Government puts trust in moderate foreign imams

Smith invites moderate imams into UK to help Muslim communities fight extremism (from the Guardian)

Jacqui Smith, the new Home Secretary, proposes to invite moderate foreign imams (from the Indian Subcontinent) in an apparent attempt to fight extremism in the UK. The report mostly focusses on new anti-terrorist police jobs and kicking foreign terrorism suspects out, so there is not much room for discussing where these moderate figures are to come from, as in which institutions in the home countries.

I always thought that common thinking on the subject was that foreign imams were the problem, not the solution? Many of these imams do not speak English, at least not enough to deliver a meaningful sermon, much less personal guidance, and the proportion of Muslims in this country of Subcontinental descent who speak good Urdu has declined over the years (to say nothing of those who never spoke Urdu to begin with). The presence of imams whose English is not sufficient, or who choose not to use it “for the sake of the old folk”, shuts out people who do not speak the language they use, which includes converts as well as immigrants from other Muslim countries. Meanwhile, the extremists and sectarians are only too willing and able to use English.

Surely the solution is to employ more British-born scholars as imams, whether they be trained in the Middle East or in the Subcontinent, while maintaining agreements with the governments in those countries to allow them to stay rather than kicking them out after every “security” (or security PR) panic. Perhaps also, religious institutions in the UK should be supported (they do not need to be founded anew, as was the Maynooth Catholic seminary in Ireland, founded by the British to dissuade Irish Catholics from going to Europe to study). This way, we end up with a form of religion which is relevant to the average Muslim in this country, rather than only to the Asians, or just some of them.