The ease that British mosques, even mosques that pride themselves on their openness and liberalism, are able to be taken over by extremists is worryingly instructive. It suggests that liberalism and moderation in religion is not the primary character of British Islam. On the contrary it indicates that extremism, violence, intolerance and thuggish fundamentalism may well be the core values of British Islam.
A further indication of what could be the true nature of British Islam comes to us from Glasgow. There a mosque which had embarked on a campaign of openness and had offered cheap meals to the poor of all faiths was forced to abandon their campaign following threats of violence from other Muslims. The ease with which the violent extremists were able to chase away the Islamic liberals tells us that the liberals are truly in the minority when it comes to Islam.
Here’s the Glasgow Herald (HT Anne Marie Waters) on this Islamic food furore. As is usual policy for this blog, the original text is in italics whereas my comments are in plain text.
The Glasgow Herald said:
“Glasgow Central Mosque has cancelled Friday lunches widely seen as a symbol of openness under its former liberal leaders.
New Mosque officials have put up signs saying that £2.50 meals – designed for both members of the congregation and visitors – will no longer be served for Friday prayers “until further notice”.
The move comes six months after a reformist committee opened up the main hall at the Clydeside complex to all-comers.
Six months! Six months. That’s all it took for the extremists to chase out the reformists. This should indicate that the number of Muslims who could reasonably be classed as reformists are considerably smaller in number than those who are extremists. If the reformists or those who were more moderate in their religious views were in the majority, then they would have knocked the attempt at a putsch by extremists on the head very quickly.
Reformists resigned last month citing threats to their families.
And here we have a glowing example of just how and why Islam is so radically different from other faiths or religious paths. There are often disputes within religious groupings, but in the UK they have rarely (with the exception of Ulster and parts of Scotland) broken out into violence or threats of violence. There are wild differences in religious approach between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews for example, but I really have to wrack my brains to think of an example of these sort of violent threats going on in the UK involving Jews. A Haredi Jew may not let his daughter marry my son, but I’m unlikely to find a man with tzitzit and peyos on my doorstep carrying a sword and threatening my life. It’s just not the done thing. It’s not walking the Derech ha Shalom, the path of peace. Like any other reasonable person, including many without any religion, I desire peace, but I’m increasingly convinced that we cannot have peace with Islam, it is too different, too ready to violence, too hostile.
Their places on the Mosque’s ruling committee have since been taken by associates of more conservative elders.
I think that you will find that this replacement of liberals by extremists is not something that can be said only to apply to Glasgow Central Mosque.
These appointments are currently subject to complaints to Scotland’s charity watchdog, OSCR.
Let’s hope that Scotland’s charity regulator is not as fully stuffed with Left wingers as much the Charity Commission that governs England and Wales is.
Friday lunches were seen as one of the big successes of the previous reformist committee, helping to underline their view that the Mosque should reach out of women and non-Pakistanis, including Somalis, Syrians and Kosovans.
It seems that the extremists have won an all too easy victory here. Again that should tell us a lot about the character of British Islam.
One Mosque insider said: “This is hugely disappointing. The lunches were very popular, not least for refugees and people from the local community in the Gorbals who could get a good dinner for not very much money.”
Aamer Anwar, pictured above, a solicitor who advised the former committee, said: “This was a popular initiative set up by the reformers to open the doors of the mosque to the poor, the homeless and local community.
When ‘doing the right thing’ such as feeding the destitute becomes controversial as it appears to have become at Glasgow Central Mosque, then we need to ask ourselves whether Islam itself is compatible with British society?
“If the present committee is not even able to keep a such a valuable contribution to the community going what hope is there for other issues such as diversity or equality.
“It’s very sad and doesn’t bode well for the future.”
It seems that this case will make many more people than are doing so already question the leftist definitions of diversity and equality. Mr Anwar is correct, this really doesn’t bode well for the future.
Pervaz Aslam, one of the new members of the committee appointed last month, said he was unaware that the lunches had been stopped.
He said: “I don’t know anything about this.
In the light of what we have learned so far about this situation at GCM, and what we know about the Islamic doctrine of taqiyya (lying to protect or promote Islam), I’m not sure I trust this person’s statement that he was unaware the lunches had been stopped.
“We are trying to outsource the lunches so that a kitchen company comes in and does them.
“Volunteers will still be there to serve the food.
“But rather than the mosque use its own kitchens to make the lunches – and be responsible for them- we want somebody else to do it.
“So that if there are any complaints it doesn’t come back to the Mosque.
“We want to get a few tenders in. We hope to keep the prices the same.”
It seems there is some ferocious back-pedalling going on here. I predict that the outcome of this will be either nothing happens, the lunches stop and the people and media forget what has gone one, or the prices are deliberately put up to such an extent that it puts off those who were attending. Either way the extremists win. I don’t buy this guff about putting the lunches out to tender or trying to shield the mosque from complaints. I think these excuses are merely a smokescreen.
Mr Aslam added: “The Herald should concentrate on more important things than silly little things like lunches at the Mosque.”
When a Muslim functionary says ‘go away nothing to see here’ then we can safely assume that there is a great deal to see here.
Glasgow Central Mosque is the biggest single place of worship in Scotland and can cater for thousands on a Friday.
A typical meal on offer on Fridays would be a £2.50 chicken curry and rice with a £1 sticky rice pudding.
The lunches attracted hundreds every Friday, including substantial numbers of women and groups of Somalis and Kosovans and some locals with no connection to Islam.
Sikhs at their Gudwara in Glasgow continue to offer free curry to visitors as part of their faith.
And Edinburgh’s main mosque also continues to offer cheap food to visitors and worshippers.
Mr Aslam was unable to say if and when the lunches would resume.
When even a very minor attempt at reaching out to women and trying to integrate with the local non-Muslim community is stymied like this by the extremists then it’s yet another indication of the true and extreme nature of Islam in Britain. I don’t believe that the lunches will resume in their current form, the extremists will not allow it. These sort of programmes challenge the religious authority of the fundamentalists and that they will not allow.
I don’t believe that the problems that Glasgow Central Mosque is going through at the moment is confined to one mosque and one mosque only. When you look at the strength of Islamic extremism in the UK it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that it’s the liberals and the reformers who are in the minority. Couple that with threats of violence to reformers and you have a very good indication not only of the nature of Islam in Britain but also a good hint at the threat that Islam poses to all of us. If liberal Muslims are unsafe in the UK, then were does that put the rest of us non-Muslims, whom too many fundamentalist Muslims view in an even less favourable light than Islamic reformers?
Link
Original Glasgow Herald story
