permanent imams to mould our generations in a more hands-on way.